Author: David Penn

The Impactful Eight: FinovateFall’s Impact Zone Showcases the Future of Fintech

The Impactful Eight: FinovateFall’s Impact Zone Showcases the Future of Fintech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025, List series

Each year at FinovateFall we look for new and exciting ways to showcase the breadth of fintech innovation that lies just below the radar of the mainstream fintech conversation. This year, we introduced The Impact Zone: a special program for fintech startups that gives them access to highly curated content and demos; unlimited high-level meetings with financial institutions, banks, credit unions, and venture capital firms; and a strategically located table outside the plenary hall to facilitate networking and maximum visibility.

“The Impact Zone debuted at FinovateFall this year, spotlighting eight startups with AI-driven solutions in bill management, wealth management, digital lending, and more,” Finovate VP and Director of Fintech Demos Heather Stowell explained. “Focused on growth and scaling, these innovators are ones to watch—expect to see them on the Finovate stage soon!”

Let’s meet the companies from FinovateFall 2025’s Impact Zone.

AiVantage

Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, AiVantage provides credit unions, banks, and financial institutions with AI-powered solutions that help them improve efficiency, enable personalized customer engagement, and drive growth.

The company’s flagship solution, InteractiveAI, helps construct each customer interaction uniquely at scale to help financial institutions innovate and stay competitive. Karan Bhalla (LinkedIn) is CEO.

In June, AiVantage announced that it had secured a large strategic investment from Our Community Credit Union (OURCU). The amount of the funding was not disclosed. As part of the investment, OURCU will take a seat on the AiVantage CUSO board of directors.

Blue Street Data

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Blue Street Data facilitates the process of finding, evaluating, and purchasing third-party data.

The company’s PQC Engine is an intelligent search platform that enables businesses to discover, compare, and buy high-quality datasets at the optimal price. Including use cases such as personalization, risk modeling, and market analysis, Blue Street Data’s technology helps financial institutions derive greater value from external data. Andy Hannah (LinkedIn) is CEO.

Earlier this year, Blue Street Data announced that it had joined the Sourcing Industry Group, also known as SIG|ORG, an international network for sourcing, procurement, and risk professionals. The company hopes its engagement with the group will elevate the standard for how organizations and businesses evaluate and transact with external data.

CloudBankin

CloudBankin offers an end-to-end cloud-based loan software solution to enhance digital lending. CloudBankin’s Loan Origination System enables a variety of financial institutions—including banks, NBFCs, and MFIs—to disburse loans in less than 10 minutes.

The company’s AI-powered lending agents monitor risk, improve decisioning, and enhance customer engagement across credit underwriting, fraud detection, document intelligence, repayment prediction, and collections. Mani Parthasarathy (LinkedIn) is CEO.

CloudBankin’s Loan Management System has delivered 97% operational efficiency, 50% reduction in time-to-market for product launch, 90% decrease in the data entry error, and 100% compliance with industry regulations. Founded in India, the company’s US headquarters is in Delaware.

Hansa

Hansa helps lenders report commercial payment data to business credit bureaus. The company serves as a single connection point to all major commercial bureaus and consortia to make it easier for businesses to access the best underwriting data and remain compliant.

Hansa’s technology automates many of the pain points of credit reporting to help reduce delinquencies and support credit-building for small business borrowers. Henry Magun (LinkedIn) is Founder and CEO.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York, Hansa began this year with the launch of its enterprise solution for commercial loan payment reporting. The new offering consists of two key components: a data reporting system that simplifies reporting by transforming and transmitting CSV file and API request data to credit bureaus, and a borrower dashboard that gives borrowers greater transparency on how their payments affect their credit.

Moneylab

Moneylab offers an AI-powered platform that enables banks and credit unions to optimize the way they manage their assets and liabilities.

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Moneylab gives Chief Financial Officers a solution that consists of a collection of AI agents and expert systems that specialize on specific processes such as compiling and writing variance reports, monitoring loan portfolios, and pricing securities assets in real time. Vincent Wong (LinkedIn) is Moneylab Co-Founder and Chairman.

Founded in 2019, Moneylab announced this spring that it had acquired strategic intellectual property from Carfang Group. The all-share transaction will complement Moneylab’s platform offering by providing historical and current data points and analytical processes.

Netswitch Technologies

Netswitch offers a prepaid and debit card processing solution with a built-in ledger that is specially designed for fintechs and sponsor banks.

The company’s platform features pre-configured card controls and compliance workflows. Its custom Large Language Model (LLM) supports quick configuration and faster UI development to ensure rapid onboarding. Kris Lakshmanan (LinkedIn) is CEO.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Lawrence, Kansas, Netswitch supports the issuance and processing of debit, virtual, corporate, and employee cards, as well as travel and gift cards.

Nextvestment

Nextvestment offers an AI-native engagement layer for wealth management teams. The platform’s conversational co-pilots transform client questions into trusted conversations, actionable insights, and portfolio guidance.

The technology enables financial advisors to better engage with clients and provide personalized service at scale. At the same time, Nextvestment empowers clients to examine and explore their portfolio and the markets on their own, with a seamless handoff to professional advisors when they need guidance the most. Michael Davies (LinkedIn) is CEO and Founder.

Launched in 2024 and headquartered in Singapore, Nextvestment announced earlier this year that it had joined the NVIDIA Inception Program. The free, virtual accelerator enables startups innovating in AI, data science, and high-performing computing to access NVIDIA developer resources and technical training, go-to market support and expertise, and exposure to venture capital firms via the NVIDIA Inception VC Alliance.

