Global

June 16, 2024 @ 3:52 pm By Michael Wong  |  

Fhenix, an Israel-based company specializing in Layer 2 blockchain technology that leverages fully homomorphic encryption (FHE), has successfully closed a $15 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Hack VC, with additional investments from Dao5, Amber Group, Primitive, GSR, Collider, and Stake… Read More

June 16, 2024 @ 6:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

With U.S. auto insurance rates up 11.2% on average during the past year—and insurers still losing an average of five cents “on every dollar of premium they collect—sky-high premiums do not appear to be leveling off anytime soon.” According to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S…. Read More

June 16, 2024 @ 1:57 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Nordic Capital, which claims to be one of the most active and experienced investors in Technology & Payments globally, announced that it will join Great Hill Partners, a private equity firm that invests in high-growth, disruptive companies, as an investor in One Inc, a digital… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 10:32 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Xero, the global small business platform, released regional and industry data about small business labor productivity. The Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) report, Small business productivity: Industry and regional trends, is based “on anonymized and aggregated data from more than 240,000 Xero small business customers… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 5:03 pm By Tony Zerucha  |  

European Blockchain Sandbox Brickken, a Barcelona-based startup that tokenizes real-world assets, has been selected to participate in the European Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) Regulatory Sandbox. This regulatory sandbox will provide legal certainty for decentralized technological solutions, including blockchain, by identifying deployment obstacles from… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 3:13 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Over 25% of the 474 investigations carried out by the MFSA in 2023, were related to persons or entities which were suspected of undertaking licensable activities without having obtained the necessary authorizations, or scams. These investigations include suspicious activity or dubious schemes which “appeared to… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 12:34 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Affirm (NASDAQ: AFRM), the payment network that empowers consumers and helps merchants drive growth, today announced a partnership with full-service hospitality management company Brittain Resorts & Hotels. Now, approved hotel guests can book accommodations “at more than 15 hotels and resorts and pay over time… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 9:22 am By Omar Faridi  |  

OKX‘s investment arm, OKX Ventures, announced that it has become a founding member of SOFA.org, an open-source and non-profit decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on developing a DeFi ecosystem that facilitates atomic, blockchain-based settlements of financial assets. Through its collaboration with SOFA.org, they seek “to… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 8:16 am By Omar Faridi  |  

BVNK, a London-based firm focused on payments innovation, enhanced its stablecoin liquidity operations by leveraging Talos’ advanced trading technology and extensive partner network. This collaboration has added new liquidity providers “at significantly reduced integration times, resulting in a nearly two-fold increase in trading volumes –… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 7:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

UK Finance released its latest Household Finance Review for Q1 2024, exploring trends across household, spending, saving, and borrowing. Mortgage borrowing in Q1 was down “compared with the same period the year before, despite growth in mortgage applications at the end of 2023.” Consumer spending… Read More

June 15, 2024 @ 5:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

TrueLayer, Europe’s open banking payments network, announces a partnership with digital lender Jaja Finance to enable credit card repayments. Jaja will leverage TrueLayer’s payments product “to offer instant pay-ins, allowing customers to make one-off credit card repayments directly from their bank account.” This functionality is… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 10:47 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Almost two-thirds (63%) of companies say they are very or extremely confident that they will be ready to report under the EU’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), according to PwC’s inaugural 2024 Global CSRD Survey, published today. The global survey, of more than 500… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 7:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have developed a blueprint for a platform that integrates regulatory and climate data to help financial authorities identify, monitor and manage climate risks in the financial system. Integrating climate risk analysis into… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 6:17 pm By JD Alois  |  

BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK has commented on its most recent cohort of its UK Fintech Incubator Programme. In an event held at STEAMhouse, eight Fintechs showcased their products, which are focused on how to harness data to enhance engagement with customers in the financial… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 6:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Spiko, co-founded in 2023 by Paul-Adrien Hyppolite and Antoine Michon, has raised €4 million in pre-seed funding. Spiko is a tokenization platform that claims to be the first provider in the world to offer fully tokenized Money Market Funds (MMFs). The digital assets leverage both… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 5:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Remote working Fintech Deel has introduced a new AI tool for enhancing various tasks. Deel says that this Ai tool helps with double-checking compliance rules. It assists with digging into your global workforce data, and then “making smarter business decisions faster using AI.” As explained… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 5:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The world of SaaS startup fundraising is unique, according to an extensive update from Capchase. It’s fast-paced, data-heavy, and can be “unpredictable at times,” Capchase notes in a blog post. As explained by Capchase, today’s funding landscape “has more to offer founders than ever before.”… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 12:28 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Smart Pension, one of the UK’s workplace pension providers serving more than 1.4 million UK workers, and Wahed, the Islamic digital investment platform, have launched a new campaign supporting greater diversity and inclusion within workplace pension schemes. The initiative encourages Muslim employers and savers to… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 12:07 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Paradigm has raised their third fund, which is reportedly an $850 million venture fund focused on crypto projects at the earliest stages. When they founded Paradigm in 2018, they believed that crypto would be “one of the most important technical and economic shifts of the… Read More

June 14, 2024 @ 11:23 am By JD Alois  |  

The Hashgraph Association has announced a partnership with Adanian Labs and The Africa Blockchain Centre. In a statement distributed by Hashgraph, the aim is to support blockchain development in Africa. The partnership expects to “empower over 3000 Web3 developers “across Africa through the DLT Africa… Read More