Shieldpay, the secure digital payments market leader, and global credit and risk specialists DirectID, have today announced a partnership to implement DirectID’s open banking-powered bank account verification into the Shieldpay payments engine.

Working together, DirectID’s Connect widget and Shieldpay's payment engine allow customers to transfer funds online with digital escrow and trust services. The combined service will bring seamless identity verification during transfers, streamlining the Shieldpay customer experience without sacrificing any measure of security, bringing customers a frictionless payment journey at every step.

The professional services firms relying on Shieldpay to safely transfer millions of pounds in client fees and project finances, to the marketplaces bringing more security and digital escrow (fund holding) services to their buyers and sellers, can now benefit from DirectID’s 13,000+ bank connections.

James Stubbs, Financial Crime Systems, Shieldpay, comments:

“We’re excited and intrigued by the possibilities of what DirectID and Shieldpay can bring to the table for our customers. Blending frictionless account verification in a customer’s own banking environment with safer online payment solutions for marketplaces will only help us on our mission to facilitate a new era of trust online.”

Clare McCaffery, Chief Commercial Officer, DirectID comments:

“Verifying that the bank account details provided match with those on file is one of the most proven and effective use-cases for Open Banking. I’m delighted Shieldpay have chosen DirectID to safely verify account ownership for digital escrow and trust services. We’re delighted to launch and look forward to working with Shieldpay on a variety of use cases in the future.”

The Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust (ABTOT) has selected Trust Payments, the disruptive leader in frictionless payments and value-added services for merchants, as its newest payments platform provider across its broad membership base.

As a partner to ABTOT, members will now have access to the full range of Trust Payments’ Converged Commerce™ offerings including online payment solutions from its dedicated payments gateway, acquiring services, multicurrency solutions and fraud screening.

With well over 250 members, ABTOT provides a flexible, personal and efficient process to help travel merchants guarantee the safety of customer funds in accordance with UK regulations. The partnership will protect travel merchants from risk with Trust Payments’ fully compliant offering ensuring consumer funds are fully protected from company insolvency risks with existing agreements. 

The partnership comes amid a post-pandemic surge in travel that has caused staff shortages and further disruption leading to significant delays and cancellations. Pressure on the travel industry to return to normal as the world has opened back up has meant insurance and risk mitigation are essential for consumer trust and business longevity.  

Trust Payments’ Head of Direct Sales, Craig Brightly, said: “By recommending Trust Payments to its members, ABTOT have ensured that their membership will be in prime position to have a payments platform that is built to put customers first, offers dedicated 24/7 support and has fast onboarding times – all designed to keep travel merchants thriving at all times and protect them from risks that are inherent to the travel sector.”

“We’re delighted that ABTOT has named us as a payments partner. With the travel industry expanding rapidly following a difficult two years, our Converged Commerce™ offerings will be key to helping support the industry with our leading, reliable, knowledgeable, and customer-focused solutions that are built to make commerce easy,” Brightly added.

ABTOT Managing Director, Richard Watson, commented: “The timing of this partnership couldn’t be better, as we have also recently introduced new insurance capacity into the market supporting our existing membership base and allowing us to continue to develop and expand it.  ABTOT offers the full range of services for its specialist travel organiser members, with licensable and non-licensable cover under its ATOL Franchise, merchant acquiring risk mitigation and direct access to expert underwriters, associates and brokers - all under the umbrella of a BEIS-approved body.”   

“We are excited to be working with Trust Payments and can see the benefits this will bring to our members, which is always paramount in our aims,” Watson added.

FullCircl, the Customer Lifecycle Intelligence (CLI) platform that helps B2B companies in financially regulated industries do better business, faster, is delighted to announce a partnership with Codat, the universal API for small business data.

FullCircl’s mission is to help banks and financial service providers overcome their biggest challenges.  Getting the right data on small business customers is one of those challenges.

Publicly filed accounts on small businesses, available through Companies’ House, don’t always accurately reflect current profitability or expenditure. By partnering with Codat, FullCircl can provide its users with seamless integrations to the accounting platforms used by 84% of UK SMEs.  Combining this data with FullCircl’s rules-based automation means FSIs get an instant real-time view of a customer’s financial health, plus can act at an accelerated pace to find the right customers, onboard them faster, and keep them for life.

Commenting on the partnership Stuart Boardman, Director of Channels and Revenue Partnerships at FullCircl, commented: 

 

“FullCircl is thrilled to partner with Codat to provide standardised accounting data through our Customer Lifecycle Intelligence platform, enhancing our capabilities and increasing the value we deliver for our clients by reducing the level of manual effort needed to onboard SME clients.”

