Atlantic Money, the fintech that helps people send money globally, quickly and cost-effectively, is rolling out its product for the first time to early sign-ups in the UK.

The firm expects to save its average customer around 75% annually when compared to Wise. This saving increases substantially when compared to other market players such as leading banks.

The team, led by co-founders Patrick Kavanagh and Neeraj Baid, who were early employees at trading giant Robinhood, are onboarding UK-based customers who signed up to access the service early when the business came out of stealth in March.

These customers will be able to transfer up to £1 million for a £3 fixed fee and zero FX mark-up using the Atlantic Money app. Anyone who wants to join the list now can register via the Atlantic Money website and will receive access in the coming weeks. Soon, the app will also be available to everyone else in the UK. 

Atlantic Money drastically undercuts the pricing model of incumbent providers. For example, someone sending £3500 to EUR would see at least 75% savings on fees, with larger transfers up to 99% cheaper. 

The previous generation of fintech challengers which disrupted the banks and initially moved the industry forward have taken their eye off the ball. They charge frequent users and their most loyal customers high (and often hidden) fees to subsidise other products and services that these people don’t want or need. 

Atlantic Money, a second-generation challenger, is laser-focused on making money transfers cheaper and easier for these active senders who have been neglected by current providers and, as a result, get the worst deal. Its value proposition is simple; a fixed £3 fee better reflects the true cost of sending money abroad and differentiates the firm from competitors which charge commissions/fees based on the amount of money sent.

Irish start-up Webio, a leader in Conversational AI in the credit, collections and payments industry, has today announced a series A funding round led by Finch Capital.

Webio is primed to scale-up following the digital shift during the pandemic and the uncertain economic climate to make difficult conversations about payments easy through their Conversation AI. 

Webio’s technology has enabled leading UK and European companies to communicate conversationally with customers throughout their credit and collections journey. Customers can ask questions, change payment dates, or organise a new repayment schedule, all tailored to their circumstances, all done through Conversational AI and automation. Customers experience the assurance that they have been engaged with, listened to, and interacted with fairly and appropriately and in turn, are more likely to be able to keep to their repayment schedules.

The jewel in the crown is Webio’s ability to ‘move the needle’ in predicting conversation outcomes by analysing what is said and how it is said. Identifying characteristics such as a person’s potential vulnerability early and accurately, and then guiding that customer conversations through a range of best next steps dynamically is an example of a critical capability in this market. Webio clients can manage their collections conversations on a level like never before. They can know faster, act sooner, and do so with confidence.

Cormac O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO at Webio:

“Conversations about money are stressful and difficult, not only for the customer but also for agents tasked with having these conversations. Going digital means companies can create a whole new set of digital experiences that help customers feel more confident in having those difficult conversations and ultimately, stop them from falling into unnecessary and significant financial difficulty. And we are excited that Webio’s conversational AI is enabling companies to engage with customers in a more empathetic manner, at scale”.

Historically, the credit and collections functions have not received much technology attention, but now digital transformation is a necessity. During the pandemic, companies had to sell services online and provide customer service entirely digitally. Taking a call at the kitchen table was not practical where sensitive financial conversations were involved, so companies moved to digital messaging over WhatsApp, SMS, and Webchat. 

A recent Deloitte study states that 60% of organisations reported progress on connecting service channels during this time, with 11% reporting that they can transition customers across channels and experiences seamlessly. The number of financial services organisations implementing conversational AI and digital assistants doubled over the pandemic and the privacy-first custom assistant model provided by Webio is finding resonance in the collection’s world.

As customers move their spending online there has been a corresponding growth in the consumer appetite for alternative payment options such as open banking facilitated payments, digital wallets such as Apple Pay, and buy now pay later (BNPL) offers. The BNPL market is worth $23bn today and is projected to grow to $91bn by 2028. Even the mighty Apple has announced the availability of Apple Pay Later, so most analysts expect even further growth in this sector. However, BNPL Companies such as Klarna and Afterpay, with other alternative consumer finance companies, are now coming under pressure from customer past due payment behaviours, and this is leading to increased levels of bad debt.

The economic environment continues to undergo a seismic shift. Inflation is running between 8 to 10% and significant interest rate rises are predicted by the end of the year. ONS Data finds that almost half of adults find difficulty in paying for electricity and gas, and by October 2022 over 1.5 million UK households will struggle to pay food and energy bills. Paying every creditor on time, and in full, will stretch many to breaking point. All companies will experience more late payments, bad debt, and resultant pressure on cash flows. Companies are now seeing that they need a plan to service these customers with care and empathy, not only because this is mandated, but if treated well, these customers will continue to buy from the brand in the longer term.

