£9m investment for Scottish fintech Modulr
Edinburgh based fintech, Modulr, just announced a £9 million investment from PayPal Ventures. This fresh investment will help the company develop new products, recruit and reach new clients.
Modulr let companies easily implement new payment products and services within their customer journey. The fintech provides a full stack Payments as a Service API, whilst taking care of the complexities and regulatory overhead. Modulr has a direct access to the
Modulr works with platforms that serve small and medium-sized businesses. This year has been rich in news for the company with the onboarding of new customers despite problems caused by COVID-19. Modulr connected to the Back scheme, the Faster Payments scheme, Visa and Mastercard.
“This investment marks an important milestone for Modulr’s modern payments infrastructure. Modulr lowers the barriers to bringing payments into a platform, creating endless new possibilities for our customers while allowing them to focus on their core competencies. The investment from PayPal Ventures enhances our ability to execute on that vision.”
Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr
“More digital businesses are looking to incorporate payments into their existing user experience but either don’t have the expertise or the resources. Modulr is well-positioned to be an enabler of this trend and will undoubtably expand end-users’ access to fast, reliable and secure financial services. We look forward to working with Modulr as it helps to powers the next generation of digital businesses.”
Anil Hansjee, partner at PayPal Ventures
In total, Modulr has raised £63.3 million including investment from PayPal Ventures, Highland Europe, Frog Capital, Blenheim Chalcot and a £10m grant from the Capability and Innovation Fund.
FinTech Scotland welcomes Google Cloud to the fintech cluster
Google Cloud is joining forces with cluster management organisation, FinTech Scotland, to support the growth of the fintech small and medium enterprise community in Scotland.
With most fintech firms using cloud solutions to integrate more easily with their clients cost-effectively, the addition of Google Cloud to FinTech Scotland’s cluster will further enable new innovation at speed as well as benefiting from Google’s cloud knowledge and expertise.
This will especially be valuable to the growing number of fintech enterprises focused on data-driven innovation to improve financial services and products.
Google Cloud will join a broad range of large financial services enterprises and global technology and professional services providers in supporting the growth and development of the innovative fintech SME community .
Since its launch in January 2018, FinTech Scotland has been growing the number of global organisations involved in the cluster to bring innovation and collaboration opportunities to the fintech SME community.
Google Cloud’s strengths in data capabilities plus the innovative and entrepreneurial nature of Scotland’s fintech community will help further develop Scotland’s position as a major global fintech cluster.
Scotland’s fintech cluster is continuing to grow, evidenced by the growing number of fintech SME firms, innovation and research initiatives with universities, plus the collaborative support from government and global organisations.
“We very much welcome Google Cloud expert engagement with the fintech community and cluster as it acts as a further boost to driving impactful innovation. Google Cloud data capabilities and know-how will certainly be of great value to the innovative SME community in Scotland.”
Stephen Ingledew, FinTech Scotland’s executive chair
AutoRek to partner with iSoftware4Banks in the USA
It was announced today that Scottish fintech, AutoRek, would be partnering with iSoftware4Banks, a company based in the USA which provides solutions to support effective financial reporting and compliance.
With this partnership, AutoRek and iSoftware4Banks will offer their clients improved automation and better ROI. This will be achieved by bringing together highly experienced consultants and leading data management technologies.
Due to the current global epidemic, the financial sector, historically office-based, is moving towards different ays of working with many more people working from home. This change generates various operational issues across financial institutions. To adapt, those firms are reviewing their IT infrastructure, systems and outsourced services to future proof robust operational resilience strategies to ensure uninterrupted service. This is why this partnership was born, to help large financial companies achieve transformation whilst keeping on top of reporting and compliance requirement in a new and more efficient way.
“Our partnership with iSoftware4Banks comes at a crucial point of this year. As financial services firms consider their 2021 budgets after a turbulent year of operational risk, they will inevitably seek optimal value, which together we are confident in delivering.”
Head of Partnerships at AutoRek, Marc McCarthy
“We are delighted to be partnering with AutoRek to offer excellence in financial and operational controls to meet regulatory and compliance requirements. In-depth market research confirmed AutoRek’s solution is the best on the market, and we look forward to working together.”
Vincent Raniere, Chief Executive Office, iSoftware4Banks
Obashi, first Scottish company to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community
Scottish fintech Obashi has become the first Scottish business to join the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community, an invitation-only group of the world’s most promising start-ups. It provides a tool to engage with public and private sector leaders and to contribute new solutions to overcome current crises and build future resiliency.
In their latest white paper, “A Roadmap for Cross-Border Data Flows: Future-Proofing Readiness and Cooperation in the New Data Economy”, the forum recently recognised that understanding dataflow is paramount when developing the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“We are delighted to have Obashi join our Global Innovators Community,” says. We are excited to work with Obashi within the Data Policy Platform given their focus on data flows as a key to accessing the opportunities of the new global data economy”
Sheila Warren, Head of Blockchain, Digital Assets and Data Policy at the World Economic Forum.
