Globalization Partners Taps Wise to Lower the Cost of Global Contractor Payments

Globalization Partners Taps Wise to Lower the Cost of Global Contractor Payments
  • International hiring and employment platform Global Partners (G-P) has tapped cross-border money transfer company Wise for its payment tools.
  • Under the agreement, G-P will embed Wise’s international payment tool in its Contractor platform with an aim to simplify worker disbursements.
  • With Wise, businesses will be able to use their payment method of choice to pay contract workers, while the contractors will be able to select their preferred payout method.

International hiring and employment platform Global Partners (G-P) has turned to cross-border money transfer company Wise to help its business clients to pay some of their workforce.

G-P was founded in 2012 to help businesses quickly hire contract and freelance workers across borders in a compliant manner while solving for legal, tax, and HR issues. Under the partnership, Wise will enable G-P’s business customers to access Wise’s payment solution directly from the G-P Contractor platform. As a result of the integration, G-P will offer their customers more flexible payment options, as well as more transparency into the payments process.

“Together with Wise we are creating a world that is unhindered by traditional financial systems, providing customers and contractors an ethical and transparent employment and payment process for all talent through our Global Employment Platform,” said G-P Chief Product and Strategy Officer Nat Rajesh Natarajan. “At G-P, our mission is to create a borderless and equitable world of work. Delivering flexible payment options is critical to delivering on that mission and meeting the needs of today’s professionals.”

Wise was founded in 2011 under the name TransferWise and has since helped 13 million people and businesses send money across international borders. The company offers a multi-currency account that enables users to hold up to 50 currencies and get account details to receive money in 10 currencies. TransferWise prides itself on its transparency by showing fees up front and charging the mid-market rate for money transfers.

With Wise, G-P Contractor clients will be able to use their payment method of choice. They’ll also benefit from batch payments for invoices in the same or different currencies, and will be able to see payment summaries that show a breakdown of costs. Additionally, contract and freelance workers receiving payment via G-P’s platform will have their choice of payout method, including bank transfer, virtual card, digital wallet, ACH, wire and international wire.


Photo by Markus Spiske

DirectID Secures $9.5 Million in New Funding

DirectID Secures $9.5 Million in New Funding
  • DirectID, a credit risk assessment and decisioning platform based in Scotland, has raised $9.5 million (€9 million) in funding.
  • The funding was led by Ingka Investment, the investment arm of Ingka Group – which is the world’s largest IKEA retailer.
  • DirectID will use the new capital to accelerate the launch of its predictive credit and risk models built using open banking data.

Credit risk assessment and decisioning platform DirectID has raised $9.5 million (€9 million) in funding from Ingka Investments, the investment arm of Ingka Group. The company will use the additional funding to help fuel the launch of its predictive credit and risk models built using open banking data. DirectID also plans to bring its credit risk solutions to new markets, as well as accelerate its development of models for each stage of the credit lifecycle – from originations to portfolio management to collections.

“We are excited to be shaping a new global standard in credit scoring that enhances people’s lives by enabling access to products they need in an affordable way,” DirectID founder and CEO James Varga said. “Our coverage, advanced insights, and predictive models provide a unique opportunity to achieve this by creating the world’s first real-time, inclusive, credit score based on open finance data.”

The funding takes DirectID’s total equity capital to more than $23 million. No valuation information was provided in the company’s funding announcement.

Headquartered in Scotland, DirectID is the current incarnation of a project that began in 2016, when Varga rebranded his company miiCard to The ID Co. The move was intended to reflect the growth of the company’s B2B embedded, integrated verification solution, DirectID. Four years later, the company took the Direct ID name in a move Varga said was necessitated by the fact that “data has become such an important part of our offering.”

Ingka Group is the world’s largest IKEA retailer, representing approximately 90% of IKEA’s retail sales. Ingka Investments, the company’s investment arm, has $21.2 billion (€20 billion) in assets under management. The firm’s investment activity is oriented around three “key strategic movements”: financial resilience, business development, and sustainability. Peter van der Poel, who is the managing director for Ingka Investments, credited DirectID for its ability to “complement and disrupt the traditional credit and risk market”. He noted that the company’s efforts promote greater financial inclusion for consumers and will “add value to Ingka’s financial services proposition” going forward.

