All-in-One PFM App Truebill Banks $45 Million in Series D Funding

All-in-One PFM App Truebill Banks $45 Million in Series D Funding

Courtesy of an investment round led by Accel Partners, subscription management specialist turned personal finance company Truebill has secured $45 million in new funding. The Series D round – which featured participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cota Capital, and Eldridge Industries – takes the six-year old company’s total financing to $85 million.

“With this new capital, we’re transforming Truebill into an all-in-one, holistic platform that makes it easy for members to not only manage subscriptions and spending, but also optimize their savings and make informed decisions to improve their financial health,” company co-founder and CEO Haroon Mokhtarzada said. “More than 10,000 members sign up for Truebill every day seeking to better understand and improve their finances.”

Truebill’s PFM solution offers budgeting and autopilot savings tools, as well as insights into spending and credit scores. The app, available in both iOS and Android, also supports pay advance and bill negotiation, giving users further tools for managing cash flow and controlling costs.

Headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland after being founded in San Francisco in 2011, Truebill has more than 100 employees and plans to use the new capital to help add to its workforce. The company is looking to bring on new talent in data science, machine learning, engineering, and marketing, as well as in customer service to help support Truebill’s growth.

With two million active users and revenues that have grown 3x since March 2020, Truebill is one of the companies that has been able to leverage the social discontents of the global pandemic into greater business for its services. Despite its expansion into the PFM space, Truebill has benefitted from the emergence of “power subscribers” that have 10+ recurring payments. The company currently profits from a user with an average of 17 subscriptions – down from an average of 21 during the worst of the pandemic last spring – and a monthly subscription bill of $145 a month.


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How Collaboration and Partnership Power Fintech Innovation: Our Interview with FISPAN’s Andrea Zand

How Collaboration and Partnership Power Fintech Innovation: Our Interview with FISPAN’s Andrea Zand

How are banks and fintechs leveraging the lessons learned during the global health crisis to provide consumers and businesses with financial products that do an even better job than before of addressing their needs? And when it comes to innovation in technology and financial services, is disruption or collaboration dictating the pace of change?

To talk about these and other issues, we caught up with Andrea Zand, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of FISPAN. Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, FISPAN made its Finovate debut in 2017, demonstrating its cloud-based platform that leverages APIs to enable banks to deliver new business banking solutions to their corporate customers.

How are the banks you work with doing now – a little over one year after the onset of the pandemic?

Andrea Zand: Open-banking infrastructure and data sharing are helping banks and governments around the world better respond to the recovery post-pandemic. We are starting to see evidence that governments are beginning to use open banking data to help inform their pandemic responses and help small businesses. The banks we work with are feeling positive about the recovery going into 2021.

In what ways should banks expect customer behavior to change and how should they respond?

Zand: We’ve already seen that the pandemic has sped up innovation in financial services. Customers are getting more and more comfortable doing their personal banking online, and business banking customers are also turning to digital banking platforms as an alternative to in-person branch visits. Banks are struggling to keep up with this rapid shift in the types of online service offerings their clients are demanding. 

Because of this, banks are looking to deploy innovations that will have an immediate impact on the client experience. This is where we see a huge opportunity with embedded banking. By embedding the banking experience inside the platforms that business customers use to run their businesses (such as ERPs or accounting software), banks are able to easily provide their business clients with a more automated and streamlined treasury management process. The banks that are ahead of the curve and partnering with fintechs like us are beginning to better understand how their customers use their products in context, allowing them to innovate smarter and faster.

Technology has moved too fast for the banks to build those capabilities themselves. The best way for B2B banks to manage the impact of rapidly evolving customer expectations is to partner with agile, innovative fintech services.

Connecting with their clients as much as possible and understanding their needs will be essential in driving the agenda for the new capabilities the banks should be focusing on. Leveraging tech and automation will manage and rise to customer expectations while still allowing for more face time during this transition period to explore and understand customers’ needs and wants.

What are some of the other challenges that banks will encounter as the recovery picks up steam – and how will FISPAN help them?

