This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Currencycloud is believed to have raised around $40 million (£32 million) in the first part of a Series E funding round, Jane Connolly writes in Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
TechCrunchreported that the London-based company, which provides an API and service for cross-border payments, plans to follow tranche one with more funding in the next two or three months.
According to TechCrunch’s sources, Goldman Sachs is rumored to be taking part, along with other possible investors GV and Santander. Currencycloud has declined to comment.
Currencycloud undertook a Series A round in 2011. The company operates across Europe, the U.S. and Canada, and includes Visa, Starling Bank, Standard Bank South Africa, Travelex and Klarna among its clients.
With offices in Amsterdam and New York, Currencycloud demonstrated its technology most recently at FinovateSpring 2018.
Toronto-based fintech, Sensibill, has raised $31.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Radical Ventures, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
Previous investors Information Venture Partners and First Ascent Ventures joined National Bank of Canada and others in the round.
This latest round takes the total raised to $46.5 million for Sensibill, which provides receipt management for mobile banking apps. Sensibill will use the funds to advance its AI-assisted decisioning and pursue its mission of unlocking the value of purchase data.
The company aims to offer contextual advice to users and says it is working with over 30 major banks in the U.S., U.K. and Canada – including Bank of Nova Scotia, Royal Bank of Scotland Group and FIS.
“We’re helping champion the future of work,” said Corey Gross, co-founder and CEO of Sensibill. “That means supporting small business owners, freelancers and entrepreneurs – they’re the fastest growing segment and the most underserved by banks.”
He added: “What we’re trying to do at Sensibill is bridge the gap between what banks are good at today, and where they need to be in five or ten years to protect their relationships from disruption. Tools beyond core banking, an incredible customer experience and meaningful customer insights for banks – that’s what we bring to the table.”
Jordan Jacobs, co-founder and managing partner at Radical Ventures, commented: “This is a classic story of an under-the-radar company from Toronto with fantastic data-driven, customer-facing AI solutions being used by a who’s who of global Tier 1 banks.”
Since its last funding round, Sensibill has more than doubled its workforce and opened a U.K. office.
Sensibill demonstrated its Receipts for Microbusinesses solution at FinovateEurope 2018 – in partnership with NatWest. Founded in 2013, the company was featured last month in Startup Here Toronto and this spring announced that it was chosen to participate in the incoming cohort of startups for Plug and Play’s Fintech Europe accelerator program.
nCinoannounces expansion to Canada, opens doors on new Toronto, Ontario office.
Avaloqacquires structured products and derivatives data provider Derivative Partners.
Singapore’s Fintech News featuresaixigo, Nutmeg, and nextmarkets in its look at top European wealthtech solutions “that Singaporean banks should know.”
Anorakteams up with protection and mortgage advice company Albany Park.
NDGITannounces new strategic customer in Portuguese challenger bank, Banco BNI Europa.
The ID Co. joins North American division of the Financial Data & Technology Association (FDATA).
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
To help support its rapid growth, online SME lender Kabbage has closed a $200 million revolving credit facility. The financing comes courtesy of an unnamed subsidiary of a life insurance firm, and was managed and administered by 20 Gates Management and Atalaya Capital Management. The funding adds to the $700 million securitization Kabbage announced earlier this year, and marks the longest period of committed debt funding for the company.
“This transaction further diversifies Kabbage’s committed sources of funding and prepares us to meet the escalating demand for capital access among small businesses,” Kabbage Head of Capital Markets Deepesh Jain said. He called 2019 a “tide-shifting year,” citing the more than $670 million customers accessed via Kabbage in the second quarter.
Kabbage provides SMEs with a line of credit of up to $250,000 with six-, 12-, and 18-month term options available. Businesses can apply for funding online via Kabbage’s mobile app and get a decision in as little as ten minutes. Since it was founded in 2009, the company has provided more than 185,000 U.S. small businesses access to more than $7 billion in capital.
Atlanta, Georgia-based Kabbage demonstrated its Kabbage Card at FinovateSpring 2015. The card enables small business owners to take their Kabbage line of credit with them to make purchases for inventory or supplies wherever they are. The company is also a veteran of our developers conference, presenting its automated lending platform at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2015.
