Adhesion Wealth® won two awards at the eighth annual WealthManagement.com Industry Awards on Sept. 8, taking home honours for excellence in Model Marketplaces in the Technology Providers category, and as RIA Innovator of the Year in the Individual RIA Firm Leaders category for President Barrett Ayers. This is the fourth consecutive year Adhesion has won a "Wealthie" for its model marketplace.

"Being recognized in this way, both personally and as a company, is such an honour and is truly a testament to the incredible team we have here at Adhesion Wealth," Ayers said. "I'm proud to work alongside a group of professionals who are eager to solve problems for advisors, always innovating and improving the services we provide. Through Adhesion's customized investment solutions and outsourced managed account capabilities, we are offering RIAs creative, cost-efficient resources that help them to meet clients' unique investment goals. As outsourcing becomes more prevalent, Adhesion is at the forefront of equipping firms with portfolio construction tools that free up advisors' time to spend with clients and grow assets."

The Adhesion Wealth Manager Exchange is the industry's second-largest model marketplace. The marketplace connects investment advisors to a suite of over 4,000 models from nearly 500 institutional asset managers. Over the past two years, the Adhesion Wealth Manager Exchange launched several new initiatives that have provided advisors with greater access to rapid-level distribution, offering full technical infrastructure with trading, models, reporting and portals.  

Under Barrett's leadership over the last year, Adhesion launched various initiatives: Tax Alpha reporting, which shows investors the value of an advisor's decision to enable active tax management; first to marketability for a fixed income and options overlay within a UMA; Personal Indexes with ESG Overlay, which allows advisors to develop their own Direct Index models that can be run inside a UMA; and lastly, a TAMP solution where managers have a turnkey investment program to distribute their TAMP and models on Adhesion's Managed Account Platform.

For eight years, the WealthManagement.com Industry Awards have honoured the firms and individuals who are bringing new innovations to market that make a real difference to the daily activities of financial advisors. This year, 105 awards were given out to 84 recipients from a pool of 225 finalists. Nearly 1,000 entries were received from more than 350 companies.

The winners of the WealthManagement.com Industry Awards were selected from a panel of independent judges made up of top names in the industry and led by WealthManagement.com editor-in-chief David Armstrong. In the Technology Providers category, Model Marketplaces subcategory, Adhesion was selected out of three finalists. In the Individual RIA Firm Leaders category, Innovator of the Year subcategory, Barrett Ayers was selected out of five finalists.

Curinos, a global data intelligence business serving global financial institutions across lending, deposits and digital banking solutions, today announced that it has placed 74^th on the 2022 IDC FinTech Top 100 Rankings list for the second consecutive year.

The 19^th annual IDC FinTech Rankings categorize and evaluate technology providers based on the 2021 calendar year revenues from financial institutions (i.e., banking, insurance and/or capital markets) or directly to fintech solution providers for hardware, software and/or services. The Top 100 Rankings recognize vendors that derive more than one-third of revenue from the financial services and fintech industries.

"We are honoured that IDC Financial Insights has recognized Curinos on its IDC FinTech Top 100 Rankings list for the second year in a row," said Craig Woodward, CEO at Curinos. "Our firm was built upon providing financial institutions high-quality solutions so they can understand performance drivers and capture sustainable growth. This distinction supports that mission as we continue to innovate with intelligent data, comparative analytics and optimization platforms for our clients."

WeLab, a leading pan-Asian fintech platform, today announced the completion of the acquisition of an Indonesian commercial bank, PT Bank Jasa Jakarta (BJJ), together with PT Astra International Tbk (Astra), one of Indonesia's largest public companies. The completion is marked by the issuance of acquisition approval by the Financial Services Authority (OJK). For this transaction, a WeLab-led consortium, Welab Sky Limited (WeLab Sky), participated in the acquisition together with Astra's subsidiary PT Sedaya Multi Investama (Astra Financial). The WeLab-led consortium has drawn widespread support from existing and new investors, including Allianz X, Boyu Capital, Horizons Ventures, SCBX Group^[1] and TFB (Taipei Fubon Bank) Capital.

In December 2021, WeLab entered into a Share Purchase and Subscription Agreement with the shareholders of BJJ, and completed a strategic investment for 24% of BJJ. With the acquisition completed today, WeLab and Astra each hold 49.56% of BJJ shares, becoming the majority shareholders and joint controllers of the bank. The transaction is Southeast Asia's largest digital bank M&A transaction in 2022, illustrating the substantial commitment to invest in, and contribute to digitizing Indonesia's banking industry. The shareholders aim to transform BJJ into an innovative digital bank in Indonesia.

Simon Loong, Founder and Group CEO of WeLab, said, "Expanding WeLab's digital banking presence across Asia, first in Hong Kong and now in Indonesia, has been one of our key strategic moves. This partnership with Astra reinforces WeLab's strategic focus on enhancing cross-country and business synergies with partners to increase scale and reach, in order to further strengthen the breadth and depth of the existing pan-Asian fintech platform. We're excited that our long-term partner, Astra will be collaborating with us to deliver the best tech-driven banking services through BJJ in Indonesia. We look forward to bolstering the customer trust level with the collaboration with Astra."

President Director of Astra Djony Bunarto Tjondro said, "Investment in BJJ is in line with Astra aspirations in financial services pillars to become leading retail financial providers in Indonesia and support the growth of financial services industry as well as the economy of Indonesia."

