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NEW YORK — S&P Global announced today that the Company has hit an exciting milestone in an alternative data linking project in collaboration with Kensho Technologies Inc. (“Kensho”), acquired by SPGI in April, and Crunchbase, a well-known destination for data on some the world’s most innovative companies. Leveraging Kensho’s machine learning algorithms, S&P Global Market Intelligence platform users can now access robust information on privately held companies licensed from Crunchbase.

“The Private Company Data space is an area of enormous growth and of high value to many of our clients who are particularly interested in being able to identify early stage, venture backed companies prime for acquisition or investment,” noted Mike Chinn, Executive Vice President of Data and Technology Innovation at S&P Global and President of S&P Global Market Intelligence. “Given the complexity and opaqueness of this data, we had originally expected project completion to take several months. I’m thrilled that in less than a month after our acquisition of Kensho, S&P Global has already hit this major milestone, strengthening our ability to meet the demand of clients at an accelerated pace as we become the go-to resource for comprehensive private company data.”

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CME Group and Eris enter exclusive licensing deal to list Eris futures on CME in Q4 2018

CHICAGO, May 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group, the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, and Eris Exchange, a U.S.-based futures exchange group that offers swap futures as the leading alternative to traditional over-the-counter (OTC) swaps, today announced they have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement to list USD Eris Interest Rate Swap futures, which already clear at CME Clearing.

Pending regulatory approval, Eris futures will be listed with and subject to the rules and regulations of CBOT, starting in the fourth quarter of 2018, and existing open interest in the contracts will be transferred to CME Group at that time. The Eris futures will trade alongside the MAC Swap Futures, bringing together the two leading interest rate swap futures on a single exchange venue. Until the migration in late 2018, Eris Swap Futures will remain listed at Eris Exchange and cleared at CME Clearing, where they are subject to margin offsets with CME Group’s interest rate futures.

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Integrated solution lowers transaction fees, streamlines processing and enhances customer experience for Billtrust customers

BOSTON and HAMILTON, N.J., May 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Flywire, a provider of global payment and receivables solutions, and Billtrust, the leader in B2B payment cycle management, today announced a partnership aimed at streamlining the receipt of international payments for Billtrust business customers. Billtrust users will receive an integrated solution that adds Flywire’s international payment processing and receivable capabilities to Billtrust’s automated invoice delivery and payment services. The joint offering will help these customers more easily collect international payments while lowering the cost of international wire fees and eliminating the manual posting of cross-border payments.

Billtrust’s cloud-based Quantum payment cycle management solution suite accelerates cash flow by automating invoice delivery, payments and cash application for businesses. Many of Billtrust’s customers also receive international payment wires. These transactions can be complex and include high transaction fees and foreign exchange costs for both the payer and receiver. The inability to accurately predict these costs can also result in short payments, increasing reconciliation costs for the biller while also negatively impacting customer satisfaction.

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NEW YORK — Vestwell, a digital retirement platform, announced today that it is partnering with Namely, a leading HR platform for mid-sized companies, to provide an all-in-one retirement experience for plan sponsors and their employees.

Vestwell’s retirement offering will now integrate into Namely’s platform. Through single sign on, users will gain access to key benefits and retirement information, all in one place. More importantly, the new offering provides payroll integration, thus removing the significant administrative burden from plan sponsors of providing ongoing payroll information and updated election deferrals.

“At Vestwell, our key objective is to modernize how retirement plans are offered and administered, and our partnership with Namely does just that,” said Aaron Schumm, founder and CEO, Vestwell. “By coupling Vestwell’s turnkey retirement solution with Namely’s humanized and savvy HR system, we’re able to create a more harmonious experience for the plan sponsor and their participants.”

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NEW YORK — S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) today announced that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Kensho Technologies Inc. (“Kensho”). Kensho is a leading edge provider of next-generation analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data visualization systems to Wall Street’s premier global banks and investment institutions, as well as the National Security community. The acquisition was announced on March 6, 2018.

About S&P Global
S&P Global is a leading provider of transparent and independent ratings, benchmarks, analytics and data to the capital and commodity markets worldwide. The Company’s divisions include S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts. S&P Global has approximately 20,000 employees in 31 countries.

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LONDON–FlexTrade Systems (@FlexTrade), a global leader in multi-asset execution and order management systems, today announced the integration of Kensho Technologies pre-trade analytics solution into the FlexTRADER EMS, which provides a detailed, real-time event feed to assist a trader’s decision-making process when executing a trade.

