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Financial crime compliance expert from NatWest joins Napier as CPO
Published
4 months agoon
By
admin
Napier, provider of leading anti-financial crime compliance solutions, has announced that former NatWest Group Head of Financial Crime Quality and Standards, William Monk, will become its new Chief Product Officer (CPO), while current CPO, Nick Portalski, moves to the role of Chief Solutions Officer (CSO).
Monk’s experience in the finance sector includes stints at major high street banks including HSBC, Barclays and most recently NatWest. As Napier’s new CPO he will be leading the RegTech’s long-term product vision for next generation SaaS financial crime solutions.

William Monk
Julian Dixon, founder and CEO at Napier, said: “Having William on board to oversee our product innovation will not only bring us enormous clout, his unrivalled expertise will also help take Napier to the next level, building on the fantastic work that Nick has already done. Nick moves to a newly created client-facing role where we’ll be able to leverage his expertise in our technology to enhance our customer offering. This position was purposely formed to show our commitment to our customers, ensuring that we fully understand and deliver to their requirements.”
Portalski, one of Napier’s founders, said: “Napier’s rapid growth means we’re seeing our products being integrated into the AML processes of many varied financial organisations around the world. My new role will ensure they get the absolute best from our platform as we work together to deliver a joint vision of AML in the 21st century.”
On his appointment, Monk commented: “Having worked on the frontline of anti-financial crime in banking for the past 15 years, I have direct experience of the challenges Napier’s clients are facing. From rising technology costs to sub-optimal tools, processes and data management, and of course the rapidly evolving and ever demanding regulatory environment. I’m delighted to be taking on the role of CPO at Napier and to be working with a team who are equally passionate about delivering a product roadmap that will raise compliance technology to new levels, making a difference to the customers we serve.”
Napier’s AI-enhanced platform for intelligent financial crime compliance is the tool of choice for over 200 clients worldwide, including tier-one banks, payment providers, FX, crypto and other financial institutions. This news follows the recent appointment of Kevin O’Neill as CRO and an upscaling of operations across EMEA, APAC and North America.
News
Fractional NFTs- A Positive Impact on the Market
Published
2 days agoon
June 23, 2022By
admin
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) have been making headlines for quite some time now. The phenomenon is getting a lot of attention from people across the world. NFTs generally cost a fortune but thanks to Fractional NFT(https://www.mesha.club/fractional-nft/) (F-NFT), people can acquire expensive assets for a few bucks.
What Are Fractional NFTs?
In simple words, Fractional NFT is a non-fungible token that has been divided into smaller fragments. Hence, different people can claim partial ownership of the same NFT. To understand this concept of NFT investing(https://www.mesha.club/nft-investing/), take an example of a cake that is sliced to serve several people. Considering that NFTs are unique and can’t be duplicated, fractional NFTs go beyond these restrictions by enabling people to divide their ownership.
Difference Between F-NFT(Fractional NFT) and Traditional NFT
A fractional NFT or segmented NFT represents a certain percentage of ownership or portion of an NFT. A traditional NFT is a whole while F-NFT is a part of it. Moreover, the segmentation process can be reversed to convert fractional NFT into a complete NFT. A single NFT with a buyback option allows the investor to purchase all the shards and acquire the original NFT.
To convert fractional NFT ownership into a single NFT ownership, the holder must initiate a buyback option by transferring a certain amount of ERC-20 tokens to the smart contract. This triggers a buyback auction which will happen in a fixed period. Therefore, allowing some time for NFT holders to make a decision. In case a purchase takes place during that period, fractions of the NFT are returned automatically to the smart contract and the buyer will have complete ownership.
Advantages of Fractional NFT
Democratization
The NFT market restricts small and medium investors as the assets are mostly high valued. So, only a few of them can afford to buy these NFTs. However, fractional NFT benefits newcomers and small investors by reducing the cost of the assets and opening up more opportunities for them.
Greater Liquidity
For a high-priced NFT, you have to wait for a wealthy investor who can afford it. F-NFTs are more accessible and easy to sell as you can split the ownership of an ERC-721 token into multiple ERC-20 tokens and sell each of them individually.
Price Discovery
With no or limited transaction history, it is difficult to find the right price for a whole NFT. However, splitting it into smaller tokens make it affordable and more people can trade the asset. Hence, making it easier for investors to assess its true value.
Increased Visibility for Creators
A fractional NFT has a more liquid market that lets digital creators go online and reach a wider audience.
Industries F-NFTs Can Potentially Disrupt
Art
Digital artists along with NFT owners will have the option to divide their assets into smaller segments and sell each F-NFT portion individually to investors. Thus, emerging artists can also easily sell their digital artworks in the market easily.
