Author: David Penn

Meet the Finalists of the 2024 Finovate Awards!

Meet the Finalists of the 2024 Finovate Awards!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Awards, List series

After months of deliberation, the finalists for the 2024 Finovate Awards have been selected!

In categories ranging from “Best Alternative Investments Solution” to “Top Emerging Fintech Company,” more than 130 innovative companies and individuals have made the short-list. We are now set for an exciting autumn showdown when winners are announced at Finovate Fall 2024 in New York in September.

“This year’s finalists are an amazing group!” Finovate VP Greg Palmer said. “From huge banks like JP Morgan, US Bank, and BNP Paribas, to cutting-edge fintechs like TodayPay, Kobalt Labs, and Wysh, there are amazing things happening all across the fintech ecosystem. The competition was intense for everyone who applied, and making it to the final round is an immense achievement. Congratulations to all of our finalists!”

Check out our finalists below. To learn more about the awards, visit our Finovate Awards hub.

Best Alternative Investments SolutionAlphaPoint
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Frec
iCapital, Inc.
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Best Anti-Fraud/AML SolutionCredit Union of Colorado
ING Turkiye
JP Morgan AWM
Mastercard
Worldpay
Best Back-Office/Core Services SolutionFINBOA
LoanPro
Mastercard Cybersecurity
Mitek Systems
Taktile
Zafin
Best Banking-as-a-Service ProviderB4B Payments
Colendi
Grasshopper Bank
North Bay Credit Union
Pathward, N.A.
Best Consumer-Facing Payments SolutionEngage People
InPost Pay
Pushpay
Transact Campus
Trustly
Best Consumer Lending SolutionJP Morgan AWM
Jenius Bank
Prosper
Best Corporate Payments SolutionBILL
Global PayEx
Helcim
TransferMate
TreasurUp
US Bank
Best Customer Experience SolutionACE Money Transfer
DBS BAnk
JP Morgan AWM
Millennium BCP
NF Innova – OTP banka Srbija
Syfe
Best Digital BankDave
IndusInd Bank
Papara Elektronik Para A.S.
RCBC
Best Embedded Finance SolutionBM Technologies
Clair
QuickFi
TaxBit
Wysh
Yabx Technologies
Best Enterprise Payments SolutionAPEXX Global
Orum
Papaya Global
PayNearMe
SWIVEL
VGS
Best Financial Mobile AppBNP Paribas
FINOM
Industrial Bank of Korea
JP Morgan AWM
Best Fintech PartnershipAmerican Heritage CU and Datava
Apiture and Newtek Bank
Fnality International and Lloyds Banking Group
Pagaya and US Bank
Panacea Financial and Bankjoy
Sunrise Banks and MoCaFi
Best Generative AI SolutionBank of Montreal
Intuit Credit Karma
Nest Bank S.A.
Socure
Symphony AI
Talkdesk
Best Insurtech SolutionCompanjon
Kakaopay Insurance
Quantiphi
TruStage Payment Guard
Wysh
Best RegTech SolutionKobalt Labs
Napier AI
Quavo Fraud & Disputes
Symphony AI
Tookitaki Holding Pte Ltd
Winnow Solutions
Best SMB/SME Banking SolutionFINOM
Neural Payments
Relay
TD Bank
Best Wealth Management SolutionAddepar
Ak Asset Management
Flourish
JP Morgan AWM
Sidekick
Excellence in Financial InclusionBNY Mellon and MoCaFi
DailyPay
Interledger Foundation
Mastercard
Omniscient
Penny Finance
Excellence in SustainabilityMPOWER Financing
Quik!
Sunstone Credit
Transact Campus
Executive of the YearJohn Retting, BILL
Sanjiv Yajnik, Capital One
Chermaine Hu, Episode Six
Jon Briggs, KeyBank
Roben Dunkin, PGIM
Nancy Langer, Transact Campus
Matt Hawkins, Waystar
Chris Hilliard, Winnow Solutions
Innovator of the YearMatt Brown, CAIS
Yelena Melamed, Catchlight
Sindhu Joseph, CogniCor
Josh Owen, Flourish
Geralyn Hurd, K1x
Ken Moore, Mastercard
Kelly Uphoff, Tala
Alex Matjanec, Wysh
Most Impactful AI-Based SolutionBrex
Napier AI
Pagaya
Socure
Uplinq
Winnow Solutions
Top Emerging Fintech CompanyArro
Brightwave
Lettuce Financial
Oscilar
Plenty
TodayPay