Featured last month in CEO World’s look at companies that are fighting for fair lending, Kabbage teamed up with online banking platform Azlo in May to launch a new financing program for SMEs called Mission Street Capital. Also in May, the company announced a partnership with the Building Trades Employers’ Association to help provide funding to female and minority-owned business contractors.
Two of Finovate’s earliest alums – Jack Henry and Geezeo – are joining forces in an acquisition announced today. The deal will enable Jack Henry to sell Geezeo’s financial management solutions to its core bank and credit union customers, as well as offer Geezeo’s technology to its non-core clientele working with the company’s ProfitStars division.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“We’ve already enjoyed a long relationship with Jack Henry & Associates, so we’re thrilled by this acquisition,” said Shawn Ward, Geezeo co-founder and CEO. “We look forward to what comes next as Jack Henry continues to build best-in-class digital platforms for financial institutions.”
Jack Henry made its Finovate debut in 2010. Geezeo’s first Finovate appearance was even earlier, at FinovateFall in 2007. The two companies have been “strong business partners” for years, according to Jack Henry VP Ron Moses who praised Geezeo as a company that “takes personal financial management (PFM) to the next level” – in part by leveraging data to build better relationships between FIs and their customers.
“The result is better control for consumers and businesses over their daily and long-term finances so they can achieve greater financial confidence,” Moses said.
Jack Henry sees Geezeo as a company that has effectively evolved beyond its origins as a PFM solution provider into a “critical data partner” for banks, credit unions, financial service providers, and other fintechs. The company seamlessly integrates its technology into client digital banking platforms to help support better customer engagement, drive more effective cross-selling, and leverage data to provide deeper insights into customer preferences.
Founded in 2006, Geezeo demonstrated its PFM technology at FinovateFall 2014. In addition to partners like Alliant, Suncoast Credit Union, and Regions, Geezeo announced last fall that Best Innovation Group would use its SDK to add PFM functionality to their Financial Innovation Voice Experience (FIVE) voice banking platform. Also last year, Geezeo released its Responsive Tiles product that gives credit unions and banks a new way to readily incorporate PFM into mobile and online digital banking platforms.
A three-time winner of Forbes Best Large Employers award, Jack Henry & Associates is the primary technology partner for more than a 1,000 financial institutions ranging from credit unions and community banks to billion-dollar mid-tier banks and multi-bank holding companies. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Monett, Missouri, Jack Henry trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol JKHY and has a market capitalization of $10 billion. The company demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2015.
Courtesy of a new partnership with Sigma Securities and Trove Technologies, global digital trading technology specialist DriveWealth is launching a new digital U.S. equities trading product for retail investors in Nigeria.
“Making U.S. securities available to investors of any size in countries all around the globe is an essential element of the mission of DriveWealth,” company CEO Robert Cortright said. “We are delighted to work with Sigma Securities and Trove Technologies on this effort to democratize investing in Nigeria by bringing to its retail investors the largest and most liquid, transparent financial market.”
Sigma Securities is a leading Nigerian brokerage firm, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Lagos. Trove Technologies is a financial app developer based in Nigeria that offers investors the ability to purchase stakes in U.S., Chinese, and Nigerian stocks, as well as government bonds and U.S. exchange-traded funds with as little as $2.80 (NGN1,000).
Leaders from both Sigma Securities and Trove Technologies highlighted the way the partnership would help “(break) through the trading barriers” in the words of Sigma Securities CEO Dunama Balami and “eliminate the longstanding bottlenecks” according to Trove Technologies CEO Oluwatomi Solanke. “Our partnership with DriveWealth and Sigma Securities brings the world’s largest stock market to Nigerian investors, regardless of spending power,” Solanke said. Balami referred to the partnership as “a groundbreaking feat” for the Nigerian capital markets.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Chatham, New Jersey, DriveWealth demonstrated its platform at FinovateAsia 2016, following its Best of Show winning demo at FinovateEurope earlier that year. The company provides a suite of APIs that enable global investors to participate in the U.S. stock market at a reasonable cost, including the ability to purchase fractional shares. DriveWealth offers both digital investment products to help brokerages around the world provide broader options for their clients, as well as dollar-based, real-time investing via its brokerage service.
Recent headlines for DriveWealth include a collaboration with Investor Cash Management announced in May, in which DriveWealth will power new white-label cash management accounts that are linked to government money market and ultra-short term bond funds. DriveWealth began the year with an announcement that it would expand its partnership with Stake to bring commission-free trading in U.S. stocks and ETFs to investors in South America.
