Author: David Penn

Finovate Global Ireland: Investing in Payments and Partnerships

Finovate Global Ireland: Investing in Payments and Partnerships
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finastra, Finovate Global, Temenos

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from Ireland.

Nomupay Raises $40 Million at $290 Million Valuation

Courtesy of an investment from SBPS, a subsidiary of Japan’s SoftBank, Irish fintech Nomupay has secured €35 million ($40 million) in new funding. The capital gives the company a valuation of $290 million and comes as part of an alliance that will enable Nomupay to expand its reach into the Asian market.

“Since our inception in 2021 we have been robustly active in the region; the SBPS investment now enables us to double down and support inter regional commerce by adding additional countries and payment methods to the platform in order to support bi-directional access between Japan, Asia, and the rest of the world,” Nomupay Group CEO Peter Burridge said.

Nomupay’s unified payment platform streamlines payment processes—including acquiring, treasury, and payouts—for businesses operating in fragmented, emerging markets. The company aggregates local payment methods into a single, consistent API; and offers treasury and reconciliation tools that provide real-time visibility, automated fund flows, and multi-currency management. Nomupay helps businesses go to market faster and in-line with local regulations, without needing to engage with multiple PSPs and other partners.

The partnership will enable Nomupay to expand and solidify its presence in Asia by way of Japan. SBPS will benefit from access to Nomupay’s single API and gateway-agnostic, single, back office platform, offering a range of payment options and scalability.

“With Nomupay as a key partner, we will leverage Nomupay’s payment solutions to support our clients entering the Asian market,” SBPS Representative Director, President, and CEO Jun Shimba said. “Nomupay offers a wide range of services in the payment field in Asia, and can meet flexible and diverse needs. Nomupay is a highly reliable partner.”

Founded in 2021, Nomupay is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland.

TransferMate Announces Strategic Partnership with Deutsche Bank

Embedded B2B payments infrastructure-as-a-service company TransferMate has forged a strategic partnership with Deutsche Bank. The partnership will enable TransferMate to provide in-country collections, cross-border payments, and local fund storage. Working with Deutsche Bank only adds to TransferMate’s extensive local collection capabilities, helping make the company’s platform among the largest fintech payment infrastructures in the world.

“Our collaboration with Deutsche Bank is another significant milestone as we continue to grow our global footprint and be the embedded B2B partner of choice,” TransferMate CEO Gary Conroy said. “This partnership further strengthens our reach, our capabilities, and the value we bring to our partners and their clients.”

Initially, the partnership will focus on facilitating operations in APAC markets, with other regions to be added over time as TransferMate leverages Deutsche Bank’s extensive international network. In a statement, Deutsche Bank’s Head of Cash Management & Head of CB APAC MEA, Ole Matthiessen, highlighted the opportunity in APAC.

“This strategic collaboration between TransferMate and Deutsche Bank underscores the immense potential of fintech-bank partnerships in accessing and scaling global markets, particularly navigating the high-growth yet diverse Asia Pacific landscape. This showcases the strength of our offering, aligning seamlessly with our Global Hausbank strategy,” Matthiessen said.

Founded in 2010 by Terry Clune, TransferMate manages a global payments network that covers 200+ countries and territories and 140+ currencies. The company is headquartered in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Paytech Splink Partners with Global Payments

Payments platform Splink announced a strategic partnership with international payment processor Global Payments this week. The collaboration will enable Splink to go live with Global Payments’ SoftPOS technology, which enables any smartphone to accept tap-to-pay transactions with no additional, external hardware required.

“Splink brings excellent technology combined with commercial agility and an impressive team that perfectly complements our infrastructure, distribution, reach, and the key attributes we look for in a partner,” Global Payments Head of UK and Ireland Partnerships Tom Woods said. “We’ve had some recent successes together with key merchant wins in Ireland and the UK and we’re excited to see the partnership grow.”

Founded in 2019 by Mark Lyttleton and headquartered in Dublin, Splink offers a flexible payments solution that allows businesses to choose from among more than 20 different payment options. Splink enables companies to receive and request payments, as well as set up an online shop that helps boost transaction volumes. Splink’s solution is also available as a white-label offering, allowing companies to set up their own digital payments business and add a new source of recurring revenue.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • UAE-based fintech Qashio raised $19.8 million in both equity and non-equity financing.
  • Saudi Arabian fintech Nqoodlet secured $3 millioon in seed funding to help SMEs access financing.
  • Zain Fintech launched its Bede Mobile Wallet in Sudan.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Singapore-based KYC, data intelligence, payments, and debt collections solutions provider Decentro raised Rs 30 crone ($3.5 million) ahead of plans to relocate to India.
  • Indian fintech Spense secured $1.85 million in pre-seed funding.
  • The National Bank of Kazakhstan unveiled its new, crypto card, retail payments initiative.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Uruguayan fintech dLocal acquired cross-border payments company AZA Finance.
  • Finastra and consulting firm TCMpartners teamed up with Banco de Costa Rica as the firm launches its International Trade Automation Project.
  • Swedish Pay-by-Bank solutions company Zimpler earned certified Payment Institution (PI) status in Brazil.