Phil Low, Head of Partnerships at Codat added:  

 

“We’re delighted to announce our partnership with FullCircl, hot on the heels of our $100m Series C. Across the 600+ financial institutions, FullCircl works with, there are millions of SME customers being served. By providing those FSIs with the combination of Codat’s data infrastructure & FullCircl’s technology, small businesses will ultimately get a more frictionless and personalised experience from their financial service providers.

Atlantic Money announces today that it received approval to operate as a payment institution by the National Bank of Belgium (NBB) – being the first company to have done so within a year. The licence enables the business to operate in Europe, with access to all 30 EU and EEA member states. Atlantic Money plans to launch gradually across the EU starting with Belgium, followed by Germany and Austria.

The announcement precedes an expected launch in Europe later this summer, meaning that EU residents will be able to send money to major currency corridors via Atlantic Money’s App.

While Atlantic Money is thus officially announcing its activities in the EU, the company has started onboarding UK-based customers last week who signed up to access the service early since the business came out of stealth in March. 

The company, which has raised $4.5m in seed funding from investors including Index Ventures, Ribbit & Kleiner Perkins, is building a global money transfer business that challenges incumbents like Wise, Revolut, and PayPal.

Cross-border transfers for a flat fixed fee of £3 

Atlantic Money is the only international money transfer provider to offer a flat fixed fee of £3 for transfers all the way up to £1,000,000 at the interbank mid-market exchange rate (0% FX commission). 

Co-founders Patrick Kavanagh and Neeraj Baid, who were early employees at trading giant Robinhood, launched the business after noticing a divergence in global FX between retail & institutional transfer costs. 

Whilst large financial institutions move unlimited money around the world at effectively zero cost, securing the live exchange rate by working directly with one another, retail customers are still being charged progressive fees & unjustifiable exchange rates by the most ‘cost-effective’ providers – getting a worse deal when they send more money.

And yet, the cost of sending money internationally is largely fixed per transaction – even when sending large amounts. 

Atlantic Money brings pricing previously reserved for the banks to its customers, driving the cost of larger transfers – sums over €1000 – up to 99% lower than all other money transfer companies.

Patrick Kavanagh, Co-Founder of Atlantic Money: “We are delighted to receive our licence in Europe so soon after receiving our FCA licence in the UK. Combined, the UK & Europe constitute the largest currency corridor in the world, and we are excited to have the opportunity to launch our service across Europe. We are committed to offering customers unbeatable costs on larger transfers vs all other providers, saving them millions every year as they send money across the globe with one simple  £3 flat fee and zero per cent FX mark-up.”

Neeraj Baid, Co-Founder of Atlantic Money: “In addition to our European licence, we also started rolling out our product to the customers in the UK who signed up for early access. We have been speaking to these early adopters for the last couple of months to ensure our product is 100% focused on resolving their specific pain points. Encouraged by feedback from our customers, we are excited to launch what we believe to be the best money transfer system on the market for frequent, higher value senders in the EU.”

Atlantic Money is currently in closed beta and will roll out to customers across Europe throughout 2022.

the Lithuanian identity verification and compliance company iDenfy, joined forces with Juni, the financial management platform made for e-commerce. iDenfy’s mix of built-in identity verification and Business Verification services will protect Juni from fraud. 

Reduced costs, personalization, greater convenience, or speed are all factors that make e-commerce and fintech players successful in today’s digital sphere. While the benefits paint a positive picture, there’s also a riskier part to online business. According to iDenfy, cybercrime takes a toll on the fintech and e-commerce markets, making fraudsters and their crimes an issue that’s hard to tackle. 

Juni follows a similar approach, and as an industry innovator, the fintech player constantly looks for new ways to bridge the gap between security and speed. For this reason, Juni decided to upgrade its fraud prevention package and implement iDenfy’s latest product, the Business Verification platform.

The goal at Juni is to provide its clients with the best-in-class financial ecosystem while at the same time, ensuring complete transparency and safety. Businesses that use Juni’s services can track their entire business profile in one place. Juni claims to have created one dashboard where companies get a centralized overview of bank accounts, ad networks, and payment gateways. This helps them monitor their business activity and improve cash flow more efficiently.

Once started with remote ID verification, iDenfy now offers many fraud prevention tools that help businesses detect and prevent criminal activity as well as comply with ever-changing regulations. According to Juni, iDenfy presented a unique opportunity to combine identity verification with Know Your Business (KYB) services. iDenfy will provide its partners with the Business Verification platform that helps detect bogus companies. 

