Fintech in the Age of COVID-19; Mid-Year Review Delivers Industry Heat Check

Fintech in the Age of COVID-19; Mid-Year Review Delivers Industry Heat Check
Photo by Krivec Ales from Pexels

A Mid-Year Heat Check on Fintech

What is the state of fintech as we move toward the second half of 2020? As expectations struggle to catch up with the worldwide public health challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, Finovate will dedicate a week to examining where fintech is right now and where it’s going over the balance of this historic year.

With a focus on the latest trends in payments, fraud and cybercrime prevention technology, bankingtech, and wealthtech, Finovate Fintech Halftime Review will kick off on June 22 and run through June 26. The digital-exclusive, five-day event will feature webinars, videos, white papers, eMagazines, and more – with each day dedicated to a key theme driving fintech today. Login and join us from the comfort of your home – or your home/office. The Finovate Fintech Halftime Review is a great opportunity to get a deep dive into the content that matters to you most.


Finovate Podcast Examines Fintech in the Age of COVID-19

Feeling isolated and anxious while sheltering-in-place? Listen in on some of the most insightful conversations about fintech and the economic challenge of the coronavirus pandemic on the Finovate Podcast.

In his most recent episodes, host Greg Palmer continues his Fintech in Extraordinary Times series, examining the impact of the public health crisis on technology and financial services. Check out his interview with Brett King, founder of Moven, and host of the Breaking Banks podcast; as well as his conversation with fintech expert and former Special Assistant to President Obama, Adrienne Harris.


Here is our weekly roundup of news from our Finovate alums.

  • Ethoca announces extension of its partnership with Microsoft to give the company’s customers access to their digital purchase receipts.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with High Payment Solutions (Hi-Pay) to build the first payments gateway service in Mongolia.
  • Salt Edge brings PSD2 and open banking solutions to Roundups’ donation platform.
  • Avaloq integrates the ACTICO Compliance Suite to help clients prevent financial crime.
  • Worldline partners with Meniga to boost digital customer engagement with Meniga’s personalized banking features.
  • Lendio and TouchBistro partner to help restaurants access PPP loan funds faster.
  • Glance Networks launches Glance for Financial Services, a co-browse, screenshare, and video tool.
  • Zogo Finance signs another three credit unions.
  • Finantix closes acquisition of Swiss data analytics company InCube Group.
  • Minna Technologies launches subscription management pilot for RBI’s Tatra banka.
  • Bankjoy inks partnerships with four credit unions in Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Nebraska with a combined $724 million in assets and more than 65,000 members.
  • Hong Kong Jockey Club customers look to Daon’s IdentityX platform for mobile login services.
  • Tink partners with Kivra to facilitate payment of bills and invoices.
  • Hyundai Card partners with Personetics to deliver financial insights and advice to credit card users.
  • BlueRush appoints Andrew Osmak as new Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Enveil releases ZeroReveal Machine Learning, an encrypted machine learning product.
  • 4Front Credit Union to offer Plinqit to help members save money and stay engaged.

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

Arxan Joins Two Firms to Form New Company – Application security company Arxan Technologies announced yesterday that it has joined forces with two other industry firms, CollabNet VersionOne and XebiaLabs, to form a new entity, Digital.ai.

Behavioral Biometrics Specialist BioCatch Scores $145 Million in New Funding – The Series C round featured participation from new and existing investors including Industry Ventures and American Express Ventures, and boosts the company’s total capital to more than $186 million.

SmartAsset Launches New Client Acquisition SolutionLive Connections enables financial advisors to connect directly with prospective clients by phone via SmartAsset’s SmartAdvisor platform.

Apiax on Why 2020 is Turning Out to Be the Year for Regtech – News from regtech companies has been flowing in 2020. Not only that, we saw significantly more regtech companies at FinovateEurope earlier this year than we have at previous events.

iProov Unveils New Web-Based Biometric Authentication Solution – Three-time Finovate Best of Show winner iProov is bringing its innovations in biometric authentication to the web browser. 

Onfido Raises $100 Million Because “Identity is Broken” – Digital identity verification platform Onfido reeled in $100 million in a round led by TPG Growth this week. The London-based company’s total investment now sits at just over $182 million.