Obashi provides a flexible dataflow governance model that enables any organisation to understand and unlock their dataflow potential.
“Dataflow underpins every industry on the planet, and it’s exciting and heartening to now see it being recognised as a vital global utility and a key component part of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. We’re delighted to be the first Scottish company to begin collaborating with the World Economic Forum and other technology leaders as part of the Global Innovator’s Community.”
Fergus Cloughley, CEO of Obashi
As part of the Global Innovators Community, Obashi will help define the global agenda on key issues with a particular focus on shaping the future of technology governance ”“ Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Ping Identity to acquire Scottish fintech Symphonic Software
It was announced today that identity solution Ping had acquired Scottish fintech Symphonic Software, who specialises in dynamic authorisation for protecting APIs, data, apps and resources through identity.
This acquisition comes after a couple of years of collaboration between the 2 companies during which they combined Symphonic’s authorisation platform with Ping’s data privacy and consent products. The combination of both solutions allows their clients to centralise administration and enforcement of critical resources and data for all types of users, applications and devices in a language that is easily understood.
“With increasing data privacy regulations, users are demanding that enterprises give them better digital experiences with more transparency and control. The acquisition of Symphonic accelerates our vision for enterprises to not only maintain security and compliance with confidence, but to easily deliver personalised, trustworthy experiences.”
Andre Durand, CEO and Founder of Ping Identity
The features offered by both companies help companies avoid costly bespoke integrations thanks to native services that are at the centre of identity platforms like users, groups, entitlements, consents, and risk.
“For the past two years Symphonic has worked alongside Ping to make policy management easy for enterprises. Ping Identity’s dedication to their customers aligns well with Symphonic’s values, and we are thrilled to continue our journey together as one.”
Derick James, CEO of Symphonic
GLEIF and Open Future World Directory to enter partnership
The Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) and Open Future World have announced a new collaboration to help open finance organisations to work together.
This comes after the launch of the Open Future World Directory , the open finance organisation directory. Thank soo the addition of the Legal Entity Identifiers (LEIs) within the directory, it will be easier to identify who to connect to and do business with.
“The Legal Entity Identifier is a global standard for transparent and unique identification of legal entities. Users of the Open Future World Directory now benefit from quick and easy identification of the listed organization by linking to its validated and verified profile in the Global LEI Repository,”
Clare Rowley, GLEIF Head of Business Operations
“Whether you are talking about customers choosing to share their financial data, or financial institutions and fintechs working together, trust is a key theme in open banking and open finance. LEIs help enhance transparency by making it easier to know who you are dealing with.”
Nick Cabrera, Open Future World co-founder
Leadership Team Developments for FinTech Scotland
FinTech Scotland is today announcing a number of leadership team developments as it looks to build on the progress made over the last couple of years in developing the fintech community and cluster in Scotland
From November, Stephen Ingledew will become executive chair of FinTech Scotland after leading the body as chief executive from its initial formation in January 2018.
Stephen will remain very much involved with the strategic leadership of FinTech Scotland and the move to executive chair will enable the body to develop further the leadership team as it looks to build on the impact to date as a cluster management body.
David Ferguson, the current non-executive chair of FinTech Scotland, will step down from the role which he has held for over two years. David will continue to actively support FinTech Scotland move into its next phase.
Over the coming months, FinTech Scotland will commence the process of appointing a new chief executive to take over from Stephen and it anticipates being in a position to complete the process by the end of the year.
In the interim , from early November Nicola Anderson, the current strategic development director of FinTech Scotland, will take on the role of acting chief executive.
Nicola has been on full time secondment with FinTech Scotland from the Financial Conduct Authority for two years and has played a significant role with Stephen, Mickael Paris and Shery Johnston in supporting the fintech SME community and the rapid progress of fintech initiatives.
In addition, to his role of executive chairman for FinTech Scotland, Stephen will take on a part time secondment to Scottish Enterprise as an interim director for six months from November.
Stephen will report to Linda Hanna, Managing Director of Scottish Enterprise, and will contribute to the development of future strategic opportunities to support economic recovery.
In addition, Stephen has recently been appointed to the newly formed UK Government Innovation Expert Group set up to advise on driving productivity through innovation. https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/innovation-expert-group
Commenting on the leadership announcements, Stephen Ingledew said
“It has been a privilege to lead FinTech Scotland and deliver significant milestones across the fintech cluster. This is the right time to further strengthen further the leadership team.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank David for his valuable leadership as chair as well as the fintech community and strategic partners whose ongoing collaboration to date has made the progress possible.