Zand: Banks will continue to be challenged by continually changing customer expectations. They will also be challenged by the need to adapt to an open exchange of data that will happen as a result of the many new fintech upstarts that are creating new business models and finding ways to better meet these changing client demands.

FISPAN helps by collaborating with FIs to understand what will make their customers happier by joining forces across all levels of the product discovery and implementation phases. Getting in front of the customers and understanding their day-to-day ERP and accounting struggles is a large part of how we meet and overcome the challenges that have risen due to the digital shift during our global pandemic. More specifically, we enable banks to extend their service offering to their business clients by embedding commercial banking applications within the organization’s ERP or accounting software.

For those institutions that engaged in digital transformations, how do they make sure those efforts truly pay off?

Zand: Continue to be open to new ways of thinking and working with new partners. In partnering, serving, or investing in innovation by way of technology upstarts, financial institutions are able to position themselves for future growth and adaptation through real-time, easy access to products, services, data, and channels. Delivering a product or service that truly resonates with their customers and meets them where they are with the current challenges they face in a rapidly growing digital market.

What does collaboration between banks and fintechs look like in a post-COVID world?

Zand: Collaboration between banks, fintech, and other providers is becoming more important as the payments landscape is becoming more complex. Banks that are open to partnering have a competitive advantage because they can provide better services at scale. Not to mention that some banks are at risk of getting disintermediated by nonbank providers for some of these types of solutions. The time that bank partners spend helping integrate their banking services into different platforms is markedly less than the time it would take for the bank to develop it themselves. That same time investment from the bank also leads to countless saved hours for their business clients, increasing their value as a business bank.

What has been your biggest professional takeaway from 2020?

Zand: If 2020 taught me anything, it was to always remain flexible and open-minded. One of the big plans we had was to go to some in-person events and start to talk face to face with end-users and really understand what kinds of pain points they were experiencing with their treasury management process. All of our events were either canceled or transferred to digital. We were still able to get the information we needed from customer interviews and case studies, but it just goes to show that sometimes your best-laid plans aren’t going to be in the cards and you need to pivot quickly.

What are you looking forward to most in 2021? Where do you see the greatest opportunities?

Zand: Besides being able to see our bank clients and end-users face to face, in 2021 I am looking forward to watching banks, payments providers, and fintech companies launching services and solutions that can help small businesses across the country emerge from 2020. I think the greatest opportunity for economic recovery and success post-pandemic lies in banks being better able to serve their small business clients.


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Will Mobile Money Platform OPay Become Africa’s Next Unicorn?

Will Mobile Money Platform OPay Become Africa’s Next Unicorn?

“China-backed and Africa-focused” is a way to describe much of the investment that has poured into sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. This week’s news that African-based fintech platform OPay is in the process of raising $400 million in new funding – giving the firm a valuation of $1.5 billion – is the latest example of this trend.

OPay is a mobile money platform launched in Nigeria by popular internet search engine Opera back in 2018. The funding report, which was published in The Information, noted that the capital would be used to fuel the company’s geographic expansion, having gone live in Egypt earlier this year. With Chinese investors maintaining a majority stake in the company, OPay had raised more than $170 million to date from investors including Sequoia Capital, IDG Capital, Source Code, GSR Ventures, Meituan-Dianping, and parent company Opera.

The company said that it processed $1.4 billion in payments in October alone, a sum that increased to $2 billion by December. Much of this can likely be attributed to COVID-19. In a country where cash is still king, the onset of the global pandemic made in-person, cash-based transactions problematic. Digital payment options like those provided by OPay have soared in popularity; Forbes took a look at the boom in Africa’s mobile money business back in December, noting investments in sub-Saharan payment innovators like Paystack (also of Nigeria) and Chipper Cash, a San Francisco based P2P payments company that serves customers in seven African countries.

