Big win for Scottish Fintech Origo
Origo is delighted that Capgemini and Origo have been appointed to supply the central digital architecture for the Pensions Dashboards Programme and will be working with the PDP to help deliver the service for the benefit of UK pensions holders.
Announced by the Pensions Dashboards Programme and the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) on 6 September 2021, the contract was awarded to Capgemini, who will partner with Origo to deliver the specified elements of the central digital architecture, namely the pensions finder service, consent and authorisation service and governance register, which will form a key part of the pensions dashboard ecosystem.
Origo has been fully committed to progressing pensions dashboards from the day the project was announced. Our 30-year history has been about delivering ground-breaking technology to make financial services more efficient and cost effective, and improve outcomes for savers and investors.
PDP stated that the Capgemini/Origo bid was successful “due to its quality and value for money, plus the credibility and expertise of both parties to deliver the contract.”
The procurement process
The procurement followed an extensive period of engagement by the PDP, with both the pensions industry and potential suppliers, which shaped the development of the technical requirements. This included several market engagement exercises and webinars to explain how the digital architecture will work and the policy background to the programme.
The five-month procurement started with the invitation to tender in April this year. The open and transparent process, used Lot 4a (Programmes and large projects ”“ covering Government official security classification) of the Crown Commercial Service Technology Services 2 framework agreement. This approach complies with all necessary government spend controls and provided a speedy, effective method to procure the digital architecture.
The successful conclusion to the procurement marks the end of the first phase of the Pensions Dashboards Programme, and is a major step towards bringing pensions dashboards to life. The programme now moves into its develop and test phase, as indicated on the PDP programme timeline. The focus now shifts to building the software elements that will make pensions dashboards work and testing the ecosystem, with the volunteer organisations that have signed up to be part of the testing phases.
Richard James, Programme Director of the Pensions Dashboards Programme at MaPS, commented on the day of the announcement: “Today’s announcement of a digital technology supplier marks the moment when dashboards move off the drawing board, and become real. I’m delighted to partner with Capgemini and Origo, who really impressed us with the quality of their bid; and whose deep pensions industry expertise coupled with extensive experience of delivering major programmes makes them superb partners for the programme. PDP now formally moves into its delivery phase, and I am looking forward to working with our new supplier, and across the industry, to make a success of pensions dashboards, and enable individuals to take control of their retirement planning.
Paul Margetts, Managing Director of Capgemini in the UK echoed our own delight “to have been chosen as the digital technology partner to build the core architecture and support the significant milestone of bringing pensions dashboards to life.” He added: “We believe our success is founded not only upon our expertise and deep capabilities but also through our strategic collaboration with Origo, who is dedicated to improving the financial services industry’s operating efficiencies. We are looking forward to working with the Pensions Dashboards Programme to support them in delivering a seamless service that will allow UK pension holders the control and visibility to take action and plan for the future.”
Concept to reality
Guy Opperman, Minister for Pensions, said that the announcement was “a crucial milestone for the dashboards programme, taking things to the next phase, where the concept starts to become a reality.
He added: “We’ve already put in place the primary legislation needed to pave the way for pensions dashboards. Now the programme, in partnership with Capgemini and Origo, can start to implement the technical elements, bringing the delivery of the first functioning dashboards even closer.
“I have previously urged pension schemes to get their data ready for dashboards. My message remains ”“ schemes should be improving their data quality as part of their preparations for participating. The clock is ticking and this achievement is yet another reminder that schemes must be getting ready to connect.”
Anyone interested in keeping up to date with programme updates and future call for inputs can sign up to receive the monthly Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) newsletter, and following PDP on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Scottish fintech zumo posts 100x user growth
One year on from a 150% oversubscribed £1.66 million seed funding round closed in just a few short hours, Scottish fintech Zumo has reported that its customer base grew a hundred-fold over the course of the year, increasing from 500 in August 2020 to 50,000 in August 2021.
Founded with the mission statement smart money for everyone’, the Edinburgh-based crypto wallet and payments platform is one of a range of Scottish-born fintechs thriving amidst the vibrant Scottish fintech scene, with underpinning GBP payment services provided by fellow young company and FinTech Scotland member Modulr.
Backed by early investors including Murray Capital, Coldplay’s Guy Berryman and the Scottish Investment Bank, Zumo’s mobile app and B2B product offering aims to bring the benefits of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to people and businesses everywhere, and it will continue to pursue ambition plans for growth over the course of 2022.
