The HSG START Accelerator held its first Demo Day on 2 December, where eight selected deeptech startups presented their business models to an audience of investors, partners, and guests. Most of the participating startups are already in advanced discussions with investors or have completed a financing round. The programme aims to connect technological excellence with entrepreneurial implementation, preparing European tech startups in the early growth phase for scaling and access to capital and markets. The initiative is a collaboration between the University of St. Gallen (HSG), the START Foundation, and the Switzerland Innovation Park East, with support from the Canton…

RavenPack, a London-based provider of AI and big data analytics for financial services, has partnered with the Financial Times. The agreement includes an investment from FT Ventures and a content licensing deal. It integrates the FT’s news feed and archive into RavenPack’s products, including Bigdata.com, allowing hedge funds, banks, and other institutional clients to develop AI-driven financial tools using FT content. “Our partnership with RavenPack marks a major step forward in how the FT supports the evolving needs of the financial community,” said James Mann, Managing Director of FT Professional. “This is also the FT’s first distribution partnership purpose-built for…

ClearBank has partnered with Plaid. The collaboration aims to enable faster and more secure Pay by Bank experiences for businesses and consumers in the UK. For businesses, the partnership simplifies the sending, receiving, and reconciling of open banking payments through ClearBank’s virtual accounts and direct access to the UK Faster Payments Service (FPS). Virtual accounts allow businesses to match incoming payments to individual users or transactions, improving reconciliation and reducing manual effort. With ClearBank’s cloud-native, real-time infrastructure, Plaid can support faster and more reliable pay-ins and payouts, helping companies provide smoother checkout and account-funding processes. Consumers will also benefit from…

Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group have announced a strategic partnership to integrate traditional and digital asset markets. The partnership will combine the two firms’ capabilities across trading, custody, settlement, collateral management, and tokenised assets, aiming to provide institutional clients with streamlined access to both ecosystems. In the first phase, Kraken will integrate directly with 360T, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary and major foreign-exchange trading venue. This will give Kraken clients access to competitive FX liquidity from one of the largest global pools, improving fiat on- and off-ramp efficiency while maintaining institutional-grade execution. Kraken Embed will be used to expand institutional crypto…

Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have become BlackRock’s most profitable product line, a development that came as “a big surprise” to the company, Cristiano Castro, director of business development at BlackRock Brazil, tod local media. At the Blockchain Conference in Sao Paulo, Castro told reporters on the sidelines of the event on November 28, that the performance had surpassed the firm’s expectations. “We were very optimistic when we launched, but we didn’t believe it would reach such proportions,” Castro said. “Just to give you an idea, [IBIT in the US and IBIT39 in Brazil] are coming very close to US$100 billion…

Kalshi, a US-based prediction market platform where users can trade on real-world events, has announced a US$1 billion Series E funding round at an US$11 billion valuation. The round was led by Paradigm. Other participants included Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Meritech Capital, IVP, ARK Invest, Anthos Capital, CapitalG, and Y Combinator. Founded in 2018, Kalshi has established prediction markets as a financial asset class. It aims to shift consumer engagement from passive observation to active participation, allowing users to trade on the likelihood of future events. “Kalshi is replacing debate, subjectivity, and talk with markets, accuracy, and truth,” said Tarek Mansour,…

Cash, cheque or card: consumers have long had a choice at checkout. Today, developments in artificial intelligence and the rise of cryptocurrencies are expanding these options further and more rapidly. This shift is changing not only how people make payments, but also how they move money, establish trust, and create value. Looking ahead to 2026, payments are becoming more personalised, predictive, and interoperable across traditional and new platforms. Equally important is the foundational work behind these innovations: building infrastructure, establishing standards, and forming partnerships to support these emerging payment experiences. Securing agentic commerce In 2025, generative AI demonstrated its potential…

Nubank has announced its intention to obtain a banking license in Brazil. The move brings a banking institution within the Nubank group and complies with Joint Resolution No. 17, issued by the Central Bank and the National Monetary Council, which standardises brand name usage for regulated entities. Nubank’s brand and visual identity will remain unchanged. The announcement will not affect clients, and all operations will continue as normal. Nubank serves more than 110 million customers in Brazil. “Nubank was founded 12 years ago and has been responsible for the inclusion of 28 million individuals in the financial system. Our identity…

BlackRock, Visa, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have announced partnerships aimed at expanding cloud hosting and AI-driven capabilities for financial institutions and payment services. AWS will host BlackRock’s investment management platform, Aladdin, giving clients additional options for deployment. Aladdin, which firms widely use for portfolio management and risk analytics, operates independently of any single cloud provider. Sudhir Nair, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Aladdin at BlackRock, said, “The Aladdin platform is built to be cloud-agnostic, and Aladdin on AWS is a key step in enabling multi-cloud functionality. By expanding Aladdin to AWS, we are giving clients more choice…

UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched its first AI Live Testing initiative. The programme works with major firms to assess AI in a controlled environment and to better understand its benefits and risks in UK financial markets. The programme supports firms that are ready to deploy AI in live settings. Participants receive guidance from the FCA’s regulatory specialists and technical partner Advai to help develop, evaluate and implement AI systems responsibly. The first cohort includes Gain Credit, Homeprotect (Avantia Group), NatWest, Monzo, Santander, Scottish Widows (Lloyds Banking Group) and Snorkl. The testing focuses on practical questions around evaluation frameworks,…

