So, let’s take a closer look at some of the most interesting companies that are trending in 2020, both in fintech and its off-shoot — insurtech. Their ideas, technology used as well as adjustment to the changing market needs may be a valuable inspiration for other businesses. Here are the ones we would like you to get to know better:

1. Form3

This company was founded in 2016 as a cloud-based “payment as a service” platform for banks, fintech companies and other financial institutions. Form3 helps organisations deal with end-to-end payment processing effectively and in a highly secure manner by incorporating the latest technological advancements and partnerships with agency banks. This way, the company is able to offer great commercial terms for its clients along with a transparent pricing model. The platform features, among other things, real-time monitoring and alerts, 24/7 support and a super simple API.

2. MishiPay

MishiPay is innovative payment technology for retail stores. Using the mobile app, customers in brick-and-mortar shops get an almost completely online experience by simply scanning the barcode of the product they want to buy, paying for it using their phones and just leaving the store afterwards — without any contact with sales associates. No standing in line and wasting time. It’s a convenient way to simplify shopping for the client, and a super secure and efficient solution for the store itself. Once the purchase has been processed, the shop’s security system is notified in order to allow the customer to walk out, without triggering the alarm.

3. Dozens

This is a useful app for managing a personal and household budget. Dozens offers its users an overview of their expenses, and helps them plan their current and future budget. Within the mobile app, every user gets a clear visualisation of their spending habits, so they can plan out how to put some money aside and build up their savings. Features include a UK current account, fixed interest bonds, investment options, and a debit card totally free of any fees. However, it’s not a bank. It’s an e-money institution and investment firm authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

4. Jaja

Jaja is a Norwegian project based in London that uses machine-learning algorithms to create  better and more personalised user experiences. Jaja revolutionises the world of credit, offering a digital, mobile-first credit card along with a simple and intuitive mobile app for managing each and every transaction. The pricing and terms of use are clear and transparent as well. They don’t charge for cash withdrawal or foreign exchange transactions. Plus, users can benefit from instant credit lines, while having real-time control over their purchases at the same time. It’s also highly secure with its fraud protection mechanisms and offers a wide variety of interactive features, such as intelligent notifications and smart search help.

5. Quantemplate

Quantemplate is a cloud-based platform designed for insurance professionals, allowing them to combine all their chaotic datasets and turn them into actionable insights regarding the market and their customers. It’s a flexible tool powered by machine learning that helps insurance businesses scale and achieve a competitive edge by efficiently handling a massive number of continuously changing inputs. And the most important part — Quantemplate has a “zero-coding” interface which enables non-technical users to understand and explore data insights with ease and in no time.

6. Neos

Neos is a kind of innovative home insurance service that combines comprehensive home monitoring, 24/7 emergency assistance, along with a mobile app for managing smart technology solutions and proper insurance options. It provides an extra peace of mind while everyone’s away and the house is empty. The indoor security camera, leak and motion sensors and smoke alarm detector — they can all be controlled via smartphone, and in the case of a fire, leak or break-in, professional assistance takes over to handle the problem. The system is super easy-to-use and takes home protection to an entirely new level of safety.

7. Bought by Many

This award-winning startup leverages social media to connect people who share the same passions or needs in order to negotiate group insurance offers  — which are much more beneficial than any packages available for individuals. Insurance can apply to travel, real estate, sports activities, business, gadgets, cars or even pets, including exotic ones. Bought by Many is exactly what the name suggests — already bought by over half a million people, split into more than 300 insurance groups. Competitive prices, attractive discounts, and improved terms on products and services — this is all what makes this insurtech company so popular.

8. Cuvva

Cuvva offers super flexible UK car and travel insurance with three main advantages over traditional services: it works on a short-term basis, so users can pay for just the period they actually need it, it cuts out the middleman, and it is far removed from outdated legacy systems. Cuvva is clear of heavy paperwork and incomprehensible technical jargon. It simply puts people first, so whether they just need to rent a car for a couple of days or get health insurance for a short trip abroad  — Cuvva gets them covered. And it’s all available in a user-friendly mobile app, one that also offers 24/7 support with an excellent 1-minute average response time.

All of these companies are just a drop in the ocean of fintech and insurtech companies, which is a good indicator of how developed and innovative this market is. Yet, there’s still some space for new business ideas, especially those that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. And as far as we can see, the spiral will continue to trend upwards in the months and years to come.

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Therefore, with this in mind, we’ve prepared another brief overview of the top eight fintech and insurtech companies that are definitely worth following — perhaps not only in 2020, but also in the years to come.

1. Tifgroup

Tifgroup is now one of the biggest and most innovative travel insurance providers in the UK. They offer a range of highly flexible products, services and tools that are designed to fulfil the specific needs of every client — both corporate partners and policyholders. Tifgroup has, among other things, a team of trained underwriters at the business client’s disposal, 24/7 multilingual emergency medical assistance, and a special screening tool for the precise evaluation of a policyholder’s health (called Protectif). All of these things combined, along with very personal and friendly customer service, make Tifgroup the number one choice for many brokers, insurers and intermediaries in the UK.

2. UnderwriteMe

UnderwriteMe has The Protection Platform, created specifically as a place for intermediaries to not only get quotes and make accurate comparisons but also where they can underwrite and sell a wide variety of insurance products from a number of different providers. Clients always receive up-to-date, highly accurate and personalized search results on the platform. Of course, this wouldn’t be possible without incorporating advanced Big Data and Business Analytics solutions. UnderwriteMe ensures a flexible, state-of-the-art experience for any intermediary, allowing them to sell a chosen product in just a few simple steps.

3. Tractable

Tractable is totally powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technology. Their AI predicts the repair costs of an automobile or a property just by scanning and looking at photos showing the damage. Therefore, settling claims goes faster and policyholders can get their money back in no time. In the case of an accident or natural disaster (like a fire, flood or hurricane), Tractable AI accelerates the process of restoring livelihoods by collecting and analysing data on the damage and then providing the partner insurer with instant and precise estimations. And the technology is constantly learning, getting better and more accurate with every new visual task.

4. Cytora

The Cytora Risk Engine harnesses AI to transform the foundation of underwriting for commercial insurance providers. It allows insurers to improve their underwriting efficiency and accuracy by learning the patterns of various risk profiles over time. Cytora offers an API platform for building customized components, tailored to the insurer’s preferences. In turn, insurers can use the platform to improve figures for expected losses, increase their quote volume and reduce expenses. The solution is fully configurable to serve different business needs and it’s easy to integrate with any client’s core system.

5. Starling Bank

Starling offers a bank account that not only comes with a debit card but a mobile application too. This way, managing finances is very easy and can be done directly from a smartphone, with 24/7 support. Users get notifications every time they receive or spend money, and they can also get insights that present a detailed view of their spending habits. It’s possible to have a Starling Euro account, business account, or even a joint account with a life partner, making it easier to manage a monthly household budget. Plus, Starling Bank allows users to split the bill with friends, connect an account to a digital wallet (like Apple Pay or Fitbit Pay) for card-free shopping, and they don’t charge for any transactions or ATM withdrawals overseas.

6. Exo

Exo is an AI-powered banking organization that allows personal users to invest their money wherever they want while the platform does the calculations and analysis for them — in order to help them make the best possible decisions. Exo uses all the information it has about its clients to build unique portfolios for them — individual preferences, experiences and expectations sit at the core of every Exo decision. Also, the portfolios adapt to market fluctuations, and users can easily track their evolution — it’s the active risk management solution that makes any investor feel more secure.

7. Bud

As the first open banking-based business, Bud is creating a new customer experience by connecting bank account data with both modern fintech and more traditional financial service providers. They’ve built a lot of data enrichment features, like ‘Smart Balance’ that helps users spend their money wisely, and ‘Goals’ which can be useful while planning expenses. It adds value to many services offered by financial institutions — making consumer lives and finances much easier to manage on a daily basis. The Bud platform is secure, fast and effective — even for large organizations — and the open data API is available to developers.

