£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.
Card issuing and management: staying relevant facing ever faster changing customer expectations
How card issuers are rethinking their business models and technical architecture
Our payments landscape is changing rapidly, and traditional card issuers need to keep up with new competitors that meet customer expectations. Especially now, during times of lockdowns and working from home, customers are expecting digital services that are seamlessly integrated into their every-day lives. This means that Issuers have to rethink both their business models as well as their technical infrastructure to keep up with competitors and customer expectations.
Convenient, fast and reliable
First of all, how popular are card-based payments nowadays? As research shows, this payment method will play a major role in the near future. By 2022, it is estimated that 47 percent of global e-commerce payments will be made using eWallets, while 28 percent will be made using credit and debit cards. At the point of sale (POS), it is expected that 52 percent of all global POS payments are made using either a credit or debit card, with eWallets (28 percent) assuming the third place. These numbers have to do with the fact that consumers find card-based payments convenient, fast, familiar, reliable and secure. A little further in the future, we are likely to see the general replacement of tangible plastic cards by alternative means of payment like mobile payment apps and virtual cards. However, the payment itself will remain card-based and will, thus, to a large extent rely on the established infrastructure of schemes like Visa, MasterCard and local schemes.
Crowded Landscape
This is the reason that the card issuing landscape is getting increasingly crowded as new players spot opportunities to tap into the unresolved growth potential of the card payments industry. Over the years, many traditional banks have delivered card payments services on a license to operate’ basis, meaning that they have typically issued basic products like debit, credit and prepaid cards and have not shown any interest in differentiating themselves through these products. Neobanks seem to be utilising the full potential of cards and card payment services by making them the focal point of additional services. This places the cardholder at the center of the payment experience. Think about services and features like real-time information on transactions, convenient onboarding processes and product control (for example spending limits and geo-blocking).
Challenges
As a result, traditional card issuers are feeling the pressure of increased competition. It urges them to transform their card processing platforms to remain competitive, but there are a number of internal and external challenges that need to be overcome. Think of diversifying channels and the demand for a consistent experience or the creation of new technologies that are disrupting financial services and the arrival of regulations like Open Banking, PSD2 and GDPR. Other than that, players are forced to focus on efficiently processing massive volumes to make the business case viable. In the meantime, internal challenges play a key role as well. Traditional players are, for example, struggling with their legacy systems and their ability to leverage the vast amount of data points produced by transactions. Besides that, players need to protect sensitive data and actual monetary transactions against fraud. And there is also the struggle of managing the increasing number of compliance procedures.
The Solution: Open Innovation
While there are many interesting solutions from Fintechs and other third parties available that address some of these challenges or simply offer a superior frontend experience, they are often hard to integrate into existing legacy applications and some processing partners do neither offer a modular platform nor the commercial flexibility required to quickly test and integrate third party solutions. At Worldline, we are convinced that the best results come out of open innovation. That is why we are hosting the annual Worldline e-Payments Challenge where we bring together our clients and fintechs to create innovative use cases together with our experts. Our modular, real time processing platform allows for simple integration of these solutions based on a large and powerful set of APIs.
Are you looking for creative ways to address the challenges Issuers are facing today? Get in touch with our experts to learn how Worldline can support you. Contact Us: worldlinecommunications@worldline.com
On-Land Payment Infrastructure for Rapid Growth
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.
Tesco Bank introduces new payment technology
FinTech Scotland’s strategic partner Tesco Bank just introduced a new technology, enabling 2.6 million credit card customers to manage and pay their balance in a much easier way.
The new functionality, called Pay by Bank’ is powered by Mastercard’s Open Banking Connect™ service, a service that allows for payments to be made directly from current account via electronic payment services.
Tesco Bank is the first in the UK to use Open Banking in this manner.
For customers it means they don’t need to use a debit card, can see their current account and their credit card balance in the same place whilst benefiting from added security.
The new technology release is being staggered and all customers should have access to it in the next few weeks.
Sigga Sigurdardottir, Chief Customer Officer, Tesco Bank, said:
“Tesco Bank’s purpose is to help Tesco shoppers manage their money a little better every day. The introduction of Pay by Bank helps us do that for 2.6 million of our credit card customers, giving them a simple and secure way of paying their credit card, and greater control of their finances.
“We are particularly pleased to be the first UK bank to make this technology available for credit card customers. We expect this functionality to be widespread in the market in the coming years.
“This is a great example of the strength that our partnership with Mastercard brings to our credit card offering.”
Kelly Devine, Division President for Mastercard UK and Ireland, said:
“Bringing more simple, safe and convenient ways for people to pay is at the very heart of our Open Banking solutions. With this enhancement, Tesco Bank customers will have greater flexibility to make payments against card balances than ever, aiding budgeting and placing them in full control of their finances.”
*This is subject to your bank’s capability
New firm bringing fintech to pubs
Edinburgh start-up pour launched with venues across Scotland in August, their aim; to simplify the cluttered order and pay market that Covid-19 helped create.
Amidst the rapid technology adoption in the hospitality industry, consumer’s needs are being ignored. Patrons are expected to download venue specific apps and create accounts for every place that they visit, something they will not tolerate in the long run.
What is Pour?
Founded by Scottish entrepreneurs Ian Martin and Paul Kirkland, Pour is an online app platform that enables venues to upload and edit their menus, and share them directly with their customers across social media, their website, offline channels, and on pour.
Customers can order and pay through one web app, for table service or takeaway collection in any participating venue. No app download, no account required, just the food and drinks they came for.
