Funding

Trunomi Closes $3.5 Million Round from CloudScale Capital

Trunomi Closes $3.5 Million Round from CloudScale Capital
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Trunomi

Consumer consent and data rights company Trunomi closed a $3.5 million round of funding today. This investment brings the Bermuda-based company’s total funding to $10.5 million.

Trunomi will use the funds to manage demand for its technologies and to continue its global expansion. And with the E.U. GDPR deadline coming up, the company will likely see a boost in banks and companies vying for its services, which helps businesses request, receive, and capture customer consent to the use of their personal data.

“Customer data rights and privacy are quickly becoming major issues of concern for companies, especially financial institutions, due to new regulations such as EU GDPR, U.K. Open Banking and marketing opportunities,” said Kim Perdikou, CloudScale Partner. “Trunomi enables businesses to comply with these new regulations by demonstrating compliance and accountability in customer data use and immutably proving the legal basis of processing. With Trunomi, businesses can empower their customers with control and transparency in how their data is used and turn regulation from a burden into a competitive advantage.”

“We are thrilled that CloudScale Capital Partners are part of this financing,” said Trunomi CEO Stuart Lacey. “CloudScale brings significant strength to our investor base, and its partners bring with them a wealth of industry connections with the largest players in the global customer and data markets.”

Founded in 2013, Trunomi has offices in Bermuda, Dublin, the U.K., and Silicon Valley. At FinovateEurope 2015 in London, Lacey launched TruMobile, a customer-focused “consent engine” that creates privacy policies to allow the sharing of consumer PII data across platforms. Last March, Trunomi was named to the RegTech top 100 power list. In December of 2016, the company began collaborating with FIS on the E.U. data protection rules.

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Ohpen Raises $31 Million to Support Global Expansion

Ohpen Raises $31 Million to Support Global Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Ohpen

Cloud-based core banking technology innovator Ohpen has just sealed a Series C round led by private equity firm Amerborgh that will bring an additional $31 million (€25 million) in funding to the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based fintech. The company said that the investment will help it prepare for expansion into new markets, including the addition of a third headquarters in Germany, France, Canada, Australia, or the United States. The financing takes Ohpen’s total capital raised to $50 million (€40 million), and adds to a $17 million Series B investment the company secured from Amerborgh in July of last year.

“We’re just scratching the surface,” Ohpen founder and CEO Chris Zadeh said. “Ohpen is changing the core banking software industry, advocating a totally digital solution that is based on one version of the platform for all clients and countries.” He added, “This has never been done before; it requires creativity, commitment and also the necessary capital to implement our vision.”

Calling Ohpen’s core banking technology “the future of the core banking industry,” Amerborgh Nederland MD Michel Vrolijk emphasized the company’s ability to turn ideas into action. Vrolijk said the fintech’s ability to execute was “unparalleled” and added that expansion will be a key next step for the company. “Launching the third country is crucial for Ohpen’s strategy and Amerborgh is thrilled to support them at this decisive point in their growth story.”

Founded in 2009, Ohpen demonstrated its core banking platform at FinovateFall 2012. The company sees itself as part of the solution for financial services companies riddled with outdated legacy banking technology. Its core banking engine provides both BPO services and SaaS solutions to banks, insurance companies, and asset managers.  With more than 150 employees, the company has offices in the Netherlands, the U.K., and Spain.

Last November, Ohpen announced that De Volksbank, a retail and small business bank in the Netherlands had migrated more than 120,000 investment accounts to Ohpen’s platform. This followed a July partnership with multinational financial giant, Aegon through which the two firms will develop a new platform to support “the full scope of Aegon’s services in the Netherlands.”

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Behalf Lands Equity Funding and Secures $150 Million in Debt Financing

Behalf Lands Equity Funding and Secures $150 Million in Debt Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Behalf, Funding

Alternative lending startup Behalf just received more fuel to help power small-and-medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The New York-based company received $150 million in debt financing and an undisclosed amount of equity funding this week.