8. Monzo

Monzo is an intelligent bank for people who like to have full control over their financial lives, whenever and wherever they are — just by using a mobile app. Having a Monzo account also includes smart budgeting options to help users manage money more consciously and effectively, makes travelling stress-free with the Monzo card — which is accepted worldwide, and even lets users earn money through interest on savings. There are also some extra features to help account holders save money effortlessly, manage joint expenses together with a partner, flexible overdrafts, and so on. Also, Monzo works with a wide variety of other service providers, so it can easily become a finance control centre for any individual.

Based on this brief overview of some of London’s top fintech and insurtech companies, we might say that the industry is developing hand-in-hand with the digital transformation. It is especially important today when the need of remote services is growing.

Automated processes, real-time updates, taking a mobile-first approach, having high levels of customization and flexibility, and leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions — all these set legacy systems aside, and any company that cannot keep up, finds itself lagging far behind the more innovative ones.

If you want to get a wider picture of UK’s fintech and insurtech scene, we invite you to follow the news as it is sure that more and more promising companies will emerge. Some of them are enlisted in the the first part of our blog post. Read about the new businesses, their idea and don’t let yourself stay behind on the fast changing market!

If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Top 10 Polish Startups To Watch in 2021.

Estimates show that the combined value of health-tech startups in the UK reaches about £2.9 billion and investments in this market do not seem to be slowing down especially taking into consideration the growing need for health and social services. Digitallisation of healthcare industry ensures its adjustment to the changing world’s needs and its better availability also in times of crisis when direct contact with medical personel may be more difficult.

So, what are the most promising businesses to follow this year? Here’s a list of 9 exceptional companies that have drawn our attention.

1. Doctify

Doctify is an online platform that lets users search for, compare and book medical services in the United Kingdom. It also has a mobile app, so that patients can find applicable healthcare service providers in real-time, according to their location, condition and chosen insurer. Anytime and anywhere, as the booking option is available 24/7. It’s possible to choose all kinds of medical services, from a standard GP appointment to a dentist, cardiologist, or even acupuncturist. Plus, users can review the services they receive, as well as read other trusted opinions, so as not to choose blindly.

2. Perfect Ward

Perfect Ward was created specifically to make the lives of healthcare staff easier by helping them take care of admin work in a more efficient manner. Thanks to a beautifully designed mobile app that works on any smart device, health and quality inspections across all clinical areas are much faster and simpler. The Perfect Ward app is also flexible and intuitive to use, so there’s no training needed. It also features a clear view of data which is crucial in terms of spotting any problems and making instant improvements.

3. Forward

We can all agree that good communication serves as a strong foundation for any project and is a key factor in its success – regardless of the industry. Healthcare is no exception. Forward is a platform that improves collaboration between medical professionals by offering a lot of useful features, including instant messaging and intelligent suggestions to help find the right specialist for a referral or advice. It also offers patient cards and task management in real-time. Using Forward in the pilot studies, time savings per shift for a single clinician reaches up to 45 minutes and work satisfaction, in general, is 74% higher, compared to results from similar legacy tools.

4. BenevolentAI

BenevolentAI uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to deal with a massive number of both structured and unstructured biomedical data in order to improve the drug development process. All of these pieces of data are unified in one large bioscience specific knowledge graph and then leveraged by an experimental Benevolent Platform that can understand and contextualise them. The overall aim is to reduce the costs and failure rates often associated with drug development, and increase the speed of development itself. BenevolentAI is an innovative company capable of taking the entire process through each and every phase – from early discovery to late clinical tests. And its R&D facility is, of course, based in Cambridge.

5. iamYiam

iamYiam provides its users with a personalised health plan, based on academic research, individual genetics, and Big Data. All of these things are processed by artificial intelligence algorithms in order to deliver the most adequate preventive program allowing users to achieve peak performance and optimal levels of health. iamYiam also features a smart assistant – Syd – that helps people with shopping lists or even monthly reading goals. This AI-powered tool can easily analyse one’s lifestyle and is pretty useful when it comes to setting daily goals and tracking progress.

6. OurPath

OurPath is a mobile app designed to help people develop healthy relationships with food. It was created not only to help rid users of bad dieting habits but, first and foremost, to change unhealthy mindsets and allow users to regain full control over their lives. Of course, this lifestyle change requires daily attention and support from a dedicated online coach to get a user back on track in case of any troubles. OurPath teaches users how to eat optimally without counting calories, loose weight without developing health problems, and move more without overexertion. In effect, a user feels better, stays motivated, and even sets a good example for others. OurPath was recognised as one of the Top 50 startups in the EU and its founders were featured in Forbes’ ’30 under 30′ list.

7. videoDoc

Remote doctor consultations are something that many people dream about. Thanks to videoDoc, a patient in the UK can see a doctor without having to leave their home or office. Healthcare professionals are available remotely seven days a week, from early morning till late evening. One just needs to register online and attend their e-appointment on a PC or mobile device. Doctors will not only diagnose the problem and offer medical advice, but they can also send prescriptions. videoDoc significantly cuts the cost of medical treatment. It makes the process more affordable and accessible to everyone.

8. Thriva

Thrivia offers convenient health tracking services for anyone in the UK who is interested in what’s going on inside their bodies – regardless of their actual condition. It’s enough to order the Thriva kit, perform a finger-prick blood test, send it back and wait for no more than 48 hours to get the results online, along with a detailed report prepared by a qualified GP. One may choose from three base packages with the option to further customise their choice by adding more tests, for example, a vitamin D test or an iron profile. It’s fast, reliable and makes it possible to catch wind of some health issues before they turn into something bigger.

9. Four Eyes Insight

All of the above-mentioned healthcare startups give hope for the future in terms of improving the quality of life for societies around the world, not only in the UK. They mainly focus on making services as accessible for patients as possible, and as technologically advanced as the times that we live in require. This would not be possible if these businesses weren’t located in London, and didn’t have access to top academics from the world’s leading universities. That’s why it looks as though medical startup owners will continue to choose the British capital city as their headquarters, regardless of the political situation or temporary commotion.

If you’re a corporate or investor looking for exciting startups in a specific market for a potential investment or acquisition, check out our Top 10 Polish Startups To Watch in 2021.

The sheer number of ideas it comes up with is one of the reasons Germany is at the top position as an innovator. To achieve this, Germany spends about 2.9% of its GDP on R&D. While the economic crisis forced some governments over the globe to cut expenditure on R&D, Germany actually increased funding for small and medium-sized enterprises and e-mobility projects.

What’s more, Germany has more than 1,000 public and publicly funded institutions for science, research and development, almost 600 research and innovation clusters and networks, and 614,000 staff in R&D including 358,000 researchers. The country’s main goal, as outlined by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in its High-Tech Strategy, is for science and industry to work together to “move Germany further down the path to becoming the global innovation leader”.

Here are some of the top innovators worth keeping an eye on.

1. simplesurance

Founded in 2012, simplesurance aims to be the world’s leading e-commerce provider for product insurances. The company offers an easy and convenient way to purchase product insurances, constantly investing in their unique platform with transparent and efficient insurance services to connect people and business, anywhere & anytime. Simplesurance’s digital broker solution enables consumers to manage their insurance policies digitally via a multi-device app. The 100% automated paperless user experience, test-driven deployment, and fully digital deployment make the solution innovative.