Asia-Pacific

  • Malaysia’s KAF Digital Bank went live with Temenos SaaS to power its new Islamic digital bank offering.
  • Hong Kong-based LianLian announced a strategic partnership with UnionPay.
  • Australian fintech platform Complii Fintech Solutions to bring its capital raising solution to the UK.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo by Gregory DALLEAU on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Best of Show: Talking AI, Personalization, and Authentication on the Finovate Podcast

Best of Show: Talking AI, Personalization, and Authentication on the Finovate Podcast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Speaker series

Join Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast as he catches up with the CEOs and founders of the companies that won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California, last month.

From AI in the service of greater personalization and sales performance to innovations in voice authentication and fraud prevention, the latest round of interviews on the Finovate Podcast provide fascinating insights into how fintechs are helping financial institutions meet their most demanding challenges.

Finovate Podcast host Greg Palmer interviews Finalytics CEO Craig McLaughlin and CSO Baron Conway.

The three discuss how the Finalytics platform provides real-time, cross-channel, AI-driven personalization that combines behavioral data with transactional and third-party data to create unique, relevant experiences for customers of financial institutions.

EP 258: Craig McLaughlin and Baron Conway, Finalytics

Andrew Reese, US go-to-market lead for Solda.ai, joins Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast to talk about the company’s AI-powered sales agents that help financial institutions increase revenue and reduce costs by mirroring their best sales representative.

The technology helps scale sales operations, lower costs, reduce burnout and inconsistent performance, all while retaining a human connection.

EP 259: Andrew Reese, Solda.ai

Greg Palmer and Milind Borkar, founder and CEO of Illuma talk about the firm’s evolution from an authentication specialist to a more comprehensive fraud prevention company.

A two-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Illuma specializes in voice authentication and fraud prevention solutions for mid-market financial institutions, including credit unions and community banks.

EP 260: Milind Borkar, Illuma Labs

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Token.io Receives Strategic Investment from HSBC

Token.io Receives Strategic Investment from HSBC
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Token
  • Account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure company Token.io has received a strategic investment from HSBC. The amount was not disclosed.
  • The investment underscores the two companies’ history of collaboration, which includes Token.io’s support for HSBC’s Open Payments solution.
  • Token.io made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 and returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateEurope in London.

Token.io, an account-to-account (A2A) payment infrastructure innovator, secured a strategic investment from HSBC this week. The amount of the funding was not disclosed. The two firms have been partners since 2019, when Token.io helped the bank launch its HSBC Open Payments solution.

“We are excited to deepen our partnership with HSBC as we embark on this collaboration,” Token.io CEO Todd Clyde said. “This investment will not only accelerate Token.io’s growth and innovation, it will also advance our shared vision of making Pay by Bank a mainstream payment method—delivering benefits for HSBC’s customers across the region.”

Pay by Bank is a payments service that gives customers a secure, fast, and convenient way to conduct peer-to-peer payments, account deposits, and loan repayments, as well as securely authenticate transactions via their banking app. Supported by open banking and real-time payment infrastructure, Token.io’s technology makes the service available to anyone with a UK or European bank account. In a statement, the company noted that analysts believe in the future growth of Pay by Bank, predicting that three-in-four Europeans will be regular Pay by Bank users by 2029. In fact, by 2030, analysts estimate that use of Pay by Bank for e-commerce transactions in Europe will become more popular than all other digital payment options, with the exception of digital wallets.

HSBC’s Open Payments solution is based on this infrastructure. The technology enables businesses to connect their checkout pages with online apps or mobile platforms used by customers. Purchasers are given a request for pre-populated payments and, once the payment is authorized, the seller is granted an “instant and irrevocable credit” to their account. The new offering helps businesses get working capital faster and keeps both the risk of fraud and the cost of collections low.

“Our investment in Token.io reflects the trust and confidence we have in their team and technology, and our firm belief in the role that innovative Open Banking solutions play in transforming the payments experience for both corporates and consumers,” HSBC Head of Global Payments Solutions Manish Kohli said.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Token.io made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 and returned two years later to demo its latest technology at FinovateEurope in London. A major account-to-account payment infrastructure provider for banks and other financial institutions, Token.io’s partners include three of the largest financial institutions in Europe as well as companies such as Global Payments and fellow Finovate alums Mastercard and ACI Worldwide.

Last month, Token.io became the first third-party provider to be admitted to the giroAPI scheme. This will enable the company to provide account-to-account payment solutions to its partners—including micropayments that are exempt from Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements. Launched by the German Banking Industry Committee associations—BVR, DSGV, VÖB, and the Association of German Banks—at the beginning of the year, the API scheme is built on the Berlin Group’s openFinance API framework and provides a standardized, secure, and commercially governed interface to connect banks with third-party providers such as Token.io.

