The U.S. Faster Payments Council advocated for the use of email address and phone number identifiers via a shared, open digital directory in a report this month as a way to increase adoption of real-time payments in the U.S. The council used a consumer bill payment example to show how an open directory could streamline and speed up the adoption of real-time payments in the U.S., explaining that existing closed loop directories aren’t inoperable and therefore hinder broader instant payment use. “As instant payments adoption continues to grow, financial institutions, fintechs, and payment service providers face challenges in managing account information, ensuring interoperability, and mitigating fraud risks,” the council said in an April 7 press release regarding the report. “Directory services play a key role in addressing these challenges by enabling seamless routing of payments and protecting sensitive payment credentials.” The Federal Reserve launched a real-time payments system called FedNow in 2023 and it competes with a private system called RTP that was started in 2017 by The Clearing House, which is owned by major banks. Both systems operate through banks. The U.S. has lagged other countries, such as India and Brazil, in cultivating use of such faster payment systems.
Linktree’s new feature allows creators to build and sell courses and digital products like e-books, templates and guides directly through its platform and via a Stripe integration
Linktree is launching a set of new features aimed at helping creators earn more money directly from its platform. The company is partnering with Kajabi, to allow users to build and sell courses directly on Linktree. The new capability will enable creators to monetize their expertise. Creators can set the price for their courses and start earning through a Stripe integration. Linktree is also making it easier for creators to sell digital products like e-books, templates, guides, and more. Now, creators can sell digital products directly through Linktree without a third-party involved. This means that Linktree can now charge a take rate on digital goods sold through the platform. These rates are based on the Linktree plan you’re on. In addition, everyone in the U.S. on Linktree can now build a shop to earn commission on products. As for the new sponsored links capability, brands can now pay creators directly for space on their Linktree. Linktree is also launching “Rewards,” which is a new incentive program that offers creators perks like bonus commissions when they reach certain milestones. The program could lead to direct brand collabs. Every creator on Linktree will get access to a new “wallet” that will house all of the earning that they make from these features. The launch of the new monetization features will help Linktree stand out among other similar platforms like Beacons and Shorby, as they expand on Linktree’s simple link-in-bio service.
Albertsons adds video functionality to its retail media network to enable advertisers to place shoppable video ads into e-commerce site
Albertsons Companies is deploying the Criteo Onsite Video solution to place shoppable video ads from CPG companies participating in its Albertsons Media Collective retail media network. As a result, Albertsons can now offer CPG advertisers a full-funnel onsite advertising suite combining video, display and sponsored product ad formats in one unified platform. Albertsons Media Collective is a beta partner for Criteo Onsite Video, and in a test campaign found that shoppers exposed to both onsite video and sponsored product ads delivered a 280% increase in click-through rates. When paired with sponsored product ads, onsite video ads also drove a 460% lift in sales. Other initiatives Albertsons intends to launch to enhance its retail media network in 2025 include bringing together the insights that Albertsons Media Collective has in order to create automation around its main media planning process, as well as bringing more transparency to measurement. “Video has always been a powerful storytelling tool but rarely a direct driver of commerce – until now,” said Stephen Howard-Sarin, managing director, retail media, Americas at Criteo. “It’s an incredibly exciting time for retail media. With the launch of onsite video into general availability, we’re giving brands, agencies and retailers the tools to captivate, convert and create meaningful shopping experiences.”
Datadog unifies observability across data and applications, combining AI with column-level lineage to detect, resolve and prevent data quality problems from occurring
Cloud security and application monitoring giant Datadog is looking to expand the scope of its data observability offerings after acquiring a startup called Metaplane. By adding Metaplane’s tools to its own suite, Datadog said, it will enable its users to identify and take instant action to remedy any data quality issues affecting their most critical business applications. Metaplane has built an end-to-end data observability platform that combines AI with column-level lineage to try and detect, resolve and also prevent data quality problems from occurring. It’s an important tool for any company that’s trying to make data-driven decisions, since “bad” data means those decisions are being made based on the wrong insights. This allows it to notify customers of any issues with the tools that are creating their data, such as Slack, PagerDuty and the like. Datadog Vice President Michael Whetten said, Metaplane’s offerings will help the company to unify observability across data and applications so its customers can “build reliable AI systems.” When the acquisition closes, Metaplane will continue to support its existing customers as a standalone product, though it will be rebranded as “Metaplane by Datadog.” Of course, Datadog will also look to integrate Metaplane’s capabilities within its own platform, and likely do its utmost to get Metaplane’s customers onboard.
Candescent and Ninth Wave’s integrated open data solution to facilitate secure, API-based, consumer-permissioned data sharing for banks and credit unions of all sizes and enable compliance to US CFPB Rule 1033
US digital banking platform Candescent has expanded its partnership with Ninth Wave to launch an integrated open data solution for banks and credit unions. The new offering is designed to facilitate secure, API-based, consumer-permissioned data sharing for banks and credit unions of all sizes. The development aims to support institutions in enhancing customer experience, operational efficiency, and regulatory compliance, including adherence to the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Rule 1033. The expanded collaboration seeks to replace traditional data-sharing practices—such as screen scraping and manual uploads—with modern, transparent alternatives. The new solution offers seamless integration with third-party applications used by both retail and business banking customers. Candescent chief product officer Gareth Gaston said: “With our integrated solution, banks and credit unions will be able to access Ninth Wave open data capabilities from within the Candescent digital banking platform. By adopting this model, financial institutions are expected to gain improved control over shared data, as well as stronger compliance with evolving regulatory standards. Ninth Wave founder and CEO George Anderson said “This partnership will allow financial institutions of all sizes to gain the operational efficiencies, reliability, and scalability of a single point of integration to open finance APIs and business applications.”