The debt round was led by a private investment fund managed by Soros Fund Management, with previous investor Viola Credit also participating. Both investors also contributed to Behalf’s equity round; the company’s equity funds now total more than $156 million.

Benjy Feinberg, founder and CEO of Behalf said that the funding is a significant step forward that will allow Behalf  to “expand our fast-growing e-commerce B2B financing platform and enhance our ability to provide the best business terms to customers, in a fraction of the time of a traditional business lender.”

Behalf extends short-term purchase financing to underserved SMBs by using technology and big data to assess the creditworthiness of the business and its owner. Unlike other alternative SMB lenders such as Kabbage or OnDeck, Behalf does not issue funds directly to the SMB. Instead, the startup pays the small business’ vendors on the SMB’s behalf (hence the name Behalf). Having flexibility in repaying their suppliers helps merchants increase their production and ultimately grow their business.

Uri Galai, partner at Viola Credit said Behalf’s technology “will change the landscape of business lending.” He added, “Behalf understands that the buyer-seller relationship has changed, and is providing an unparalleled solution to the increased demands from vendors and their customers seeking financing.”

Feinberg showcased Behalf’s vendor payment platform at FinovateFall 2014. Since it was founded in 2012, the company tripled its revenue and now counts Lenovo, Best Buy and PCM in its network of accepting partners. Last year, the company partnered with Utah-based FinWise Bank to offer SMBs a broader range of financing solutions.

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Finect Raises Capital as BME Takes Minority Stake

Finect Raises Capital as BME Takes Minority Stake
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finect, Funding

Spanish fintech Finect announced today that Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) has acquired a 9.7% stake in the company in a transaction valued at “lower than one million euros.”

Finect provides a social trading community for investors to communicate with and learn from financial professionals. Nearly two million users take advantage of Finect’s solutions, including its financial aggregator for portfolio tracking, interactive “pildoras” to respond to specific user questions, and a knowledgeable community of both private and professional investors.

“The transaction is a milestone in our mission to assist investors in their financial decisions,” Finect CEO Antonio Botas said. “BME will bring us experience and leadership, both financial and technological, which are of great help towards our goal of improving the finances of investors.”

BME CEO Javier Hernani added, “This investment and the alliance with Finect is another step forward in the company’s diversification policy and growth of the business’ technological area. The objective of BME is to offer its clients and investors a wide range of services and products so that they can compete in the complex financial and digital environment in which they operate.”

BME’s investment comes amid a major digitalization initiative for the Spanish stock market operator, which is moving to increase the role of technological consultancy services among its offerings. BME integrated its IT, consulting, regulation, and innovation value-added services into BME Inntech last year, as part of this process.

With origins as a social network for financial advisors, asset managers, and their clients, Finect was launched by founder Nicolas Oriol in Spain in 2008 and in the U.S. in 2012. The company demonstrated its Global Library and Pros on Products solutions at FinovateFall 2013. Global Library facilitates content sharing between financial advisors and their customers. Pros on Products makes it easy for financial professionals to track investment products on the Finect platform, along with peer opinions, real time news, and social media. We highlighted the company in our RegTech Reality Check back in October 2016.

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nCino Reels in Investment from Salesforce Ventures

nCino Reels in Investment from Salesforce Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, nCino

The amount of the funding was undisclosed. But cloud-based banking innovator nCino has just picked up a fresh infusion of capital courtesy of a round led by Salesforce Ventures. The investment adds to the company’s known total capital of more than $81 million, which includes a $17 million private equity round back in August.

“From day one, our vision has been to be the worldwide leader in cloud banking,” nCino CEO Pierre Naude said. “We are successfully executing on that vision and empowering financial institutions around the globe to grow their business and better serve their customers. Our strong alignment with Salesforce has been a key factor in our growth and success.”

nCino will use the funds to help drive its global expansion, as well as speed innovation on its Bank Operating System technology. The solution is built on the Salesforce platform and is integrated with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud. nCino has been a Salesforce partner since it was founded in 2012.

