NEWS
Opera joins
the Emerging
Payments
Association
EU as
founding
member
Huawei to build an
optoelectronics R&D
and manufacturing
centre in Cambridge
Opera is joining the Emerging Payments
Association EU, a membership
association of major companies working
within the payments industry, marking a
further step by Opera to grow its operations
within the European FinTech space.
The Emerging Payments Association
delivers projects to drive change, helps
connect the European payments
ecosystem, encourages innovation along
with sustainable business growth and
organises events.
In January 2020, Opera announced its
acquisition of the Estonian Banking-as-a-
Service startup, Pocosys. In July 2020, the
Oslo-headquartered company announced
its next step: an investment in and an
agreement to acquire Fjord Bank. In August
2020, the company informed investors
about a further step it is taking by testing
the initiative on the first markets in Europe.
“We have some real competitive
advantages with 50+ million users in
Europe. This gives us a huge potential to
kick-start innovative financial services. We
have started testing our digital wallet in
our first EU markets,” said Opera’s Co-CEO,
Song Lin.
By joining the EPA EU as a founding
member, Opera is showing its dedication
and commitment to co-shaping the
European FinTech space together with
other top FinTech companies.
In 2018, Huawei acquired 500 acres
of land in Cambridge. The first phase
of the Huawei Campus has been
approved by the local council. This new
facility, a state-of-the-art R&D and
manufacturing centre will be located in
the heart of the UK’s ‘Silicon Fen’ and
focus on researching, developing and
manufacturing optoelectronics products.
Huawei will invest £1 billion in the first
phase of the project, which includes
construction of 50,000 square meters of
facilities across nine acres of land and
will directly create around 400 local jobs.
Once fully operational, it will become the
international headquarters of Huawei’s
optoelectronics business.
This investment will be a major boost
for high-tech development in the region,
helping to further cement Cambridge as
a global innovation hub.
The first phase of the project will
focus on the research, development
and manufacturing of optical devices
and modules, an integrated model
that promises to bring innovation
faster to market. Optoelectronics is
a key technology used in fibre optic
communication systems and this
investment aims to bring the best of
such technology to data centres and
network infrastructure around the world.
“The UK is home to a vibrant and open
market, as well as some of the best
talent the world has to offer,” said Victor
Zhang, Vice President of Huawei. “It’s
the perfect location for this integrated
innovation campus.”
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