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IndustryUpdate

The financial industry could be particularly hard hit ed, adding that ThetaRay's SONAR is based on a pro-
should the potential computational power posed by prietary form of artificial intelligence (AI) that replaces
quantum computing become a reality, according to human bias, giving the system the power to recognize
researchers. It is predicted that large-scale, stable quan- anomalies and find unknowns outside of normal behav-
tum computers will be able to quickly solve the math- ior, including completely new typologies.
ematical problems upon which today's widely deployed
cryptographic systems are based, systems now in use ACQUISITIONS
to protect sensitive information on the internet and
throughout the industry, X9 noted.
Perwyn agrees to acquire VIXIO
PARTERSHIPS Private equity investor Perwyn agreed to acquire VIXIO
Regulatory Intelligence, a provider of regulatory and
Blackhawk, The Container Store business intelligence to the global payments and gam-
expand partnership bling industries, from Kester Capital. Through its
PaymentsCompliance and GamblingCompliance sub-
Blackhawk Network expanded its partnership with The scription products, Perwyn noted, VIXIO enables regu-
Container Store to include the retailer in Blackhawk's latory and legal teams around the world to manage risk
SaaS-based rewards and incentives platform. The plat- confidently and discover new market opportunities
form, Blackhawk stated, allows any company to easily by providing in-depth information, data and analysis.
stand up a program to reward or incentivize customers, Perwyn added it will invest behind the VIXIO manage-
partners or employees. ment team to further expand the depth of the intel-
ligence platforms within these fast-moving markets,
Recent research conducted by Blackhawk found that increase geographic penetration, widen the product set
Americans want rewards from the companies they inter- and move into adjacent markets.
act with. In addition to its gift card portfolio options,
Blackhawk's B2B offering provides end-to-end program Wolfe acquires GiveInKind
management that solves many of the pain points mer-
chants see today, including technology-first solutions Wolfe LLC, a provider of gift card fulfillment, acquired
and scalability, Blackhawk noted. (through a wholly owned subsidiary) Give InKind, a
I2c, QNB power digital issuance at World Cup social giving platform. Give InKind was founded in 2016
to allow customers to organize support for anyone, from
i2c Inc., a provider of digital payment and banking tech- anywhere. Wolfe stated that this acquisition will enable
nology, partnered with QNB Group, the official Middle Give InKind to utilize Wolfe's cutting-edge, card-to-card
East and Africa supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2022, gifting platform, print-on-demand fulfillment center, as
to power digital issuance of the Visa FIFA World Cup well as marketing expertise, to provide an even better
Qatar 2022 prepaid card. "We are honored to support solution to help those in need with gift cards, meaning-
such an innovative and impactful use case in support ful gifts and funds in times of crisis. Wolfe added that its
of one of the world's most beloved events," said Amir mission is to provide a more beautiful, faster, personal-
Wain, founder and CEO of i2c. By leveraging i2c's agile ized and fraud-free gift card.
banking and payments platform, QNB Group is issuing
virtual Visa prepaid cards to end users' mobiles, securely WPP to acquire Diff
enabling digital and NFC-based contactless digital pay- WPP stated it is acquiring Diff, an award-winning
ments as well as Apple Pay, the partners stated. developer of tailor-made commerce solutions with spe-
Ontop to deploy ThetaRay AI-powered AML cialized capabilities that address the rapidly growing
Shopify commerce ecosystem. Founded in 2011 by
ThetaRay, a provider of AI-powered transaction moni- Benjamin Crudo, the 115-strong company will join the
toring technology, disclosed that fintech platform Ontop Wunderman Thompson global network, complementing
selected ThetaRay's advanced SONAR anti-money laun- its world-class commerce and marketing services teams
dering (AML) solution to monitor and detect known and in North America, WPP added.
unknown financial crime threats. Ontop was founded in
2020 to solve complications with cross-border payments Diff specializes in growth strategy, front-end design, site
for workers who went remote during the COVID-19 optimization and system integrations that have enabled
pandemic, as well as to open new opportunities for com- the agency to create some of the most innovative, com-
panies to tap into global talent. plex and high-performing online stores on the Shopify
platform, which now accounts for 10 percent of the U.S.
The Ontop platform is used in 67 countries and is cur- ecommerce market share, WPP said.
rently processing payments worldwide, the partner stat-

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