How to Underwrite Loans When Everyone is a Higher Risk – COVID-19 has rewritten so many rules about the economy. It is now more difficult than ever to underwrite risk and ultimately understand if a consumer will pay back their loan.

Currencycloud and Derivative Path to Bring FX to Community Banks – A new strategic partnership between Currencycloud and cloud-based FX trading platform Derivative Path will make it easier for community and regional banks to offer a variety of FX and interest rate derivative trading options to their customers.

Kyckr Deepens Relationship with Citi – Regtech company Kyckr, which first partnered with its client Citigroup in 2016, has extended its relationship with the bank.

Investors Back Mobile Trading in Germany; Digital Banking Takes Off in Israel

Investors Back Mobile Trading in Germany; Digital Banking Takes Off in Israel

Germany’s Trade Republic Raises $67 Million

While mobile trading and investing app Robinhood rallies from a rough March toward a rumored $200+ million funding round, the company many are calling its European equivalent is making headlines of its own on the other side of the pond.

Berlin-based Trade Republic, which offers a mobile app that enables users to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, and other assets without having to pay a commission, announced that it has raised $67.4 million (€62 million) in new funding. The Series B round was led by Accel and Founders Fund, and will help the five-year old company build out its platform ahead of a formal launch later this year.

“About 85% of assets of European households are in bank accounts with mostly zero or negative interest rates,” Trade Republic co-founder Christian Hecker explained. “Our app enables people to invest their money safely, quickly, and transparently. By doing so, we are democratizing access to capital markets.”

With more than 150,000 users since its May launch last year, Trade Republic’s app is currently managing nearly one billion euros in assets.


Israel’s First Digital Bank Chooses Core Platform

The first digital bank in the country has no official name as of yet and, of course, no physical branches. But courtesy of a partnership with Tata Consultancy Services, the Bank With No Name has found its core platform in the form of the Banking Service Bureau, powered by TCS BaNCS.

“We have achieved a key milestone in the Israeli financial services industry by being onboarded on to TCS’ Banking Services Bureau,” bank chairman Shouky Oren said. “This approach will reduce the cost of banking for the average citizen and foster the development of innovative and differentiated services.”

The bank is slated to open in 2021 and will offer a wide range of services including deposits and loans, credit, account management, and securities trading. The firm will be the first company to receive a new banking license in Israel in more than 40 years.


Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian SME and micro-enterprise lender Aye Finance raises $23.8 million in debt funding.
  • A partnership between Mastercard and Askari Bank Pakistan will help the commercial and retail bank expand its product portfolio.
  • Traxcn and IBS Intelligence report that India’s fintech industry saw a 40% gain in funding over the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2019.
  • GooglePay’s Nearby Spot feature, which helps users find essential stores and shelters in their area, goes live in India.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Sao Paulo, Brazil readies for the launch of a new digital challenger bank, Elas, dedicated to serving female entrepreneurs.
  • Coronavirus concerns have put the breaks on Mexico’s ability to license new fintechs.
  • Criptolago enables Venezuela’s oil-based stablecoin, PTR, to be transactable via text message.

Asia-Pacific

  • Japanese fintech Paidy raises additional funding from Itochu Corporation for its Series C round.
  • Vietnam-based microlender Finhay secures investment from Acorns co-founder Jeffrey Cruttenden and Thien Viet Securities.
  • Koinworks, one of Indonesia’s biggest P2P lenders, raises $20 million in debt and equity.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Flash, a fintech based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, introduces a new payment offering, Flash Money, in partnership with Visa.
  • PagaSystems and Nigerian fintech SystemSpecs join forces to boost electronic payments in Nigeria.
  • South Africa’s new fintech innovation hub goes live.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Hamburg, Germany’s Deposit Solutions expands its partnership with Deutsche Bank.
  • NAGA, a German fintech that enables social trading and investing in stocks, cryptocurrencies, FX and other assets, announces profitability.
  • Born2Invest features venture investor and founder of iTLEADERS Yegor Klopenko on the challenge COVID-19 presents to Russian fintech.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Commercial Bank, based in Qatar, introduces new payroll service to help companies support employees’ digital international money transfers.
  • Mohamed Okasha, co-founder of Egyptian fintech Fawry, to launch $25 million fintech fund.
  • Qatar Development Bank (QDB) launches fintech incubator and accelerator programs.

