Worldpay Headed For London’s Largest IPO This Year

By pymnts @pymnts

What's Next In Payments®

7:00 AM EDT September 18th, 2015

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Never a dull moment at U.K. payments firm Worldpay. After a summer of courting by private equity and its various rivals — notably Germany’s Wirecard and France’s Ingenico — Worldpay looks like it instead might just be going again on its own (walking down the only road they’ve ever known), with a listing of shares on the London Stock Exchange.

The private equity partners (Advent International and Bain Capital) that own Worldpay Group have officially moved toward an IPO, which could see the the U.K. payments processor raise as much as £890 million pounds ($1.4 billion).

With the IPO move, Worldpay has ended some very high-profile courtships of the last several weeks. Apart from Ingenico and Wirecard — both of whom were offering purchase prices in the multiple billions for the rival firm — private equity bidders, like Blackstone Group and Hellman & Friedman, were also in the mix.

Worldpay was purchased in 2010 for $2.7 billion. Last year, the firm brought in $5.6 billion in revenue.

Ingenico’s interest in Worldpay was its potential to help elevate the French firm’s position and expand its business beyond payments hardware that offers similar processing capabilities to Worldpay’s. All firms interested seem to be pursuing the British firm for the same reason: a desire to tap into the ever-growing pool of consumers who shop on mobile and online.

It is unknown at this time if Worldpay’s parents — Bain and Advent — will sell their shares during the IPO. If they do, it will make Worldpay the biggest IPO in London this year.

To check out what else is HOT in the world of payments, click here.

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The 15 most exciting startups inside fintech hub Level39

• Oscar Williams-Grut

• Aug. 4, 2015           

Level39Level39 boss Eric Van Der Kleij.Office space Level39 in Canary Wharf is the biggest hub of fintech talent in London, and possibly the world.
It's home to more than 170 startups, ranging from one-person operations to teams of 30-plus. Despite its name, Level39 now takes up three floors.
We've picked out the 15 most exciting companies based in the space, ranking them based on which we think have the potential to become the next TransferWise.
As well as pure fintech firms, we've also included startups based there that work in areas like cyber security or customer engagement. For many of these businesses, the majority of their clients are finance firms.
That's why they have based themselves in the heart of Canary Wharf, home to the headquarters of big banks like HSBC, JPMorgan, and Barclays.

View As: One Page Slides

15. CityFALCON, uses Twitter to give traders investment signals.

Level39/CityFALCON

Ruzbeh Bacha, founder and CEO of CityFALCON.

Raised:£250,000.
Founded: 2014.
What it does: Crowd curated stock and investment news from Twitter and traditional news sources.
Why it's hot: CityFALCON is one of the finalists in Twitter’s first global startup competition Hatch, and is the only fintech company on the 10-strong list. Founder and CEO Ruzbeh Bacha worked in corporate strategy at Skype before starting the company. 

14. Darwinex, lets investors back other individuals' trading strategies.

Darwinex

The Darwinex team relaxing.

Raised: $4.6 million.
Founded: 2012.
What it does: A forex trading platform that lets investors back independent traders' investment strategies and also breaks down the risks involved.
Why it's hot: The FCA-approved platform has been on-boarding traders but will soon open its doors to investors, with over 5,000 on the waiting list to invest. Foreign exchange industry website LeapRate says it has the potential to be "the next big thing."

13. doPay, lets companies pay employees in emerging markets on their mobiles.

doPay

doPay CEO Hazim Medani.

Raised: $3.7 million.
Founded: 2014.
What it does: Mobile money provider that lets companies pay employees who don't have bank accounts.
Why it's hot: Level39 boss Eric Van der Kleij raved about doPay during a recent visit and the startup was part of Barclays Techstars accelerator programme. It recently launched in Egypt, working with Barclays and Visa there, and is planning to roll-out across the Middle East, Africa, and India soon.

12. LootBank, student-focused mobile money management with a prepaid card.

Level39/LootBank

LootBank's founding team.

Raised: Midway through funding round.
Founded: 2014, launching this year.
What it does: Student-focused mobile money product, with a prepaid card that can be managed from an app.
Why it's hot: While half the company are still students and it has yet to launch, LootBank is already talking to Royal Bank of Scotland. The bank is interested in the speedy and easy way the startup has developed for on-boarding customers, particularly foreign students coming to the UK for the first time.

11. Behavox, employee monitoring system to spot rogue traders and market abuse.

Behavox

Behavox founders, from left, Roman Zelov, Erkin Adylov, and Alex Glasman.