Webio will use the new funds to deepen their capabilities in conversational AI and additional digital offerings. They plan to triple the company’s R&D team, expand the sales and marketing teams, and expand its customer success teams to address the market demand in the UK and European markets. 

Mike Brennan of Finch Capital:

“Webio is reimagining the way customer credit conversations take place in the collections industry. This sector is ripe for disruption, its approach to its customers is outdated and it’s an extremely large market which is set for significant growth. Webio has established itself as an award-winning provider with triple digit growth in this market and is well positioned to help the sector overcome key challenges around digital transformation and the adoption of AI. Finch Capital is delighted to continue to support this experienced team with its ambitious plans for rapid growth and expansion”.

Narmi, a leading provider of open digital banking technologies, today announced $35M in Series B funding co-led by Greycroft and existing investors NEA and Picus Capital.

Narmi is one of the fastest-growing companies servicing financial institutions in the United States and plans to leverage the new capital to develop its digital banking solutions more broadly, partner with new financial institutions, and accelerate the digital modernization of the banking industry. 

The company transforms the nation’s financial institutions and customers include Berkshire Bank, LendingClub, Twinstar Credit Union, First Internet Bank, University Credit Union, Freedom Credit Union and many others.

Today, financial institutions cannot ignore the demands from users to offer intuitive, feature-rich and well-designed digital platforms to consumers and businesses. Narmi addresses this need through its API-driven platform that grants financial institutions access to Narmi’s many products (consumer digital account opening, business digital account opening, consumer digital banking, business digital banking, and an administrator console) to drive growth, deposits, and cost efficiencies.

Nikhil Lakhanpal, Co-Founder of Narmi:

“Our vision is to give every financial institution in the country full confidence that they can grow and prosper in a digital-first way. We will keep building, innovating and staying laser focused on this vision until it is achieved. This investment from blue chip firms like NEA and Greycroft will help make this vision a reality.”

More specifically and as a part of their commitment to digital transformation, Narmi plans to ramp up hiring in advance of launching their business account opening platform and further build out a key product pillar - openness - including full support for middleware layers, their proprietary AppXchange and their developer ecosystem. 

Additionally, Narmi plans to accelerate the reach of its business digital banking platform. Existing business platforms today are clunky leaving a massive untapped market that Narmi unlocks for financial institutions. With Narmi, financial institutions like the successfully relaunched Grasshopper Bank, a digital bank focused on businesses, can fully service SMBs with a unique digital-first banking experience.

Mike Butler, CEO of Grasshopper Bank:

“The SMB market has not been given, we don't think, a top class financial services digital experience yet. That's what Grasshopper has set out to do with the help of Narmi.” 

Chris Griffin Co-Founder of Narmi:

“So much of what’s missing in digital banking today is a true commitment to constant innovation. Financial institutions shouldn’t have to worry about their digital offering becoming outdated. We know that is our responsibility and ultimately our biggest differentiator. We outline our largest product changes every month at new.narmi.com and make this publicly available to hold ourselves accountable.” 

Today Ascenda, the global loyalty technology company, announces a strategic partnership with Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF), the leading Saudi bank that has established itself as the most innovative financial services company in the region.
 
This best-in-class loyalty solution will tap into BSF’s JANA Rewards Program premium customer base and unlock critical high-value spending across the entire banking relationship.
 
Ascenda’s TransferConnect network, the world’s largest points exchange network, is powering the new program, bringing more than 50 live integrated live currency rewards partners to BSF’s JANA Rewards Program portfolio. The only global hub connecting banks and major merchants, TransferConnect is facilitating seamless rewards currency conversion for all of BSF’s retail customers. BSF is also leveraging Ascenda’s best-in-class customer engagement capabilities to deliver personalized financial solutions for its customers both at home and abroad.
 
With more than 340,000 cards in circulation, this new strategic partnership is set to disrupt the traditional cashback era in the market and deliver unparalleled consumer value and choice. Tapping into BSF’s digitally native customer base, the new solution will bolster the bank’s position as one of the leading card issuers in the market.

