Every Wednesday, we delve into the latest fintech updates from across the UK. This week we explore the foundation of two British banks; and the continuing growth and support of wearable tech.
Oversubscribed funding success to create new British bank
Banking services provider, LHV UK, announced that it has raised £30million to fund the establishment of a completely new bank in the UK. This occurred while it waits for regulatory approval of its banking licence application which it submitted earlier this year.
The banking-as-a-service provider awaits its banking licence in order to separate the activity of its existing retail bank (LHV Bank), from that of LHV UK’s fintech based activity.
LHV Group’s chief executive officer, Madis Toomsalu, asserted: “Confidence in LHV’s plans and activities is strong as our offering was oversubscribed 1.75 times. It is gratifying that the Fundraise turned out to be attractive to existing and new investors, despite the subscription period taking place during a tense geopolitical environment and against the background of declining stock markets. I want to thank investors for their trust – this is a great result that will allow us to capitalise the new bank that we are looking to establish in the UK.”
Wearable paytech to continue growth after investment
The wearable payments provider, DIGISEQ, announced this week that it has received an investment of an undisclosed amount. The investment comes from RTEKK Holdings, part of strategic tech investors Investcorp.
The cash injection will be used to further DIGISEQ’s expansion plans. This comes after it has already experienced significant growth in the demand for its ‘RCOS’ technology. The demand comes from a variety of companies ranging from bank issuers to sports venues worldwide.
DIGISEQ’s ‘RCOS’ technology essentially enables people to pair their bank cards with a range of wearable devices. This enables them to make contactless payments or to use for digital ID authentication.
The company offers personalisation for the customer from end to end. This means that it does not require the NFC chips to be personalised by a manufacturer before being ready for use. Such an advancement has meant that this has the potential to save both manufacturers and banks large amounts of money and time.
Chairman at DIGISEQ, David Birch, said: “We are thrilled that, with the backing of Rtekk, the benefits of our pioneering technology, which creates the perfect blend of convenience, security and engagement, can be brought to even more people and organisations globally. DIGISEQ’s unique ability to deliver remote personalisation via consumers’ devices such as iPhones completely changes the dynamics of [the] sector.”
Rebrand signifies company evolution
Railsbank, the embedded finance experiences platform, has announced this week that it has rebranded and changed its name to Railsr. The move signifies how the company is evolving beyond the sole concept of banking-as-a-service. It intends to make clear its move to deeper embedded finance experiences with this rebrand.
Alongside the rebrand, Railsr has announced it has launched a rewards offering as part of its service. This joins its existing offering of banking, wallets, credit, cards and data. This development means that Railsr has become the first turnkey vendor stack in the embedded finance experiences market.
Co-founder and CEO Nigel Verdon commented: “The world has reached an inflection point. A time of radical digital transformation. Running on Railsr helps our customers drive relationships, revenue, rewards and relevance with their customers. We’re here for every step of their embedded finance experience journey from prototyping through to launching and, ultimately, scaling globally.”
Successful launch announced by UK challenger bank
UK-based challenger bank, Allica Bank, targeted toward established SME’s today announced its successful launch on cloud banking platform, Mambu. Mambu’s platform is helping Allica Bank to bring its range of lending products to SME’s.
Allica announced it had purchased Allied Irish Bank’s British SME customers in November 2021. This included a complex loan portfolio which Allica Bank then needed to offer to customers. As the company needed a technology solution to help them offer these loans in a very short space of time; they opted to make use of Mambu’s composable technology foundation.
“As a fintech, technology is at our core.” said Richard Davies, chief executive officer at Allica Bank. “Whilst we’re focused on building a lot of our own technology solutions, we were presented with a unique opportunity after acquiring a £600million loan portfolio from AIB. We needed the ability to offer customers complex loan products in a matter of months.”
