FinovateFall Digital Features Ten Keynote Speakers in its Upcoming Autumn Event

FinovateFall Digital Features Ten Keynote Speakers in its Upcoming Autumn Event

In less than two weeks our all-digital, fintech conference, FinovateFall Digital will begin. If you haven’t registered yet for our week-long live and On Demand event – September 14 through September 18 – then there’s no better time than the present to visit our registration page and save your spot.

To whet your appetite for the latest in fintech thought leadership and technical innovation, we wanted to introduce you to ten of the industry experts who will be presenting keynote addresses during the week.


Pablos Holman – Futurist, Innovation Speaker, Inventor at the Intellectual Ventures Lab, Founder, Turing AI. LinkedIn.

There is no try but do: Raising the bar, passing the test, and innovating in a post-COVID landscape. Preview


Scott Gnau – Vice President, Data Platforms, InterSystems. LinkedIn.

“There’s a growing opportunity to lay the foundation for game-changing business data transformation that leverages both automation and analytics for sustainable success in any business climate.”

Digital Transformation’s Journey Toward Automation and Analytics. Preview


Jeremy Balkin – Head of Innovation, HSBC. LinkedIn.

“From robotics to wearables, how is technology being used to make us more human, to further financial inclusion and to allow for greater wealth creation?”

Technology and partnerships to bring people together, and the impact of COVID-19 on partnerships. Preview


Adam Dell – Head of Product, Marcus by Goldman Sachs. LinkedIn.

“What fintech trends will emerge as a result of the pandemic and how will consumer banking be changed forever?”

The Future of Finance: Predictions for a Post-Pandemic World. Preview


Sarika Sangwan – Global Head of Strategy & Marketing – Financial Services, Pinterest. LinkedIn.

“As one of the most trusted platforms, Pinterest allows FinServ partners to reach their target audience when and where it matters most.”

Rebuilding, capitalizing and maintaining customer trust in financial services. Preview


Tom Feher – Banking industry executive, U.S. financial services, Microsoft. LinkedIn.

“As the world continues to respond to COVID-19, we’re equipping our customers with the tools they need to respond, recover, and reimagine the future.”

Coming together to respond, recover, and reimagine during COVID-19. Preview


Paul Rohan – Head of Business Strategy – Finance, Google Cloud. LinkedIn.

“In the digital 21st century, customers expect their favorite brands to collaborate to provide extended and connected digital experiences.”

Open Banking is 21st Century Branch Banking. Preview


George Anderson – Founder and CEO, Ninth Wave. LinkedIn.

“Learn how leading banks are staying ahead of the surge in demand for transparent, secure, and scalable data connectivity from business, consumer, and wealth management customers.”

Open Banking: Ignore at Your Own Peril. Preview


Mike Burr – Lead Android Enterprise Security Evangelist, Google. LinkedIn.

“Discover how to debunk security myths, and learn how the latest, multi-layered security protections, encompassing software, hardware, and application levels, now leverage the power of machine learning to protect your device fleet.”

Redefining the approach to mobile security in fintech (and why it works). Preview


Oliver Hughes – CEO, Tinkoff.

“Learn about achieving profitability as a digital bank, launching new products in the time of COVID-19, and what you need to be thinking about in terms of current and future trends in fintech.”

Digital banking in a post-COVID-19 landscape: The bright future of fintech. Preview


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Fiserv Unveils New Data Aggregation Solution AllData Connect

Fiserv Unveils New Data Aggregation Solution AllData Connect

Fiserv announced the release of its AllData Connect solution today. The technology provides a single, authorized portal to facilitate third party access to consumer financial account data. AllData Connect makes third-party data aggregation simpler and makes screen scraping unnecessary.

“Consumers want to share their financial data with third parties in a model that’s both secure and convenient,” VP of Digital Payments and Data Aggregation at Fiserv Paul Diegelman said. “This process can be difficult for financial institutions to support if screen scraping impairs online banking performance, or when login credentials are stored at unaffiliated third parties. AllData Connect gives financial institutions the ability and insight they need to confidently empower consumers to share their financial account information.”

