Modulr, new principal issuing member of Visa
Scottish fintech Modulr just announced it has become a principal issuing member of Visa. As such they have access to the industry-leading global payments network and have the opportunity to enhance their proposition with new features (optimised pricing, faster and easier ways to launch Visa products).
Modulr removes the need for an intermediary bank. They can issue Visa products directly, which, in terms, allow for greater control over delivery, payment infrastructure and scheme compliance issues.
Modulr will use the partnership to accelerate its impressive growth in Europe. The fintech will launch card capabilities in both the consumer and business spaces soon, as well as additional issuing currencies.
“Gaining direct access to key financial infrastructure, such as the Visa network, means that we gain more control and are able to deliver faster, simpler and increasingly friction-free full payment capability to our clients. By opening up access to non-banks such as ourselves, it also helps to provide a more level playing field for competition in the sector.
We look forward to extending the functionality of Modulr’s core platform with a leading card scheme, enabling us not only to build a more reliable service, but to pioneer payments innovations even faster.”
Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr
“We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Modulr, an exciting payments platform that enables digital businesses to offer innovative, user friendly, payment solutions. We look forward to working with Modulr as it looks to expand its portfolio and grow across key sectors in Europe such as travel. We look forward to seeing how our partnership will enable even more businesses across the UK and Europe to benefit from Visa products, driven by powerful payment solutions built by Modulr.”
Jill Docherty, Head of Business Development, UK & Ireland at Visa
In 2019, Modulr became one of only a few non-banks to gain direct access to Bacs and Faster Payments and recently won Best Initiative from an SME at the Card & Payments Awards 2020.
Scottish fintech iDelta launches Open Banking Insights app
Edinburgh-based fintech iDelta announced the launch of its Open Banking Insight app to traditional banks combat the rapid rise of online challengers.
Last year, the implementation of Open Banking required the UK’s 300 banks and 45 building societies to release customer bank transaction data to authorised third parties with customer approval. Customers can therefore access their bank accounts using new solutions that make it easier to see several accounts in one place.
Scottish fintech iDelta developed a new app that provides retail banks with data driven insights on all aspects of business and infrastructure performance.
The iDelta Open Banking app allows incumbents to gain visibility on whether or not they are satisfying their customers needs. Indeed, with iDelta they can analyse and understand the interactions their customers are having with other providers.
“Open Banking is intended to increase competition in the marketplace, and in a competitive environment you get innovation. While challenger banks and other financial third parties are revolutionising the marketplace, there is still huge opportunity here for the incumbent banks to drive forward innovation, using insights gleaned from existing customer data to develop customer-focused products”.
“Our app gives the market a low-cost, highly efficient and extensible way of providing a business with a central view of their customer banking channel. Banks that choose to fully use the data they are generating, with the app we have built, will position themselves at the forefront of this new channel of business.”
Stuart Robertson, director at iDelta
The app uses an abstraction layer to deal with the fact that every bank will have different technology stacks. This allows its dashboards and reports to work with each bank’s systems with minimal customisation.
Further International Exposure for Scotland’s Fintech Sector
Scotland’s reputation as a global fintech base has been enhanced after hosting a visiting delegation of sector leaders from Japan.
The Scottish Government’s Trade and Investment Minister Ivan McKee formerly welcomed the fintech representatives, who visited Scotland for a two-day programme organised by Scottish Development International (SDI).
The visit was part of the Department for International Trade’s inaugural JP-UK Tech Rocketship Awards for entrepreneurs in Japan.
Engagements for the delegation, which consisted of five fintech companies based in Japan, included a visit to the Bayes Centre, the University of Edinburgh’s innovation hub for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, a tour of IT company Fujitsu’s office in Edinburgh and an overview of the Scottish fintech sector by FinTech Scotland during a tour of RBS’s Gogarburn HQ.
Speaking after the visit, Mr McKee said: “Scotland is globally recognised as an attractive and welcoming place for companies operating within financial services.
“This SDI programme allowed us to show our visitors from Japan the collaborative approach Scotland operates within the fintech sector, where our public institutions, academia and the private sector work together to support innovation and encourage business growth.
