Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Finicity Unveils New ACH Account Verification API

Around the web

  • OutsideIQ and Pegasystems team up to help FIs meet KYC requirements.
  • Misys launches Platform-as-a-Service strategy by opening its FusionFabric platform to third parties.
  • Credit Karma reaches 60 million users; to begin offering mortgages.
  • ACI Worldwide to offer cloud-based payment-connectivity to SWIFT.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Fintech Fundings: 26 Companies Raise $270 Million Second Week of August

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The fintech sector attracted $266 million in new capital the second week of August. Half went to Finovate/FinDEVr alums including:

The number of deals totaled 26, slightly below the YTD average of 28 deals per week. The YTD total now stands at 895, about 400 more than last year’s 484. Total dollars raised YTD is $19.9 billion, nearly double the $10.2 billion raised during the same period a year ago.

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Fintech deals by size from 6 Aug to 12 Aug 2016:

Interactions
Virtual customer service
Latest round: $56 million
Total raised: $167 million
HQ: Franklin, Massachusetts
Tags: Institutions, customer service
Source: Finovate

Finova Financial
Alt-title loans
Latest round: $52.5 million Private Equity
Total raised: $52.5 million
HQ: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, auto lending, vehicles, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

Yunnex
POS solutions provider
Latest round: $45.1 million Series B
Total raised: $60.9 million
HQ: Guangzhou, China
Tags: SMB, merchants, payments, credit/debit card processing, acquiring, point of sale
Source: Crunchbase

BPS Technology
Digital currency management for small businesses
Latest round: $21.2 million
Total raised: $21.2 million
HQ: Southport, Australia
Tags: SMB, payments, accounting, bitcoin, blockchain, cryptocurrency
Source: FT Partners

Upguard
Cybersecurity
Latest round: $17 million Series B
Total raised: $27 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Institutions, SMB, consumer, security, FinDEVr alum
Source: FinDevR

Touzhijia
Wealth management
Latest round: $12 million Series A
Total raised: $16.5 million
HQ: Shenzen, China
Tags: Consumer, advisers, trading, investing
Source: Crunchbase

ComparaOnline
Financial services price-comparison portal
Latest round: $6 million
Total raised: $20 million
HQ: Santiago, Chile
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, deposits, price comparison, lead gen, discovery
Source: FT Partners

Pindrop Security
Phone-based fraud solutions
Latest round: $5.8 million addition to previously announced $75 million Series C
Total raised: $122.8 million
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Tags: SMB, institutions, security, anti-fraud, biometrics, call center, Finovate alum
Source: Crunchbase, Finovate

CUneXus
Consumer lending platform
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $6.65 million
HQ: Santa Rosa, California
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, mobile, account opening, Finovate alum
Source: Finovate

DailyPay
Payment provider to employees and contractors
Latest round: $5 million Series A
Total raised: $6.5 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: SMB, payments, payroll, HR, benefits
Source: Crunchbase

Bigstone Capital
SMB lending marketplace
Latest round: $3 million Seed
Total raised: $3 million
HQ: New South Wales, Australia
Tags: SMB, credit, loans, underwriting, commercial loans, crowdfunding, P2P, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Verifly
Drone insurance
Latest round: $2.7 million Seed
Total raised: $4.86 million
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, SMB, insurance
Source: Crunchbase

AlphaFlow
P2P real estate investment management
Latest round: $2.16 million Seed
Total raised: $2.28 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: Investors, advisers, P2P lending, investing
Source: Crunchbase

HashRabbit
Cloud hashing for blockchains
Latest round: $1.65 million Seed
Total raised: $2.34 million
HQ: San Francisco, California
Tags: SMB, institutions, blockchain, security, bitcoin, payments, crypto-currency
Source: Crunchbase

ET Index
Investor tools to manage carbon risk
Latest round: $1.5 million Seed
Total raised: $3.1 million
HQ: London, England, United Kingdom
Tags: Investors, traders, advisers, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Faircent
P2P lending platform
Latest round: $1.5 million Series B
Total raised: $5.75 million
HQ: Haryana, India
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, peer to peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