Entro Security’s gen AI adds context to exposed secrets and non-human identity risks by creating structured, natural language summaries and auto-classifying each finding based on metadata
Entro Security, unveiled a set of GenAI capabilities that bring more context, clarity and control to exposed secrets and NHI-related risks across enterprise environments. The new engine, powered by large language models (LLM), enriches Entro’s security findings with structured, natural language summaries. Each finding is automatically classified based on metadata and context, making it easy for security teams to understand what each NHI does, where exposed secrets live and what’s at risk. This release builds on Entro’s previously launched GenAI ownership attribution model, which automatically assigns a human owner to each exposed secret or NHI using a smart multi-source hierarchy. Together, these capabilities drive faster triage, smarter remediation and clearer accountability across the NHI lifecycle. Entro’s platform now leverages explainability to provide generated summaries for secrets findings – classifying the target service , implementation type, potential purpose and more. Security teams no longer need to chase down vague pattern matches across environments or guess what the unknown secret is doing. The GenAI engine also automatically reduces noise, enables smarter and faster remediation, built for scale and compliance.
Automated code review platform Coana allows security teams to determine whether identified vulnerabilities in a codebase are actually exploitable by constructing detailed call graphs through static control-flow analysis
Supply chain security startup Socket has acquired cloud-based automated code review software startup Coana ApS for an undisclosed sum. Coana’s offerings include reachability analysis, a method that determines whether identified vulnerabilities in code dependencies are actually exploitable within a specific application. The approach involves constructing detailed call graphs through static control-flow analysis to identify which parts of the code are reachable and which are not, allowing developers to focus on genuine threats. The startups says its methodology significantly reduces false positives by over 80% compared with traditional software composition analysis tools by filtering out irrelevant alerts to allow security teams to prioritize and remediate critical vulnerabilities more efficiently. The technology can be easily integrated into existing development workflows and works on-premise without the need for complex configurations, according to the company. Coana will bring powerful static control flow and call graph analysis to Socket’s platform, allowing teams to prioritize vulnerabilities based on whether they’re actually exploitable in a given codebase.
Startup Sentient’s new system for deploying AI applications in Trusted Execution Environments uses confidential computing to ensure full data isolation, verifiability and attestation
Peter Thiel-backed AI development startup Sentient is looking to differentiate itself in terms of security with the launch of a new system for deploying AI applications in Trusted Execution Environments. The new Sentient Enclaves Framework v0.70 brings the concept of “confidential computing” to AI development. It’s meant to ensure full data isolation, verifiability and attestation for AI applications, the company said. It uses Amazon Web Services Inc.’s AWS Nitro Enclaves technology to ensure that neither AWA nor the host system is able to access or modify AI workloads. In that way, it says, it provides rock-solid guarantees around AI data security. The Sentient Enclaves use AWS Nitro as a foundation to ensure that applications run as intended, without any possibility of nefarious actors making unauthorized modifications. They’re fully open source too, meaning they’re accessible to anyone who’s interested in using them. With Sentient’s platform, developers can work together on the development of open-source large language models that rely on shared datasets and decentralized computing resources. Its platform is built on blockchain technology, and its ecosystem uses cryptocurrency to reward participants based on their contributions.
MoneyThumb’s AI enables the authentication of third-party PDF documents to analyze structural, metadata, and content-based patterns
MoneyThumb, a leader in automated document evaluation and fraud detection solutions, was awarded a U.S. patent for its Thumbprint product, an AI-driven technology that enables the authentication of third-party PDF documents. MoneyThumb’s Thumbprint patented technology leverages AI and advanced algorithms to analyze structural, metadata, and content-based patterns within PDF files. By identifying subtle discrepancies and inconsistencies, Thumbprint® helps detect fraud with its AI file tampering detection scoring model that identifies fraudulent activity in seconds, giving funders a powerful defense against risk and loan losses. Ryan Campbell, chief executive officer of MoneyThumb said “By formally protecting our IP, we’re not only strengthening our unique approach but also advancing the fight against digital document fraud across industries like lending, finance, law, and real estate.” MoneyThumb is transforming the lending industry by leading the shift from manual document processes to full automation. Its advanced technology streamlines data extraction and analysis, enabling funders to make faster, more accurate decisions.
MoneyThumb’s AI enables the authentication of third-party PDF documents to analyze structural, metadata, and content-based patterns
MoneyThumb, a leader in automated document evaluation and fraud detection solutions, was awarded a U.S. patent for its Thumbprint product, an AI-driven technology that enables the authentication of third-party PDF documents. MoneyThumb’s Thumbprint patented technology leverages AI and advanced algorithms to analyze structural, metadata, and content-based patterns within PDF files. By identifying subtle discrepancies and inconsistencies, Thumbprint® helps detect fraud with its AI file tampering detection scoring model that identifies fraudulent activity in seconds, giving funders a powerful defense against risk and loan losses. Ryan Campbell, chief executive officer of MoneyThumb said “By formally protecting our IP, we’re not only strengthening our unique approach but also advancing the fight against digital document fraud across industries like lending, finance, law, and real estate.” MoneyThumb is transforming the lending industry by leading the shift from manual document processes to full automation. Its advanced technology streamlines data extraction and analysis, enabling funders to make faster, more accurate decisions.