European spend management platform Pleo has secured a €40million debt financing facility from HSBC Innovation Banking UK, the specialist financial partner for the innovation economy, enabling Pleo to offer higher credit limits to even more customers, providing greater flexibility in financial options available to them. 

In light of the news, Pleo plans to use the debt financing facility from HSBC to drive further growth across Europe. Pleo overdraft facilities are set to hit the Netherlands over the coming weeks; with them already in use across Sweden, Germany, the UK and Denmark.

Amit Kahana, VP of credit and treasury at Pleo, explained: “Starting at €40million, the debt financing available to us can extend based on future requirements – which will expand our existing reach even further into more countries, enabling us to increase limits and offer more currencies.

“Beyond this milestone partnership and imminent launch in the Netherlands, we are expecting to see exciting developments over the coming 12 months as we prepare to launch in even more markets.”

Over the last six months, the average company has seen six per cent of their total transactions fail due to insufficient funds. Pleo’s partnership with HSBC Innovation Banking will alleviate such pain points and boost its credibility in the market – fuelling further growth by unlocking new customers in new markets and currencies.

Conor Sheehy, managing director and head of warehouse finance at HSBC Innovation Banking UK, also said: “This transaction demonstrates HSBC Innovation Banking’s capabilities to provide multi-currency, multi-jurisdictional facilities to support leading credit originators launching new and innovative products. We are proud to be providing Pleo with this facility and look forward to supporting them to continue on their global growth trajectory.”

This latest news from Pleo follows the news that Søren Westh Lonning officially joined the company as CFO. Announced back in December, Søren’s appointment brings over 20 years of financial leadership experience to complement the existing leadership team at Pleo.

TerraPay, the global cross-border payments network, is partnering with Dubai Duty Free, a travel retail operator, aiming to bolster the availability of alternative payment methods in the UAE, by making it possible to make purchases at DDF outlets with telecom digital wallets. 

Thanks to the collaboration, Dubai Duty Free can now access TerraPay’s global partner networks, which covers over 2.2 billion mobile wallets, as well as its cross-border payments infrastructure enabled through two leading global payments infrastructure companies in the UAE, Network International and Magnati.

Dubai Duty Free hopes to empower its customers’ payment preferences by expanding the payments ecosystem to include more convenience via Mobile Money Wallets in addition to existing payment methods. MTN, M-Pesa and Airtel are some of the leading mobile money companies partnering with TerraPay, to enable their users to use their digital wallets at Dubai Duty Free.

Ambar Sur, founder and CEO at TerraPay, explained: “Our partnership with DDF marks a significant milestone in our journey to enable financial inclusion at a large scale.

“DDF, the world’s largest retailer, opened up new avenues for seamless Mobile Money Wallet payments within its vast network at their three terminals utilising TerraPay’s robust cross-border payment infrastructure that has enabled us to deliver faster, more innovative and transparent cross-border payment solutions to our partners around the world.”

Mobile Money Wallet enables users to deposit money into an account linked to their mobile phone number and access it for digital services directly in stores.

Extending the ‘reach of financial inclusion globally’

Following the global impact of the Covid pandemic, alternative payment methods, particularly digital wallets, have experienced robust double-digit growth. The projected global value of digital wallets is expected to reach trillions of dollars by 2026, positioning them as a significant trend shaping the global payment industry.

Colm McLoughlin, executive vice chairman and CEO of Dubai Duty Free, also commented on the partnership: “We are reinforcing our commitment to empowering travellers through DDF to make purchases using payment methods of their choice. DDF has always been at the forefront of harnessing technology and partnerships to offer the best to our customers, and now with access to TerraPay’s vast network, we’re excited to offer the best to our customers.

“TerraPay aligns with our commitment to extend the reach of financial inclusion globally, which enables us to open up new and innovative forms of acceptance for a large segment of unserved populations, and we are extremely proud of that.”

With a shared dedication to providing diverse and forward-thinking payment solutions, TerraPay and DDF embark on a journey to redefine convenience and accessibility in retail transactions. This partnership not only reflects the adaptability of the retail industry but also showcases the transformative power of collaboration in shaping the future of global commerce.

European paytech payabl. has secured an Electronic Money Institution licence (EMI licence) from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), which is passported throughout the European Economic Area (EEA).

Following the approval, payable. explained that the EMI licence should enable it to significantly broaden and enhance its existing and new payment services across Europe.

Upon receipt of the license, payabl. will be able to provide new services to its merchant customers, enabling them to do more in a single platform and through one provider. These enhancements will allow merchants to benefit from an improved user experience in the existing e-banking platform.