“This visit will further increase Scotland’s profile in the Far East and is another step towards our goal of being ranked among the world’s top five fintech cluster nations.”
The visit was the latest boost for Scotland’s international fintech profile. At the end of January, the Scottish fintech sector became the first in the UK, and only the third in Europe, to receive formal accreditation as a cluster of excellence.
The European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis, which benchmarks economic clusters across Europe, looked at 36 indicators before making the award.
The Scottish cluster was founded as an independent industry organisation by the financial services sector, universities, the Scottish Government and Scottish Enterprise, and is overseen by FinTech Scotland.
Stephen Ingledew, CEO of FinTech Scotland, said: “The visit to Scotland by the fintech entrepreneurs from Japan was another example of the global collaboration with fintech centres around the world.
“Working with the SDI team, the fintech trade visit from Japan provided the opportunity to share why Scotland has been recognised as a fintech cluster centre of excellence, one of only three in Europe.”
Mr Ingledew added that FinTech Scotland had recently signed a collaboration agreement with both the Fintech Association of Japan and Fintech Tokyo, which will strengthen connections to develop innovation opportunities.
Takeshi Kito, Vice Chairman of the Fintech Association of Japan and CEO of Crowd Realty said: “I am very excited on agreeing the partnership and signing the MoU with Fintech Scotland.
“We look forward to working with the Fintech ecosystem of Scotland based in the second largest financial centre in the UK, which holds a number of large asset management firms.”
As part of its second anniversary celebrations last month, FinTech Scotland announced that the number of fintech SMEs based in the country had grown by more than 60% over the past year.
It is estimated that there are now 119 fintech SMEs operating in Scotland, coming from as far afield as Australia, the United States and Europe.
Visiting Japanese companies were:
Keychain http://keychain.io
Moneytree https://moneytree.jp
Credify 　 https://credify.one
Soramitsu https://soramitsu.co.jp/
Crowd realty　https://www.crowd-realty.com/en/
Money Dashboard and Wealthify to team up
Money Dashboard, the Scottish fintech that helps people manage their finances has just announced an integration with robo-investor Wealthify. This integration will let users view their investment accounts alongside the other current, credit and savings accounts they hold.
The Money Dashboard app lets people aggregate their various accounts and understand their spending habits to help them save and budget. Wealthify are the first investment integration rolled out by the app.
Wealthify provides an an online investment service. People can easily start investing with as little as £1. The investments are made via investment products such as ISAs, General Investment Accounts, and Junior ISAs and soon-to-be-launched Self Invested Personal Pensions.
This announcement follows Money Dashboard’s recent collaborations with leading challenger banks including Monzo, Starling Bank and Revolut.
“Our mission is to help people from all walks of life master their money, so we’re delighted to be rolling out integrations with innovative FinTechs such as Wealthify and making it simple for users to track their investments as well as their day-to-day spending and saving. Having complete visibility over one’s finances in real-time makes it much easier for people to understand their overall financial situation and to progress to where they want to be. This integration is one of a number of exciting new connections we’ll be making with providers across the financial landscape in the coming months”.
Steve Tigar, Money Dashboard CEO
“At Wealthify, we aim to make investing as simple, accessible and transparent as possible. Our integration with Money Dashboard is a fantastic fit for both brands, allowing our customers even greater visibility and control of their money. We are thrilled to be the first digital wealth management platform to partner with Money Dashboard ”“ our values are closely aligned and we have great respect for what they are doing.”
Richard Theo, Wealthify CEO
Fintech business leader named 2020 AccelerateHER Awards Rising Star
Monika Ohashi, CIO of Edinburgh-based fintech business PolyDigi Tech has been named as the Rising Star for this year’s AccelerateHER Awards, an accolade which recognises a female company founder with the best early stage business idea.
Monika co-founded PolyDigi in 2012. The company has already gained recognition from Bank of China’s Hong Kong division for its SIM card authentication-focused patent.
As the Rising Star she will benefit from a package of in-kind support from AccelerateHER’s network of professional partners. She will also have the opportunity to further showcase her business at the awards finals in March where 12 aspirational female company founders have been shortlisted.