That said, OPay is looking to leverage its pedigree as a payments solution to offer additional products including debit and credit cards. Earlier this month, OPay launched its USSD withdrawal service to make it easier for Nigerians to access cash at OPay merchant stores – without needing a debit card. Also this month, the company introduced version 4.0 of its super app. OPay 4.0 now makes it easier for users to connect with friends and family, add contacts, make quick payments for frequently used services, and more.

Interestingly, OPay is the most successful of the ventures Opera has tried to spin off. These efforts include ORide, a bicycle-sharing service that was shut down after the Nigerian government banned the business; a similarly shuttered bus-booking solution, OBus; a logistics delivery service OExpress; a B2B e-commerce platform OTrade; and a food delivery service called OFood.


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa


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Stavvy Secures New Investment to Simplify and Digitize the Mortgage Process

Stavvy Secures New Investment to Simplify and Digitize the Mortgage Process

Stavvy, a company that is digitizing the mortgage closing process, announced a $40+ million Series A round this week led by Morningside Technology Ventures. The Boston-based proptech startup, founded in 2019, will use the additional capital to add talent and accelerate growth in its banking and lending solutions which have seen an increase in demand as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

“When we launched Stavvy in late 2019, we had no idea what was in store for the world in 2020,” Stavvy co-founder Josh Feinblum said. “We’re proud of the technology we’ve developed to help homeowners and buyers in this challenging time, and grateful for this opportunity to amplify our services and impact.”

Dubbed the largest Series A funding for a New England-based fintech to date, the investment was accompanied by an announcement that Stavvy had forged an alliance with Flagstar Bank, the sixth largest bank mortgage originator in the country. The partnership will enable the bank to offer remote loan modification services and help homeowners who are in need of relief in the waning days of the pandemic.

“Thanks to Stavvy, we can process more requests to help customers more quickly, reduce errors in the signature process, and even better, walk homeowners through their loss mitigation closing during this difficult time,” Flagstar CIO of Servicing Ken Creech said.

Named to HousingWire’s 2021 Tech100 Mortgage Winners roster, Stavvy leverages e-signatures and video conferencing to “bring real estate lending and servicing into the 21st century” in the words of company co-founder Kosta Ligris. Along with its remote notary capacity, Stavvy’s eClosing functionality makes it easier for businesses to safely conduct complicated, location-agnostic, legal and financial transactions.

This spring, Stavvy earned status as a MISMO Certified Remote Online Notarization Provider. The company began the year integrating with ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass Digital Lending Platform.


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Paysend Secures $125 Million in Series B Led by One Peak

Paysend Secures $125 Million in Series B Led by One Peak

In a round led by One Peak, and featuring participation from Infravia Growth Capital, Hermès GPE, Plug and Play, and others, U.K.-based mobile payments platform Paysend has secured $125 million in Series B funding. The round takes the company’s total capital to more than $700 million according to estimates from TechCrunch, and puts the firm in a position to expand geographically, add talent, and develop new products.

“Paysend’s vision is to develop the next generation integrated global payment ecosystem for consumers and SMEs,” Paysend CEO Ronnie Millar said. “Our innovative technology is connecting 12 billion cards worldwide to pay and send instantly anywhere, anyhow and (in) any currency – we call this Money for the Future. This saves time, saves money and connects millions of people and businesses around the world.”

Paysend offers international, cross-border money transfers, and card processing, as well as banking and e-commerce services for SMEs. With 90% of its transfers arriving in 15 seconds or less, Paysend leverages its own global network of banks, international and local payment systems – as well as partnerships with the major card networks – to reduce the “significant barriers to entry” for consumers and businesses sending money internationally. “Our platform aims to democratize the service by providing a one-stop-shop to pay and send money to families, suppliers, employees and partners in any currency anywhere in the world at a significantly reduced cost,” Millar said.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Paysend now serves more than 3.7 million consumers; 17,000 small and medium-sized businesses; and 110 receiving countries with its end-to-end, vertically-integrated technology. This month, the company announced that its U.S. customers would now be able to send money to Canada. Paysend also announced the opening of a new regional headquarters in Singapore.

