KogoPAY, founded by Dr Narisa Chauvidul-Aw in 2018, has successfully closed its pre-series A investment, raising a total of £1 million from major Asian investors. With this cash and funds previously raised from a Singapore-based FinTech Lightnet and on a crowdfunding campaign in 2019, the company is ready to fulfil its vision of creating a “socially conscious ecosystem” by granting everyone access to affordable digital currency. The long list of services offered by KogoPAY includes: a banking platform, mobile wallet app, real-time cross-border payments, transactions in fiat and digital currencies, QR code payments, and a prepaid card.

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With the increasing number of payment options in consumers’ digital wallets, it’s becoming harder to decide on the best method for a given transaction. Especially when different foreign exchange and withdrawal fees, loyalty points, discounts and cashbacks come into play. The problem has been noticed by the team behind VitraCash, a smart debit card that uses AI to help consumers choose the most suitable payment method for their transactions. The FinTech has just closed a pre-seed round, having raised £330,000 in a crowdfunding campaign. VitraCash is planning commercial rollout in the last quarter of 2021, but the first cards will be issued this summer to a selected group of customers.

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Up to 300,000 small businesses that sell on eBay can benefit from the new offering launched by the eCommerce platform in collaboration with YouLend. The programme, called Capital for eBay Business Sellers (CeBS), was announced as a solution for the cashflow problems that many sellers are experiencing due to the pandemic. As the numbers show, 40% of UK’s SMEs were denied a loan from a bank, and 31% from the government. Therefore, eBay and YouLend will allow businesses apply for loans of £500 to £1 million without mayor paperwork, by completing a simple form. According to eBay, companies will get offers in minutes and receiving funds the same day they accept the offer is also possible. Eventually, YouLend will be joined in the CeBS by two other financing partners that will be announced soon.

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The two organisations joined forces to run the digital event from the Sustainable Finance Live series under the title “Valuing Nature: Better Assessing Financial Risk”. On 11-12 May, financial industry leaders and environmental experts from institutions such as WWF UK and Earth Knowledge participated in Q&A sessions, workshops, and case study panels discussing issues related to ESG strategies in finance, the state of biodiversity loss and its impact on natural capital, and addressing biodiversity in investment strategies. Speakers list included Richard Peers from Responsible Risk, Frank D’Agnese, President and CTO at Earth Knowledge, Philippe Zaouati, CEO at Mirova, and Richard Conway, Founder and CEO at Elastacloud. Recordings from the event are available on demand here.

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