DirectID closed out 2022 by forging a partnership with U.K.-based SME capital provider Got Capital. The alliance will facilitate the digitalization of the application process for small businesses seeking financing. Since inception, Got Capital has provided more than $362 million (£300 million) to more than 12,000 small businesses in the U.K. Also late last year, DirectID’s Varga was one of 13 business leaders named as the first “Scottish Export Champions” by the Department for International Trade (DIT). The organization also named DirectID as the new “FinTech Champion for Scotland.”

“Whether it’s working with other industry figures to promote the U.K. as a place to do business, or sharing knowledge of our experience exporting to multi-national organizations, I’m proud to be supporting the growth of the £11 billion U.K. fintech economy,” Varga said.


Photo by Isaque Pereira

TransUnion Rebrands Business Solutions

TransUnion Rebrands Business Solutions

TransUnion’s business solutions are getting a fresh start this week with a new look. The global information and insights company has rebranded its lines of business solutions in the U.S., organizing them into seven different categories.

“TransUnion’s rebrand clarifies our product offerings and better demonstrates our expertise in both our heritage and new markets, while also making it easier for customers to find what they need,” said company President and CEO Chris Cartwright. “It’s the next logical step in the company’s evolution. We can now offer more powerful consumer insights than ever before, allowing us to meet the needs of our customers in more ways, and at a much deeper level.”

The seven business solutions leverage TransUnion’s “organic investments,” as well as the company’s recent acquisitions of digital identity solutions companies Neustar and Sontiq which TransUnion purchased in 2021 for $3.1 billion and $638 million, respectively. The company has built upon its expertise in consumer identity to expand beyond credit into fraud management, marketing solutions, and communications.

TransUnion’s new business solutions include:

  • TruAudience includes omnichannel audience targeting and advanced analytics to enhance marketing and media performance. The solution includes all TransUnion marketing products, as well as all marketing offerings from Neustar.
  • TruValidate offers fraud prevention and identity proofing products. TruValidate includes all of TransUnion’s fraud products, as well as all fraud offerings from Neustar.
  • TruVision is comprised of risk management products that help balance risk and identify best-fit customers across the account. Among the products in the TruVision line are all TransUnion risk tools, including those formerly known as CreditVision, CreditVision Link, and DriverRisk.
  • TruIQ offers advanced analytics products and services that provide insights into the decision-making process. TruIQ includes offerings formerly known as Prama and Innovation Lab, as well as other custom analytic services.
  • TruEmpower is comprised of consumer engagement products including consumer-facing tools such as those formerly known as CreditView Dashboard, as well as offerings from IdentityForce and Cyberscout.
  • TruLookup offers investigative products that help organizations conduct faster due diligence or issue resolution, and includes TLOxp, TransUnion’s skip tracing, investigative research, and risk management tool.
  • TruContact includes communications and contact center products to help restore trust in communications, enhance customer outreach, and streamline delivery of telecom connectivity services. TruContact includes products from Neustar’s Communications and Contact Center Solutions.

TransUnion’s Chief Global Solutions Officer Tim Martin anticipates that the move to rebrand will both simplify its offerings and allow customers from a range of industries to navigate the products.

Launched as a consumer credit reporting agency in 1968, TransUnion has since pivoted to focus more holistically on data. The company is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker TRU and has a market capitalization of $12.8 billion.


Photo by Vojtech Okenka

Mizuho International Taps SymphonyAI to Bolster AML

Mizuho International Taps SymphonyAI to Bolster AML
  • Mizuho International selected SymphonyAI’s Sensa to enhance AML detection within its European Capital Markets Division.
  • Sensa’s machine learning models– including changes in behavior, risk similarities, anomaly detection, and hotspot identification– help organizations detect money laundering activity.
  • Sensa operates under SymphonyAI, which acquired the company in 2019.

Mizuho International selected SymphonyAI’s Sensa to bolster its fight against Anti-Money Laundering (AML). Specifically, the London-based securities and investment banking arm of Mizuho Financial Group will use Sensa to enhance AML detection within its European Capital Markets Division.