Mohammed Alsheikh, Head of Personal Banking Group at Banque Saudi Fransi said: “This new strategic partnership with Ascenda supports our overall mission to become the most innovative and experience-focused bank in the region. Leveraging Ascenda’s holistic redemption platform will allow us to meet the demands of the future and ensure we deliver the most effective customer engagement rewards program solution in our market.”

Sebastian Grobys, CSO & co-founder at Ascenda, added: “Progressive banks such as BSF are increasingly looking to differentiate their offering in the age of personalization and growing consumer appetite for comprehensive redemption opportunities. We’re thrilled to support BSF in their journey to deliver exceptional customer moments that delight their users at scale across the entire banking relationship.”

Trading Technologies International, Inc. (TT), a global provider of high-performance professional trading software, infrastructure and data solutions, today announced that its TT platform won the award for Best Sell-Side Execution Management System (EMS) at TradingTech Insight USA Awards 2022 last evening in New York.

TradingTech Insight is a publication of A-Team Group. A-Team editors worked closely with an Advisory Board to select the shortlist in each award category, and members of the capital markets community voted to determine the winners.

Angela Wilbraham, CEO at A-Team Group, said: “Congratulations to Trading Technologies for winning Best Sell-Side EMS in the fourth annual TradingTech Insight Awards USA. This year’s awards have been extremely popular and competitive, highlighting established solution providers and innovative newcomers within capital markets that provide exceptional trading infrastructure, trading technology and data solutions.”

The honour was the first award for the TT platform since the firm’s acquisition by 7RIDGE in December. The company last year completed transitioning all institutional and investment bank clients to the ultra-low latency, broker-neutral Software-as-as-Service (SaaS) solution for multi-asset class trading.

TT CEO Keith Todd said: “We’re absolutely delighted to receive this recognition for our groundbreaking TT platform. TT has established the foundation for our future as a SaaS-based firm that can now provide so many more capabilities across a range of asset classes in the service of our clients. With this platform and our strong capital position, we’re a true partner to clients, helping them easily explore new opportunities, meet more of their needs in a cost-effective manner and integrate other complementary solutions.”

When the TT platform was first introduced in 2015, it was the only platform to leverage a hybrid-cloud infrastructure to provide a streamlined, go-anywhere, high-performance experience for professional traders. With no software to install, traders only need to type “trade.tt” in a browser to access their workspaces. In 2021, another unprecedented year in which traders, executing brokers and risk managers were forced to pivot between home and corporate offices, the platform’s mobility and flexibility proved invaluable in keeping trading operations running smoothly despite a very volatile environment.

TT’s open platform allows users to integrate other front-end and back-end systems with TT to access their own market connections, private liquidity or execution algorithms, and import data from external sources across the enterprise. Execution desks can accept order flow from any EMS, order management system (OMS) or algorithmic provider via a FIX connection. This additional flexibility helps sell-side customers streamline trading operations by consolidating trade flow through multiple systems onto TT.

The annual TradingTech Insight USA Awards recognize excellence in trading solutions and services for capital markets and focus on vendors providing exceptional and innovative trading infrastructure, technology and data solutions dedicated to the challenges faced by firms operating in the U.S. trading environment.

Proportunity, a London-based neolender, today announces it is working on bringing the UK’s first zero deposit mortgage product to market later this year. The announcement was made as part of its crowdfunding campaign with Seedrs to grow the business and help more people in the UK become homeowners sooner. With the deadline for the market’s biggest player, Help to Buy, brought forward to October this year, Proportunity aims to capture the £4.4bn market gap set to be left behind. The addition of a zero deposit mortgage product to Proportunity’s existing offering, which also includes a mortgage booster loan, is the latest way the company is looking at disrupting the broken borrowing system.

Proportunity offers mortgage boosting solutions that help its customers access the finance they need to get on to the property ladder.  The Zero Deposit mortgage removes the biggest barrier to homeownership: saving for a deposit. Imagine a world where buying is as easy as renting and people don’t need to spend years saving or compromising their lifestyles to get on the property ladder. 

As well as the zero deposit product, Proportunity also mentions in its fundraising video that it will be looking into Rent Buy offers. The crowdfunding campaign invites investors to join Proportunity on its journey to help 1 million people onto the property ladder by 2030 and become the go-to home buying partner for anyone struggling to buy a home. The campaign will be live until 30th June and the final investment will be announced in July 2022. 