Finexio
B2B payments network
Latest round: $1 million Seed
Total raised: $1 million
HQ: San Mateo, California
Tags: SMB, payments, B2B, billing, invoicing, accounts receivables management
Source: Crunchbase

PledgeMe
Equity and loan crowdfunding platform
Latest round: $860,000 Equity Crowdfunding
Total raised: $960,000
HQ: Wellington, New Zealand
Tags: Consumer, SMB, non-profits, credit, loans, underwriting, P2P, peer to peer, investing
Source: Crunchbase

First Access
Alt-credit score and risk management for financial institutions in emerging markets
Latest round: $750,000 Debt
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: New York City, New York
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, solar energy, home equity
Source: Crunchbase

Remitware Payments
Remittance provider, RemitR
Latest round: $590,000
Total raised: $590,000
HQ: Mumbai, India
Tags: Consumer, SMB, payments, funds transfer, FX, remittances
Source: Crunchbase

RateHub
Financial services comparison site
Latest round: $495,000
Total raised: $495,000
HQ: Toronto, Ontario
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, mortgage, deposits, lead gen, price comparison, discovery
Source: Crunchbase

AppIDentify
Residential real estate valuation system
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Atlanta, Georgia
Tags: Consumer, home buying, mortgage
Source: Crunchbase

Duocaitou
Real estate crowdfunding platform
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Bejing, China
Tags: Consumer, credit, loans, underwriting, P2P, investing, rental real estate
Source: Crunchbase

FintecSystems
Data provider to financial institutions
Latest round: Undisclosed Series A
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Munich, Germany
Tags: Institutions, metrics, analytics, information, BI, underwriting, risk management
Source: Crunchbase

Red Dot Payment
Payment processor
Latest round: Undisclosed
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Singapore
Tags: SMB, credit/debit cards, payments, acquiring, merchants
Source: Crunchbase

Otly
Spending platform for families
Latest round: Undisclosed investment from Uber
Total raised: Unknown
HQ: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Tags: Consumer, spending, budgeting, youth market, PFM, mobile
Source: FT Partners

Ripple Raises $55 Million Series B; Announces New Bank Partners

Ripple Raises $55 Million Series B; Announces New Bank Partners

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The news last week that Ripple raised $55 million in Series B financing is a reminder of how a growing number of financial institutions are using digital currencies to improve the cross-border payments process. The investment comes courtesy of Standard Chartered, Accenture Ventures, SCB Digital Ventures, and SBI Holdings, and also featured participation from Santander Innoventures and Venture 51.

“Our mission is to make cross-border payments truly efficient for banks and their customers, and in doing so, lay the foundation for an Internet of Value where the world moves money as easily as information,” Ripple co-founder and CEO Chris Larsen explained. Ripple will use the funding, which takes the company’s total capital to more than $93 million, to grow its customer base and its team, as well as help secure strategic partnerships.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Ripple demonstrated its technology as OpenCoin at FinovateSpring 2013. An innovator in using digital currencies and distributed ledger technology to help increase the efficiency and lower the costs of cross-border payments for FIs, Ripple added multi-sign functionality to its consensus ledger in July, a month after the company announced that it was working with seven banks to “accelerate and improve” their cross-border payments service. Ripple picked up the first New York BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services this summer, and began the year partnering with SBI Holdings in a joint venture called SBI Ripple Asia that will bring Ripple’s cross-border payment solution to banks in the Asia-Pacific region.

ripple_homepage_crosscurrency_september2016

Ripple currently features 15 of the top 50 global banks in its global network, with pilot projects for more than 30 banks already completed. Calling the company “one of the most advanced distributed financial technology” firms in the industry, Global Head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Alex Manson pointed out that Ripple’s technology was already a “tested and viable solution.” This, Manson said, would lead the way for collaboration between Standard Chartered and Ripple to “co-develop more use cases to better serve our clients and their ecosystems’ needs in an evolving marketplace.” Accenture’s Richard Lumb added that the use-cases for distributed financial technology go beyond cross-border payments, including services like real-time reporting and fraud detection.