TrieveTech

TrieveTech offers an AI-powered, multi-tenant, white-label platform that sits at the intersection of bill aggregation, payments, analytics, insights and customer experience enhancement to enable Energy Service Companies (ESCOs) to easily and quickly brand, customize, launch, and integrate new products and solutions. John Mulcahy is President.

Launched in 2020, TrieveTech is headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company’s technology helps firms lower overhead costs, reduce customer care needs, and increase customer retention, leading to greater profit margins.

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Scamnetic Unveils KnowScam 2.0 for Real-Time Anti-Fraud Protection

Scamnetic Unveils KnowScam 2.0 for Real-Time Anti-Fraud Protection
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Scamnetic
  • Anti-scam solution provider Scamnetic has unveiled the latest edition of its flagship KnowScam 2.0 fraud protection solution.
  • KnowScam 2.0 features a variety of enhancements including a new Auto Scan feature and deepfake detection.
  • Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Tampa, Florida, Scamnetic made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage last week for FinovateFall 2025.

Scam protection and digital identity verification company Scamnetic recently introduced its new KnowScam 2.0 offering. The latest edition of the firm’s flagship solution features significant upgrades, including a new three-point scoring system, an Auto Scan feature for Microsoft Outlook and Android RCS, and new deepfake detection and ID verification functionality.

Offering holistic scam-detection, KnowScam 2.0 consists of four major components. Scan & Score automatically scans email and text messages—including QR codes, links, and images—to assess the level of risk from incoming communication. IDeveryone provides defense against dating scams, Facebook marketing scams, crypto scams, and more by identifying the identity of any counterparty whether the interaction is via video, audio, or text. KnowScam 2.0’s Scam Intervention feature helps restore assets and support scam victims as they re-establish their digital security. Lastly, Scam Education provides users with the latest tips and resources on how to protect themselves from scams.

“KnowScam 2.0 marks a major leap forward in proactive scam protection by combining broader platform coverage, automated detection, and instant identity verification—features not offered together by any other consumer-facing anti-scam solution. KnowScam 2.0 advances our goal to provide the most trusted, consumer-first platform for scam detection and digital identity verification, and our mission to make digital interactions safe and secure, providing peace of mind in an increasingly complex digital world,” Scamnetic Chief Operating Officer John Evans said.

KnowScam 2.0 features built-in explainability to inform users of the factors used to produce a scam score and provides highly tailored recommendations based on the type of scam and the overall risk level of the threat. The solution leverages automation and customized machine learning to both remove the potential for human error, as well as avoid relying on third-party LLMs. KnowScam 2.0 instead leverages its own customized machine learning and proprietary technology to spot nine out of every 10 scams.

Headquartered in Tampa, Florida and founded in 2023, Scamnetic made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its technology enables consumers to detect all types of scams in real-time. Scamnetic’s technology can be integrated directly into enterprise platforms, empowering service providers to take a greater role in helping their customers avoid scams. The company returned to the Finovate stage last week for FinovateFall 2025.

Scamnetic’s product update comes at the same time that the company announced that it had been selected to participate in Mastercard’s StartPath Security Solutions program, along with four other security-based startups including fellow Finovate alum OneID. The first cohort of Mastercard’s new security-oriented startup engagement program, Scamnetic, OneID, and three other fintechs will gain access to Mastercard’s network, resources, and market experience. The startups will also benefit from the program’s partnership with organizations such as the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) which raises awareness and provides enabling tools for both consumers and law enforcement to help facilitate knowledge sharing and the development of best practices against scams and their perpetrators around the world.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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FinovateFall 2025: AI, Fraud Prevention, and the Art of What’s Possible

FinovateFall 2025: AI, Fraud Prevention, and the Art of What’s Possible
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: David's column, FinovateFall 2025

At a time of uncertainty in both politics and policy, an entreaty to think about “what’s possible” might sound naive—if not terrifying.

Yet, at the onset of FinovateFall 2025, which just wrapped up last week, thinking about “what’s possible” was the challenge laid down by Finovate VP and Master of Ceremonies Greg Palmer. And to the delight of our FinovateFall audience, it was a challenge that our demoing companies, keynote speakers, and insightful panelists were more than ready to accept.

What we heard from the experts

What’s possible … AI as a tool to empower and augment human action was an especially persistent theme over the three days of FinovateFall. In fact, even our pre-conference, invitation-only, Leaders+ event on Sunday evening featured a reminder that AI was increasingly the tool of choice for those under 30 when it came to a range of financial tasks from establishing a budget to making better credit decisions. Crucially, as J.D. Power’s Jennifer White pointed out, Gen Z is using AI for answers to more immediate questions, not exclusively for long-term planning. For them, AI is a co-pilot rather than a forecasting or projecting tool.

This sentiment was elaborated on by Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes in his Analyst All Stars presentation Tuesday morning. Johnson took on the notion of AI as a tool for automation, suggesting instead that AI—and Large Language Models (LLMs) more specifically—be thought of as ways to augment human activity rather than replace it outright. Johnson underscored LLMs as “probabilistic guessing machines” rather than “determinist systems,” and explained that to the extent that the latter is what’s required in financial services, LLMs alone can fall short.