SVP and GM of Financial Services for Salesforce, Rohit Mahna highlighted the long-term relationship between the two companies. “nCino extends the power of the Salesforce platform, enabling banks to get closer to their customers than ever before,” Mahna said. “The investment from Salesforce Ventures is the latest evolution in our strong partnership, and we’re thrilled to help fuel nCino’s global growth and innovation.”

The company’s Bank Operating System integrates with core banking and transactional systems. The technology combines CRM, deposit account opening, loan origination, workflow, enterprise content management, digital engagement, and real-time reporting to enable financial institutions to provide the kind of personalized, streamlined experience customers and bank employees alike have come to expect. nCino notes that on average its client institutions have experienced:

  • 17% reduction in operating costs
  • 19% increase in loan volume
  • 22% increase in staff efficiency
  • 34% decrease in loan closing time
  • 54% reduction in policy exceptions

nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, the company began the year with a major new partnership with Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the world with more than $87 billion in assets, more than seven million members, and 300 branches. 2017 was a big year for nCino, with deployments of its Bank Operating System announced with CFCU Community Credit Union in December, Iberiabank in November, and Pacific Western Bank in August – to name just a few recent wins. The cumulative result was that nCino ended the year with 10 of the 30 largest U.S. banks by asset size as customers and 180 financial clients around the world.

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London-based Lender EZBOB Raises $21 Million in New Funding

London-based Lender EZBOB Raises $21 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EZBOB, Funding

Small business online lender EZBOB has raised $21 million in new funding (£15 million) courtesy of an investment from Moscow-based PE firm Da Vinci Capital Management. The funding puts the company’s total capital at more than $146 million (£103 million).

Founded in 2011, EZBOB demonstrated its lending platform at FinovateEurope 2014. The company provides small and medium-sized businesses with up to £120,000 in financing in minutes. There are no pre-payment penalties, and borrowers are offered a flexible repayment schedule of up to 24 months and an APR as low as 18%.

What will EZBOB do with the additional financing? Some clues hinted at in a Forbes interview with EZBOB co-founder and CEO Tomer Guriel from last summer suggest that new products (“such as a consumer lending platform and a mortgage platform”) may be in the offering. The idea is to model any new lending product after the company’s current SME lending platform.

So it was no surprise that when asked by interviewer Omri Barzilay what EZBOB’s advantage is in the SME lending space, Guriel answered “technology” and discussed the company’s commitment to improving the customer experience. But he segued quickly to the “fin” part of “fintech,” adding that:

“Our advantage is that we are solely focused on digital lending solutions. We live and breathe the lending space. Lending is at the heart of the bank’s business and our experience in lending has given us phenomenal insight into what works for a customer and from a lender perspective.”

So far, so good. EZBOB ended 2017 winning “Best Technology Initiative” from the Financial Innovation Awards. In November, Yorkshire Bank said that it would deploy technology from EZBOB to speed the loan application process from two weeks to less than 24 hours. Back in August, the company announced that it would extend its contract with AU10TIX for ID authentication and automating customer onboarding. The Royal Bank of Scotland has also used EZBOB’s technology to launch its automated lending platform, Esme.

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BehavioSec Closes $17.5 Million Series B

BehavioSec Closes $17.5 Million Series B
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Funding

Behavioral biometrics company BehavioSec landed $17.5 million in funding today. This brings the company’s total funding to almost $26 million.

The Series B round was led by Trident Capital Cybersecurity with Cisco Investments, ABN AMRO, and existing investors Octopus Ventures and Conor Venture Partners also contributing. The Sweden-based company will use the funds to expand global operations and relocate its headquarters to the U.S. This comes after BehavioSec’s expansion to the U.S. last April.