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Salt Edge Launches API Upgrade to Support Open Banking

Salt Edge Launches API Upgrade to Support Open Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Salt Edge
  • Open banking solutions provider Salt Edge has released the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API.
  • The new version, the company’s sixth, features enhancements designed to make integration easier and quicker.
  • Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Salt Edge most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2019.

Canadian open banking solutions provider Salt Edge is back in the fintech headlines. This week, the company unveiled the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API. Within the package, Salt Edge will make its Account Information API available initially, with its Payments API scheduled to be launched “in short order” afterward.

The latest release features a number of updates and enhancements, which the company says are a direct result of listening to clients, as well as the company’s in-house team. The new version provides endpoints optimization to make integrating with Salt Edge’s API easier and quicker. Salt Edge has also put in the effort to ensure the consistency of the API environment regardless of the license clients use. This facilitates easier and more accurate navigation through the documentation, and those clients that do use Salt Edge’s license will benefit from enhanced access and control with API V6. A third enhancement provides real-time updates, notifications, and event triggers, offering a more dynamic and responsive system that enables clients to monitor activity and quickly address issues as they arise.

Salt Edge’s product enhancement news comes one month after the Ottawa, Ontario-based fintech announced partnerships with Italian API-based e-document management platform A-Cube API and Moldovan financial institution Moldindconbank. A-Cube API, which had been using Salt Edge for its account information services, has now integrated Salt Edge’s Payment Initiation solution. This will facilitate the linking of A-Cube API’s e-invoicing system with account-to-account payments, making the invoicing process faster, more secure, and more accurate.

The company’s partnership with Moldindconbank will help the financial institution ensure that it meets regulatory requirements with regard to open banking. The bank, like all financial institutions in the country, has until February 2025 to comply with new open banking regulations issued by the National Bank of Moldova. To this end, Salt Edge’s full-stack Open Banking Compliance solution will enable Moldindconbank to, in the words of the bank’s Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board Mihail Iovu, “quickly comply with local open banking requirements while elevating our digital solutions, furthering our dedication to providing top-notch services to our clients.”

Founded in 2013, Salt Edge made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 and returned the following year for FinovateEurope 2019. Garri Galanter is CEO.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

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The Finovate Podcast: Talking Best of Show with Remynt, Cascading AI, and Savvi AI

The Finovate Podcast: Talking Best of Show with Remynt, Cascading AI, and Savvi AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Cascading AI, Podcasting, Remynt, SAVVI AI

The conversation continues with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast. Over the past few weeks Greg has interviewed the CEOs and founders of companies that won Best of Show at FinovateSpring in May. Check out Greg’s first round of interviews.

This week we’re sharing the second round of Greg’s interviews with our FinovateSpring Best of Show winners. Enjoy insights on AI in banking, AI in small business lending, and the future of financial wellness, debt collection, and credit-building.

Greg Palmer interviewed Maya Mikhailov, CEO of SAVVI AI, on the importance of bringing concrete value to banks through AI. Episode 222.

“Prior to starting SAVVI, I ran an AI division at Synchrony Financial, where we built AI products for the banking and credit teams. And since leaving Synchrony, I was really on a mission to get AI and to get machine learning into more teams’ hands, to let them use this powerful technology and tool to accomplish their business goals.

Because, frankly, we really saw it working. And now it was a question of ‘we need more people to be using this because it is such a powerful tool to turn data into decisions.’ And that was the genesis behind SAVVI: to be a tool that helps any bank or fintech build and launch their own goal-driven use cases without the need for heavy resources, specialists, or complicated integrations.”

