Once an individual has been diagnosed with a chronic condition, obtaining life insurance becomes more difficult due to underwriting guidelines. Those that have the least severe ailments and have their diseases under control may be able to secure overage but it comes at an additional cost. Bluezone Insurance is a specialist insurance company that is built to provide coverage to those with chronic conditions. The company, founded in 2020, is building a Diabetes-specific ilife insurance product with plans to also launch coverage for those with heart diseases. Behind the scenes, the company has built a sophisticated risk management underwriting engine that uses AI/ML to sort through medical data to make insurance products more accessible by offering cheaper options. Bluezone is also focused on providing its insured customers with incentivized management and adherence programs for their conditions to essentially de-risk them. The company is currently accepting applicants to its waitlist and promises to provide same-day coverage through a digital onboarding process. AlleyWatch caught up with Bluezone Insurance Founder Karan Mehta to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Finance
Symmetrical.ai Raises $18.5M for its Global Payroll Platform That’s Disrupting the Industry with APIs
While the pandemic initially was rooted in isolation, the rapid adoption of technology to support remote workforces led to the increasing availability of an unprecedented global talent pool. While accessing this new pool has brought benefits to employers, managing payroll and other HR functions has now become more complex. Symmetrical.ai has built a global payroll platform that handles the end-to-end payroll process for employers and employees with automation and sophistication. The company is focused on seamless integration through its modular-based system that uses APIs to connect with existing technology stacks. Designed to meet the needs of a modern workforce, Symmetrical handles onboarding, employee management, on-demand payments as employees earn, gig workers, temporary workers, as well as standard employees. The company has navigated the compliance landscape across the countries it operates in to ensure clients are protected against ever-changing laws and Symmetrical can serve as the employer of record on behalf of clients. London TechWatch caught up with Symmetrical.ai Cofounder and CEO Piotr Smolen to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, his vision to bring payroll into a function that requires only two API calls, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $26.4M, and much, much more
Monspire Raises £600K For its Cash Flow Management and Lending Platform for Small Businesses
Cash flow is the best indicator of a company’s financial health and optimizing cash flow can be the difference between keeping the lights on and having to shut down. As global macroeconomic conditions worsen and businesses are scaling back, managing cash flow becomes even more critical. Monspire is a cash flow management platform for small businesses that also provided integrated lending options for working capital needs that leverages AI to understand when and where a business will need additional funding. The platform leverages open banking so that businesses can get a full understanding of their business’s cash flow in real-time, while also getting accurate forecasting. For any periods of gaps, Monspire steps in and plugs the hole with its lending solutions. While finances are critical for any business, many business owners just don’t have the time to dedicate to managing finances while juggling all other facets of operations. Monspire, short for Money Inspired, makes it seamless by proving a singular view of a company’s financial health. London TechWatch caught up with Monspire Cofounder Simon Draper to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Bundlr Network Raises $5.2M for its Decentrazlized Platform That Makes Data Storage on Web3 Seamless
Arweave is a permanent hard drive built on the blockchain that can serve as a permaweb archive. Anything you want to be stored across a decentralized network can be verified cryptographically with its own currency token incentivizing host nodes and miners. While the possibility of storage amount is infinite, transactions can be slow as the protocol scales and user interest increases. Bundlr Network is a decentralized multichain platform that speeds up data storage on Web3 on Arweave. Users pay a one-time fee with any major token, receive unlimited storage, and can upload data from any major blockchain while having instant access to the data. The company reports that upload and read speeds are 3000x faster than using Arweave on its own. Bundlr Network is currently views NFT marketplaces as its target customer but the solution is versatile enough to handle anyone with decentralized data storage needs. London TechWatch caught up with Bundlr Network Founder and CEO Josh Benaron to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Fidel API Raises Another $65M for its Payment Data Infrastructure Platform
Companies like Klarna, Venmo, and Afterpay all have made modernized the payment landscape by providing consumer convenience. However, in the backend they have built massive troves of consumer purchase data that they are able to package, serving as a valuable lifeline for merchants that enables them to promote sales promotions, target, segment, and more. The ability to collect and democratize purchase information instantly at the point of purchase unlocks a world of new opportunities and this is exactly what Fidel API focuses on. At its core, it’s a payment data infrastructure that layers on top of existing payment stacks with APIs that allow developers to build timely and contextual experiences in real-time for an expanding collection of use cases. Some applications of the company’s platform include powering digital receipts, loyalty and rewards programs, insurance claims, expense management, and also personal financial management apps. With the advent of open banking and consumers granting permissions to their transactions opens us a world where consumers are willing to give up their once highly coveted data in order to receive both functional and hedonistic benefits. Fidel API’s core technology is being used across the globe, servicing millions of cardholders and hundreds of thousands of merchants. London TechWatch caught up with Fidel API VP of Strategy Patrick Nealon to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $86M, and much, much more…
Slip Raises £750K for its QR-Code Powered Digital Receipt Platform
Global smartphone penetration and the need for contactless solutions for the pandemic led to the surge in the use of QR codes even though they were first invented in 1994. Now that consumers, brands, and retailers have readily adapted to using QR codes for menus and even for seamless product discovery in TV advertisements, entrepreneurs are starting to devise clever extended uses for the paperless, seamless, and near thirty-year-old technology. Two London cofounders are betting that you’ll start using them for digital receipts. Slip is a soon-to-launch startup that has built a platform that allows consumers to present a QR code to retailers, allowing them to receive a digital receipt. In addition to offering a centralized receipt tracking repository, the platform has an added environmental benefit; there are over 11.2B printed in the UK each year, all of them non-recyclable. Slip has also built an ecosystem around its solution that provides consumers with exclusive offers, discounts, rewards, and benefits while giving retailers valuable consumer data.