Regnology, a Frankfurt-based provider of regulatory reporting and supervisory technology, has completed its acquisition of Wolters Kluwer’s Finance, Risk & Regulatory Reporting (FRR) business. The move strengthens Regnology’s role as a reporting partner for financial institutions and regulators. The company said it will ensure continuity for FRR clients. It noted its experience in system migrations and its unified data model on a scalable SaaS platform. The acquisition aligns with Regnology’s plan to combine regulatory expertise with technology development. Its recently launched RRH Ascend platform uses a cloud-native design, automation tools, and AI-driven insights to support regulatory data management. The integration…

Red Hat has expanded its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The partnership supports enterprise-grade genAI on AWS using Red Hat AI and AWS AI hardware. The partnership aims to give organisations flexibility in running high-performance AI inference at scale, independent of underlying hardware. The growth of genAI is prompting organisations to reassess their IT infrastructure. The collaboration combines Red Hat’s platform capabilities with AWS cloud infrastructure and AI chipsets, including AWS Inferentia2 and AWS Trainium3. The Red Hat AI Inference Server, powered by vLLM, will run on these chips, providing a common inference layer that supports any genAI model.…

Zepz, a London-based payments group behind WorldRemit and Sendwave, has launched stablecoin-linked Visa cards, in partnership with Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure platform owned by Stripe. The cards allow Sendwave Wallet customers to spend their digital-dollar balances at merchants worldwide. Zepz has also signed an agreement with Stripe to expand into markets including the US, Canada and Australia. The Sendwave Wallet, launched in October 2025, is a stablecoin-backed peer-to-peer money platform available in more than 100 countries. It allows customers to send, store and spend funds while avoiding currency volatility and offering near-instant transfers within the Sendwave network. Using Bridge’s technology,…

AMINA Bank, a Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA)-regulated crypto bank, has added Paxos’ USDG stablecoin to its custody, trading, and rewards services. The bank has also joined the Global Dollar Network (GDN), a consortium of enterprises supporting the adoption of digital dollars. USDG is a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Paxos Digital Singapore, an affiliate of Paxos. Paxos is a regulated blockchain infrastructure provider with long-standing experience in stablecoin issuance. Paxos Digital Singapore operates as a Major Payments Institution under the supervision of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Membership in the Global Dollar Network gives AMINA Bank’s professional and…

Zodia Markets has partnered with Bank Frick to join its fiat payment network, xPULSE. The collaboration allows Zodia Markets to provide near-instant fiat settlement in major currencies to any participant on the network, even outside standard banking hours. xPULSE supports real-time payments between Bank Frick clients by removing common delays linked to cross-border transfers, banking cut-off times, and manual processes. The network enables faster movement of funds between institutions, improving trade execution, capital efficiency, and treasury operations. Through the partnership, Zodia Markets, backed from inception by Standard Chartered, will offer Bank Frick clients broader access to cross-border liquidity and settlement…

Revolut has enhanced its security features ahead of the festive season, aiming to curb a predicted rise in phone-snatching and ‘transfer mugging’. The UK fintech firm has introduced a new feature, dubbed ‘Street Mode’, designed to protect users in public spaces. According to Finextra, the tool allows customers to define ‘trusted locations’, such as their home. Any locations not marked as safe are then subject to a one-hour delay for transactions, alongside additional identity verification checks. The move comes as phone-snatching incidents in the UK have surged dramatically, with reports rising by 425% since 2021. Criminals often target mobile banking…

Israeli software company Nice is pursuing a strategic shift and is seeking a buyer for Actimize, its US-based financial-fraud prevention unit. A report from Calcalist indicates Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan have been engaged to manage the sale, with an asking price of US$1.5-2 billion. Nice acquired Actimize in 2007 for US$280 million, integrating it as a formal division in 2009 under the Nice Actimize brand. The unit provides financial-risk management tools, including anti-money laundering, fraud detection, and regulatory-compliance solutions. Strategic Shift and Recent Acquisitions The sale follows Nice’s US$955 million acquisition of German AI startup Cognigy, one of the…

Mt Pelerin, a provider of blockchain and self-custody financial services, has announced the launch of personal crypto IBANs within its service. The feature allows users to extend the function of their self-custodial wallets by enabling them to send and receive money across both blockchain and traditional banking networks. Self-custody is a core principle of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, centred on the ability to hold and control one’s own funds without third-party intervention. While this offers financial autonomy, it has traditionally limited interaction with the conventional banking system. The new crypto IBAN is intended to bridge this gap, making self-custody more…

Ten AI infrastructure companies have been named in CB Insights’ 2025 Future Tech Hotshots, recognized among the startups most poised to make an outsized impact in the coming years. This underscores how AI infrastructure has become the focal point for investor and businesses alike, driven by surging demand for scalable and efficient AI platforms that can power next-generation applications. The Future Tech Hotshots 2025, released in October, showcases 45 emerging companies most likely to achieve major impact and strong exits over the next five to ten years. The list is based on CB Insights proprietary data and Mosaic Score, which…

Wallester, Patron GO, and Malcom Finance have been named the three fastest-growing fintech companies in Central Europe, joining six other fintech companies featured among the region’s top 50 fastest-growing technology companies in Deloitte’s latest ranking. All nine fintech ventures appear in the 2025 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Central Europe, a list which ranks the public and private tech companies headquartered in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine, based on their revenue growth from 2021 to 2024. Entrants provided their financial data, which Deloitte cross-checked using each company of these 50 companies’ financial statements. With…