Author: David Penn

Xignite Forges Strategic Partnership with XPansion

Xignite Forges Strategic Partnership with XPansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Xignite

Financial markets data provider Xignite has inked a deal with data usage, tracking, and business monitoring software firm Xpansion that will give capital markets customers even better visibility into and management of their data use and expense.

“Market data is a complex environment where vendor fees and commercial licensing models continue to change, putting pressure on buy and sell side firms to control access and costs,” Xignite CEO and founder Stephane Dubois explained. He added that helping customers more efficiently use market data flow was a key element in the company’s goal of “simplifying, the acquisition, management, and dissemination of market data.”

The strategic partnership will enable Xignite to integrate Xpansion’s XMon analytics and reporting functionality into its Market Data Cloud Platform. This will give Xignite customers enhanced business intelligence, analytics, and reporting capabilities, as well as dashboards and reporting tools to help users analyze and control market data use, as well as manage costs across multiple data vendors.

“Clients consume increasing amounts of data and coupling powerful analytics with a robust data distribution platform is essential in today’s data landscape,” XPansion director and co-founder Amjad Zoghbi said. Zoghbi referred to bringing greater transparency and spending controls to the use of market data as the company’s “focus from the beginning.”

XPansion specializes in cloud-based solutions that help data operations and management teams control data usage better, improving both cost-effectiveness and data governance. The company’s flagship XMon Static Data solution delivers real-time tracking of data requested from external data vendors, data flowing between internal applications and systems, and data exiting the firm as in reports or customer exports. Based in London, U.K., XPansion was founded in 2013.

Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Xignite demonstrated its Cloud Add-in solution at FinovateAsia 2017. The add-in caters to the 1.2 billion Excel users worldwide, enabling them to easily and quickly introduce data – including real-time streaming data – into their Excel spreadsheets.

Earlier this month, Xignite announced that it was the first market data vendor to join the Snowflake Data Exchange. This spring, the company was named to the WealthTech 100, along with seven of its clients including fellow Finovate alums eToro and Tradeit. Also this spring, Xignite announced a partnership with StockCharts.com.

Xignite has raised $37.6 million in funding. QUICK Corporation and StarVest Partners are among the company’s investors.

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Email Security Specialist GreatHorn Locks in $13 Million Investment

Email Security Specialist GreatHorn Locks in $13 Million Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, GreatHorn

Email security specialist GreatHorn has raised $13 million in a funding round led by RRE Ventures and .406 Ventures. Existing investors Techstars Ventures, V1.VC, and Uncork Capital also participated in the round, which boosts the firm’s total capital to $21.8 million.

GreatHorn said it will use the new capital to continue its innovation in the email security space. The company offers organizations a 100%, cloud-native platform designed specifically to defend email systems before, during, and after an attack. The technology’s proactive approach blends integrated threat detection, in-the-moment user education, and comprehensive incident response to combat threats ranging from credential theft and email compromise to ransomware and phishing.

“As we continue to meet customer demand and drive the market,” GreatHorn CEO Kevin O’Brien said, “we remain fundamentally interested in redefining email as a secure system for all users, and ensuring that organizations who have adopted cloud email platforms are not relying on outdated perimeter controls or simple user education to protect their most critical assets.”

GreatHorn’s funding news comes as the company celebrates its third consecutive year of 3x revenue growth, as well as its “rapid expansion into the enterprise market.” RRE Ventures General Partner Raju Rishi praised GreatHorn as being among the “category-defining businesses” the firm prefers to invest in. He credited the company for providing an overhaul in the way that organizations think about protecting their email systems.

“GreatHorn has delivered a platform that comprehensively protects enterprises against the rising sophistication of today’s threats,” Rishi said. “We’re excited to support GreatHorn as the company that continues to build upon its current innovation and grow in the enterprise space.”

Founded in 2015, GreatHorn demonstrated its inbound email security platform at FinovateFall 2017. More recently, the Waltham, Massachusetts-based company was awarded a patent for a new method for detecting email impersonation. GreatHorn began the year with news that its latest version was now enabled to detect credential theft involving Microsoft Office 365 and Google G Suite.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, FIS, FreeAgent, HooYu, InComm, iSignthis, Lendio, Personal Capital, Temenos, Xero, Yseop

On Finovate.com

  • InComm Makes Third Acquisition this Year with Purchase of Meridian Loyalty.
  • Email Security Specialist GreatHorn Locks in $13 Million Investment.

Around the web

  • Monzo partners with Xero and Free Agent.
  • Temenos to power digital transformation for Rwanda’s Bank of Kigali.
  • BuiltIn features HooYu in its look at how AI is changing the banking industry.
  • ACI Worldwide teams up with Egyptian Banks Company, which will leverage ACI’s UP Retail Payments solution.
  • Entrepreneur magazine names Lendio Franchising as a Top 100 Franchise for Less Than $50,000 in 2019 and as the Best Financial Services Franchise Brand for the second year in a row.
  • Yseop recognized as a representative vendor in Gartner’s first Market Guide for Natural Language Generation Platforms.
  • Saga selects FIS to deploy its Integrity SaaS solution.
  • iSignthis launches third European office in Gzira, Malta.
  • In June Personal Capital surpasses $10 billion in assets under management, an increase of more than $2 billion since Q4 2018.