Propel growth and digital innovation with strong synergies between Astra and WeLab

WeLab and Astra are long-time partners in Indonesia's fintech ecosystem. This is WeLab's second strategic partnership initiative with Astra since the formation of a fintech lending joint venture, PT Astra WeLab Digital Arta (AWDA), in 2018. The complementary strengths of the partners, including WeLab's know-how and technology in building and being an operator in digital banking, together with Astra's solid business ecosystem and experience as well as a vast distribution network, are highly synergistic and key success factors to propel BJJ's digital transformation and into an innovative digital bank to serve the digital financial needs of Indonesians with accessible and innovative banking solutions.

Address unmet financial needs and advocate financial inclusion  

The prospect of digital banking in Indonesia is currently on the rise and represents a huge opportunity to provide accessible and innovative digital banking solutions, especially to the retail and MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) segments. The utilization of financial services in Indonesia has the potential to grow, as 77% of Indonesia's 270 million population is either underbanked or unbanked. The country also has a sizable population of 180 million tech-savvy younger consumers, representing a great demand for digital banking services. 

Gulf Capital, a leading thematic Private Equity buyout firm operating across the GCC and Southeast Asia, predicts that the East-West Asia investment corridor will drive global economic growth for the next three decades. The GDP of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, the ASEAN countries, and India will grow by 220%, 270% and 410% respectively by 2050, in contrast to slower growth of 50% for the European economies and 80% for the US economy over the next three decades. Clearly, the new Silk Route across the East-West corridor is one of the fastest-growing economic blocs in the world today. 

SuperReturn Asia Conference, which opens in Singapore for the first time tomorrow to an audience of over 1,000 delegates from all over the world, will discuss opportunities for global and regional investors as Asian countries deepen and strengthen their investment networks across East and West Asia.

Gulf Capital’s Chief Executive Officer Dr Karim El Solh, who is delivering SuperReturn Asia’s keynote speech, explained: “Global investors today realise that they have unprecedented growth opportunities in Asia, with robust macro-economic fundamentals, a growing middle-class led by a young, tech-savvy demographic, and a revival of the intra-regional economic connectivity and trade flows along the new Silk Route. With a network of local offices and on-the-ground private equity teams from the GCC to Southeast Asia, Gulf Capital is uniquely positioned to capitalise on this unprecedented growth across the new Silk Route across the East-West Asia corridor.”

With Asia’s GDP expected to grow by USD 22 trillion by 2050, it will account for 60% of the global GDP. Specifically, the GCC states of Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, and ASEAN countries are making significant contributions to Asia’s overall growth, representing half the world’s total projected GDP growth through 2050. This is mainly due to their investor-friendly regulations, thriving industrial activity, successful diversification drives, a growing services sector, and a young entrepreneurial populace. Asia’s population growth will shape this development. The continent’s middle-class is expected to grow to three billion people by 2030, representing 60% of the global population. By 2040, this segment is likely to account for 40% of global consumption. Mid-market businesses have the opportunity to profit from the rising per capita consumption brought on by the burgeoning middle-class in Asia.

The GCC remains a rare, bright spot amidst the current global downturn defined by tightening monetary policy, rising interest rates, and increasing food and energy prices. Despite a sobering global macro climate, Gulf Capital’s core target regions continue to demonstrate robust resilience and record growth. For instance, Saudi Arabia’s GDP grew by a remarkable 12.2% in Q2 2022, positioning the Kingdom as the fastest-growing major economy in the world. Saudi Arabia is projected to grow by 7.6% in 2022, up from 3.2% in 2021. The UAE is projected to grow by a solid 6.2% in 2022 on the back of higher oil prices and a very successful diversification drive in the non-oil sector.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that energy exporters in the Middle East and Central Asia will net USD 320 billion more in oil revenues than its initial projection, a figure equivalent to about 7% of their combined GDP. As a result, the GCC economies will more than double their GDP growth rate in 2022, to achieve a considerable growth of 6.4%, up from 3.1% in 2021. Over the next four years, the cumulative financial surplus in the GCC could reach USD 1.4-trillion according to IMF projections, positioning the region as one of the richest and most credit-worthy economic blocks in the world.

Gulf Capital invests in well-established mid-market businesses run by brilliant entrepreneurs in the technology, fintech, healthcare, business services, and sustainability industries. These industries are among the emerging ones in the Asia Pacific technology market, which is projected to reach a value of USD 675 billion by 2025. Gulf Capital has built a long track record of backing entrepreneurs in these sectors and transforming their companies from local players to global leaders, through ambitious organic growth and acquisition campaigns. The Firm also has a unique focus on deep operational improvements in its portfolio companies thanks to its large bench of 23 industry advisors and operating partners. On average, Gulf Capital has more than tripled the profitability of the companies it successfully sold and exited.

Gulf Capital's recently established an office in Singapore and hired a local team of private equity experts which will help Gulf Capital’s portfolio companies to expand from the GCC to Southeast Asia. Mr. Shantanu Mukerji, Head of Gulf Capital’s Southeast Asian operation, said: “As we expand our franchise, we will focus on acquiring and growing portfolio companies along the East-West Asia investment corridor. Typically, we have been acquiring companies in the West of Asia and growing them into global leaders by successfully expanding them across East Asia. Over the last fifteen years, we have acquired 14 companies across Asia and successfully expanded our portfolio companies to this high-growth region. With a solid private equity team based out of Singapore, we now look forward to investing in ASEAN businesses and expanding them in the reverse direction to the GCC and the broader Middle East. ASEAN businesses that we take to the GCC will benefit from the very high growth and numerous opportunities in this region. Long term, we intend to recreate this new Silk Route and invest along the high-growth East-West Asia corridor.” 