AllData Connect works by sending consumers to a Fiserv-hosted portal to verify their identity and provide consent for data-sharing. Once the consumer is validated by Fiserv and information access granted, AllData Connect delivers the permissioned data to third party apps for the specific activity. The solution provides confirmation and capture of consumer’s consent to share their data, managed access to online banking, secure storage of account holder usernames and passwords, and insights into where consumer information is being used. AllData Connect can also help FIs reduce the volume of unidentified bulk traffic that can inhibit website performance.

The new offering is the latest data aggregation solution within Fiserv’s AllData product suite. The suite also includes solutions for data integration by API, planning and financial management, and wealth management: AllData Aggregation, AllData PFM, and AllData Advisor, respectively.


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What My First Ride in a Tesla Told Me About the Future of Innovation in Banking

What My First Ride in a Tesla Told Me About the Future of Innovation in Banking

I was pretty excited for my first ride in my nephew’s brand new Tesla. The car was a major upgrade from his previous vehicle: a Jeep with “character” that had both broken down and been broken into a few times too many. His visit – and the Tesla’s – also marked the first time my wife and I would have company over for dinner since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, so there was more than a little to look forward to.

And while the Greek burgers were good and the tzatziki and baklava even better, my ride in the brand new Tesla was … kinda underwhelming.

Admittedly the experience as a rider in a Tesla is not identical to the experience as a driver. But as I slowly emerged from my initial shock at the lack of ornamentation, the absence of anything even resembling a full service dashboard and began to appreciate the machine’s unnaturally silent acceleration, its “It’s-All-on-the-Tablet” functionality, and “front trunk,” it dawned on me just how dramatically Tesla had reduced the driving experience to its most essential features and then turned them up to eleven.

What does this have to do with banking?

My Tesla experience reminded me of the challenge of distilling customer experience into its most necessary aspects. This is what drives innovation in everything from PFM apps that provide account balances without requiring login to mobile brokerages that cut out the stock market’s most hated middle man – commissions. Yet what is a trifle to one customer can be a can’t-do-without attraction to another. In the same way that I found myself in my nephew’s Tesla actually missing the dials, buttons, and other dashboard gizmos that had once defined automotive technological sophistication, so will many consumers find the leanness of new digital banks, for example, and perhaps even the trend away from what might be called “the human touch” in financial services to be a less appealing customer experience rather than a more fulfilling one.

In this way, I wonder if it is helpful to think of two innovation tracks for banks and financial services. One track is the one we spend most of our time reading and thinking about in fintech circles: the digital-first if not digital-only mobile bank that caters to the young, the mobile and, ironically, to both the hyper social connected individual and the asocial consumer who believes that automated checkouts at the grocery store are the best thing since sliced bread. Here the innovations are mostly technological, leveraging AI, machine learning, Big Data, and other leading technologies to provide more data, more services, faster, with a premium on seamless, frictionless, no frills interactivity.

But there is – or at least could be – another bank. And while it is digital, as well, and provides many if not most of the same basic financial services as any other bank, this bank focuses more on responding to the personal and social worlds of its customers. This bank puts financial inclusion and wellness at the center of its mission, sponsoring and providing educational opportunities for members of the local community – including their children who are likely getting precious little financial education in school. In-person credit counseling and financial planning would also be a good fit for an institution like this, which would play a role in the private sphere of a community that is similar to the role a local library or post office plays in the public sphere. At more advanced levels, coursework and training for individuals looking for careers in financial services could be offered, as well.

Not necessarily 100% or exclusively brick and mortar, this truly community-based financial institution would provide a customer experience that would be very different from its all-digital cousin, but one that could be just as innovative by using technology to make finance and financial services easier to understand and easier to incorporate constructively in the average working and middle class person’s life.