As per iDenfy, its Business Verification removes the struggle for Compliance officers who need to follow strict laws and check multiple data points manually. iDenfy’s platform assists Juni in automating its onboarding process in accordance with global and local regulations. iDenfy’s Business Verification platform can block certain IPs or activity codes from onboarding. It helps Juni detect and prevent fraudulent activity automatically by running Sanctions, PEPs, and Adverse Media verification checks.

According to Juni, iDenfy’s new services have already improved its ability to screen the identity of applicants more efficiently, which is one of the main factors that the fintech’s customers expect. Juni also claims to be working with iDenfy to develop the Business Verification platform further. The next stage will be to add more automation features to reduce the likelihood of human error quicker. 

“We are actively collaborating on building a very special platform. iDenfy is known as a solid identity verifier, but very few, if any, providers offer both a KYB tool and an ID verification tool that we could find. For that, we are very grateful.” – noted Patrick Ryan, FinCrime Director, Juni.

“Our team strives to create safe solutions that allow other businesses to focus on their primary goals without needing to do the administrative work. Our Business Verification and identity verification platform is a ready-made service that helps compliance officers to eliminate fraud risks faster. We’re glad that our partners at Juni share a similar vision and have the same values regarding security.” – explained Domantas Ciulde, iDenfy’s CEO. 

CellPoint Digital, a global leader in payment orchestration, today announces it has topped the annual list of Most Promising Fintech Solutions by prominent technology magazine CIOReview.

Each year a distinguished panel of CEOs, CIOs, VCs and analysts, as well as the CIOReview editorial board, compiles the list by examining each fintech’s offering, core competency, client testimonials, milestones and other recognitions.

CEO of CellPoint Digital, Kristian Gjerding, said: “We’re immensely proud to be a key player in the global fintech industry, and this is further validation of how we are transforming payments and empowering our clients to maximize and optimize their complex and fragmented payment ecosystems.

“Technology is enabling rapid innovation in payments,” he continued.   “As a result, companies looking for new ways to manage payments can be overwhelmed with choices. CIOReview’s list is a great way to assist CIOs in identifying the right fintech solution providers for them, and we are honoured to be among such a prestigious list of companies.”

CellPoint’s payment orchestration platform, Velocity, is built to streamline complexity while significantly boosting profits for merchants, seamlessly sitting on top of their existing provider relationships. The feature-rich platform delivers the true benefits merchants can derive from a multi-acquirer strategy, with intelligence to automatically route transactions in real-time to drive higher acceptance rates and lower fees.

Gjerding adds: “These are exciting times for the CellPoint team. As the pioneer of payment orchestration and the global leader in the airline industry, we are successfully expanding into broader verticals that are increasingly aware of the profit-boosting benefits of payment orchestration. We continue to evolve and innovate our platform to meet now and develop what’s next.”

Ethical Equity, the UK’s first ethically compliant investment platform, today announced a partnership with Streets Consulting, the financial services and technology business development, marketing and communications consultancy, to deliver a one-day Founder Workshop.

To be held on 8 July 2022 at Origin Workspace, Bristol, the workshop is designed to fulfil three critical needs for entrepreneurs hoping to list on investment platforms like Ethical Equity:

1. Knowledge of the component parts of a pitch, what investors are laser-focused on, and how to sharpen a pitch deck accordingly

2. The confidence and presentation skills to deliver a punchy pitch

3. A piece-to-camera video, filmed at the end of the workshop and edited quickly post-event for the entity’s social media, Ethical Equity listing, or other investment platforms

A select cohort of founders will follow an intensive programme with each step building on the previous one, in a safe space for minority and underserved entrepreneurs to receive mentoring, practical support, and concrete outcomes in the form of instantly usable content.

The need for such a workshop is clear. Since 2016, just 2% of capital raised and 4% of funding rounds went to female founders, according to statistics from Sifted. The situation is even starker for ethnic minority entrepreneurs, who have received just 1.7% of the capital since 2009. Within that 1.7%, black entrepreneurs received 0.24% and black female entrepreneurs just 0.02%.

As well as encouraging diversity in Impact Investment, and providing a platform to connect like-minded investors to entrepreneurs, Ethical Equity is keen to boost the opportunities available to founders who meet their ethical criteria or come from diverse or underserved backgrounds. This workshop contributes to their efforts to close the inequality gap in startup funding by equipping founders with the tools they need to deliver compelling pitches for investment.