Dr Karim El Solh concluded: “We will continue to create value for our investors by building global leaders from the West to East Asia and vice versa and by partnering with successful entrepreneurs and business leaders to help internationalise their companies and boost their profitability. We have a unique investment approach, focused on deep operational improvements and rapid market internationalisation, and we believe our differentiated strategy can create real value for our global investors which include some of the largest and most prestigious sovereign wealth funds, public and corporate pension plans, endowments, foundations, and family offices. In today’s volatile and uncertain global economic environment, we are particularly encouraged by the improving growth prospects and strong momentum of our East-West Asia investment corridor.”

Ratio Emerges From Stealth; Secures $411M to Transform B2B SaaS Payments, Financing, and Pricing

Ratio, a new kind of fintech platform that combines payments, predictive pricing, financing, and a frictionless quote to cash process into one platform for SaaS and technology companies, today emerged from stealth and announced raising $11M in venture funding and a $400M credit facility for customer financing. Ratio is rewriting the playbook for SaaS pricing and financing, giving new tools to accelerate growth in a volatile market.

Neobank Majority Secures $37.5M in Series B

Majority, the mobile banking outfit for migrants in the US, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Valar Ventures. The startup has also secured $7.5 million in debt financing from a US-based commercial bank as it seeks to expand its service to support the nearly 50 million immigrants in the country. Majority was founded in 2019 as a mobile banking service for migrants and initially started operations in Texas and Florida, focused on the Nigerian and Cuban communities.

Planck Raises $71M to Date to Expand its First-to-Market Cognitive Business Analytics Platform

Planck, a leading AI-powered data and analytics platform, recently closed a $23 million funding round to continue its mission of empowering commercial insurers with real-time and accurate insights. The financing, which brings the company’s total to $71 million, was led by Vintage Investment Partners and all existing financial investors, including Team8, Greenfield, Arbor Ventures, Viola, 3L Capital, HDI and Nationwide, alongside private angel investors.

Turaco Secures $10M Series A Round Fundraise

Turaco, the leading insurtech driving mass market insurance adoption, has announced the close of a $10 million Series A equity round led by AfricInvest, via the Cathay Africinvest Innovation Fund, and existing investor, Novastar Ventures. The round also included participation from Enza Capital, Global Partnerships, Zephyr Acorn, Operator Stack, Asi Ventures Limited, and Push Ventures. Founded in 2019, Turaco is a distributor, broker, and key customer interface between the underwriter and the end consumer.

Claimer Has Raised a $4.2M Seed

Claimer, a fintech startup making it frictionless for companies to claim financial incentives from the government, announced that it has raised a $4.2m seed round today. Project A Ventures led the round, with participation from Moonfire Ventures, helloworld.vc, and tier one angels Errol Damelin (co-founder, Wonga), Matt Clifford (Chairman, Advanced Research and Invention Agency), Ian Hogarth (ex-CEO, SongKick), Harry Briggs (Partner, OMERS Ventures), and follow-on investors Ben Holmes (ex-Index Ventures) and TrueSight Ventures.

Lightning Network Startup Neutronpay Raises $2.25M in Seed Funding to Disrupt Legacy Payment Rails Beginning with

Neutronpay, a Vancouver, Canada and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based startup that enables consumers and businesses to send and receive payments on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network raised USD$2.25M in Seed funding on June 1, 2022. The Lightning Network is a "layer 2" payment system that sits atop Bitcoin and supports instant payments measured in milliseconds, millions of transactions per second, and incredibly cheap costs, making it the ideal payment network, period.

Northzone Raised €1B: Investing from Seed to Growth in Category-defining Entrepreneurs

Northzone announced the largest fundraise to date: €1bn to invest in the next generation of changemakers. Between the global climate crisis and social, macroeconomic, and political uncertainty, they believe technological innovation will continue to be the silver lining that delivers real societal growth. Now more than ever, they look to entrepreneurs who are building a mindful, innovative future; and founders have proven many times that they thrive in turbulent times.

Innovative InsurTech Stubben Edge Group Secures a Further £5.6M of Growth Capital Led by Dowgate Capital

UK-based InsurTech Stubben Edge Group (the Company) has secured a further £5.6m in investment following an over-subscribed £10 million round in September last year. Cornerstone investors include a number of Lloyd’s Names, Nigel Wray, Dowgate Wealth, family offices, institutional investors and other HNW investors.Since the last financing, the company has succeeded on its ambitious expansion goal by acquiring Lloyd's broker Genesis Special Risks, establishing Guernsey business 1Edge, and purchasing SME-focused media brands from Bonhill PLC.

Compliance Startup heyData Raises €3.3M Seed

Berlin-based compliance startup heyData announced the closing of a €3.3 million seed financing. The round was led by Ten VC, with additional participation from existing investors Patrice Deckert, Stefan Tietze, as well as experienced investors Martin Ostermayer and Dirk Freise and Picea Capital, among others. The fresh capital will be used for product expansion and venturing into new markets. In addition, the team around the founders Miloš Djurdjević, Martin Bastius and Daniel Deutsch, which currently counts 34 employees, is to be expanded.

Kafene Raised $18M in a Funding Round Led by Third Prime 

Kafene, a cutting-edge digital platform used by merchants at the point-of-sale to help offer underserved consumers more flexible purchase options through transparent lease-to-own (LTO) agreements, announcedthat it has raised $18 million in a Series B funding round led by Third Prime and existing investors. This round follows a Series A investment of $30 million in 2021 that was co-led by Third Prime and Valar Ventures. 