Raised: $400,000.
Founded: 2014.
What it does: The startup's employee monitoring platform pulls data from phone calls, emails, internal chat systems, and trading data to spot rogue traders and market abuse.
Why it's hot: The system was built by 2 veterans of software titan Oracle and Behavox's CEO is a former Goldman Sachs analyst, giving them serious chops in both finance and tech. Microsoft and Google have both put money into the company. Behavox has just completed a pilot with a major bank and is about to roll-out its system across the bank's London and New York operations.

10. OpenCorporates, the world's largest database of open company information.

OpenCorporate/Level39/Wikimedia Commons

Chris Taggart, co-founder and CEO of OpenCorporates.

Raised: Bootstrapping.
Founded: 2010.
What it does: The world’s largest open database of companies with data on over 84 million companies in 104 jurisdictions.
Why it's hot: Recently awarded the Open Data Business Award by the Open Data Institute, which was co-founded by world wide web inventor Sir Tim Bernes Lee. Customers include LinkedIn, Stripe, the World Bank, and the US Government.

9. DataSift, crunches data from blogs, news, and social media to help businesses make decisions.

DataSift/Level39

DataSift founder Nick Halstead.

Raised: $77 million.
Founded: 2010.
What it does: The company's software pulls "unstructured" data from sources like social media, blogs, news items, and forums, and makes them understandable so people can take action on them.
Why it's hot: DataSift has access to 200 million active users daily and more than 50 million interactions. The company's anonymous Facebook tool also lets people see what people are saying about brands and companies on the social network without compromising privacy.

8. Meniga, makes money management apps for banks.

Twitter/Meniga

Meniga UK MD Christian Ball with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

Raised: $6.5 million.
Founded: 2008.
What it does: Makes money management apps, plugging into your account and crunching transaction data into understandable forms to let you know what you're spending and when you're spending too much.
Why it's hot: The Icelandic company already makes white-label apps for big European banks like ING, Commercial Bank of Dubai, Sweden's Skandia, and Islandsbanki. The company is now targeting UK banks and financial services.

7. Coinjar, Australia's largest bitcoin wallet provider and exchange.

Level39/CoinJar

Asher Tan, co-founder and CEO CoinJar

Raised: $1.1 million AUD.
Founded: 2013.
What it does: Australia's largest bitcoin wallet provider and exchange, with 50,000 users.
Why it's hot: CoinJar is building a suite of financial products that aim to bring bitcoin into the mainstream, such as its Swipe card, a prepaid debit card topped up directly from a bitcoin wallet, and its Hedged Accounts, which allow users to receive and send bitcoin without being as exposed to price volatility. CoinJar relocated its headquarters to London from Australia last December because of the more favourable tax treatment to bitcoin in the UK.

6. DigitalGenius, AI chat for companies interacting with customers.

Dmitry Aksenov

Raised: $3.25 million.
Founded: 2012.
What it does: Uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to let companies and brands carry out automated conversations with customers on text or online chat.
Why it's hot: 22-year-old Russian founder Dmitry Aksenov first began building robots at the age of 7. Customers of DigitalGenius include BMW, Panasonic, and Unilever.

5. Bitreserve, is a 'cloud money' platform that lets people send and change currency without fees.

Bitreserve

Bitreserve founder and chairman Halsey Minor.

Raised: $14.6 million.
Founded: 2013.
What it does: Bitreserve is a "cloud money" platform that lets businesses and consumers sent and change money across 16 currencies and 4 precious metals, without being charged fees.
Why it's hot: The US-company was founded by CNet founder Halsey Minor and is run by Nike's former CIO, Anthony Watson, a Forbes "40 under 40" executive. $137 million has been transferred over Bitreserve's platform since launch. Its UK outpost is at Level39.

4. Growth Intelligence, tells businesses when's the best time to approach a customer.

Level39/Growth Intelligence

Growth Intelligence CEO Tom Gatten.

Raised: $3.5 million.
Founded: 2012.
What it does: Predictive tool that reads digital signals to help companies know when the best time to make a business approach is. It uses ‘open source’ data and machine learning to highlight promising windows of opportunity.
Why it's hot:  CTO Prashant Majmudar designed software that listened for submarines at BAE Systems before building Growth Intelligence. Google, American Express, and BT all use the product.

3. eToro, a social trading platform that lets you copy other people's trades.

eToro

eToro co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia.