Other highlights from the past year included:
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Product: launch of a new virtual Visa debit card offering seamless cash-to-cryptocurrency payment functionality, alongside innovative smart price alert and smartfolio portfolio tracking features;
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People: a doubled workforce, with key strategic hires and appointments including Chief Operating Officer Dagmara Aldridge; Chief Technology Officer Tim Sabanov; and Non-Executive Director Andy Downes;
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Enterprise: the launch of ZumoKit, a B2B crypto-as-a-service solution that allows fintechs, banks and payment providers to connect to the blockchain, adopt digital and crypto currency solutions and profit from decentralisation; and
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Awards: recognition as a start-up to watch’ by Sifted, the FT-backed start-up monitoring platform, alongside further individual wins and nominations at the UK FinTech, Women in FinTech and EY Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
Nick Jones, Zumo CEO, commented:
“As we grow, it’s great to see the fintech ecosystem around us growing, too – not least through the efforts of organisations such as FinTech Scotland.
“With a global outlook, and breadth of product offering covering both mainstream consumer and business needs, we believe ourselves well placed to capitalise on unprecedented and growing consumer and institutional interest in digital assets and decentralised applications.
“We’re here to provide a new generation of smart money solutions for a new, decentralised economy – bringing financial wellness to people everywhere, not just the most tech savvy or financially literate.”
Fintechs empowering SMEs
Season 1, episode 11
Listen to the full episode here.
The fintech movement hasn’t just disrupted the way customers and citizen deal with money and access financial products or large financial institutions digitise themselves. Fintech is transforming how SMEs work and organise themselves.
In this episode we’ll explore how fintech is transforming SMEs. We’ll discuss adoption rates, opportunities and challenges faced by fintechs trying to sell their solutions to SMEs. Can collaboration with trusted financial institution be the solution to mass adoption. We’ll also look at ahead and explore future trends.
Anthony Persse – CEO at Optimum Finance
Lynne Darcey Quigley – CEO and Founder of Know-it
Derek Smith – Head of Digital Solutions at Virgin Money
Swipii releases new feature for local businesses
Scottish start-up Swipii has released its latest feature, the Win-Back Offer enabling local business owners to utilise tech to retarget lost customers.
Swipii is a cashback app that rewards customers with cashback when they spend directly with local bars, cafes and restaurants simply by using their own bank card. Business owners can sign up to Swipii at no cost and use the technology to reach and retarget customers without the need for complicated integrations or marketing experts.
Louis Schena, Swipii co-founder and CEO explains; Local independent businesses form the backbone of our economy. The unfortunate truth is they are decades behind online businesses and big corporations when it comes to the technology they have and as a result are at a significant disadvantage. COVID has widened this disadvantage and our mission is to level the playing field as markets open up! We all have our part to play in shopping local with benefits ranging from investing in our communities to even reducing our carbon footprint!’
To date, businesses featured on the app have been leveraging Swipii’s cashBack offers to target customers at various times and days when they want to drum up footfall such as off-peak hours. Since launching the app in 2018, the Glasgow based app has helped local businesses increase customer engagement and spend, generating spend of £440k to date. Even during lockdown, Swipii cashback offers saw businesses increase customer spend by 16% on average.
Now, businesses can maximise their revenues even more by taking advantage of Swipii’s latest Win-Back Offer. The Win-Back Offer works by targeting customers who haven’t visited a business in a defined period of time, anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months or longer. The technology crunches data in the background and identifies a cohort of users that fits this criteria and the Swipii app will send out a special cashback offer on behalf of the business getting customers back in store spending.
Bringing affordable tech to local businesses has never been more pertinent as:
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digital adoption surged during COVID with many companies seeing online customer interaction accelerate by 3 years ahead of expected forecasts*
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75% of UK shoppers said they had been shopping more online compared to before the pandemic**
Backed by VCs such as LocalGlobe and Par Equity, Swipii is the easiest way for local businesses to increase revenue, loyalty and retention as shopping behaviours adapt post lockdowns.
Customer Experience and Fintech
Season 1, episode 10
Listen to the full episode here.
The Digital Banking Report Research by The Financial Brand shows that Customer Experience is the number 2 priority (just after digital transformation) for financial institution around the globe.
New entrants and changing customer expectations have fuelled this need for a greater focus on customer led design. COVID-19 has accelerated this trend by requiring companies to adapt to a fully digital world with no branches for customers to go to and the need to make customer support more efficient for staff working from home.
In this new episode we’ll explore why the focus on CX is so important; if new innovative firms still have the edge on their incumbent counterparts and what future trends we need to watch out for.
Participants
Andrew Duncan – CEO of fintech SOAR
Chris Speed – Professor of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh
Lotta Lindstrand – Senior CRO Analyst at Merkle EMEA
DirectID and Doconomy partner on climate functionality
FinTech DirectID have just entered a collaboration agreement with pioneering Swedish impact tech company Doconomy.