Kafene, a cutting-edge digital platform used by merchants at the point-of-sale to help offer underserved consumers more flexible purchase options through transparent lease-to-own (LTO) agreements, announced today that it has raised $18 million in a Series B funding round led by Third Prime and existing investors.

This round follows a Series A investment of $30 million in 2021 that was co-led by Third Prime and Valar Ventures. Kafene will use the new capital to increase headcount to meet the demand from merchants and consumers for omni-channel, technology-enabled purchase options.

Kafene's lease-to-own agreements are free of debt and structured in a way that is simple, consumer-friendly and transparent. These agreements primarily serve the underbanked, given that one-third of Americans have credit scores that limit their purchasing ability, particularly on necessary big-ticket items such as furniture, appliances, electronics, tires and other goods. In doing so, Kafene's financing platform provides retailers with a way to reach more of these consumers than they would otherwise be able to, which can meaningfully add to their customer bases.

Kafene's platform is easy-to-use, removing time and friction at the point of sale, supplemented by a high-touch approach to customer service. Beneath that is an underwriting model that leverages more than 20,000 data inputs to inform AI-driven approvals, allowing for financing to be tiered based on actual risk rather than one-size-fits-all. This enables underwriting to be more efficient and affordable for more underbanked consumers who have fewer financing alternatives, which can help merchants meaningfully expand their customer bases.

Neal Desai, Chief Executive Officer, Kafene:

"We're extremely excited to be doubling down on partnering with merchants to offer more flexible ownership options precisely when they're needed most, and right at a time in which others have retreated and tightened their credit boxes. Kafene continues to grow in scale and valuation, and we're thrilled to have like minded investors who share our vision and belief that today presents a powerful opportunity to take our platform and relationships to the next level. We're poised not just to take market share, but to significantly broaden the market. We've only just scratched the surface"

"We're proud of the results to date from Kafene and its management team in building a superb platform with a next-gen underwriting model that delivers strong unit economics and is resilient in the face of economic headwinds. We couldn't be happier to continue our support to better their ability to leverage a massive market opportunity that not only provides a way to serve the underbanked, but could also appeal more broadly as Kafene becomes the go-to point-of-sale partner for retailers big and small with consumers up and down the credit spectrum."

Berlin-based compliance startup heyData today announced the closing of a €3.3 million seed financing. The round was led by Ten VC, with additional participation from existing investors Patrice Deckert, Stefan Tietze, as well as experienced investors Martin Ostermayer and Dirk Freise and Picea Capital, among others.

The fresh capital will be used for product expansion and venturing into new markets. In addition, the team around the founders Miloš Djurdjević, Martin Bastius and Daniel Deutsch, which currently counts 34 employees, is to be expanded.

Co-founder Miloš Djurdjević is full of confidence against the backdrop of the completed financing round despite challenging market conditions: “In the last 12 months we have proven that our compliance solution strikes a nerve with SMEs! This investment round not only reflects the confidence in our product & team, but also shows that we are on the right track with our vision.”

heyData's SaaS application reduces compliance issues, including data protection, for enterprises. Customers include numerous medium-sized companies, but also many well-known startups such as Everdrop, Vytal, Numa and Hive Logistics. Here, the digital platform serves as the centerpiece for implementing compliance topics. Whether this involves integrations into the tech stack, training of employees to raise awareness, or automatic creation of required documents, is ultimately determined by the company itself based on its requirements. Companies and organizations thus not only protect themselves and strengthen their reputation with various stakeholders, but also free up capacity for growth.

The market forecasts for Compliance & Risk Management look promising. It is projected to grow at least 14% annually, which would mean a market size of €100 Billion in 2028.

“We are incredibly excited to be invested in heyData. When we first met the team, we were very impressed with their foundation of over 400 customers in multiple countries and how reliable their service is in such a business-critical area as data protection. The products in their pipeline are giving SMBs the opportunity to access solutions with high levels of quality and efficiency that previously only large enterprises were able to afford. We look forward to supporting their vision to become the premier global ‘Compliance-as-a-Service’ platform.” said Benjamin Patterson, Partner Ten VC.

Partnerships 

Nutanix Offers A Stepping Stone To the Cloud at Crown Hosting Data Centres

Nutanix has announced a partnership with Trust Systems and Crown Hosting Data Centres to deliver against Crown Hosting’s Shared Hybrid Initiative with a new service for public service customers wanting to migrate to the cloud on their own terms. As in the commercial sector, public service bodies are increasingly turning to the cloud to deliver digital transformation, not only securely, but affordably and at least cost to the environment.

Modern Treasury and Goldman Sachs Partner to Provide Integrated Software and Payments to Corporate Customers

Modern Treasury, a software platform that helps companies modernize money movement, and Goldman Sachs Transaction Banking (TxB) announced a partnership to accelerate the shift to embedded payments, helping joint customers seamlessly embed and scale domestic and international payments into their products to drive growth. Modern Treasury's Payment Operations software platform will give mutual clients with an integrated money movement solution. 

SanKash Partners with EarlySalary and Finzy to Provide Travel Now Pay Later (TNPL) Option to Indian Travelers

SanKash, the fastest-growing AI-powered platform that aggregates BNPL & consumer financing providers, partnered with EarlySalary and Finzy to offer Travel Now Pay Later (TNPL) solutions to Indian travellers. This move streamlines booking and avoids upfront costs for months-ahead excursions. SanKash allows BNPL/consumer financing providers integrate into its 6000+ retailers' base network, collecting $20 billion in transaction value using a single pay later button.