In May, Paysend announced a partnership with open finance innovator Plaid to accelerate the bank authentication and money transfer process for international customers. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard that would help expand the company’s reach in both the U.K. and EEA.


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Four on 50: Finovate Alums Earn Spots on CNBC Technology Disruptors List

Four on 50: Finovate Alums Earn Spots on CNBC Technology Disruptors List

For many, at least in fintech, the conversation on innovation has begun to shift from an emphasis on disruption to a focus on the possibilities of collaboration.

But the title of “Technology Disruptor” is still a coveted one, especially in the popular media where talking heads talk about technology trends like celebrities mincing down the red carpet on awards night.

CNBC has been culling the ranks of Technology Disruptors for nearly a decade and, this week, introduced its ninth CNBC Disruptor 50 list. The collection of technology companies is designed to highlight private firms that have helped lead the way out of the COVID-19 era “with business models and growth rates aligned with a rapid pace of technological change.”

See the full list at CNBC.com. For now, here’s a look at the four Finovate alums who made this year’s roster.

#7 Marqeta

Like most of the Finovate alums that made this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 list, Marqeta was first introduced to our audiences via its participation in our developer’s conference FinDEVr SiliconValley 2016.

The company leverages its open API platform to enable its clients and partners to instantly issue and process card payments. With more than $528 million in funding, the Oakland, California-based firm is reportedly readying for a $100 million initial public offering later this year.

#38 Ripple

Does anyone remember OpenCoin? That was the company that Chris Larsen brought to FinovateSpring in 2013 to introduce a new virtual currency and distributed open source protocol called Ripple.

In the years since then, Ripple has grown into enterprise blockchain company with hundreds of customers in more than 55 countries who are using its solutions. The company’s XRP Ledger and digital asset XRP, running on Ripple’s global network, improve and enhance payment services for businesses around the world.

#39 Plaid

An alum of our developers conference FinDEVr, Plaid became a household word in the fintech community when Visa tried to acquire the company in January 2020. That plan was nixed by the U.S. Justice Department, but Plaid has continued on its innovative path to promote open finance via API.

Dedicated to helping connect people’s financial accounts to their apps, Plaid has added key insights to the data access it facilitates via a suite of analytics solutions such as its new income verification product, Plaid Income.

#40 Nubank

International fintech has always been part of the Finovate/FinDEVr beat. Back in 2016, a Brazilian financial services startup with the backing of an impressive array of venture capitalists demonstrated its unique approach to fintech development at FinDEVr New York 2016.

Today, that company, Nubank, is the biggest fintech in Latin America. The company operates as a challenger bank with more than 34 million customers and offices in Berlin and Mexico City, in addition to its São Paulo, Brazil headquarters.

Other fintechs that made this year’s CNBC Disruptor 50 are:

  • Robinhood
  • Stripe
  • Brex
  • Chime
  • Checkout.com
  • TALA
  • Flutterwave

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Glia Partners with MAP to Boost Digital Member Engagement at Credit Unions

Glia Partners with MAP to Boost Digital Member Engagement at Credit Unions

A collaboration between digital customer service innovator Glia and credit union membership service organization (CUSO) Members Access Processing (MAP) will help credit unions better serve their members via their channel of choice – whether it is messaging, video banking, voice, cobrowsing, or a combination of options.

“Consumers expect every business they interact with to deliver quick, seamless service and support, and their credit unions are no exception,” Glia co-founder and CEO Dan Michaeli explained. “By partnering with us and making Digital Member Service a critical part of their digital transformation, MAP will be able to help its financial institution clients boost member satisfaction and loyalty while strengthening their overall competitive positions.”

Glia combines on-screen collaboration and AII-enabled customer assistance to offer a Digital Customer Service solution that enriches web and mobile experiences and improves engagement. The company’s platform not only meets customers on their channel of choice; the solution enables the service representative and customer to transition seamlessly between chat, audio, video, messaging, and phone as needed during the course of the query to ensure that the customer’s needs are met.

