The FinTech Five – July 16th 2021
16 July, 2021
Welcome to the FinTech Five, the part of the week where we take a closer look at the best articles, news, and features from over the past week from our FinTech Wales members.
1. Currencycloud release new ebook: ‘It’s Time to Take Your Business Global’
First this week, Currencycloud recently released their free ebook, titled ‘It’s Time to Take Your Business Global’.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a catalyst for change, forcing businesses to adapt rapidly to changes in consumer demand. Even before the pandemic, the case for global expansion was as compelling as it has ever been. But now, the need for a global outlook and access to fast, reliable, affordable cross-border payments and receivables is essential for companies looking to scale.
But what are the advantages of taking your business global and how would you go about doing so?
Currencycloud’s ebook explores these questions:
- The business case for going global, including how expanding internationally can help you access top talent and drive innovation
- What you should take into consideration when setting out your global expansion strategy
- Why it’s vital to find the right partner to help you with cross-border payments and FX.
Download your free copy of the ebook here
2. Tickets Available for Tech Nation’s Open Finance Event
Next, Tech Nation’s Insurtech Board have identified Open Finance as a key driver for the next wave of innovation in Insurance.
Join Tech Nation in their upcoming webinar from 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. on the 22nd of July to explore the key themes and questions from their new research, setting out the ‘need-to-know’ about Open Finance and looking at the opportunities for innovators in both new and established firms.
The event will cover:
- What is Open Finance and why does it matter to Insurance?
- ‘Open Insurance’: what could it look like for product innovation & customer?
- What do retail and SME insurance customers want?
- What do firms need to know and do NOW to realise the potential benefits of Open Insurance?
Panellists include (more speakers confirming soon!):
- Louise O’Shea, CEO Confused.com
- Louise Birritteri, CEO & Founder, Piki
- Richard Phipps, Senior Project & Delivery Lead, Swiss Re
- Leo Miles, Head of Financial Policy, MacMillan
- Alex Wheal, Commercial Client Manager, Hiscox
Whether you’re in product design, underwriting, distribution, or you’re currently scoping out your next insurtech venture, join Tech Nation to hear from leading experts across the sector on the potential opportunities and collective challenges presented by the fast-moving movement towards Open Data in Financial Services.
For more information on the event or to get your free tickets for the event, click here!
3. Leading fintech & crypto investors back Coincover as the global safety standard for cryptocurrency
Next up, Coincover have announced that they have completed their series A funding round – securing multinational investment from several leading FinTech and crypto investors, including; Element Ventures, CMT Digital, Avon Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, FinTech Collective, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, LLLP, Volt Capital and the founding investors, Insurtech Gateway Fund and The Development Bank of Wales.
Coincover’s new investors are world-leading in crypto and scale-up, and the backing of these multinational investment firms will help bring much needed protection to the cryptocurrency industry.
The investment enables Coincover to accelerate the development of their product roadmap and invest in raising awareness of their crypto protection products, to ensure that more people can invest and trade in crypto safely.
David Janczewski, Co-founder and CEO at Coincover, said:
“Crypto can be complex and confusing and people have valid fears around the safety of their funds. With Coincover, we are providing a fundamental building block for a rapidly maturing market by ensuring that people can be protected against making a mistake that can end up costing them thousands. This investment means we can rapidly scale our growth to market and consumer demands, and in doing so ensure more people can invest in crypto safely.”
Michael McFadgen, Partner at Element Ventures, said:
“More and more people are investing in cryptocurrencies, but the industry needs infrastructure and safeguards to make it more consumer-friendly. People don’t want to be losing their laptops and having millions go missing. Coincover is building the infrastructure that will allow crypto to reach mass adoption, with a fantastic management team that can tackle this problem in a way that no one else can. We’re delighted to be supporting David and the team and can’t wait to be a part of their growth journey.”
Read the full article on Coincover’s website, here
4. Hodge joins development finance search engine, Brickflow
Next, Hodge has become the latest lender to plug into Brickflow – the UK’s first search engine for development finance.
Brickflow was set up to address widely-reported funding access issues, making it simple for developers to partner with lenders who share their ambition and vision.
“Working in partnership and providing a great customer experience is crucial to the way we do things, which makes Brickflow an excellent fit,” says Greg Pescott, Senior Development Finance Manager at Hodge.
“We know it can be difficult for borrowers to find development finance that works for them – even experienced developers find it a challenge – so we’re thrilled to be part of Brickflow, a platform that’s truly committed to making it as easy and simple as possible.”
Tim Noble, Lending Director at Brickflow comments:
“We’re delighted Hodge has joined us. This gives borrowers even more choice when it comes to accessing and securing development finance loans, enabling us to save them time, resources, and money.”
You can read the full announcement on Hodge’s website, here
5. New features added to CashCalc
Last but not least, since joining the FE fundinfo family only a few weeks ago, CashCalc have already launched some brand-new features as well as starting work on some exciting new developments – all designed to help you and your entire financial planning process.
In a summary of what happened last month, CashCalc highlighted the following initiatives:
Integration with FE fundinfo (Stage 1):
The first stage of the integration between CashCalc and FE fundinfo is complete and ready for you to use. From today, if you use both CashCalc and FE Analytics, you’ll be able to navigate from your CashCalc account to your FE Analytics account via a ‘quick access’ button, and vice versa.
Improvements to the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) feature:
As part of your ongoing AML obligations, you are required to monitor the HMT Financial Sanctions List to ensure none of your clients appear on the list. However, to help solve this particular pain point (and to eliminate the need for you to manually browse thousands of entries), CashCalc now automatically check the Sanctions List on your behalf.
Updates to your Portal registration page:
Your bespoke Portal registration and login page now has your white-labelled ‘What is a secure Portal’ video embedded onto the page. This means any client you invite to create a secure Portal has the option to watch the educational video and find out how it will benefit their financial planning journey.
You can read CachCalc’s full summary of their new features on their website, here
Until Next Week
And that’s it for the FinTech Five this week. Thank you for reading, and don’t forget to join us next week for more of the best content from across our FinTech Wales membership.