Broadridge Partners with Coinbase on Integrated Trading Solution

Bringing liquidity and greater access to crypto trading, global Fintech leader, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., announced a partnership with Coinbase, offering interoperability between Coinbase Prime and Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions’ NYFIX order-routing network. Coinbase Prime is a comprehensive solution that provides an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage crypto assets in one place.

NeteraPay Partners With Nordigen To Streamline Customer Authentication Processes

NeteraPay has joined forces with freemium open banking provider Nordigen to enhance their Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures. NeteraPay is a Czech licensed payment service provider and electronic money issuer with over 10 years of experience in the financial industry. The company manages fintech companies' payment accounts, e-wallet payments, mobile operator payments, and receiving and sending wire transfers. Their products enable fast, safe internet payments.

Linedata Partners with Liquid Mercury for Crypto Market Access

Linedata, a global provider of asset management and credit technology, data, and services,  announced it is providing global buy-side asset managers with institutional-grade access to crypto and digital asset order execution. This is made possible through a new collaboration with Liquid Mercury, a leading digital asset and cryptocurrency trading technology provider, via Liquid Mercury’s order execution management system.

Flywire Partners with Universitas XXI to Deliver Integrated Payment Solution to Higher Education Institutions in Spain and

Flywire Corporation (Flywire) (Nasdaq: FLYW) a global payments enablement and software company, announced the availability of its integration with Universitas XXI, a university management system focused on servicing higher education customers throughout Spain and Latin America. Universitas XXI will integrate Flywire's digital education payments technology into its student information system to accommodate international and local payment flows.

Jeton Partners Sumsub to Provide Smooth Customer Onboarding

Jeton has partnered with Sumsub to create a better onboarding experience for its 1M+ users across 100 countries. Sumsub, a global tech company with 5 international offices, helps businesses easily verify users and steer clear of fraud while ensuring full compliance with shifting regulations. UK-based Jeton Wallet processes payments. Jeton users can deposit and withdraw funds using country-specific payment methods and 50 currencies. Jeton also enables merchants to accept local payments.

Mastercard Enters Partnership with Copenhagen Fintech to Empower and Strengthen Collaboration with the Nordic

Copenhagen has a strong fintech ecosystem and a leading position among fintech hubs globally. The hub connects both start-ups, established companies and organizations focusing on innovation and new opportunities. Mastercard is committed to empowering the growing fintech community through collaborationwith Copenhagen Fintech, a fintech start-up based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the past few years, Mastercard has strengthened its presence in Denmark.

Future FinTech Group Partners Currencycloud for Remittance App

Future FinTech Group Inc., a blockchain application technology developer and fintech service provider, announced that Future FinTech Labs ("FTFT Labs"), a wholly subsidiary of the Company, has teamed up with CurrencyCloud, a subsidiary of Visa and a global payment platform registered with FinCen and licensed for money transmission in various states in the US, to launch the remittance app Tempo to offer US-based immigrants and others a streamlined, secure and cypherptocurrency.

Tuum Partners with Salt Edge to Deliver a Full Spectrum of Open Banking Solutions

Tuum, an Estonian-born next-generation core banking platform, has partnered with Salt Edge, a leader in open banking solutions, to help financial services providers from all over Europe to leverage the full spectrum of open banking features – fast and secure. As technological advancements make headway, it is becoming more evident that today’s digital booming bandwagon is leaving fintechs and financial institutions with only two choices: join or get left behind.

Marqeta Teams Up with Bread Financial

Bread Financial, a tech-forward financial services firm that provides simple, tailored payment, lending, and saving options, has chosen Marqeta to enhance the in-store checkout experience for Bread PayTM shoppers. Bread Financial, which allows shoppers more options to pay in their preferred channel, will introduce the Bread PayTM One-Time Use Card using Marqeta's technology.

CalCPA Partners with Anchor to bring Autonomous Billing & Collections to the Entire Accounting Industry

Anchor, the autonomous B2B billing & collections platform, partners with the California Society of Certified Public Accountants (CalCPA) to bring its platform to the largest statewide professional association of CPAs in the U.S. Through the partnership, Anchor provides CalCPA members exclusive pricing and discounts as well as dedicated staff to support our members to access its end-to-end billing & collections automation platform, which eliminates late payments, revenue leakage, manual work, and high operational costs.

PATRONAS Financial Systems Collaborates with Temenos Multifonds

Temenos announces the collaboration between Temenos Multifonds and PATRONAS Financial Systems, a leading provider of advanced software for the European investment industry. The collaboration offers asset managers an integrated ‘best of breed’ front to back-office solution by utilising PATRONAS’ cutting-edge front and middle-office solution for portfolio, order, and trade management and Temenos Multifonds’ renowned innovative back-office solutions for automated NAV calculation, portfolio/fund accounting and NAV oversight.

CaixaBank Becomes the Only European Bank Selected by the ECB to Collaborate in Prototyping the Digital Euro

The European Central Bank (ECB) has selected CaixaBank and four other organisations to collaborate in the development a prototype of a digital euro. The institution launched a call with the aim of selecting entities to develop technology projects associated with the creation of the European digital currency. CaixaBank, the only European bank selected for the project and will be responsible for producing a prototype for peer-to-peer (P2P) online payments using the digital euro.

Robinsons Bank Selects BPC for Digital Adoption Across Philippines

Robinsons Bank (RBank), owned by JG Summit Holdings, Inc., one of the Philippines' largest and most diversified conglomerates, announced that it has chosen BPC as its solution partner to co-innovate, to drive financial inclusion and digital adoption across the nation. Using BPC’s SmartVista Platform, RBank will be able to bring new products to customers in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner.