“As digital usage continues to rise, it’s a strategic imperative for credit unions to be able to form strong member relationships from within digital channels,” MAP president and CEO Cyndie Martini said. “Glia’s platform allows for credit unions to engage members from where they are in their journey, eliminating the need for disjointed, clunky phone experiences. This ultimately drives efficiencies for the credit union while creating a more cohesive, enjoyable experience for members.”

Most recently demonstrating its Best of Show-winning technology at FinovateSpring earlier this month, Glia has teamed up with more than 150 banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions since its inception in 2012. This year, in addition to its collaboration with MAP, Glia has teamed up with Abe.ai, an AI-powered virtual assistance solution provider from fellow Finovate alum Envestnet | Yodlee, and partnered with low code digital automation platform provider Newgen Software. Glia began the year with an announcement that Illinois-based BCU, a 294,000+ member credit union with $4.2 billion in assets, has selected its platform to enhance digital engagement with its members.

“Member service has always been one of our primary differentiators, and we recognized the need to evolve our approach to keep up with changing member preferences by extending our exceptional service into digital channels,” BCU SVP of digital strategy and delivery Carey Price said. “With Glia’s platform, we will be able to provide a more modern, convenient experience for members that still allows us to form meaningful relationships digitally. We believe this will be a major competitive advantage moving forward.”


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Talking ‘Bout My Generation: Meet Five of Finovate’s Newest, Youngest Startups

Talking ‘Bout My Generation: Meet Five of Finovate’s Newest, Youngest Startups

Our New Startup Highlight, launched this spring, gives us an opportunity to showcase lesser known fintech innovators that might otherwise fly under the radar.

This week, we feature five such companies — all of whom are both recent Finovate alums as well as being founded within the past year or so. Special congratulations to Dbilia and Proptee, two startups barely a year old that nevertheless wowed our Finovate audiences this year, earning Best of Show trophies in their Finovate debuts.

FinovateEurope’s Youngest Startups

  • Founded last year and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Dbilia leverages blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to provide a digital marketplace for collectables and memorabilia. The company won Best of Show at FinovateEurope for its demo of its marketplace, as well as its demonstration of NFT creation, automatic NFT collection storage, and NFT shop setup. Dbilia was founded by Everett Kohl, who is the company’s CEO.
  • Less than one year old, Proptee made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in March, demonstrating its commission, property stock exchange. Proptee enables investors to buy and sell shares in real estate that is listed by property owners on its platform. The technology, which helped the company earn Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope in March, combines the liquidity and transparency of the stock market with the stability of real estate investment. Proptee was co-founded by Benedek Toth (CEO) and Alexandru Rosianu (CTO) and is based in London, U.K.

Three Startups from FinovateSpring

  • An insights platform that helps financial services companies and other organizations optimize for financial health, Attune demoed its technology at FinovateSpring earlier this month. The company, founded in January 2020 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, offers firms a robust assessment tool that measures the financial health of both individuals and populations over time. The solution then leverages nationally-representative, longitudinal benchmarks to help clients understand and operationalize the results. John Thompson is President.
  • Giving community financial institutions the kind of real-time visibility into client data that larger institutions have is the mission of San Mateo, California-based Finalytics.AI. Launched in January of 2020, Finalytics.AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring. At the conference, the company showed how its platform leverages machine learning dynamic segmentation, and dynamic content creation to help community-based FIs better understand and serve their customers. The technology also helps them compete with the digital prowess of the big banks and digital-only institutions. Craig McLaughlin is CEO.
  • Headquartered in Kirkland, SecureSave demonstrated its workplace savings program at FinovateSpring earlier this month. The company offers a savings app that is designed to help employees build an emergency fund easily and automatically. By partnering with employers, SecureSave makes emergency savings a “high impact new benefit” that companies can use to support the financial wellness of their workers. CEO Devin Miller and CTO Bassam Saliba co-founded the company in the fall of 2020.