This year’s programme called for applications from businesswomen whose companies fit into one of four specific categories: CleanTech and Climate; Disruptive Innovation; MedTech and Science; and FinTech and Cyber Security. Three companies from each sector made it onto the 2020 shortlist.
The three finalists from the CleanTech and Climate category were Jacqueline Morrison of Cedeco Contractors, developers of an offshore wind turbine installation solution; Aslihan Penley of Nomad Engineers, a green wave energy business; and Elaine Galston of Tubular Sciences, creators of a low carbon pipeline connection system.
Shortlisted under the Disruptive Innovation category were Fiona Gillies of content creation market disruptors SMASH; Chantal Epp of performance sports music licensing solution ClicknClear; and Tersha Willis of Terrible Merch, an app-supported music merchandising business.
Among the MedTech and Science category winners was Diane Harbison of health data platform Decipher Analytics. The other category finalists were Claudia Freigang of Hearing Diagnostics, developers of hearing screening technology; and Lise Pape of mobility equipment supplier Walk the Path.
The FinTech and Cyber Security category finalists were Sheila Hogan of Biscuit Tin Planning, developers of a digitally secure data storage vault; Dr Tayyaba Nafees of CyberShell Solutions, developers of a cost effective cyber security system; and Kiran Bhagotra of ProtectBox, a cybersecurity comparison web service.
The short-listed companies were announced following pitches by 24 semi-finalists to the AccelerateHER Awards judging panel. Four winners, one from each category, will be revealed at the finals event on 26 March at Barclay’s Eagle Lab within Edinburgh’s Codebase. Each winner will secure a free slot on a market-building trade mission to Europe or North America to showcase their business to industry contacts and global investors.
“I’m delighted to announce Monika Ohashi as the Rising Star for this year’s AccelerateHER Awards. While PolyDigi may not be quite at the right stage to benefit from winning a place on our market building missions just yet, we join others in seeing its huge future potential. This latest accolade for Monkia will help in their growth journey.“I would also like to congratulate our 2020 finalists. We’re delighted to have received so many great submissions from technology, life sciences and environmentally-focused companies. It is encouraging to see so many innovative businesses being developed across four core sectors which are firmly on the radar of the global investment community.”
Jackie Waring, CEO of Investing Women
AutoRek signs Nationwide as a new client
AutoRek, the Scottish fintech and leading software solutions provider for financial controls, data management and regulatory reporting, have just announced that Nationwide Building Society had joined their list of clients.
The initial contract of 3 years (with option of another 2 years extension) will see Autorek provide Nationwide with their cloud-based financial controls and data management platform.
Nationwide selected Autorek for their ability to deal with a number of reconciliation and attestation challenges. The project will be implemented in a multi-phase approach and will include Mortgages, ATMs, Payments, Cards & Substantiation.
“I am really pleased to welcome an organisation of Nationwide’s calibre to our list of clients. We are looking forward to building a good working relationship with the team and providing them with our experience in helping leading financial services firms better understand their transactional data. This is a landmark deal for AutoRek and the result of an extraordinary team effort on both sides”
Gordon McHarg, AutoRek’s Managing Director
“After a thorough tender process, we were impressed with the quality of the AutoRek tool, it’s speed, adaptability and robustness. We noted that with its cloud functionality that we could face into future with confidence on scale and volume.”
Ian Williams, Director of Financial Control & Operations at Nationwide Building Society
Blockchain Technology Partners brings smart contracts to Amazon Quantum Ledger
Scottish Fintech Blockchain Technology Partners(BTP) has made available its integration of DAML.
Amazon QLDB is now supported by Sextant for DAML in the same way Hyperledger Sawtooth and Amazon Aurora are. The solution simplifies the deployment and management of DAML enabled ledgers.
“There are plenty of scenarios where there is a trusted centralised operator or a natural authority but there is still a requirement to ensure data is not tampered with. DAML on Amazon QLDB addresses these use cases combining the expressive power of DAML with the resilience of AWS.”
