June 15, 2023 @ 10:52 am By Omar Faridi  |  

FreedomPay, the world’s independent commerce platform and Toast, the all-in-one digital platform built for the entire restaurant community, signed a partnership agreement making FreedomPay Toast’s preferred payments gateway partner for select enterprise brands. Toast will be able “to offer its cloud-based digital platform for restaurants… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 10:42 am By JD Alois  |  

Zilch has opened a new technology hub in Krakow, Poland. The company said the location is a new European Centre for Excellence which will serve as a facility \ to accelerate the development and implementation of new features and technologies. This is Zilch’s third location… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 10:07 am By JD Alois  |  

The world’s richest person and top entrepreneur, Elon Musk, is describing ESG, or the Environment, Social, and Governance movement, as the “Devil.” In a Tweet that included a statement by S&P Global that cigarette firm Philip Morris International topped Tesla in its ESG “score,” Musk… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 9:20 am By JD Alois  |  

Europe Now Movement, the political party that just won parliamentary elections in Montenegro, is expected to form a fragile government, according to a report in BalkanInsight. The problem is the multitude of parties, with Europe Now squeaking by with just 25.6% of the vote, followed… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 8:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

PKO Bank Polski, the largest universal bank in Central and Eastern Europe, develops an innovative system of value-added services (VAS) in the form of a generally accessible and easy API. In this way, the Bank wishes “to expand the VAS offer available in the mobile… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 8:47 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Eurora Solutions, a provider of AI/ML-backed cross-border e-commerce compliance platform, announces the appointment of James Doyle as CEO of its Latin American (LATAM) operations, marking Eurora’s strategic entry to the world’s fastest-growing retail e-commerce region. As noted in the update shared with CI, LATAM saw… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 7:52 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Avaloq, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, and BlackRock, through its Aladdin Wealth business, have formed a strategic partnership aimed at enhancing their investment technology solutions for wealth managers and private banks. As part of the strategic partnership, BlackRock is making “a minority investment in Avaloq.”… Read More

June 15, 2023 @ 5:11 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Smart Pension, which claims to be one of the UK’s leading workplace pension providers, has been appointed “to provide access to a workplace pension for more than 2,000 employees at Dukes Education, a group of over 40 independent nurseries, schools, and colleges in the UK… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 11:23 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Grasshopper, the client-first digital bank built for the business and innovation economy, today announced a partnership with Numerated, an innovative provider of digital business lending solutions, “to integrate a financial spreading tool for the bank’s credit team to automate the process of aggregating and analyzing… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 11:02 pm By JD Alois  |  

Kanastra has raised $13 million in Seed funding, said to be one of the largest seed rounds in Latin America of all time. The funding was led by Valor Capital and Quona Capital. Prominent Fintech VC QED Investors participated as did Actyus, Collaborative, Crestone, Grão, Endeavor,… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 10:49 pm By JD Alois  |  

Digital securities marketplace ADDX has appointed former Singapore Exchange (SGX) Managing Director Chew Sutat as its new Chairman. According to a note from the company, Sutat has Chaired the listing committee of ADDX since 2019. SGX is a shareholder in ADDX. ADDX Pte Ltd took… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 10:21 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Normal Computing, the startup building full-stack probabilistic compute infrastructure enabling artificial intelligence (AI) for the most critical and complex applications, announced today that it has raised $8.5M in a Seed funding round led by Celesta Capital and First Spark Ventures, with participation from Micron Ventures…. Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 10:17 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Vouched, an AI-driven identity verification platform, announced it will provide identity verification services in support of the launch of FreedomID, a platform designed “to support refugees in their safe passage and settlement anywhere in the world, formed by UK tech company Zenoo.” Vouched expects to… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 10:14 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Justt, a chargeback mitigation innovator, announced the launch of a new suite of machine learning powered capabilities designed to revolutionize the way merchants navigate the complex landscape of chargeback management. These innovative features “focus on augmenting merchants’ visibility into and control over the process of… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 4:14 pm By JD Alois  |  

Banq, a platform for the primary issuance of securities controlled by Cambria Capital, a regulated broker-dealer, has filed for bankruptcy, according to many reports. Chapter 11 Dockets distributed the news via Twitter. Crypto software company Banq filed for bankruptcy protection today in Nevada https://t.co/ckmt6V6AMl pic.twitter.com/4EmKzowj24… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 3:37 pm By JD Alois  |  

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a time frame for the implementation of Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). EMSA is the EU securities regulator. The EU recently approved the legislation as it seeks to enable digital asset innovation while incorporating investor protection… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 3:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Discover Bank has launched a new mission-driven investment fund, the Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund, “to support startups and early stage technology companies who are developing solutions to improve the financial health of low- and moderate-income people, communities, and small businesses.” Discover Bank has “made… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 3:11 pm By JD Alois  |  

The US Federal Reserve has decided to pause rate hikes as it aims to assess the impact of the past rate hikes that have been some of the fastest in history. The Federal Funds Rate will remain at 5 to 5-1/4%. The Federal Open Market… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 2:21 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Gordon Liao from Circle Internet Financial and Thomas Hadeed noted in a study titled, Beyond Speculation: Payment Stablecoins for Real-time Gross Settlements, that  empirical evidence shows “a notable shift in the usage of stablecoins, a form of digital currency transacted over distributed ledgers, in recent… Read More

June 14, 2023 @ 12:22 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

ForwardAI, a fintech providing aggregated direct data access to accounting and ERP platforms, today announced the launch of Forwardly, the first of its kind real-time payment (RTP) enabled cash flow management tool “for small and medium sized businesses in North America.” Forwardly was designed “to… Read More