Top image designed by Freepik

Behavioral Biometrics Specialist BioCatch Scores $145 Million in New Funding

Behavioral Biometrics Specialist BioCatch Scores $145 Million in New Funding

In a round led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, behavioral biometric innovator BioCatch has secured a major $145 million investment. The Series C round featured participation from new and existing investors including Industry Ventures and American Express Ventures, and boosts the company’s total capital to more than $186 million.

BioCatch chairman and CEO Howard Edelstein put the company’s news and recent accomplishments in the context of the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 global pandemic. “The current environment has spawned a large increase in bad actors seeking to take advantage of distracted individuals working from home or dispersed companies whose technologists are scattered in remote locations,” Edelstein said. “In such times, technologies like behavioral biometrics become more important than ever.”

In a post published at the company blog, BioCatch Product Leader Ayelet Biger-Levin noted that since the pandemic began and more people began social distancing and working remotely, “phishing and malware have been the primary source of scams and cyberattacks.” Biger-Levin added that financial institutions are especially vulnerable to social engineering schemes in which unwitting victims are tricked into making authorized but fraudulent transactions.

BioCatch leverages more than 2,000 bio-behavioral, cognitive, and physiological parameters to create real-time risk scores that enable institutions to defend themselves against both human and non-human cyber threats. The company’s technology provides identity proofing to fight new account and account takeover fraud, as well as continuous authentication to verify identity from login to logout.

“BioCatch has quickly established itself as the pioneer in the digital identity space by developing next-generation behavioral biometrics technology that integrates fraud detection and authentication capabilities to protect end-users and their most sensitive transactions,” Bain Capital Tech Opportunities Managing Director Dewey Awad said.

BioCatch demonstrated its Passive Biometrics/Invisible Challenges feature of its platform at FinovateFall. The company has secured more than 50 patents, has 90+ million users, and has provided more than 10x ROI based on testimonials from customers such as NatWest, American Express, and Itau Unibanco.

Earlier this year, the company acquired fraud and anomaly detection specialist AimBrain. Founded in 2011, BioCatch is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

SmartAsset Launches New Client Acquisition Solution

SmartAsset Launches New Client Acquisition Solution
Photo by chepté cormani from Pexels

One of my favorite stories about financial management involves a new broker who becomes alarmed during a major market meltdown. The broker is fearful of hearing from anxious clients and investors, who he is convinced will demand that he sell everything. He asks his supervisor for advice and his boss replies, “call them.” When the broker hesitates, his boss continues, “call them. If you don’t another broker will. “

Communication with clients is key for all successful financial managers – whether they are long-term customers or new prospects. And this engagement is all the more important when the markets are volatile and nerves are on edge. This is what makes the new service from SmartAsset, unveiled today, a valuable resource for financial managers as well as their customers and clients.

Live Connections, from SmartAsset, enables financial advisors to connect directly with prospective clients by phone. The service is available to U.S.-based certified financial advisors, Registered Investment Advisors (RIAs) and advisory firms via SmartAsset’s SmartAdvisor platform.

Michael Carvin, CEO and co-founder of SmartAsset, said the new innovation was part of the company’s goal to enhance what he called “the match-making experience between consumers and financial advisors.” He added that the service would enable customers to more easily reach financial advisors “when intent is at the absolute highest.” The company notes that the average investor using its platform is 57 years old and has significant assets of nearly $900,000. Yet the vast majority of them – more than 75% – report not having a financial advisor.

The technology also enables advisors to spend more time working with clients and less time hunting for them. “For advisors, Live Connections cuts through the noise as we’re able to instantly connect them with validated consumer leads over the phone,” Carvin said. “All advisors have to do is pick up the call and focus on what they’re good at: advising clients.”

Today’s launch of Live Connections follows a 2019 pilot program in which advisors and firms reported a 100% contact rate and a 20% close/conversion rate with prospects.

One of the world’s most viewed sources of personal financial information, SmartAsset reaches more than 65 million people each month. Most recently demoing its technology at FinovateSpring, New York-based SmartAsset was founded in 2012 and has raised more than $51 million in funding. The company includes Focus Financial Partners, IA Capital Group, and Javelin Venture Partners among its investors.

iProov Unveils New Web-Based Biometric Authentication Solution

iProov Unveils New Web-Based Biometric Authentication Solution
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels

Three-time Finovate Best of Show winner iProov is bringing its innovations in biometric authentication to the web browser. The company announced the launch of iProov Web today, giving users of laptop, desktop, and tablet computers the same level of security enjoyed by users of iProov’s mobile app.