Founded in 2021, SAVVI AI helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs build, launch, and manage AI apps in minutes with its patented Practical AI platform. SAVVI AI’s technology enables financial services companies to innovate in the AI space without needing data scientists, pre-existing data, or a core integration. SAVVI is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Watch Savvi AI’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.

Greg Palmer and Gwyneth Borden, CEO of Remynt discussed the future of debt collection and credit-rebuilding. Episode 221.

“Remynt empowers consumers to rebuild credit while resolving delinquent debt. What does that mean? (We) are a debt-buying collector, buying non-performing charge-offs. We are also collecting on them on contingency from banks, credit unions, and fintechs.

I got into this space in a way you would not expect: I came in from a vantage point of having experienced delinquency and charge-off. (I was) looking at everything that’s wrong with how debt collection works and how the incentives are misaligned between what the creditor of debt buyers would like and what the consumer needs.”

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Remynt is a digital-first debt and credit recovery company that enables creditors to recover revenue from non-performing delinquencies. At the same time, Remynt gives consumers the opportunity to resolve debt on their own terms using a customer-centric, resiliency-oriented approach.

Watch Remynt’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.

How is AI changing the nature of SMB loan origination? That is the topic that Greg Palmer and Lukas Haffer, CEO and Co-Founder of Cascading AI, discuss in this Finovate Podcast conversation. Episode 220.

“My background is deep in the banking sector. I spent my whole career building, maintaining, and developing core banking systems. That’s not a career I can recommend to anyone; core banking systems are a pain. But it did give me a pretty solid understanding how the underlying IT infrastructure of a bank really works.

You pair that with two years of machine learning and AI research at Stanford and you get a pretty unique combination of skills to go back into the banking sector and automate a lot of the manual repetitive tasks that people used to do on top of our software. Now, with the advent of large language models, you really can automate.”

San Francisco, California-based Cascading AI is the world’s first AI-powered loan origination system that reduces 90% of the manual tasks involved in small business and commercial lending. The company won Best of Show for a demo of its AI Loan Assistant, Sarah, which is capable of doing the work of a 30-person lending team.

Watch Cascading AI’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.

Photo by Jonathan Velasquez on Unsplash

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Bain Capital to Acquire Envestnet for $4.5 Billion

Bain Capital to Acquire Envestnet for $4.5 Billion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Wealthtech innovator Envestnet has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital in a deal valued at $4.5 billion.
  • Also participating in the deal is Reverence Capital. Strategic partners BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, and State Street Global Advisors also have agreed to invest in the transaction.
  • Envestnet has been a Finovate alum since 2016. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021.

Technology, data, and wealth solutions company Envestnet has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital. The transaction values Envestnet at $4.5 billion or $63.15 per share. Also participating in the deal is Reverence Capital, along with a number of strategic partners that have agreed to invest in the transaction. These partners include BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, and State Street Global Advisors, and each will hold a minority position in the company once the transaction is completed.

“This is a validation of Envestnet’s proven ability to operate at market-leading scale – serving more assets, accounts, and advisors and effectively connecting our company and our technology,” Envestnet EVP Business Lines Tom Sipp said. Calling the acquisition an “exciting new chapter,” Sipp highlighted the opportunities that lie ahead in Envestnet’s status as a private company rather than a public one. “As a private company, we can accelerate our ability to further elevate our market-leading platform with greater functionality and an even broader solution set that enables advisors to better serve clients at all stages of their financial life.”

A giant in the field of wealth management, Envestnet manages more than $6 trillion in assets, nearly 20 million accounts, and counts 109,000+ financial advisors as users of its technology. This includes more than 800 asset managers that use Envestnet’s Wealth Management Platform. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, the company works with 17 of the 20 largest banks in the U.S., and 48 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms. This year, Envestnet has forged partnerships with Salesforce, Australian wealthtech HeirWealth, insurtech Ladder, and fellow Finovate alum Ocrolus, which specializes in financial document automation and analysis.