2. Arago

Arago is a pioneer in the field of AI and one of few companies worldwide to offer a commercially proven general AI platform. The company’s mission is to guide the clients’ transformation into future-proof AI-enabled enterprises. Arago developed a problem-solving AI technology – HIRO – which leverages its algorithms to manage processes such as IT infrastructure, software, applications, services, business processes, workflows, transactions and more. The Knowledge and Information HIRO uses to solve complex tasks is storable and re-usable in different environments. They won the Innovation Leader in Semantic Intelligence Industry by Frost & Sullivan in 2017.

3. Wunder Mobility

Wunder is a B2B mobility tech platform providing carpooling, smart shuttles, and free-floating sharing to consumers, corporates & cities. It helps to create, deploy and scale technology that connects communities with end to end mobility services. Wunder allows start-ups, corporations, and cities to launch and scale mobility services efficiently, providing turn-key solutions that enable companies and cities worldwide to bring clean, convenient and accessible mobility. Transport companies and customers in Europe, Asia, Oceania and America have committed to using Wunder technology, taking over 12 million rides in 2018.

4. Teraki

Teraki specialises in accurate and efficient edge processing. Teraki’s software is a key driver for scaling of insurance, predictive maintenance and autonomous driving applications by enabling access to more qualitative data. Their edge data processing technology processes edge data 10X more efficiently and 10X quicker. One of the use cases of this technology is automotive insurance. Better and complete crash detection significantly improves the main KPIs for insurance companies, as with more available data algorithms can achieve higher accuracies and draw conclusions that are more relevant. Recently, CB Insights listed Teraki as one of the world’s 70 AI companies revolutionising the automotive sector.

5. Shore

Shore envisions help small business owners speed up their everyday administrative chores and to promote their business successfully. The one-stop software solution for online booking, customer management and, digital marketing helps businesses and customers save valuable time. The features of the application include an online calendar, online booking, customer database, planner, google ads management, etc. Thousands of businesses, including hairdressers, beauty salons, doctors, coaches, auto repair shops and restaurants are already using Shore to simplify their day-to-day work.

6. Fidor Solutions

Fidor Bank is Europe’s original, digital challenger bank. Founded in 2009 in Germany, it has become the world’s first ‘fintech bank’. Pioneering the collaboration between traditional financial services and technology businesses, the bank offers a customer-centric banking service. It is one of the only few neobanks that has a banking license, allowing it to redefine traditional banking from the ground-up. Fidor also built its own innovative platform from scratch – fidorOS – to be light-years ahead of traditional solutions. It quickly became an industry breakthrough – able to run an entire digital bank while ensuring growth and simplifying collaboration with third parties. Fidor Bank recently won the Celent Model Bank Award ’19 for their business model innovation and marketplace banking.

7. Govecs

Govecs is the leading manufacturer of electric scooters and light electric vehicles in Europe that aims to combine environmentally conscious driving pleasure with modern design and suitability for daily use. Their success is based on established technical know-how, innovative product ideas and their love for extraordinary design. Govecs develops products and services that meet the constantly changing demands of urban mobility. Currently, more than 10,000 Govecs electric scooters are used as a means of transport in major cities of Europe. The company won the “European e-scooter of the Year” award from 2011-2013.

8. xbAV

Founded in 2007, xbAV is an independent technology provider that delivers shared service solutions for occupational pension management and consultancy. The company offers solutions for agents, employers, employees and stakeholders. Their xbAV platform allows to make the process efficient, simple and independent by offering access to solutions forms a wide range of providers. With over 120 employees, xbAV aims to provide all stakeholders with easy access to company pension schemes.

Germany does a great job when it comes to innovation in areas as diverse as sustainable energy systems, molecular biotech, lasers, and experimental software engineering. It is also better at adapting new inventions and technologies to industry and spreading them throughout the business sector. All these factors together make Germany a powerhouse and one of the world leaders in terms of innovation.

The country is also a leading force in software development and information systems. Every year new promising start-ups emerge and we are sure that this tendency will continue. The ones enlisted in this post are definitely companies worth observing but there are many more German businesses with bright future. 

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Germany’s software market has proven resilient to the global economic crisis. A study by market researcher Marketline identified a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.3 percent for the period of 2010 to 2014. In comparison, the markets in the UK and France grew by just 5.2 percent and 2 percent respectively during the same period.

The German capital, Berlin, is the second biggest startup hub in Europe. It is also the home to numerous big and globally recognised companies, which are amongst the biggest employers in the world.

Here are some of the German tech companies to follow that have established themselves in the global software industry.

1. SEVEN PRINCIPLES AG

Founded in 1990, the 7P Group is an IT consultancy firm of around 500 employees specialising in enterprise mobility and digital transformation. Culturally similar to Future Processing, they provide services such as application development and management, SAP services, and managed services. 7P is also the leading European manufacturer of mobile device management for the secure management of smartphones and tablets. Their partners include Microsoft, VMware and Oracle.

2. valantic

Founded in 1997, valantic creates software and digital process solutions. They provide a wide variety of services in industries such as financial services, telecommunications, services industry, media, etc. With over 500 employees, valantic was awarded as one of the best employers by the Great Place to Work Institute in the “Beste Arbeitgeber im Consulting 2019“ (Best Employers in Consulting 2019) competition. The award stands for an extraordinary commitment to creating a trustful and beneficial culture of collaboration within the company. With a fast development culture and an extensive portfolio, valantic has successfully cemented themselves as one of the leading tech companies in Germany. valantic are also currently hiring and have over 100 positions vacant!

3. BridgingIT GmBH

Founded in 2008, BridgingIT GmBH is a bespoke software development firm that aims to combine optimal development with regional application possibilities. The company’s focus lies in business process management, digital transformation and lean digital industry.  With over 500 employees, they cater to industries ranging from banking and finance to healthcare, transport, the public domain, and automotive. Their partners include Adobe, Microsoft and Atlassian.

4. iS2 Intelligent Solution Services

Founded in 1990, iS2 Intelligent Solution Services AG aims to support companies in the fields of insurance and finance by providing innovative software solutions and IT consulting. Their clients include Generali, American Express, IBM, etc. Their products include applications such as “Value of Work” that helps illustrate the cumulated income over the next few years for customers in the form of a graph and raises awareness for the risk of a premature loss of earnings. The inSign Electronic Signature developed by iS2 is a fully legal digital signature software that enables customers to sing, send, and manage legally binding documents with written declarations of intent electronically. Besides the signature itself, all documents and biometric signature data is encrypted and protected against modification (BiPRO standard 262). With around 80 employees, iS2 has offices in three locations in Germany.

5. Neofonie

Neofonie is a leading full-service provider for digital solutions, offering services ranging from conceptualisation and consulting to design, development operation and hosting. Their areas of expertise include big data, text mining, search and web portals, content management system (CMS) and mobile solutions. Neofonie, founded in 1998, were the developers of the first German search engine, “Fireball”. Agency rankings place Neofonie among the top 20 E-Commerce and top 10 mobile providers in Germany. With about 180 employees, Neofonie caters to clients such as eBay, Jägermeister, Wort & Bild Verlag, Bechtle, Audi, and Olympus.

6. Netlution

Founded in 2001, Netlution offers customised 3^rd-level on-call service models individually tailored to clients’ needs. Their core competencies include cloud services, DevOps services, 3^rd level special services, transition services, and consulting services.  The experts at Netlution have a wide range of well-known certifications from leading solution and technology partners, for example, Microsoft MCSE/MCSA, VMware VCP, Citrix CCA/CCP/CCE, Linux CLA/CLP/CLE and LPIC 1-3, ITIL, and PRINCE2.

While we recognised some of the best tech companies in Germany, there is still an abundance of other businesses influencing the German tech scene. A sophisticated IT infrastructure paired with the rapid adoption of new technologies has also made Germany one of the leading forces in innovation.

The companies presented above are for sure not the only ones to look at as the German business scene has a lot to be proud of. The vast pool of specialists, together with a strong economy and flourishing market turn this country into the one with great potential. 