Launches 

Private Markets Access Platform Launches at IPEM

Private Markets Alpha (PM Alpha), a firm dedicated to increasing access to private markets for the global wealth management sector, will introduce its new platform at the IPEM industry conference on September 20. The platform combines services and solutions from carefully selected third-party suppliers to create a one-stop-shop for wealth managers who may not have dealt with private markets before or who lack the resources and skills to do so systematically.

OneSpan Launches Virtual Room Enabling Secure Face-to-Face Transactions

OneSpan, the digital agreements security company, announced the general availability of its secure Virtual Room cloud service which enables organisations to deliver live, high-touch assistance to their customers in a high-assurance virtual environment. This next-generation customer engagement solution combines identity security, authentication, and e-signature solutions from the OneSpan portfolio with a high-assurance virtual experience.

XBO.com Launches its Normie-Proof Crypto Exchange, Securing Licenses in Australia and Poland

XBO.com, the cryptocurrency exchange making the benefits of crypto more accessible to everyone, launchesits platform that merges gaming-inspired UI and top security solutions to offer traders a user-friendly and reliable alternative to existing exchange platforms. Following XBO.com’s pre-launch, where early registrants could earn special rewards and account privileges, the exchange platform is ready for use by any and all crypto users.

Kyriba Launches AI-Driven Cash Management

Kyriba (“the Company”), a global leader of cloud-based finance and IT solutions, announced the launch of Cash Management AI, a new solution based on Artificial Intelligence, which uses data science technologies to predict cash availability with increased speed, control and reliability. It helps cash management and forecasting. It will increase confidence and precision in financing investments, a priority for treasurers given rising interest rates and market volatility.

Deel Announces Two Major Product Launches - Deel Shield, Removing Misclassification Risks, and Deel API

Deel, the leading global payroll and compliance solution, announced two major launches – Deel Shield and Deel API/the Deel Partner Program. Deel Shield offers businesses the most secure level of contractor compliance, allowing them to unlock global hiring with zero misclassification risks and liability. Deel API lets enterprises and developers supercharge and globalise their HR products with Deel's hiring software.

Zaggle Launches Zoyer to Modernise Business Payments for Enterprises and SMEs

Zaggle, India’s leading B2B2C SaaS FinTech providing integrated card products bundled with SaaS-based business spend offerings, announced the launch of Zoyer to simplify and automate business-to-business payments for Enterprises and SMEs.  Zoyer unites accounts payable and credit card payments onto a single platform to enable enterprises to streamline business-to-business payables for effectively managing operating cash flows and maximizing business performance.

Teslar Software Launches Indirect Lending Solution

Teslar Software announced the launch of its indirect lending solution, which empowers community financial institutions to offer indirect lending services to local businesses and consumers in a way that’s quick, efficient and digitally optimized. Joe Ehrhardt, CEO and founder of Teslar Software, demoed the solution Monday at FinovateFall in New York. Teslar Software is helping community institutions fill the gap that currently exists for medium-sized purchases with its indirect lending solution.

Broadway Introduces Trading Support for Eris BSBY Swap Futures

Broadway, a leading provider of high-performance front-office solutions, announced support for trading Eris BSBY Swap Futures within Broadway’s flagship suite of fully hosted SaaS trading solutions. Offered by CME Group, Eris BSBY Swap Futures (Eris BSBY) allow market participants to forecast and hedge rates on the 3-month Bloomberg Short-Term Bank Yield Index (BSBY). The feature is currently live and available to all Broadway customers.

PayQuicker Launches Payouts OS, New Global Payouts-as-a-Service Platform

PayQuicker, an innovative financial technology leader in the global payouts market, announces the launch of Payouts OS. Payouts OS packages PayQuicker’s trusted, time-tested technology into a first-in-market payouts-as-a-service platform that meets the needs of gig economy workers and small to medium-sized businesses across a diverse set of industries including clinical trials, insurance, gaming, marketplaces, and more.

Multi-country Consortium Comes Together to Launch Pan-European Payments Pilot for EU Digital ID Wallet

A new multi-country consortium of Europe’s most trusted identity experts announced its proposal to deliver a large-scale, cross-border payments pilot strongly aligned with the aims of the European Commission’s EU digital identity wallet program. The NOBID-led partnership includes Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, and Norway (Nordic-Baltic eID Project). The consortium's plan will implement the EU's most popular wallet-payment use case.

Hearth Launches Cash-Back Banking That Helps Home Improvement Businesses Get Paid Faster

Hearth, a software platform for home improvement professionals, announced that it has launched a new financial services product, Hearth Banking. Hearth Banking is the first cash-back banking account designed specifically to help home improvement businesses get paid faster.  Used in combination with Hearth's digital invoicing and payments tools, Hearth Banking helps businesses access and spend money from ACH transactions in just one business day and credit and debit card transactions in just two business days—compared to four to seven days with other banking accounts.

Payhawk Opens New York Office and Launches US Credit Card

Payhawk, the spend management solution with a presence across the UK and Europe, officially launches in the US today. The unicorn has opened an office in New York and is introducing a US credit card to support companies with multiple offices across the UK, Europe, and the US. The US launch is a key part of Payhawk’s expansion strategy, following a record year of growth that has seen its revenue grow 524%, and its employee headcount grows 250%, year to date.

NEAR Launches Web3 Regional Hub in India for Blockchain Talent Development and Innovation

NEAR Foundation, the Swiss non-profit that oversees the governance and development of the NEAR protocol, announced the launch of a regional hub in India dedicated to blockchain talent development and innovation. The hub marks a strong commitment from NEAR to invest in India - a country that is home to some of the world’s most talented and coveted developers and Web3 creators.

