ANNOUNCEMENTSTechResearcho recognized BillBitcoins as a top crypto payment gateway worldwide. In response, BillBitcoins stated it strives to provide clients with a seamless, secure payment experience by accepting all major cryptocurrencies on its platform; offering single-click refunds to customers on payments with its merchant account interface; and using the Bitcoin network to maintain transaction records, thus preventing online fraud and protecting identities.
The company also noted the first $1 million bitcoin payments on BillBitcoins are free, with a 1 percent charge thereafter to convert bitcoins into cash.
Endor Labs, which facilitates safe open source software adoption, was recognized as a winner of the 2023 Bay Area Best Places to Work, an awards program presented by the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal.
The award winners represent organizations that have created exceptional workplaces, and which their employees value highly, organizers stated. Applicants were evaluated and ranked across five categories, encompassing such values as fun, collaborative culture, solid compensation and benefits offerings, and other amenities as well as management practices.
Global Processing Services, a next-generation payments platform, said it rebranded as Thredd to reflect the company’s pivotal role in weaving together the different threads of the global payments ecosystem to fuel the growth of electronic payments.
With a new leadership team comprising industry veterans and the backing of future-focused investors, this rebranding signals the next phase of customer partnership and product innovation to bring the aspirations of innovative payments visionaries to life, the company stated, adding that Thredd is known for its customer-centered approach to enable payments innovators to launch new card programs quickly, easily and cost effectively.
Ocrolus, a provider of AI-driven document automation designed to foster quick, accurate lending decisions, integrated GPT embeddings from OpenAI into its technologies. The addition of OpenAI GPT embeddings strengthens Ocrolus’ ability to process semi-structured and unstructured documents, such as bank statements, pay stubs and mortgage applications, without human involvement, Ocrolus stated, adding that the integration will lead to even more efficient document automation for Ocrolus customers, enabling them to process more loans while continuing to deliver the precise data required for financial decision-making.
The RetailTech Breakthrough Awards Program—part of Tech Breakthrough, a market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership—revealed its inaugural list of innovators.
The program attracted more than 1,200 nominations from over 12 countries in categories that included digital displays, checkout automation, smart dressing room, inventory and warehouse technology, bots and chatbots, fraud prevention, and more. A full list of winners is at https://retailtechbreakthrough.com.
Payments processing fintech VizyPay won a 2023 Bronze Stevie Award for Human Resources Department of the Year. The Stevie Awards have recognized VizyPay eight times in the last three years for excellence in customer service, innovative technology, for being one of the fastest-growing tech companies of the year, and now for its hiring and company culture efforts.
VizyPay noted it is a champion for workplace diversity with a team of over 60 percent diverse minorities. VizyPay said it prioritizes hiring based on a candidate’s attitude and ethic, rather than how well a person fits into the bullet points on a job description. This, VizyPay added, allows the company to welcome diversity and authenticity within their culture, while creating a space where employees feel that their strengths are seen and valued.
RESEARCHFYST, a one-stop payments consultancy for ecommerce businesses, released the third and final installment of its three-part report, The Map of World Payments, that reveals exclusive data on ecommerce payment trends across Europe.
With its mission to empower merchants to tap into more revenue opportunities by offering locally used payment methods, FYST said its report gives merchants valuable insights that they can use to optimize their online checkouts, reduce cart abandonment rates and boost sales. Following previous reports on the Middle East and Africa and the Asia-Pacific regions, the third installment drills deep into Europe’s ecommerce landscape, a region encompassing contrasting online payment method trends from country to country.
FYST’s proprietary data has been gathered across 34 countries (18 in western Europe, and 16 in eastern Europe), throwing a spotlight on the proportion of cards, bank transfers, digital wallets and other methods used for online purchases in each country.
According to a recent Nexi Group and BVA Doxa survey of a sample of small and midsize retail and restaurant merchants and freelancers in Italy, Italian merchants now prefer accepting card payments using a POS device over using cash. They also value the benefits of mobile payments and are interested in accepting payments via smartphone.
Findings indicate that 86 percent of those surveyed now rely on POS devices for payment acceptance in Italy. Respondents said they valued the security (81 percent), speed (71 percent), functionality (79 percent) and convenience (70 percent) offered by card payments. Merchants also affirmed that the ability to accept card payments gives their business a more modern (64 percent) and attractive (55 percent) image. Additionally, findings indicate 26 percent of participants' payments were conducted away from the traditional in-store POS. Of those, 88 percent were digital transactions.