In addition to the funding, Ripple announced a number of new additions to its network. These banks include:

  • BMO Financial Group
  • Mizuho Financial Group (MHFG)
  • National Australia Bank (NAB)
  • Siam Commercial Bank (SCB)
  • Shanghai Huarui Bank
  • Standard Chartered

Larsen called 2016 “the year where the most forward-thinking financial institutions are actually using blockchain technologies for payments and settlements rather than as an experiment.” He called the new additions a “major endorsement” of Ripple’s technology and the company’s capacity to build a “modern payments system to enable new economic opportunities and the seamless flow of value around the world.”

Hoyos Labs Rebrands as Veridium, Launches New Biometric Authentication Solution

Hoyos Labs Rebrands as Veridium, Launches New Biometric Authentication Solution

veridium_homepage_september2016

With the launch of its new, end-to-end biometric authentication solution—VeridiumID—the security innovator that demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2014 as Hoyos Labs is now Veridium.

Company COO Todd Shollenbarger said, “We’re going to replace what you know (passwords) with what you are (biometrics) to safeguard enterprises from fraud and data breaches.” Pointing to the issues that typically inhibit broader adoption of biometric technology, such as high cost and technical complexity, Shollenbarger added that Veridium’s use of SaaS delivery for the backend—and the user’s smartphone to handle the image-capture for authentication—helps reduce both cost and complexity. “We’re making biometric authentication a solution of today, not tomorrow,” he said.

veridiumid_graphic

VeridiumID gives businesses the ability to leave password-based authentication and instead incorporate biometric methods using face, voice, or fingerprint. The combination of biometrics and multiple authentication factors in its new solution gives customers of financial services companies the ability to access their accounts and transact without cards and PIN codes, eliminates the need for insurance cards as an authentication tool in healthcare, and helps governments manage physical access in a more efficient and less cumbersome and costly way.

A server-based solution working with a mobile app and a front-end, mobile SDK, the technology uses virtual cryptography to break biometric data into pieces. Storing and distributing the data this way makes it harder for hackers to steal or compromise an entire biometric piece of data, such as a fingerprint. VeridiumID uses liveness detection, accommodates a number of plug-and-play biometric libraries, and provides support for an Active Directory or a FIDO authenticator. Deployable in the cloud or on-site, VeridiumID requires no additional hardware.

The goal of the rebrand from Hoyos Labs to Veridium is to focus the company’s efforts in four key areas: financial services, healthcare, government, and the Global 2000. Veridium says it seeks to leverage its eight patents (with another 34 pending), as well as numerous R&D breakthroughs, to build an open standard for authentication that will defend the enterprise against data breaches today, while remaining flexible enough to “ensure continual iteration and enable the solutions to evolve at the forefront of the industry.”

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York City, Veridium demonstrated the mobile app of its identity-assertion platform at FinovateFall 2014. The company also has offices in the U.K. (Oxford and London), as well as in Boston, Massachusetts, and Timisoara, Romania.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Ripple Raises $55 Million Series B; Announces New Bank Partners
  • Hoyos Labs Rebrands as Veridium; Launches New Biometric Authentication Solution

Around the web

  • Wipro establishes blockchain research center at its Begaluru campus.
  • Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) chooses biometric authentication from Finovate newcomer Daon. Video of Daon’s debut at FinovateFall will be available soon.
  • CBIC to join SecureKey’s Concierge, an authentication service.
  • Braintree SDK to help merchants in Europe accept UnionPay to better reach Chinese consumers.
  • Fidor Bank teams up with GFT Technologies to build mobile banking app.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Early-Bird Discount Extended for FinDEVr Silicon Valley

