Author: Akin Naphtal

UK fintech company, Atoa Payments is announcing a $2.2M pre-seed funding round to reduce by 70% the payment fees and offer a new approach to making payments. The funding was led by Leo Capital and Passion Capital and also included well regarded angel investors such as Matt Robinson (co-founder of GoCardless and Nested) alongside Moon Capital Ventures. Anil Stocker, Co-Founder & CEO of MarketFinance also serves as a company advisor. There are more than 4 million small businesses in the UK which have no viable alternative to debit card payments and are reliant on Mastercard or Visa payment rails. Challenging…

CTBC Bank USA has announced to the public that its President & CEO Noor Menai will speak at the FT Global Banking Summit on December 1 in London.Menai will present on the “Banking in Asia – Leapfrogging traditional banking” panel, addressing if during the economic downturn Asia-Pacific biggest lenders will continue to aggressively digitalize their businesses. The discussion will gauge if Asia’s banks are on pace with the rest of the financial world in terms of digital transformation, and how they will confront the operational and reputational risks that come with digitalization. Menai will offer his view if the prospects…

SONY Group’s has announced the launch of its latest gadget, a set of wearable motion trackers designed to bring users into the metaverse on their phones.The new Mocopi system consists of six pucks worn around the user’s wrists, ankles, head and hips, used to animate avatars inside various metaverse apps on Sony Android phones or Apple iPhones. Priced at 49,500 yen (S$491) and launching in Japan in January, the Mocopi kit adds to the company’s ventures into virtual and augmented reality.READ ALSO:Code Computerlove Appoints Gemma Handley as new Managing Director Promoting Digital Trade in Africa UK Unveils new Strategy to…

Is e-commerce the future of trade in Africa? Where does Africa stand in the digital trade? What are the current challenges and the solutions to overcome them?

Code Computerlove has announced the appointment of Gemma Handley as the new Managing Director.Gemma joined Code in 2018 and the promotion sees her moving from Commercial Director to Managing Director at the start of 2023. Gemma will replace current MD Rob Jones who is taking up a new position outside the group.Part of MediaCom North, Code was established in 1999 by founders Tony Foggett, Louis Georgiou and Wini Tse, and Gemma will now lead the 80-strong agency through its next phase of growth.Gemma has 15 years of experience in commercial delivery and operations and has been instrumental in introducing new…

The UK government has unveiled its long-awaited digital strategy, designed to bolster the country’s digital economy. The new UK Digital Strategy could increase the UK tech sector’s contribution to the economy by £41.5bn by 2025, and create 678,000 additional jobs, the government claimed.The UK’s digital sector contributed £151bn to the country’s economy in 2019, according to the strategy, and accounted for 9% of the national workforce. Other achievements include having Europe’s largest data economy, more VC investment and unicorns than France and Germany, and the lowest corporation tax in the G7, it said.A recent assessment by the OECD found that…

Snap Inc has launched the web version of its instant messaging app Snapchat this year and made it free for all in September. Now, the company has debuted on the Microsoft Store with a Progressive Web App (PWA) for the Windows platform that works just like the web version. Snap has always avoided Microsoft Store even when the company used to have Windows phones. But now things have taken a turn for Windows users that can now use Snapchat PWA to see stories, access messages, and get notifications on their laptops. Just like the web version, users can also take…

Jeremy Legg is two months into his role as CTO of AT&T, and he has been tasked with a big mandate: transforming the company into a software-driven business, with 5G and fiber as core growth areas. This isn’t Legg’s first CTO gig, just his biggest one. He’s an entertainment biz guy who’s now at the center of the much bigger, albeit less glamorous, telecom business. Prior to joining AT&T in 2020, Legg was the CTO of WarnerMedia, where he was the technical architect behind HBO Max. He sat down for a conversation with Protocol in June at Toronto’s Collision tech…

Facctum, a RiskTech company specialising in cloud-based anti-financial crime technology, has launched an open-access search version of its FacctView platform. This technology allows users to search business relationships and determine areas of potential sanctions compliance risk. FacctView was designed to deliver financial crime risk management tools as a Software-as-a-Service. It leverages high-speed Ab Initio parallel processing technology in combination with a cloud-native product to help detect financial crime risks. READ ALSO: OpenWay Launches Way4 for CaaS Providers Across the Globe UK and Singapore ink fintech MoU Equals Group Acquires Open Banking Platform Roqqett Ab Initio provides Facctum with clustering and…

OpenWay has announced that its Way4 Card-as-a-Service enabling platform which recently launched in Europe, is now available to Card-as-a-Service and Wallet-as-a-Service providers around the world. CaaS players on Way4 can now provide their issuers with any payment product based on cards and wallets: credit, debit, corporate, fleet, installment, prepaid, virtual, loyalty, and gift. Way4 also supports multiple Buy Now, Pay Later options. Along with BNPL, other advantages include card program diversity, carbon footprint trackers, digital card issuance, and push provisioning of cards to wallets. READ ALSO: UK and Singapore ink fintech MoU Equals Group Acquires Open Banking Platform Roqqett Moroccan…