Ali Kazmi, Ethical Equity’s Founder, commented: “We’re driven to reach out to those underserved entrepreneurs that may have lost all hope of being able to raise capital or access angel investment. With these workshops, we offer the chance to correct some of the historic imbalances by arming founders with the confidence and communication skills to approach investors. And we’re delighted to partner with Streets Consulting, a marketing communications business that has a strong background in bringing new ideas that enable innovators to differentiate themselves, build influence and communities of interest, grow, scale and make an impact.”

Denis Lindsay, Impact Investor and Ethical Equity Non-Executive Director, added: “It’s all too familiar a story. As well as competing for a slender wedge of the capital investment on offer, founders from underserved and diverse communities find themselves starting behind the start line. We see plenty of brilliant entrepreneurs with viable businesses approach us without confident, refined pitches – and so this workshop was born, which we hope to run regularly, to provide concrete outcomes that will improve their chances of success.”

Julia Streets, Streets Consulting Founder & CEO, commented: “We’re proud to support Ethical Equity’s mission to improve the funding outcomes for startups founded in diverse and underserved communities. Since we were founded some 15 years ago, we have helped hundreds of businesses across the UK and around the world to grow through the design and delivery of integrated marketing communications strategies. As mentors to Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab and the Investment Association’s ‘Engine’ programme, and having been called on to support various innovation labs and VC initiatives, we help our clients differentiate themselves and grow at pace. On a personal note, as both an entrepreneur and an investor in startups myself, I couldn’t be more excited to coach these entrepreneurs to greater confidence – in their propositions, their stories, and in themselves.”

TotallyMoney, the credit app which helps everyone move their finances forward, has added credit provider, Drafty to its service via API integration:

• With a focus on those with poor credit profiles, Drafty provides limits of up to £3,000 with flexible repayment terms and zero fees
• Using ‘Express Cash Transfer’ Drafty is able to send cash to a customer’s bank in under 90 seconds once approved
• This comes as TotallyMoney and PwC research highlighted a 36% growth in the number of people with poor credit history over the last six years*
• At the same time, 16m UK adults would need to borrow money to afford an unexpected payment of £300*

This is the latest in the series of integrations from TotallyMoney, as it drives forward in enabling fintech for everyone, with a focus on the UK’s 20 million adults currently under-served by the financial services industry*.

Innovation, collaboration, API integration

TotallyMoney’s report with PwC, ‘Overlooked and financially under-served’, found that in the past six years, the number of people who are struggling to access mainstream credit has risen 50% from 13.6 to 20.2 million. One of the key drivers for this has been a 36% growth in the number of people with poor credit history.

As the cost of living crisis continues to add strain to people’s finances, many are finding themselves eating into savings. The same research also reveals that 16m adults would need to borrow money to afford an unexpected payment of £300.

Drafty bridges this gap, offering a flexible and easy-to-use alternative to cards, loans and overdrafts. Available to those with poor or little credit history, Drafty is able to send money to the banks of eligible customers in just 90 seconds. Drafty’s exclusive rewards programme provides additional value, with over 200 incentives and offers available to customers.

By integrating via an API, customers can check their eligibility to find out their chances of acceptance before they apply. They can also use the credit line time and time again without needing to reapply provided they keep up with their repayments, so they can protect their credit profile by avoiding multiple credit applications.

Alastair Douglas, CEO of TotallyMoney, comments:

“At TotallyMoney, we have a goal of enabling fintech for everyone. Yet our research with PwC found that over 20 million adults struggle to access mainstream credit. In addition to this, we found that 16 million adults would struggle to cover an unexpected £300 payment.

“As inflation continues to squeeze household finances, it’s more important than ever that a range of innovative and flexible credit products and services are available to those who need them most. By integrating Drafty via an API, we’re able to provide those with an imperfect credit profile an alternative, flexible option to cards, loans and overdrafts.

“TotallyMoney is on a mission to help everyone move their finances forward and collaboration is key to this. Fintechs, lenders, credit reference agencies and regulators must work together, ensuring people can navigate the cost of living crisis and gain financial momentum”.

Alex Woodcraft, Marketing Director at GAIN Credit, comments:

“I’m so excited for Drafty to be partnering with TotallyMoney. TotallyMoney sees eye-to-eye with Drafty in providing innovative credit solutions to help people through this cost of living crisis. With our fantastic Drafty Club offering helping people save money on their weekly shop and more across various brands, we’re excited to help more people make of their money.”