Envestnet made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016. More recently, the company brought its data aggregation and analytics platform, Envestnet | Yodlee, to FinovateFall 2021 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how the platform leverages Conversational AI to deliver hyper-personalized financial insights and goals-based micro-savings applications.

Takeover talk had been circulating around Envestnet for months. A report in Bloomberg from late May indicated that the company was “drawing takeover interest from buyers including Advent International and GTCR.” The report also noted an uptick in private equity’s interest in the sector, crediting “reliable cash flows” that can be “scaled up through acquisition.”

“This is a great outcome for Envestnet’s clients and employees, and one that maintains its entrepreneurial spirit,” Envestnet Co-Founder Bill Crager said. “Envestnet is exceptionally well-positioned to continue to build a gateway to the future of financial advice. I couldn’t be more excited about the company going forward, its continued success, and ability to serve more advisors – enabling them to deliver more holistic financial advice.”

Photo by cottonbro studio

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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: Alkami Technology, Alumni News, Coinbase, Daily news, Envestnet, Fintech Rundown, VISA

We’re starting off the newsweek with a bang as Bain Capital announces that it will take wealthtech and Finovate alum Envestnet private in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. Be sure to check back all week long with the latest fintech news and headlines.

Crypto / DeFi / Web3

Payment orchestration platform FinMont partners with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment servics firm, BitPay.

Coinbase launches new web app to help users better manage their digital assets portfolio.

Blockchain payment network Partior secures $60 million in Series B funding.

Wirex and Visa announce an expanded partnership to promote Web3 payments.

Payments

Mangopay teams up with European marketplace ManoMano to bring new payment capabilities to marketplace merchants.

Allied Payment Network introduces new Chief Financial Officer Hank Vanjaria.

U.K. payments platform Payset partners with ClearBank to access the U.K. payment system for local and cross-border transactions.

BNPL company Affirm teams up with Canadian retailer RONA, enabling the store to offer flexible online payment options.

Singapore based fintech Qashier launches its payment linked loyalty program, Treats.

TerraPay partners with YeePay to enhance the customer experience.

Nala raises $40 million to build B2B payments platform, scale remittance services.

Stripe reaches $70 billion valuation.

Klarna considers Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan for lead banking positions for a potential 2025 IPO.

Payments processor Tapi lands $22 million.

Temenos teamed up with Visa to integrate Visa Direct with Temenos Payments Hub and make available to banks via Temenos Exchange.

Investing and wealth management

Apex Fintech Solutions launches its real-time, B2B investment infrastructure, Ascend for Fintechs.

Bain Capital to buy Envestnet for $4.5 billion.

InvestFi forges partnership with HiFin Technology.

Small business finance

America First Credit Union turns to Loquat to enhance onboarding for small business members.

J.P. Morgan Payments selects Slope to provide clients access to a short-term financing solution, leads the fintech’s new round of $252 million in combined debt and equity.

9Spokes launches automated cashflow tool to help financial organizations elevate financial insights for SMBs.

Digital banking

Digital wealth management solutions company Quantifeed forges partnership with banking technology firm Thought Machine.

Digital banking solutions provider Alkami receives certification by J.D. Power for its mobile banking platform.

Banco Santander introduces a new digital service for customers with hearing challenges that translates the bank’s website into British Sign Language (BSL).

Flybits integrates with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform.

Trexis launches suite of digital banking solutions.

Anne Boden quits Starling Bank to focus on AI.

Brightfin launches healthy spending app to remove anxiety around money.

Insurtech

Digital insurance firm Lemonade launches new home insurance offering in the U.K.

Insuritas partners with Integral Group Solution (IGS) to integrate home services product into its embedded insurance platform.

Lending

Mexican fintech OCN secures $86 million in Series A funding.

Open banking

Salt Edge launches the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API, API V6.

Goldman Sachs’ alternatives unit is leading a consortium investing $540 million in a continuation vehicle created by VC firm NEA, which includes stakes in 11 of NEA’s companies, including Plaid.