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.

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RISQ Teams Up with Aion Digital to Boost SME Lending in MENA

RISQ Teams Up with Aion Digital to Boost SME Lending in MENA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: RISQ

A new partnership between next generation deposit mobilization platform Aion Digital and RISQ Intelligent Financial Software will bring integrated, AI-enabled digital commercial lending to banks in the MENA region.

“With Aion Digital we found a partner which enables us to fully digitize the commercial lending experience,” RISQ CEO and co-founder Michael Jesse said. “Most banks have already digitized their retail banking and the next step is to do the same for SME and commercial banking,” he explained. “Our combined platform is the right fit for the Middle East and the North Africa (MENA) market.”

An alum of FinovateAsia, FinovateAfrica, and FinovateMiddleEast, RISQ provides a variety of digital solutions for banks and financial services companies. The company offers banks a wholesale banking solution that supports treasury, FI, and corporate lending. Its partnership with fellow Finovate alum CRIF enables it to work with financial services firms to enhance their commercial credit assessment processes – from initial data collection through loan contract generation and reporting.

The new solution from RISQ and Aion Digital will leverage Aion’s portal to onboard SME loan applicants, and then use RISQ’s loan processing technology to conduct a comprehensive credit analysis. The entire process from data collection and scoring to loan approval and automatic contract generation is managed by RISQ, which also takes care of servicing the loan, providing annual reviews, collateral revaluation and, if necessary, loan extensions or termination.

A digital mobile platform for lifestyle banking, Aion Digital helps entrepreneurs in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Countries) region build digital banks. With technology designed to work seamlessly with legacy core banking systems, Aion launched its borderless banking solution in April. Earlier this month, the company announced a partnership with the Open Bank Project to provide Bahrainian banks with an API management solution, API catalogue, and API portal with a sandbox environment to help promote fintech innovation and development. Aion Digital was founded in 2017, and is headquartered in Manama, Bahrain. Ashar Nazim is CEO.

Headquartered in Dubai, UAE, RISQ company won its first client, Emirates NBD, within six months of its founding in 2016. Emirates NBD went live with RISQ | FI, RISQ’s all-in-one solution for financial institutions, four months later, and has since rolled out the technology to all its global branches.

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More Than $1.8 Billion Raised by 29 Alums in Q2 2019

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

Our “Best Q2 to Date” just got bested.

Finovate alums raised more than $1.8 billion in new funding in the second quarter of 2019. The Q2 figure from this year surpasses the previous, record-setting second quarter from 2018 by more than $300 million. This year’s amount also represents an increase of more than 3x over our alum funding total of $468 million for Q1.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q2 2018: More than $1.5 billion raised by 37 alums
  • Q2 2017: More than $726 million raised by 25 alums
  • Q2 2016: More than 510 million raised by 23 alums
  • Q2 2015: More than $840 million raised by eight alums

The second quarter of 2019 also marks our fifth billion dollar quarter since 2015.

Previous Billion Dollar Quarters

  • Q2 2018: More than $1.5 billion raised by 37 alums
  • Q1 2018: More than $1.3 billion raised by 26 alums
  • Q3 2017: More than $1 billion raised by 31 alums
  • Q3 2015: More than $1 billion raised by 40 alums

Our biggest fundraising alum for the quarter was financial management platform Sofi – by a mile. But Sofi aside there were still more than a handful of sizable investments in Finovate alums this spring, including four other nine-figure financings in Marqeta, Blend, Dashlane, and multiple-time Best of Show winner MX.

The top ten equity investments for our alums in Q2 totaled $1.35 billion, representing 75% of the quarter’s total funding.

Top Ten Equity Investments for Q2 2019

  • Sofi: $500 million
  • Marqeta: $260 million
  • Blend: $130 million
  • Dashlane: $110 million
  • MX: $100 million
  • Bill.com: $88 million
  • Alkami: $55 million
  • Clinc: $52 million
  • Synapse: $33 million
  • Payfone: $24 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2019.

April 2019: More than $205 million raised by seven alums

May 2019: More than $1.25 billion raised by 11 alums

June 2019: More than $375 million raised by 10 alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2019, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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Blockchain Startup Saga to Deploy Treasury Management Tech from FIS

Blockchain Startup Saga to Deploy Treasury Management Tech from FIS
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FIS

Saga, a startup creating blockchain-based currency for international exchange, has selected FIS to deploy its Integrity SaaS solution to manage the Saga treasury unit’s back office and its reserves, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Saga is backed by reserves held in the most prominent national currencies, replicating the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) by the IMF and deposited in regulated banks in reputable jurisdictions.