Vadim Toader, Proportunity CEO and co-founder says, “In today's market, rising interest rates, an unaffordable mortgage, and cost of living crises are making the process of buying a home even more challenging. We are committed to becoming a trusted provider of home buying services for anyone struggling to buy the home they desire. The new products we are developing will enable buyers to overcome various barriers to homeownership. We’ve already financed over £100m of homes, helping over 260 people onto the property ladder, and we’re not slowing down anytime soon. ”

House prices are increasing at the fastest rate in 17 years due to the cost of living crisis and rising inflation. This is exacerbated by 1.2 million properties now requiring higher stamp duty charges and higher interest rates from mortgage lenders. Due to these factors, first-time buyers are needing to provide higher deposits to access better mortgage rates and affordable repayments, making homeownership extremely challenging.

To get on the property ladder, it may be necessary for buyers to explore other lending options to make up the deficit between the deposit they have from savings vs. what they need to put down up-front. Proportunity aims to provide homebuyers with the right financing tools to help them get on or move up the property ladder, so they can buy the home they want, not just what they can afford.

Stefan Adrian Boronea, CTO and Co-Founder says, “With house prices in the UK increasing at such a pace, it’s more important than ever for home buyers to know which areas are currently most undervalued, so they are able to make sound and informed decisions - Proportunity can help them do that. Our Proportunity Home Index (PHI) enables customers to buy smarter - identifying undervalued homes and avoiding overpriced ones.”

Proportunity’s proposition is similar to the UK government's Help to Buy scheme.  Crucially, however, it is available on any home, removing the restriction to new builds, and raising the home’s price cap from £600,000 to £1 Million. It uses AI technology to analyse millions of data points to see if a property is being purchased at or under its true market value. To reduce the affordability gap, Proportunity provides mortgage boosters to offer an up-to-£150k loan to customers purchasing viable properties. This means buyers can still access better mortgage rates, with just a 5% deposit. The Proportunity loan effectively closes the affordability gap and lets its customers buy the house they want now rather than saving for another 5 to 10 years. 

Nexi S.p.A. ("Nexi" and, together with its subsidiaries, "Nexi Group") announces that Nets CEE d.o.o., a company under Croatian law, part of Nexi Group and a subsidiary of Concardis Holding GmbH, reached an agreement with Privredna Banka Zagreb d.d. ("PBZ Bank") and PBZ Card d.o.o. ("PBZ Card") - a company under Croatian law, indirectly controlled by Intesa Sanpaolo S.p.A. ("ISP" and, together with its subsidiaries "ISP Group") through PBZ Bank - to purchase PBZ Card's merchant acquiring business in the Croatian market. 

PBZ Card's merchant acquiring business is the market leader in Croatia, with about 13,000 merchants which, in the 12 months from March 2021 to March 2022, generated a total transaction volume of around €5 billion. The consideration for the transaction is equal to €180m, with an implied 2022E EV/EBITDA multiple of about 10.5x. 

The agreement provides for a long-term partnership among Nets CEE, PBZ Card e PBZ Bank for the marketing and distribution of Nexi products in the Croatian market. This transaction is substantially in line with the broader multi-year partnership between Nexi Group and ISP Group in the Italian merchant acquiring space, which has started through the acquisition of the Italian merchant acquiring business owned by ISP on June 30th 2020. 

As a result of this transaction, Nexi strengthens its relationship with its long-term partner ISP and consolidates its position as the European PayTech leader in merchant services through an increase in the operational scale of merchant acquiring activities. 

The completion of the transaction, expected by the end of 2022, is subject to conditions precedent typical for this type of deal and the reference market, including Nets CEE obtaining a license to operate as a payment institution in Croatia and the approvals from the Croatian and Serbian antitrust authorities. 

Nexi was supported by KPMG Corporate Finance as financial advisor, by Legance - Avvocati Associati and Schoenherr for the legal aspects, and by KPMG Transaction Services for financial and fiscal due diligence.

PPRO, the leading provider of digital payments infrastructure, has appointed former Wayfair Europe finance chief Rahul Raswant as its new Chief Financial Officer. Rahul takes over the position from Götz Möller, who is stepping down after more than three years at the company. Rahul brings diverse international experience to the role. Prior to joining PPRO, he was the European Head of Finance at Wayfair for three years. Earlier roles include Managing Director at Standard Chartered Bank, investor at Passport Capital and close to a decade at McKinsey & Co. Rahul holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

“I have the pleasure of welcoming Rahul Raswant to the team as our new CFO. Rahul’s mix of international consulting, banking, investing, enterprise and entrepreneurial experience will be valuable for the next phase of PPRO’s growth and development.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank Götz Möller for his huge contribution over the last three years helping reshape the business. Standout achievements include transforming our finance, treasury, legal & compliance, internal audit and enterprise risk functions, and playing a lead role in strategic acquisitions, divestments, and multiple funding rounds. In addition, he led our board and shareholder governance activities. On behalf of the whole team, I’d like to wish Götz all the best in his next career move and for the future,” said Simon Black, CEO of PPRO.

ION Markets, a global provider of trading platforms, analytics, and risk management solutions for capital markets, is delighted that ION MarketFactory won Best Managed Services Solution for Trading at the TradingTech Insight (TTI) USA Awards 2022.

The annual TTI USA awards, presented in New York yesterday, recognize outstanding performance by vendors of data and technology solutions to the financial industry, specifically Data Management, Trading Technology, RegTech, and ESG suppliers.

A SaaS first financial technology provider, ION MarketFactory’s products grant clients access to the entire market, regardless of location, workflow, protocol, instrument, or liquidity provider. ION MarketFactory’s flagship product, Whisperer, won the category on the strength of its functionality and excellent performance. Featuring a single API that connects to more than 100 FX APIs, Whisperer operates at a speed of 5–7 microseconds – up to 1,000 times faster than other market solutions. It supports FX spot, NDFs, swaps, forwards, NDSs, options, and futures.  

Despite turbulent market conditions and prolonged market data spikes in 2021, Whisperer customers experienced no connection issues. The API and platform experienced no issues handling the marked increase in data, or the spikes around monthly non-farm payroll numbers. On the contrary, Whisperer performed impeccably as a high-throughput, low-latency product. It handled over 100,000 messages per second and kept latency down to 5–7 microseconds.

Moreover, ION MarketFactory not only maintained a seamless service throughout the period but also further built its products’ efficacy and productivity through several substantial improvements.

“We are excited to receive the Best Managed Services Solution for Trading award from TTI USA this year,” said Eugene Markman, COO, ION Markets FX, and CEO of ION MarketFactory. “The market has faced multiple challenges, which we have viewed as opportunities to demonstrate our capabilities and fulfill our mission of offering a suite of tools that free traders to innovate. As the FX market grows, we will continue to evolve Whisperer in tandem, ensuring an uninterrupted, seamless experience for our clients.”

Presented by A-Team, the TTI Awards are awarded primarily on the views of market participants, adjudicated through online voting. Input is also taken from the TTI Advisory board, comprising experts from its customer and prospect community.

Angela Wilbraham, CEO at A-Team Group, said, “Congratulations ION for winning Best Managed Services Solution for Trading in the fourth annual TradingTech Insight Award USA. This year’s TradingTech Insight USA awards have been extremely popular and competitive, highlighting established solution providers and innovative newcomers within capital markets that provide exceptional trading infrastructure, trading technology, and data solutions.”

BMLL Technologies has won the “Best Management Services Solution for Market Data” award at the TradingTech Insight Awards USA 2022. The award recognises technology providers and vendors offering exceptional and innovative trading infrastructure and data solutions dedicated to the challenges faced by firms operating in the US trading environment. 

BMLL was awarded “Best Management Services Solution for Market Data'' for the expansion of its world-class product offering to include global futures. 

The BMLL Level 3 Futures Data product combines full-depth order book data from CME, Eurex and ICE in a harmonised format, within a scalable compute environment. This opens up the ability to do complex, Level 3 Data analysis at scale across venues and markets, covering Equity Indices, Fixed Income, Short-term Interest Rates, Commodities, Cryptocurrencies and FX. Brokers, asset managers, hedge funds, FCMs and ISVs are now able to accelerate the speed and quality of output by spending less time gathering, organising and cleaning data, and more time deriving predictive insights and back-testing strategies to generate more alpha. 

Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL Technologies, said: “We have successfully established a track record in Equities and have recently expanded into Futures. We are delighted to have gained industry recognition for our continued innovation in providing market participants with the data and analytics they need to make sense of market behaviour and maintain a competitive edge. ”

He added: “I’d like to thank our extremely talented team who continue to deliver outstanding products and client services, making our Level 3 Futures data accessible to the wider market.”