Photo by Lukas

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ebankIT and Centrilogic Team Up to Deliver Secure Cloud-Based Solutions

ebankIT and Centrilogic Team Up to Deliver Secure Cloud-Based Solutions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ebankIT
  • Digital banking solutions provider ebankIT announced a partnership with public and private cloud services provider Centrilogic.
  • The partnership will help banks and other financial institutions leverage cloud services to accelerate their digital transformations.
  • ebankIT made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023.

A partnership between digital banking solutions provider ebankIT and multicloud services provider Centrilogic will bring secure, cloud-based solutions to financial institutions. ebankIT will combine its adaptable architecture and core-agnostic capabilities with Centrilogic’s expertise in private and public cloud services to help banks and other financial institutions innovate quickly and achieve their digital transformation goals.

“Centrilogic has extensive experience helping financial institutions achieve success through their digital transformation journeys by delivering reliable and secure cloud-based systems and infrastructure,” Centrilogic CEO Robert Offley explained. “Together with ebankIT, we look forward to empowering banks and credit unions with the foundation necessary to provide industry-leading digital experiences to their clients.”

Courtesy of the collaboration, ebankIT will leverage Centrilogic’s Managed Security Service. This technology provides comprehensive security monitoring to enhance data protection with capabilities such as security logging, vulnerability scanning, and intrusion detection systems.

“An efficient infrastructure management is essential for seamless operations,” ebankIT CEO Renato Oliveira said. “Centrilogic’s expertise will help ebankIT optimize infrastructure, enhance scalability, and improve overall performance.”

Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Centrilogic offers both private and public cloud services to mid-market businesses. The firm offers multicloud management, application innovation, data and analytics, and IT advisory to help businesses turn their technology platforms into “business-driving assets”. Centrilogic began 2024 with the appointment of Doug Tracy as the company’s President. The privately-held firm counts TriSpan LLP and Long Point Capital among its investors.

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateEurope in 2015, ebankIT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed a number of new features on its Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform, including a new tool to help banks better anticipate customer needs. More recently, the company has forged partnerships with financial institutions like Metropolitan Commercial Bank as well as with fintechs like fellow Finovate alums Finotta and Glia.

Founded in 2014, ebankIT is headquartered in Porto, Portugal.

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

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AI in Financial Services: Automation, Profitability, and Fraud Prevention

AI in Financial Services: Automation, Profitability, and Fraud Prevention
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Speaker series, Streamly

The role of AI in financial services is rapidly evolving. Not since the heady days of the Internet boom has an emerging technology so powerfully captured the imagination of companies, investors, workers, and consumers around the world.

As financial services companies search for ways to take advantage of AI to improve efficiency, better understand data, and engage more proactively and personally with their customers, it is all the more worthwhile for us to listen to those entrepreneurs, analysts, and investors who have taken the time to understand both AI’s promise as well as its limitations. Here, in our latest series of Streamly interviews, we present three individuals whose insights into AI are worth hearing and sharing.

Generative AI: Extending the boundaries of what automation can do

In this interview with Sarah Hinkfuss, Partner of Bain Capital Ventures, we learn how generative AI is transforming the way financial institutions leverage unstructured data, streamline processes, improve underwriting, and expand their product offerings. The conversation also touches on the importance of data quality and change management in AI adoption for financial institutions, providing valuable lessons from early adopters.

How can you make AI adoption profitable?

Chris Brown, President of Intelygenz USAA, talks about two decades of optimizing banking and fintech through deep tech and AI solutions, and shares his top takeaways from his keynote address at FinovateSpring earlier this year. Brown discusses some of Intelygenz’s strategies to overcome common AI project pitfalls, and explains the company’s end-to-end approach to client engagement.

Navigating fraud prevention challenges with AI

Intellicheck CEO Bryan Lewis explores contemporary challenges in fraud prevention, the limitations of traditional methods, and the role of AI in enhancing security measures. Lewis discusses how AI can both help and hinder fraud prevention, as well as how you can protect yourself and your business from fraud.