Raised: $73 million.
Founded: 2007.
What it does: Social trading — people can see, follow, and even automatically copy the trades of investors and speculators on the platform.
Why it's hot: eToro has pulled down money from huge investors from all over the world, raising cash from Russia's Sberbank, China's Ping An, and German bank Commerzbank. It is currently expanding to Russia and China.

2. Digital Shadows, cyber security threat intelligence startup that works with major banks.

Level39/DigitalShadows.

The Digital Shadows team.

Raised: Over $8 million.
Founded: 2011.
What it does:  Digital threat analysis. The company's SearchLight platform tracks 100 million data sources (including the dark web) in 27 languages, and is complemented with human security analysts.
Why it's hot: Clients aren't disclosed but it's understood that many of the top banks use its platform and the startup helped develop the Bank of England's cyber security testing framework CBEST. Digital Shadows has also been on two separate trade missions to the US earlier this year with Boris Johnson and David Cameron.

1. WorldRemit, international money transfer to mobiles.

WorldRemit

WorldRemit founder and CEO Ismail Ahmed.

Raised: $147 million.
Founder: 2010.
What it does: Mobile money transfers to the developing world.
Why it's hot: WorldRemit, which is a member of Level39 but headquartered in west London, is one of London's rising stars, valued at $500 million earlier this year. Founder Ismail Ahmed is a veteran of the remittance market, having helped advise the UN on anti-money laundering.

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-15-most-exciting-fintech-startups-in-level39-2015-7#ixzz3iLX7BFT3

Venafi haalt 39 miljoen dollar aan venture capital op bij nieuwe en bestaande investeerders

Venafi haalt 39 miljoen dollar aan venture capital op bij nieuwe en bestaande investeerders

QuestMark Partners, Intel Capital en Silver Lake Waterman voegen zich bij bestaande investeerders

Hoofddorp, 30 juni 2015 – Venafi, patenthouder van het Immuun Systeem voor het Internet en toonaangevend op het gebied van Next-Generation Trust Protection, maakt vandaag bekend dat het drie nieuwe investeerders aan boord heeft gehaald, die samen met de reeds bestaande investeerders additioneel voor 39 miljoen dollar investeren in Venafi om de verdere groei van de onderneming te financieren. De financieringsronde wordt geleid door QuestMark Partners. Intel Capital en Silver Lake Waterman zijn eveneens nieuwe investeerders.

De extra kapitaalinjectie van de venture capitalists is bedoeld om het gepatenteerde Venafi Trust Protection Platform verder te ontwikkelen en het aantal klanten in de beursgenoteerde multinationals en overheidsinstellingen segmenten wereldwijd (Global 5000) versneld uit te breiden.

Venafi is het Immuun Systeem voor het Internet en beschermt multinationals en overheden uit de Global 5000 tegen cybercriminelen. Door cryptografische sleutels en digitale certificaten te beschermen, zorgt Venafi voor de fundering onder de digitale samenleving. Cybercriminelen maken misbruik van de wetenschap dat ondernemingen niet op de hoogte zijn van welke digitale sleutels zij allemaal gebruiken en waar deze worden bewaard. Kwaadwillenden maken ook misbruik van het feit dat ondernemingen niet weten of en wanneer kwaadwillenden een gestolen sleutel gebruiken of een gecompromitteerd digitaal certificaat installeren. Tot slot weten cybercriminelen dat ondernemingen bij een aanval niet in staat zijn om snel en adequaat al hun sleutels en certificaten te vervangen. Daar maken zij dankbaar misbruik van.

Met gecompromitteerde, gestolen of nagemaakte encryptiesleutels en digitale certificaten zijn cybercriminelen in staat om zich voor te doen als een andere persoon, bijvoorbeeld als systeembeheerder. Bovendien kunnen cybercriminelen de websites, infrastructuur, clouds en mobiele apparaten bespioneren en monitoren. Tevens zijn zij in staat de communicatie via internet, waarvan gebruikers veronderstellen dat het veilig versleuteld is, te ontcijferen. En als dat gebeurt, ligt het intellectuele kapitaal op straat en is de ondernemingsreputatie beschadigd.

De afgelopen twaalf maanden kwam een aantal serieuze kwetsbaarheden en datalekken aan het licht, denk bijvoorbeeld aan de commotie die ontstond naar aanleiding van Heartbleed en de cyberaanvallen op Sony Pictures. Deze ernstige beveiligingsincidenten tonen aan dat kwaadwillenden dankzij onbetrouwbare encryptiesleutels en gecompromitteerde digitale certificaten de status van betrouwbare partijen in stand kunnen houden. Doordat ze lange tijd niet worden ontmaskerd, kunnen ze ongestoord hun gang gaan en de bestaande securitymaatregelen omzeilen.