At a flagship award ceremony, Finastra, Sia Partners, Google Cloud, HSBC Continental Europe, Pépite France and Manaos announced the winners of the Finance and Innovation for Good competition. The initiative invited entrepreneurial students in France to tackle a major challenge around finance for good. Over the past six months, the partners have supported students with their projects from ideation to development.

The overall winners are…

1^st place: Sumpler, a solution that facilitates digital receipts at the point of sale, bringing all the data into one place on the banking app.

2^nd place: Yam, a digital banking app focused on improving financial inclusion in Africa, including the illiterate population, with some unique digital accessibility innovations. 

3^rd place: Aphaïa, an equity crowdfunding platform focused on supporting natural capital projects in emerging countries.

The winners of the special project prizes are…

• Best technical achievement: Eira, an impact investment app focused on generating good financial returns while having a positive impact on the planet.
• Fastest go-to-market solution: Tetard Capital, a social media platform enabling startups to access funding by connecting them with Gen Z investors.
• Best social impact innovation: Studlend, a solution which helps US-based students fund their education by connecting them with investors in Europe.
• Best education innovation: Diwali, a solution which provides financial education for youth, with a focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing and green finance.
• Best socioeconomic impact: Raivel, a platform which connects social economy organizations with banks and other fundraising solutions.
• Best financial expertise: Greenvest, an ESG investment platform which includes social features such as voting.

The three winners were rewarded with prizes from the partners of 7000€, 5000€ and 3000€, while the special project winners received prizes worth 1000€.

Thomas Rocafull, Partner at SIA Partners said, “The competition provided students with an opportunity to tackle important issues and learn about real-world applications in a business setting. Students play an integral role in shaping our future, and this was apparent with the extremely high quality of finished projects. By partnering with industry experts like Finastra, we gave students the necessary education and tools which resulted in a variety of innovative ideas to increase sustainability and inclusivity in financial services.”

Chirine Ben Zaied, Head of Innovation at Finastra said, “Finastra’s commitment to ESG is underpinned by deep-rooted collaboration, which makes competitions like these crucial. We are so impressed with the creative ideas and insights from all the projects and are extremely proud of the students who took part. A key takeaway is that ESG investing might look like a crowded space, but there is still room for innovation. Additionally, financial inclusion remains a huge problem: financial apps are still inaccessible for many, but fintech can play a big role in tackling this challenge. It was a pleasure to collaborate with the partners and we extend a huge congratulations to all of the winners.”

Throughout the past six months, participants received material resources, including access to Finastra’s open platform for innovation, FusionFabric.cloud, and weekly training with nearly a hundred coaches from a variety of industries. Winning projects were selected based on their degree of completion, financial viability and capacity for disruption and innovation.

Debite, the financing platform for early-stage companies, is today announcing the appointment of Uma Balachandra as its first Head of Revenue.

Uma most recently served as General Manager, UK & Europe at Jeeves, an all-in-one credit and expense management platform. During his time at Jeeves, Uma led the expansion of the fintech to new markets and established a local cross-functional team, while at the same time driving revenue growth through business development and partnerships. 

Before this role, Uma worked in a variety of roles across the fintech and payments space, including as VP, Strategic Partnerships at Global Processing Services, a leading card payments processing platform and in a similar position at cross-border payments service, WorldRemit. He also held senior roles at Virgin Money and NatWest Group.

Uma will be responsible for Debite’s sales, customer success, business development and partnerships, as well as identifying and implementing new revenue opportunities.

Commenting on the appointment, Tayga Baltacıoğlu, CEO at Debite said: “We are excited to welcome Uma on board who brings nearly 15 years of experience across fintech, payments and banking.

“As a highly-regarded specialist, Uma has an impressive track record of growing fintechs and rapidly building a customer base. His energy and drive will be important assets as we forge ahead on our mission to maximise the growth potential of early-stage companies.”

Uma Balachandra added: “I am delighted to be joining Debite which is redefining financing for start-ups. Working alongside its talented team of experts, I’m looking forward to contributing to its mission in this new role.”

Tackling one of the main reasons why most start-ups fail, Debite is on a mission to help early-stage companies effectively manage their cash flow through a range of innovative financing solutions. Its corporate card offers up to 20x higher credit limits than traditional banks and provides startups with built-in instalment options for up to 12 months.  

Ahead of its launch, Debite raised £2.5 million in pre-seed funding earlier this year, with backing from leading VCs and angel investors and is preparing for a further investment round in the coming months. Its founder team is led by Tayga Baltacıoğlu and co-founders former J.P. Morgan Vice President Andres Korin and Engin Attar of Bain&Co..