Terminal V goes cashless with Event Genius Pay
Terminal V, Scotland’s largest electronic music event brand, has joined an ever-growing list and decided to go cashless with Event Genius.
All five of the brand’s UK events are going cashless with Event Genius – this includes four 5000 capacity summer events featuring the most popular names in techno, like Patrick Topping, Floorplan, Adam Beyer and Ben Klock.
Even after the festival taking place in summer, the flagship Terminal V Halloween festival will deploy egPay cashless technology over its two days run on the 30th-31st, with 40,000 fans attending.
Prior to the events, ticket holders can create an online account to pre-purchase credits as a way of replacing cash across the festival sites so that when it comes to attending the festival, the credits are loaded onto an RFID enabled wristband that can be received in exchange for their ticket. With a quick tap, they can use this system to pay for food, drink and more.
What happens when they run out of credits? Fans can top-up credits on-site whenever they run low, and can even reclaim any unspent credits once the event is finished.
Not only will this payment method reduce fan to staff contact points, making it safer, but it will speed up transactions by up to 80%.
Speaking about the partnership, Reshad Hossenally, Event Genius Founder and Festicket CSO commented: “egPay offers a win-win scenario for Terminal V’s fans and organisers. Without having to worry about carrying money or wasting time waiting in line to be served, Terminal V attendees can enjoy more of the events while the Terminal V team can expect a reduction in cash handling, fan to staff contact points and potential virus transmission, as well as a significant boost to their revenues.”
“This will also be our first egPay roll out in Scotland, so we’re extra excited to meet the team, get onsite and help deliver some great events.”
NFP Partners with Fintech Firm Legado
Two fintechs, NFP and Legado, have partnered to digitise the life planning process for NFP clients.
A market leader in corporate benefits, wealth management and commercial insurance, NFP has forged this partnership with Legado, a fintech dedicated to helping consumers prepare for key life moments, as its suite of tools enables the organisation, storage and sharing of personal data with those who choose. Not only this but it is presented and communicated in such a way that makes it easily understandable to the client, enabling them to maintain complete control over everything. Legado’s platform is GDPR-compliant, with consumers safe in the knowledge that their documents are safe and easy to find.
Announced today, the partnership enables NFP clients to use Legado’s life-planning platform, giving them instant access to statements and information, storing them in a secure location – no hassle or fuss.
Richard Basford, Managing Director for NFP Wealth Management, said: “Client engagement and intergenerational planning are emerging as two of the most important considerations in the financial advice sector. Our clients expect us to provide them with more than just financial advice, with an increasing number coming to us about other areas of life planning. We had already been looking to digitise areas of our client experience, with a focus on solutions that would let us work closely with our clients in a secure and simple manner, and that does not add complexity to what can already be highly complex situations.
“When we saw Legado, we knew it was the right solution for our business. Not only does it provide a secure way to exchange key documents, but it provides a relevant and engaging service to help our clients plan for the future and key life events. We hope that by providing this service our clients will recognise the additional value we are providing to them to ensure they are prepared for the future.”
Josif Grace, CEO of Legado, said: “NFP is a great example of a company that is not only looking to digitise their client experience, but modernise and personalise it. By utilising the Legado platform, NFP is creating new opportunities on which they can engage clients, and their families, at key life moments. With Legado’s combination of insight, personal planning tools and technology, clients have a truly holistic view of how prepared they are for the future, while smart, actionable nudges can help people make small changes that can make a big long-term difference. We are delighted to be working with NFP to put them at the forefront of innovation in this space.”
NFP’s Basford added: “Legado gives NFP clients full control over the entire experience, and so puts NFP and its advisers at the forefront of both client experience and safety. This will be the industry standard in a year or two, and we are excited to be leading the way in showing how all professional services businesses will be working in the future.”
The Legado planning API will enable NFP to quickly and easily NFP to integrate the platform into their existing technology estate, and the pilot will initially give NFP’s advisers and clients full access to a co-branded version of Legado’s life planning platform.