That said, Johnson noted that by applying LLMs in ways that maximize what they are good at, financial institutions can leverage processes like mortgage servicing to better understand the diverse and even niche preferences of their customers. This data can be used not only to introduce new products and services, but also to scale up entire new businesses built around these edge cases.

No conversation about AI at FinovateFall would be complete without a reference to Jon Lakefish’s return to the Finovate stage for another mind-bending conversation on the latest AI tools. His Wednesday morning keynote—Creating Trust and Loyalty through AI-Enhanced CX—helped attendees understand the powerful resources available to not only build new products, but also to discover what new solutions are possible given a deeper, AI-enabled analysis of a business, its customers, and goals. In less than five minutes, Lakefish showed how a variety of readily available AI tools could enable, say, a Finovate sponsor, to uncover and pursue a new niche product line. From the latest innovations in ChatGPT—”the LLM platform for almost everything”—to Manus.AI, the first publicly available Agentic AI platform Lakefish has felt comfortable showcasing, the message was clear: the world of what’s possible is becoming larger every day and AI is a primary resource for navigating and creating within it.

One telling insight shared during our Investor All Star panel at the end of Day Three underscored the power and potential for AI when it comes to emerging fintechs, in particular. During a discussion on which trends investors were most drawn to, our panelists cited fraud prevention and compliance technology among the most attractive areas for investment, with personal finance management (PFM)-related solutions increasingly less so. Nevertheless, panelist Lindsey Fitzgerald of Vesey Ventures noted that even within this group, it was possible for truly innovative startups to stand out if they are able to deploy enabling technologies like AI in new and novel ways. “AI changes the possibility of a startup being 10x better (than its rivals) in any category,” she explained.

What we saw from the innovators

I have long contended that the roster of companies that win Best of Show at Finovate conferences in any given year is as good a heat check on the state of fintech innovation as you’re likely to find. This year’s batch of FinovateFall Best of Show winners was no exception.

By theme, FinovateFall attendees were impressed by innovations in a wide range of areas. Nevertheless companies innovating in the fraud prevention space probably experienced the greatest amount of on-stage competition—a point I’ll return to. Kudos to Casap for standing out from an impressive pack with its technology that helps combat fraud, including an especially pernicious form of e-commerce crime called “first-party fraud.” Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York, Casap recently raised $25 million in Series A funding for its payment dispute resolution solution.

Arguably the most compelling case for financial institutions to offer services like investments came from Eko CEO Mart Vos. His company, now a two-time Finovate Best of Show winner, provides a solution that enables financial institutions to integrate digital investing functionality directly into their platforms. Vos warned banks and credit unions not to be complacent as their customers open investment accounts with innovative brokerages like Robinhood. While mere brokerages today, many of these firms are looking at ways of expanding their banking offerings, or obtaining banking licenses outright. By integrating investment services into their platforms and making them seamlessly accessible, financial institutions incentivize customers and members to keep their funds “at home.”

Enabling more qualified borrowers to secure funding is a cause championed by many innovative fintechs and it is no surprise to see two such companies among this year’s Best of Show winners. This year at FinovateFall, New York-based Krida demonstrated its AI intelligence layer for business lending. The company’s solution leverages AI to provide bankers with automated workflows for document collection, lead tracking, and data management. This enables new bankers to be more effective sooner and empowers all bankers to spend more time with their client relationships and less time with paperwork. Hailing from the other side of the country, Irvine, California-based LendAPI is a super orchestration platform that enables CTOs, CROs, and CCOs to work together to build enterprise platforms. At FinovateFall, LendAPI CEO Timothy Li demonstrated how to use the technology to launch a 1003 mortgage application in minutes. Both Krida and LendAPI are newcomers to the Finovate stage.

Another Finovate newcomer to take home Best of Show honors from FinovateFall last week was VerticeAI. The Atlanta, Georgia-based fintech provides credit unions and community banks with tools for predictive analytics, AI-powered marketing content, and targeted customer acquisition. The company began the year announcing new partnerships with Texas-based Education Credit Union and North Carolina-based Duke University Federal Credit Union.

Last but certainly not least, it was great to see the positive impression LemonadeLXP made on our FinovateFall audience last week. A Finovate alum since 2022 and, like Eko, now a two-time Best of Show winner, LemonadeLXP offers a learning experience and digital adoption platform for both the staff and customers of financial institutions. At the conference, the Ottawa, Canada-based company demoed its InsightAI solution which enables firms to develop and deploy their own employee training programs.

Where we go from here

This year I was struck by the number and quality of solutions on display that were dedicated to fighting fraud and dealing with related concerns like dispute management and chargebacks.

Fraud prevention may not be the most glamorous corner of fintech. Fraud in the digital space is a persistent, if not growing, threat to all of us; someone very close to me lost their life savings in a phishing scam earlier this year. But it’s not something that we like to talk about very much. Victims feel shame. Institutions suffer reputational damage. Providers scramble to offer their own proprietary solutions. The fraud lifecycle, so to speak, is silent and siloed. And this makes fraud harder to fight.

Perhaps this is why some of the most novel technology innovations and business strategies are found among those engaged in the fight against fraud. Consider the aggressive deployment of AI to combat deepfakes or the increasingly common collaborations between institutions—particularly credit unions and community banks—to share best practices to keep their members and customers safe. At a time when personal security concerns are paramount—in financial services and beyond—it is heartening to know that so many of fintech’s best and brightest are on the case.