Photo by Tara Winstead

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Conversations Platform Provider Eltropy Unveils Voice+

Conversations Platform Provider Eltropy Unveils Voice+
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Eltropy
  • Unified Conversations Platform company Eltropy has introduced a range of new enhancements to its offering.
  • The enhancements include Skill-Based Routing, new Lobby Management features, and a voice and contact center solution, Voice+
  • A Finovate alum for more than seven years, Eltropy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Unified Conversations platform provider Eltropy recently unveiled a set of new enhancements to its offering. The upgrades include Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0), new Lobby Management features, and a modern voice and contact center solution, Voice+.

“These enhancements reaffirm our commitment to quality and mark one of our most significant engineering efforts to date,” Eltropy CEO and Co-founder Ashish Garg said. “We’re excited about the opportunities these improvements will create for credit unions and community banks to elevate their overall member, customer, and employee experience in banking.”

Eltropy Voice+ brings voice functionality to digital channels such as text, video, and chat. Enhanced by an AI layer, Voice+ provides a unified contact center solution for voice, digital, and AI interactions, and gives agents a single interface to support greater efficiency. Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0) provides users with several features including the ability to prioritize high-value interactions, match agent proficiency based on language skills, and identify simultaneous channel handling via cross-channel concurrency. Lobby Management, first introduced earlier this year, now combines the best of digital banking with traditional branch services with efficient check-ins, queue management, branch traffic analytics, and resource planning tools.

Howie Meller, President and CEO of People First Federal Credit Union — which was among the early adopters of Eltropy’s Voice+ — praised the enhancements as a benefit for members and credit union employees alike. “Voice+ will make a big difference in how we serve our members,” Meller said. “Our agents can now use voice alongside text, video, co-browsing, and AI help. This means we can solve problems faster and better, all in one place. It’s a real improvement for our members.”

Eltropy made its first Finovate appearance in 2017, and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2022. In the years since then, the company has partnered with several community financial institutions such as Cyprus Credit Union, InRoads Credit Union, and Magnifi Financial, as well as fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry, Fiserv, and Alkami. In fact, Eltropy began the year celebrating its 600 customer milestone. The company opened the doors to its new headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May.

Photo by Alex Andrews

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Anodot Inks Strategic Partnership with YäRKEN

Anodot Inks Strategic Partnership with YäRKEN
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Anodot, Daily news
  • Cost management platform Anodot has inked a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform.
  • The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to help clients better manage cloud costs.
  • Virginia-based Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022.

Cloud-based cost management platform Anodot has forged a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform YäRKEN. The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to enable clients to manage cloud costs – both on-premises and in the private cloud – from a single interface.

“Anodot and YäRKEN are a perfect strategic match,” Anodot CEO and Co-founder David Drai said. “Our technology uses AI to help enterprises discover inefficiencies in their cloud spend, and YäRKEN’s platform helps those same organizations manage cloud spend across on-prem and cloud deployments.”

YäRKEN offers a tech cost management platform that gives users comprehensive cost optimization across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments to enhance profitability and reduce tech spend. YäRKEN’s platform features legacy platform TCO, Application TCO, IT planning, and Showback/Chargeback. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, YäRKEN announced earlier this year that the company’s solutions were now available on the AWS Marketplace. This news followed confirmation that YäRKEN had secured FinOps platform certification from the FinOps Foundation, underscoring the firm’s commitment to excellence and industry best practices. Ravi Kuppan is YäRKEN CEO and Co-founder.

For its part, Anodot is a cost management platform that identifies waste, tracks savings, and gives users transparency into both current and future costs. The platform enables users to facilitate strategic financial planning and management of multi-cloud, Kubernetes pods and SaaS tools. The solution also features a multi-tenant, multi-billing platform that optimizes costs across departments, teams, products, and unit economics.