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Amsterdam, the Dutch Capital, is Europe’s 4^th biggest startup hub, rapidly developing into one of the most significant IT hubs in Europe. It is definitely business scene worth getting interested in as, and that’s for sure, Dutch tech companies will become more and more visible in the market. They opened to new possibilities and introduced digital transformation adjusting themselves to the requirements of customers and the fast changing market.

Here are the top 10 Dutch tech companies that have already established their global name in providing best software services.

1. BLOCKPORT

While cryptocurrency and blockchain have bloomed on the market, a lot of beginners fail to get into the same due to lack of knowledge. Blockport set out to build a user-friendly exchange that connects social with trading, enabling people to effortlessly trade cryptocurrency and help them adopt the new digital economy. They aim at developing an end-to-end trading platform that gives effortless trade experience to their customers. This Amsterdam-based company wants to fill the gap between society and the high-tech blockchain world.

2. OHPEN

Ohpen is a well-known financial technology company that produces cloud-based core banking platforms. The team is full of experts from experienced bankers to proficient software engineers who aim at liberating the banks from their legacy systems and processes. Their mission is to develop the best core banking engine in the world. Robeco, De Volksbank and Aego – these are the names of just a few companies in their portfolio. Their innovative approach helps customers to save up to 80% of IT costs.

3. VIRTUAGYM

Awarded with Supreme Software award and Expert’s Choice Award in the first year of business activity, Virtuagym aims at creating innovative fitness software for gyms, corporate health services, and personal trainers and excels at it. Virtuagym is the industry-leading solution, successfully providing features like client coaching, membership management, billing, scheduling and access control – all in a single software. From exercise and nutrition guidance to progress tracking and online coaching, they design robust software that is trusted by 5,000+ businesses all over the world.

4. BUX

Founded in 2014, BUX makes entering the world of finance easy and affordable. From commission-free stock investing to CFD training, people can participate in financial markets through their mobile phones, sitting at one place. Since launching, BUX has made the markets accessible for more than 2 million users across 9 countries in Europe.

5. PICNIC

Europe’s fastest growing supermarket. Picnic is a smart app that provides quick, easy and cheap grocery shopping across 30 cities, operating in 5 steps: supply-chain, forecasting, warehouse systems, partnership, and fleet strategies. They believe that technology, smart planning and a fleet of electric vehicles will lead to less food waste and fewer food miles. With a data-driven approach and an app-only store, Picnic has become Europe’s fastest growing online supermarket.

6. BIDROOM

For hoteliers by hoteliers. Bidroom is the world’s first no-commission hotel booking platform, offering 5% – 25% lower room prices than other booking websites. Their primary goal is to be a bridge connecting the hotels to their guests directly, with no commission for the hotels and low prices for the visitors. Launched in October 2014, they are currently the best travel startup in the Netherlands, committed to making travel, easier, fairer, cheaper and better for everyone.

7. TIQETS

One of Europe’s hottest startups. Tiqets is an innovative ticketing platform that helps visitors discover and buy tickets for museums and various other attractions, aiming at making culture more accessible. They have successfully connected the largest venues in Europe, the US and the Middle East and are working passionately on helping the locations with reducing waiting lines. Recently, they received the best Trustpilot score in the industry and the Ticketing Business of the Year Award.

8. PURPLE

Purple creates great concepts through new and innovative technologies. They are always challenging the status quo, embracing everything that is new and focusing solely on creating differentiating and remarkable strategies/concepts/productions. For one of their clients Purple has created, developed and delivered a special project: the immersive experience room. Founded in 2011, the company is now a group of best professionals in marketing, innovation, design and media.

9. M-WISE

M-Wise is a data-driven marketing agency established in 2000. It is known for creating effective loyalty programs and customer experiences for leading brands operating across the world. Their unique method is flexible enough to create a fully customised program and yet structured enough to guarantee lasting success. They were the first to combine loyalty and marketing automation and today are known as the thought leader in loyalty across the world.

10. ADYEN

With over 800 employees and about €159 billion in processed volume a year, Adyen is the payments platform built to simplify and accelerate global payments. They provide the best of modern infrastructure, directly connected to card networks and local payment methods across the world. Facebook, Uber, L’Oreal are only a few of their top customers. The company aims at helping businesses grow by building payment platforms that meet the rapidly evolving needs of today’s global businesses.

Great IT infrastructure, talented and passionate employees and the use of advanced technology in the Netherlands have contributed to writing the success story for numerous tech companies. The ones discussed above are only a few examples of how to be successful in providing the best software services, earning a reputed name on the market.

Are you are looking for other markets than Dutch? The tech ecosystem in Poland is booming, with a record €477 million being invested last year and some huge stories. Check out which are the Top Poland-based startups to watch in 2021.

Join the winners!

Achieve your business goals with technology and get the product that is well adapted to your environment.

Discover our software services

Sources:
https://investinholland.com/industries/information-technology/
https://www.eu-startups.com/2018/11/top-15-europes-biggest-startup-hubs-in-2018/

Fintech

• Adyen
  A payment platform that provides a modern, complex infrastructure connecting directly to Visa, Mastercard and other preferred payment methods for consumers worldwide. Adyen’s goal is to build a platform that can meet the rapidly changing needs of today’s fast-growing international companies. As the only payment platform that fully supports unified commerce, they provide a seamless payment experience. And they are appreciated by a lot of companies including Facebook, L’Oreal, Spotify, and Uber.
  
  
• CurrencyCloud
  A flexible platform designed to simplify the management of international payments to meet all the challenges that customers face. Currencycloud allows you to collect, convert, pay and manage multiple currencies at the same time, regardless of your location. They want to give the right tools to companies that are shaping the future of financial services allowing them to build the next generation of payment innovation. Last year they took their cross-border payments offering to the next level by becoming a member of SWIFT gpi. This gives them the possibility to offer customers an automatic payment tracking.
  
  
• Bud
  At the beginning, it was an educational platform aimed at improving people’ financial condition. Now, it’s also a platform that allows international banks to leverage the power of open banking and provide value to their clients. Through being shaped by a culture of ethical data use and cooperation with large institutions, Bud is able to raise standards for both Open Banking and Financial Services. Their team, which consists of 80% of people from outside the financial world, provides them with a wider and unique perspective to help clients experience greater control over their lives.
  
  
• kompany
  kompany is the international leader in global business verification, providing advanced solutions to financial institutions and corporations around the world for all their Business KYC (or KYB) needs. Serving over 50,000 customers across more than 100 countries kompany is recognized as a leading RegTech pioneer. Their solutions help customers conduct their due diligence activities, empowering them to anticipate stricter AML legislation via the use of fully audit-proof data.
  
  
• Bitpanda
  People at Bitpanda believe in the power of cryptocurrencies, digitised assets and blockchain technology. They want to remove the barriers to personal finance and innovate traditional financial products. Bitpanda has 1.8 million users and more than 330 team members. They have grown into a popular trading platform for newbies and experts alike where users can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, gold and over 50 other digital assets.
  

Insuretech

• Laka
  The company’s aim is to correct the defective insurance sector by offering short and simple, designed policies that customers can actually understand. They offer bicycle and recovery insurance which really works in the clients’ favour. Laka will not charge you a fixed sum in advance. Instead, they calculate your contribution based on the actual cost of your claims in a given month. Lately, the company has announced raising €4.2 million for its insurance platform, to install its HQ in Amsterdam and expand across the rest of Europe.
  
  
• Insurello
  It is a Swedish Insurtech company that provides its customers with a digital solution for obtaining fair compensation from insurance suppliers after accidents. They concentrate on rebalancing the power between customers and insurance companies. Insurello’s customers can feel at ease without having to worry about making stressful phone calls and time-consuming paperwork. More than 150,000 insurance claims have been handled by Insurello so far, and more than 15 million euros of compensation paid to their consumers.