Adyen First to Launch Real-time Account Updater with Visa in Europe

Adyen, the global financial technology platform of choice for leading businesses, announced the expansion of Real-Time Visa Account Updater (VAU) to Europe. As the first platform to offer Real Time VAU coverage in Europe with Visa, Adyen will help its customers increase revenue and authorization rates from card-on-file payments by automatically updating Visa accounts in real-time. This in turn prevents involuntary churn and since Adyen automatically connects to the schemes account updater services, there is no integration.

CyberloQ Launches Unique Proprietary MFA Technology in Collaboration with Banking Orchestration Platform, Pannovate 

CyberloQ Technologies, Inc., a cyber-security technology company, announced a strategic collaboration for its proprietary MFA technology with Pannovate’s Banking Orchestration Platform. Pannovate is an award-winning Banking-as-a-Service and orchestration layer that helps banks, fintechs, and enterprises grow and offer seamless digital and embedded finance experiences. Global innovators, digital banks, and startups.

Merger & Acquisition

Bright Data to Launch Bright Insights with the Acquisition of Market Beyond

Bright Data, the industry-leading web data platform, announced the acquisition of eCommerce insights provider Market Beyond. With this acquisition, Bright Data adds digital shelf analytics to its already comprehensive data offerings, introducing its new division – Bright Insights. Market Beyond's staff will join Bright Data's 400+-person team to lead Bright Insights. Bright Insights will be rolled out to enterprise retail customers, with plans to expand to other areas.

J.P. Morgan to Acquire Renovite Technologies

J.P. Morgan announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire Renovite Technologies, Inc., a leading cloud-native payments technology company. The acquisition of Renovite will help J.P. Morgan Payments construct its next-generation merchant acquiring platform and assist its migration to the cloud. Renovite will become part of J.P. Morgan Payments, which combines corporate treasury services, trade finance, and card and merchant services to offer clients an integrated payments experience.

Google Completes Acquisition of Mandiant

Google LLC today announced the completion of its acquisition of Mandiant, Inc., a recognized leader in dynamic cyber defence, threat intelligence and incident response services. Mandiant will join Google Cloud and retain the Mandiant brand. Google and Mandiant share a long commitment to industry-leading security. Over the past two decades, Google has innovated to build some of the most secure computing systems in the world.

Job Moves

LPA Promotes Maria Weege to Head of Marketing

LPA, the capital markets software and advisory firm, announced that it has appointed Maria Weege as its Head of Marketing, a year after she joined the company as Digital Marketing Lead. Mrs. Weege will assist roll out LPA's international brand to institutional capital markets clients and present the firm as a disruptive enterprise accelerating the transformation of capital markets through technology.

Shieldpay Announces Andrew Hawkins as Chief Technology and Product Officer

Shieldpay, the market leader in secure digital payments, announced the appointment of Andrew Hawkins as Chief Technology and Product Officer. Andrew will be evolving Shieldpay’s product and technology function to deliver solutions securing the world’s complex B2B payments in his leadership position. Andrew has 25 years of IT experience, including 7 years at Microsoft, HBSC, and Zopa.

Bluechain Appoints Tim Annis as UK Managing Director

Bluechain, the fast-growing fintech startup business that transforms the traditional payments and receivables process, announced the appointment of Tim Annis as UK Managing Director. This appointment is the next step for Tim at Bluechain, as he previously held the role of UK Head of Sales since March 2020. Tim has over 20 years of experience in the payments and tech industries, having worked at American Express (AMEX), Tradeshift, and most recently as Bluechain's Head of Sales.

Wombat Appoints Jeremy Larsson as Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Partnerships

Micro-investing platform Wombat has appointed Jeremy Larsson as Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Partnerships as the business seeks to accelerate its growth plans following the close of its Series A funding round in August. Jeremy has a wealth of experience launching product and service propositions for leading incumbent banks and finTechs globally including CurrencyFair, John Lewis Finance, Barclays, SunLife, Telegraph Financial Services and Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

DKK Partners Appoints Bovill as Global Compliance Partner

DKK Partners, a leading fintech company, which specialises in emerging markets (EM) foreign exchange (FX) liquidity, has appointed Bovill, the financial services regulatory consultancy, as its global compliance partner.Bovill will work with DKK to ensure all processes and operations meet all the appropriate compliance requirements. In addition, Bovill will provide advice and recommendations around regulatory matters, both in the UK and on a global scale.

VizyPay Promotes Three Powerhouse Women to Directorial Roles

VizyPay, an award-winning payment processor that saves small businesses money, has promoted experienced and motivated women to its executive team. Elizabeth Rucker, Olivia Hall, and Shannon McCann started with VizyPay as sales partner recruiters and distinguished themselves through hard work and leadership. VizyPay offers resources and support to enable each woman conquer hurdles and establish her career in less than three years. VizyPay is promoting diversity and equality in the payments and financial technology industries by empowering Rucker, Hall, and McCann.

Genesis Global Names Chief Human Resources Officer

Genesis Global, the low-code application development platform purpose-built for financial markets organizations, announced Marina Kilcline as Chief Human Resources Officer.  Kilcline reports to CEO, Stephen Murphy. She brings to Genesis more than 20 years of experience in optimizing organizational design, enhancing employee engagement and creating performance-based cultures at leading companies including RICS, Avis Budget Group, ZipCar, GSK and Nestle. 

