Revolut, the super-app with over 18 million retail customers globally and more than 500,000 corporate clients, is launching Revolut Reader in the UK and Ireland. A fast and powerful lightweight card reader, the new product is designed to allow merchants of all kinds to accept payments anywhere, whether their business is in-person or on the go. The launch marks Revolut’s move into in-person payments, as the super app continues to diversify its offering for business customers.

A fast, simple and secure solution for fast payments

Payments will become as easy as cash with Revolut Reader but without the hassle of dealing with coins and notes. Revolut Reader accepts instant and secure transactions made with debit and credit cards, as well as contactless payment methods. It’s powered to run transactions all day and has smart features to keep up with the demands of a growing business. With payment speeds under 5 seconds, customers can accept, settle, and store funds all in one place, their Revolut Business account.

Maria Garcia Marti, Product Owner Acquiring, commented: ”When designing new products, our team always has customer needs in mind: a fast and easy to use solution that will not slow business down, easy access to funds, and receiving payments faster than the industry standard of 2-3 business days. Plus, the security and long battery life of a small pocket-sized device, are capable of streamlining operations without the need to manage multiple accounts and systems. This is exactly what Revolut Reader is offering our business customers: really tap into business growth.”

Revolut Reader can be adapted to other POS systems in place within businesses, having an SDK/ API solution included. In the coming months, Revolut Business offer will be extended with a POS solution that will bring more flexibility to larger merchants if they need to integrate Revolut Reader with POS systems already used.

All-In-One Business Account

The payment terminal is easy to use and set up and enables the customer to accept, settle and store payments within a single account. Also, the product comes with competitive pricing as low as a 0.8% + £/€0.02 per transaction fee and a one-off cost or customised pricing for businesses dealing with high volumes.

Revolut Reader is built for any kind of business - big or small, entrepreneurial or corporate giant, new merchant or one-stop-shops - in all industries. By opening a Merchant Account with Revolut Business, a customer can connect a business account to Revolut Reader and gain free access to the growing suite of smart Revolut Business tools (local and international payments, foreign exchange at interbank rate, IBAN for global transfers, payments requests, expenses, subscriptions and company cards management, payroll). Moreover, Revolut Reader customers can tap into a network of more than 18 million consumers who are checking out with Revolut.

Infinigate Group, the pan-European value-added distributor (VAD) of Cyber Security solutions today announced the intended acquisition of Nuvias Group’s Cyber Security and Secure Networking business to create a pan-European Cyber Security powerhouse. The merging of the two highly successful businesses establishes Infinigate’s place as a leading VAD focused on Cyber Security in Europe with an anticipated 1.4 billion Euro in revenue. Subject to regulatory approval, closing is expected in the fourth quarter. 

This acquisition will create a platform of continued above-market growth in EMEA, bolstering Infinigate’s
leadership position in Europe across Cyber Security, Secure Networking and Secure Cloud, serving the SMB to Enterprise and Service Provider market segments. Due to increased relevance, larger geographical footprint, and extended vendor portfolio, Infinigate aims to continue to grow annually by more than 20%. 

Founded by Rigby Private Equity in 2015, the Nuvias Group has a strong heritage in VAD, having begun its original trading journey 45 years ago. It specialises in Cyber Security and Intelligent Networking with a range of innovative services and solutions designed to secure customer success and accelerate partner and vendor growth.  

Infinigate Group has a track record of consistent year-on-year growth since its foundation in 1996 – something it attributes to its distinct customer-centric approach. The union of the two VADs will combine the best of both worlds.

Klaus Schlichtherle, CEO of Infinigate Group said: “Infinigate will become even more relevant and powerful. We will have a stronger geographical footprint, especially in the core markets in Europe – where we will have a strong position in 18 countries. Our complimentary vendor portfolios will create a huge opportunity for growth. And bringing together so many skilled people will enable us to create lots of new development opportunities in a fast-growing company. Infinigate will continue to be an exciting place to be for key value add talent and a place to develop competencies, careers and opportunities.” 

Simon England, CEO of the Nuvias Group said: “We are excited about joining forces and combining our assets to take the business and teams into the next phase of growth and expansion. Both companies value their people as their most critical asset, and the key to rewarding customer and vendor experiences in specialist distribution.” 