“NFP is a leading insurance broker and consultant providing specialised commercial insurance, in-country and global employee benefits, and individual solutions through its licensed subsidiaries and affiliates. NFP enables client success through the expertise of more than 6,000 employees in the UK, Ireland and across the globe. Our professionals support diverse client needs through investments in innovative technologies and enduring relationships with highly rated insurers, vendors and financial institutions. NFP is the 5th largest benefits broker by global revenue (Business Insurance), 10th largest property and casualty agency (Insurance Journal) and 12th largest global insurance broker (Best’s Review).
Visit nfp.co.uk to discover how NFP empowers clients to meet their goals.”
Polydigi Tech selected as UK’s Most Innovative Cyber Security SME
Polydigi Tech, the Edinburgh based cybersecurity startup, was selected along with 14 other SMEs as the UK’s Most Innovative Cyber Security SME in the sixth competition held by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) in collaboration with Inforsecurity Europe.
Polydigi Tech is the only Scottish company among the winners. After ranking 12th in BusinessCloud’s Scotland Tech 50 for 2020, Polydigi Tech is now ready for the UK market.
This year’s record number of applicants were judged by three industry experts: Innovate UK’s Deputy Challenge Director Agata Samojlowicz CISSP, Global Transatlantic CEO Andy Williams, and Infosecurity Magazine Editorial Editor, Eleanor Dalloway.
Polydigi Tech is being offered the chance to exhibit at the DCMS Innovation Zone during Infosecurity Europe 2021 on July 13th-15th in Olympia, London. This opportunity will allow Polydigi Tech to demonstrate its world-class innovation identity authentication solution for EU market expansion.
Paysend Sets Sights on Global Expansion
Paysend, the international payments platform, has announced a $125m Series B funding round, which will help contribute to funding its global expansion plans.
“This $125m B Round investment will allow us to take our platform to the next stage, innovating and expanding geographically to target the $133tn opportunity in cross-border payment flows,” Ronnie Millar, CEO of Paysend said.
“Paysend’s vision is to develop the next generation integrated global payment ecosystem for consumers and SMEs. Our innovative technology is connecting 12bn cards worldwide to pay and send instantly anywhere, anyhow and any currency ”“ we call this Money for the Future.”
Led by One Peak, the funding round had additional input from Infravia Growth Capital, Hermes GPE Innovation Fund and existing Silicon Valley-based investor Plug and Play.
“There remain significant barriers to entry for consumers and SMEs to pay and send money globally; our platform aims to democratise the service by providing a one-stop-shop to pay and send money to families, suppliers, employees and partners in any currency anywhere in the world at a significantly reduced cost,” Millar went on.
It’s Paysend’s global network of banks, international and local payment systems that allows its customers to send money online from any location in any currency.
“We are excited by Paysend’s enormous growth potential in a massive market, benefiting from a rapid acceleration in the adoption of digital payments,” Humbert de Liedekerke, Managing Partner at One Peak, added.
“In particular, we are seeing strong opportunities as Paysend moves beyond consumers to serve business customers and expands its international footprint to address a growing need for fast, easy and low-cost cross border digital payments.”
In the past four years, the payments fintech has grown to more than 3.7 million consumers across 60 countries.
AutoRek nominated for duo of awards
AutoRek, the leading software provider to global financial service firms, has been shortlisted for the Best CASS Solution’ and Best Wealth Management Solution’ categories at the Systems in the City Financial Technology Awards 2021.
This isn’t the first time AutoRek has won the Best CASS Solution award, after winning the title last year – the first time the award ceremony has been held virtually in its 18-year history.
Lyn Canavan, Head of Marketing at AutoRek, commented, “We are delighted to be recognised again as a provider of the Best CASS Solution’, and also in the Best Wealth Management Solution’ category by the Systems in the City Financial Technology Awards judging panel ”“ this is testimony to the team’s continued hard work in consistently striving to offer superior solutions.”
Goodacre, a specialist business and technology consultancy, organised the awards as an endorsement for suppliers of systems and services to the regulated financial services sector, with three independent judges overseeing the selection prciess.
The Awards provide an important point of reference for user firms assessing the suitability of their operational infrastructure
Q&A Lynne Darcey Quigley, CEO of Know-it
Lynne thank you for your time. Could you introduce yourself to our readers?