Kevin O’Donnell, Co-founder and CTO of BTP
DAML is an open source platform-agnostic smart contract language designed for use in multi-party processes. DAML abstracts away the underlying complexities of blockchains, distributed ledgers, or traditional databases, allowing developers to focus on the business logic of the applications while giving clients deployment flexibility as well as application portability.
“Businesses need to stay nimble to compete and thrive while also maintaining high standards of security and auditability. BTP’s Sextant for DAML with QLDB makes it seamless to run distributed applications without the operational overhead or compromising security,”
Shaul Kfir, co-founder and CTO of Digital Asset.
The integration of DAML on Amazon QLDB is commercially supported by BTP’s management platform, Sextant for DAML, which was launched on the AWS Marketplace at AWS re:Invent in December 2019.
FinTech Alliance partners with FinTech Scotland to boost global engagement and investment funding opportunities for innovative FinTech firms.
London/Edinburgh, 8.00am, Tuesday 25 February 2020 ”“ FinTech Alliance partners with FinTech Scotland to boost global engagement and investment funding opportunities for innovative FinTech firms.
- Through the partnership, FinTech Scotland’s community and cluster activities will be promoted across the FinTech Alliance platform, which aims to bring access to market, talent and capital to the firms across the UK FinTech space.
- The collaboration is part of FinTech Alliance’s mission to bring together the strengths of the global FinTech ecosystem in one destination, fostering collaboration and supporting the growth of the firms and sector as a whole.
- The partnership will build on Scotland’s recent recognition as a FinTech cluster centre of excellence, reflecting the progress made by FinTech Scotland since its formation in early 2018.
- Since its launch in mid-2019, a number of high-profile companies have signed up to the FinTech Alliance platform including Revolut, Level39, OakNorth and Virgin Money, as well as leading Scottish FinTech firms including Direct ID and Modulr.
FinTech Alliance, an innovative digital platform uniting both the UK and the global financial technology sectors, announces a partnership with FinTech Scotland, the independent body established to develop the FinTech community and cluster in Scotland.
The partnership is part of the FinTech Alliance mission to bring together the strengths of the UK’s FinTech ecosystem on one all-encompassing platform, and to support the continued growth of the sector.
The Scottish FinTech community is innovative, collaborative and inclusive, with Scotland home to a growing number of FinTech firms spanning the full spectrum of financial technologies from payments and blockchain to open banking and RegTech.
Scotland was also home to the UK’s first MSc in FinTech, which is offered by Glasgow’s University of Strathclyde as well as the first FinTech Consumer Panel.
Recently, Scotland was recognised as a FinTech cluster centre of excellence by the European Cluster accreditation body which benchmarks the impact of innovation and collaboration across all sectors of the economy.
The partnership will involve collaborating on a number of initiatives, including global development and engagement with investors.
FinTech Alliance will also support FinTech Scotland throughout next year’s Scottish FinTech Festival in September, developing a programme of events, roundtables and discussions.
FinTech Scotland’s content and activity will appear on its FinTech Alliance microsite and will be promoted by FinTech Alliance across social media platforms and newsletters.
FinTech Alliance will aim to keep the Scottish community at the centre of the conversation each month by creating original content, sharing Scottish FinTech news and regularly profiling Scottish FinTechs on the FinTech Alliance platform.
Each and every company in the FinTech Scotland community will be able to avail of unique offers from FinTech Alliance as part of the agreement. The FinTech Alliance platform enables companies within the community to share news and insight, connect with investors and talent, and keep up to date with policy and regulation.
New features and initiatives are being added to FinTech Alliance’s platform on a regular basis, including a Diversity Hub and Mentoring Hub which seek to build a more inclusive FinTech space and offer support to those wishing to build a career in the sector.
FinTech Alliance launched on 10 June 2019 in partnership with the Department for International Trade (DIT). Over 1,000 individuals and companies already have signed up to the Alliance, including Revolut, Thought Machine, OakNorth and CYBG. As users continue to register from all over the UK and internationally, the collaboration between FinTechs gets stronger. The partnership with FinTech Scotland is the latest example of this.