Infinigate Group and Nuvias Group both have leading portfolios in Cyber Security for the SMB sector - which will further accelerate growth. Both companies are VADs with excellent services, offering best-in-class services (training, pre-sales, support, etc.) for customers and vendors. And having both specialised in Cyber Security, Secure Networking and Secure Cloud for decades, their alliance represents an exceptionally high competence and expertise. Combined, they will gain even better customer access and will be able to further strengthen customer relationships. 

“After closing the transaction, we aim to continue to grow the joint enterprise by more than 20% annually, and we will continue to address existing as well as new customers in a coordinated fashion. Nuvias and Infinigate have very similar strategies moving forward and will constantly stay focused on this,” explained Schlichtherle. 

The acquisition will significantly upgrade the presence of Infinigate Group in the UK, France, Benelux and Nordics territory, as well as covering Southern Europe and entering the market in Eastern Europe. Infinigate’s strong base in Germany and Nuvias’ in the UK is an example of complementary portfolios. And additionally, Nuvias Group brings its enterprise customer segment. Infinigate Group will serve its extended base of vendors with upgraded relevance, best-in-class execution and an enhanced digital platform for further innovation and growth and improve its performance. 

The Unified Communications business of Nuvias Group (Nuvias UC) is not part of the transaction and will be a separate entity under the continued ownership of Rigby Group. Rigby Private Equity will be a shareholder in the Infinigate Group.

Elisa Polystar acquires Cardinality Ltd, a UK-based supplier of cloud-native data management (DataOps), service assurance and customer experience analytics for communications service providers (CSPs) globally.

By combining with Cardinality, Elisa Polystar will have stronger data management, AI-driven analytics and automation portfolio with comprehensive data ingestion and cloud-native capabilities enabling simultaneous top-and bottom-line improvements for network operators. With this transaction, Elisa Polystar is taking further steps on its journey to make self-driving networks happen.

The acquisition is consistent with Elisa Corporation’s strategy to grow digital services internationally and accelerate the development of its telecom software business under Elisa Polystar.  The agreement was signed and the transaction is subject to local regulatory approval. The closing is expected during the third quarter of 2022, with ownership transferring from the current operational management and Maven Capital Partners.

Since Cardinality was founded in the UK in 2015, it has grown into an international business with about 70 experts. The company’s platform includes plugins for hundreds of different data sources and enables large-scale data management in on-premises, cloud or hybrid deployments. Cardinality has been ranked as the UK’s best-performing scale-up technology company in the Business & Consumer Software sector in the Megabuyte Emerging 25 review in 2022.

Steve Preston, CEO of Cardinality Ltd: “What the team at Cardinality has achieved since 2015 will now reach a new level as we join forces with Elisa Polystar.  More data – 5G, cloud-native networks and the IoT – means new challenges, but also opportunities for network operators. The challenge is how to capitalise on all data to create revenue streams from new use cases. Cardinality solves this problem by giving network operators reliable access to its network data, in real time and scalable through the Cardinality.io platform. This data is made available to AI/ML-powered use cases across the business. Elisa Polystar’s products will advance this data platform by providing an automation solution with improved customer experience and cost benefits. We are excited to be able to offer these advanced solutions to customers, who will gain real, measurable value.”

Elisa Polystar is a world-leading network automation and service assurance solutions provider, serving over 120 CSPs globally. With its background as an international business of Finland’s largest CSP, Elisa Polystar’s solutions are proven and tested in live networks.

The technologies from Cardinality will complement and strengthen Elisa Polystar’s existing service assurance and automation portfolios. Success begins with a flexible data management platform, complemented by AI-driven analytics and completed with automation software.

Thomas Nilsson, EVP for Assurance & CTO at Elisa Polystar: “I look forward to welcoming the experts from Cardinality to Elisa Polystar. Gaining actionable insights to effectively operate and secure the customer experience in future networks based on cloud-native 5G and distributed edge deployment requires the collection and correlation of data at scale from multiple domains and sources. Cardinality enables effective data management at scale and allows operators to fully benefit from the cloud. In addition, it enables our subject matter experts to collaborate and develop new use cases for our existing service assurance and automation portfolios more easily and quickly.”