“By joining giroAPI, Token.io is enabling the next wave of premium, API-driven payment services—making it easier for businesses to offer innovative payment options and for consumers to benefit from seamless, secure experiences,” Token.io Chief Product Officer Charles Damen said. “We are proud to lead the way in bringing the full potential of open banking-enabled payments to the European market.”

Photo by Franco Monsalvo

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FISPAN Locks in $30 Million in Series B Funding

FISPAN Locks in $30 Million in Series B Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, FISPAN, Funding
  • Embedded ERP banking innovator FISPAN secured $30 million in Series B funding.
  • The round was led by Canapi Ventures and featured participation from existing investors, including Rhino Ventures.
  • FISPAN most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2022 in London.

In a round led by Canapi Ventures, embedded ERP banking specialist FISPAN has raised $30 million in Series B funding. Existing investors, including Rhino Ventures, also participated in the round. In a statement, the company said that the funds will help FISPAN expand the set of ERP platforms it supports, add actionable insights to its Accounts Payables solution, and launch a new Accounts Receivables automation product. In addition to accelerated product development, FISPAN noted that the capital will help the firm scale its go-to-market efforts and expand its market reach as well as support strategic talent acquisition.

FISPAN helps businesses integrate banking services directly into their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and accounting software. The company helps banks maximize their investments in host-to-host and API platforms that have enabled large businesses to experience greater productivity by connecting to their financial institutions directly. FISPAN’s technology packages these connectivity capabilities to empower banks to deliver their treasury products to mid-market and smaller businesses by way of an easy-to-install, out-of-the-box, in-ERP plugin. This empowers banks to offer integrated client experiences via financial and banking capabilities that are embedded directly into their existing ERP systems. This facilitates centralized financial workflows, automated processes, and fewer manual errors for businesses.

“This Series B funding is a pivotal moment for FISPAN, empowering us to significantly scale our innovation and market reach,” FISPAN Founder and CEO Lisa Shields said. “Canapi quickly distinguished themselves through their understanding of the embedded ERP banking landscape and our unique opportunity within it. With an LP network of over 75 financial institutions—and partners with banktech operating expertise—Canapi is a natural partner for our next chapter. We’re excited to work with Canapi to help more treasury teams optimize their operations.”

A multi-stage venture capital firm, Canapi Ventures invests in fintech and enterprise software and is backed by the Canapi Alliance, whose network of leading financial institutions stretches across the US. As part of its investment in FISPAN, Canapi Ventures’ General Partner Tom Davis will join the company’s board of directors.

“FISPAN is at the forefront of a fundamental shift in how businesses interact with their banks,” Canapi Ventures General Partner Tom Davis said. “Their proven ability to deliver highly sought-after embedded finance solutions positions them for tremendous growth. Our investment reflects our confidence in their visionary team and their capacity to build a leading platform that drives efficiency and value for both financial institutions and their corporate clients.”

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, FISPAN made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateFall in New York and most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2022 in London. The company counts the world’s largest banks and nearly 5,000 businesses throughout North America among its customers. FISPAN began 2025 announcing that partner BMO had launched its embedded banking solution, BMO Sync. The new offering will enable businesses to automate payments, streamline workflows, and achieve enhanced cash flow visibility to simplify the payments process.

Photo by Kyle Ryan on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

ThetaRay and Spayce Team Up To Fight Fraud in Cross-Border Payments

ThetaRay and Spayce Team Up To Fight Fraud in Cross-Border Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ThetaRay
  • Financial crime compliance innovator ThetaRay announced a strategic partnership with cross-border payments platform Spayce.
  • The collaboration will combine ThetaRay’s Cognitive AI Transaction Monitoring solution with Spayce’s payments infrastructure to enhance the platform’s financial crime detection capabilities.
  • ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York.

Cognitive AI financial crime compliance company ThetaRay is working with cross-border payments platform Spayce to bring enhanced security and fraud fighting ability to payments. The strategic partnership will combine ThetaRay’s Cognitive AI Transaction Monitoring solution with Spayce’s global payments infrastructure to give the platform better financial crime detection capabilities.

“Financial crime is evolving rapidly, and the technology used to combat it must evolve even faster,” ThetaRay CEO Peter Reynolds said. “Our partnership with Spayce unites robust payment infrastructure with ThetaRay’s Cognitive AI to deliver proactive risk mitigation, greater transparency, and the trusted cross-border transactions needed to power global growth.”

ThetaRay’s Cognitive AI technology analyzes transaction data to accurately identify suspicious activity and complex financial crimes. The company’s offering helps institutions better combat the growing sophistication of criminal networks who are able to thwart traditional rule-based anti-money laundering (AML) systems. Spayce will leverage ThetaRay’s AI-first solution to ensure regulatory compliance and scale securely.