“iProov Web is a game changer for the digital identity industry,” company CEO Andrew Bud said. “Millions of people around the world have iProoved themselves on a mobile app, accessing online government, banking or travel services securely by proving that they are who they say they are, and that they are genuinely present during the authentication.”

The new offering is geared toward the significant number of people who prefer to use desktops or laptops, particularly for large online purchases and transactions, or when security is a top concern. In their product announcement, iProov cited data that indicated that while the web represented 37% of online traffic, it nevertheless delivered a disproportionate 56% of online revenue.

iProov’s patented Flashmark technology enables mobile apps to confirm genuine presence and provide seamless authentication, support digital onboarding, or assist in account or password recovery. The technology defends against presentation and replay attacks, as well as deepfakes, by ensuring both that there is a real person conducting the transaction and that the real person, is the right person.

London-based iProov most recently demonstrated its facial recognition-based biometric authentication solution at FinovateEurope in Berlin this February, picking up its third consecutive Best of Show award. Also that month, iProov opened a North American headquarters in Catonsville, Maryland at the Research and Technology Park at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).

More recently, the company partnered with SK ID Solutions, bringing its technology to customers in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. iProov was founded in 2011.

Currencycloud and Derivative Path to Bring FX to Community Banks

Currencycloud and Derivative Path to Bring FX to Community Banks

A new strategic partnership between Currencycloud and cloud-based FX trading platform Derivative Path will make it easier for community and regional banks to offer a variety of FX and interest rate derivative trading options to their customers.

Derivative Path will embed Currencycloud’s FX technology into its DerivativeEDGE platform, an end-to-end solution for interest rate derivative, FX, and hedge accounting. Together the offering will provide banks with a solution that enables counterparty/order management, electronic spot FX with integrated Request for Quote execution, third party international payments and receipts, and derivatives valuation, as well as compliance reporting.

Derivative Path co-founder and co-CEO Pradeep Bhatia said, “This joint effort will help us leverage our technology capabilities, global infrastructure, and subject matter expertise, to offer banks a platform to manage their FX and payments, a growing need in an underserved space.”

Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Derivative Path partners with financial institutions, buy-side, and commercial end-users to provide over-the-counter, interest rate derivative and FX trading execution and management solutions. Founded in 2013, the company has more than 100 clients and has facilitated thousands of trades with its interest rate, FX, and hedge accounting technology.

Long-time Finovate alum Currencycloud offers 85 APIs over four modules – collect, convert, manage, and pay – that represent the complete B2B cross-border payment workflow. The company has processed $50+ billion to more than 180 countries around the world.

Most recently demonstrating its technology at FinovateSpring 2018, Currencycloud has raised more than $160 million in funding. The company picked up nearly half that sum in a Series E round at the beginning of the year. In February, Currencycloud announced a partnership with U.K. travel money card, Currensea. Mike Laven is CEO.

Three Ways Digital Identity is Combating the COVID-19 Crisis

Three Ways Digital Identity is Combating the COVID-19 Crisis

Technology companies from every corner of the globe have been lending their talent, resources, and solutions to help deal with the health and economic implications of the COVID-19 crisis. While those firms in health technology have obviously played the lead role, innovators in virtually every field of technology are bringing their unique expertise to the challenge.

Here are three ways that companies specializing in digital identity and identity management are helping organizations, institutions, and individuals manage the global pandemic.

Know Your Carrier

One of the key ways that countries like South Korea have “flattened the curve” of the pandemic is through an approach called “test and trace.” This strategy relies on accurately identifying those who have the coronavirus and then tracking down all those individuals who have had contact with the infected individual so that they can be tested for the virus.

For example, In China, in addition to temperature checks outside of public places like restaurants, officials are leveraging smartphones and QR codes to identify those who are infected with the virus, and to track their recent movements to locate others who may have been in contact with the infected person. In the West, the news that Apple and Google are collaborating to develop a contact tracing solution that will help us meet this specific challenge is a positive sign. Yet as hopeful as this opportunity may be, it is not without caveats.