FinDEVrSV16-V1(wdate) copy

Summer is winding down, but FinDEVr is still feeling the heat. New companies have joined the impressive presenter lineup for this third annual West Coast conference and it’s on track to be the biggest event yet. See firsthand what’s new and trending for the financial and banking developer community—all for early-bird rates.
On October 18 & 19, FinDEVr Silicon Valley will showcase the latest in fintech tools, tech, APIs, platforms, case studies, and tutorials. Using code, examples, and live demos, top software engineers and CTOs, technology architects and evangelists from dozens of firms will share their work and insights via 15-minute TED-style presentations. Speaking topics will span the fintech spectrum with payments, blockchain, investment, big data, finance and wealth management, security, and more.

While some will attend this developer conference to see what’s on stage, others will come to rub elbows and network with their tech-savvy colleagues. Of the more than 600 CTOs and tech execs, UX designers and software architects, engineers, evangelists, and more, an expert audience is coming together from:

  • ABN AMRO Bank
  • BBVA
  • BDO Uniban
  • Bloomberg
  • BTC Media
  • Business Alliance Financial Service
  • California Bankers Association
  • Capital One
  • Citi Ventures
  • Credit Simple
  • Credix
  • Crowdfund Insider
  • Digital Research
  • Enova
  • Ensenta
  • Ethoca
  • EVO Payments
  • Extractable
  • Fannie Mae
  • Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
  • Financial Samurai
  • Financial Technology Research Institute
  • First Tennessee Bank
  • Gigaom
  • Hitachi
  • JP Morgan Chase
  • Kasasa
  • Kontomatik
  • Kyckr
  • Let’s Talk Payments
  • Looking Glass Investments
  • Microensure
  • Mogo Finance Tech.
  • Money Crashers
  • MyBucks
  • NEC Corp. of America
  • Nissho Electronics
  • Opes Advisors
  • Orion First Financial
  • PayPal
  • PNC Bank
  • Qumram
  • RISLA
  • Scottish Development International
  • Severus Holdings
  • SIA 4finance IT
  • Silicon Valley Bank
  • Silvergate Bank
  • Simility
  • Singular Group
  • Softjourn
  • Solutions Exchange
  • Springleaf Financial
  • swissfinte.ch
  • TD Ameritrade
  • The Bancorp
  • TMG
  • Trinity Ventures
  • TSYS
  • United Capital
  • Vanguard
  • Venture Capital Journal
  • Wealth Media
  • Wells Fargo
  • World First
  • Xignite
  • Yodlee
  • Zapp Systems
A huge number of people registered in advance of the Early-Bird Ticket Deadline last week. But, if you were out of office and missed the deadline, don’t sweat it—you have one more chance. Register by this Friday, September 23, and save $100 on list price. Hope to see you this fall!

Fintech Favorites

Featured

Milestones

Trends

Tech

Alkami Technology Inks Digital Banking Deal with Desert Schools FCU

Alkami Technology Inks Digital Banking Deal with Desert Schools FCU

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One of our oldest alums just inked a deal with the biggest credit union in Arizona.

Alkami Technology, which demoed at FinovateSpring 2009 as iThryv and transitioned to its current incarnation a year later, announced this week that Desert Schools Federal Credit Union will use its ORB (Online Relationship Builder) digital banking platform. Desert Schools FCU is the largest credit union in Arizona, with $4 billion in assets and more than 220,000 online banking users.

Stephen Bohanon, chief strategy and sales officer for Alkami Technology, cited research indicating that mobile banking provided an “immediate lift in overall satisfaction” in praising his company’s partnership with Desert Schools. “Financial institutions like Desert Schools are embracing this shift in consumer expectations by investing in digital technology that delivers a superior, engaging experience,” Bohanan said.

Alkami’s ORB platform will give members of Desert Schools FCU access to a wide array of features inducing retail and business banking tools, mobile, billpay, PFM, P2P payments, and more. The technology will also enable Desert Schools to build their own apps and product extensions, as well as introduce additional, new features to provide its members with what Alkami calls a “highly, customized digital banking experience.”