“Partnering with ThetaRay empowers us to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated financial threats, while continuing to deliver seamless, trusted payment experiences for our customers worldwide,” Spayce Co-Founder and Partner Debra LePage said.

Operating in more than 200 countries and territories, Spayce is a cross-border payment platform that enables secure and scalable global transactions. The company offers real-time payments via its Spayce Real-Time Payments solution, ACH via its Spayce ACH Payments solution, as well as Open Banking services. Use cases for Spayce’s solutions include vendor payouts, global payroll, ecommerce settlements, and real-time B2P and B2B payments via a combination of APIs, a hosted checkout solution, and a merchant portal.

Founded in 2013, ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015 in New York. Today, the company offers transaction monitoring, dynamic customer risk assessment, and real-time transaction and customer screening to financial institutions around the world including Santander, Mashreq Bank, and Travelex. ThetaRay leverages Cognitive AI to help financial institutions distinguish legitimate customers from fraudsters, and its SaaS-based solutions provide companies with shorter implementation lifecycles as well as the ability to scale faster.

ThetaRay began 2025 with news that it had formed a strategic partnership with New York-based private and commercial bank, IDB Bank. The institution, a wholly owned subsidiary of Israel Discount Bank, deployed ThetaRay’s AI-powered transaction monitoring solution to “enhance (its) operational fortitude and core competencies” in the words of bank president and CEO Ziv Biron. “In leveraging ThetaRay’s next generation technology,” Biron added, “we hope to introduce an innovative solution that will allow IDB to continue providing strong protections within the financial services industry, for our customers and operations against financial crime.”

Photo by Jr Korpa on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Scalable Capital Secures €155 Million in its Largest Funding Round to Date

Scalable Capital Secures €155 Million in its Largest Funding Round to Date
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Scalable Capital

Digital wealth management and investing platform Scalable Capital has raised €155 million ($175 million). The largest funding round in the company’s history, the investment was led by Sofina and Noteus Partners, and featured participation from existing investors Balderton Capital, Tencent, and HV Capital. The funding brings Scalable Capital’s total raised to more than €470 million (more than $535 million).

Among Europe’s leading digital investment platforms, Scalable Capital enables traders and investors to buy and sell stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), bonds, cryptocurrencies, derivatives, private equity, and other products. More than €30 billion is held on the Scalable Capital platform by more than one million customers. The company also offers Scalable Wealth, a digital wealth management service that provides clients with professional ETF portfolio investment. The service is also available as a white-label solution via Scalable Capital’s B2B partners.

“Noteus Partners and Sofina perfectly complement our global investor base. The recent funding round is a clear endorsement, and an important step on our path to becoming the leading retail investment platform in Europe,” Scalable Capital Founder and Co-CEO Erik Podzuweit said. “Through our investment platform and additional new products, we’ll be able to offer even more people in Europe the best options for their investments. We have a firm focus on wealth creation and saving for retirement for the whole family.”

Scalable Capital began the year with the launch of its private equity offering courtesy of a partnership with BlackRock. Available to Scalable Capital’s qualified investors in Germany via Scalable Broker, investors will be able to access the BlackRock Private Equity Fund, and invest with one-off investments of as little as €10,000. Scalable Capital is the first digital investment platform to offer the private equity solution from BlackRock, which is also available as a savings plan once the initial investment is made.

More recently, Scalable Capital announced that its clients can invest in Swiss stocks as of May 2, 2025. Tradable via the European Investor Exchange, gettex, and Xetra, access to Swiss stocks comes after more than five years of suspension from EU stock exchanges. Previously, EU investors were only able to invest in Swiss shares indirectly through products such as American Depository Receipts (ADRs) or by way of over-the-counter trading options. Revocation of this regulation went into effect at the beginning of the month.

“The Swiss stock exchange has much more to offer than the three big dividend aristocrats,” Scalable Capital Chief Economist Christian Röhl said, referring to Nestlé, Roche, and Novartis, three of the largest stocks in the Swiss stock market. “In addition to many financial stocks and special stocks such as mountain railways, there are numerous highly specialized market and technology leaders—such as the hearing aid manufacturer Sonova, the dental technician Straumann or the sanitary product manufacturer Geberit.”

Scalable Capital made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, and London, UK, the company was founded in 2014.

Photo by Pixabay

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Global North Africa: Financial Inclusion Mobile Money, and Investing in Payments

Finovate Global North Africa: Financial Inclusion Mobile Money, and Investing in Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, VISA

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at fintech headlines from companies headquartered in North Africa.

Fayda wallet goes live in Ethiopia

Designed to revolutionize the way Ethiopians access digital services, Ethiopia’s National ID Program (NIDP) has launched its FaydaPass wallet. The solution, developed in partnership with TECH5 and Visa, will help promote financial inclusion and address the need for verified electronic Know Your Customer (eKYC) services throughout society.