With clients and partners in more than 140 countries around the world, DriveWealth has raised $29.4 million in funding. The company includes Route 66 Ventures, Raptor Group, SBI Group, and Point72 Ventures among its investors.
DXC Technology and Zafin have announced a partnership that will bring a standard connector between the former’s, Hogan core system and Celeriti’s digital banking front-end, and the latter’s product and pricing control solutions, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
The tie-up would enable the Hogan and Celeriti user base to externalize product and pricing control, thereby accelerating speed-to-market for new solutions, with additional capabilities such as relationship pricing and better control and governance.
The Hogan and Celeriti systems were derived from the CSC part of the merger with the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett-Packard that created DXC Technology in April 2017. They now reside within a DXC subsidiary, DXC Celeriti (CeleritiFinTech until recently). The Hogan system is one of the oldest on the market, launched as a mid- to high-end retail offering at the end of the 1970s. There is now a fairly small, largely US-centric user base.
Phil Walton, vice-president and general manager, DXC Celeriti, said: “We’re always looking for ways to help our clients meet the ever-increasing expectations for personalized banking services. Zafin enhances the relevance, precision and agility of their pricing strategies.”
Toronto-based, Zafin, was set up in 2002 and earlier this year raised $17.2 million in private growth financing led by Vistara Capital Partners, Beedie Capital and Accenture Ventures. It claims 30+ retail and commercial banks as clients.
Zafin demonstrated its enterprise banking platform at FinovateFall 2017.
Fiservunveils its new mobile bill presentment solution.
Digital identity solutions company Signicatacquires Norway’s Idfy.
Blackhawk Networkannounces payments industry veteran and former InComm executive Mark Singer as its new APAC Managing Director.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Capetown, South Africa-based digital lender Lulalend raises $6.5 million in Series A.
Techpoint Africa looks at how fintechs are “democratizing investment opportunities” for Nigerians across the income spectrum.
The Catalyst Fund announces that three Africa-based fintechs – Turaco, Chipper Cash, and Salutat – will join its accelerator program.
Central and Eastern Europe
Estonia’s Tallinn Business Bank (TBB) partners with Icefire and Token to deliver PSD2 compliance.
Cointelegraph profiles Warsaw, Poland’s Alior Bank leverages Ethereum blockchain to authenticate client documents.
Polish Netflix subscribers will soon be able to pay for their viewing via the country’s Blik payment system.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Bahrain’s Bank ABC partners with Jumio, making it the first bank in the MENA region to offer biometric-based, digital KYC.
Egypt’s Banque du Caire to deploy omni-channel banking technology from Temenos.
Wamda interviews Elie Nasr founder of Lebanese fintech startup FOO.
Central and Southern Asia
The Bank of Mongolia will implement Intellect Design Arena’s Quantum Central Banking Solution as part of its digital transformation.
Indian SME-based neobank Open raises $30 million in Series B funding.
India’s Wizely introduces a new mobile savings account.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Contxto looks at the current fintech landscape of Mexico.
How will Facebook’s Libra project impact Latin America?
BBVAannounces major changes to mortgage portfolio, including a rate reduction.
Asia-Pacific
U.K. regtech firm ClauseMatch teams up with Singapore-based consultancy Ingenia, the company’s first client in the country.
Axinan to work with PT Sompo Insurance to provide on-demand insurance options to Indonesian millennials.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore to issue as many as five new digital bank licenses.
A just-announced partnership between TIBCO Software and Ping Identity will provide companies with new AI-powered defenses against emerging API threats. The collaboration will integrate TIBCO’s API Management Platform, TIBCO Cloud Mashery, with Ping Identity’s PingIntelligence for APIs to extend and enhance the platform’s API security with AI-enabled threat mitigation and decoy API deception.
TIBCO Cloud Mashery provides a wide variety of API security features including advanced authentication, bot detection, white and blacklisting, and access controls. The integration of PingIntelligence for APIs is designed to provide companies with a comprehensive API security solution that enables them to confidently pursue digital transformation goals and open banking initiatives.
Vice President for Product Marketing and Strategy for TIBCO Rajeev Kozhikkattathodi noted that the growing reliance on APIs can be a problem for companies that fail to take a standardized approach to securing data that is exposed by APIs. “As the API attack surface continues to expand due to the strategic value of APIs,” he said, “a new generation of threats will similarly continue to emerge. We’re excited to partner with Ping Identity to improve security measures for enterprises with sensitive corporate data.”