Doconomy is an impact-tech company that uses the power of data raise awareness of the impact of consumption whilst offering solutions to reduce it. With Doconomy users can understand and drive positive movement to tackle climate change.
DirectID is the world’s expert in global credit risk enabled by the usage of real-time bank data. They tackle current problems found within the credit risk lifecycle:
- Affordability
- Income and account verification
- Emerging financial distress
- Spend categorisation & classification
Doconomy and DirectID have decided to partner to bring climate functionality to the masses, helping consumers make more informed decisions and encourage a more sustainable lifestyle.
This is another great example of how using bank data can help develop new innovative solutions beyond greater access to financial products.
James Varga, CEO of DirectID, said:
“As we continue to grow our reach and capability, having a trusted set of partners is critical to our future success. We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Doconomy.
“We are increasingly seeing new and diverse ways that bank data can support use cases across industry and sector. Using bank data to help us to understand business and consumer’s environmental impact is yet one more way that DirectID’s bank data expertise can support another tech company.”
Mathias Wikström, CEO of Doconomy, said:
“With DirectID joining us in shaping a new normal based on impact transaparency, we are excited to see additional opportunities for continuous development of tools in support of climate action. DirectID bring equal amounts of expertise and passion to the table and we are excited to team up on the most important challenge of all.”
Experian supplies Decision Analytics solution for Soar
Digital banking platform Soar will use Experian’s Decision Analytics solutions to support its work in the community banking market.
The new partnership will see Soar clients utilise Experian’s SaaS PowerCurve Customer Acquisition platform to help automate lending decisions, transforming their digital onboarding and customer application journey.
Incorporating affordability and eligibility insights based on Experian bureau data, anti-fraud checks, and advanced data analytics all within one cloud-based solution, Soar clients will now have a clear picture of their customers helping them to access the most appropriate lending for their circumstances.
Typically, organisations like Credit Unions and Community Banks have relied upon manual application processes, leading to customers waiting up to a week ”“ and sometimes longer ”“ for their applications to be reviewed and completed.
The solution will significantly improve that wait, returning a decision within minutes, boosting acceptance rates at the beginning of the customer application due to the rich level of customer insight provided.
By removing the need for organisations to attempt to build a similar solution in-house, PowerCurve will enable clients to quickly modernise their operations and, at the same time, attract new customers who otherwise wouldn’t consider a Credit Union as an option for a financial product.
Steve Pulley, Managing Director Decision Analytics, Experian UK&I, said: “Today’s customers expect digital services to work seamlessly and almost instantaneously, while the impact of Covid-19 means it’s critical that lenders can accurately assess a potential customer’s suitability for lending.”
“Our software plays a critical role in organisations’ decisioning, radically improving their efficiency and outcomes for customers and I’m delighted that those in the community banking market will feel the benefit that data-led analytics can bring.”
Andrew Duncan, CEO of Soar, said: “The community banking market has traditionally been underserved when it comes to technology advancements. We’re committed to changing that, giving organisations the chance to provide their customers with the best digital offering possible
“The breadth and accuracy of what Experian software can offer will be central to us in meeting that ambition and modernising the ethical banking sector.”
LiquidShare selects BTP’s Sextant for Daml platform
LiquidShare has selected Sextant for Daml, a platform provided by Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), the blockchain and smart contract management and operations platform.
LiquidShare, created in 2017 by eight major European financial institutions (AFS Group, BNP Paribas Securities Services, Caceis, Caisse des Dépôts, Euroclear, Euronext, S2iEM and Société Générale), was established with the mission to build a European post-trading blockchain infrastructure for the financial industry. The company’s post-trade offering secures and streamlines back-office operations in financial markets, whilst also enhancing transparency and trustworthiness of post-trading operations, leveraging the open-source distributed ledger Hyperledger Besu, and Daml, an application platform.
“We chose Daml as our smart-contract language for its strong potential to embed business logic, and because it enables us to build multiparty business processes easily and rapidly. The fact that it is supported by BTP on our ledger of choice, Hyperledger Besu, was also a main driver for us,” said Jean-Marc Eyssautier, CEO of LiquidShare. “Sextant for Daml has accelerated our time to market by allowing us to focus on customer needs.”
BTP’s Sextant for Daml solution simplifies the deployment and management of the Daml runtime environment on distributed ledgers, enabling innovators such as so LiquidShare to focus on the application rather than the underlying infrastructure.
“We are delighted to facilitate such financial innovation by freeing LiquidShare from technology infrastructure frustrations,” said Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP. “This is a great use case that showcases the business value of distributed ledgers and smart contracts, by lowering the barrier to entry to capital markets.”