Wrap up

We believe that these are the most promising companies that have a very bright future ahead of them. They have innovative products and services that are really worth exploring. Taking into consideration their approach and solutions, we cannot wait to see how they revolutionise the Fintech and Insuretech landscape.

Interested in knowing which companies we’ve partnered with? Check our case studies and discover projects we’ve delivered for businesses from various industries.

Join the winners!

Achieve your business goals with technology and get the product that is well adapted to your environment.

Discover our software services

Of course, the purpose of any contract is to facilitate establishing proper mechanisms and business processes suitable for both parties involved in close cooperation and to protect the organisations from possible penalties and undesirable actions towards each other.  Forewarned is forearmed. 

You can also find an outsourcing contract example and more information on what to include in an IT partnership contract in our free checklist. 

Looking for more information on signing an IT contract?

It includes all important issues that appear in IT partnership contracts enlisted and grouped accordingly.

Download the checklist

There are some golden tips to follow when selecting a contract type that suits your needs best: 

• discuss all the conditions and the elements of the project before launching it, 
• be clear on pricing and payment terms, 
• make sure all the details are in writing, 
• choose a contract that will be a good fit for your chosen work methodology. 

We have prepared a summary of  the 4 most popular types of outsourcing agreements.   

TIME & MATERIALS CONTRACT 

This is a kind of contract where the customer pays the supplier for work time  (according to the prearranged hourly rate of each member of the dedicated team) and materials used by the outsourcing service provider (e.g. using the software license or other assets). Before the cooperation starts it is important to learn about the total cost of ownership and possible flexibility in this matter.  

PROS AND CONS  

The main advantages of a Time & Material contract terms are:  

• great level of flexibility in the development and focus on Agility 
• client deciding on the project’s priorities and functionalities to be developed and implemented 
• general requirements of the project, as well as all the details, are discussed before every sprint 
•  service is billed in relation to actual days/ hours of work  
• it is possible to adjust the project to the market’s changing requirements even if work on it has already begun  

BUT: The project has to be very well managed and under control as the main responsibility regarding its final price and deadlines lies with the client who delivers the idea and requirements. It is also possible to analyse these issues together with the IT partner beforehand.  

FIXED PRICE CONTRACT  

In this type of outsourcing contract, the customer and the supplier agree on a steady ‘fixed price’ for the service (i.e. for delivering the solution). The price is estimated by a supplier based on well described scope of work to be done. The constant price means the constant scope and the deadline for the project. This kind of contract can also work very well in case of hybrid contracts like ‘fixed price per iteration’ when customer pays for each milestone separately.   

We recommend defining project’s scope and estimating costs together with business and technical specialists to crystallise your idea and collect all the requirements. 

PROS AND CONS  

The main advantages of a Fixed Price contract are:   

• product specification is delivered by the client or prepared together with the IT partner before the work starts 
•  the time and budget are predetermined  
• the customer has the least cost risk (assuming that the scope is well defined) 

BUT: In this model, there is less flexibility, and even making changes is possible while the project is ongoing, it strongly influences time and cost of delivery and may also result in contract modification. As this model requires a specification there is a great degree of work necessary before embarking on the project.  

If the costs are more than the agreed-upon amount, the service provider bears additional costs. 

Discovery Workshop

Interested in gathering requirements and defining the project’s scope with experts? Book the workshop to build a full backlog of the project.

LEARN MORE

 
FLEXIBLE SCOPE (DSDM)  

This outsourcing agreement framework is a stand-alone, full lifecycle Agile project management and delivery method and it aims at delivering results to the customer quickly and effectively. The collaboration between teams and individuals is based on main principles and values of Agile, and the key to the project’s success is its alignment to the company’s business goals.    

The main advantages of contracts based on a Flexible Scope (DSDM) framework are: 

• clear definition of roles and responsibilities for all involved 
• effective prioritising (use of the MoSCoW method)  
• consisting of detailed analysis and requirements gathering even though the development itself takes place in an Agile manner  
• involving the collaboration of project’s decision-makers    

BUT: This framework requires a cultural shift in terms of the development team’s thinking. What is more, it may be costly to implement as it requires developer and user training. 

PAIN SHARE/GAIN SHARE 

The aim of this mechanism is to share the benefits or dis-benefits from project outcomes. This kind of outsourcing arrangement can be a base of an agreement signed by the parties or the mechanism itself can be included in the Target Cost contract.  

The main advantages of contract based on a Pain Share/Gain Share mechanism are: 

•  risk and attitude to it is discussed by the parties at the initial stage of business cooperation 
•  the gain-share/pain-share mechanism is at the heart of target cost arrangements  
• contractor gains a bonus if the actual cost is below the target cost but shares the cost if goes above it  
• both parties are incentivised to deliver to baseline 

BUT: This model requires strict change management processes, so it is not appropriate unless/until the design is clear, and not for small or open-ended work assignments. 

SUMMING UP 

We strongly advice you to choose a contract type that will best match Although it is usually a choice between the typical ‘Time & Materials’, or ‘Fixed Price’ kinds of contracts,  software related services do not have to be limited to just these two options.

There are numerous software development outsourcing contract templates and modern outsourcing companies offer many indirect forms and innovative approaches to contracts to make the outsourcing service tailored to the customer’s needs and expectations.

It is worth considering contracts that are based on more  partnership-like relations – especially if you’re looking for a long-term software partner and beneficial business relationship. 

Today, companies from the outsourcing industry offer various pricing and outsourcing models and are open to adjusting them to chosen projects. Thanks to this the service will answer to your needs and outsourcing help your company develop. And that’s what every CIO, no matter from which industry, looks for.

Visit our ultimate knowledge base!

We’ve got more 100% free, helpful, downloadable materials for you!

START NEARSHORING

You’ll find there the following materials: 

• RFI template 
• RFP template 
• A tool for comparing potential IT partners 
• A specification template 

Choosing an outsourcing location is also not an easy part of starting an outsourcing process. One has to be sure the service is in the hands of the best outsourcing service provider. There are a lot of countries worth considering (India is not the only one). Look at the description and advantages of outsourcing to Poland (a very popular destination in case of IT outsourcing as well as the location of companies that a lot of global businesses sign BPO contracts with).

Deliver high quality software solutions  

Work with us and  turn your idea into a great software solution for your company’s needs.

Explore our potential 

And this will be the very topic of the following conversation – the world of payments and how to rise to the global payment challenge. It’s a very interesting aspect, especially bearing in mind that the payments market is one of the biggest market sectors across the world of finance.

There’s surely an urgent need for universal real-time global payments across global markets – especially when we think about cross-border payments. International businesses today increasingly expect this global access to finance in real-time.

Here’s the interview from which you’ll find out what our guest thinks about is.

Michał: An interesting and exciting topic, and even more interesting and exciting guest – Igal, a serial high-tech entrepreneur and executive, currently CEO and founder of Credorax, a licensed merchant acquiring bank. It’s a great pleasure having you here, Igal.

Igal Rotem: I’m happy to be here. Thank you very much for hosting me, Michał.

Michał: Would you be so kind as to tell something more about yourself and Credorax please, as an introduction?

Igal Rotem: Yes. As you kindly stated, my name is Igal Rotem, I am the CEO and board member of Credorax. I’m a serial entrepreneur out of Israel. Credorax is actually my fourth company. My background – I’m a semiconductor engineer, so a little bit far away from where I started.

Michał: Yeah, it is indeed!

Igal Rotem: But I see that the payment opportunity, and what we do in Credorax, is ultra-exciting. My previous companies were semiconductor companies. I’ve sold, taken public, been around the tech scene for many years. Credorax is a bank licensed by the EC and focused on eCommerce, m-commerce and enabling mostly payments on a global scale, mostly for merchant and payment service providers that focus on cross border business, i.e. companies that sell products or offer services outside their native jurisdiction. This is our core expertise.

Michał: Wonderful, thank you – good to hear that – it’s a very relevant discussion to you then. And just as a starter, I’ve heard one of the interviews you did, I found it on YouTube where you said that payment is affecting your business more than you are aware of it. And that really struck me as something really interesting because especially in retail and eCommerce, it’s all about the emotional connection with customers and this seamless user experience, which is crucial here. And if that does not work well, then the rest of the business is affected. And that’s what payments are all about, this seamless experience.

Could you please elaborate some more on that one?

Igal Rotem: Most of the eCommerce retailers, definitely those who focus on cross-border, their operating business model is around, would say 5-10% EBITDA on their sales. Which means that they are operating in a very tight margin environment. They face a lot of competition. They face a lot of challenges. Mostly when it comes to cross-border businesses, a fast-growing industry. And due to its nature, there are many, many complexities.

Many companies are unaware of how big is the impact of the payment part of their business. And I would dare to say that the engaging and dealing with payment part of their business is probably the most efficient thing that they can do for their business, that will impact their EBITDA. Because any change, any improvement that they will do to their cost structure, to their approval rate optimisation, to their FX optimization will have a direct impact on their bottom line. More than in many cases any other operational function that they have in their daily operation.

And therefore, one of the things that we do at Credorax is becoming a consultancy provider more than anything else. We are a payment company and a payment enabler, but also we try to bring services to our ecosystem and our customers.

Michał: Yeah, I definitely agree with the line you said dealing with ease of payments. It’s a great method of growing a profit margin. And that’s something that would not come as obvious, nonetheless, it’s extremely true. But what are the challenges of doing so? When you do global payments on the global scale on global markets, it’s a tough nut to crack. What are the most common challenges and how could you address them?

Igal Rotem: I would say the number one challenge Michał is to make sure that you will be completing the payment cycle. The acceptance of the payment method that is being used by the customer is actually valid and it’s executable, and it’s happening. Let me elaborate on this.

Think of a huge effort that you put into marketing. You use affiliates to bring traffic to your website. You put a lot of energy to make sure that the quality of traffic that arrives and land on your landing page is good. The guy makes a decision if he wants to buy services or products from your website. And then after he took this decision, he goes to the checkout page, something doesn’t work, uses his credit card, the credit card is not accepted. He uses another payment method. For some reason, he cannot complete the transaction. And then he gets a notification ‘your credit card cannot be used’ or ‘your credit card company have not authorized the transaction. Please use another payment.’.

This situation happens at this particular case is very, very, very bad for the merchant. Why? The merchant loses three times. The merchant loses the specific transaction that you’re trying to complete. The merchant will lose the lifetime value of Michał as a customer because Michał will go then to a different website, to a different merchant and will try to get the product or the service that you want to get. And the third major loss – and this is the biggest loss – is the fact that the merchant will lose Michał’s circles, Michał’s connections, Michał’s relationships. Because what will happen is that this individual consumer, that had a problem because he couldn’t complete the transaction, he’s not going to recommend your website. He’s not going to recommend your shopping experience. And therefore, you’re not just going to lose him as a customer. You’re going to lose his family circle, friends and social network. And this is why completing the payment is so, so crucial.

Michał: That really explains the scale of the problem.

Igal Rotem: It’s called dealing with the acceptance, dealing with approval rate optimization and it is the most challenging task. In fact, as a cross-border merchant, you are facing a much bigger challenge, because this is not a face to face transaction. This is not a card-present transaction where a consumer appears in front of the merchant. It is online, remote, the guy can sit in Germany and the merchant can be a Polish merchant or a Chinese merchant. And the acceptance rate and the approval rate in some cases can be very low. As low as below 50%.

Michał: Why is that?

Igal Rotem: It is because the issuers and the acquirers, many times they don’t understand what are the risk parameters that need to apply to this kind of cross-border transaction. They still think that if the merchant is German and the cardholder is Polish or coming from the Czech Republic or coming from China, then immediately it triggers all the warning signs for no good reasons.

That means you will lose a transaction. Our main task, as a cross-border payment provider, is to ensure that we minimise these events and we secure, and we improve the approval rate of this particular merchant that uses certain payment methods. That’s number one.

Michał: What’s number two?

Igal Rotem: Number two is FX. You are again, let’s say, a German merchant, but now you have customers worldwide, in many cases you want to show them prices in their native currency.

Michał: That’s it – you want to localize your service.

Igal Rotem: Exactly. You want to localize your service. And therefore, the guy may pay in Taiwan dollars, in Japanese yens and so forth and so on, but you’re based in Europe. So your operational expenses are mostly euro linked, therefore you want to be paid in euros, but still you don’t want to lose the FX conversion and the FX’s expenses that are associated with this kind of transaction.

This is a big challenge. I’ll give you a figure that may shock you. Many of these companies, as I’ve said, operate at very, very thin margins and very compressed margins. Let’s say the guy works around 5% EBITDA margins. He may lose sometimes 5% only on FX without even realizing that he’s losing this amount of money. Let me give you a simple example. The guy has customers in the UK, they buy in British pounds and then he’s telling his payment provider – please fund the pounds that are the proceeds of the service or the product that I’m selling into my euro account. That means that if you fund British pounds to euro account, someone will do a conversion.

Michał: And will earn on that one, yes.

Igal Rotem: Exactly. And this someone may be an extremely expensive FX provider, it may be a bank, it may be another entity on the way, so you have to optimize that as well.

Michał: What would be the third challenge?

Igal Rotem: Last but not least, technology. Many eCommerce providers very often do promotions, they do campaigns, they do activities, enlarge their exposures. When they do these campaigns, the number of transactions per second will jump through the roof. And therefore, they need to make sure that their payment providers can withstand these volumes of transactions and exposures. If your system cannot handle a rapid change in the system load, you may be facing a situation that you run a campaign and suddenly the system has crashed. You have spent thousands and thousands of euros on building a campaign and suddenly boom because the payment is impacted and not possible.

Michał: It’s a connection of reliability and scalability here, you’re talking about.

Igal Rotem: Exactly. It’s about reliability. It’s about scalability. It’s about, I would say, the continued service that you are expecting from your payment provider.

Now, let’s go back 15 years from where we are now. When 99.9% of the transactions were offline, then it was not a big deal. The system is down or the system is not available, still we can perform the purchase. In the online rapid business where you promote services and products, you need completely different system reliability than it was before. And this is a big challenge because most of these systems that are out there are very outdated.

Michał: Yeah, so definitely three very interesting challenges you’ve mentioned. And the last one you’ve said, you’ve started describing it, saying the challenge is about technology. And technology is definitely underpinning the whole industry when it comes to fintech and payments. Also, the technology allows making use of another asset that these sort of companies/merchants are in possession of, but are often not making use of, meaning data. A lot of merchants, especially eCommerce merchants, have to be, or usually are, data-driven businesses. Data is a crucial factor in building customer experience. Data is a crucial factor when it comes to marketing, personalisation, etc.

Could you say a few more words about the importance of how to make data useful, how to derive meaningful insights from it? How can that affect a business?

Igal Rotem: Thank you very much for the question Michał. It touches the core of what we do. When people are asking me, can you describe from 30,000 feet what is the essence of Credorax. Saying, “Guys, Credorax is a data company that happens to be a bank. And not a bank that has an IT department.”

And this is at the core of what we do. We provide data to our ecosystem and we provide the data in a real-time fashion, which means also you will be getting the data live, you can see exactly the cost of the transaction to the most granular line item. And you will get notifications on any problems that are happening in real-time so you can respond to these events immediately and take actions in real-time in order to fix the problem.

