MONEY2020
Europe Fintech Industry Roundups Trending

‘Announced at Money 20/20 2023’ – a TFT News Roundup

As Money 20/20 Europe 2023 comes to a close and we say goodbye to the RAI Amsterdam for another year,  we also bring you a roundup of notable fintech updates announced at the three-day conference.

‘Europe’s Got Access’ winner revealed

ZeroLabs, a renewable energy-focused SaaS, won Europe’s Got Access, a pitch battle for climate fintech startups. The battle provided an opportunity for startups to demonstrate their greenest and most groundbreaking products and services in the fight against climate change.

The top five selected startups also pitched to a panel of judges live on the Encore stage for a chance to win a $100,000 uncapped SAFE investment from Commerce Ventures.

Beltran Berrocal, co-founder & CEO of ZeroLabs, said the prize money would help it scale up its team and efforts to reach more companies and individuals and boost climate action globally.

“We thank Money20/20 and Commerce Ventures for this fantastic opportunity and for giving us an amazing platform to spread our message and onboard the fintech industry onto the mission to zero emissions.”

While, Dan Rosen, founding partner of Commerce Ventures, also added: “Our aim is to invest and support fintech innovators with a wider purpose impacting our industry. ZeroLabs impressed us with their unique approach and their ambition towards a greener future. Congratulations ZeroLabs and to all of the finalists.”

money 2020

Plum launches ‘Interest’ product for UK and EU customers

Money app Plum also revealed plans to introduce an ‘Interest’ offering in Q3, so customers can benefit more quickly and directly from rising central bank rates.

Plum customers in the UK and EU will be able to hold their money in government-backed assets that more closely reflect the respective interest rates offered by the Bank of England as well as the European Central Bank..

Victor Trokoudes, founder and CEO of Plum, who announced the new feature at the Money 20/20 conference, said: “The current system is fundamentally flawed. Banks are incentivised to maximise the difference between the rate they lend at and their cost of deposits in order to grow their new interest margin. That means they’re effectively incentivised to pay the lowest possible rate to their depositors to maximise profits.

“Enough is enough. At Plum, we’re going to provide our customers with an account that generates interest at a level much closer to the BoE and ECB base rates. Our product will allow people to put their money directly to work with the Government via a money market fund rather than see their return diluted by a banking intermediary.”

Zilch opens its ASPN to third parties

Zilch, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) payments technology and advertising platform, rolled out its Ad-Subsidised-Payments-Network (ASPN) to third parties through open APIs.

It said the proprietary ad-sales platform has demonstrated outstanding results for retailer partners as well as provided customers with over $160million in savings via cashback, rewards and interest-free credit.

Philip Belamant, CEO and co-founder of Zilch, said: “Opening up ASPN to third parties is an important step in creating what could be a trillion-dollar-plus payments ad-marketplace. On one side you will have millions of consumers transacting billions every month and receiving access to interest-free-credit, savings and rewards on their purchases. On the other, you’ll have hundreds of thousands of retailers bidding to get in front of a massive closed-loop network of ultra-high-intent consumers with a sustainable means to spend.

“We truly believe that this is the future of the advertising industry, and that our current results, across almost $2billion of commerce to date, bear evidence to that.”

money2020

Jifiti and FIS deliver end-to-end embedded lending services 

Jifiti, an embedded lending technology company, has penned an agreement to launch an embedded lending solution with FIS.

The collaboration will also bring to market an end-to-end embedded solution for banks and financial institutions to deliver services to merchants including buy now, pay later (BNPL) programmes.

“FIS is committed to its mission: Advancing the ways the world pays, banks and invests,” said Silvia Mensdorff-Pouilly, SVP and head of banking and corporates, EMEA at FIS.

She also added: “Providing new capabilities in support of the current embedded finance revolution is a proof point of our mission in action.”

In addition, Yaacov Martin, CEO of Jifiti, said: “Any qualifying merchant worldwide will be able to ‘switch on’ a wide range of embedded lending options at any point of sale, seamlessly integrated within the merchant’s own customer and settlement journey. At Jifiti, we have recognised that our mission is to empower banks, lenders and merchants to be there for their customers through accessible, responsible and affordable embedded lending solutions.”

ICBG launches open finance enabled retail banking platform

Intellect Global Consumer Banking (iGCB), the consumer banking arm of Intellect Design Arena Limited, has launched its open finance enabled retail banking platform built on eMACH.ai.

It empowers banks to create products and curate experiences by partnering with country-ready marketplace players.

eMACH.ai, an event-driven, microservices-based, API-enabled, cloud-native, and headless platform with underlying AI models, powers the retail banking platform.

Rajesh Saxena, CEO at iGCB, said: “Our new open finance enabled retail banking platform opens up new opportunities for banks in global markets, representing the future of banking. Giving financial institutions access through a centralised eMACH.ai platform that is composable and extensible allowing endless possibilities.”

Zumo unleashes Oxygen

Zumo, the B2B digital assets infrastructure, launches Oxygen, a decarbonising digital assets solution for
financial institutions prioritising ESG.

The targeted solution combines the forecasting and calculation of crypto electricity consumption with standard industry data, and also uses renewable energy procurement in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) to ensure crypto or blockchain activities are transparently and verifiably powered by renewables.

Nick Jones, co-founder and CEO, Zumo, said: “The associated carbon footprint can be a huge elephant in the room when it comes to rolling out a digital asset product. With Oxygen, the first solution of its type, we’re offering businesses practical ways to meet customer demand for digital assets whilst mitigating
environmental challenges, and demonstrating positive, ESG-aligned action.”

Oxygen empowers banks, asset managers, and other financial institutions to align their digital asset offering with their wider net zero strategy and make verifiable decarbonisation  claims. We’re extremely proud of today’s launch, which follows a lot of hard work together with our friends at Zero Labs. I hope it sends a positive signal to the rest of the market about exactly what’s possible.”

Author

Related posts

This Week in Fintech: TFT Bi-Weekly News Roundup 23/01

The Fintech Times

Government Confirms BNPL Regulation; But do Consumers Need More?

Tom Bleach

MEA Women in Fintech with Shanthini Raja in Bahrain

Richie Santosdiaz