“Anodot’s AI capabilities in cost optimization are a perfect match for YäRKEN, enabling us to cover the full spectrum for Anodot’s and YäRKEN’s existing client base,” Kuppan said. “Together, we extend the power of FinOps to include on-prem tech spend.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, Anodot demoed its payments monitoring tool that leverages AI to constantly monitor and correlate payments activity and business performance to identify revenue-critical issues and provide real-time actionable alerts.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

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Curinos and Adrenaline Forge Strategic Partnership

Curinos and Adrenaline Forge Strategic Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Curinos, Daily news

A partnership between data intelligence business Curinos and brand experience company Adrenaline will help banks and credit unions leverage data to make better decisions. The integration of Curinos’ Distribution Optimizer data solution into Adrenaline’s Connected Intelligence offering will also help financial institutions maximize the growth potential of their retail networks.

“We’re excited about incorporating Curinos’ leading-edge data into our already robust analytics offering and making more decision-making tools available to our clients, particularly smaller community banks and credit unions,” Adrenaline Managing Director of Retail Strategy Ben Hopper said. “Now, we’ll be able to quickly and efficiently gather the same data that big banks get and focus our team’s efforts more on translating the information into meaningful insights to drive strategy, for expansion and growth – something that all financial institutions need.”

Curinos’ Distribution Optimizer data tool integrates large volumes of both public bank and proprietary data into a consistent analytical framework that banks and credit unions can use to evaluate their networks and spot potential future opportunities. Adrenaline’s Connected Intelligence is an online platform that supports the access, analysis, visualization, storage, management, receipt, and distribution of market analysis and research. Integrating the technologies will help level the playing field between smaller and mid-market financial institutions and their larger rivals.

“The retail network in banking is undergoing massive transformation as traditional banking institutions are losing share to digital competitors,” Curinos Managing Director of Distribution and Sales Performance Andrew Hovet said. “No matter what their size or service area, these providers are looking for ways to amplify their impact through their branch networks. To maximize growth, they need to leverage analytics and smart strategies to make the best decisions for their networks. This partnership provides them with exactly that.”

Founded in 2021, Curinos made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 in San Francisco. At the conference, the New York-based company demoed its Amplero Personalization Optimizer, which uses machine learning and AI to enable bank marketing teams to deliver hyper-personalized, omnichannel experiences in minutes rather than months.

Earlier this month, Curinos introduced new Chief Technology and AI Officer Olly Downs. Downs joined the company as Chief Data Scientist in 2023. In April, the company announced a partnership with mortgage pricing technology firm Lender Price and reported that Achieva Credit Union ($2.8 billion in assets; 194,000+ members) had become the first customer to integrate Curinos’ Deposit Optimizer Essentials system. Deposit Optimizer Essentials enables credit unions and community banks to leverage data analytics to better manage member deposits and reach funding targets.

“As rates shift, we needed a robust, easy-to-navigate solution, enabling us to reach quickly and efficiently to changing market conditions,” Achieva Product Development Manager Veronica Schornheuser said, “We chose Curinos for the exceptional level of service we have received from them in the past and the intuitive nature of the Deposit Optimizer Essentials platform.”

Craig Woodward is Curinos’ CEO.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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AutoRek Teams Up with JP Morgan Payments

AutoRek Teams Up with JP Morgan Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, AutoRek, Daily news, JP Morgan Chase
  • Automated reconciliation software company AutoRek has announced a partnership with JP Morgan Payments.
  • The partnership will help insurance companies better manage financial data flows from banking sources.
  • AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London.

Automated reconciliation software provider AutoRek has teamed up with JP Morgan Payments to enhance premium processing for insurance companies. The partnership will help insurance firms better manage financial data flows from banking sources, as well as improve their ability to manage cash allocation, matching, and credit control.

“Working with a specialist company like AutoRek will complement our existing solutions to help deliver an end-to-end solution across the entire insurance value chain,” JP Morgan Payments Head of Insurance, EMEA, Darren Snoxell said. “Together we will deliver tangible benefits to brokers, carriers, reinsurers, multinational insurance programs, captives, and across the London Market. We look forward to working with the team.”

Processing nearly $10 trillion payments a day, JP Morgan Payments operates in more than 160 countries and transacts in 120+ currencies. The firm combines treasury services, trade and working capital solutions, and card and merchant services to facilitate payments to both customers and employees around the world.