London TechWatch caught up with Slip CEO and Cofounder Tash Grossman to learn more about the inspiration for the business, the company’s strategic plans, and first round of funding from investors that include Haatch Ventures and Syndicate Room Super Angel Fund.
Konfir Raises £1.6M for its Instant Employment and Income Verification Platform
Institutions are increasingly using automated models to accelerate credit and hiring decisions leveraging AI/ML. In order to build the next-generation models to handle these tasks, organizations must design systems that are reflective of the dynamics of a modern economy (prevalence of gig/flexible workers) and have the appropriate supporting data to assess. Konfir is an instant employment and income verification data platform that provides companies with real-time access to employment and income data for any UK-based worker that can be used in decisioning. All the data on the platform is user-permissioned, protecting the personal information of the applicant, and therefore compliant with GDPR. In terms of employment, decisioning models have far too long stringently relied only on traditional income for assessing worthiness, limiting access to the financial system for otherwise qualified potential borrowers. With Konfir, banking, lending, loan servicing, leasing companies, and potential hiring companies can get verified, real-time income data straight from the source. London TechWatch caught up with Konfir CEO and Founder Chris Milligan to learn more about the inspiration for the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Vitesse PSP Raises $26M for its Cross-Border Payments Platform
Despite the pandemic, large corporations continued to deliver high transaction volumes when looking at cross-border payments. By tapping into a globally distributed payment network, payment technology providers are able to provide their customers to have faster, more cost-effective payment solutions. Vitesse PSP is a payment, liquidity, and treasury management platform that provides cross-border payments at a fraction of existing costs and rapidly with enhanced transparency and control. The platform works for use in corporate, financial services, e-commerce but the company has built significant traction in the insurance industry where it’s working with 70% of the insurers within Lloyd’s of London Market. The company charges a fee per transaction as well as a monthly treasury management fee for access to the platform that allows the digitisation of insurance payments, an area that’s been largely dominated by disparate workflows. London TechWatch caught up with Vitesse PSP CEO Phillip McGriskin to learn more about the inspiration for the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding from investors that include Prime Ventures, Hannover Digital Investments, and Octopus Ventures.
Nous Raises $9M for its Household Bill Monitoring Platform That’ll Save You up to £1K
According to a recent report issued by Parliament, cost of living has been rising steadily since early 2021 in the UK with December 2021 inflation reaching its highest level since 1992. These pressures on household budgets may result in an increase in expenses of £3K over the next year. Households are looking for solutions to help manage this unprecedented increase. Nous is a platform that tracks household expenses through open banking and provides a centralised dashboard that updates in real-time to forecast expected and forecasted spending for utilities. Covering energy, insurance, mortgages, broadband, and other subscriptions, the platform provides automated notifications to customers to let them know when there are cost savings opportunities whether it’s a contract renegotiation or provider switch. The Citizens Advice Bureau found that 80% of households are overpaying for utilities and Nous is on a mission for consumers to recapture these overcharges, powered by technology. London TechWatch caught up with Nous Cofounder, CEO, and serial entrepreneur Greg Marsh (cofounded onefinestay; exit to Accor) to learn more about how the birth of his second child and his experience with British Gas served as the inspiration for the business, the company’s strategic plans, and latest round of funding led by Mosaic Ventures.
DigiDoe Raises £852.5K for its Multi-Currency Secure Payment Platform and Infrastructure
The dynamics of the payments industry are changing as consumers and businesses shift away from cash to digital payment methods. Despite this dramatic change, the frameworks for payment infrastructure have not necessarily adapted as rapidly. As pandemic-driven behaviors now become habits and the new normal, the payment industry is developing new frameworks that are retooling the core. DigiDoe is a multi-currency payment infrastructure platform for businesses and consumers that uses biometrics to provide secure payment solutions. The platform’s proprietary FacePay technology allows consumers to make payments without a card or phone using 7D authentication, eliminating the risk of fraud entirely. This leads to up to an 80% decrease in fees for merchants that they are then able to pass on savings to customers. Payments are also lightning fast and the infrastructure is scalable. Current credit card companies can handle 60,000 transactions per second; DigiDoe dwarfs this figure with its technology able to handle 200,000 per second. London TechWatch caught up with DigiDoe Cofounder Alexandra Vidyuk to learn more about the future of payments, the company’s strategic plans, and latest round of funding from investors that include Joint Journey, PLF the seed fund managed by Flashpoint Venture Capital ,and I2BF Global Ventures Ltd.