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Entersekt and NuData Security Bring Behavioral Analytics to Real-Time Risk Scoring

Entersekt and NuData Security Bring Behavioral Analytics to Real-Time Risk Scoring

A new partnership between device identity and authentication innovator Entersekt and fellow Finovate alum NuData Security will integrate the latter’s NuDetect behavioral analytics solution into Entersekt’s Secure Platform (ESP) to provide real-time, seamless identity verification.

“By combining our leading techniques, we unlock new ways to remove friction for users interacting online, on web or mobile,” Entersekt Chief Strategy Office Dewald Nolte said. “The combination is like none other on the market, in usability and security, and is another exciting leap forward in our mission to make the digital world safer and more user-friendly.”

NuDetect leverages both device-based and behavioral data to identify and distinguish legitimate users from potential fraudsters in real-time. The technology features an additional level of protection, a step-up authentication process, involving an in-app push prompt, FIDO-certified security key, or other option, which can be triggered in higher-risk circumstances. The result is a fast, secure, digital identity authentication experience that verifies legitimate users whether logging in, creating an account, or completing a transaction seamlessly.

“By adding behavioral analytics to the Entersekt Secure Platform,” NuData Security SVP Michelle Hafner said, “we provide an additional layer of protection while simultaneously reducing friction and improving the customer experience.”

The Entersekt Secure Platform helps businesses ensure rapid deployment and integration of Entersekt services such as Transakt for digital security and authentication, Connekt for digital payments enablement, and Interakt for non-app-based authentication. The platform enables banks and other large companies to better identify their customers’ specific needs, engage them effectively with smart messaging (and accurately with robust authentication), and empower them to get more done with less effort.

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, and founded in 2008, Entersekt began this year working with Netcetera to help the company provide enhanced authentication technology to card issuers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This summer, Entersekt announced a successful technical integration with Huawei Mobile Services, and released its updated security guidance for financial institutions in light of new digital security threats with the onset of the public health crisis.


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Finzly Teams Up with Derivative Logic

Finzly Teams Up with Derivative Logic

A new partnership between digital banking solution provider Finzly and independent hedge advisory firm Derivative Logic will help regional banks better serve their commercial borrowers.

“We see our mission as helping community banks and credit unions better compete in the marketplace by offering services and capabilities on par with – and even exceeding – those of much larger institutions,” Finzly CEO and founder Booshan Rengachari said. “By partnering with an industry leader like Derivative Logic, our financial institution customers, and their own commercial borrowers, benefit from access to world-class hedge advisory services that are proven to positively impact their balance sheets.”

Finzly’s open, cloud-based bank operating system, BankOS, enables financial institutions to integrate and offer a wide variety of third-party services. Courtesy of this partnership with Derivative Logic, the company will enable banks to offer interest rate hedge capabilities to their commercial clients. Derivative Logic Managing Director Jim Griffin called these services “a true strategic differentiator for banks and credit unions” when it comes to attracting commercial customers.

“Through our partnership with Finzly, we help small-to-mid-size financial institutions overcome the complexity of offering these capabilities as we advise and assist our bank customers with pricing, swap documentation, compensation plans, negotiations with dealers, hedge accounting as well as assist with borrower-facing processes,” Griffin said.

Finzly’s partnership announcement is only the latest in headline-making news from the Charlotte, North Carolina-based fintech. Since its debut at FinovateFall a year ago, the company has partnered with a regional bank in California to drive the institution’s international banking services, teamed up with Arvest Bank to streamline the Arkansas-based community bank’s trade finance operations, and announced the availability of its contactless consumer digital account opening solutions.


See Finzly for yourself as the company returns to the Finovate stage for FinovateFall Digital, September 14 through 18. Visit our registration page today and save your spot for our latest all-digital fintech event.


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NerdWallet Goes International with U.K. Know Your Money Acquisition

NerdWallet Goes International with U.K. Know Your Money Acquisition

What catches your eye when it comes to fintech headlines? A big IPO? A major venture capital investment? Or a huge move on the M&A front?