The wallet makes it easier for Ethiopians to secure a digital copy of the Fayda credential by enabling them to download the official app and request their digital ID credentials via the wallet. The Fayda ID system uses its data to generate the secure credential, which is delivered directly to the user’s mobile device as a verifiable credential (VC). The verifiable credential supports secure on- and offline verification for a wide range of use cases including payments and digital access to government services.

“A credential wallet would be a container for government and private sector issued standardized verifiable credentials,” NIDP Executive Director Yodahe Zemichael said. “It’s an exciting new way of delivering value to citizens and extending the functionality of Fayda Digital ID.”

Ethiopian digital-first Coopbank announced that it would leverage the Fayda app and its advanced biometric eKYC verification to enable customers to open new bank accounts. The institution’s CEO Deribie Asfaw said that the new offering will help it “reach financially marginalized communities who have long been excluded from the formal financial system due to the absence of such robust infrastructures.” Asfaw added, “This brings us one step closer to the community and reinforces our commitment to leaving a meaningful mark on the country’s digital transformation journey.”

Founded in 2005, Coopbank (Cooperative Bank of Oromia) was established by farmers and still counts farmers as more than half of its shareholders. With a focus on the country’s micro, small, and medium-sized farming and agricultural sector businesses, the institution has assets of ETB 139.56 billion ($1.04 billion), operates 745 branches, and has more than 14.5 million accountholders.

TerraPay, Wave Mobile Money partner on remittances to Mali

A partnership between international money movement company TerraPay and African mobile money provider Wave Mobile Money will enhance cross-border remittances services in Mali. The collaboration will enable Malians to receive funds from family and friends living and working abroad directly into their Wave mobile wallets. This will provide for a faster, more accessible, and cost-effective international remittance experience.

Mobile phone penetration in Mali is high, with more than 80% of the population using the technology. Many Malians rely on mobile phones for mobile money and digital wallet services, making the devices a key component of financial inclusion in the country for millions—especially the un- and underbanked. The partnership between TerraPay and Wave Mobile Money will facilitate remittance flows from Money Transfer Operators (MTOs) through the US, Canada, and Europe to Mali via a single integration.

“Our partnership with Wave Mobile Money marks a significant milestone in our mission to power borderless money movement,” TerraPay Vice President—Sub Sahara Africa, Willie Kanyeki said. “By enabling instant, cost-effective, and fully compliant remittances from key markets like the US, Canada, and Europe, we are simplifying financial access and driving financial inclusion in Mali.”

TerraPay enables payments to 150+ receiving countries and 210+ sending countries. The company’s platform facilitates payments to more than 3.7 billion mobile wallets, 7.5 billion bank accounts, and more than 12 billion cards. Founded in 2014, TerraPay is headquartered in London. Co-founder Ambar Sur is CEO.

Founded in 2018 and operating in Mali since 2021, Wave Mobile Money offers domestic and cross-border transfers, bill payments, and business services to customers in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, Wave Mobile Money is on a self-described mission to make Africa “the first cashless continent.” Drew Durbin and Lincoln Quirk are Co-Founders.

Tunisia’s Konnect Networks secures investment

Tunisia’s Konnect Networks has raised an undisclosed amount from Attijariwafa Ventures. The investment was part of a wider fundraising effort that featured Utopia Capital Management, 54 Collective, Visa, Plug and Play Tech Center, Renew Capital, Digital Africa Ventures, and Sunny Side Venture Partners as investors. The company said it would use the capital to help fuel both its continued expansion and further innovation in payments technology.

Founded in 2021 by Amin Ben Abderrahman, Konnect Networks provides payment links, e-commerce plugins, and APIs. Serving both retail and business customers, the firm’s payment orchestration platform covers online and point-of-sale payments, payment aggregation, and real-time transaction capabilities. The company’s funding news comes in the wake of it being approved as a Payment Facilitator (PayFac) by Tunisia’s central bank. Konnect Networks currently has 2,000 users of its technology in Tunisia.

Konnect Networks is just one of a number of innovative new fintechs headquartered in Tunisia making fintech headlines of late. Other notable startups in the news include financial super app Flouci, named one of 2025’s 50 most influential fintechs in MENA by Forbes Middle East, and EasyBank, a fintech offering digital banking solutions that raised $370,000 at the beginning of the year.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South African fintech Sava secured $2 million in pre-seed funding.
  • International money movement company Terrapay teamed up with Wave Mobile Money to enable cross-border remittances for users in Mali.
  • Disrupt Africa discussed the relationship between traditional savings systems and fintech innovation.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • MENA-based digital private wealth platform Vault went live this week.
  • Israel-based fintech Sequence raised $7.5 million at a valuation of $14.5 million to support its financial management platform.
  • Emirates NBD selected global Know Your Payee (KYP) validation provider iPiD.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian fintech CRED secured $75 million in funding to further develop its credit card business.
  • TBC Bank Uzbekistan integrated customer experience solution provider Genesys’ Engage platform into its customer care operations.
  • Times of India looked at the current state of the country’s fintech sector, including its potential for growth via product expansion.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • The Japan International Cooperation Agency inked a deal to invest in Brazilian agri-fintech Agrolend.
  • Mercado Pago announced plans to apply for a banking license from the Central Bank of Argentina.
  • Méliuz became Brazil’s first publicly traded Bitcoin treasury company this week.