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Quinte Financial Technologies Launches CaseHub to Enhance Fraud Management

Quinte Financial Technologies Launches CaseHub to Enhance Fraud Management
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Quinte Financial Technologies
  • Quinte Financial Technologies launched its dispute and fraud case management platform CaseHUB this week.
  • The new offering is built for banks, credit unions, fintechs, and credit union service organizations (CUSOs) to help them manage more cases faster and more accurately.
  • Founded in 2019, Quinte Financial Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California.

New York-based Quinte Financial Technologies has unveiled its next-generation fraud and dispute management solution, CaseHUB. Designed for financial institutions ranging from banks and fintechs to credit unions and credit union service organizations (CUSOs), CaseHUB combines data, workflows, and analytics into a single intelligence interface to help FIs manage more cases faster and more accurately.

CaseHUB empowers financial institutions with pre-built workflows and built-in compliance features that help them avoid repetitive, manual tasks as well as ensure adherence to shifting regulatory policies and mandates. With pragmatic AI, configurable processes, and end-to-end auditability, the platform accelerates dispute resolution via an auto-decisioning capability and leverages alert signals and adaptive analytics to identify fraud patterns. Built-in workflows and compliance rules make case management seamless across payments, channels, and functions, enabling fraud and dispute management teams to work more efficiently.

“Financial institutions are under growing pressure to respond to disputes and fraud cases swiftly, without sacrificing accuracy,” Quinte Financial Technologies President Sriram Natarajan said. “With CaseHUB, we are giving them a smarter, more scalable way to manage risk and build trust with accountholders.”

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in New York, Quinte Financial Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Advanced Dispute Manager (ADM), which provides a comprehensive dispute resolution approach that automates the management of customer and merchant disputes across ACH, POS, ATM, checks, wire transfers, and Zelle. With seamless case documentation and communication to ensure full Reg E compliance, ADM lowers risk, limits losses, boosts productivity, and streamlines operations.

This month, Quinte Financial Technologies has announced partnerships with OrboGraph to modernize check fraud detection and case management for financial institutions, and with Mountain America Credit Union to “transform fraud prevention and (the) member experience.” With more than 1.2 million members, Mountain America Credit Union has 100+ branches across five states and is recognized as the eighth largest credit union in the US.

Photo by Tara Winstead

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FinovateFall 2025 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateFall 2025 Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Casap, Eko Investments, FinovateFall 2025, Krida, LemonadeLXP, LendAPI, Vertice AI

Congratulations to the six companies that won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2025 this week!

This year’s roster of FinovateFall Best of Show winners includes proven veterans that have earned Best of Show awards from Finovate audiences in the past, as well as companies new to Finovate who impressed our attendees with their live demonstrations of problem-solving innovations in fields ranging from digital banking and wealth management to financial education and AI-enabled data management.

Please join us in congratulating all of the companies that demoed their latest fintech innovations at FinovateFall this week. And with that, meet the winners of Best of Show for FinovateFall 2025!

Casap for its technology that helps financial institutions and fintechs lower operational costs and lift, curb fraud-related losses, accelerate resolution times, and strengthen customer relationships at scale.

Eko for its solution that enables clients to increase logins into digital banking by 4x and bank deposits by 11%, while reducing the likelihood of customers leaving their financial institution by 6x.

Krida for its technology that reduces cycle times, manual tasks, and borrower drop-off, giving banks a faster path to funded loans, higher throughput, and stronger community relationships.

LemonadeLXP for its InsightAI that improves staff and customer education and access to knowledge while driving significant operational efficiencies.

LendAPI for its cross-organizational collaboration tool where CTOs, CROs, and CCOs can all build an enterprise platform together.

Vertice AI for its innovation that leverages AI to translate data into personalized product and service recommendations, helping teams boost engagement, acquisition, and retention through smarter, hyper-targeted outreach.

We’d like to thank everyone who made FinovateFall 2025 such a great success: our sponsors, speakers and delegates who continue to make Finovate conferences must-attend events on the fintech calendar.

The next stop on the Finovate tour is sunny San Diego for FinovateSpring 2026. We look forward to seeing you there!

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2025 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022
FinovateSpring 2022
FinovateFall 2022
FinovateEurope 2023
FinovateSpring 2023
FinovateFall 2023
FinovateEurope 2024
FinovateSpring 2024
FinovateFall 2024
FinovateEurope 2025
FinovateSpring 2025

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Finovate Global: Meet the International Alums of FinovateFall 2025!

Finovate Global: Meet the International Alums of FinovateFall 2025!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Aurem, Dimply, ebankIT, Finovate Global, FinovateFall 2025, FintechOS, ID-Pal, Keyless, LemonadeLXP, MoneyPlanned, OPL, R34DY, Sequretek

Eleven of the more than 60 companies that will be demoing their latest fintech innovations live on stage at FinovateFall next week are headquartered in countries other than the US.

This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights these fintechs from the Middle East, Western and Central Europe, Canada, India, the UK, and Ireland. With innovations in fields ranging from wealth management and digital banking to fraud prevention and lending, this year’s roster of international alums is a reminder of the robustness of fintech innovation around the world.

FinovateFall 2025 comes to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, September 8 through September 19. Tickets are still available. Visit our FinovateFall hub and save your spot today!

Aurem – Abu Dhabi, UAE

Founded in 2022, Aurem offers an intelligent operating system for retirement and wealth providers. Their platform helps institutions unify and optimize their products, processes, and data and deliver them globally in days.