Stephen Ingledew, CEO, FinTech Scotland, added: “This partnership is a further example of driving FinTech innovation through collaborative relationships. We’re impressed by the progress made the Phil and the team in a short space of time and with our shared values of inclusion and diversity combined with a global mindset we aim to accelerate initiatives to support FinTech enterprises.”
Phil Vidler, CEO, FinTech Alliance, said: “It is both exciting and important to have FinTech Scotland on board. Under Stephen’s stewardship, FinTech Scotland has achieved brilliant things as a strategic enabler to some prominent FinTechs in the UK, and has become the true backbone of Scottish FinTech. This partnership cements FinTech Alliance’s commitment to, and support for, all firms across the UK. It also underlines the real spirit of collaboration we are seeing in the FinTech sector ”“ one that will help all involved grow and prosper.”
FinTech Alliance is open to both individuals and companies. While individuals can register for free, businesses are asked to pay a monthly subscription or annual fee for a presence on the platform. The profits made by the organisation will be used to drive further initiatives and support pre-existing organisations in the UK FinTech community.
To sign up and for further information, please go to www.FinTech-alliance.com.
Fintech Zortrex launches Zortrex Token Vault
Scottish fintech Zortrex launched Zortrex Token Vault yesterday.
The Zortrex Token Vault was created to assist organisations with reducing the cost and complexity of protecting against data breaches, ensure customer privacy and compliance with ever-changing regulatory requirements.
The Token Vault tokenises messages in-line, removing and storing sensitive data such as credit/debit card information at the boundaries of an organisation.
Zortrex’s growth plans are very ambitious wishing to become the tokenisation vendor of choice within the financial sector.
Zortrex Token Vault addresses unique requirements of the financial sector, dealing with sensitive data and financial messaging standards, including ISO 8583/20022, DB and Hadoop, ensuring quick and easy deployment into payment environments.
This flexible solution seamlessly integrates with clients’ legacy services and systems, allows organisations to evolve how they manage sensitive information.
Zortrex Token Vault operates from a centralised control point allowing companies to create or amend token masks as well as safely and securely de-tokenise data, in instances where the original data is required, via a web portal. The platform can be deployed as a Software as a Service (SaaS) in the cloud, in a hybrid cloud/on-premises model or entirely on a customers’ premises.
Zortrex Token Vault can be used with any data or string of data. Tokenisation doesn’t rely on encryption keys so organisations don’t have to worry about managing sensitive data – security travels with the data.
“Technology is driving transformation within the financial services sector, and tokenisation is changing the way sensitive information is handled, controlled and disseminated throughout organisations,”
Zortrex CEO – Steve Clarke
Fintech HubSolv moves to new office as company further expands
Scottish fintech, HubSolv Limited, is moving today, Friday 14th February, to a new office in Glasgow City Centre to accommodate growth ”“ as the company further expands into the insolvency and debt management sector.
The team at HubSolv are moving from their previous setting in Glasgow, where they’d been since 2017. The last year saw the company expanding significantly in head count and being recognised as one of the top 50 fastest-growing tech companies in the UK by an influential ranking based on revenue growth.
The new office is in the heart of Glasgow city centre; a stone’s throw from the previous premises, and it is more than double in size totalling 2,896 square foot.
HubSolv recently launched a tool for creditor communication and enhanced its product offering with integrated open banking for the assessment of individuals’ affordability. The software company has ambitious plans to lead digital transformation across the insolvency space and further sectors, with technology solutions that can streamline traditionally paper-based processes in the industry.
Fraser Hamilton, Director of HubSolv, said “We are delighted to be expanding and moving into a much-needed bigger office space, to accommodate our sustained growth. The new office benefits from a central location within our home city of Glasgow, and it’s ideally built for client meetings and training days. We’re looking forward to making the most of the space.”
The new location forms part of the renovated office spaces within The Reel House, an iconic art deco building and former cinema venue in West Regent Street, Glasgow.
All phone numbers and email addresses remain the same, however the new address is:
Hubsolv Ltd
3rd Floor, The Reel House
7 West Regent Street
Glasgow
G2 1RW