Since it was founded in 2009, BehavioSec has secured billions of transactions for 40+ million users. The company’s flagship offering technology leverages machine learning to verify a user’s identity by how they interact with their device. This layered and continuous approach takes place in the background so as not to interfere with the user experience. At FinovateFall 2015, the company’s COO, Olov Renberg debuted BehavioSec On Demand. The solution is a transaction-based behavioral biometrics service in the cloud aimed to help organizations control who accesses that service without compromising the integrity of companies and individuals.

Alberto Yépez of Trident Cybersecurity cites two main reasons for the firm’s investment in BehavioSec. “We decided to invest in BehavioSec given production deployments authenticating user sessions for some of the most sophisticated financial institutions and governments around the world. In addition, the company continues to lead the innovation in behavioral biometrics through close partnership with leading cybersecurity vendors and government agencies, including DARPA,” said Yépez.

In an era when data breaches, hacks, and compromises occur on an almost monthly basis, there will be plenty of demand for online security companies for some time. That said, there will also be increased competition. Last October, Zighra launched a continuous authentication solution that leverages behavioral cues. Additionally, companies such as BioCatch, NuData Security, and IBM Security Trusteer all have offerings similar to BehavioSec’s behavioral biometrics solution.

At FinDEVr San Francisco 2015, the company’s VP of Engineering Ingo Deutschmann and COO Olov Renberg gave a presentation titled Behavioral Biometrics as a Service. Last November, BehavioSec teamed up with Crossmatch to add keystroke capture to Crossmatch’s authentication platform.

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StreetShares Brings in $23 Million in Equity Funding

StreetShares Brings in $23 Million in Equity Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, StreetShares

StreetShares has landed $23 million in equity funding, bringing the company’s total investment to $43 million. This comes just months after the military veteran-focused lending platform closed $10.3 million for its “shark tank meets eBay” approach to small business lending last August.

Today’s Series B round was led by Rotunda Capital Partners, with additional contributions from existing investors, including veteran-focused venture firm, Stony Lonesome Group. In a press release, Mark Rockefeller, CEO of StreetShares said, “This injection of capital allows us to continue to provide red-carpet treatment to our very special members— the veteran entrepreneurs, small business owners, government contractors, and impact investors—that make up our country’s next Greatest Generation.”

The StreetShares platform enables small business owners to pitch their loan requests to a community of investor members. Founded by military veterans, StreetShares is focused on offering financing for small businesses run by military veterans and their families, but serves non-veteran run small businesses, as well. The company offers loans with terms ranging from three to 36 months and lines of credit from $2,000 to $100,000. Investors can lend from $25 to $100,000 in Veteran Business Bonds and earn 5% interest.

StreetShares COO Mickey Konson said that the funding is a “huge step” in the company’s growth. He continued, “StreetShares is proud to fuel this special class of great American small businesses, and our partnership with Rotunda demonstrates that we are just getting started.”

At FinovateEurope 2015, the company’s CEO and co-founder Mark Rockefeller and COO and co-founder Mickey Konson showcased the StreetShares platform. The company began leveraging Title IV (Regulation A+) of the JOBS act in 2017 to allow unaccredited investors to lend to small businesses. It is now one of only a handful of P2P lending platforms open to unaccredited investors.

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Signicat Raises $2 Million to Build Out its Identity Assurance as a Service Technology

Signicat Raises $2 Million to Build Out its Identity Assurance as a Service Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Signicat

Identity Assurance as a Service (IDAaaS) innovator Signicat has won phase two funding from Horizon 2020, the EU framework program for research and innovation. The $2 million grant (€1.6 million) will enable Signicat to continue development of its IDAaaS toolbox for use in Europe, and takes the company’s total funding to $3.9 million.

“A single digital ID market in Europe is vital so that financial service providers can easily offer their services across borders without the customer struggling to assert their identity,” Signicat CEO Gunnar Nordseth said. “Cross-border digital ID creates greater choice and convenience for the customer, and opens up new markets for financial institutions.”