And this is exactly what the Arizona-based credit union was looking for. “We selected Alkami for their modern and engaging user experience,” SVP of digital strategy for Desert Schools FCU, Tim Lipsky, said, “as well as their flexible and extensible platform, which aligns with our vision to strengthen our digital capabilities to meet our members’ needs.”

Based in Plano, Texas, Alkami Technology teamed up with security specialist Easy Solutions this spring, bringing enhanced fraud protection to Alkami’s digital banking platform. The company’s ORB was recognized in the 2015 GonzoBanker awards as part of Tim Daily’s “Online Banking/Mobile Banking Franken-Banking Product.”

Juvo’s Global Launch Features Finovate Debut and $14 Million In New Funding

Juvo’s Global Launch Features Finovate Debut and $14 Million In New Funding

juvo_homepage_september2016

There are many great ways to kick off a global launch. We like to think demonstrating your technology live on stage at a Finovate conference is one.

But we’ll concede that announcing a $14 million funding-round featuring participation from the former CEOs at companies like AT&T Wireless, Telefonica International, and Vodafone Group is pretty good, too.

“Only Juvo can deliver financial services to millions of underserved consumers around the world instantly,” former NYSE CEO and Juvo investor, Duncan Niederauer said. He praised both the company’s leadership and its track record, saying Juvo was in a strong position to help mobile operators transition to digital technology as well as respond to “the wider socioeconomic issues around financial inclusion for all.”

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CEO and founder Steve Polsky and VP of Product Development Jason Robinson demonstrated Juvo Identity Scoring at FinovateFall 2016.

Juvo’s Identity Scoring technology leverages data science, machine learning, and game mechanics to provide financial identities to underserved populations around the world. Founded by CEO Steve Polsky, Juvo has a market footprint in 23 countries across four continents, giving the technology a reach of more than 100 million. Identity Scoring analyzes both subscriber and usage data in real-time to give mobile operators the consumer data they need to improve engagement and support growth. The company says that mobile operators using the solution have seen gains of 10% to 15% in average revenue per user, and has enabled them to offer high-value financial services.

“Juvo starts by reimagining the prepaid experience and encouraging identity-based relationships between subscribers and their mobile operators,” Polsky explained. “Juvo helps turn a previously ‘invisible’ customer into a ‘visible’ one,” he said, “opening doors for the customer, the mobile operator, and financial service provider alike, and bringing us closer to our vision of financial inclusion for all.”

Founded in March 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Juvo demoed its Identity Scoring solution at FinovateFall 2016 last week. Juvo’s investors include Wing Venture Capital, Freestyle, and Seed-Resolute.

Fintech Favorites

Featured

Banks

  • TD Bank began rolling out its Flybits (F15) powered digital concierge TD for Me (press release). Check out its FinovateSpring ’16 demo. A first in Canadian banking, TD for Me enhances the popular TD app to include a “digital concierge” feature that curates content and services to create personalized, contextual experiences for customers based on their location and interests. Powered by Canadian start-up Flybits‘ secure cloud-based mobile intelligence product, TD for Me provides customers with useful TD-related content, like special nearby offers, helpful tips and details on local events, with more content and capabilities to be added in future updates.

Deals

  • In more TD Bank news, Financeit (F12) teamed with Concentra to purchase TD Bank’s indirect home-financing dealer-network and 45,000-loan portfolio for C$340 million. It’s a huge win for Financeit which assumes originations for 800 dealers previously working through TD Bank (check out its demo at FinovateFall).
  • Standard Chartered, Siam Commercial Bank and Banco Santander participated in Ripple’s (F13) $55 million Series B round announced today. In addition to those three, five more banks signed long-term contracts to integrate Ripple into their own banking platforms: Westpac, National Australia Bank, Mizuho Financial Group, MBO Financial Group, and Shanghai Huarui Bank