Acquisition Brings Unicorn Valuation to Ireland’s Fenergo

Acquisition Brings Unicorn Valuation to Ireland’s Fenergo

Irish regtech Fenergo has agreed to be acquired by a pair of private equity firms, Astorg of Paris and Bridgepoint of London. The deal, which involved selling a majority take worth $600 million, values Fenergo at $1.1 billion (€900m), and will give the company additional capacity to “make strategic acquisitions and stay ahead of the competition.”

“We are delighted that Astorg and Bridgepoint have chosen to invest in our company, providing us with the financial strength required to pursue our ambitious high-growth strategy,” Fenergo founder and CEO Marc Murphy said. “Both Astorg and Bridgepoint have enormous experience and credibility in our sector, something I am keen to leverage over the coming years. Ultimately, we only exist to serve the needs of our customers. We are looking forward to partnering with them in the next phase of our development.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Dublin, Fenergo made its Finovate debut three years later, demonstrating its innovative client onboarding and account opening management solution. Since then, Fenergo has established itself as a major player in the space, partnering with 32 of the world’s top 50 financial institutions, as well as technology companies like IBM, PwC, and Luxoft. The company says its technology has provided clients with 82% reduction in onboarding times, 34% savings in audit costs, and 7x ROI in four years or less.

Fenergo began the year with the launch of its KYC & Onboarding for Salesforce solution, connecting its client lifecycle management (CLM) technology and regulatory intelligence with Salesforce’s CRM. The integration makes it easier for banks and other financial institutions to enhance the customer experience by providing a more seamless onboarding process.

“In today’s highly challenging business environment, there is no margin for error in delivering exceptional, digital, and joined-up customer experiences,” Murphy explained when the new offering was launched. “Automation is key so that customers can be onboarded without unnecessary manual intervention in the back-end processes. Salesforce is the launchpad for automated onboarding while Fenergo ensures compliance by design through API-powered multi-channel orchestration.”

Fenergo was awarded top honors in the Client Lifecycle Management Solution category at the Ninth Annual WealthBriefing European Awards this month, echoing the recognition the company received at the beginning of the year from Asian Private Banker. So far in 2021, Fenergo has forged partnerships with Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank and Mizuho Americas.

Check out our interview last summer with Fenergo’s James Follette on the challenges of digital transformation in the age of COVID-19.

nCino Collaborates with KPMG Australia to Boost Middle and Back Office Performance

nCino Collaborates with KPMG Australia to Boost Middle and Back Office Performance

nCino will bring its cloud-based Bank Operating System to the Land Down Under to help KPMG Australia improve its middle and back office operations for its bank clients.

“nCino has a proven track record of helping financial institutions innovate while optimizing their processes,” nCino Director of Strategic Partnerships in APAC Zameer Momin said. “As more and more financial institutions are embarking on their business transformations, we are truly excited to be able to offer the power of KPMG Australia’s banking operations knowledge with nCino’s cloud technology to help create a robust and scalable digital experience.”

nCino’s Bank Operating System leverages the Salesforce platform to offer financial institutions a complete, end-to-end banking solution. nCino’s technology integrates with the institution’s core systems, and combines CRM, onboarding, account opening, loan origination, deposit accounts, credit analysis, ECM, and instant reporting capabilities. nCino notes that its client institutions have experienced a 92% reduction in servicing costs, a 54% reduction in policy exceptions, a 40% decrease in loan closing time, and a 22% increase in efficiency using its cloud-based Bank Operating Systems. These FIs have also experienced a 1.2x increase in account opening completion rates.

KPMG Australia Partner Alex Moreno pointed to the changing nature of the financial services landscape in Australia – including the arrival of both new digital competitors and increased regulation – as reasons for the collaboration with nCino. “Customers are expecting a better experience from their bank,” Moreno said. “Most banks have challenges with operational efficiency and internal time to competency, and secure and responsible lending is in the spotlight. The combination of KPMG’s Banking Operational Excellence Practice and nCino’s Bank Operating System is well positioned to help navigate these challenges.”