For those whose eyebrows bounce highest when a major acquisition is the talk of the day, one reason why is that acquisitions often but not always signal a major recognition of value in both an individual company and in a line of business. If a venture capitalist investing in a startup is putting its money where its mouth is, then an incumbent acquiring a startup is putting its business where its mouth is, and that’s a moment worth paying attention to.

In this context, NerdWallet’s decision to acquire U.K.-based Know Your Money – announced over the weekend – is a testament to the way personal finance comparison platforms are helping consumers navigate the world of loans, mortgages, and small business banking. A financial service price comparison site in operation for fifteen years, Know Your Money helps consumers in the U.K. by providing deals on financial products and services from brands ranging from Virgin Money and Funding Circle to ANNA and Countingup.

“Recently, the volatility of the stock market, unemployment, and plunging interest rates have consumers facing financial challenges they’ve never dealt with before and searching for content and products to help them navigate their new normal,” NerdWallet CEO Tim Chen said. “Because of this, there has never been a better time to expand the reach of our financial guidance and grow our business, and there is no better place to start than the U.K.”

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. But NerdWallet’s interest in expanding to the U.K. likely comes as welcome news to a financial services community that has seen a number of fintech departures from the country in 2020. To this end, post acquisition, the Know Your Money team will become a NerdWallet subsidiary, with all of the company’s executive and workers remaining with the firm. Know Your Money is the premier financial services website in the U.K. with more than five million consumers and 1.2 million businesses using its platform.

San Francisco, California-based NerdWallet was founded in 2009 and has raised $105 million in funding from investors including Camelot Financial Capital Management and IVP. Know Your Money is the personal finance company’s second acquisition; NerdWallet purchased retirement planning firm aboutLife in 2016. NerdWallet boasts 160 million users and annual revenues of more than $150 million.


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Open Banking: What Australia’s Banks Can Learn from the U.K.

Open Banking: What Australia’s Banks Can Learn from the U.K.

The following is a guest post from John Mason, Senior Director at Zafin.


Open Banking in Australia kicked-off in earnest in July when it became mandatory for the country’s big four banks to share product reference data (including interest rates, fees and charges, and product eligibility criteria) with accredited data recipients, typically fintech companies who provide alternative products and comparison shopping services to consumers. Also, in July, the same big four started sharing their consumer customers’ data—specifically data associated with deposit, credit, debit and transaction accounts—with alternative providers as requested by the customer.

In an effort to anticipate what lies ahead for Australian banks and consumers as the country joins the worldwide movement to give consumers greater access to products and services that can improve their financial lives via Open Banking, we decided to take a look at an island nation more than 9,000 miles away, boasting 2.5x Australia’s population but just 3% of its land mass—the U.K.

The United Kingdom embarked on its own Open Banking journey almost exactly four years back. In August 2016, the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) directed its nine largest banks to provide accredited fintechs with access to previously proprietary customer data (pending customer approval, of course) down to the transaction level for current accounts.

Here is what’s happened in the U.K. that may be instructive for Australia:

  • Consumer up-take for Open Banking capabilities is sizable. As of January 2020, according to the Open Banking Implementation Entity (OBIE), there are one million users of Open Banking services in the U.K., representing a two-fold increase in just six months’ time. Further, the ecosystem of regulated open banking service providers is expanding rapidly. As of May 2020, it stands at 249, up from 100 at year end 2018.
  • Open Banking’s impact on the payments arena is particularly notable, with 50,000 consumers turning to third party applications to make payments from their current accounts in the month of December 2019 alone.
  • Investment is strong and widespread. Tink, the open banking platform, surveyed almost 300 senior financial services executives about their Open Banking investments. Almost ¾ indicated that spend had risen year-over-year, while a third stated that their financial institution was spending €100 million or more on Open Banking initiatives, and half projected positive payback on capital invested in Open Banking in four years or less. 
  • Despite strong adoption and investment, consumer awareness of Open Banking is low—perhaps pitifully so. In a 2019 study by Crealogix, two thirds of respondents had no idea what Open Banking was, much less its potential benefits.
  • Some banks see opportunity in the transition to Open Banking, whereas others view Open Banking as just another compliance obligation. One example of a visionary is Barclays, who empowered its U.K. customers to better manage their finances with the ability to attach non-Barclays accounts to its mobile app—taking a big and bold step forward to participate in the industry’s emerging platform economy.
  • Interest in the capabilities Open Banking enables varies substantially by different generational cohorts. For example, according to Crealogix research in the U.K., GenZs and millennials are twice as likely to adopt new open-banking capabilities and applications relative to baby boomers. 
  • Many positives and much innovation notwithstanding, for the most part, Open Banking’s promise to drive positive changes for financial inclusion have not yet been realized.