Gaming
Games that involve trading cards can also seek the benefits of the NFT market. People can sell their cards for impressive amounts. Also, they can auction their in-game items, such as guns, rare skins, and armor through F-NFT and sell rare gaming products to multiple buyers by fractionalizing them.
Collectibles
One of the popular fractional NFT use cases is collectibles that have great potential with crypto being sold for over $1 million. Recently, a collection of 50 CryptoPunks was offered for sale after being fractionalized. This allowed small investors to acquire the asset and get a share in the collection.
Domain Names
With the evolution of the crypto market, the domain names like .crypto and .rth are in demand. So, rare and popular domain names can be fragmented and sold to different buyers.
Real Estate
Luxury properties that were too expensive to afford earlier are now accessible to more people. These high-valued properties can be fractionalized into F-NFT so multiple investors can acquire them. Also, there will be no need for mortgages as tenants could hold different parts of the property together.
Music
The music industry is making the best of fractional NFTs as music artists can fractionalize their albums and sell them to fans without involving third parties. This also resolves the problem of the direct artist-to-fan relationship.
The concept of fractional NFT is still in its initial phase but we can expect it to grow rapidly and become the next trend in the crypto market. F-NFTs open more opportunities for small and medium investors to acquire digital assets at affordable prices. They can easily invest in valuable assets that have the potential to offer many-fold returns in the future. Also, it will encourage people to start their NFT journey without delay as they need not have millions of dollars to buy popular NFT pieces.
News
Four tech IPOs you haven’t heard of that are likely to go public
Published
1 week agoon
June 17, 2022By
admin
With the tech sector expanding drastically, Maxim Manturov, Head of Investment Advice at Freedom Finance Europe, explores four unfamiliar IPOs likely to go public that investors should watch.
The technology sector is constantly evolving and making ground-breaking advancements that are shaping life as we know it. Helping with education, user experience, information storage, communication, and many more areas, technology is designed with what it can bring the user in terms of convenience.
With a sector of immeasurable popularity, comes a colossal number of companies investors must shuffle through. It is important to remember that name popularity does not always equal a good return on investment. All public companies begin from the same starting point and have tofile for an IPO. With media attention usually focusing on a few set names, we wanted to bring something new to the table for investors.
What are the new tech IPO investors can watch out for?
Trax Image Recognition was founded in 2010 and is currently headquartered in Singapore. Trax focuses on delivering technology that carries out merchandise scanning using a mobile app and specialised high-tech cameras. Operating in more than 90 countries, Trax delivers sale control and efficiency for some of the most well-known brands in the world including Coca-Cola, Unilever, Shell, and Heineken. Currently, Trax is a leader in its sector, holding 23 patents, and is included in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500. Recently, Trax announced the acquisition of Qopius, a Paris-based company that provides in-store technology solutions using artificial intelligence in Europe. This new acquisition helped the company come to a valuation of more than £1.6bn($2bn).
Cohesity is a ‘secondary data storage’ company located in San Jose, California. Founded in 2013, Cohesity provides its customers a sanctuary to store non-critical data, such as backups, development copies, and analytics. Their primary customers include Cisco Systems Inc. and NASA whereby they provide data management services. Cohesity has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an IPO with a preliminary market valuation of £2.9bn ($3.7bn), a significant increase from its £2.2bn ($2.5bn) valuation last year. Cohesity’s total funding is £340m ($420m), and investors may see the IPO take place in the next couple of months.
Byju’s is an Indian startup company that has developed an educational app with a focus on the Indian and U.S markets. As of December 2021, it has more than 115 million registered users. Byju’s founders Bew Ravindran and Divya Gokulnath said the company could have had a revenue of £1bn ($1.3bn) in 2021. As of December 2021, the startup was valued at $21 billion($21bn), making it India’s most expensive startup and one of the most expensive EdTech projects globally. Byju’s expects a valuation of more than £36.4bn ($45bn) according to TechCrunch. The total investment over time has been £3.6bn ($4.5bn) and is due to go public at the end of 2022.
Rubrik is a technology startup company founded in 2014, based in Palo Alto, California. Rubrik specializes in cloud-based data management software and is the fourth biggest player in the data management and storage market. They have recently acquired a Seattle-based data management company called Igneous Software Systems. With this new acquisition, and as of the last funding round, Rubrik has a valuation of £2.7bn ($3.3bn). With total funding of £444m($553bn), Rubrik is one of the industry’s largest privately-held data protection software providers and is a company investors should keep their eyes on over the coming months.
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