“It’s really important to get the cooperation of the public,” Recode Executive Director Kara Swisher told CNBCs Squawk Box Monday morning during a discussion on the Apple/Google initiative. She flashed her sleep and activity-tracking Oura ring, noting that wearables could be among the mobile technologies that could be used to make contact tracing as seamless as possible. “More power to the tech companies means more power to the tech companies,” she said. “The only question is will they give it back when this is over?”

Know Your Customer

Getting money into the hands of unemployed and furloughed workers is one challenge. Getting money into the bank accounts of businesses forced to close their doors during this period of quarantine and social distancing has proved, in some ways, to be an even steeper challenge. Many in the small business community were caught off guard, for example, when they learned that in order to access federal COVID-19 relief funds they would need to have a relationship with a participating financial institution.

The issue is that, even in an emergency, knowing your partner is paramount. And in order for banks to be financially responsible, they need to pursue the same measure of KYC diligence on applicants for emergency funding as they would for any other banking customer. To fail to do so would leave these institutions vulnerable, potentially, to massive fraud losses – turning an already challenging environment for banks even worse. Making it easier for financial institutions to engage needy SMEs by leveraging many of the innovations in Big Data and advanced machine learning – while remaining compliant and financially responsible – is a slam dunk opportunity for a sizable number of fintechs.

This is a reminder that regtech may not be appear to be the most important subsector within financial technology. But in the same way that the global pandemic is causing us to think as much about epidemiologists as we do about emergency room doctors, the current challenge in KYC also reminds us of how important innovations in regtech are not only within technology, but also for society as well.

Know Your Crew

While many are understandably eager to “re-open the country,” it remains likely that thousands of workers will continue to work remotely – at least in the near term. This phenomenon has been a boon for companies like Zoom that provide technology that enables online conferencing and makes it easier for workers who do not traditionally work from home to do so.

One major challenge for these newly-homebound employees is ensuring that they are logging into their company’s networks and platforms in a safe and secure manner. Beyond having the infrastructure to support remote work, having the capacity to authenticate legitimate remote workers, and to make sure that the data they are transmitting back and forth remains out of the hands of hackers and cybercriminals is critical.

Indeed, one of the discontents of the “Zoom Boom” is that many people using the platform have raised major privacy concerns, including reports that Zoom conferences have been infiltrated by hackers, interrupting live presentations with obscene images.

As with KYC, this is another area where fintech’s regtech calvary is coming to the rescue. Firms like Onfido and Jumio, among many others, have made their identity verification technologies available for free to organizations and institutions in the health and home care fields that are on the frontlines of the fight against the virus.

Visa and Fold Offer Co-Branded Card with Crypto Rewards

Visa and Fold Offer Co-Branded Card with Crypto Rewards
Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán from Pexels

Payments giant Visa has teamed up with Atlanta, Georgia-based Fold to launch a co-branded debit card that offers rewards in the form of bitcoin. The partnership was announced late last week, and is the fruit of Fold’s participation in Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program.

The new debit cards are expected to be available in July. Users will get up to 10% of their cash purchases credited in Bitcoin. What’s unique about Fold’s approach with the new card is that it enables users to earn Bitcoin while spending in dollars. As Fold CEO and co-founder Will Reeves explained, by spending in dollars and accumulating Bitcoin rather than spending it, users avoid the potential tax implications of selling the digital asset.

This new initiative extends Fold’s business beyond enabling shoppers to buy dollar-denominated gift cards from popular brands like Amazon, Uber, and Starbucks with Bitcoin. Made available on an “early access” basis last fall, the Fold app also gives consumers 20% cashback in bitcoin on all purchases, fiat or crypto.

“We’re changing the fact that rewards points are issued in the form of restricted airline miles, arbitrary points, or depreciating fiat, instead of the best performing asset of the last decade: bitcoin,” Reeves wrote on the company blog back in September. “But unlike existing rewards that require users to give up their privacy for points, Fold’s new app rewards users for shopping privately.”

The partnership is a second bite at the bitcoin apple for Visa. A year ago Visa and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase introduced a Visa debit card in the U.K. The contactless card syncs with the user’s Coinbase account and, for a fee of approximately 2.5%, enables users to make purchases in fiat currency and have the responding amount of the cryptocurrency debited from whichever cryptocurrency account the users selects.

