A look back at April’s achievements… the top pieces of client coverage from last month

It’s hard to believe that we have already made it through April and that we are welcoming in the month of May, 2022 definitely seems to be flying by… With Series B funding announcements, consumer privacy becoming more of a priority and ransomware attacks, the Babel team were hard at work securing some great pieces of coverage last month. But don’t take my word for it, keep reading to hear more about what our clients have been up to this month…

Kicking off last month’s coverage roundup with Enveil who featured in Tech Crunch to discuss the data privacy technology that it is pioneering and the closure of a successful Series B funding round. As reported by Tech Crunch, Enveil raised $25 million in their Series B funding round, with investors including MasterCard, In Q-Tel (the strategic investment arm of the CIA) and Capital One Ventures. But, these companies are not just investors, they are also paying customers that have driven a 300% increase in revenue since Enveil’s Series A funding round at the beginning of 2020. With this Series B funding, Enveil has raised a total of $40 million which will go towards expanding its list of products and expanding its growing customer base.

Consumer privacy legislation seems to be dominating the news agenda at the moment, with the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act and the Data Reform Bill which was announced during the queen’s speech this month. It is encouraging to see that consumer privacy is becoming a higher priority. There have been some recent developments in the EU’s Digital Services Act which is legislation centred around the idea that “what is illegal offline must also be illegal online”. According to The Register, the act is edging ever closer to becoming law and is proposing major fines of 6% of a company’s annual turnover should the conditions of the act be broken in any way. Senior technical director at client Acquia, Simon Elliot, stated that this is a very significant step in restoring the original principles of the web, while also underpinning how important it is to evaluate the rules that shape our digital ecosystem consistently. These massive fines posed to technology companies may be the final piece of the puzzle in restoring consumer privacy in the online world and we are looking forward to embracing this safer digital space.

Next up is new client, Volt, which operates in the fintech space and is largely concerned with the open-banking and real-time payments industries. With the rise in people turning to cryptocurrencies, the partnership between crypto payments company, Mercuryo, and Volt could not have come at a better time. Mercuryo has launched an open banking payments feature within their crypto wallet and the real-time payments side will be facilitated by Volt due to their wealth of experience in the sector. Mercuryo users will now be able to purchase cryptocurrency in real-time by using an open-banking account to account (A2A) transfer and the cryptocurrency will appear in their wallet almost instantly. This partnership demonstrates a key milestone for the open-banking space and also highlights that there is a demand for adopting cryptocurrency worldwide, something that this partnership is directly responding to. To hear more about this partnership and what it means for the open-banking and cryptocurrency industries, you can read the full article in IBS Intelligence.

It seems as if Babel was busy in April with Series B announcements as client Vaarst, who are concerned with marine robotics, raise 15 million in their Series B funding round. Vaarst told UK Tech News that it plans to use this investment to continue developing its computer vision and data management technologies, as well as beginning to expand its global presence by expanding to Tokoyo and countries within Europe. But now, a bit more about the tech… Vaarst uses autonomous submarines that can be used to capture or even live stream 3D models of underwater assets such as offshore windfarms. This technology and funding round aims to not only make the marine industry safer and more profitable but also make the journey to net-zero more attractive and assist in meeting any net-zero goals.

Finally…after a ‘security incident’, online greeting card company, Funky Pigeon, was forced to temporarily suspend all orders. Funky Pigeon reported that they fell victim to a cyberattack on the 14th of April which affected parts of its systems. The greeting card outlet reassured consumers by stating that no customer data has been placed at risk, but Dominic Trott, UK product manager at Orange Cyberdefense, told The Register that just because no payment data was stolen, they are not in the clear yet. Dominic highlighted the fact that as consumers are becoming increasingly more aware of cybercrime, this attack could have a serious effect on their overall reputation and consumers’ willingness to spend money with them in the future.

And that concludes another month of great coverage secured for our clients by the Babel team. To hear more about how Babel can help your company to get involved in the media’s most topical conversations and get your voices heard, please do not hesitate to get in touch.