“This integration with Kensho brings a unique level of ‘market context’ to the FlexTRADER blotter,” said Andy Mahoney, Head of Sales at FlexTrade UK. “By including Kensho data in pre-trade and real-time analysis, we ensure that traders will receive a more meaningful picture of performance.”

How it Works

Kensho captures events to surface company-specific key developments, such as product launches, mergers and acquisitions or corporate announcements. These events come from reputable news outlets and other sources, and cover an assortment of categories, including regulatory events, partnerships, investments and corporate actions.

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BOSTON and LONDON and LAGOS, Nigeria — Flywire, a provider of global payment and receivables solutions for education, healthcare, and business, today announced a new partnership with Flutterwave, a payments API that makes it easier for banks and businesses to process payments across Africa. Flywire will integrate Flutterwave’s Rave payment platform as a preferred option for students, patients, and businesses in Nigeria making cross-border payments via the Flywire platform.

Nigeria is a thriving market for cross-border payments. It is the number one source of international students and patients from Africa with approximately 15,000 Nigerians studying at British colleges and universities during the 2016/2017 academic year1. Another 10,000 plus studied in the US, contributing an estimated $US 301 million to the US economy.2 According to the World Bank, Nigerian’s also spend $US 1 billion annually on medical treatment abroad. Nigeria also has a thriving global trade, exporting almost $US 35 billion worth of goods and services each year, and importing over $US 30 billion worth of goods and services each year.

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NEW YORK — Vestwell, a digital retirement platform, today announced the appointments of two new board members who will provide strategic counsel on areas including best practices, innovative ideas, and the firm’s trajectory. Drew Lawton joins the firm’s Advisory Board and John Moody joins the Board of Directors. Additionally, the firm has hired Benjamin Thomason as executive vice president of sales and John Skovron as chief technical officer (CTO). These strategic appointments support Vestwell’s dedication to enhancing their technology, supporting clients, and making retirement plans simpler and more accessible.

John Moody, founder and former president of Matrix, will leverage his knowledge as an operator and his position as an industry guru to enhance Vestwell’s value proposition by serving on the Board of Directors. John’s firsthand experience in building scale around a growing business makes him well suited to help Vestwell increase market share.

Drew Lawton, former CEO of New York Life and Pyramis – Fidelity’s retirement vertical, has recently joined Vestwell’s Advisory Board. As a former operator on the institutional side, Drew’s extensive wealth of knowledge in the financial services space will help steer the company to new strategic heights.

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SYDNEY, Australia and SINGAPORE — Mia Watanabe, Chief Administrative Officer for Flywire APAC, will present at the SEACEN-MAS FinTech Seminar, which will take place 12 to 14 March, 2018 in Singapore. Flywire will be one of six FinTech companies presenting to participants from the South East Asian Central Banks and monetary authorities working on policy and other matters such as financial supervision, payments, and financial stability.

The seminar is aimed to engender an in-depth discussion of FinTech, potential areas of application for new technologies, challenges and risks, and regulation. It will also provide the opportunity for participants to develop a better understanding of the FinTech ecosystem.

Watanabe will discuss Flywire’s global payment and receivables business model and the opportunities and challenges the company has navigated as it has expanded across the Asia Pacific region. The session will take place on 14 March at 10:30 am. She will be preceded by a presentation by the Singapore FinTech Association (SFA) beginning at 9:30 am.

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Daniel Nadler, the CEO and founder of artificial intelligence start-up Kensho , kicks off a pair of Ugg boots and sits cross legged on a chair in his boardroom on the 46th New York’s One World Trade Center as a powerful nor’easter rages outside.

The scene, like the name Kensho (to see nature) is intentionally Zen: Nadler wears prayer beads on each wrist, drinks green tea from a cast iron Japanese pot and eats oranges, precisely sliced, from black earthenware bowl. There is a Buddha on one wall. Yet, all this meditative calm betrays the frantic pace in which Nadler has grown and evolved the tech start-up.

Nadler launched Kensho five years ago out of the kitchenette of venture firm, General Catalyst, in Cambridge while simultaneously finishing a mathematics PhD. at Harvard. Fast forward to today and Nadler is selling the company (now 120 plus employees strong and profitable) to S&P Global SPGI +0.33% for $550 million–the largest price on an A.I. company to date. Despite the sale, Kensho will remain a stand alone brand, with Nadler remaining at the helm.

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