Says Ian Martin, Co-Founder of pour:
“We started pour to simplify the consumer’s experience with online order & pay, bringing table & takeaway ordering together on to one platform that businesses of all sizes can afford to join. The platform makes the ordering process contact free, but it’s the reduction in administration time, increase in rate of sale, and access to a broad marketing platform where the true value of pour lies.”
Find out More
Find out more about the platform by visiting https://www.pourit.co.uk or drop the team an email hello@pourit.co.uk
Fintech Previse, finalist in Innovator of the Year Awards
Fintech Previse announced today that they have been named a finalist in The Spectator’s Economic Innovator of the Year Awards. The awards recognises the companies that will rewrite the rules and help rebuild the economy in 2020.
This is a very prestigious award and the winners will be announced after digital presentations made today by the various businesses to the judges.
Paul Christensen, CEO of Previse, said:
“Being named a finalist for Economic Innovator of the Year by The Spectator is a testament to the team at Previse, who have been working day-in-day-out during the pandemic to ensure that SMEs get the support that they need. This year, we have been accredited as a CBILS lender, and our £2.5 million grant from the BCR to accelerate growth, along with the partnership with the FSB, has been an exciting new chapter in our story. However, the hardest work is yet to come as the global economy must innovate its way out of a depression unapparelled in modern economic history. What we are building here goes beyond just a great product: we’re creating a movement that ensures that every SME has the option of instant payment whenever they issue an invoice.”
Zumo launches crowdfunding campaign via Seedrs
This article was written by Nick Jones, CEO at Zumo. Fintech Scotland doesn’t give financial advice and only help Scottish fintech firms with relaying their messages. As with all investment your capital is at risk.
Approved by Seedrs.
We’re delighted to announce that we’re working with Seedrs on our crowdfunding campaign.
This is an exciting investment opportunity and we’ve already had a lot of interest from investors from all walks of life. We’d love it if you could join us for this limited opportunity to own a piece of Zumo!
You can access the pre-registration page here.
Here’s a recap of the opportunity:
Our digital wallet has already gained significant recognition in the form of funding, user feedback and extensive press coverage in the UK. Further funding will enable us to expand our marketing efforts to make Zumo available to everyone, everywhere and to start rolling out our B2B offerings – the ZumoKit software development kit and our payments platform, ZumoPay.
Our main source of revenue is our in-app currency exchange. We charge users 0.5% for any exchange transaction, across all currencies available within the Zumo wallet. This makes us one of the most cost-effective as well as secure ways to buy and sell cryptocurrency.
Our convertible debit card, which is planned for launch next month, will allow users to make card payments in both cryptocurrency and GBP. As time goes on, we’ll be adding more traditional and cryptocurrency options.
If you know of anyone else that might be interested, we would appreciate it if you could share the link.
Zumo: Smart Money for Everyone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUuyI40dxDE&feature=youtu.be
Scotcoin announces the launch of its new ERC20 token
Scotcoin’s new token uses the Ethereum blockchain, the second largest distributed ledger network in the world by market capitalisation after Bitcoin. Adoption and use of the Ethereum blockchain assures that Scotcoin remains a bona fide distributed ledger cryptocurrency whose future sustainability is not in the hands of a few.
Temple Melville, CEO of The Scotcoin Project CIC said:
“I am delighted that we have finally reached this milestone in the evolution of Scotcoin. We have worked hard to meet the condition laid down by our stakeholders and funders that the durability and sustainability of the token would never be in the hands of the few. Use of the Ethereum blockchain assures that that objective is met”.
The Scotcoin Project is a not for profit community interest company that seeks to educate and inform the public on digital currencies and blockchain technology. It occupies the ethical space and is developing a program of initiatives designed to help improve the personal and financial prospects of those with the fewest opportunities afforded by the current economic landscape.
Moving to an ERC20 token means that our coin is basically acceptable on any exchange, and in fact we will be having an IEO (Initial Exchange Offer) over the next year. The move will enable us to engage with nearly everyone who has an interest in digital currencies. As an aside, digital currencies are most definitely now an asset class but are also a hedge against the massive quantitative easing that has taken place world-wiide during the Corvid-19 pandemic. We are already seeing inflation creeping into our daily lives in contrast to the mildly deflationary effect of digital and crypto currencies.
For further information please contact Temple Melville on temple@scotcoinproject.com
Paul Forrest joins Blockchain Technology Partners
Scottish fintech Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), just announced it had appointed Paul Forrest as its first chairman.
Paul has been advising many FTSE 100 and Global 500 businesses in the past 25 years including Ford Motor Company, Wal-Mart, Virgin Galactic and AkzoNobel. Paul is also on the board of Glasgow based recruitment firm MBN solutions and is involved in the Virgin Startup Programme as a mentor. Always interested in blockchain he founded the IdeaGist Blockchain Incubator.
Duncan Johnston-Watt, CEO & Co-founder of BTP said: “Paul understands the potential for growth in enterprise blockchain adoption, having been involved in this space for several years and at the cutting edge of successive waves of innovative enterprise technologies throughout his career. We are delighted Paul has decided to take up this role and help us scale the business and lay the groundwork for future investment.”
Paul Forrest said: “I am excited to be joining BTP at a pivotal point in their journey. Their management team has demonstrated an ability to develop a scalable product and close early enterprise deals. Given the present circumstances I was particularly impressed by their ability to secure a contract with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange to deliver their innovative blockchain-based securities lending platform.”
Paul was involved in BTP’s latest angel funding round which was led by Aberdeen Asset Management co-founder Martin Gilbert and former deputy Andrew Laing.