PARTNERSHIPSCelerant Technology, a provider of retail software, partnered with Sezzle Inc., a provider of consumer financing solutions. Retailers can now add Sezzle Pay to their Celerant eCommerce website to offer the convenience of “buy now, pay later” with 0 percent APR and connect with millions of existing Sezzle users– increasing both online sales and potential customers, Celerant stated, adding that Sezzle’s integration for Celerant’s in-store POS solution is coming soon.
Paul Paradis, co-founder, and chief revenue officer at Sezzle, noted, “Sezzle brings Celerant merchants a great experience that resonates with all consumers. It is a runaway hit with millennials and Gen Z, in particular, who appreciate that it comes with no interest and no fees if you pay on time, along with the option to build credit.
CryptoOrange partnered with payments platform Paysafe to offer new ways for customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies internationally. Paysafe is also partnering with CryptoOrange to support geographical expansion, particularly in the Latin America region where it recently acquired two local payments companies offering an extensive payments network across Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile and Colombia. Alternative payment methods leveraged by CryptoOrange include digital wallets Skrill and NETELLER, bank transfer solution Rapid Transfer, and Paysafe’s online cash (or eCash) solutions paysafecard and SafetyPay.
Factor4 LLC, a provider of gift card and loyalty solutions, formed a gift card and loyalty program partnership with Golfpay360, a golf course reservation, communication and POS solution.
The partnership is possible via Factor4's gift card and loyalty program integrations with First Data's Clover App Market, Factor4 stated, adding that it enables Golfpay360 to provide omnichannel gift card and loyalty solutions to golf course operators so they can seamlessly process transactions in-store, online and via mobile devices direct on the Golfpay platform. It also enables golf course clients to sell physical and eGift cards from their websites.
Kani Payments, a data reconciliation and reporting provider, was selected by UK climate-conscious neobank Frost as its preferred platform for settlement reconciliations and payment scheme reporting. Established in the UK in May 2022 as an e-money institution, and with a mission to promote climate-conscious payment services, Frost said its app allows users to open a digital e-money account through their phones and receive a UK account number, sort code and IBAN in minutes.
Having raised £1.1 million in seed funding to embark on its next stage of development, Frost turned to Kani Payments to speed up and simplify its transaction reconciliation capabilities. As a data-agnostic platform, Kani Payments can ingest data from any processor or source, and can reconcile complex and contrasting data sets in minutes, the partners stated.
ACQUISITIONAI-powered marketing cloud Zeta Global entered into an agreement to purchase certain assets of WhatCounts Inc., an Atlanta-based digital marketing and engagement platform. The primary purpose of the WhatCounts acquisition, New York City-based Zeta noted, was to acquire technology assets and certain employees. "We believe we can get significant synergies from integrating their Email Service Platform (ESP)," Zeta stated. "In doing so, we think we can take their current customers as well as our existing customers and get them to be more significant over time."
Zeta said that it expects the WhatCounts contribution to its revenue to be less than $4 million for the remainder of fiscal year 2023 due to known expiration and termination of significant customer contracts.
APPOINTMENTSSionic, a provider of omnicommerce, verified rapid payments solutions, appointed Susan Currey as chief compliance officer. With more than 15 years of risk and compliance management experience in the banking and fintech industries, Currey joins Sionic from PayPal where she led a global team focusing on consumer compliance, global financial crimes, operational and information security/privacy reviews.
Reporting directly to Ronald Herman, Sionic founder and CEO, Currey is responsible for evaluating risk on various business initiatives and establishing corporate governance and regulatory framework for Sionic’s payments platform and real-time payments services. Additionally, she will develop and execute risk and compliance management , and testing programs for the company.
Financial crime prevention technology firm SEON hired Matt DeLauro as its new chief revenue officer. Working primarily from the company's office in Austin, Texas, he is expected to leverage his experience as CRO and general manager of Extend, where he led the business' expansion from its Series A round through to Series C and built the company's go-to-market strategy from the ground up.
He will also help SEON continue to prevent online financial crime globally and align to evolving fraud prevention needs across such industries as banking and payments, BNPL and online lending, igaming and casinos, securities exchanges, travel and hospitality, and ecommerce. This is DeLauro's third appointment as an SaaS CRO.
Glia, which unifies digital, phone and automated customer interactions on a single platform, appointed Jay Choi as its first chief product officer. This newly created role oversees product strategy, product management and product marketing under a single product team working closely with engineering leadership to advance Glia's position in the interaction platform sphere.
Choi officially joins Glia after serving as an advisor over the past 12 months, lending his deep experience in product management, product marketing and the benefit of bringing the two together. Choi previously served as chief strategy officer and GM at AppFolio where he led the vertical strategy for financial services.
Before that, he was chief product officer at Qualtrics where he was instrumental in creating the experience management category and reaching the top spot in Forrester Wave and Gartner Magic Quadrant. 
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