Digital Asset’s Daml is an application platform purpose-built for coding complex multiparty business processes. It provides a robust framework to better manage transactional workflows for improved operational efficiency without compromising privacy and trust. This is particularly relevant to capital markets.
“LiquidShare is at the forefront of innovation in post-trade markets,” said Yuval Rooz, Co-founder & CEO at Digital Asset. “Post-trade processes can significantly benefit from the efficiency and trust provided by distributed ledgers and Daml, which is quickly becoming the de facto standard in capital markets. It’s great to see LiquidShare using Sextant for Daml. It is the right platform to help LiquidShare bring its new blockchain-enabled offering to the market.”
Paymob Launch Tap-to-Phone in the US with ZmBIZI
Paymob is launching in the US through our partner ZmBIZI and their smartphone app. Alongside ZmBIZI, Paymob will be speedier and more accessible to small businesses.
Their US launch coincides with Visa launching its very first US Tap to Phone pilot in Washington D.C. as a method of supporting the region’s black-owned small businesses. This will see Visa providing ZmBIZIZ’s Z1 devices with Tap to Phone technology empowered by Paymob, on a six-city SMB revitalisation initiative, which also includes Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles and Miami.
“With the ZmBIZI Smartphone integrated with the Paymob SoftPOS we are now able to create the next generation of mobile merchants who are doing business on the go’.
This is how we empower communities across the globe to become truly self-sufficient . A one stop business solution that is also a verified partner for Visa Global Small Business Solutions” says Alpesh Patel, Co Founder of ZmBIZI
This has been a long-term project for Paymob, this such a significant and exciting milestone for the company. The Co Founder and CEO, Kosta Du notes;
“This is a huge leap for the paytech space, the move will allow more independent businesses across the country to accept payments without the upfront costs for external POS hardware, meaning small businesses and gig economy workers can accept card and digital payments quickly, on the go, anytime.”
The ZmBIZI app enables business owners and their employees to use the app to type the amount they wish to charge, the customer simply taps their contactless card or e-wallet on their smartphone and finally, it will send them an e-receipt to the customer in the matter of seconds. For Paymob this project with Visa is the necessary place to start as we launch our solution in the US, enabling those who will feel the benefit of Paymobs SoftPOS technology the most.
Aveni acquires much needed investment
Edinburgh based Fintech, Aveni, has acquired their much needed £1.1. million investment – this will be used to establish an AI platform focused on supporting speech analytics for modern businesses.
Aveni Detect reportedly uses the latest artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) technologies to fully automate processes directly from the customer’s voice. This will help the firm to obtain greater levels of efficiency when it comes to quality assurance whilst simultaneously enhancing employee training, consumer experience and the ability to identify vulnerable users.
TRICAPITAL Angel syndicate headed the investment into Aveni’s operations, with the proceeds being directed towards Aveni’s ongoing growth. The company seek to move beyond simply offering financial services into other regulated areas, as well as building a team to facilitate its UK expansion efforts.
Joseph Twigg, CEO at Aveni stated:
“Consumer behavior and business needs have changed significantly over the past 18 months as the service industry digitised in response to the pandemic. This created a new base of consumers comfortable with video conferencing led, digital-first services. But it also created a major challenge for firms to monitor and assess these calls, especially as an increasing number of them were from vulnerable customers who needed additional attention.”
The work behind the scenes to ensure that Avnei direct was implemented properly is thanks to Aveni’s team of NLP scientists and engineers working with the various UK businesses.
Whether a business or company meets clients in-person or face-to-face, through video conference or via phone, Aveni Detect is able to reliably and accurately convert the conversation to text before processing it via its NLP pipeline to offer key insights and automation. This leads to new opportunities for businesses to lower the cost to serve customers, while building a well-trained workforce and also identify key opportunities for new products.
Twigg further noted:
“Aveni Detect automates a significant part of these requirements, driving efficiency into a business, whilst meeting regulatory requirements and protecting the consumer. It is a great example of AI for good’ as the technology is being used to make a positive impact and will help to better protect those that are vulnerable within our society.”
The round was also joined by Scottish Enterprise’s Growth Investments, Old College Capital ”“ the University of Edinburgh’s in-house venture fund and Wallace Equity.
Jan Robertson, Interim Director of Growth Investments at Scottish Enterprise, added:
“The evolution of Aveni’s game-changing products will enhance Scotland’s proud association with the development of AI solutions and strengthen the country’s growing reputation as a global leader in fintech innovation. Our continued investment in and support for Aveni will help the company grow and scale and underscores Scottish Enterprise’s commitment to nurturing an environment that encourages cutting-edge tech businesses to thrive and flourish.”