Asia-Pacific

  • Paytech Tribe Payments entered into a strategic collaboration with Singapore-based fintech Finmo.
  • Visa went live with Click to Pay in Hong Kong in partnership with digital bank ZA Bank.
  • Cryptocurrency exchange ByBit secured a Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) license in Australia.

Photo by MELIANI Driss

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Tradu Turns to Salt Edge for PSD2 Compliance and Payment Initiation

Tradu Turns to Salt Edge for PSD2 Compliance and Payment Initiation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Salt Edge
  • Canada-based open banking platform Salt Edge has teamed up with UK-based trading platform Tradu.
  • The partnership will help Tradu enhance its security infrastructure and meet PSD2 compliance regulations.
  • Founded in 2013, Salt Edge made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017. Garri Galanter is CEO.

Open banking platform Salt Edge will help multi-asset trading platform Tradu enhance its security infrastructure and meet PSD2 compliance regulations courtesy of a newly announced partnership. The collaboration will help Tradu better defend itself and its customers from fraud while providing a frictionless experience for the platform’s traders and investors.

“Secure and compliant access to financial data is no longer optional; it’s essential,” Salt Edge Senior Open Banking Solutions Expert Dan Martalog said. “Collaborations like the one between Salt Edge and Tradu are crucial for enabling innovative platforms to scale confidently while meeting strict PSD2 requirements. By providing seamless SCA and compliance tools, we’re helping Tradu focus on what matters most: delivering a trustworthy and efficient trading experience to its users.”

Salt Edge’s full-stack open banking compliance solution will ensure that Tradu is fully aligned with PSD2 regulations and provide the platform with a streamlined user authentication process that leverages secure, Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)-ready flows. The partnership will also enable Tradu to offer additional services such as the MCI exemption, as well as a custom, third-party provider (TPP) portal.

Additionally, Tradu is completing adoption of Salt Edge’s Open Banking Gateway for Payment Initiation Services (PIS). This will enable Tradu traders and investors to top up their accounts directly from their UK and EU bank accounts, providing a funding experience that is fast, secure, and low friction.

“Security and compliance are at the core of our financial services,” Tradu Product Director and Founding Employee Tomasz Stupnicki said. “Our collaboration with Salt Edge enhances user trust, ensuring a seamless and protected financial experience.”

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in London, Tradu offers active traders and investors access to thousands of tradable assets including equities, commodities, cryptocurrencies, CFDs, foreign exchange, treasuries, and indices. The company’s partnership with Salt Edge comes as the firm prepares to bring its wallet services to additional markets in Europe. Tradu expects its alliance with Salt Edge will support connections to and simplify integration and compliance efforts for more than 500 financial institutions across more than 20 countries. Brendan Callan is Tradu’s CEO.

Salt Edge made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 and most recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2019. The Ottawa, Ontario-based fintech was founded in 2013 and today provides access to real-time account data from 5,000 financial institutions across 50+ countries via its open banking gateway. Salt Edge also offers an open banking and PSD2 compliance solution with APIs, third-party provider verification tools, mobile Strong Customer Authentication (SCA), consent management technology, and more to help banks and Electronic Money Institutions (EMIs) become compliant with PSD2 and open banking requirements.

Salt Edge’s partnership news with Tradu comes one month after the Canadian company announced that it had teamed up with full-service product development firm Thinslices. The two companies have agreed to merge capabilities in order to streamline financial data aggregation and power account-to-account (A2A) payments for businesses. In March, Salt Edge announced that it was working with fellow Finovate alum Backbase to help foster broader and faster adoption of open banking.

“Regulatory compliance should not be a bottleneck for banks but rather a catalyst for growth and innovation,” Salt Edge Head of Partner Ecosystem Iulian Mitrea said. “By partnering with Backbase, we are equipping financial institutions with the tools they need to effortlessly thrive in the evolving open banking landscape.”

Photo by Markus Winkler

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

More Than $232 Million Raised by Nine Alums in Q1 2025

More Than $232 Million Raised by Nine Alums in Q1 2025
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: eSelf.AI, FutureVault, Highnote, Hypori, Kani Payments, LeapXpert, Method Financial, Napier, Quarterly Funding, Synctera, Zeta

Funding for Finovate alums rebounded significantly in the first quarter of 2025, year-over-year. Nine Finovate alums raised more than $232 million in funding, topping 2024’s first quarter tally by more than a million dollars.