If you have a problem in the Czech Republic, if you have a problem in Belgium, you don’t want to be notified on these issues in two weeks’ time in a way that you will not be able to fix the problem when the problem happened. Now the data we provide you will enable you to make smart decisions on the fly. Let me give an example.

Let’s say that you have a transaction, that transaction is originated from Spain in euros and you know that for these kinds of cards, this kind of transaction, at this value, the best bank to process this transaction is going to be Barclays. So, you want to run the transaction to Barclays.

You then get another transaction; it comes from Sweden and this transaction is in Swedish koronas. You want to optimise the approval rate, and you want to optimize the cost of this particular transaction. You know that Ingenico is the right provider for this kind of transaction. So, you would want to direct this transaction to Ingenico. This smart routing and the ability to make decisions on the fly is a mission-critical function that Credorax provides.

And that is based on your, what is called the target function you will determine, meaning what are the parameters that are crucial for you. You want to optimize the cost, you want to optimize the approval rate, you want to optimize the FX conversion, you want to guarantee a certain volume to certain providers. All these parameters have to be managed by the real-time decision-making platform. We call it smart routing. It will enable you to optimize your payments.

Another factor is how much transactions cost you. For instance, the OTAs, the online travel agencies, for them the cost of a specific transaction is the Holy Grail. Based on this cost, many times they can make a strategic decision on the fly of what to do with your specific transaction. So if you live in Germany and you want to fly from Frankfurt to London, they may buy the ticket for you in Russia using Russian rubles. Because they found it the most optimized for you, at this particular time, of sensitivity, of other parameters that you have indicated. They need to optimize and manage their platform to execute this kind of transaction in the most optimal way. Of course, you need this data in real-time, and we provide this kind of data. And this is, I would say, one of our most powerful value proposition and key selling factors that on top of it, we win business.

Michał: Yeah, I see your point, definitely making proper use of data is crucial to any business, especially the one that operates on the fly in a volatile changing environment.

The last question I’ve got for you is regarding the future of payments and your predictions of trends. Especially regarding one trend, because obviously the thin margins, the customer acquisition growing, these are the trends that affect this environment. But I’m curious to find out your opinion on the cashless direction, especially on virtual cards, no plastic cards anymore. Is it a threat or opportunity, what would you say?

Igal Rotem: So there are few trends that are happening, I would say, in many ways simultaneously. I think that cash, in its note form, will cease to exist in less than 20 years.

Michał: That’s a bold statement.

Igal Rotem: In most parts of the world. And I’ll tell you why. Let’s take China as a good example. China, although a gigantic country, is very, very close to being a cashless society.

Michał: It is, yes.

Igal Rotem: You can buy anything and everything using your mobile phone. That’s it. People can carry a note of a 100 and not use it for weeks and months.

Michał: Very similar in Sweden as well, where there are plenty of cash-free spaces already.

Igal Rotem: Exactly. And I think China is very close, second close to Sweden in this regard of being cashless. This is being pushed by most central banks, most governments because it saves a lot of money. It saves a lot of friction. It reduces the black economy; it reduces tax evasion. It provides a much, much, much stronger control on economic activity and the economic environment. And of course, significantly reduces crime. Because every time that you perform a transaction that is digital, you know the parameters. And your ability to hide the transaction or to do any kind of tax evasion is minimised.
Therefore, I think that we are getting very close to a situation when most governments in most parts of the world will embrace cashless society. Now, whether this is not going to happen over the next two years, I think it may take time.

Michał: Yes, you need to foster a social mindset as well, especially within people who are not digital natives, that will not be immediately ok with it.

Igal Rotem: Exactly, but we move more and more to the simplification of payments. One-click checkout, very simple, very transparent, very secure, the ability to move from cash to cashless will be rapid. So that’s one trend that will definitely grow our total available market fivefold.

People are not aware and still, most of the world needs cash. The cashless society, electronic money is still less than 25%.

Michał: Approximately, yes.

Igal Rotem: I’m talking about worldwide. We still have a way to go here, and we are very happy, very thrilled about this. And of course, happy to support it.

The other trend is the blockchain. Blockchain is a messaging platform. Again, people have the tendency to confuse between blockchain and cryptocurrencies. But it’s not relevant. General ledger and blockchain is a messaging platform.

Michał: Yes, they serve a completely different purpose.

Igal Rotem: Exactly. Do I believe in blockchain? Absolutely. Do I think blockchain will go more and more into the mainstream? Absolutely. If you look online at the Finextra you will see a big announcement that we did recently with Samsung SDS about joining forces to develop a fully automated reconciliation engine for eCommerce companies.

Michał: That’s exciting!

Igal Rotem: Very exciting. We are big believers in this kind of a trend. Having said that, I think this is a messaging platform that will help significantly ease the process that would be the back-office process for payment companies and for commerce banks. It’s an amazing opportunity. It’s not a trap.

Also, the alternative payment methods, trends like PSD2, SEPA direct debits, other means of payments, account to account and so forth and so on, they are a great opportunity to provide more services. I don’t think that the card business is going away.

Michał: What about physical cards?

Igal Rotem: Absolutely, the physical plastic will go away sometime. It’s still considered to be a status symbol if you want. And therefore, I don’t think that the plastic will go away completely. But the use of the plastic, the use of the physical card will slowly go down and down and down. From our point of view, it doesn’t really matter. On the contrary, because we are eCommerce and cross border focused, in any case, the transactions card is not present, to begin with. The fact that the physical card is not present is the nature of the piece, you can say.

I think that the penetration of smartphones in general is really, really accelerating this cashless and cardless payment method. We are definitely very, very, very much supportive of that.

Michał: What about alternative payment methods?

Igal Rotem: All the alternative payment methods are something that Credorax supports. We support more than 120 alternative payment methods on a global scale. We will see continuation and growth in this area as people want to be personalized, people want to have more loyalty to a certain channel, which we should absolutely support.

Michał: Thank you for sharing that one. Well, it looks like there’s an interesting future ahead of us when it comes to payments, full of challenges and full of opportunities. Thanks for sharing your views on that, it was extremely informative.

Igal Rotem: Thank you, Michał.

Michał: And thank you our listeners for listening to this, another episode of our series of podcasts. If you found it useful, please don’t hesitate to like it and share it. And please do drop us a line if you’d like to have a topic covered in one of the other episodes.

That was IT Leadership Insights by Future Processing with Igal Rotem. Thank you.

Is DevSecOps just another buzzword or rather a necessity? How to increase ROI through software security? Why align security and compliance and how to measure security requirements? You will find answers to these – and many other important questions – in our newest whitepaper on software security.

Protecting Your Business

According to the latest Symantec Internet Security Threat Report, in the last 8 years more than 7.1 billion identities were exposed in data breaches.

New classes of attacks, such as ransomware and targeted espionage attacks show new levels of cybercriminal ambition. Additionally to potential financial losses, such attacks have an unquantifiable, negative impact on customer confidence and on brand value.

The new GDPR law will introduce a great challenge for all organisations that process personal data. Building the software with security-in-mind approach (which includes regular testing, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing – both using automated tools, and as an expert-driven manual process) allows organisations to go beyond today’s compliance requirements, enabling them to be proactive and forward-thinking.

The Ponemon Cost of Data Breach Study shows that the global average cost of data breach is $3.62 million. The average cost for each lost or stolen records containing sensitive and confidential information was measured as $141 in the study.

The report includes data from 419 companies in 13 countries or regions. It also states that the cost of a data breach depends on the industry, indicating healthcare organisations and financial services leaks as the most costly.

Businesses operating in these industries should ensure that they have a proper security programme in place. The predictions are that the threats are set to worsen. Adoption of new technologies (IoT, Cloud Computing, mobile devices) expands the threat landscape.