Dimply – Ireland

Founded in 2020, Dimply enables organizations to optimize operations, enhance customer engagement, uncover growth opportunities, and accelerate digital transformation.

ebankIT – Porto, Portugal

Founded in 2014, ebankIT empowers financial institutions to innovate quickly, reduce costs, and deliver personalized services across all channels, accelerating growth and future-proofing their digital strategy.

FintechOS– London, England

Founded in 2017, FintechOS enables banks and credit unions to launch any product faster, modernize customer experiences, and adapt quickly to market and regulatory changes—without replacing their core systems.

ID-Pal – Dublin, Ireland

ID-Pal facilitates business growth with AI-powered identity verification and AML screening, increasing operational efficiency and customer trust.

Keyless – London, England

Founded in 2019, Keyless replaces outdated MFA with biometrics, improving UX and saving millions. One bank saved $3.5 million by eliminating call centers for OTP-based recovery.

LemonadeLXP – Ottawa, Canada

Founded in 2018, LemonadeLXP’s InsightAI improves staff and customer education and access to knowledge, while driving significant operational efficiencies.

MoneyPlanned – Bengaluru, India

Founded in 2021, MoneyPlanned empowers institutions to offer intelligent, automated financial planning—boosting advisor efficiency, reducing cost-to-serve, and delivering personalized client experiences at scale.

OPL – Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India

Founded in 2015, OPL’s cash-flow-based lending helps banks transform their operations through agile lending, AI-driven insights, and intelligent credit underwriting—expanding credit access to SMEs.

R34DY – Budapest, Hungary

Founded in 2019, R34DY helps organizations transform their business by taking the pain out of integrations and making it easy for business owners to create use cases and reduce time to market.

Sequretek – Mumbai, India

Founded in 2013, Sequretek provides AI-powered, continuous threat exposure management ensuring compliance, governance, and holistic threat visibility across cloud and on-premises systems.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexico-based SME platform Kapital doubled its valuation to $1.3 billion upon securing up to $100 million in Series C funding.
  • Latin America’s largest insurtech, 180 Seguros, raised $9 million in funding.
  • Evertec acquired 75% stake in Brazilian fintech Tecnobank.

Asia-Pacific

  • Hong Kong-based stablecoin-powered cross-border payments infrastructure provider Obita announced $10 million in new funding.
  • Stripe Terminal launched in Japan.
  • International payment solutions provider dtcpay inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the People’s Committee of Da Nang during Vietnam Blockchain Day.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Tanzania-based fintech NALA expanded into Kenya courtesy of a partnership with Equity Bank and Pesalink.
  • Ripple partnered with Chipper Cash, VALR, and Yellow Card to make its USD-backed stablecoin Ripple USD (RLUSD) available to institutions in Africa.
  • Congolese fintech Maishapay earned a spot in Visa’s Africa Fintech Accelerator program.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • JPMorgan Chase announced plans to launch a digital bank in Germany.
  • Payments network TrueLayer went live in Poland this week.
  • Tietoevry Banking signed a SaaS agreement with IC Cash Services, its first foray into the German ATM market.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based fraud prevention innovator BioCatch and Nasdaq Verafin partnered to fight payment fraud.
  • Mastercard and Zain Cash teamed up to advance digital payments in Jordan.
  • Egyptian cross-border digital solutions provider Munify raised $3 million in seed funding.

Central and Southern Asia

Photo by Gaël Gaborel – OrbisTerrae on Unsplash

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nCino Launches ProBanker by FullCircl

nCino Launches ProBanker by FullCircl
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, nCino
  • Banking solutions provider nCino announced the general availability of ProBanker by FullCircl.
  • The new offering, developed in partnership with Experian, gives banks and other financial institutions visibility into credit status, affordability, and liquidity.
  • nCino was founded in 2012. The company acquired FullCircl in October 2024.

Less than a year after acquiring Client Lifecycle Intelligence platform FullCircl, banking solutions provider nCino has announced the general availability of ProBanker by FullCircl. Developed in collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Experian and part of a suite of Smart Solutions, ProBanker provides near real-time visibility into commercial credit status, affordability, and liquidity across the UK lending landscape. This enables banks and other financial institutions to follow and observe potential opportunities and risks at both the portfolio and individual level.

“This isn’t theoretical—it’s about solving the fundamental problem every commercial lender faces: How do you assess true customer risk and identify opportunity when you only see part of their financial picture?” nCino Associate Director, Product Management, Immy Tugcu said. “ProBanker represents a timely and transformational capability for both traditional and alternative funding providers looking to improve portfolio performance, retain market share, and meet growing expectations around speed, compliance, and customer experience.”

ProBanker leverages a rich dataset of approximately 18 million UK commercial credit accounts, as well as business current account data beyond the mandated Competition and Markets Authority 9 (CMA9) banks. The solution empowers lenders with a multi-bank, total market view of a customer’s credit exposure, and enables them to track both affordability and liquidity in near real-time. ProBanker helps strengthen portfolio health by spotting early warning signs of financial distress, and enhances customer outcomes through proactive engagement and personalized outreach.

In a statement, nCino noted that, in an initial pilot with a major UK bank, the financial institution observed that ProBanker helped them identify potential credit risks six months earlier on average compared to its current processes. The bank also said ProBanker helped them support customers who were eligible for extended or new funding products.