“Digitale certificaten en cryptografische sleutels vormen het fundament voor een veilig internet en Venafi biedt het meest geavanceerde platform voor cyberveiligheid. Het platform beschermt deze sleutels en certificaten”, zegt Ben Schapiro, oprichter en partner van QuestMark Partners. “Venafi is echt uniek en heeft een oplossing voor de blinde vlek die de meeste ondernemingen onderschatten. Gekraakte sleutels en gecompromitteerde certificaten vormen een hoog veiligheidsrisico dat door de digitalisering steeds groter wordt. Door een combinatie van unieke producten, sterk leiderschap en een aansprekend klantenbestand verkeert Venafi in een perfecte positie om de encryptiesleutels en digitale certificaten van grote ondernemingen te beschermen.”

“Cybercriminelen voeren steeds vaker aanvallen uit op organisaties en die aanvallen zijn steeds geraffineerder”, zegt Raja Patel, vice president van de Intel Security Group en general manager van de business unit Network Security. Bij Intel Capital hebben wij het volste vertrouwen in de unieke innovatieve benadering van Venafi. Door de complexe taak van het beheer van digitale certificaten en cryptografische sleutels te automatiseren, zijn ondernemingen en overheidsinstellingen voortaan in staat het kaf van het koren te scheiden en kunnen ze valse van echte certificaten onderscheiden. Wij vertrouwen erop dat onze investering in Venafi het management in staat stelt het productportfolio nog verder uit te bouwen, waardoor ondernemingen in staat worden gesteld de integriteit van hun communicatie en data adequaat te beschermen.”

“Bijna alle internetapplicaties leunen zwaar op het oordeel dat encryptiesleutels en digitale certificaten geven als het gaat om de vraag of er wel sprake is van een veilige verbinding. Van mobiele apps voor onder meer online bankieren, tot en met applicaties die steeds vaker worden gebruikt voor het Internet of Things, ze vertrouwen allemaal op digitale certificaten. Met behulp van het Immuun Systeem voor het Internet zorgt Venafi voor het beveiligingsfundament waar onze wereldwijde digitale economie op draait”, zegt Jeff Hudson, CEO van Venafi. “Helaas leven we in een wereld waarin het vertrouwen is geschaad. Tot voor kort was er geen Immuun Systeem voor het Internet dat in staat was om gestolen sleutels en gecompromitteerde certificaten op te sporen en de steeds frequentere aanvallen van cybercriminelen te pareren. Venafi beschermt op dit moment al vier van de vijf grootste en meest belangrijke Amerikaanse banken, acht zorgverzekeraars uit de top tien en vier van de zeven grootste Amerikaanse retailers. Al deze ondernemingen vertrouwen op Venafi als beveiligingsleverancier van oplossingen voor bedrijfskritische toepassingen. Bij ons zijn de sleutels en certificaten in veilige handen en wordt misbruik voorkomen. Het extra investeringskapitaal stelt ons in staat om het Next Generation Trust Protection platform ook uit te rollen bij de rest van de Global 5000-ondernemingen.”

Over QuestMark Partners
QuestMark Partners is een venture capital onderneming die groeikapitaal ter beschikking stelt aan excellente managementteams in de Verenigde Staten. Met een portfolio van meer dan 900 miljoen dollar richt QuestMark zich op sterk gedifferentieerde, vaak disruptieve ondernemingen die een commerciële groeipotentie hebben en een strategische voorsprong bezitten om op lange termijn succesvol te opereren en financieel op eigen benen te staan. Sinds de oprichting in 1998 zijn onder de hoede van QuestMark ondernemers in uiteenlopende bedrijfssectoren uitgegroeid tot marktleiders. Deze positie hebben zij mede bereikt door de coöperatieve, materiedeskundige en geduldige benadering waarmee QuestMark expansief groeiende ondernemingen begeleidt. Voor meer informatie: www.questmarkpartners.com of volg @QuestMarkVC.