Left to right: Business Development Director Robert Kotlarz and Product Expert Kåre Indrøy demonstrating Signicat Assure and Signicat Sign at FinovateEurope 2017.

The development of a single digital identity market for Europe is a goal for the European Commission by the second half of the decade, Signicat noted in a statement. Signicat’s IDAaaS technology, the first of its kind, will give financial service providers and e-commerce businesses the ability to verify new customer identities using electronic identity (eID) and digital verification of paper ID. IDAaaS also enables them to take advantage of a range of other solutions such as facial recognition.

Signicat secured phase two funds following successful completion of phase one, which was begun and funded by Horizon 2020 at the end of 2016. During phase one, Signicat partnered with Innopay to analyze the demand and potential for digital onboarding solutions in a set of European countries. The study uncovered areas where current European eID protocols were lacking in terms of providing sufficient information for effective digital onboarding, and indicated how Signicat’s IDAaaS technology could fill those gaps.

“While eIDAS is a step in the right direction, it does not yet go far enough,” Nordseth said. “Our vision is to integrate eIDs across Europe, making on-boarding customers simple for financial institutions and their customers, while still meeting KYC regulations.”

Founded in 2007, Signicat demonstrated its Signicat Assure and Signicat Sign identity verification solutions at FinovateEurope 2017. The company, which is based in Trondheim, Norway, earned a spot in the European Fintech 100 last September, and launched its mobile authentication solution, MobileID, last year in May. Also that month, the company partnered with Rabobank to launch a Digital Identity Service Provider (DISP) to provide a variety of online login, identity, and signature solutions. Check out our profile of Signicant from last spring: Signicat Delivers On Demand Digital ID Verification.

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Juvo Receives Investment from Samsung to Boost Smartphone Usage Among Underbanked

Juvo Receives Investment from Samsung to Boost Smartphone Usage Among Underbanked
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Juvo

Mobile identity company Juvo has received an investment from Samsung NEXT, an off-shoot of Samsung that launched in 2013 to create new software and foster a startup culture at Samsung. The amount of the investment was undisclosed and adds to the San Francisco-based company’s $54 million in equity funding.

The bigger story here is that the investment is a strategic one. Samsung will bring Juvo access to billions of underbanked prepaid users across the globe. This will help Juvo enable MNOs to increase smartphone adoption among prepaid mobile subscribers.

Juvo was founded in 2014 with a mission to “establish financial identities for the billions of people worldwide who are creditworthy, yet financially excluded.” The company’s tag-line sums this up as, “access for all.”

In today’s press release, Steve Polsky, founder and CEO of Juvo, explained that the investment and alignment with Samsung NEXT is important because it allows Juvo “to further realize our vision by being among the first to integrate financial identity into a hardware device and, with it, offer unprecedented access to greater financial services.” He added, “Samsung opens a critical piece of the ecosystem for Juvo, and its world class organization, market expertise, and reach will accelerate the Juvo mission, putting sophisticated technology in the hands of unbanked people and provide financial access to those who need it most.”

“At Samsung NEXT, we’re focused on working with entrepreneurs and startups that are creating truly impactful software and services–software and services that will transform the way we, as humans, interact with our devices, each other and the world,” said Patrick Chang, Principal at Samsung NEXT Ventures. “Juvo’s impressive traction from mobile operators and consumers offers an opportunity for us to tap into the next billion customers through more comprehensive financial inclusion and accessibility.”

Polsky demoed Juvo’s Identity Scoring at FinovateFall 2016. The company empowers underbanked consumers by offering them a single identity with which to access financial services across the globe. Juvo also incentivizes financially underserved consumers to build credit and access financial services by extending microloans.

Since launch, the company has attained a reach of more than 500 million subscribers across four continents and is deployed in 25 countries. Last fall, Juvo partnered with Malaysian mobile virtual network operator, Tune Talk.