“In today’s fast-paced and increasingly complex lending environment, real-time, high-quality data and insight are the bedrock of being able to make confident, informed decisions at speed,” said David Gallihawk, Experian UK&I Chief Product Officer, Business Information Services. “ProBanker delivers exactly that. Our collaboration with nCino will bring greater transparency and help modernize lending opportunities, allowing clients to unlock deeper value from their portfolios.”

Founded in 2012, nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017 in London. The company’s ProBanker with FullCircl launch comes a little over a month after the company announced that Japanese bank group SBI Credit Guarantee Co., Ltd. had gone live with nCino as the platform for its mortgage guarantee business. In May, nCino unveiled a range of new platform enhancements designed to help banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions secure a competitive advantage via intelligence-driven automation.

Photo by Pixabay

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3 Can’t-Miss Sessions at FinovateFall: All Stars, Investment Trends, and Open Banking

3 Can’t-Miss Sessions at FinovateFall: All Stars, Investment Trends, and Open Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025, List series

What are you looking forward to most at FinovateFall next week (September 8 through September 10; New York Marriott Marquis Times Square)? Is it the 60+ live fintech demos that will hit the stage first thing Monday morning? Maybe it’s our keynote address on banks and stablecoins, or one of our executive briefings on community banking or AI in financial services? Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones invited to our special Leaders+ event Sunday evening?

Whatever you’ve got your sights set on, we’re thrilled to have you join us in New York for our annual fall conference. And to further whet your appetite for all things FinovateFall, here are a few exciting options to add to your agenda that Finovate attendees over the years have cited as among their favorites.

Tickets to the show are still available! Visit our FinovateFall registration hub and save your spot today!

Analyst All Stars: How financial services have been changed forever

FinovateFall always kicks off Day Two with our Analyst All Stars session. One of our most popular features, Finovate’s Analyst All Stars showcases three leading fintech analysts who take the stage for just seven minutes each to focus on a specific issue in our industry. Our expert analysts will share their insights on the trends that are impacting fintech today and driving the innovations of tomorrow. Tue, Sept 9. 9:05 am.

  • Tech Trends That Will Define Financial Services & Fintech into the Next Decade
  • The Bank of 2030—How to Move from a Product Centric Design to Life Stage Banking
  • Beyond the Application: Making Customer Onboarding More Effortless

Featuring:

Alex Johnson, Founder, Fintech Takes

Tiffani Montez, Financial Service Practice Lead, EMARKETER

Suraya Randawa, General Manager—Digital, Curinos

Speaker-Led Lunch Discussions: A Taxing Time for Fintech: JPMorgan Data Fees & What it Means for Open Banking in the US

Our Speaker-Led Lunch Discussions are a great way to network and share insights with leading fintech analysts, founders, and executives on some of the most topical issues in fintech and financial services. This year, we’re focusing on the challenges that open banking is facing in the US—from JPMorgan’s threat to charge for access to consumer data to the regulatory battles in Washington, DC and in the courts. Tue, Sept 9. 12:40 pm.

Featuring:

Phil Goldfeder, CEO, American Fintech Council (AFC)

Michelle Beyo, CEO & Founder, Finavator

Alex Johnson, Founder, Fintech Takes

Investor All Stars: In turbulent times, what is the outlook for the market & what does it mean for funding levels, valuations & the future of financial services? Looking to the future, how can niche product fintechs be turned into platform companies?

What is the current state of fintech funding? How will the policies of the Trump administration impact investment in growing fintechs? What can we expect in the M&A space? What areas of fintech are seeing the strongest investment and where are fintechs most vulnerable to funding shortfalls? Our Investor All Stars panel will tackle all these questions and more! Wed, Sept 10. 3:35 pm.

Featuring:

Josh Tanenbaum, Managing Partner, Rebalance Capital (moderator)

Lindsay Fitzgerald, General Partner & Co-Founder, Vesey Ventures

Boyang Li, Principal, Framework Venture Partners

Mary Joseph, Senior Vice President, Strategic Investments, Citi

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Know Before You Go: A FinovateFall Checklist for Delegates

Know Before You Go: A FinovateFall Checklist for Delegates
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2025

FinovateFall 2025 is just over a week away. Coming to the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square, this year’s fall conference begins on Monday, September 8 and continues through Wednesday, September 10.

With more than 2,000 senior decision-makers, 60+ live fintech demos, and 475+ financial institutions represented—including all of the top 20 US banks—FinovateFall 2025 is set to be one of our biggest events to date. If you haven’t registered, there’s still time! Visit our FinovateFall hub and save your spot today.

To help you make the most of your visit, here’s a quick checklist of things-to-do and need-to-knows.

Get Connected

  • Be sure to download the ConnectMe app and set up your profile. You’ll be able to review the agenda, set your schedule for the week, and start networking.
  • For live updates, follow #FinovateFall on LinkedIn and X/Twitter.
  • FinovateFall 2025 will feature more than 10 hours of dedicated networking time. Keep an eye out for our interactive discussion tables, which are a great way to connect with peers and share insights on issues ranging from AI in financial services to the battle for deposits.

At the Event

  • The week begins with our invitation-only Leaders+ VIP banking session. Sunday, September 7 at 6 pm.
  • Registration opens each conference morning (Monday through Wednesday) at 8 am. Continental breakfast and coffee will be available in the networking area.
  • General sessions begin at 9 am each morning.