Fold was founded in 2014. The company has raised $3.3 million in funding, and includes Craft Ventures, CoinShares, Slow Ventures, Goldcrest Capital, and Fulgur Ventures among its investors.

Xignite Secures Patent for Market Data Driven Alerts; eXate Earns Accelerator Spot

Xignite Secures Patent for Market Data Driven Alerts; eXate Earns Accelerator Spot

Market data distribution and management solutions provide Xignite has scored a patent for the technology behind its CloudAlerts REST API. The patent recognizes the company’s innovation in developing real-time alerts based on pre-defined stock market conditions. This technology can be added to website or mobile apps by developers to provide users with real-time, automatic notifications on everything from price breakouts to volume surges via SMS, email or onscreen.

What’s unique about Xignite’s approach is the way it is able to deliver market data-driven user alerts at scale, incorporating both the wide variety of user preferences as well as processing a sizable volume of exception conditions in real-time. Fellow Finovate alum SoFi leverages Xignite CloudAlerts in its SoFi Invest service, using the technology to warn investors when a portfolio holding drops below critical levels.

“SoFi saw record investing activity last week during the coronavirus outbreak and that really tested our alerts system,” SoFi Trading and Investment Manager Samuel Nofzinger said. “Our customers value the alerts because they help them invest and protect their money better, especially in today’s volatile market.”


Congratulations to eXate Technologies. The U.K.-based cybersecurity firm – and FinovateEurope 2018 alumearned a spot in Tech Nation’s Cyber 2.0 growth program. This year’s class marks the second cohort for the program, which is geared toward early-stage cybersecurity startups. Companies participating in the six-month accelerator get peer-to-peer learning with program mentors, masterclasses led by expert scale coaches, as well as meetups and networking with peers, investors, and potential clients.


Add Onfido to the list of Finovate alums that are pitching in to help organizations manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced late last week that it is offering six free months’ use of its biometric identity solution to nonprofit organizations that are fighting the coronavirus. Nonprofits in healthcare, home care, and education are among those to benefit from the program, including a company that uses Onfido’s technology to verify completion of COVID-19 testing.


The Finovate Podcast is on fire! If you’ve not been able to keep up, here are links to the latest conversations with host Greg Palmer.


Here is our weekly roundup of news from our Finovate alums.

  • FreeAgent partners with NatWest to offer its customers online cloud accounting software.
  • Zogo Finance drops app set-up fees for its credit union customers in Louisiana.
  • Ellie Mae announces general availability of peer benchmarking comparison analysis solution, Ellie Mae Insights.
  • Baker Hill launches NextGen SBA Fast Track to help SMBs access CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.
  • Temenos wins Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year award.
  • NYMBUS teams up with NCR Corporation to help SMBs impacted by COVID-19.
  • University First FCU brings on Insuritas to launch a digital insurance agency.
  • Artegence and Efigence become Magnolia Platinum Partners.
  • Kabbage partners with an undisclosed bank to deliver Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to U.S. small businesses.
  • Moven founder Brett King hints at partnership with Varo Money, encourages users to open an account.
  • ShopKeep and Lendio partner to help small businesses access COVID-19 funds.
  • ATFX now accepting payments via Trustly.
  • ACI Worldwide unveils new “Delay My Payment” feature of its ACI Speedpay solution to help billers and consumers during the COVID crisis.
  • DriveWealth launches DriveHSA, a new tool for Health Savings Account platform providers.
  • Kasasa sees a 288% increase in borrowers using its Take-Back feature.
  • Stash now counts one million banking customers.
  • MX launches portal for banks navigating the Small Business Administration’s new Payment Protection Program.
  • Credit Hero leverages Salt Edge to access borrower’s bank data.
  • Finanteq introduces new initiative to provide free digital banking tools – Pocket Branch and Extentum – to banks during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Bankjoy hosts online summit to address how credit unions and fintechs can partner to respond to the economic challenges of COVID-19.

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

The Importance of Financial Literacy During Uncertain Economic Times – A growing number of fintechs – many of them Finovate alums you’ll meet below – have devised innovative ways to help young people in particular, become better earners, savers, spenders, and investors.

Kabbage Collaborates with Facebook to Back Retailers During the COVID Crisis – Together, the two companies will help merchants continue to generate revenue at a time when their customers – for sound reasons based on public health – are largely staying away.