Pismo, one of the world’s fastest-growing banking and payments Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firms, announces Ross Larter as its new Engineering Director. Based in Bristol, UK, Larter will be responsible for structuring the technical team, expanding the company’s solutions, and supporting processes related to Pismo’s globalisation strategy.

Larter brings more than two decades of experience in product development and scaling organisations. Before joining Pismo, Larter spent more than six years as Engineering Director of Just Eat - the leading international online food delivery marketplace - and grew the technical staff tenfold, helping it support operations in 25 countries. 

“Joining Pismo, a company that provides a cloud-native and innovation-driven platform, is very exciting for a technical professional like me,” says Ross. “It makes it possible to develop unique and reliable solutions using state-of-the-art tools and methodologies that will impact the businesses of anyone offering financial services. By bringing agility and urgency to large-scale platforms, Pismo will thrive on its globalisation strategy.”

Since its Series B funding round led by Amazon, SoftBank and Accel, which raised $108 million in October 2021, Pismo has grown exponentially. The company has expanded its operations globally and announced offices in Europe, the US, and Singapore. It also established a partnership with OneConnect, a leading technology-as-a-service (TaaS) provider and an associate of Ping An Group, to expand its operations in South-East Asia. 

Vishal Dalal, Pismo CEO (North America, EMEA and APAC), says: “As a flat, lean and engineering-led firm, we are very happy to welcome Ross Larter to our team. His expertise will speed up our global efforts to support our global business strategy, bringing even more agility to our delivery.”

Pismo has deep experience developing and implementing banking SaaS solutions for financial institutions. Its clients include digital banks such as Banco Itau, Latin America’s largest bank, BTG Pactual, the largest investment bank in Latin America, and German-headquartered digital bank N26.

The Lithuanian fraud prevention and digital identity verification startup, iDenfy, partnered with Backed, a platform that allows users to speculate on the future of private companies. iDenfy will provide Backed with remote identity verification services to ensure a smooth and frictionless onboarding process. 

To this day, some of the Cryptocurrency industry players continue to put all of their efforts into avoiding regulations. The opposing party argues that the foundation that crypto built was primarily designed to keep away from the ever-growing regulatory landscape. Nowadays, to buy or sell virtual assets, customers are obliged to provide their identity documents and personal information to reduce the risks of money laundering and other dangerous, fraudulent activities. 

According to a recent United States blockchain researcher Chainalysis, over-the-counter traders received $1.3 billion in illicit digital currencies in 2021. This year, it’s estimated that approximately $10 billion worth of crypto funds are held in illegal addresses. That is why many businesses choose the implementation of Know Your Customer (KYC) processes to help deter the anonymity behind crypto transactions and prevent the spread of online scams. 

According to Backed, identity verification is an essential part of the company’s security package. Wanting to reduce fraud risks and add an extra layer of security, Backed started to look for new Know Your Customer (KYC) providers, then found iDenfy. According to the company that backs up startups, iDenfy offered them a comprehensive set of tools that have been invaluable when it comes to meeting compliance regulations.

Backed is a new platform that allows anyone to speculate on the future of private companies by buying and selling CompanyCoin. According to Backed, until today, the average investor couldn't speculate on the future of companies such as Twitch, TikTok, SpaceX, or even iDenfy, and with the help of its new platform, now they can. Backed claims that by purchasing its coins, customers pay a gratuity fee to the startup, and eventually, the platform helps the startup grow along with the customers’ investments.  

According to iDenfy, identity verification is a process that provides the needed information to quickly detect fraudsters and stop them from entering Backed’s platform. iDenfy provides Backed with digital identity verification services to ensure the customers’ safety. The company is also known for various fraud prevention and compliance tools that assist in building a safer space for companies from various industries. iDenfy strives to guarantee a secure and simple ID verification experience for Backed. 

iDenfy’s four-step identity verification onboard Backed’s customers faster, allowing them to complete the whole process in less than a few minutes. iDenfy uses biometric facial recognition technology and AI-powered ID document scanning algorithms for complete accuracy and swift results. iDenfy also has an in-house team of experts that double-check user verifications manually. According to Backed, iDenfy helped them to automate and optimize their KYC process and reduce onboarding costs. 