Tech

  • Mitek (F11) released an SDK for mobile check-capture to make it easier for third-party developers to deploy (press release). Check out their latest Finovate demo last May. Our new SDK is a self-contained set of screens, workflows, and APIs that comprise a complete multi-check capture experience allowing developers to quickly deploy their commercial mobile banking app offerings,” said Michael Diamond, general manager, payments solutions, Mitek. “Previously, our partners and banks were on their own to develop the app-level functionality around our core MiSnap multi-check capture engine. With this SDK, we’ve done the heavy lifting for them.
  • Yandex (F13) introduces AI capabilities to browser to warn users when it’s unsafe to bank or pay online
  • Technologists! Don’t miss the upcoming FinDEVr in Santa Clara, October 18-19 (register now)

Malauzai Features Enhanced Card Management, Personalization in Latest SmartApps Release

Malauzai Features Enhanced Card Management, Personalization in Latest SmartApps Release

malauzai_homepage_september2016

Enhanced card management and personalized transactions are among the new features for the latest edition Malauzai Software’s mobile and online banking SmartApps. Enhanced card management improves security by giving users the ability to switch cards on and off, establish accepted merchants and dollar thresholds, and transaction categories. And the personalized-transactions feature enables users to attach a photo or image to any transaction to make it easy to record and track spending.

“The recent developments within our SmartApps enable banks and credit unions to offer truly distinct digital channels that combine custom designs and analytics to allow consumers and small businesses to better control their finances,” says Robb Gaynor, chief product officer for Malauzai, headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Bill Bunn, SVP and head of retail banking at Park Sterling Bank, praised Malauzai for being “quick to market with new products and features that positively impact our customers.” Bunn says he appreciates how Malauzai’s technology has helped banks like his—with $3.2 billion in assets—compete with its larger rivals. “We love that we can get in front of customers and show that we can provide the same, if not better, products that the big banks provide,” Bunn said, “and Malauzai helps us do that.”

In addition to enhanced card management and personalized transactions, the new features to SmartApps include a Family Financial Manager that enables users to create apps for additional users (such as family members or financial advisers) and a “View as User” feature that enables professionals at financial institutions to “see what the customer sees” from their own consoles to better respond to questions and help solve problems.

Founded in 2009, Malauzai Software demonstrated its MOX Pay Powered by Visual App Builder at FinovateSpring 2016. The company has more than 85 employees, and its solutions are live with more than 400 banks and credit unions. Earlier this summer, Malauzai announced that it was adding mobile deposit functionality to its MOX Everywhere Suite, courtesy of a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum, Cachet Financial Solutions. Malauzai teamed up with Finovate alum Geezeo in April 2016 to bring PFM tools to more community financial institutions, and in March, the company joined BizEquity (yet another Finovate alum) in earning recognition at the Bank Director’s FinXTech Awards.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016FinDEVrSV16-withdate is just over a month away! Join us October 18 & 19 in Santa Clara, as our developers’ conference returns to the West Coast. Tickets are available now.

The latest from upcoming presenters at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016

  • AutoGravity wins Best of Show at FinovateFall 2016. Learn more about their technology at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 in October.
  • Six-time Best of Show winner MX partners with NCR to launch new money-management platform with more than three million end users.
  • Ahead of its FinDEVr debut next month, Kyckr has announced completion of phase one of its corporate identity blockchain service.

Alumni updates

  • Giftbit, formerly Kiind, launches its commerce currency platform.
  • Aerospike earns a spot on the Big Data 50.
  • Concur acquires travel-based startup, Hipmunk.
  • Digital onboarding technology from Avoka helps Ebury pick up 50% gains in its customer base.
  • Terry Roche of TABB Group interviews Stephane Dubois, CEO of Xignite.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems unveils its P2PE solution for Merchant Link.
  • BlockCypher announces instantaneous cross-border payments.

Keep up to date with the daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.