Of course. Having worked across several credit management roles for over 25 years, I have gained a wealth of knowledge and completely understand the importance of a healthy cash flow for businesses and the implications late payers and bad debtors can have on businesses of all sizes and industries.
Over the years working across many different industries, I realised a gap in the market for a professional, result-driven debt recovery partner”¦.14 years ago, I set up my first company, Darcey Quigley & Co, focused on recovering overdue B2B invoices across the UK and internationally.
Darcey Quigley & Co was founded in 2007 on the belief debt recovery could be delivered differently. Specialising solely in the commercial market, we act as an extension of a company’s credit control department whenever internal processes have been exhausted. October 2018 saw me dive into my latest business venture, founding Know-it acting as the company’s CEO. The goal was to create a financial services company that makes credit management simple and easy.
Can you please give our readers an introduction to Know-it and what is the inspiration behind the platform?
Having worked within the debt recovery industry for over 25 years, I understand what the implications of late payers and bed debtors can mean for a business. Know-it has been designed to bring a fresh perspective on the credit management process. We have created an innovative, cloud-based credit management platform that seamlessly integrates with all leading accountancy packages including Xero, Sage, and more.
The inspiration behind the platform was to enable users to instantaneously credit check companies, get live data and real-time updates to monitor customer’s credit behaviour and mitigate potential credit risks. The platform also provides finance teams and business owners with a simple way to check your customers’ creditworthiness, ensure customers pay on time through scheduled reminders and customisable chaser emails, letters and SMS, helping reduce debtor days and increasing cash flow. Users can also get instant quotes to collect unpaid invoices quickly and efficiently, as well as monitoring and acquiring reports on commercial debts. The platform will make help businesses and finance teams, no matter the size, operate much more efficiently with it comes to debtors.
What challenges do you think it will address within credit management?
Know-it aims to make credit management as easy as possible. The market can be overly complicated for users and very time-consuming. Know-it addresses this problem through three core principles of Check-it, Chase-it, Collect-it.
Our pick and mix subscription option let users practice these concepts independently, giving businesses what they need when they need it most.
Check-it is a credit reporting tool that allows you to check the credit health of any business. It provides access to real-time data on prospective and current customers to help inform future business decisions. Chase-it streamlines your credit control process, and handles all the time-consuming chaser emails, freeing up time whilst keeping Know-it customers on top of invoicing. It also allows you to send customised emails, letters and SMS to customers reminding them of when they need to make a payment. Finally, Collect-it is there when customer payments don’t go to plan. Supported by Darcey Quigley & Co, Collect-it will help recover unpaid debt while maintaining your customer relationships.
I fully believe introducing these three principles into credit management will address the gaps in the market and change the way we view the industry as a whole. I pride myself on being a student of the game, I have always studied the credit management market to see what t users are being denied. I am fully confident that Know-it fills these gaps.
It’s an interesting time to be launching a start-up, why now?
When launching any new venture there are risks involved. It certainly wasn’t my intention to launch during a global pandemic and every business needs a slice of fortune! Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity and there was a timely opening for the platform to provide an additional level of support for vulnerable businesses at a point when they needed it most.
Help from automated credit management systems has conventionally been out of reach for many businesses until now. I have complete confidence Know-it will offer organisations a complete and all-inclusive solution enabling them to work smarter. As the pandemic continues to rip through the business community, now is a crucial time for technology to step in and offer a helping hand to those businesses most in need.
The launch of Know-it reinforces the strength of Scotland’s tech sector, what is your perception of the market?
Scotland’s tech sector continues to go from strength to strength, celebrating a proud tradition of producing creative and forwarding thinking minds.
As a nation, we have always prided ourselves on being open and vibrant, while still maintaining a strong sense of identity. A key attraction to Scotland is the unique and energetic culture, as each city boasts its own identity reflecting the pride of those who live there. Also, the living costs are substantially cheaper than other tech hubs such as London ”“ this is a huge factor for those relocating. Afterall, who doesn’t want a few more pounds in the bank every month!
