Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 20 August 2018
Open Banking Pioneer Deposit Solutions Closes New Investment Round of USD 100m Led by Vitruvian Partners and Sees Valuation Exceed USD 500m
Deposit Solutions, the Open Banking pioneer and international platform for savings deposits, announced the closing of a new funding round.
The round was led by private equity firm Vitruvian Partners. Vitruvian was joined by Kinnevik and existing shareholders including Deposit Solutions’ first institutional shareholder e.ventures in a transaction worth a total of USD 100m, valuing the company at USD 500m.
Dr. Tim Sievers, CEO and founder of Deposit Solutions said: “We are delighted to welcome Vitruvian and Kinnevik as new shareholders. They are experts in supporting high-growth companies, which makes them ideal partners for us. Their deep industry expertise and financial firepower will help us achieve our mission of making Open Banking the new standard for the global USD 50 trillion market for savings deposits.”
Deposit Solutions’ Open Banking platform transforms the value chain in the savings deposit market to the benefit of banks and savers alike. Banks seeking deposit funding benefit from Deposit Solutions’ unique Banking-as-a-Service model: they can easily connect to the platform and gain access to deposit funding from the clients of other Points-of-Sale in different markets without having to set up and operate their own deposit infrastructure for these customers. As part of its service, Deposit Solutions also operates its own proprietary Points-of-Sale under the brands of ZINSPILOT and SAVEDO, which market the deposit offers of its partner banks directly to savers. On the other hand, banks and non-bank financial Point-of-Sale owners that want to offer their own customers an attractive choice of deposit products can integrate the platform into their own ecosystem to provide their customers with a selection of third-party deposit products under their existing client relationship.
Experian launches powerful analytics solution to help businesses harness the benefits of big data
Experian has launched a new analytics solution in the UK to help organisations make fast, reliable decisions with deeper insight than ever before.
Experian Ascend Analytics on Demand is an integrated data and analytics platform which offers cutting-edge insights to businesses of all sizes.
The UK launch follows a successful introduction in North America. Ascend allows Experian’s clients to access a full range of Experian’s anonymised trended data, delivering results securely in real time in a range of formats to suit the user’s preference.
Enabled by open-source technology, the platform allows users to build their own predictive models to develop business strategies, including machine learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques, and make decisions.
The Ascend launch marks the first time this level of tailored self-service and instant analysis has been available to in-house analytics teams.
Tom Blacksell, Managing Director of B2B at Experian, said: “Businesses must be able to call upon and understand a range of data assets to compete in today’s economy. Ascend brings the very latest in analytical innovation to help them turn vast quantities of data into actionable insights. Leading in turn to more accurate and well-informed decisions, and ultimately bringing better services to market, more quickly, and increasing their revenues.”
Valuto launches API
Valuto.com, an international brand of Walutomat.pl, shares its know-how for automatic integration with other systems. This well-known platform starts its open API for companies that are interested in currency exchange, or automatisation of settlements on the basis of local and foreign transfers.
Open API allows to integrate the company’s individual system with Valuto, which will make the process of currency exchange and transfer more efficient. API allows for automatic handling of even 20 currencies with real exchange rate, free transfers for most banks in Poland and international SWIFT and SEPA transfers.
– This is an excellent solution for companies that wish to extend their services for clients, partners and automatise their payment processes using ready-made, reliable solutions by our company – says Piotr Kurczewski, CEO of Currency One SA, operator of Valuto. – This API has been functioning, e.g. in Przelewy24 and we are very happy both with its functioning mechanism and with the possibilities it gives.
Open API allows to combine accounting, storage, production management and supply chain systems with the payment functions for the contractors basing on currency exchange and currency transfers. What is important, technical and functional integration may be adjusted to individual needs of partners.