“We’re happy to partner with iDenfy. Our top priority is allowing our users to use the platform and purchase our tokens with as little friction as possible. The verification process with iDenfy is smooth and secure. It already helped us reduce friction and resulted in more paying customers.” – says the founder of Backed Lee Betts.

“Our team at iDenfy strives to provide the best possible digital experience for our partners and their customers. We are proud to partner with Backed, a responsible business that cares about security and regulatory compliance.” – stated Domantas Ciulde, the CEO of iDenfy. 

IDnow Group, a European leader in identity verification and digital identity, appoints Jean-Marc Guyot as Vice-President of Research and Development (R&D). His main responsibility will be the further unification and development of one joint platform for the European market. 

Jean-Marc Guyot’s appointment will engage a new dynamic in the R&D department, with the aim of driving best-in-class engineering teams and meeting the group’s ambitions of leading the way in identity verification.

His responsibilities will include: uniting the IDnow and ARIADNEXT engineering teams, located across several countries of the world, into a cohesive entity; orchestrating technological choices and orientations and defining architectures to meet the product teams’ requirements, including automatic, video and signature solutions; streamlining and combining all the Group’s existing and future verification solutions to optimise the new IDnow platform.

“I’m looking forward to building a high-performing engineering department at IDnow. The former IDnow and ARIADNEXT teams both have valuable benefits and skills and my job will be to bring this together into one platform that answers the needs of European companies across jurisdictions and use cases," explained Jean-Marc Guyot.

“I’m especially excited to work with the teams in France and Germany and to meet the high standards in technology that are key for the IDnow Group,” he added.

Jean-Marc Guyot started his career in 1995 as a system architect at LSI Logic, where he worked on the first Digital Terrestrial TV digital demodulation chip. He then joined NXP as Product Marketing Director.

In 2004 he founded Silembia, a high-tech startup, that he then sold to Silicon Laboratories (an American semiconductor company) and moved to the USA to manage the merger of the teams. Back in France in 2014, he joined ENENSYS to create the Telecom Business Unit with a focus on LTE Broadcast technology. There, he actively participated in the 3GPP SA4 standardisation committee. Early in 2019, he became Vice President of Engineering for Cloud-Based Security Services at WALLIX, before taking over the entire R&D department. He created the R&D site in Rennes which now employs more than 40 people and also re-sited the company in the future CyberPlace beacon building in Rennes. Finally, he and his teams won the "Grand Défi Cyber" with the OSCAR project and implemented the transformation of the R&D teams into agile mode.

“Jean-Marc brings a wealth of technology and international leadership experience into his role. His arrival at IDnow will further accelerate the development of IDnow’s Identity proofing platform, starting with combining the best-in-class technology stack from all IDnow group companies. I’m looking forward to working with him,” commented Vikas Seth, IDnow Chief Product Officer.

Sentinels, a Fenergo company and Europe’s leading intelligent transaction monitoring platform, has appointed Adrian Jenkins as Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), aiding the company’s expansion in the UK – a dominant global financial hub and a hotbed for fintech innovation.

London-based Adrian brings more than two decades of B2B enterprise sales and revenue experience to the role. He has previously held senior positions at Oracle, Arkose Labs, Vindicia and Amdocs where he delivered revenue growth and led top-performing commercial teams focused on technology, fintech and fraud prevention.

As CCO of Sentinels, Adrian will focus primarily on the company’s growth, leading its sales, marketing, and business development operations. His experience will support Sentinels in its plan to consolidate and build out its position in the UK market, following strong growth already seen in Europe.

Joost van Houten, CEO of Sentinels, commented: “We’re delighted to have Adrian join the Sentinels ranks. His impressive and extensive experience in leading commercial teams at all stages, from those with minimal revenue to those with $100 million, is ideal for helping us to achieve our growth ambitions in the UK and beyond. We’re already working to address the underserved anti-money laundering and transaction monitoring needs of fintechs and financial institutions across mainland Europe, we’re pleased to further strengthen our fight against financial crime in the UK market.”

During his appointment, Adrian stated: “It’s a delight to join Sentinels to support its entry into the UK. It was important to me that I join a company with a strong purpose, great people, and exceptional products. Money laundering and terrorism financing are hugely pertinent world problems, and Sentinels has built an innovative and highly effective solution to protect financial institutions and economies against these threats.”