A Finovate alum since 2017, nCino began 2021 by announcing new partnerships with Platinum Bank ($425 million in assets) headquartered in Minnesota, and the National Bank of Canada ($332 billion in assets). More recently, nCino brought its technology to Hamburg Commercial Bank and Boston Private, and also worked with Coast Capital and Amerant Bank to expand their use of nCino’s solutions.

Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, nCino was founded in 2012. The company, which went public last July, trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker NCNO and has a valuation of $5.4 billion.


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Current, Alternative Payments, and the Case for Hybrid Finance

Current, Alternative Payments, and the Case for Hybrid Finance

One of the great things about the return of FinDEVr was the opportunity to showcase the men and women behind the technology innovations that are driving fintech today. From veteran CTOs to up-n-coming developers, FinDEVr was a great opportunity to learn from – and celebrate – the talent behind the technology.

At FinDEVR this year, I had the opportunity to chat with Trevor Marshall, Chief Technology Officer with New York-based fintech Current. Starting out as a financial wellness solution for young people and their families, Current has grown into a neobank challenger that offers mobile payments, online banking, and other financial services. The company secured $220 million in Series D funding in April and, this month, announced a partnership with decentralized finance platform Acala. This first-of-its-kind alliance establishes a new category of finance, hybrid finance (HyFi), that leverages applications from both traditional and decentralized sources.

“We created Current because we could see how money was being re-networked through new technologies,” Marshall said. “Our initiative with Acala allows us to flex this muscle we have been developing for the past six years.”

Marshall’s interest in alternative payments was on display in 2015, when he built a Ripple payments prototype for Current. After gaming out the prototype’s flaws, he tried an Ethereum-based process – which he also found insufficient for Current’s needs. With this week’s partnership with Acala, Marshall believes that the ability to introduce in-app decentralized finance solutions into the Current platform may now be soon at hand.

“In some ways, this partnership is really just the beginning of the actual rollout of what we’ve been building toward this whole time,” Marshall said.

At FinDEVr, Marshall talked about recent innovations in payments, specifically how technology is enabling new types of payment transmission options. He also explained how fintechs and other companies are working to integrate alternative payments, including cryptocurrencies and API-based processing into their offerings.

Here’s a sample from our conversation. The full interview with Trevor Marshall will be available On Demand in the days to come.

Ping Identity and ProofID Bring Identity Security to Tesco Bank

Ping Identity and ProofID Bring Identity Security to Tesco Bank

A pair of identity solution providers – Ping Identity and ProofID – have partnered to enhance identity security for U.K.-based Tesco Bank.

The banking division of Tesco, the largest supermarket retailer in the U.K., Tesco Bank deployed both Ping Identity’s PingAccess and PingFederate to secure key applications. With ProofID as the bank’s implementation partner, the integration – which involved creating a single-factor login process deployed across a private AWS cloud – took only 12 weeks. Importantly, the solution “allow(ed) us to consolidate disparate identity data,” said Tesco Bank security architect David McConchie, “laying the foundation for a common customer identity.”

PingAccess is PingIdentity’s centralized cloud identity and access security solution for apps and APIs. The technology provides secure access down to the URL level and can secure APIs by applying policies to disallow specific HTTP transactions to users in untrusted contexts. PingFederate is an enterprise federation server that enables user authentication and single sign-on. The solution functions as a global authentication authority to enable authorized entities to securely access applications from any device.

“We saw how we could use PingAccess and PingFederate to work across web, mobile and API. The ease with which we could deploy across channels was a critical factor, along with the data governance capabilities,” McConchie said. “Ping Identity gives us the flexible authorization capabilities we need to minimize friction and deliver a customer-centric experience.”

A Finovate alum for nearly 10 years, Ping Identity was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Named a Top Workplace by The Denver Post earlier this month, Ping Identity partnered with global logistics provider DB Schenker in April, and launched its new, cloud-based identity verification service, PingOne Verify, in February.

Ping is publicly-traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PING. With a $1.2 billion valuation upon its IPO in September 2019, the company currently has a market capitalization of $1.9 billion. Andre Durand is founder and CEO.