The license enables greater agility and flexibility for payabl. to develop new solutions and roll out upgrades to meet changing customer needs. In addition, its authorisation now as an EMI solidifies payabl.’s robust compliance and enhanced regulatory oversight, including the use of biometric identification in line with PSD2 regulations.

The paytech firm has been in operation since 2011, and now serves over 500 customers across Europe and the UK. It previously had a Payment Institution (PI) license, and the new EMI license granted by the CBC strengthens the company’s offering in the EEA. It also marks a crucial step in payabl.’s European growth ambitions to offer game-changing financial solutions and revolutionise the paytech space.

‘Our objectives extend beyond licenses’

Ugne Buraciene, group CEO at payabl., explained: “We are thrilled to have been granted an EMI license by the Central Bank of Cyprus, in addition to an FCA EMI license in the UK. Both mark a pivotal and strategic move for the business, underpinning our commitment to providing innovative financial services for the merchants in our network, and expanding our global footprint.

“As we celebrate this huge achievement, the journey doesn’t end here. We’re poised to continue on our growth trajectory, with ambitious plans to obtain an EMI license in the Netherlands and begin to explore other markets too.

“But our objectives extend beyond licenses. Fundamentally, we are dedicated to creating a diverse and skilled team, who are laser-focused on providing the highest calibre of services to our customers. Acquiring this license also helps us to further develop our new platform, payabl.one, which aims to consolidate services for merchants and give them access to agile, personalised and innovative financial services to enable their business growth.”

Decentralized infrastructure network provider Nodle has released the first version of its blockchain-based media authentication application called Click, which could prove useful in combatting artificially generated media and fake news. 

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Nodle has developed a software development kit (SDK) for its ContentSign solution, which cryptographically proves the integrity of data captured by mobile devices using blockchain technology.

The Click application supports the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and is a member of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI). The latter is a project led by Adobe and the Linux Foundation to create a future standard for media attestation.

In correspondence with Cointelegraph, Nodle CEO Micha Anthenor Benoliel said Click primarily serves photographers, citizen journalists, reporters, law enforcement, sports fans, paparazzi and content creators.

Ready to make fake news a thing of the past? The truth starts here. #clickyourtruth pic.twitter.com/T4lLrZgbJr

— Click Camera (@clickyourtruth) December 13, 2023

Given its association with C2PA and CAI, Benoliel adds that news and journalism are top use cases for the application, which is currently available on the Apple App Store while its Android version is in production.

The process of authenticating an image or video requires a user to capture the content using the Click app camera. The content is then signed and logged on Nodle’s underlying blockchain. It is then made available in the device’s local gallery and a Click’s public page, which includes attribution to the contributor.

Benoliel confirmed that images and videos authenticated via Click need to be taken with the Click app camera without interjecting other editing or generative artificial intelligence (AI) alterations, which removes the possibility of fake or generated images and videos being disseminated through the platform.

Stock image platforms like Getty and AFP remain a primary source for images and content for various industries, from newsrooms to advertising agencies. Benoliel said that Click envisages being a partner to these organizations as a “source of truth” for field-captured content:

“This puts the power in the hands of the content consumer when they approach Getty or AFP as they’d be able to see which images and videos are authenticated.”

Cointelegraph also enquired whether the platform considered intellectual property rights and accreditation issues of media captured at official events like the World Economic Forum and the FIFA World Cup.

“We plan to enable location and event-aware scenarios incorporating advanced attribution features or geofencing events so that only authorized press/people can capture images at such events,” Benoliel said.

The CEO also added that Nodle’s infrastructure is capable of storing large amounts of content:

“Currently, Click will store content off-chain and save only a record of it on the Nodle chain. This allows us to store over 20 million records a day to start and we’ll accommodate higher volumes as we scale.”

Benoliel adds that the platform will always feature a free version of its product. At the same time, the upload volume available to users might change in the future with the provision of a premium offering.

The firm also notes that its platform is primarily used as an authentication tool for photo and video content to prove ownership and real-world authenticity of content. In its current form, it does not offer photo or video detection or royalty management services.

The broader journalism industry has not quite tapped into the potential benefits of blockchain technology as a tool for immutable and transparent information storage and dissemination. Back in 2018, the Associated Press announced a content licensing partnership with blockchain-based startup Civil.

The project was poised to see AP deliver content, including national and international news, to Civil. The platform was closed down in 2020 as its team and technology joined Consensys to build identity solutions on Ethereum.

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