The FIS Integrity SaaS solution will support Saga’s treasury unit in managing its reserves among its partner banks. The solution will also support Saga’s treasury requirements, including cash positioning and forecasting, foreign exchange, debt and investment management as well as accounting, compliance and reporting with full connectivity to the treasury ecosystem.

Saga worked with global business consulting leader Deloitte to assist in the selection process.

“FIS offers treasury technology solutions that help corporations and financial institutions modernize their treasury operations and thrive in a constantly evolving environment. We look forward to supporting Saga’s growth strategy globally,” said Steve Evans, head of corporate liquidity and bank treasury, FIS.

The company’s token, SGA, is expected to launch later this year and will rely on reserves hosted in commercial banks. It will be the first-ever cryptocurrency, governed by its shareholders, to introduce monetary tools modeled by economists and researchers from all over the world.

The cryptocurrency will apply banking-standard identification and know-your-client (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) procedures.

Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS most recently demonstrated its Cardless Cash technology at FinovateFall 2016. This year, the company has been on a brisk, partnership-making pace, teaming up with Allegacy FCU in May, partnering with Visa in April, and collaborating with NationalLink in March. FIS announced that it would acquire Worldpay this spring in a $34 billion deal.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Endor, Finantix, FIS, RISQ, Xignite

On Finovate.com

  • RISQ Teams Up with Aion Digital to Boost SME Lending in MENA.
  • More Than $1.8 Billion Raised by 29 Alums in Q2 2019.

Around the web

  • Blockchain startup up Saga to deploy treasury management tech from FIS.
  • Deutsche Bank partners with Finantix to enhance its Wealth Management division’s onboarding and KYC processes.
  • Xignite joins the Snowflake Data Exchange, the first market data vendor to do so.
  • Endor co-founder and CEO Dr. Yaniv Altshuler talks about his background in the crypto space with CryptoNewsZ.

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.

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DriveWealth Democratizes Investing in Nigeria; Meniga Sets Up Shop in Singapore

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daon, DriveWealth, Finovate Global, Meniga, WeInvest

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.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • VTB Factoring and Venture Engineering Lab introduces end-to-end multifactor digital supply chain finance platform, GetFinance, to Russian market.
  • Austrian telecom Hutchison Drei Austria teams up with Revolut to offer prepaid debit cards and banking services.
  • Coinspeaker profiles Slovakian cryptocurrency trading platform, StockPoint.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) announces four new fintech additions to its summer sandbox.
  • Morocco’s CIMR to use Daon to make sure its clients are still living.
  • Beirut, Lebanon-based ecommerce management platform Ecomz raises $4 million in Series A funding.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to build blockchain-based banking platform.
  • New partnership between ICICI Bank and IndoStar Capital Finance to bring financing options to help underserved Indian SMEs purchase commercial vehicles.
  • Fidor Solutions inks memorandum of understanding with Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) to promote fintech innovation in Kazakhstan.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Ingenico ePayments to provide advanced payment services to online Latin American marketplace Linio Colombia.
  • Jamaican wealth manager Proven Wealth to deploy core banking system from ERI.
  • BNAmericas takes a look at the emerging fintech scene in Costa Rica.

Asia-Pacific

  • Japanese payment app Kyash raises $14 million in Series B round led by Goodwater Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.
  • WeInvest sets up shop in Thailand.
  • Singaporean cross-border payments company Instarem to pursue banking license.
  • Meniga opens new office in Singapore.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • DriveWealth to help democratize investing in Nigeria.
  • Ventureburn features eight Kenyan fintech startups “to keep an eye on.”
  • CNBC Africa presents a roundtable discussion on the future of fintech and blockchain technology in Nigeria.

Top image designed by Freepik

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CurrencyCloud Raises New Capital in Series E

CurrencyCloud Raises New Capital in Series E
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Currency Cloud, Funding

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).

TechCrunch reported 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.

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Canada’s Sensibill Closes $31.5 Million Series B

Canada’s Sensibill Closes $31.5 Million Series B
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Sensibill

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.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: aixigo, Anorak, Avaloq, Meniga, nCino, NDGIT, nextmarkets, Nutmeg, The ID Co.

Around the web

  • Meniga opens new office in Singapore.
  • nCino announces expansion to Canada, opens doors on new Toronto, Ontario office.
  • Avaloq acquires structured products and derivatives data provider Derivative Partners.
  • Singapore’s Fintech News features aixigo, Nutmeg, and nextmarkets in its look at top European wealthtech solutions “that Singaporean banks should know.”
  • Anorak teams up with protection and mortgage advice company Albany Park.
  • NDGIT announces 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.

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Kabbage Secures $200 Million Credit Facility

Kabbage Secures $200 Million Credit Facility
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

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.

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