Based on what we’ve observed in the U.K., here are three predictions for how we expect Open Banking to play out in Australia. 

  1. Some banks will respond with vision and vigor, delivering new experiences that resonate with their customers and create advantage in the marketplace.
  2. Other banks will view a more open financial ecosystem as a threat and put their heads in the sand, leading to short term investment savings and long-term competitive disadvantages.
  3. Investors—inside banks and outside in the broader fintech ecosystem—will bet on advancing technologies and evolving customer expectations by placing smart bets on future possibilities in the Open Banking arena.

While consumers may never know what Open Banking is, their desire to benefit from new and compelling digital banking services will ultimately lead the overall banking industry to a brighter future—in Australia and the rest of the world. As in the U.K., the advent of Open Banking in Australia will hasten progress, create opportunity and change an industry.


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CryptoNumerics Acquired by Snowflake in $7.1 Million Deal

CryptoNumerics Acquired by Snowflake in $7.1 Million Deal

Here’s some acquisition news that slipped past our radar: CryptoNumerics, an enterprise software company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was acquired by California-based, cloud data warehousing startup Snowflake last month.

And while terms were not disclosed when the deal was announced in July, Private Capital Journal reported that an IPO filing from Snowflake this week noted that the company had “acquired certain assets from a privately-held company for $7.1 million in cash.” Both companies have remained mum about the transaction; it is possible that Snowflake will be in a better position to discuss its recent activity, including its “business combination” after the company goes public in the next few months.

CryptoNumerics specializes in enabling businesses to create privacy protected datasets with quantifiable privacy risk. Founded in 2018, the company made its Finovate debut last spring at our west coast conference. At the event, company co-founders Holboke and Bhatti demonstrated CryptoNumerics’ CN-Protect technology that leverages differential privacy and AI to allow institutions to analyze consumer data while maintaining CCPA, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance.

Last fall, CryptoNumerics unveiled its Re-Identify solution, which enables companies to determine whether or not the identities of users in their datasets are secure. Based on CryptoNumerics’ CN-Protect, Re-Identity helps deal with a problem in typical de-identification techniques such as masking and tokenization which can fail to completely protect data.

“Our early enterprise customers are excited to partner with Cryptonumerics because we not only solve their privacy concerns but we also enable them to leverage their data assets to build cross enterprise models that create new revenue opportunities,” CryptoNumerics executive chairman and co-founder Ashfaq Munshi said.

CryptoNumerics has raised $2.5 million (CAD$3.3 million) in funding from 11.2 Capital, Data Capital Management, and Lux Capital. Last fall, the company was named one of Canadian Innovation Exchange’s top 20 most innovative startups in Canada.


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All the Fintech Ladies: Deutsche Bank Announces Competition for Female Founders

All the Fintech Ladies: Deutsche Bank Announces Competition for Female Founders

For the second year in a row, Deutsche Bank is teaming up with Google, Atos, TechQuartier to help make a difference for women in fintech. The bank announced the launch of its second Female FinTech Competition this week, featuring a spot in Atos’ Fintech Programme as the competition’s top prize.