Highlights

  • Our live demos begin Monday morning and continue through Tuesday afternoon. The Best of Show awards presentation will take place Tuesday evening at 5:50 pm in the networking hall.
  • Be sure to check out some of our perennial attendee favorites including Analyst All-Stars on Tuesday morning at 9:05 am, our industry stages on Wednesday morning starting at 10:45 am, and our Investor All-Stars Panel on Wednesday afternoon at 3:35 pm.
  • Join us for book signings with Ben Feller, Jason Mikula, and Theodora Lau. And have a little fun in our networking area with a portrait from our onsite caricaturist or a magic trick from our award-winning strolling magician and mentalist!

Final notes

  • Please remember to bring—and wear—your badge every conference day. You’ll need it to enter the event.
  • Dress code is business casual to business formal.
  • Questions? Visit our team at the registration booth on site, or ask a Finovate team member for assistance.

We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for you this year! See you in NYC!

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Expensify, Fintech Rundown, Zopa

Autumn does not officially arrive for a few more weeks. But for many of us, the end of the Labor Day weekend serves as a pretty good starting point for the fall season. We’ll be watching the headlines over the next few days here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown to see if September brings the kind of acceleration in news activity that we’ve come to expect around this time of year.

And did we mention that FinovateFall is just days away? There’s still plenty of time to get your ticket and join us in New York, Monday, September 8 through Wednesday, September 10.

Crypto and DeFi

Cryptocurrency platform Gemini files for an IPO, seeking a valuation of as much as $2.22 billion.

El Salvador announces plan to divide bitcoin reserves into multiple wallets to defend against potential future quantum computing attack.

Digital banking

UK-based digital bank Zopa acquires AI-powered payments automation company Rvvup.

Payments

Payments network TrueLayer goes live in Poland.

Corporate payments company Corpay announces strategic partnership with independent software vendor (ISV) SKsoft.

Insurtech

Eleos Life launches AI-powered digital co-pilot for life insurance, Theea.

AI-native, third-party administrator for commercial insurance, Elysian, raises $6 million in seed funding in a round led by Portage.

Small business solutions

Expensify announces new integration with DoorDash for Business.

Credit and analytics

Chase selects Nova Credit’s Cash Atlas solution to power its cash flow underwriting capabilities, and the company’s Credit Passport to enhance decisioning with international credit data.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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Finovate Global Singapore: Investments in Open Banking, Payments, and the Blockchain

Finovate Global Singapore: Investments in Open Banking, Payments, and the Blockchain
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news from Singapore.

Open banking firm Atlas Consolidated raises $18.1 million

Open banking may be on the ropes in the US, but progress is marching on in Singapore. Open banking platform Atlas Consolidated, a Singapore-based Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) company, announced that it had secured $18.1 million in Series B funding. The investment was led by Tin Men Capital, and featured participation from strategic investors Getz, Inc. and Woodside Holdings Investment Management.

Atlas Consolidated is the owner of Hugosave and HugoHub, and leads the consortium behind HugoBank. Hugosave is the company’s wealth and savings app with 100,000 customers in Singapore. HugoHub is Atlas Consolidated’s BaaS platform, which provides a full-suite of modular banking services via a single integration. HugoBank secured its digital banking license from the State Bank of Pakistan at the beginning of 2025.

“Banks are under immense pressure to transform digitally while still relying on decades-old core systems that are costly, rigid, and fragmented,” Tin Men Capital Co-Founder and Managing Partner Jeremy Tan said. “HugoHub’s full-stack ‘bank-in-a-box’ solution gives banks the flexibility to launch new products, integrate services where they matter most, and refine features without disrupting the wider system. In turn, they can innovate faster, compete with neo and challenger banks, and operate with radically better economics.”

HugoHub, according to the company, has reduced users’ technology spending by up to 90%, cut overall operating expenses by up to 80%, and enables higher customer-to-staff ratios than are possible with traditional banking models.

“This investment marks a pivotal step in our mission to build better banks through technology,” Atlas Consolidated CEO David Fergusson said. “With Tin Men Capital’s support, we can accelerate HugoHub’s expansion to new markets, helping traditional financial institutions create more efficient, inclusive, and sustainable systems.”

Ripple, Circle join investment in Tazapay

Speaking of funding for Singapore fintechs, Ripple (US) and Circle Ventures were among a handful of investors that participated in an investment in Singapore’s Tazapay, a cross-border payments infrastructure platform. The Series B round was led by existing investor Peak XV Partners. Norinchukin Capital (Japan), GMO VenturePartners (Japan), January Capital, and ARC180 were also involved in the funding. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Currently licensed to operate in Singapore, Canada, and the EU, the funding will help the Tazapay expand further into areas such as Japan. The company is presently applying for licenses in the UAE, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US, and is also applying for a Digital Payment Token (DPT) license in Singapore. Securing this license would help Tazapay meet regulatory obligations ahead of incorporating digital payment tokens, including stablecoins, into its cross-border payment offering. Company CEO and Co-founder Rahul Shinghal noted this last point in his statement on the funding.

“We’re entering the next chapter of our journey—one where modern payment technologies, regulatory compliance, and partnerships with global leaders will enable the future of cross-border commerce,” Shinghal said. “With this round, we are not just capitalizing the business; we are investing in our long-term vision to become the builder of a global payment collection and payout infrastructure built on modern rails. One of the key use cases this infrastructure serves is being the Fiat bridge for stablecoins in emerging markets.”

