UK’s MarketFinance Pay Later Financing for SMBs Allows Sole Traders to Get Credit at Point of Sale

Finnish Fintech company Membrane Finance has launched EUROe – Europe’s “first” and “only” EU-regulated full-reserve stablecoin and payment network. EUROe transforms “a fiat Euro into a 1:1 pegged digital currency transactable on Ethereum, with planned support for an increasing number of blockchains.” One EUROe is always one Euro. For each EUROe issued, “at least one fiat Euro exists in a European financial institution or bank, ring-fenced from Membrane Finance.”

Commonwealth Bank is rolling out new features for its widely used banking apps “aimed at combating the plague of scammers ripping off Australians.”. From late March, the app will “indicate whether the name and account details customers have entered are correct when they make payments using a BSB and account number.”

Finastra recently unveiled Finastra ALM IQ, a risk management solution available for banks from March 2023. The unique Cloud-based balance sheet management tool “enables small and medium-sized banks to make confident decisions in shorter timeframes, making them more competitive against larger financial institutions.”. ALM IQ offers “a faster, deeper...

Both private and public markets slowed dramatically during 2022. While the year started off relatively positive, the realities of persistent (and not transitory) inflation hit everyone hard. This, combined with geopolitical challenges such as Russia’s unprovoked war with Ukraine and China’s chest pounding, pushed investors to go risk off. As the US Federal Reserve drove rates higher, people moved their money to more mundane products. Private markets raising capital under various exemptions dropped.

Banca Patrimoni Sella & C. launches a new discretionary mandate based on Artificial Intelligence. The new mandate has been developed in partnership with MDOTM Ltd, the Fintech scaleup global provider of AI-driven investment solutions “for institutional investors.”. The new mandate, called “GP AI-Driven”, will invest in “a flexible and...

We recently caught up with Dr. Torsten Stüber, Co-Founder and CTO at Berlin-based Pendulum, an initiative focused on traditional finance infrastructure blockchain solutions, which is “the missing link between fiat and DeFi.”. Pendulum is an open-source blockchain built on the “proven” Parity Substrate framework, establishing the missing link...

Klarpay AG marks a “significant” expansion of its international payment offering with the launch of 13 new currency IBAN accounts. This addition “enables digital companies, including online merchants, ad networks, marketplaces, and influencers, to collect and disburse payments in AED, AUD, CAD, DKK, HKD, HUF, JPY, MXN, NOK, PLN, SEK, TRY, and ZAR globally via their corporate Klarpay account in addition to the 80+ payout currencies which are already available.”

The Nuon Protocol has announced the launch of its mainnet for the NUON flatcoin: the world’s “first” cryptocurrency “linked to an unbiased cost of living index.”. Decentralized and overcollateralized, Nuon will “go live on the leading Ethereum scaling solution, Arbitrum.”. The concept of a flatcoin...

Gobi Partners, the “most interconnected” Pan-Asian venture capital (VC) firm with US$1.5 billion (RM6.5 billion) in assets under management has “onboarded four more promising Malaysian startups to its Gobi Superseed II Fund (Gobi SSII Fund).”. The four firms “being onboarded are Islamic-themed streaming service Durioo+, e-commerce marketplace...

Sunstone Credit, Inc., a technology-enabled clean energy financing platform that helps businesses go solar, announced an oversubscribed $20 million Series A funding round. The investment round was “led by an affiliated fund of Greenbacker Capital Management LLC, which provides flexible capital and best-in-class guidance for growth-stage clean energy companies.”

Extend, a virtual card and spend management platform, had a strong 2022 as customers embraced the opportunity ‘to add powerful controls and insights to their business credit cards.”. Since its founding nearly six years ago, Extend has “empowered companies to turn their existing credit card into a spend management...

Iwoca reaches net profitability in Q4 2022 and experiences over 50% increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses funded across the UK and Germany. This comes as iwoca “increases its funding line with Pollen Street Capital from £125m to £170m.” The total number of customers funded across the UK and Germany – “including all products and repeat customers – grew by over 50% in 2022 vs. 2021.”

Monzo, a top digital bank serving the UK and the US, has surpassed seven million customers, according to an investor update posted on the Monzo community forum. The post indicates that Monzo has been growing by 150,000 new account sign-ups each month, with 350,000 customers signing up for either the Monzo Plus or Monzo Premium tiers. Approximately 200,000 business customers now utilize the digital bank.

Specialty insurer Relm Insurance Ltd. announces an expansion of its strategic fronting partnership with Trisura Specialty Insurance Company, enabling the Bermuda-domiciled carrier “to provide capacity in support of AM-Best rated paper for U.S. digital asset risks.”. Trisura, rated A- by AM Best, claims it is “a leading international specialty...

Pie Insurance, a tech-enabled provider of workers’ compensation insurance to small businesses, announced that Pie Insurance Group has “secured a Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of ‘a-‘ (Excellent)” from AM Best, a global credit rating agency and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry.

Opportunity International, a global nonprofit, today announced the successful completion of its three-year Waymaker Campaign, “raising $101 million of philanthropic capital that will leverage over $1 billion in social impact funding from local banks and financial institutions to provide loans, investments and wraparound services to 25 million people living in endemic poverty so they can build their incomes and educate their children.”

Digital banking provider Bankjoy announced the launch of Online Account Opening 2.0, which “enables financial institutions to quickly and seamlessly onboard new members and clients, enhancing the first digital experience while driving deposit growth.”. With Bankjoy’s new, standalone Online Account Opening platform, financial institutions can enroll new clients and...

Center, a software company helping businesses gain visibility into and manage employee spending, released insights from its fourth annual Expense Management Trends survey, revealing that “despite an uncertain economic environment, over a third of respondents (36%) plan to spend more than $250k annually on travel, with 16% expected to spend over $500k.”

Global Screening Services (GSS) and Silent Eight, have today announced that following a competitive selection process, Silent Eight’s flagship AI technology “will power sanctions adjudications in the GSS platform.”. By implementing Silent Eight’s machine-learning platform (Iris), GSS will “adjudicate false positives while at the same time surface potential...

Binance, which claims to be the world’s leading cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure provider, announced the signing of an MoU with The Georgian Agency for Innovation and Technology (GITA). Under the agreement, both parties “expressed mutual interest in the delivery and implementation of large-scale educational and community initiatives in the...