“The Female FinTech competition is not only a wonderful opportunity to showcase technology talent, it is also a way for Deutsche Bank to engage and support a community of female founders and help foster innovation,” Global Head of Deutsche Bank’s Strategy & Innovation Network Gil Perez explained.

Fintech companies with a female founder – or with women in their top management – are encouraged to apply. The first prize – participation in the Atos FinTech Program – also features access to the FinHub, a fast-track onboarding program that connects companies with Atos’ network of financial services organization partners – and Atos Financial Services Sandbox – which makes it easy for fintech startups to combine their expertise to develop and test new ideas and solutions.

In addition to the first prize, other program winners will have the opportunity to access resources from both Deutsche Bank and Google Innovation, including the chance to work in Deutsche Bank’s Innovation Lab with the team’s experts and coaches.

The Female FinTech Competition is also in the market for coaches. Women interested in coaching program entrants are also encouraged to sign up and indicate their area of knowledge and expertise.

The deadline for applications is September 23, with applicants submitting their business cases by September 30. A short list of six finalists will be announced on October 15, with the winners announced on October 29.

“We still have a gender gap in the finance industry,” said Sima Ohadi, Chief Behavioral Officer at Odonatech and the program’s inaugural winner last year. “Yet the future looks bright in part thanks to initiatives like the Atos Female Fintech Competition. I participated as a co-founder of Odonatech in the Atos Fintech Competition last year, which helped me get to know some very ambitious and innovative women in this field.”


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Behalf Taps Former Kabbage Executive as New CEO

Behalf Taps Former Kabbage Executive as New CEO

Small business financing and payments company Behalf has a new man at the top. The company announced that Rob Rosenblatt, who has been serving as Behalf president for the past six months, will now take over the role of Chief Executive Officer of the eight-year old firm.

“Consumers have enjoyed a broad range of financing solutions offered by retailers and e-tailers for many years,” Rosenblatt said in a statement. “Now is the time for every major business seller to make net terms and extended financing solutions available to their customers in order to facilitate commerce. Behalf is ideally suited to help accelerate the adoption of these solutions.”

Rosenblatt will replace company co-founder Benji Feinberg, who had served as the company’s CEO since its founding in 2012. Rosenblatt’s appointment will mean that Behalf’s customer-facing functions will be based in New York City, with the firm’s R&D capabilities continuing to be housed in Behalf’s offices in Ra’anana, Israel.

Before coming to Behalf in February of this year, Rosenblatt was Head of Lending and GM of Lending Operations for Kabbage. He was also previously Chief Customer and Chief Marketing Officer for Flywire. Rosenblatt is currently on the board of directors of prepaid card provider PEX Card.

Behalf helps small businesses manage cash flow and expenses by enabling them to quickly and affordably finance almost any business purchase. The company uses its own proprietary credit scoring methodology to guide its purchase financing, and pays vendors directly on behalf (hence the name) of small businesses while collecting repayments on behalf of the vendor. With Behalf, B2B sellers are able to get paid upfront, without needing to worry about credit risk, as well as enjoy larger average order sizes. Buyers benefit from ready access to financing, including avoidance of the financing fee if repayment is made during the grace period.

“There is real demand for Behalf’s financing solutions in B2B commerce,” Behalf Executive Chairman Michael Heller said. “Now is the ideal time for Rob and the entire Behalf team to seize the opportunity and focus on growing the company.” Heller is also an Operating Partner at Oak FT/HC and MissionOG.

Behalf has raised $310 million in funding from investors including Viola Growth, Spark Capital, MissionOG, Visa, and Sequoia Capital Israel.


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New York’s Finest: Catching Up with FinovateFall’s Best of Show

New York’s Finest: Catching Up with FinovateFall’s Best of Show

What have the companies that won Best of Show awards at last year’s FinovateFall conference been up to in the months since our New York show? With our autumn event less than a month away, we thought it would be a great time to check in on the nine companies that took home top honors this time last year.