Over Intel Capital
Intel Capital is de wereldwijde investeringsmaatschappij van Intel die met aandelenkapitaal wereldwijd investeert in innovatieve startende technologiebedrijven en gevestigde ondernemingen. Intel Capital investeert in een brede reeks van ondernemingen die actief zijn op het gebied van hardware, software en diensten op het terrein van mobility, internettoepassingen voor consumenten, digitale media en de semiconductorindustrie. Sinds 1991 heeft Intel Capital meer dan 11,4 miljard dollar geïnvesteerd in meer dan 1.400 ondernemingen in 57 verschillende landen. In dat tijdsbestek zijn 211 ondernemingen uit de investeringsportfolio van Intel Capital naar de beurs gegaan en staan de aandelen verschillende wereldwijde beurzen genoteerd. 369 bedrijven uit de investeringsportfolio zijn inmiddels overgenomen of gefuseerd. Voor meer informatie over de specifieke kenmerken die het mogelijk maakten dat Intel Capital kon uitgroeien tot een van de sterkste venture capital firma’s ter wereld, bezoek www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

Over Silver Lake Waterman
Silver Lake Waterman is onderdeel van Silver Lake, wereldwijd marktleider en investeerder in technologiebedrijven. De investeringsportefeuille, een combinatie van beheerde activa en toegezegd kapitaal, bestaat uit meer dan 26 miljard dollar en de portfolio wordt beheerd door een wereldwijd team van ongeveer 100 investeringsdeskundigen en professionals met een focus op waardecreatie. Silver Lake Waterman verschaft ondernemingen uit de technologiesector en aanverwante, ondersteunende bedrijven flexibel groeikapitaal. De investeerder richt zich hierbij op ondernemingen die de eerste groeifasen inmiddels achter de rug hebben. Voor meer informatie: www.silverlake.com.

Over Venafi
Venafi is het Immuun Systeem voor het Internet en beschermt het fundament voor het veilig digitaal zakendoen met behulp van cryptografische sleutels en digitale certificaten waardoor cybercriminelen hier geen misbruik meer van kunnen maken bij cyberaanvallen. In onze huidige wereld waar iedereen met elkaar verbonden is, azen cybercriminelen op een betrouwbare status waardoor ze lange tijd niet ontdekt worden. De encryptiesleutels en digitale certificaten vormen in dit verband het primaire doelwit. De meeste digitale beveiligingssystemen hebben een blind vertrouwen in sleutels en certificaten waardoor ze kwaadwillenden in staat stellen om versleuteld internetverkeer te onderscheppen, een andere identiteit aan te nemen op websites, malware te installeren en data te stelen. Het Immuun Systeem voor het Internet inspecteert voortdurend de netwerken, kijkt achter de firewall en struint het internet af om te bepalen welke SSL/TLS, SSH, Wi-Fi, VPN en mobiele sleutels en certificaten kunnen worden vertrouwd. Het systeem accepteert de betrouwbare exemplaren en blokkeert, repareert en vervangt de valse exemplaren.

Venafi is met de Next Generation Trust Protection (NGTP) marktleider op het gebied van cybersecurity en is door Gartner uitgeroepen tot Cool Vendor. Het Venafi Trust Protection Platform beschermt encryptiesleutels en digitale certificaten en elimineert blinde vlekken in het beveiligingssysteem, zoals potentiële bedreigingen die zich richten op versleuteld internetverkeer.

Venafi TrustAuthority, Venafi TrustForce en Venafi TrustNet maken allemaal onderdeel uit van een beveiligingsstrategie voor het beschermen van bedrijfsinfrastructuren. De diensten helpen ondernemingen om de eigen betrouwbare certificaten te herkennen. Hierdoor krijgen ondernemingen weer de controle over sleutels en certificaten die worden gebruikt voor mobiele telefoons en mobiele apparaten, applicaties, virtuele machines, netwerkcomponenten en voor toegang tot de cloud. Venafi voorkomt met behulp van SSL-inspectie uitval van websites als gevolg van ongeldige of ingetrokken digitale certificaten. De beveiligingsdiensten zijn een intelligent antwoord op cyberaanvallen en beschermen netwerken, ondernemingen en merken. Het Venafi Threat Center doet primair onderzoek naar bedreigingen die zich richten op sleutels en certificaten.

Venafi's klanten behoren tot de Global 5000 ondernemingen die security hoog in het vaandel hebben staan. De ondernemingen zijn werkzaam in de financiële dienstverlening, detailhandel, het verzekeringswezen, gezondheidszorg, telecommunicatie, ruimtevaart, productie en in de hightechsector. Venafi beschermt op dit moment al vier van de vijf grootste belangrijkste Amerikaanse banken, acht van de grootste zorgverzekeraars en vier van de zeven grootste Amerikaanse retailers. Venafi wordt gefinancierd door de top van de venture capitalist firma’s, waaronder Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, Origin Partners, Pelion Venture Partners, QuestMark Partners en Silver Lake Waterman. Voor meer informatie: www.venafi.com.

###

Voor meer persinformatie en beeldmateriaal
Yellow Communications, Majoy Juriaans, telefoon 023 555 34 24, e-mail venafi@yellow-communications.com

ProfielArchiefContactKaart & Route

Venafi is marktleider in cybersecurity en houdt zich bezig met Next Generation Trust Protection (NGTP). Venafi is door Gartner aangemerkt als Cool Vendor en levert het eerste Trust Protection Platform™ dat ontwikkeld is om cryptografische sleutels en digitale certificaten veilig te stellen. Deze certificaten zijn onmisbaar voor ondernemingen en overheidsdiensten die veilig willen communiceren met de buitenwereld, digitaal zakendoen en gebruikmaken van computers en mobiele toepassingen.
Kijk voor meer informatie op: www.venafi.com of    

Banks are 'very excited' about what one of the world's best funded Bitcoin startups is doing

• Oscar Williams-Grut

• Jun. 16, 2015

itpay became the world's best funded Bitcoin startup in 2014 when it raised $30 million (£19.2 million) — but a year down the line, it's having to rethink its business.
The four-year-old US company lets businesses accept Bitcoin as payment and has signed up 60,000 retailers including Microsoft and Virgin Galactic (Sir Richard Branson is an investor).
But Bitpay has a big problem — ordinary people aren't paying with Bitcoin.
Bitpay's co-founder and CEO Stephen Pair told Business Insider at MoneyConf in Belfast: "We keep adding merchants — we're up to over 60,000 now — but they're selling to the same pool of Bitcoin early adopters."
"At Bitpay we've never thought there'd be this overnight adoption where you get people using it this year or even next year. It's going to take some time. In the industry there’s a realisation that yes it’s an incredible technology but it’s going to take a while for it to mature."
As a result of this realisation, Bitpay has shifted its focus from letting businesses accept Bitcoin to getting people interested in Bitcoin in the first place. The company is doing this by building the infrastructure and tools to make Bitcoin more accessible. In the process, they've stumbled on a new market — big banks.
Pair says: "They’re very excited. What we’re building we started building because we needed to secure our own accounting system. Turns out that’s the same problem that banks face when they need to do clearing and settlement between each other."
Clearing is the process of actually moving money from one account to another to "settle" the transaction. When you swipe your card to pay for a coffee, the money isn't moved immediately. The bank just notes down that it needs to shift cash from one account to the other and sorts out all these thousands of transactions across all its accounts at the end of each day.
But with Bitcoin, the so-called "blockchain" software underpinning it makes transfers much faster. When you buy something with Bitcoin the digital token is moved to the other party's account roughly within half an hour. The deal is also recorded in the blockchain, which acts as a public ledger shared across thousands of systems. This prevents people spending something twice.
Banks are desperate to figure out how to apply this technology to mainstream currencies and the likes of Citi, UBS and Santander are all looking at blockchain technology.
"We’re talking to quite a few banks," Pair says. "They’re very serious, they want to do pilot projects and they can’t start working on them fast enough.
"There are so many use cases in a bank that this technology can address and make better. There are some use cases that almost all of them want to do, like how do you do clearing and selling between banks more efficiently. Just being able to transfer a balance between banks, to have that happen instantaneously and settle immediately."
Bitpay has built its own payroll software, which it uses to pay its own staff, and a third of employees take all their pay in Bitcoins. Bitpay has also developed a digital wallet, which lets people make transactions with bitcoins.
"I think we’ve got the most engineers working on these problems of any Bitcoin company," says Pair. "We're looking at new features or products that can expand the use cases. We're hoping that will get more bitcoins out there to more people's wallets so they can use that to pay for things."

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/30-million-bitcoin-startup-bitpays-backup-plan-sell-tech-to-the-banks-2015-6?IR=T#ixzz3dmy65Sfw

Another Google exec just left for one of the hottest companies in Silicon Valley

By Eugene Kim 21 hours ago                                    

View photo

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(Twitter) Daniel Sturman, an 8-year Google executive who most recently was a VP of engineering, has joined the data analytics firm Cloudera as its VP of engineering on Monday.

The press release says Sturman will "lead all development within the company, with the Apache Software community and with Cloudera's 1,600+ global partners."

Cloudera is one of the largest companies in the fast-growing field of data analytics, which means it helps companies make sense of the massive amounts of data they're collecting every day. Cloudera is still private, but has raised more than $1.2 billion so far, and its latest valuation is rumored to be around $4.8 billion.

It's one of several hot companies that uses a technology called Apache Hadoop, which originally came out of Yahoo and is widely used there, and was based on research that came out of Google. Hortonworks, also based on Hadoop, had a $100 million IPO last December and is currently worth over $1 billion.

Cloudera CEO Tom Reilly said in a statement, “The original design concepts for Apache Hadoop and many of the ensuing innovative analytic projects originate from Google. We are excited to have a Google technology leader who understands modern architectures and the art of turning data into insight take our platform to the next level."
Sturman updated his LinkedIn page but there's no description under his role at Cloudera. At Google, Sturman was responsible for managing Google's compute projects, including Google Compute Engine and Google App Engine.

Sturman's move marks another big name departure from Google in recent weeks. Earlier today, it was announced that Neal Mohan, the ex-DoubleClick executive who was reportedly paid $100 million by Google, would leave the company for Dropbox. In March, Google X executive Mary Lou Jepsen jumped ship to work at Oculus, while former VP of Google X Megan Smith also left last year to become the next CTO of the United States.

Blue Apron, a startup that's a godsend for lazy cooks, is now worth $2 billion

• Maya Kosoff  

Blue ApronBlue Apron cofounders Matthew Wadiak, Matt Salzberg, and Ilia Papas. Feeling lazy and strapped for time, but still want a home cooked meal? There's a number of startups to help you make dinner, but only one is now worth $2 billion.
Blue Apron, a company that makes cooking easy by sending you perfect portions of ingredients in a box with a recipe, announced Tuesday that it has raised a $135 million Series D round. The funding values the company at a whopping $2 billion, a company spokesperson said.
The new funding was led by Fidelity Management and Research Company with participation from existing investors.
This makes Blue Apron the latest member of a growing number of  companies called "unicorns" — privately held companies with valuations of $1 billion or more. They're called unicorns because they used to be rare, but today there's more than 100 of them. 
With Blue Apron, you can elect to receive 3 meals a week, in portions designed to serve 2, 4, or 6 people. Once a week, you receive your big box of premeasured ingredients, along with a recipe card that tells you how to make each meal. 
Blue Apron charges about $10 a meal, and CEO Matt Salzberg tells Business Insider that Blue Apron is selling more than 3 million meals every month. In the past six months, Blue Apron says, it's tripled in size. Salzberg says Blue Apron has over 1800 employees and "hundreds of thousands" of customers.
Since its 2012 founding, Blue Apron has raised nearly $200 million from investors including BoxGroup, Bessemer Venture Partners, Stripes Group, and First Round. The new funding, Salzberg tells us, will be used for investing in Blue Apron's supply chain and farming and fulfillment relationships.
Megan Willett/Business InsiderHere's what a Blue Apron meal looks like when it arrives at your door.Blue Apron took on the new investment money "to continue to scale what we do and help people get farm-fresh produce at better prices than is available anywhere else," he says. "We're still a young company but we've seen extremely strong demand for what we do."
Blue Apron works directly and exclusively with farmers. These farmers plant items in the ground just for Blue Apron, which "allows us to get access to specialty ingredients that aren't otherwise commercially available, and it allows us to work with farmers in a way that's really appealing to them because we're reliable demand," Salzberg says. "Right now we have literally over a million pounds of produce that's been planted in the ground for us by farmers all over the country, that we'll be harvesting over the course of the summer."
Blue Apron is a subscription service, so the company knows exactly how much food it needs to order every week. This lets the company minimize waste and keep costs down. Salzberg says Blue Apron is different from other services because its supply chain is the most efficient. "We're the only company in the US doing what we do at scale," he says. "We have a real focus on supply chain and on working deeply with our suppliers."

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/blue-apron-worth-2-billion-2015-6?r=US#ixzz3cbKPJ6Ye

High-speed trader Virtu Financial

High-speed trader Virtu Financial eyes $2.6 bln valuation in IPO

4 hours ago                               

                                                   

By Sudarshan Varadhan

April 6 (Reuters) - Electronic trading firm Virtu Financial Inc is expecting a valuation of up to $2.6 billion in its initial public offering, a year after the company postponed its first attempt to go public amid a furor over high-frequency trading.

Virtu Financial said on Monday its offering of 16.5 million Class A shares is expected to be priced at between $17 and $19 per share, raising up to $314 million.(http://1.usa.gov/1c0Ei9j)
The company is a market-maker in equities, fixed income, currencies and commodities. It earns money through "spreads" - the difference between what buyers and sellers are willing to pay or accept in a trade.
Virtu Financial's decision to postpone the IPO last year followed the release of Michael Lewis' book "Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt", which questioned whether markets were rigged in favor of high-frequency traders.

The company also caused a stir when it revealed last year that it had only one day of trading losses in five years. The detail was meant to show the firm's profitability but critics of high-frequency trading pointed to it as a sign that high-speed traders have unfair advantages.
Founder Vincent Viola, a former chairman of the New York Mercantile Exchange, will control the company after the offering though his ownership of Class D shares, which have more voting power than ordinary shares.
The company's revenue rose 8.8 percent to $723 million in 2014, while net income rose 4.3 percent to $190 million, the company said in a filing.
Virtu Financial's competitors include large broker-dealers such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, as well as niche players such as Citadel, KCG Holdings, Timber Hill and Wolverine Trading.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proposed last month that high-speed stock trading firms that execute transactions away from exchanges should be subject to greater regulatory oversight.
Apart from Virtu Financial, the plan is expected to affect firms such as Jump Trading and Tradebot.
The SEC intensified its review of high frequency traders following the "flash crash" in 2010, in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 700 points before rebounding sharply.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Sandler O'Neill + Partners LP are among the underwriters for Virtu Financial's offering.
(Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

CoreOS april 2015

Google bets big on this little tech startup

• Matt Weinberger

Twitter/@polviCoreOS founder Alex Polvi


Google Ventures is leading a $12 million investment in CoreOS, a tiny startup that's changing the way modern web applications are built and maintained.
The startup will also use a recently released Google technology called Kubernetes in one of its own products, which is aimed at helping companies run their data centers more efficiently.
CoreOS makes a super-lightweight version of the free Linux operating system, which reduces the amount of hardware you need to run applications in big data centers. That's made it popular among software developers looking to do more with less.
For a while there, CoreOS was tight with Docker, one of the hottest startups in Silicon Valley, and it's no surprise why — they both had the mission of taking apps and putting them into what we call "containers."
Think of containers as a metaphor. Shipping yards put goods into a bunch of shipping containers all the same shape and size because it makes them easy to stack onto boats.
In the same way, containers let you take an application (an email server, a blogging platform, whatever) and whatever else it needs to run and throw it into a standard virtual "box." You can put this box on your own servers in your own data center, or upload it to Amazon's or Microsoft's or Google's cloud service and it'll run the exact same way, without the extra effort of having to struggle with it to make it work. It's all self-contained. (Hence, "containers.")
CoreOS made a version of Linux that went into these boxes, and Docker made the boxes themselves.
Flickr/ 97226415@N08Docker Founder and CTO Solomon Hykes
But Docker and CoreOS had a falling out late last year. A container on its own doesn't really do much, it needs to be overseen and managed. Docker wanted to sell this management technology as well.
CoreOS had an issue with what it saw as Docker getting too big for its britches, and made its displeasure clear with the public launch of Rocket, a competitor to Docker. Suddenly, developers had two options for building those self-contained apps-in-boxes.
Meanwhile, Google has quietly been using containers in its own huge data centers for many years now. As Docker made containers popular to the rest of the world, Google released some of its own technology for managing them, dubbed Kubernetes, for free. Kubernetes seen some uptake in both the CoreOS Rocket and Docker communities.
Today, in addition to the funding, CoreOS is announcing a new product called Tectonic, which combines the CoreOS operating system and the Rocket container technology and a management system for those containers based on Google's Kubernetes into one package. 
"With Kubernetes, we have a complete platform," says CoreOS CEO Alex Polvi.
It's also the first purely commercial product that CoreOS has: The operating system and Rocket containers are both free; the company sells consulting and support services to make money. This whole Tectonic platform, though, will cost enterprise clients some cash. 
Why is Google so interested? Because Kubernetes is supported by Google's own Cloud Platform, where applications can be run at high scales. A customer using Tectonic would likely be attracted to the Google Cloud Platform, since it wouldn't require them to change anything at all to get it running at large scale.
While the Microsoft Azure cloud does support Kubernetes, reigning cloud champion Amazon Web Services does not (it has its own tools for managing Docker containers).
This may be too early to say, but the fact that CoreOS is opening some doors for Google Cloud Platform could make CoreOS an attractive acquisition for Google.
Other investors in the round include Kleiner Perkins, Fuel Capital, and Accel Partners. 

Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-ventures-invests-in-coreos-which-will-use-google-kubernetes-2015-4?r=US#ixzz3WYEH41b5