Eco’s Beam Wallet Developer Acquires Join

Hi NoRamp Community,

Daily News:

1) Worldcoin to Launch New Orb

2) Eco’s Beam Wallet Developer Acquires Join

3) Smart Contract Platform Axiom Raises $20M Series A

4) BillingPlatform Lands $90M Growth Equity Investment

5) i2c and TBOM Partner to Help FinTechs Create Digital Banking Products

Worldcoin to Launch New Orb:

• Worldcoin, led by CEO Alex Blania, is set to release a redesigned version of its Orb device, aiming to resemble an Apple product in terms of sleek aesthetics and approachability. The new Orb will offer alternative colors and form factors.

• The Orb device is integral to Worldcoin’s operations, using iris scanning to provide individuals with a “World ID” for access to Worldcoin’s application and a digital passport. This ensures identity authentication and prevents multiple account creations.

• Tools for Humanity, the company behind Worldcoin, has secured approximately $250 million in funding from major investors. The crypto project has seen substantial growth, with about 3.13 million sign-ups and over 190,000 new accounts created in the past week.

Eco’s Beam Wallet Developer Acquires Join:

• Eco Inc., a crypto payments company, has acquired shopping app Join, which enables users to buy stablecoins at major merchants like Amazon and Shopify. This acquisition will integrate Join with Eco's self-custody wallet, Beam, allowing users to make purchases directly from the wallet starting in February.

• The Beam wallet, supported by Optimism and Base networks, offers a user-friendly experience with Twitter login and eliminates the need for managing seed words. It uses stablecoins for both payments and gas fees, aiming to make ledger technology more accessible and user-friendly.

• Eco, backed by a16z with $95 million in funding, launched Beam to facilitate peer-to-peer global payments. Join's founders, including Tom Dean, were supported by investor Balaji Srinivasan and a grant from Base. Eco's vision with this integration is to mainstream Web3 stablecoin payments and simplify on-chain transactions for everyday users.

Smart Contract Platform Axiom Raises $20M Series A:

• Axiom, a smart contract firm, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Paradigm and Standard Crypto, aiming to expand its team and hasten product development.

• The company's innovative product utilizes zero-knowledge cryptography for accessing authenticated data on-chain, offering a cost-effective and private data verification alternative to traditional consensus mechanisms.

• With its 2023 mainnet launch, Axiom enables developers to access historical Ethereum data and perform computations off-chain, leveraging zero-knowledge proofs for efficient and private data handling in blockchain applications.

BillingPlatform Lands $90M Growth Equity Investment:

• BillingPlatform, a US-based enterprise revenue lifecycle management company, has secured a $90 million growth equity investment from FTV Capital.

• As part of the deal, FTV Capital partners Kyle Griswold and Richard Liu will join BillingPlatform's board of directors.

• The funding will be used to speed up innovation, product development, and market expansion, following a three-year revenue growth of 296%. BillingPlatform has raised a total of $104 million since 2017. The company provides cloud-based billing and revenue management solutions, serving industries such as technology, finance, media, logistics, and communications.

i2c & TBOM Partner to Help FinTechs Create Digital Banking Products:

• i2c and The Bank of Missouri (TBOM) have entered a five-year partnership to support FinTechs in launching digital banking products, utilizing i2c’s core banking and payments platform.

• This collaboration will enable TBOM to offer a comprehensive suite of financial products and services, including checking and savings accounts, loans, credit cards, rewards programs, and virtual cards, catering to the evolving needs of FinTech clients.

• The partnership aligns with i2c's commitment to global Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) provision, aiming to deliver superior technology and managed services that facilitate easier financial access and digital payment solutions, particularly for younger consumers and gig workers.

NoRamp:

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