BlytzPayIntegrated its digital payments technology with Dealer Management Systems (DMS) leader ABCoA Deal Pack. Announced strategic partnership with AFS Dealers.

CinchyJoined the 2020 MassChallenge FinTech Program in December 2019 along with five fellow Finovate alums. The program noted that 70% of the participants in its previous cohort launched a pilot or proof of concept within a year. Earned a $500,000 cash prize as one of the winners of the 2019 VentureClash competition. Raised $10 million in funding in May.

College Aid ProPartnered with Horsesmouth, a company that provides educational and marketing solutions for financial advisors and their clients. Announced collaboration with the American Institute of Certified College Financial Consultants. Teamed up with online student loan refinancing marketplace Credible.

ebankITForged North American partnership with fellow Finovate alum Enterprise Engineering this spring. Announced updates to its multichannel banking platform.

GliaWon Best of Show at FinovateEurope for a second year in a row. Integrated its technology with fellow Finovate alum Alkami’s Online Banking Platform. Inked partnerships with 20 credit unions across the U.S.

MXTopped 50,000 direct-to-bank API agreements to major financial institutions and fintechs. Launched data connectivity API, Path by MX. Named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces 2020.

owl.coNamed one of Canada’s Most Innovative Tech Companies by the Canadian Innovation Exchange. Delivered $1 million in revenue within six months of launching.

Pinkaloo TechnologiesRaised $1.25 million in funding. Joined Goldman Sachs-owned Ayco Marketplace for financial counseling and wellness services. Partnered with Eastern Bank to power its Give for Good charitable giving program.

Zogo FinanceTeamed up with fellow Finovate alum Bankjoy. Announced partnerships with 11 community banks and credit unions across 12 states. Surpassed 1,000,000 financial literacy modules completed.


FinovateFall Digital 2020 kicks off Monday, September 14 and continues through Friday, September 18 with hours of live and on-demand content. Visit our registration page today and join us for Finovate’s biggest, digital-first event to date.


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Socure Secures Funding from Citi and Wells Fargo

Socure Secures Funding from Citi and Wells Fargo

In a round led by Sorenson Ventures, identity verification innovator Socure has locked in $35 million in new funding. The investment, which takes the company’s total capital to $96 million, featured the participation of three new funders: Citi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, and MVB Financial Corp, as well as existing investors Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Flint Capital. Socure said the additional funding will support the firm’s growth objectives and enable the company to add to its platform’s machine learning capabilities.

“We are grateful to have had significant investor interest despite the current economic environment, and are proud to have taken less money than was on the table,” Socure CEO Tom Thimot said. “As we continue to build on our position as the leader in Day Zero identity, we are prioritizing investment in new verticals, talent, products, and capabilities.”

The investment reflects a growing importance on identity verification at a time when more and more individuals and businesses are relying on digital channels. Companies with identity verification solutions that can quickly – i.e., in real-time – establish that individuals are who they say they are and do so with as few mistakes as possible will become increasingly valuable partners for businesses looking to maximize engagement and commerce via digital channels.

Socure’s funding news comes just a few months after the company unveiled its latest digital identity verification solution, Intelligent KYC. The company’s technology accelerates customer acquisition and boosts auto-approval rates by leveraging advanced graph analysis and machine learning to verify identity in real-time. With partners ranging from banks and lenders to telecommunications firms and insurance companies, Socure enables its clients to achieve 85% fraud capture rates, a 90% increase in auto enrollments, and up to 10x reduction in false positives.

Most recently demonstrating its technology at FinovateFall in 2017, Socure was founded five years earlier by Sunil Madhu and Johnny Ayers (SVP). Named one of Forbes’ Top 25 Machine Learning Startups to Watch, and recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in AI for Banking and Investment Services this spring, the company added a document verification module, DocV, to its Socure ID+ platform earlier this month.

Socure is headquartered in New York, and maintains offices in San Diego, San Jose, and Chennai, India.


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