I look forward to working with the Scottish Enterprise team to accelerate and shape strategic programmes, sharing my experience of developing clusters to drive inclusive innovation and economic opportunities”.
David Ferguson, the chief executive of Nucleus Financial said,
“It’s been hugely interesting seeing FinTech Scotland come into being and to see Stephen do such a great job of generating momentum over the last couple of years. I’m grateful to everyone who has joined in and helped carry us to the point where things are so well set up for the next phase”
Fintechs Worldline and BRIDGE announce partnership
Worldline and Scottish fintech Bridge announced today a technology partnership. BRIDGE will integrate its eCommerce payment consolidation and control features into Worldline’s UK rail eCommerce platform.
Worldline’s eCommerce platform is a very innovative customer-facing service adopted by major transport providers. It helps people along the full booking process from journey planning to payment.
Thanks to this partnership, Worldline’s customers will be able to take control of the end-to-end payments experience whilst connecting transactions with other business processes.
James Bain, CEO, Worldline UK & Ireland, said,
“We believe in collaboration for innovation, ensuring that, through our partnerships, we always have the most inventive technologies built into our solutions. Working with BRIDGE’s specialist strength in payments integration and control means that we will be quicker in bringing a more agile and resilient payment ecosystem offering to our customers. It aligns with the Worldline vision of payments for a trusted world.”
Mobility-as-a-service’ is a growing trend and with it appears the need for a on one-stop platforms to deliver convenience, comfort and flexibility. This partnership ensures that Worldline is equipped to deliver such a platform.
Brian Coburn, CEO at BRIDGE, said,
“For transport companies and their customers, the ticketing system is so much more than a permit to travel ”“ it’s a key part of the customer journey. Given its influence on trust and satisfaction, we see payments as an engine for opportunity and differentiation today and into the future. Through our partnership with Worldline, we look forward to seeing our innovation at work within a world-class transport eCommerce system and showcasing its impact on a frictionless customer experience.”
BRIDGE is a new payment orchestration service, offering a single horizontal integration layer across the retailer’s payment system that manages, consolidates and controls multiple payment offerings, as well as providing data reporting and analytics, and the ability to deploy and test new innovations at speed.
Global open banking and open finance directory launched
“When I’m talking with people in the open finance community, the most common question I’m asked is whether I can recommend a company offering a certain service in a particular region. This directory is our answer to that need, helping companies connect and building awareness of what they have to offer.”
“When I heard about the new directory, I was very keen to be involved, and we’re delighted to be on the list for the launch. Open banking has come a fantastic distance in the last two years and this will be of huge benefit to anyone seeking to understand the players in the open banking and open finance world,”
“We want to encourage everyone in the sector to share their information and to make use of this free resource. As the directory evolves, we’ll be able to map the ecosystem, add more advanced search functionality and highlight some of the great case studies that are emerging,”
“With the open banking industry now fully emerging worldwide, it is invaluable to have all of the global entities together in a resource such as the Open Future World Directory. This platform will be extremely useful to experts, partners, investors alike and will provide a forward thinking space in which to share ideas and stay up to date.”
Scottish fintech Exizent secures £3.6 million funding
Exizent, just announced it had raised £3.6m investment to completely reinvent how the legal and financial services sector deals with bereavement making it less stressful for families.
The Scottish fintech is working on the first ever platform that will connect data, services and the network of people involved when someone passes away. Exizent’s objective is to make the process less uncertain and significantly faster and simpler.
Co-founders Nick Cousins and Aleks Tomczyk both have an impressive track records of building successful products and businesses. Aleks founded the very successful fintech Arum before selling the business at the end of 2017. Nick was previously Chief Product Owner of Barclays Wealth and Investments division.
The investment announced today involved several investors including FNZ, the global platform-as-a-service firm which reached unicorn status in 2018.
Nick Cousins, Founder and CEO of Exizent, said:
“Our personal experiences are what led to us to establish Exizent. We believe the administrative tasks facing families after the death of a loved one should be far easier, and that modern technology solutions and services can make this a reality. We have spent the last 18 months carefully designing, developing, and testing our product with innovative partners, and look forward to launching the platform to legal services professionals later this year.”
Adrian Durham, Group CEO of FNZ said:
“The Exizent team has already achieved an enormous amount and we are proud to support their vision of leveraging technology to make the bereavement process far easier for everyone involved. Exizent will also be joining the fast growing FNZ OpenPlatform App Store.”
In the next few months the company will focus on helping legal services firms, working for executors, efficiently manage the process of completing and submitting probate applications (confirmation in Scotland). It will also make the process of gathering information about an estate easier by connecting third parties to automatically discover assets the person may have had, reducing the reliance on an executor to find and send physical documents.
The company also plans to build digital connections with the various institutions that hold data and information about the person who has passed away to help them deal with queries from executors and legal services firms more efficiently.