SoFi Inks Agreement to Acquire Galileo Financial Technologies – In a cash and stock deal valued at $1.2 billion, online lender and personal finance innovator SoFi has agreed to acquire financial services API and payments platform, Galileo Financial Technologies.

Building a Financial Advisor for Main Street America – We recently chatted with SuperMoney founder and CEO Miron Lulic to give us an update on the company’s platform that helps consumers reach their financial goals.

BankBazaar Adds $3.8 Million to Series D – The capital comes from Amazon and Walden SKT Venture Fund, who have joined Sequoia, GUS Holdings, and Eight Roads Investments in the round. 

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Challenger Banks Down Under Raise Capital Amid Crisis

Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Challenger Banks Down Under Raise Capital Amid Crisis

What a week it’s been for the challenger bank business in the Land Down Under!

Australian small business challenger bank Judo just announced a major fundraising, securing an investment of $307 million (AUD 500 million) from a pair of Australian government agencies.

The Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) and the Australian Structured Finance Support Fund (SFSF) contributed equally. The investment makes Judo the first recipient of funding from Australia’s two-billion dollar small business funding program. The program was initially designed in 2018 to help promote competition between the country’s major banks and to provide more financing opportunities for the country’s small business.

“At a time when the availability of credit has never been more important to tens of thousands of Australian SMEs, Judo is delighted to be able to announce such a substantial investment by the AOFM,” Judo co-founder and co-CEO David Hornery said.

The country’s first SME-oriented challenger bank, Judo earned its full banking license just under a year ago. This spring, Judo announced securing a three-year, $350 million credit facility with Citi. The challenger bank has a deposit book of $860 million (AUD 1.4 billion).


An infusion of capital from the private sector has boosted the coffers of fellow Australian challenger bank 86 400. The firm announced this week that it has raised $20.8 million (AUD 34 million) in new funding in a round led by Morgan Stanley.

The Series A round takes 86 400’s total capital to $57 million (AUD 90 million). Also participating were an Australian superannuation fund, high net worth investors and family offices, as well as fund managers.

“At our current rate of growth, we should hit 500,000 accounts on the platform in the next 12 months,” 86 400 CEO Robert Bell said. “Of course, that will be balanced by growing the lending side of our business and we anticipate having a mortgage book of close to $2 billion by the end of 2021.”

86 400, which bills itself as “Australia’s first smartbank,” launched in September of last year and currently has more than 170,000 accounts on its platform. With more than 350,000 transactions and balance updates processed daily, and a mortgage book of $20 million, 86 400 currently offers two accounts – Pay and Save – that make spending convenient and incentivize savings.


Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Mamo Pay, a Dubai-based fintech developing a P2P payments app, raises $1.5 million in seed funding.
  • Saudi Arabia’s Halalah attains e-money institution license after graduating ahead of schedule from its sandbox trial period.
  • UAE-based fintech Rise locks in growth funding believed to be in excess of $1 million.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Fintech News takes a look at the “10 Fastest Growing Fintechs in India.”
  • BusinessWorld India examines the role of fintech in driving the digitalization trend in India.
  • Pakistan Today features American fintech entrepreneur Brandon Timinsky and his efforts to launch SadaPay in Pakistan.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Cryptonews looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on Mexican fintech.
  • Contexto sees more fintechs in Chile’s future, courtesy of a new global entrepreneur network, Endeavor.
  • Latin American on-demand delivery startup partners with Arcus to launch new payment app, RappiPay.

Asia-Pacific

  • Hong Kong fintech Neat raises $11 million in Series A featuring participation from Visa among other investors.
  • HSBC goes live with its Smart Mobile Onboading for customers in China.
  • Hong Kong-based online lender Credit Hero partners with Salt Edge.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South Africa’s Vodacom and Kenya’s Safaricom conclude acquisition of mobile money platform, M-Pesa.
  • Senegalese mobile network operator, Free, deploys Comviva’s mobiquity Money solution.
  • South Africa’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) unveils new innovation hub.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Russian payments platform Qiwi picks up investment from Japan’s SBI.
  • Germany corporate pension and life insurance digitization company Xpension raises $27 million (EUR25 million) in Series C funding.
  • Fintechs innovating in ecommerce, payments, and real estate populate EU Startups’ look at top 10 Romanian startups for 2020.