Ping Identity CTO Bernard Harguindeguy echoed Kozhikkattathodi’s emphasis on the connection between the opportunity and risk of the API Age. “Companies’ most sensitive digital assets, including their customer data, are increasingly made accessible via APIs, and protecting this infrastructure from abuses and cyber attacks must be the top priority for CISOs and CIOs everywhere,” Harguindeguy said. “Our partnership with TIBCO brings AI-powered protection to boost the security of API infrastructures and help organizations everywhere secure their data and applications behind APIs.”
TIBCO is a two-time veteran of our FinovateAsia conference, most recently demonstratingInnovative Payment Solutions for temporary, “in the moment” payment contexts at FinovateAsia 2013. In April of this year, the company appointed a new CEO, Dan Streetman, and in June, TIBCO introduced a set of enhancements to a variety of solutions – including TIBCO Cloud Mashery – to help developers negotiate common pain points in mixed cloud environments. Named a leader in iPaaS and hybrid integration platforms by Forrester for Q1 2019, the company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.
Founded in 2003 and based in Denver, Colorado, Ping Identity demonstrated its PingFederate enterprise-grade authentication and single sign-on authority at FinovateEurope 2012. Earlier this month, the company unveiled a new framework and guidance to help companies adopt Zero Trust security strategies. In May, Ping Identity announced a partnership with Citrix Analytics and in March, the company was recognized at the 2019 SC Awards, winning the Best Identity Management Solution category. Ping Identity began the year noting that 12 of the biggest U.S. banks by assets use its Intelligent Identity Platform for identity and access management.
Both TIBCO and Ping Identity are recent acquisitions of Vista Equity Partners. TIBCO was taken private in 2014 in a deal valued at $4.3 billion. Ping Identity was purchased by the same Austin, Texas-based private equity firm in 2016 for $600 million.
Ping Identity and TIBCOPartner to Provide Advanced API Security Solutions
Around the web
ThetaRaywins the Software & Applications – Analytics category of the 2019 Fortress Cyber Security Awards.
Artivestappoints Karl Jaeger as Chief Financial Officer.
Arkansas Money & Politics features Finovate Best of Show winner Invest Sou Sou.
Beyond Protection highlightsEnzoic in its list of top leading cyber security solution providers.
Onfido to help lead new identity verification and binding working group of The Fido Alliance.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Hot on the heels of its latest partnership announcements with advisor technology platform Capitect and Morningstar, Shelton, Connecticut’s RightCapital has another integration to celebrate, this time with wealth management platform, CircleBlack.
“We are excited to have RightCapital’s financial planning software integrated into CircleBlack,” company CEO John Michel said. “With our client app, held-away accounts added just once by the client push to RightCapital, giving advisors an incredible leg up in creating a full-picture plan.” Michel added that the integration among other things makes it easy for financial advisors to move back and forth between client portfolios on CircleBlack and their portfolios on RightCapital.
RightCapital provides financial and tax planning solutions to help advisors build holistic retirement plans for their clients. The technology leverages advanced Monte Carlo simulations, optimizes Social Security, and offers tax-efficient drawdown strategies and Roth conversions. RightCapital also helps users of its platform manage tax liabilities, budgets, and debt retirement strategies. Courtesy of the integration with CircleBlack, advisors will be able to automatically update client data and account values in RightCapital’s platform from CircleBlack.
“We are thrilled to partner with an innovative company like CircleBlack,” RightCapital CEO and co-founder Shuang Chen said. “RightCapital is committed to helping advisors grow their business, and our robust platform integration now enables advisors working with CircleBlack to deliver differentiated value to their clients.”
RightCapital was founded in 2015. The company demonstrated its API and enterprise solution at FinovateSpring last month. The technology enables financial management firms to deliver customized solutions that support and drive customer acquisition, education, and engagement.
In addition to its recent partnerships with Capitec and Morningstar, RightCapital announced that it had integrated with LPL Financial, an independent broker/dealer with 16,000 advisors in its network, in April; and partnered with Independent Financial Group in March.
RigthCapital has raised $8.6 million in funding. The company includes Camellia Venture Capital among its investors.
