Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 20 October 2017
Red Deer announces a strategic partnership with Instinet Europe
Red Deer, a next-generation financial technology company dedicated to enhancing the performance of active investment managers, announces a strategic partnership with Instinet Europe Limited to provide an integrated solution to seamlessly manage research inducement, consumption, valuation, payment and commission management under the new MiFID II regime.
Red Deer’s research valuation management solution will attribute, forecast, track and manage budgets for research funding and consumption, integrating with Instinet’s RQ Connect application within its research payment and commission management platform, Plazma, to provide a seamless end-to-end research valuation and payments process.
Commenting on the partnership, Luke Oubridge, CEO Red Deer, said, “A number of Red Deer clients have chosen to work with Instinet to manage their research payments as part of MIFID II research unbundling. Integrating gives them a pain-free and complete end-to-end solution, allowing them to reduce operational overhead and free up resource to focus on other challenges they may face in preparing for the January deadline.”
WeSwap kicks off £8 million Series B raise
Mayfair based private equity firm IW Capital has today announced the launch of its series B investment round for one of the UK’s leading fintech scale-ups -WeSwap.
Having displayed exponential revenue growth of 116% in the last year alone, the series B round will serve as the primary driver in continuing WeSwap’s seismic growth thus far. Equipped with an impressive arsenal of global industry firsts, today’s launch follows the company’s landmark crowdfunding drive that saw the largest subscription uptake – formed of 3,500 investors – for any UK crowdfunding campaign; all of whom are users of the platform.
Having delivered consistently impressive metrics since its inception, WeSwap’s 30+ travel industry partnerships, API integration, and a growing hotbed of travel-money products, firmly secures its position as one of the UK’s leading innovators in foreign exchange. Today’s series B announcement follows a spectacular summer of product roll-outs for the company, with recent launches including a next-day cash delivery service that has proved hugely popular – over £5 million already ordered – and a unique credit offering that is held at 0% for the first 30 days, allowing users to borrow as they spend.
Azimo reports triple-digit growth; hires former PayPal exec as COO
Azimo, the leading online money transfer business, today announced triple-digit growth across virtually every metric – including transactions sent, gross transaction volume, and revenue – as online remittance from the diverse communities of Europe to the rest of the world booms.
For example, over the past 12 months, Azimo saw a 236% increase in the amount of money sent to Poland, with Moldova (225%) and Nigeria (207%) following closely behind.
Celebrating its fifth anniversary, Azimo is uniquely positioned to serve Europe’s 100-million-strong global migrant population. With a payment network reaching 190 countries globally, it is now one of the most widely used online platforms for money transfer in the world. On average, the company has saved each of its customers £216/ $287 per year compared to traditional banks and money transfer businesses.
The news comes as Azimo unveils the latest addition to its senior team. Richard Ambrose, previously Chief of Staff at PayPal EMEA, has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer to help lead the brand’s next phase of growth.
NatWest applies Open Banking protocols to share data with FreeAgent
Earlier this year, the bank partnered with FreeAgent, which allows small businesses to track their finances and report their taxes digitally.
Now, the bank has improved the process for all its small business customers to enable them to sign-up using their existing business banking login details, ensuring that the process is safe, secure and completely paper-free. Under Open Banking protocols, this means that if the customer chooses, their information can be shared directly with FreeAgent, without the need for an intermediary.
Marcelino Castrillo, Managing Director, Business & Private Banking for NatWest, welcomed the move: “This is a unique mix of banking and cloud-based accounting that helps protect small business customers and save them time. As we see changes in our customers’ behaviour, we have to make sure that we’re responding with practical, helpful innovation. The partnership with Free Agent will help us to make a meaningful difference for UK businesses and is a clear demonstration of the support we can offer.”
