General News

TravelX, a Blockchain enabled Distribution Protocol, Secures $10M via Initial Funding Round

TravelX, the firm focused on building the travel industry’s blockchain-powered distribution protocol, announced a $10 million seed funding round – which has been led by Borderless Capital (closed last November). Other investors participating in the investment round from the travel, technology and blockchain verticals included… Read More

Kava DAO Votes to Allocate $750M On-Chain Developer Incentives

The Kava DAO has reportedly voted to “allocate $750M to on-chain developer incentives, committing majority ownership of the network to the #BUIDLers.” As mentioned in a blog post, high-quality developers are “the most valuable asset to the long-term success of Layer-1 blockchains.” In recognition of… Read More

Bank of England Raises Rates by 25 Basis Points to 0.75%, Inflation Expected to Peak at 7.25% in April

As inflation rages higher, the Bank of England announced it was raising its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%. One voting member preferred to leave rates unchanged. The BoE said that developments since the February Report are likely to accentuate both the peak… Read More

Samsung Introduces Kiosk based Open Banking Payments with Assistance from Moneyhub

Moneyhub, the Open Data and payments platform, is teaming up with global electronics manufacturer Samsung in order to facilitate the “first” Open Banking payments on a retail self-service point-of-sale (POS) Kiosk. Moneyhub’s Open Banking payment tech along with Samsung’s self-service ordering and payment solution, “will… Read More

Ethereum Rollups Must Improve in Key Areas, Huobi Research Institute Reports

Huobi Research Institute, the blockchain research organization, recently shared a detailed report on Ethereum rollup solutions, titled “How Far is Rollup from Maturity: A Dive into Rollup’s Development Path.” In the extensive report, Huobi Research Institute analyst Barry Jiang points out some of the “drawbacks”… Read More

UK’s ThinCats Appoints Billy Ferguson as New CTO

UK-based ThinCats, the alternative finance provider to SMEs, has reportedly appointed Billy Ferguson to serve as the firm’s CTO. Ferguson brings considerable professional experience within the IT industry, having previously served in key roles at Aldermore Bank, Allianz Insurance as well as Prudential. Ferguson will… Read More

Ukraine War Impacts Online Investing, Investment Crowdfunding Now Showing a Downward Trend

The unprovoked invasion by Russia attacking Ukraine has impacted global markets driving risk higher and causing extreme volatility in all markets. The war has also impacted online investing – crowdfunding – according to Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA). CCA co-founder Sherwood “Woodie” Neiss tweeted today that… Read More

CarNow and Cion Digital to Offer Clients the Option to Buy, Finance Cars with Cryptocurrencies

CarNow, the automotive industry’s digital retailing firm, recently announced a partnership with Cion Digital, offering clients a way to purchase and finance vehicles using cryptocurrency via “an integration with CarNow’s Real-Time Retail™ platform.” Cion Digital’s “ready-to-deploy” modular payments and lending platform offers firms with access… Read More

Trading on Moscow Stock Exchange Closed for Another Week, a Change in the Ruble Exchange Rate Planned

The Bank of Russia has taken the extraordinary measure of halting trading on the Moscow Stock Exchange now for a second week. In a public statement, the Bank said there would be no trading from 14 to 18 March 2022 on the Moscow Exchange in… Read More

Buffalo, New York Now Ranks as One of the Fastest-Growing Startup Ecosystems in the US: Report

Following Buffalo’s inclusion as one of America’s “fastest-growing” startup cities in the York IE Fastest-Growing Startup Cities Report, Invest Buffalo Niagara, the area’s private-sector economic development and business attraction organization, announced that the former industrial town “saw record-breaking growth in its tech sector.” Buffalo’s startup… Read More

Draper Hero Index Provides Monthly Updates on State Competitiveness for Innovation, Entrepreneurship

The Draper Hero Index (DHI) says it will start monthly updates to its United States Draper Innovation Index (DII US), a measurement of a state’s competitiveness when it comes to entrepreneurship and innovation. The Index is created in partnership with Dun & Bradstreet – beginning… Read More

US Investment Crowdfunding Exemptions Explained

In the United States, securities or investment crowdfunding was legalized under the JOBS Act of 2012. This bi-partisan legislation was in recognition of changes in technology as well as an understanding of the need to better facilitate capital formation for early-stage firms. Effectively, there are… Read More

Binance UK Renews its Innovate Finance Membership as “Scaleup Innovator”

Binance UK is pleased to renew its membership at Innovate Finance, which is an independent not-for-profit industry body “representing the UK’s Global FinTech community, as a Scaleup Innovator for another year until 2023.’ As an international player in the digital asset sector, Binance is “committed… Read More

JPMorgan is Next Big Bank to Retreat from Business in Russia

Following the news that Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) was exiting operations in Russia, JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) is reportedly doing the same. The move follows heavy economic sanctions targeting Russia by many countries around the world following Russia’s draconian invasion of Ukraine. JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank… Read More

Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol, the Backbone of Cosmos Ecosystem, Surpassed 11M Transfers in Feb

The Interchain Foundation (ICF), a Swiss non-profit that is focused on advancing interoperable, sustainable, and community-owned decentralized networks, confirms that the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC), the backbone of the Cosmos ecosystem, “surpassed 11 million transfers in February.” Introduced in March 2021 as part of Cosmos’… Read More

Tesco Bank Integrates Biometric Onboarding with Pay+ Shopping App

Tesco Bank is reportedly using biometric authentication tech from Onfido in order to accelerate onboarding for its Clubcard Pay+ account, through which clients may ring-fence their grocery spend from any existing bank account. Introduced in January 2022, Tesco Clubcard Pay+ allows members to make payments… Read More

Atom Bank Co-founder Craig Iley’s Fintech Firm BFM Acquires £1.3M via Seed Round

Business Finance Market (BFM), a Fintech established by the businessman behind two UK-based banking challengers Craig Iley recently acquired £1.3 million in capital via a seed round. BFM, which maintains offices in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, is planning to enhance the process bringing lenders… Read More

Epicor Acquires Grow Inc., Enhancing Business Intelligence Capabilities

Epicor, a global firm focused on industry-specific enterprise software to support business growth, recently revealed that it acquired Grow Inc., a no-code, full-stack business intelligence platform that empowers users – “from the boardroom to the plant floor, warehouse, or store – to make data-driven decisions… Read More

NFTs: Former Boxer, Artist Offer Non-Fungible Tokens to Support Ukraine

Former Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko and artist WhIsBe have teamed up to launch NFTs in support of Ukraine “amidst an unprecedented crisis in the country, NFT creative agency Metacurio announced.” All proceeds will reportedly “go to Red Cross Ukraine and UNICEF, ensuring that funds from… Read More

Fraudulent Activities are Reportedly being Ignored on Zelle by its Founders

Banking institutions appear to be ignoring the problem of fraudulent activities allegedly being carried out via Zelle, a new report reveals, with large financial service providers that founded the service not really caring or concerned about issues with the digital payments platform. Zelle has quickly… Read More

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