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defi SOLUTIONS Lands $55 Million

defi SOLUTIONS Lands $55 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: defi Solutions, Funding

Loan origination solutions company defi SOLUTIONS just closed on $55 million in funding. The Series C round comes from Bain Capital Ventures, offering social proof along with a stamp of approval for defi’s suite of loan services. This is the Texas-based company’s first round of financing.

The primary capital portion of the investment will be used to accelerate product development, expand resources and facilities, and grow the number of employees by nearly 50% this year.

This comes at a time when there has been significant rise in auto lending, especially to sub-prime borrowers. Simultaneously, however, loan defaults are soaring as a result of hastily made loans. defi helps lenders take advantage of the opportunity while mitigating risk. Additionally, senior principal at Bain Capital Ventures, Brian Goldsmith explained, “defi delivers competitive advantages that enable forward-thinking lenders to own their processes and exceed their business objectives through one holistic platform.” Goldsmith added, “Our team is thrilled to support defi SOLUTIONS’ growth trajectory in a space that is primed to expand and remain competitive with the increased use of new technology.”

Founded in 2012, defi originally offered a flagship auto financing service. Since then, the company has broadened its offerings to include a full suite of configurable Software-as-a-Service loan origination solutions and has experienced a 70+% compounded annual growth rate. Most recently, defi has added a loan management and servicing system, an analytics and reporting system with dashboards for real-time reporting, a direct lending application portal, a digital loan document service with e-signature, and an online auto loan portfolio marketplace.

At FinovateSpring 2014, defi CEO and founder Stephanie Alsbrooks showcased the company’s loan origination solution for auto lenders. Last month, the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship at the SMU Cox School of Business ranked the company number 37 on the top 100 fastest-growing privately-held businesses in the Dallas area.

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Ledger Raises $75 Million in New Funding

Ledger Raises $75 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Ledger

In an oversubscribed Series B round led by Draper Esprit, cryptocurrency and blockchain security firm Ledger has raised $75 million (€61 million) in new funding. The investment takes the company’s total capital to more than $85 million.

“We initially designed our Ledger hardware wallet as an enabler for the blockchain revolution,” Ledger CEO Eric Larcheveque said. “Three years later, and with this Series B, we are reaching a significant milestone in our path to build a technological giant in the promising space of cryptocurrencies.”

Ledger plans to use the funds to scale its operations as demand for cryptocurrency and blockchain related products and services soars. Ledger’s Series B is one of the largest traditional Series B investments into blockchain and cryptocurrency-based technologies (ICOs aside). In addition to Draper Esprit’s backing, the round also featured participation from current investors, CapHorn Invest, GDTRE, and Digital Currency Group. Via the Draper Venture Network funds, Draper Associates, Draper Dragon and Boost VC, FirstMark Capital, Cathay Innovation, and Korelya Capital were also involved in the round.

Draper Esprit CEO Simon Cook called blockchain a truly revolutionary technology, and pointed out that security will be key to the technology’s future. “We believe that Ledger has built the world’s best security platform to manage private keys for all blockchain and crypto asset applications,” Cook said. Adding that Ledger’s technology  provides “security for cryptocurrency far beyond what I get from my bank,” Tim Draper, Founder of DFJ, the Draper Network said, “Ledger lets me take control of my currency rather than having to ask my bank.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Paris, France, and San Francisco, Ledger demonstrated Ledger Blue, a multicurrency hardware wallet for cryptocurrencies, at FinovateEurope 2016. Ledger Blue includes a touchscreen for improved UX/UI, but is still small enough to be easily handheld. The hardware wallet can be connected to a laptop, PC, or smartphone via USB or Bluetooth.

Last fall, Ledger announced a collaboration with Intel that enabled it to integrate its Blockchain Open Ledger Operating System (BOLOS) into Intel’s Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX). Introduced in 2016, BOLOS enables developers to build source code portable native applications around a secure core which both protects the core against application attacks and keeps applications isolated. The company called BOLOS “our way of turning bitcoin hardware wallets into personal security devices.”

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