Objectway Appoints Hassan Suffyan as Managing Director for the UK Region

Objectway, a global top 100 banking, wealth & asset management software provider, has announced the appointment of Hassan Suffyan as Managing Director of Objectway for the UK region. Hassan joins Objectway Group's executive team to drive UK and Ireland expansion. His skills will help the Group digitally equip wealth managers, private banks, and asset managers. Hassan will also execute strategic development projects across the Group.

Power, a fintech startup with plans to reshape global commerce, has finally teased early progress as it emerges from stealth with $16.1m in seed funding, a $300m credit facility, and a fast-growing list of customers. The company was founded to build modern financial infrastructure and started by launching a full-stack credit card issuance platform.  

As leading enterprises across consumer, commercial, and banking categories look to deepen customer engagement and brand loyalty, Power provides the infrastructure for these companies to offer premium fintech experiences fully embedded within their digital properties.

Where other providers offer largely offline, disjointed experiences requiring third-party apps, the Power product is fully white-labelled and embedded within the brand's existing mobile and web applications, offering customers a frictionless experience as they apply for and manage their cards. Additionally, with Power's end-to-end credit card issuance platform, brands can launch customized consumer or business credit card programs, with targeted promotions and personalized rewards.

Since raising from a group of leading fintech investors last year, the company has remained secretive on much of its early traction and product roadmap. However, with a live platform, credit cards being issued for its first brands, and a series of additional customers going live this year, this covert startup has finally started to lift the curtain.

Randy Fernando, Founder and CEO, Power: "A foundational element of Power since the beginning was to build momentum in stealth. In a world where everyone is building in public, we made the decision to build in the shadows. Despite operating quietly, the demand from the market has been incredible and we've been able to attract an unmatched ecosystem of team members, bank partners, customers, and investors to the Power network. After just over twelve months, Power is already live in the market and on track to issue thousands of credit cards this year. Looking ahead to next year, we plan to issue tens of thousands of cards across consumer, commercial and banking categories and process millions of dollars in transaction volume."

Fernando, a fintech veteran and serial entrepreneur, has held prominent roles at high-flying fintechs including Head of Product at Acorns, Founder and CEO at Vault (acquired by Acorns) and Head of Product at Azlo. Andrew Dust, Power's Co-founder, has an impressive data science background leading teams at both Amount and Acorns, after earning a Ph.D. in Economics. Fernando and Dust have surrounded themselves with an unrivalled roster of talent who left roles at fintech industry titans to join the electric startup.

Power is backed by an impressive list of investors, including Amy Nauiokas, Founder and CIO at Anthemis and Logan Allin, Founder and Managing Partner at Fin Capital, who led Power's Seed round. Participants in the round include CRV, Financial Venture Studio, Dash Fund, Plug And Play as well as a deep angel network across leading brands including Tesla, Instacart, and Rivian.

While much of Power's mystique still remains, the startup has emerged with a bang into the credit card issuance landscape. In a market that has been traditionally led by legacy financial institutions and incumbent technology players, Power is quickly making a name for itself.

Robinsons Bank (RBank), owned by JG Summit Holdings, Inc., one of the Philippines' largest and most diversified conglomerates, today announced that it has chosen BPC as its solution partner to co-innovate, to drive financial inclusion and digital adoption across the nation. Using BPC’s SmartVista Platform, RBank will be able to bring new products to customers in a highly efficient and cost-effective manner.

RBank started as a savings bank in 1997 and became the 18th largest financial institution in the Philippines in 2018. It was recognised for three consecutive years as one of the nation’s fastest-growing commercial banks and won “Most Innovative Digital Banking Services – PH 2021” in The Global Economics Awards and The Global Business Review Magazine Awards.

Operating under a “Look Forward “ approach to servicing and growing its customer base, the bank decided to replace its legacy systems with SmartVista by BPC, the world’s most innovative and technologically advanced payment solution. The technology will be used to launch the bank’s new Credit Card issuance solution and support its new virtual card.

BPC was selected based on its experience serving some of the world's largest and most forward-looking financial institutions and fintechs globally. The company was also singled out as a result of its local presence. BPC first entered the Philippines in 2004 and has built a strong reputation for quality customer service, expert regional knowledge, and world-class innovation.

Commenting on the partnership, Maire Karabel D. Dadufalza, Head of Cards at RBank, said: “We are operating in a highly competitive market and need to bring new products to customers quickly and effectively. With a dynamic and constantly changing innovation roadmap, we are thrilled to be working with an agile technology partner that supports our enthusiasm for growth and new product development. Together with BPC, we are excited to elevate our customers’ banking experiences in a seamless and modern way.”

Eugene Gutierrez, SVP – Country Director Philippines, BPC, said: “This is the start of a groundbreaking collaboration. We do not see a vendor and client relationship but rather a partnership to co-innovate and drive digital financial inclusion across the Philippines. We are looking forward to providing RBank with the best payment technology to spur innovation and accelerate its rollout of new services. This mission will be supported by our local presence which enables deep insight and understanding of how Filipinos bank, pay and get paid.”

For over 25 years, BPC has been at the forefront of the digital revolution, serving over 350 financial institutions in over 100 countries with state-of-the-art banking and payment solutions. Their SmartVista Platform offers modules that can be used as micro-services as standalone or for full end-to-end banking and payment experience, on-premise or as a service.

The Philippines has a large, socio-economically diverse population of over 100 million people spanning over 7,000 islands, yet geographic and institutional barriers to financial services mean that over 70 percent of Filipinos remain unbanked, However, greater access to banking is becoming possible with meaningful new developments such as the recent launch of the country’s first digital-only bank TONIK. Incumbent banks are also growing their digital investments in order to welcome more customers and reduce friction for their existing customers.