Fintech, Finance, Technology, Banking Highlights – 29 November 2018
BNP Paribas to bring Apple Pay to France
In Europe, the proportion of payments made via smartphone continues to rise, with the penetration of mobile devices and the increasing volume of uses representing significant development potential for the mobile payment market.
Having made Apple Pay available to its clients in the USA in 2016, followed by Poland in June 2018, customers of BNP Paribas Fortis and Hello bank! in Belgium, as of today, can take advantage of Apple Pay. In France, BNP Paribas and Hello bank! customers will be able to access Apple Pay in early 2019. In addition to Belgium and France, BNP Paribas will support Apple Pay in other countries including Ukraine via its UKRSIBBANK subsidiary.
“The international roll-out of Apple Pay to our customers reflects the determination of BNP Paribas to offer all its customers, wherever they may be, innovative and secure services that simplify their online and in-store purchases,” says Carlo Bovero, BNP Paribas Global Head of cards and innovative payments.
Security and privacy is at the core of Apple Pay. When you use a credit or debit card with Apple Pay, the actual card numbers are not stored on the device, or on Apple servers. Instead, a unique Device Account Number is assigned, encrypted and securely stored in the Secure Element on your device. Each transaction is authorized with a one-time unique dynamic security code.
HK-based loan origination and credit scoring engine Oriente raises $105 million
Oriente, the Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company committed to unlocking financial inclusion in emerging Asia, announced today that it had completed a US$105 million initial funding round.
This included investment from the founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas. The round ranks as one of the largest initial funding rounds by any startup in Asia, and also for a FinTech company worldwide.
The financing is being used to accelerate technology and product development, scale multi-market operations, and power the growth of Oriente’s digital solutions into new markets, expanding its reach to millions of new customers in Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Oriente is in prime position to address a clear opportunity: with over 70% of Southeast Asia’s 600+ million still unbanked (according to KPMG), an explosion of interest and investment in the digital lending space recently, and more governments pushing for greater financial inclusion through the adoption of digital platforms and new emergent technologies.
Numerated raises $8m
Numerated, the financial technology company offering banks a real-time lending and growth platform, announced today it has closed $8 million in additional financing—bringing its total funding to $17 million.
Banks of increasing size and complexity are selecting Numerated for digital lending, and the company will use this additional financing to meet market demand and scale its operations.
Current Numerated investors Venrock, FIS and FINTOP Capital led the financing. The company also welcomes new investor Raj Date, the founding Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and current Managing Director at Fenway Summer Ventures. Date will join Numerated’s Advisory Board, bolstering the company with veteran banking and lending expertise.
Date shared, “The industry has been sorely lacking a solution designed specifically for community and regional banks to compete and win against giant global banks and alternative lenders in business banking. Numerated has quickly grown to become the market leader in business lending with its real-time fintech platform, and I look forward to advising the company as it continues its growth.”
CyberGRX raises $30m
CyberGRX, provider of the world’s first and largest global cyber risk exchange, today announced that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners.
Existing investors Aetna Ventures, Allegis Group, Bessemer Venture Partners, The Blackstone Group, ClearSky, GV, MassMutual Ventures, and TenEleven Ventures also participated in the round. In the last 12 months, CyberGRX has seen over 1,000 percent growth in both annual revenue, and in companies on the Exchange. The company will deploy the secured capital to support this explosive user growth, further extend augmentation capabilities with a market-leading analytics package, and advance the mission to build a community where enterprises can organize a collective defense against attackers. To date, CyberGRX has raised a total of $59 million in equity financing.
CyberGRX has transformed the way the market conducts third-party cyber risk management by replacing static and siloed methods with a dynamic and collaborative approach that unites third parties and their customers in the fight against cyber threats. While organizations and third parties face different challenges in third-party risk management, CyberGRX has proven that organizations are stronger when they work together. The CyberGRX Exchange breaks down barriers between third parties and their customers, enabling them to share dynamic data and create actionable insights on how to prioritize and reduce their collective risk. As more companies continue to join CyberGRX in an alliance against supply chain attacks, the benefits of the Exchange get stronger and organizations profit from a collaborative approach, including joint negotiation, community benchmarking and shared costs among users.