Tech giants such as Google, Twitter and Microsoft have recently stated they are open to staff continuing to work from home for the future. As a result, the country has access to more fantastic talent who would otherwise have to relocate for the roles. The Scottish tech market in my opinion is in a very strong and healthy place currently and will only continue to get stronger as we move forward which is very exciting.
What do you think makes Scotland so different to other tech hubs around the world?
Scotland thrives on its strong sense of community and the tech scene up here is no different. Scotland has separated itself from the strong competition across the world by continually sharing ideas and challenging the status quo. We pride ourselves on being creative and not afraid to tackle new challenges. This is one of the key reasons for the monumental progression in the Scottish tech scene in recent years.
A second factor is an access to a highly skilled workforce. From world-class universities to magnificent third level institutions, Scotland continues to see a torrent of new talent being every year. Scotland also has CodeBase, the biggest tech incubator in the UK. This means our country is situated perfectly to continually cultivating the latest start-ups in the technology industry. The relentless development of flair and talent into the workforce in my opinion separates the Scottish tech scene from those across the world.
For someone looking to take up a career in tech, what advice would you give?
Technology is a playing field that is always transforming, and that transformation is happening quicker than ever. As an industry, a day’s work is never dull, and two days are nearly never the same. You will be given new and exciting ideas and projects to work on regularly, so you need to be ready and have an excellent mind for problem-solving. Keeping up to date with the latest trends and updates is very important and will benefit you ten-fold as you go on throughout your career. Familiarise yourself with all announcements within the market, so if you’re working on a new project that involves the latest industry innovations you can put your best foot forward. Technology is a very exciting and rewarding career, it is filled with so much opportunity and scope. The best advice I can give to anyone thinking of a career in tech is to go for it!
What is needed for Scotland to continue succeeding on the world tech scene?
The Scottish tech scene is in a wonderful place, however, with all industries, there are areas that need strengthening if we are to continue progressing.
The greatest asset the tech scene boasts is its people. These are individuals with creativity, flair and passion that have the ability to turn concepts written down on paper into reality.
Scotland has to continue producing the finest tech talent on our home soil through our universities, colleges and other initiatives, as well as attracting the best talent from overseas. The Tech Nation Global Talent Visa remains an important resource for drawing some of the sharpest minds in the tech world to Scotland and the rest of the UK. Nearly a third of individuals endorsed for the visa that is located in Scotland is a tech founder. It is clear the industry structure, combined with the strength of the community has excelled us to be a market leader. The challenge moving forward is enticing more talent from outside the United Kingdom into the market.
Crypto Wallet and Zumo Launches B2B Offering
Zumo, the crypto wallet and payments Fintech, has announced its Zumokit; crypto as a service platform.
This new B2B product targets Fintechs and other financial institutions that aim to compliantly offer cryptocurrencies to meet the demand of customers to access digital assets.
ZumoKit is a blockchain agnostic, thus enabling companies to connect to any blockchain by adopting any cryptocurrency or using their own stablecoin. This provides businesses to integrate a digital currency, allowing their customers to buy and sell digital currencies as an investment.
Commercial Director at Zumo, Eddie Robb, states that this gives businesses the tools necessary to build cryptocurrency solutions into their platforms, saving them thousands of hours of work.
“We’re working with a number of savings, remittance, and share trading apps to allow them to offer crypto to their customers. ZumoKit is a ready-to-roll solution for fintech companies and other financial institutions that want to bring the benefits of crypto to their customers. It’s a plug and play product that makes it easy to get going with crypto in a safe, secure and compliant way.”
Robb added that such a solution can be beneficial to companies, as it allows them to provide customers with the ability to trade crytocurrencies whilst also shielding the wider business from the ups and downs of the markets.
Founded in Edinburgh in 2018 by Nick Jones and Paul Roach, Zumo is available for download on both iOS and Android app stores.
Tindeco: One of the top 100 WealthTechs
For the second year in a row, Tindeco has been announced as one of the world’s 100 most innovative WealthTech companies. Tindeco VISION enables investment managers to efficiently provide customised investment solutions through the execution of highly scalable operating models.
Their featured article teaches you how they can help when it comes to implementing your investment process, as well as providing you with customised solutions just for your clients.