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BankBazaar Adds $3.8 Million to Series D

BankBazaar Adds $3.8 Million to Series D

Indian online financial products marketplace BankBazaar has boosted its current Series D round by $3.8 million. The capital comes from Amazon and Walden SKT Venture Fund, who have joined Sequoia, GUS Holdings, and Eight Roads Investments in the round. This week’s investment adds to the $30 million in Series D funds BankBazaar raised in 2017. Fellow Finovate alum Experian is the lead investor in the round.

The investment is also the second time Amazon has put capital in the company, having contributed $60 million to BankBazaar’s Series C round in 2015. The company’s total funding stands at north of $115 million.

BankBazaar offers consumers instant customized rate quotes on financial products like loans, mutual funds, and insurance. BankBazaar’s platform enables shoppers to compare offers and apply for products online as well as via its mobile app. More than 50 of India’s top financial companies and insurance firms are featured on BankBazaar’s platform, which also provides information on personal finance trends and tips on how consumers can manage their finances better.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Chennai, India, BankBazaar has been a Finovate alum since 2012 when the company demoed its real-time credit processing platform. Last year, the company announced a partnership with furniture and home products marketplace Pepperfry, teamed up with Ujjivan Small Finance Bank for Personal Loans, and added business cards to its offerings courtesy of a collaboration with Yes Bank.

Earlier this year, BankBazaar CEO Adhil Shetty told LiveMint that the company was “on track” to reach profitability in fiscal 2020 and that he was looking to take the company public “in the next few years.” He added that the company has more than 40 million registered customers and recently experienced an average 46% gain in monthly revenue. This was immediately before the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic became clear to many, a topic the company addressed in an open letter last month.

“Digital demand is only going to increase as consumers seek to minimize all physical interactions during and post COVID-19 and we are working on a war footing to ensure people get safe digital access to credit,” Shetty wrote along with co-founders Arjun (COO) and Rati (CPO) Shetty. “We are actively working with leading industry bodies and lenders to develop deeper digital access, something that will become the new normal in a post COVID-19 world.”

SoFi Inks Agreement to Acquire Galileo Financial Technologies

SoFi Inks Agreement to Acquire Galileo Financial Technologies
Photo by James Frid from Pexels

In a cash and stock deal valued at $1.2 billion, online lender and personal finance innovator SoFi has agreed to acquire financial services API and payments platform, Galileo Financial Technologies.

Galileo enables companies to build innovative consumer and B2B fintech services via its suite of open APIs. The company’s technology powers a variety of functions including:

  • account set-up
  • funding
  • direct deposit
  • ACH transfer
  • IVR
  • early paycheck deposit
  • billpay
  • transaction notifications
  • check balance
  • point of sale authorizations

Galileo processed $53+ billion in annualized payment volume in March of this year, more than doubling its September 2019 tally of $26 billion. Notably, SoFi and Galileo are already quite familiar with each other; SoFi’s Sofi Money solution is currently integrated with Galileo’s payments platform and leverages a number of the platform’s account and events functionalities.

Together, the two companies will further combine their efforts to create value for customers of both firms, who will benefit from a feature set that enables them to participate in the transition from “physical-only to a multi-channel digital and physical platform.”

“SoFi has established itself as a leader in the fintech sector, providing our more than one million members a full array of financial products to help them get their money right,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said. He credited SoFi’s members for motivating the company to continue innovating, and for encouraging “bigger, bolder, and more expansive” thinking. “Together with Galileo, we will partner to build on our companies’ strengths to drive even greater financial technology innovation, making those products and services available to both current and future partners.”

Galileo will operate as an independent subsidiary of SoFi, post-acquisition, with Galileo CEO Clay Wilkes remaining on board to continue leading the company. Praising SoFi’s suite of solutions for borrowing, saving, spending, and investing, Wilkes said, “these are products that many of our leading fintech clients are asking for. Distributing products through our enterprise class API is the vision behind this combination. I think it’s very powerful.”

SoFi made its Finovate debut in 2017, partnering with Quovo to present How Quovo and SoFi Perfected Bank Authentication at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. The company, based in San Francisco, California and founded in 2011, has raised $2.5 billion in funding, earning a valuation of $4.3 billion as of May of last year.