Sensa leverages advanced machine learning models that include changes in behavior, risk similarities, anomaly detection, and hotspot identification. The company combines these models with its set of scenario rules to help firms detect money laundering risk. With 46 patents and $100 million in research and development, Sensa’s technology won Aite-Novarica Group’s 2021 Fraud & AML Impact Innovation Award and is a top 10 DARPA innovation. The company was founded in 2008 and has since garnered $106 million in funding from the likes of Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures, and others.

“We are thrilled to be deploying industry-leading AML transaction monitoring (TM) capabilities. Our next-gen AML TM strategy sought a more refined rule detection and advanced AI solution to find real AML risk and reduce false positives and analyst review times by holistic scoring. We needed a solution that helps analysts, through user interfaces, to deliver all the information needed to expedite investigations,” said Mizuho EMEA’s Chief Compliance Officer Dinesh Joshi. “SensaAML will make a significant difference in our long-held fight against money laundering. Our financial crime team will be empowered and more effective.”

SymphonyAI, the company behind Sensa, offers AI SaaS solutions for enterprises across a range of verticals, including retail, consumer packaged goods, finance, manufacturing, media, and IT/enterprise service management. Founded in 2017, the California-based company acquired Sensa in 2019 for an undisclosed amount.

The topic of AI– specifically generative AI– has received a lot of attention since Open AI launched its consumer-facing ChatGPT tool late last year. The fraud and financial crime space is prime for AI enhancement, especially generative AI enhancement. As Bain Capital Ventures Partner Sarah Hinkfuss explained in a recent blog post, “Generative AI can produce new training data to train and re-train fraud models. One of the challenges with piracy and fraud has been the cat and mouse game of security providers building to address the latest exploited weakness, only for fraudsters to find the next weakness. Training models on yet-unseen examples of fraud generated by generative AI provides the opportunity to stay one step ahead.”


Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash

Breaking Barriers: FinovateEurope’s Women in Fintech Breakfast Briefing

Breaking Barriers: FinovateEurope’s Women in Fintech Breakfast Briefing

The number of female entrepreneurs and founders in fintech and financial services has grown significantly in recent years. Nevertheless, there is still some distance between where we are now and the kind of gender-neutral future that so many are fighting for.

As of 2019 women in finance are better represented in many C-suite leadership positions – including CIO, CTO, CMO, and CHRO – than they are in most other industries. Only in the CEO and CFO roles does female representation lag behind that of other industries. Overall, according to analysis by Korn Ferry, women in finance have outperformed their peers in other industries in achieving executive leadership – and it’s not especially close.

At the same time, according to the Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum, women make up more than 50% of the entry-level finance workforce in the United States. Yet only 6% of the “top financial institutions” in the country have women in senior positions.

On the morning of Day Two of FinovateEurope next month, we will host our Women in Fintech Breakfast Briefing to discuss how women and their allies can work together to help close this gender gap. Moderated by Magdalena Krön (LinkedIn), Global Head of Rise Digital Innovation & CTO Group Innovation for Barclays Bank, our special morning session will discuss the key questions on the state of gender diversity in fintech and financial services: How much progress has been made? What can we do to pave the way for the next generation of female founders and executives in our industry?

Joining Magdalena Krön are a distinguished panel of industry professionals including:

Martha Mghendi-Fisher, Founder, European Women Payments Network (EWPN). Mghendi-Fisher is a fintech and payments professional, social entrepreneur and philanthropist with years of experience in cards and payments, NGOs, and entrepreneurship. LinkedIn.

Veronique Steiner, Head of High Growth Tech and Head of Technology, Media, and Telecom for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), J.P. Morgan. Steiner represents J.P. Morgan across the global payment industry, positioning the institution as a leading bank for the tech companies in EMEA. LinkedIn.

Nitzan Solomon, Head of Transaction Monitoring, AML, and Fraud, Revolut. Passionate about regtech and financial crime, Solomon was named 2020 best regtech practitioner and one of the U.K. Top 100 Women in Tech. LinkedIn.

Chantal Swainston, Founder, The Heard. Launched in 2022, The Heard profiles and showcases women and non-binary talent in the fintech industry. Swainston brings nearly a decade of experience in journalism and public relations covering both fintech startups and established companies. LinkedIn.