Soar integrates Inbest to help loan applicants access their benefits
Today Soar announced a new feature to alert loan applicants of potential benefits and help them to track their entitlements.
In the UK in 2018/19, almost 8m low-income households were missing £16bn in means-tested benefits. The DWP estimates that 44% of those eligible for means-tested Job Seekers Allowance, 16% of those eligible for means-tested Employment and Support Allowance, and 23% of those eligible for Housing Benefit did not claim them.
Soar has integrated Inbest benefits calculator into its banking platform to compare the actual benefits that customers receive with the benefits they are entitled to due to their specific circumstances and financial situation. The service notifies customers about any unclaimed benefit and guides them on their benefits applications. This new feature will help loan applicants to top-up their salaries with their benefits entitlement, reduce their bills, repay their loans more comfortably, and build savings in the future.
Soar is offering this new feature on its Automated Lending solution to notify clients about their potential benefits entitlement when they make a loan application. Soar is also embedding the benefits calculator on its Banking Apps to help customers manage their benefits and ensure they are always claiming the right amount.
Andrew Duncan, CEO of Soar, said: “Soar’s platform reaches a wide range of consumers and we see Inbest as providing a fantastic opportunity for our clients to offer additional support to those not making the most of their benefits entitlement. We are helping our clients, often credit unions, provide additional ways to improve their customers’ financial well-being and there’s no doubt that this is one of them.”
Manu Peleteiro, CEO of Inbest, said: “We believe that partnering with companies that offer complimentary financial services is the most efficient way to reach people that are missing out on their benefits. We are delighted to partner with Soar to enable easier ways for people to learn about their benefits entitlements and access affordable loans”.
About Soar
Soar makes credit unions and community banks accessible and convenient for consumers with our white-labelled mobile banking platform that automates the handling of loan applications and makes access to affordable credit easy for everyone.
It’s a modern cloud banking platform for the fair finance market which reduces the cost of operations and includes mobile, web and cloud apps. It is connected to an ecosystem of other fintechs giving users access to secure digital messaging, payments, credit checks and open banking.
About Inbest
Inbest is a software platform that helps unemployed individuals or those in low paid or insecure roles to access their benefits entitlement. Inbest offers the widest benefits coverage in the UK and partners with FS institutions and welfare advisers to embed benefits advice into personalised customer journeys.
New Advisory Appointments at Ionburst
Retired Royal Navy Rear Admiral Steve Brunton CBE and Steve Wilkinson, a global data privacy leader, have joined Edinburgh-based advanced cybersecurity startup, Ionburst, as UK advisors.
Rear Admiral Steven Brunton and Steve Wilkinson have just been announced by Ionburst as two high-profile advisor appointments. Rear Admiral, now operating as an Independent Advisor to a number of government and industry organisations, joins Wilkinson, the Data Protection Subject Matter Expert at the UK Cabinet Office Government Digital Service (GDS).
Both join Ionburst whilst it experiences a significant growth period, as it builds theUK and overseas business.
Commenting on the appointments, Ionburst Founder, Dr David Lanc said: “The Cloud needs a new philosophy for protecting the privacy of mission critical information and workloads. We have developed a best-in-class data protection solution to empower this, and its relevance is supported by these powerful industry leaders strengthening our advisory team.”
Rear Admiral Steve Brunton CBE said: “I’m excited to join the Ionburst journey. I believe Ionburst has the ability to help protect us and our way of life in the digital world. I look forward to working with the Ionburst team to help engage with Government and the Defence sector, and to help navigate the next phase of the company’s growth.”
Steve Wilkinson commented: “Ionburst is at the forefront of data security, privacy and sovereignty. In my experience, it’s unique in solving the well-known issues of data privacy compliance and protection from unwanted surveillance in one solution. This is vital to preserve the privacy of sensitive information, which has been made more critical with the EU Court of Justice recently invalidating the EU-US data privacy shield and Brexit.”
Lanc added: “We have big ambitions to help industry and government protect citizen and sensitive data in a world that also demands carbon efficiency. Welcoming Steve and Steve as distinguished advisors demonstrates our aspirations.”
Ionburst has developed a paradigm shift in data protection, through its innovations in privacy by default and data defence in depth.