Previous quarterly comparisons

  • Q1 2024: More than $113 million raised by nine alums
  • Q1 2023: More than $453 million raised by 13 alums
  • Q1 2022: More than $365 million raised by 11 alums
  • Q1 2021: More than $3.3 billion raised by 26 alums

January was the biggest funding month of the quarter, with two of the quarter’s top three equity investments coming in the first month of the year. That said, the fact that two of February’s investment totals were undisclosed means that February—often the lowest funding month of the quarter—might have been a bigger funding month than it appears.

Top equity investments from the quarter

  • Highnote: $90 million
  • Zeta: $50 million
  • Method Financial: $42 million

As noted above, the big investment bucks arrived early for Finovate alums in 2025. The largest fundraising for alums in Q1 was Highnote’s haul in January. The company, which offers modern card issuance and program management, secured $90 million in a Series B round led by Adams Street Partners. Highnote made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco.

The Highnote investment was almost as large as the next two biggest funding rounds for Finovate alums in Q1 2025. Method Financial also announced a major fundraising in January, securing an investment of $42 million in a Series B round led by Emergence Capital. Zeta announced raising $50 million from an undisclosed “strategic investor” in February.

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q1 2025.

January 2025

More than $164 million raised by four alums

February 2025

More than $50 million raised by three alums

March 2025

More than $18 million raised by two alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the first quarter of 2025 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

Photo by cottonbro studio

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Daon Announces Strategic Partnership with Giesecke+Devrient

Daon Announces Strategic Partnership with Giesecke+Devrient
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daon
  • Digital identity company Daon has forged a strategic partnership with security technology firm Giesecke+Devrient (G+D).
  • The partnership will combine Daon’s identity verification and biometric authentication technology with Giesecke+Devrient’s digital security product suite.
  • Founded in 2000, Daon made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016 in New York.

Digital identity specialist Daon and security technology company Giesecke+Devrient announced a strategic partnership this week. The agreement will combine G+D’s offerings with Daon’s identity verification (IDV) and biometric authentication capabilities, enhancing Giesecke+Devrient’s security product suite and bringing Daon’s IDV and biometric solutions to a broader range of customers.

“G+D has a long history of innovation across a wide range of security solutions ranging from bank cards to Central Bank Digital Currency; they launched the first commercial SIM card and delivered the world’s first commercial eSIM,” Daon CEO Tom Grissen said. “We are proud of Daon’s collaboration with G+D which facilitates the introduction of new scalable, secure identity verification and biometric solutions to millions of users across a wide range of industries and use cases.”

The partnership between Giesecke+Devrient and Daon will provide companies—including those in financial services and in merchant ecosystems—with identity continuity throughout the entire customer journey, from onboarding to recovery. In addition to offering fraud prevention tools like biometric watchlists and technologies such as deepfake detection, the partnership will also enable companies to offer advanced verification and eSIM capabilities to mobile operators. Matching Daon’s TrustX platform with G+D’s eSIM management platform will give mobile network operators (MNOs) a single solution for securing eSIM issuance and portability.

“Security has always been at the core of G+D’s mission. By combining Daon’s leadership in digital identity trust with G+D’s expertise in secure digital transactions, this global partnership delivers more than just protection—it enables seamless identity continuity across all customer touchpoints,” Giesecke+Devrient CDO Gabriel von Mitschke-Collande said. “Our layered approach provides multiple opportunities to detect and prevent fraud, while ensuring full compliance with regulatory and accessibility standards. Together, we’re setting a new benchmark for both security and user experience in digital identity.”

Munich, Germany-based Giesecke+Devrient offers solutions for digital security, financial platforms, and currency technology. An innovator in the card and digital payments industry, G+D orchestrates real world payment and banking experiences with human-centered security technology. With a workforce of more than 14,000, G+D has 123 subsidiaries and joint ventures in 40 countries. The firm counts more than 700 commercial banks around the world and 145 central banks among its partners. Founded in 1852, the company generated a turnover of three billion euros in fiscal year 2023.

Founded in 2000 and headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, Daon made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016 in New York. In the near-decade since then, the company has secured more than two billion identities. Daon conducts more than 250 million daily authentications and serves hundreds of millions of users on six continents.

Daon’s partnership news with Giesecke+Devrient comes weeks after the company announced that it was working with financial services digital transformation solutions provider Digital.FI. Together, the two companies will provide small- and medium-sized financial institutions with enterprise-level identity continuity, enabling them to provide secure, frictionless member experiences across every channel.

Also this spring, Daon reported that it had entered a strategic partnership with conversational intelligence for customer experience (CX) innovator CallMiner. The collaboration will combine advanced identity verification with AI-powered conversation analytics to help streamline the identification process for call centers while providing active fraud prevention via real-time voice analysis and biometric identifiers.