The FinovateEurope 2023 Women in Fintech Breakfast Briefing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 15 from 8:15am – 9:00am. To learn more visit our FinovateEurope hub. Take advantage of big savings by registering by March 3rd.


Photo by Christina Morillo

Submit Your Nominations for Banking Tech Awards USA

Submit Your Nominations for Banking Tech Awards USA

Due to the success of the first Banking Tech Awards USA held in May last year, the awards will be returning for 2023!

The Banking Tech Awards USA are brought to you by FinTech Futures, the global intelligence platform for financial services technology.

Nominations for the 2023 awards are now open – the extended deadline is 24 February. Start your nomination today!

So if you have a project, colleague, or team in the U.S. that deserves recognition, then make sure to submit a nomination today! Nominations are open to organizations based anywhere in the world as long as the project, individual, or team is located in the United States.

The awards are open to banks, other financial institutions, and software providers.

There are over 30 categories to choose from, including the Banking Tech Project Awards for banks and financial institutions, Excellence in Tech Awards for technology services and software providers, and Leadership Awards for any individual or team to enter. Take a look at this year’s categories here.

Submit a nomination here.

The 2023 winners will be announced in a fabulous gala ceremony which will be held in New York on June 1, 2023. The event will feature an inspirational celebrity host, entertainment, plenty of drink and food, and wonderful company in elegant surroundings – it’s not to be missed!

The first Banking Tech Awards USA ceremony took place on May 19 at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco and was a great success, with over 150 guests joining us for an incredible night of celebration and entertainment. Take a look at the 2022 winners here.

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: Connect Earth

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: Connect Earth

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.

Connect Earth supports financial institutions in offering customers transparent insights into the climate impact of daily spending.

Features

  • Includes carbon emissions data estimates for every spend-based transaction
  • Provides calculations with maximum granularity
  • Delivers actionable insights and tips to put knowledge into practice

Why it’s great

Every transaction is a climate transaction. Financial services can be a catalyst for change.

Presenter

Alexander Lempka, Co-Founder & CEO
In 2021, Lempka co-founded Connect Earth by combining his experience in fintech with his passion for sustainability.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: SESAMm

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: SESAMm

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.

SESAMm is a fintech company specializing in big data and artificial intelligence. It provides analytics and investment signals from over 20B web data points using NLP.

Features

  • Broad coverage: includes 20B articles covering 5M public and private companies
  • Timeliness: provides near-live web data
  • Transparency and expertise: delivers detailed alerts and 90 pre-built ESG risk categories

Why it’s great

TextReveal® Alerts & Monitoring helps companies keep track of potential controversies and positive-impact events on companies of interest.

Presenter

Sylvain Forté, CEO
Forté is the CEO & Co-Founder of SESAMm. His passion for artificial intelligence and finance led him to create SESAMm in 2014. Forté holds a double degree in engineering from Germany and France.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: Little Blocks

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: Little Blocks

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.

Little Blocks is a fintech platform for SMB manufacturers. It facilitates access to risk capital for machinery purchases by leveraging industrial IoT data and blockchain technology.

Features

  • Risk capital – repayments linked to machine usage
  • Industrial IoT data on blockchain – single source of truth
  • Machine tokenization – distributed digital ownership

Why it’s great

Invest in a machine, why just lend? Little Blocks is a technology platform designed to build trust for SME manufacturers – trust unlocks value and enhances investor return.

Presenter

Hanu Panchakarla, Co-Founder & CEO
Panchakarla comes with over 15 years of experience in finance and technology during which he worked with Bank of America and several technology startups in India. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras and a CFA.
LinkedIn

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: Refine Intelligence

FinovateEurope 2023 Sneak Peek: Refine Intelligence

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on March 14. Register today and save your spot.

Refine Intelligence is transforming AML by ‘catching the good guys’ using AI to automatically identify the life stories behind anomalous transactions.

Features

  • Explains 80% of alerts in minutes
  • Delivers 90% reduction in triage time
  • Provides clear evidence, consistency and explainability

Why it’s great

By ‘catching the good guys’ in anti-money laundering, companies identify their customer’s life stories, keeping customers happy and saving the bank time and money.

Presenters

Uri Rivner, CEO
Rivner is a technology innovator who has been fighting fraud and financial crime for decades. He founded Refine Intelligence to disrupt the current paradigm.
LinkedIn

Gillie Natra, Product Manager
Natra is a talented visual communicator and user experience expert. She is the Product Manager at Refine Intelligence, an innovative company in anti-money laundering.
LinkedIn

Payoneer Earns E-Money License from the U.K.’s FCA

Payoneer Earns E-Money License from the U.K.’s FCA
  • Payoneer received its e-money license from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority.
  • The license will enable the digital commerce company to continue serving its U.K.-based customers.
  • Having earned the license, Payoneer now plans to grow its footprint in the U.K. region.

Global digital commerce company Payoneer received its e-money license from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) this week. The license will enable Payoneer to continue to provide its e-money services to U.K.-based businesses.

“The FCA traditionally sets the tone of financial regulation globally and therefore we are extremely proud to be receiving our e-money license in the U.K., said Payoneer Payment Services CEO and SVP of Payoneer Europe James Allum. “We’re excited to be able to continue serving our customers in the U.K. and with our relationship with the FCA. Our customers in the UK now have confidence in Payoneer’s consistent ability to provide regulated financial services of the highest standard.”

With the new U.K. money license, Payoneer will grow its footprint in the region, offering its digital money services to U.K.-based businesses.

Payoneer was founded in 2005 and offers multi-currency accounts to five million customers ranging from marketplaces, sellers, freelancers, gig workers, manufacturers, banks, suppliers, and buyers. With a mission to “democratize access to financial services and drive growth for digital businesses of all sizes from around the world,” Payoneer helps users pay, get paid, and manage funds on a global scale. The company also offers working capital– providing advances to Amazon and Walmart sellers, as well as to small businesses.

In 2021, Payoneer went public via a SPAC merger with FTAC Olympus Acquisition Corp. The company listed on the NASDAQ in June 2021 under the ticker PAYO. Scott Galit is CEO.


Photo by Pixabay

Market Data Firm QUODD Acquires Competitor Xignite

Market Data Firm QUODD Acquires Competitor Xignite
  • QUODD has agreed to acquire fellow market data company Xignite.
  • Combined, the two companies will serve more than 2,200 firms, ranging from large banks and wealth management platforms to smaller digital investment tools.
  • Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Two market data firms are combining this week, as QUODD Financial Information Services acquires Xignite. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

QUODD said the purchase reinforces its commitment to become “the premier cloud-based global financial market data and content provider.” Company CEO Bob Ward added, “Xignite is well known for being an early adopter of delivering high-quality market data solutions via the cloud as well as for its extensive API-driven data catalog. I look forward to working with Stephane Dubois, CEO of Xignite, and his team to help us fuel our next chapter of growth delivering the most accessible and reliable data for our customers.”

Combined, Xignite and QUODD will serve more than 2,200 companies, ranging from large banks and wealth management platforms to smaller digital investment tools. QUODD will leverage Xignite’s technology to enhance its QUODD Fuel, which will integrate Xignite’s content catalog; and Universe+, which will leverage Xignite’s market data.

QUODD’s technology enables clients to stream, embed, look up, and download pricing data for global equities, fixed income, indices, options, futures, and end-of-day pricing for global mutual funds. The company is owned by NewSpring Holdings’ Financeware, a probability-analysis technology and marketing strategies provider, which acquired QUODD in 2019 for an undisclosed amount.

NewSpring Holdings has lofty ambitions for the Xignite buy. “Our goal for the combined organization is to create the industry’s leading provider in centralized market data augmented with superior customer service, anchored in the strength of long-standing relationships and supported by leading technologies, which is why this transaction was a perfect fit,” said NewSpring Holdings General Partner Jim Ashton. “2022 was another year of strong organic growth for QUODD and, combined with Xignite, we are continuing to raise the bar in transforming the digital adoption of financial data for market participants.”

Founded in 2000, Xignite offers market data APIs to its brokerage, wealth management, and fintech clients. The company’s APIs offer a range of market data– including real-time stock prices, historical stock prices, options prices, futures prices, mutual fund prices, ETF prices, foreign exchange rates, bond prices, and more. Combined, the company’s customers use Xignite’s APIs more than half a trillion times each month.


Photo by Pixabay