Founded in 2020, Tazapay offers local collection and payout capabilities in more than 70 markets around the world. The company processes more than $10 billion in annualized payment volume and is growing at 300% year-over-year. The company’s platform provides comprehensive coverage across alternative payment methods, cards, virtual bank accounts, payouts, and stablecoins.

OCBC launches billion dollar commercial paper program using the blockchain

Did someone say “stablecoins”? There’s news on Singapore’s blockchain beat, as well.

Singapore’s Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) has initiated a new, $1 billion digital US commercial paper program using blockchain technology. The goal of the program is to provide access to almost instantaneous short-term US dollar funding capabilities by leveraging on-chain tokenized securities and funds. In addition to issuance and settlement, the program will also feature on-chain record-keeping and servicing.

“Singapore’s blockchain ecosystem is advancing fast, and asset tokenization is gaining real momentum,” OCBC Head of Global Markets Kenneth Lai said. “Our focus is now firmly on commercialization. We have already tapped blockchain for intraday repo and reverse repo transactions—capabilities added last year—and are now expanding into the USCP market to strengthen liquidity and resilience.”

OCBC is the longest established bank in Singapore, formed in 1932 via the merger of three banks: the Chinese Commercial Bank Ltd, the Ho Hong Bank Ltd, and the Oversea-Chinese Bank Ltd. OCBC is also the second-largest financial services group in the Southeast Asia by assets. The institution offers a range of financial services including consumer, corporate, and private banking; insurance; and asset management. OCBC reported net profits of $2.88 billion (S$3.7 billion) for the first half of this year.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Mumbai-based business microservices startup TransBank raised $25 million.
  • Infosys and Mastercard teamed up to scale cross-border payments.
  • The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) opened applications for the first cohort for its new regulatory sandbox.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Latin American super app Rappi teamed up with international wallet platform AstroPay to launch a new wallet-on-file integration.
  • Bitso’s B2B arm Bitso Business announced a partnership with stablecoin payments provider BVNK.
  • The Central Bank of Barbados picked Montran Corporation to design and deploy the country’s new instant payment system.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nedbank announced plans to acquire South African fintech iKhokha for $94 million.
  • Techeconomy looked at the importance of understanding local financial habits in scaling fintech in Nigeria.
  • South African payments processor BankservAfrica rebranded to PayInc SA.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • AInvest examined the recent PayPal-Germany payment crisis, in which more than €10 billion in transactions blocked due to a security system failure.
  • Lithuanian regtech AMLYZE signed a partnership agreement with payment service provider Perlas Finance.
  • PEAC Solutions acquired German fintech topi as part of its European expansion plans.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • UAE-based fintech Holo secured $22 million in Series A funding.
  • Algeria introduced its first fintech regulations for payment service providers, digital wallets, agents, and more.
  • FenanPay secured a commercialization license from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE).

Photo by Mike Enerio on Unsplash

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Alloy and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate the Onboarding Process

Alloy and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate the Onboarding Process
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, MasterCard
  • Identity and fraud prevention solution provider Alloy has teamed up with Mastercard to launch an enhanced customer onboarding solution for financial institutions and fintechs.
  • The joint offering will use both identity verification technology and open finance to streamline onboarding and fight fraud.
  • Founded in 2015, Alloy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Identity and fraud prevention platform provider Alloy has inked a global partnership with Mastercard to introduce an enhanced customer onboarding solution for financial institutions and fintechs. The new offering comes as these businesses cited a 60% increase in fraud in 2024, according to Alloy’s 2025 State of Fraud Report. The report further noted that 93% of those financial organizations surveyed planned to invest in ongoing fraud prevention measures this year, with 64% planning to deploy identity risk technology, as well.

“Fraud continues to be a significant challenge for financial institutions and consumers alike, underscoring the urgent need for robust fraud prevention measures,” Mastercard EVP and Global Head of Identity, Dennis Gamiello said. “This joint onboarding solution will be a game-changer in the fight to reduce fraud and deliver a seamless and secure customer experience.”

The joint offering from Alloy and Mastercard will leverage both identity verification and open finance to simultaneously streamline onboarding and fight fraud. The solution provides a consistent identity risk strategy and onboarding experience across channels. Alloy will leverage Mastercard’s global digital identity verification capabilities and suite of open finance-powered account opening solutions to support financial institutions as they manage fraud, identity risk, and secure account funding throughout the customer lifecycle.

At the same time, Mastercard solutions will be integrated and pre-configured in Alloy to enable seamless deployment. Customers will have access to 200+ risk and identity solutions available via Alloy that are designed to help boost customer conversion rates, reduce the amount of manual reviews, and provide comprehensive end-to-end coverage.

“Successful fraud prevention starts with a holistic approach to understanding identity. Our partnership with Mastercard will allow more financial institutions and fintechs to evaluate customer identities holistically,” Alloy Chief Product Officer Parilee Wang said. “The end result for those companies will be a better digital experience and less fraud risk, allowing their businesses to grow effectively.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinDEVr SiliconValley 2016, and returned to the Finovate stage six years later for FinovateFall 2022 in New York. More recently, Alloy was included in CNBC World’s Top Fintech Companies roster for 2025 and, in June, the company announced a partnership with IG Group to help the FTSE 250 online trading firm maintain regulatory compliance as it grows.

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

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