New bugs and vulnerabilities are discovered every day. And most of the websites serving malicious content were once legitimate websites that have been compromised by attackers.

Secure Development Must Be Part of Company Culture

Development lifecycle is a process which guides developers on how to build software. It usually contains the following phases:

• Training
• Requirements
• Design
• Implementation
• Verification
• Release
• Response

Secure Development Lifecycle extends regular develop – ment by adding activities on top of the existing process. It ensures that security is not only considered during the testing phase, but remains a continuous concern. Correctly implemented Secure Development Lifecycle allows to build more secure software, helps in address – ing compliance requirements and reduces the total cost of development.

While process implementations might vary in detail, the core is common – “shifting left”, where practices and secure principles are applied in a holistic manner to the whole development process.

Three steps are required for successful implementation of the process. Firstly, developers, managers and IT pol – icy makers must identify which requirements for security are based on data processed by the application. As a second step, the organisation must assess the current state of security in the software development process. This allows to identify gaps and create a proper roadmap for advancing in security maturity level.

There are several publicly available and documented Secure SDLC processes that can be used to ensure security of developed software:

• OWASP Secure Software Development Lifecycle Project
• NIST System Development Life Cycle (SP 800-64, Revision 2)
• Microsoft Secure Development Lifecycle 5.2 (and SDL for Agile)
• BSIMM (Building Security In Maturity Mode)

Microsoft Secure Development Lifecycle

Microsoft SDL is a secure development process that was started by Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing team,
as a response to Bill Gates’ memo sent to all Microsoft employees in 2002. It called for the following fundamental security features to be present in computer systems:

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Since 2004, the process has been mandatory for all Microsoft products and it is being constantly improved, accepted and adapted industrywide.

The Microsoft SDL process is well-documented, with step[1]by-step instructions to be used by a development team to increase the level of security. A set of training presentations, tools and guides are provided.

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Better ROI

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) claims that code fixes done during the design and implementation phase can be 30 times less expensive than the ones performed after the release.

This way security development lifecycle can help to reduce the total cost of development. The amount of time spent on post-development bug remediation, incident response and customer service also decreases.

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SANS Institute states that including security aspects in the requirements for software and cloud services not only efficiently reduces attack surfaces, but has also been proven to reduce time to market for secure business services.

SDL for Agile

SDL for Agile is a way to integrate the security related activities into the Agile development process, which is based on fast and frequent delivery. This approach requires ensuring that security practices do not interfere with delivery cycle and, at the same time, makes sure that no crucial practices are missing. The practices are divided in three categories:

Every sprint practices

Essential security practices that should be performed in every release. Some examples include:

• Threat modeling,
• Running static code analysis tools, and
• Ensuring that defensive coding techniques are used, e.g.: ensuring all database access is performed through parameterised queries to stored procedures, mitigating against cross-site scripting (XSS), using safe redirect u Using secure cookie over HTTPS.

Bucket practices

Important security practices that must be completed on a regular basis but can be spread across multiple sprints during the project lifetime. Examples include:

• Conducting a security review,
• Creation of privacy-related documents,
• Fuzz testing,
• Attack surface analysis, and
• Data flow and input validation testing.

DevSecOps – buzzowrd or necessity?

DevSecOps is a concept which connects traditional DevOps and Security engineers. It accepts the fact that the responsibility for secure development lays not only on a limited number of security engineers, but on the whole development teams. It puts the focus on introducing automation of security activities.

DevSecOps is a list of t of rules defined to make your security effort work for your project, not against it:

• Leaning in over Always Saying ‘No’,
• Data & Security Science over Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt,
• Open Contribution & Collaboration over Security-Only Requirements,
• Consumable Security Services with APIs over Mandated Security Controls & Paperwork,
• Business Driven Security Scores over Rubber Stamp Security,
• Red & Blue Team Exploit Testing over Relying on Scans & Theoretical Vulnerabilities,
• 24×7 Proactive Security Monitoring over Reacting after being Informed of an Incident,
• Shared Threat Intelligence over Keeping Info to Ourselves, and
• Compliance Operations over Clipboards & Checklists.

This includes incorporating the following into Continuous Integration and integrated development environments (IDEs):

• Static code analysis (which should include security-related rules),
• Dynamic testing (using scanners)
• Automation of security requirement checks
• Planning and implementing security features (Security as a Code)
• Ensuring secure deployments (Infrastructure as a Code)

Another important part of SecDevOps responsibilities is introducing best practices and developing security culture.

Measuring and Enforcing Security Requirements is part of the process

Capturing security requirements for your project before actual development has been commenced pro[1]vides many advantages, e.g.:

• Gives better understanding of application security risks and possible remediation to management, development team and Business Analysts,
• Makes you compliant – when done right, security requirements are based on privacy analysis and compliance requirements that apply to data stored and processed by the system,
• Makes security work anticipated, planned and cost-bound – adding security non-fictional requirements as Acceptance Criteria for User Stories makes them easy to use during estimation, development, and ensures easy mapping between requirements and controls applied during development process,
• Makes them testable – once you define a requirement, it can be included in the test activities, and
• Improves transparency of contract with the supplier – when using a third party for software development, agreeing on a detailed list of requirements will ensure a common view on what a secure application is.

OWASP Application Security Verification Standard is  a well-established framework that can be used to build a set of actionable and measurable security requirements. ASVS 3.0.1 requirements cover the following features of a system:

• V1.Architecture, design and threat modeling
• V2. Authentication
• V3. Session management
• V4. Access control
• V5. Malicious input handling
• V7. Cryptography at rest
• V8. Error handling and logging
• V9. Data protection
• V10. Communications
• V11. HTTP security configuration
• V13. Malicious controls
• V15. Business logic
• V16. File and resources
• V17. Mobile u V18. Web services (NEW for 3.0)
• V19. Configuration (NEW for 3.0)

Requirements are grouped into three security verification levels:

• ASVS Level 1 contains a basic list that can be applied to all applications,
• ASVS Level 2 should be used for applications containing assets which require protection,
• ASVS Level 3 is for the most critical systems – medical equipment, applications containing valuable, intellectual property or processing a vast amount of financial transactions.

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Security and compliance should be aligned

Systems used to process sensitive data (medical data, credit cards, Personally Identifiable Information) need to comply with complex regulations and laws related to system security.

Standards such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or ISO/IEC 27001 Information Security not only require you to protect the data, but also introduce financial fines for the lack of proper security controls.

Standards recommend to regularly test applications and infrastructure for vulnerabilities. This can be done by penetration testing and vulnerability scanning. Penetration testing, when performed by a skilled and experienced individual, tests real-world risks to the business and verifies the actual state of system security. It will uncover problems that would not be found by automated tools.

PCI DSS

PCI DSS requires to fulfil the following goals through penetration testing: ’determine whether and how a malicious user can gain unauthorised access to assets that affect the fundamental security of the system, files, logs and/or cardholder data. Confirm that the applicable controls, such as scope, vulnerability management, methodology, and segmentation, required in PCI DSS are in place.’

ISO 27001

ISO 27001 security control objective A12.6 (Technical Vulnerability Management) states that ‘information about technical vulnerabilities of information systems being used shall be obtained in a timely fashion, the organisation’s exposure to such vulnerabilities evaluated and appropriate measures taken to address the associated risk.’

GDPR

GDPR requires to ensure that security measures of systems used to store and process Personal Data (any information about an identified or identifiable individual) are regularly tested.

NIST guide for implementing the HIPAA

NIST guide for implementing the HIPAA recommends to conduct penetration testing (where trusted insiders attempt to compromise system security for the sole purpose of testing the effectiveness of security controls), if reasonable and appropriate’.

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We hope this article has helped you understand the importance of security in software development.