“We are proud of this partnership, which presents a powerful combination of proven solutions, and will deliver optimal results for clients in the insurance market,” AutoRek Global Insurance Lead Piers Williams said. “By working together, we will unlock many opportunities for insurance firms to streamline the premium receivables process. This will help them to increase efficiency, accelerate cash flow, reduce write-offs and enhance controls.”

Headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed how its automated reconciliation technology helps banks, insurance firms, building societies, and other financial services companies overcome high-volume reconciliation challenges, improve auditability, and keep operating costs low.

Earlier this month, AutoRek was named “Best CASS Solution” at the Systems in the City Fintech Awards 2024. The recognition marked AutoRek’s fifth consecutive win in this category. In May, the company announced that insurance broker Howden had selected AutoRek to drive digital transformation and boost efficiency for a number of key back-office processes using intelligent automation.

“Insurer statement reconciliations are especially onerous on our resources and we expect AutoRek to significantly reduce the expenditure of effort in this area, which in turn will not only enhance our service to our markets, but will also release our staff to concentrate on more value-added tasks,” Howden Head of IBA UK Operations Guy Turner said. “We are very much looking forward to deploying the solution in this regard.”

AutoRek was founded in 1994. Gordon McHarg is CEO.

Photo by Pixabay

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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: AutoRek, Fintech Rundown, Jack Henry, Mambu, OneID, Thought Machine

Partnerships in digital banking, identity management, and payments lead off the fintech news headlines as July begins in earnest. Be sure to check back all week long for updates and fresh announcements on the latest industry happenings.

Payments

AFFIN Bank turns to ACI Worldwide to modernize payments for businesses in Malaysia.

Dispute management and collections specialist Fintegrate Technology launches new image and data conversion suite, FusionLRS.

E-money institution Outpayce chooses Mambu to launch its multi-currency digital wallet for travel payments.

Cross River Bank teams up with MassPay to broaden access to domestic instant payments.

Yuno forges strategic partnership with BBVA Group digital payments company, Openpay.

Cross-border payments solutions company dLocal announces strategic partnership with Wakanow Group.

Payments infrastructure solution for software companies Payabli secures $20 million in Series A funding.

Instant payments solutions company Zimpler announced a new technical partnership with Swedish payments app, Swish.

Lending

ClearScore secures $4.4 million (£3.4 million) in funding from Fair4All Finance to develop debt consolidation loan technology for the financially vulnerable.

Ireland’s CreditLogic raises $3.8 million (EUR 3.5 million) from Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC).

Crypto / DeFi / Web3

Crypto payments company Kulipa partners with cryptocurrency wallet provider Argent and Mastercard to launch its new crypto-based payment card.

MoonPay and Mesh ink an exclusive partnership to ease the process of depositing and transferring crypto from exchanges.

Swiss layer-1 blockchain Shardeum partners with Web3 security services platform Immunefi to launch bug bounty program.

Fraud and identity management

Fraud prevention specialist GBG unveils its KYB solution, GBG Detected.

Germany’s IDnow unveils a pair of new e-signature solutions, InstantSign and eID eSign.

NatWest partners with digital identity identity solutions provider OneID.

iDenfy and UAE-based SIMPal forge strategic partnership to enhance security in the telecom industry.

Insurtech

AutoRek partners with JP Morgan Payments to enhance premium processing for insurance companies.

Digital banking

U.K.-based digital bank and BaaS platform Griffin receives B Corp certification.

First Federal Bank of Kansas turns to Jack Henry for its hosted core processing solution.

Financial services company Ethos teams up with Thought Machine to provide Shariah-compliant banking solutions.

Digital banking experience platform Plumery forges strategic partnership with core banking provider Fimple.

South Africa’s Tyme Bank appoints new CEO Karl Westvig.

Capital markets

Enterprise platform for data automation Duco launches its reconciliation capability for unstructured data.

Credit

U.K.-based consumer credit fintech Fairlo secures B Corp certification.

Investing and wealth management

Brokerage-as-a-service platform lemon.markets raises $13 million in funding from CommerzVentures, Heliad, and existing investors.

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood

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