Adrian’s background is diverse, having worked with multiple start-ups through a range of lifecycle phases. He has led businesses through new market entry, establishing and growing their regional operations, contributed to successful exits – initial public offerings and acquisitions – and has unique experience in staying on to scale up a business post-acquisition.

In April 2022, Sentinels was acquired by Fenergo, providing an accelerated path to Sentinels’ global aspirations. With experience as both the acquired business and as part of the acquirer, Adrian has a full understanding of what this journey entails, making him well-positioned to support a successful transition.

Worldline, a global leader in payment services, is helping its e-commerce clients enter the growing Chinese market. More than 1.38 million Chinese people already order products from other countries. The key to this important user group is the omnipresent lifestyle tool, Weixin (the mainland Chinese version of WeChat). Through a mini-program that integrates merchants into the social platform, seamless access and user-friendliness are guaranteed. Worldline facilitates this integration and ensures that Weixin payments are widely accepted.

China is a central player in online retail, not only as the home of major providers and e-commerce platforms but thanks to its size, the country is a vast target market for global players in international e-commerce online retail. The latest studies show that Chinese shoppers order products from all over the world. The young generation is the main driving force behind this trend.

• Online shopping for goods from outside China grew 33.4% in 2021 and is expected to grow by 27.9% in 2022 and a further 24% in 2023.
• Over 1.38 million Chinese shoppers buy products from other countries online.
• More than 50% of online shoppers ordering from foreign countries were born in 1990-2000.

Well-known international brands are shoppers’ preferred choices. For example, L’Oréal generates around 60% of its total revenues from the APAC region in China. Recently, retail sectors have also become increasingly diverse. The main focus was initially on beauty products and baby items, but now clothing, household items, electronics, sports goods and even food products are being ordered increasingly and delivered to China.

In order to be able to reach out to Chinese shoppers on a large scale, in addition to language barriers, particular attention needs to be paid to the habits and needs of Chinese customers. This includes the ubiquitous social super-app Weixin, an ecosystem used by more than 1 billion Chinese people for practically everything, from chatting, and journaling to researching their leisure activities, and, of course, for shopping and payments. Under the name WeChat, Weixin is also popular with Chinese people living abroad.

Easy to access

In Q4 2021, Worldline extended its Weixin Pay payment solution, used in Europe since 2019, from a POS service to e-commerce, app and mini program. This is a special in-app feature integrated into the Weixin platform and gives Weixin users direct access to an exponentially growing target market of participating e-commerce merchants, without having to switch media, visit another website or download another app.

Guillaume Pascal, Head of Global Sales & Verticals at Worldline, comments: “Worldline allows European e-commerce customers to integrate their mini-program into the Weixin platform. The aim is to increase customer loyalty and harness the Chinese users’ purchasing power. We are already introducing our multi-channel mobile payment solution to retailers all over Europe.”

Initial user feedback from Switzerland

For retailers offering e-commerce payments with Weixin alongside their in-store acceptance, online sales volumes accounted for around one-quarter of revenues in 2021. SBB, the national Swiss railway system and main transport company for tourists alike, has recognised that user-friendliness is a decisive factor alongside overcoming language barriers in order to prevent high abandonment levels on digital retail channels. Previously, SBB.ch has recorded a purchase abandonment rate of up to 44% on browsers in Chinese. With the SBB mini-program, Chinese tourists can buy their tickets, half-price travel cards, day tickets or saver tickets conveniently and directly through Weixin in the app. In addition, they can find inspiration for leisure activities and plan train and bus journeys in real-time without having to look anywhere else. With the help of Weixin Pay and Worldline, SBB is preparing to welcome more and more Chinese tourists to Switzerland.

The national Swiss railway SBB, a leading provider of travel for Chinese tourists, confirms that the integration of the SBB offering as a mini-program within Weixin results in increased customer loyalty and lower purchase abandonment rates. 

Queena Liu, EMEA Regional Director at Weixin Pay, comments: “In the midst of the disruptions caused by the pandemic for businesses all over the world, the Weixin mini-program has developed into a popular and effective way for brands to offer services and allow for new forms of interaction with the consumer. With the support of our partner Worldline, we are able to provide our users with more and more international e-commerce services.”