Photo by Andreas Leindecker

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

ACI Worldwide Unveils Centralized Payment Hub, ACI Connetic

ACI Worldwide Unveils Centralized Payment Hub, ACI Connetic
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Alumni News
  • ACI Worldwide introduced its new, centralized payment hub, ACI Connetic.
  • The new offering integrates the capabilities of major global payment networks including Swift cross-border and RTGS payments into a single, cloud-based platform.
  • Headquartered in Florida, ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011.

ACI Connetic, ACI Worldwide’s new centralized payment hub, was unveiled this week. The solution integrates major global networks’ payment capabilities—including Swift cross-border payments, RTGS payments including Target2, SEPA Instant RT1, and TIPS payments, with more capabilities to be integrated later. This brings account-to-account (A2A) payments, card payments, and AI-powered fraud prevention into a unified, cloud-native platform that gives banks an easier, faster, and more cost-effective way to modernize their payment infrastructures.

“ACI Connetic is not just a new product, it is a new standard for how banks must operate in the digital economy and approach payments transformation,” ACI Worldwide CEO and President Thomas Warsop said. “Against the backdrop of increasing payments complexity, the rise of new technologies and a shifting regulatory environment, ACI Connetic empowers financial institutions to unlock new revenue opportunities and navigate compliance in order to drive growth and financial inclusion.”

Already gaining traction with financial institutions in both the US and Europe, ACI Connetic enables these businesses to consolidate siloed systems and benefit from a centralized approach to processing all payment types. The offering comes as Datos Insights recently championed the benefits of centralized payment processing. In its report, Datos contended that centralized payment processing streamlines operations, enhances efficiency, and helps support growth. ACI noted that it is already working with the world’s leading clearing and settlement systems including the Bank of England, Pay.UK, ECB, EBA Clearing, and Stet, as well as Swift, the US Federal Reserve, and The Clearing House to integrate their payment functionalities into ACI Connetic.

“We built ACI Connetic to give banks a future-proof foundation to meet the ever-increasing demand for faster, smarter, and secure payments,” ACI Worldwide head of product for banking and intermediaries, Scotty Perkins, said. “Built for scalability, intelligence, and resilience, ACI Connetic empowers banks to reduce complexity, accelerate product innovation, and deliver new solutions to their customers in an unprecedented way and at unprecedented speed.”

ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011, when the company joined MShift on stage at FinovateFall in New York. ACI Worldwide is also an alum of our developers conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016. Today, the company serves the top 10 banks in the world, enables 80,000+ merchants directly and through PSPs, and provides services such as billpay and payments intelligence. ACI Worldwide has more than 6,000 customers around the world, and annually processes 25 billion cloud transactions and 225+ billion consumer transactions.

ACI Worldwide’s new product news comes just days after the company announced that CIMB Bank had selected its technology to combine all its account-to-account transactions—real-time, ACH, RTGS, and cross-border—in a single payments platform. CIMB Bank is the second largest financial services provider in Malaysia and one of the leading banking groups in the ASEAN region.

Photo by DΛVΞ GΛRCIΛ

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Eltropy, Fenergo, Fintech Rundown, Plaid, Sikoia, WorldPay

As the holiday-shortened week begins, we’re learning that analysts expect UK hiring in fintech to boom in 2025. Meanwhile in the US, is the CFPB about to “86” open banking?

We’ll keep you covered on all the latest fintech news here in Finovate’s Fintech Rundown!

Payments

Fintech platform Adyen goes live with Tap-to-Pay on iPhone in seven European markets.

Flywire accepted into global luxury travel group Virtuoso.

Palla secures $14.5 million Series A funding to drive expansion and innovation in cross-border payments.

DeFi / Crypto

Worldpay teams up with BVNK to offer stablecoin payouts.

Volante Labs launches Volante Card, a Web3-enabled prepaid card for salary payments.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitget unveils yield-bearing stablecoin asset, BGUSD.

Garanti BBVA Crypto goes live with its new mobile app.

Investing / Wealth Management

River Valley Credit Union partners with InvestiFi to offer cryptocurrency and securities investing.

Blend360 and Fin Capital partner to accelerate enterprise innovation.

Hidden Road launches digital asset swaps prime brokerage for the US market.

Identity management

Identity verification specialist Sikoia wins the 2024 Innovation Labs programme, along with Credit Canary and Aperidata.

Metro Credit Union partners with Illuma to enhance security and streamline member authentication.

Communications

Eltropy launches office phone to unify telephony for CFIs.

Customer data

Plaid introduces Transactions for Business to help power real-time business tools.

Fraud and security

ParaScript enhances check fraud detection capabilities with advanced endorsement reading feature.

Fenergo launches FinCrime operating system with Agentic AI layer to supercharge productivity.

Photo by Rohi Bernard Codillo

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook