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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Paysendannounces its new stablecoin will be available on the Stellar Network in June.
LoanScorecardforges partnership with Calyx Software, merging its SimpleCECL solution with Calyx’s Path LOS.
Digital Onboarding will join Best of Show winners Voleo and Neener Analytics as part of the fourth annual FIS Fintech Accelerator program.
Chartis Research recognizesFICO as a category leader in AI for Financial Services.
Judo Bank of Australia goes live with Temenos’ T24.
Xerolaunches new feature in the Xero Projects iOS app that suggests project time based on geolocation
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.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based financial supermarket GoBear scoops up $80 million in new funding.
Wiprobuilds prototype for central bank digital currency project in Thailand.
Chinese fintech Pintec Technology opens international headquarters in Singapore.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payment startup, raiseded $2.4 million in funding – including a contribution from football Hall of Famer Joe Montana’s Liquid 2 Ventures.
Central Bank of Kenya and the Monetary Authority of Singapore to launch the first Afro-Asia Fintech Festival.
Remoney winsInnovation in Lending award at the Nigerian Fintech Awards.
It’s been great to be back in the city by the bay!
After two days of live fintech demos, the attendees of FinovateSpring here in San Francisco have made their selections as to which fintech products, services, and solutions were interesting, impressive, and innovative enough to earn one of our coveted Best of Show awards.
From solutions to help consumers better access credit to technologies that bolster the fight against fraud to “Is this @#$% real?!” demonstrations of AI-powered agents that sound – and feel – as real as any human, this year’s Best of Show winners are truly in a class of their own.
Arkose Labs for its technology that solves multi-million dollar fraud problems for the world’s most targeted businesses with zero impact to user conversion. Video.
Blytzpay for its text-to-pay solution that makes billing and communication simple, streamlined, and secure, while providing flexibility to pay by card, check, or cash. Video.
BlueRush for Individeo, an interactive and personalized video platform for financial institutions to drive online sales success. Video.
Everplans for its solution that helps advisors create better interactions, establish new connections, strengthen relationships, and gain introductions to heirs. Video.
Glia (formerly SaleMove) for its technology that creates digital-first moments that simplify and transform communication between companies and their customers using messaging, video/voice, co-browsing, and AI. Video.
Invest Sou Sou for its smart social banking account designed to help community banks cultivate low-cost deposits and credit-ready borrowers in a secure and cost-efficient way. Video.
Neener Analytics for its regulatory compliant social media analytics platform that delivers specific individual risk outcomes for thin-file, no-file, and credit-challenged consumers. Video.
Voca AI for its smart, human, and empathetic virtual call center agent for financial institutions and service providers. Video.
A thousand thanks to all our demoing companies, our sponsors and partners, and, most importantly, our awesome attendees whose passion and enthusiasm for fintech innovation makes our events all the more engaging and entertaining. We’ll see you next year!
Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The eight companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2018 conferences are below:
The final day of FinovateSpring’s four-day fintech fest has arrived. After a Summit Day focused on the customer experience and artificial intelligence, and two days of live fintech demos, Friday is a day of deep dives and insightful discussions into the present and future of fintech innovation.
We’ve provided an overview of what we’ve got in store for you below. Remember that registration opens at 8am on Friday. So be sure to arrive early, grab a little breakfast, and visit with our sponsors and partners in the networking area before we begin.
8:35am Expert Insight: Review of the FinovateSpring Demos – What Do They Tell Us About Fintech’s Cutting Edge
8:50am Keynote Address: The Rise of the Machines – The Artificial Intelligence and the Road to Superintelligence. What Will AI Mean for the Future of Financial Services – And the Future of Work?
9:30am Power Panel: Which Artificial Intelligence Technologies Will Really Change Financial Services?
10:00am Morning Coffee & Networking
10:30am Fireside Chat: Improving the Financial Health of America’s 100 Million Credit Underserved Consumers
10:45am C-Suite Digital Change Leaders Debate: How Can Financial Institutions Capture the Fintech Opportunity & Collaborate with New Players to Transform Customer Experience
11:20am Special Address: Simplifying & Securing Digital Commerce through Tokenization
11:35am Fireside Chat: How Are Regulators Approaching Cryptocurrencies?
11:50am Strategy Roundtable: The Evolving Role of Cybersecurity – Are Banks Treating Technology Risks as Extensions of Their Businesses?
Analyst Insight: Next Generation Banking – What is the Next Phase of the Digital Banking Revolution
Fireside Chat: Open Banking is Coming! How Will it Change Banking Forever?
Leaders Debate: How New Players, New Platforms, and New Technologies Will Transform Digital Banking. Is There a Role for the Branch in the Digital World?
Online and mobile billpay innovator doxo has announced a new integration with financial services data and insights network – and fellow Finovate alum – Plaid – that will help consumers avoid overdraft charges when paying bills via doxo’s service.
“doxo’s mission is to massively simplify bill payment and reduce anxiety of failed payments and overdraft fees,” doxo CEO and co-founder and Steve Shivers said. “Through this new integration with Plaid, we’re now providing real-time bank balance, at the time of every payment, to help our users avoid those fees. Now users can better time their payments to align with their bank balance, or switch to alternative payment accounts like credit cards when needed.”
In addition to providing transparency, better organization, and less stress for consumers, doxo believes billers will benefit from the improved confidence they will have for each incoming payment. Billers who join doxo’s payment network will be able to add the overdraft protection feature as a user benefit easily, without complexity or expense.
doxo will make the new solution available initially as a beta offering for a limited group. The company anticipates expanding access to all of its customers beginning in June.
“Account overdraft is a huge problem in the U.S. that could be solved in part with more tools that provide real-time insight into consumers’ own bank accounts,” Plaid Head of Sales Paul Williamson said. “Solutions that give people transparency into their financial life are a real win for consumers and can make a serious impact on their ability to understand and manage money.”
doxo made its first Finovate appearance in 2011, demonstrating the web-based Control Panel interface of its technology, and returned to the Finovate stage this week as part of FinovateSpring. Plaid is an alum of our developers conference, presentingPlaid: API for Financial Infrastructure at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014.
San Francisco, California-based Plaid was founded in 2013. The company began 2019 with a major acquisition, purchasing rival and fellow Finovate/FinDEVr alum Quovo for $200 million. Named to the Forbes Fintech 50 in February, Plaid has raised more than $309 million in funding from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures, Spark Capital, and Goldman Sachs Investment Partners.
Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, doxo launched itsdoxoINSIGHTS report last month. DoxoINSIGHTS is an anonymized, crowdsourced report on household expense data from the largest 25 metropolitan areas of the U.S.
In March, doxo added Apple Pay as a billpay option for its customers – the same month the company announced a partnership with R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company to provide the firm’s clients with access to doxo’s electronic billpay solutions. Winner of a Gold Stevie award from the American Business Awards last year, doxo serves more than 2.5 million users who make payments to more than 45,000 local and national businesses.
doxo has raised $18.8 million in funding, and includes Sigma Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and Mohr Davidow Ventures among its investors.
Two of the hottest trends in fintech – AI technology and the prioritization of the customer experience – will be the focus of our special, pre-FinovateSpring Summit Day, that begins Monday morning here at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square on O’Farrell Street in San Francisco, California.
Our Summit Day will feature two parallel tracks – one focused on AI and the other dedicated to the customer experience – that will include keynote addresses, case studies, panel discussions, and debates all designed to help conference attendees better understand how these trends are shaping technology in general and fintech in specific.
Here’s a look at what we’ve got in store for you today. For more about our Summit Day speakers and topics, check out our previews for both the AI and CX summits.
Artificial Intelligence Summit
8:15am – 9am – Registration, Breakfast, and Networking
9:05am – 9:30am – Keynote Address: How Artificial Intelligence Will Transform the Financial Services Industry
9:30am – 9:50am – Special Address from an AI Pioneer: Making AI Walk the Talk
9:50am – 10:30am – Strategy Roundtable: Transforming Legacy Businesses with AI – Machine Learning is King Now But Image, Voice, and Natural Language Processing Are Coming Up Fast. What are the Internal Challenges? The Ethical Challenges? And the Business Opportunities?
9:05am – 9:30am – Keynote Address: The Evolution of Innovation: Build, Buy, Or Partner?
9:30am – 9:50am – Analyst Insight: Return on CX – 80% of the Potential ROI is Left Untapped
9:50am – 10:30am – Strategy Roundtable: How Can Financial Institutions Transform Customer Experience through Deep Customer Insights? Why Powerful Data Analytics Will Be Critical for Success?
11:00am – 11:25am – Fireside Chat with a Fintech Founder: How to Innovate on Behalf of the Customer & to Build a Business Around their Needs to Drive Loyalty and Sustained Growth
11:25am – 11:45am – Presentation: Customer Experience Promise vs. Reality: Getting to Measurable Impact
11:45am – 12:25pm – Leaders Debate: How to Align Your Whole Organization to a Common Customer Purpose & to Harness Future Tech to Redraw the Customer Experience Landscape
12:25pm – 1:25pm – Lunch & Networking Break
1:25pm – 1:45pm – Fireside Chat: Creating a Seamless Digital Customer Experience
Digital advice solutions provider Jemstep announced today that its Jemstep Advisor Pro app is now live on the Salesforce AppExchange. The app can be used by advisors working with the company’s Advisor Pro digital advice platform, and is configured for Lightning and Financial Services Cloud as well as Sales and Service Cloud.
The new app will make it easier for wealth management companies who want to provide more personalized, 24/7 service to their clients. And by leveraging Salesforce, the solution is a boon for Jemstep’s enterprise customers, enabling them to access the data that will drive better, more meaningful engagement with both current and potential clients.
“Jemstep embraces collaborations to unify the digital advice experience for banks, broker-dealers, insurers, and RIAs,” Jemstep President and CEO Simon Roy explained. “Combining the modern, goal-based investing experience of Jemstep Advisor Pro with Salesforce’s extensive CRM capabilities results in an intelligent and scalable enterprise class digital platform for advisors supporting personalized solutions for investors.”
The new app from Jemstep will also help wealth management firms and advisors grow assets under management. The Salesforce integration, for example, gives advisors a broader, more comprehensive view of the investor-customer’s financial profile, including the ability to “engage retail banking clients in wealth management solutions.” As such, the app and integration support a “more targeted and scalable approach” with regards to attracting new clients and reaching out to current ones.
In addition to lower the cost of servicing clients, the Jemstep Advisor Pro app makes it easier for wealth managers to get investor information and data to advisors and back office teams more readily. Being able to onboard new clients in 10 minutes or less is another plus for the platform and app, leveraging straight-through processing and deep custodian integrations to make opening and managing accounts straightforward and seamless.
“We are excited to welcome Jemstep to Salesforce AppExchange and into the Financial Services Cloud ecosystem,” SVP and GM for Financial Services at Salesforce Rohit Mahna said. “We look forward to watching Jemstep continue to build innovative solutions that empower financial advisors to deliver the best client experience.”
Jemstep was founded in 2008, and is headquartered in Los Altos, California. The company demonstrated its Portfolio Manager at FinovateSpring 2013 and, three years later, was acquired by Invesco for an undisclosed sum. More recently, Jemstep has forged partnerships FIs like KeyBank, which deployed the company’s Advisor Pro solution in 2017.
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.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazil’s central bank issues open banking guidelines for the country.
Crunchbase News looks at VC funding trends in Latin America and their impact on fintech investment.
LATAM Tech explores Argentina’s investment in blockchain technology.
Asia-Pacific
ACI Worldwide to help Indonesia interbank network ALTO to expand its payment capabilities.
China makes moves to ease cross-border ecommerce settlement.
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Central Bank of Canada team up to trial DLT technology for cross border payments.
Sub-Saharan Africa
ESI Africa reports on the potential for fintech to drive economic growth in Africa.
Kenya’s 4G Capital, a financial services solution provider for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) opens offices in Uganda.
Fintech News Switzerland profiles the fintech scene in South Africa.
Central and Eastern Europe
Token helps drive Open Banking with new Sberbank Croatia partnership.
Lithuanian fintech Paysera announces plans to raise €2.5 million in a security token offering.
Banks in Hungary and Slovakia choose core banking technology from Oracle Financial Services.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Fenergoworking with Bahrain’s Electronic Network for Financial Transactions to design and implement a KYC solution that incorporates blockchain technology.
FinovateSpring is right around the corner! Our week of live fintech demos, insightful discussions, and passionate debates is one of the best – and most entertaining – ways to get up to speed on everything you need to know about the state of fintech today.
With a special, pre-show Summit Day on Tuesday, May 7, FinovateSpring begins on May 8 and runs through Friday the 10th. Our annual spring conference will be held at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, where we’re looking forward to a fun and informative four days focused exclusively on fintech innovation.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as you plan your trip to the Bay Area.
Registration for both the main, three-day conference, as well as for our special Summit Day on Tuesday, May 7, is quick and easy. Discounts are available for groups, representatives of governmental/regulatory agencies, startups, and attendees registering for both the main conference and the Summit Day. Check out our registration page for more details.
Back at the Bay
FinovateSpring returns to San Francisco for the first time since 2013. This year our spring conference will be held in the heart of the city at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square on O’Farrell Street. The venue is less than an hour away from the main Bay Area airports, as well as shops, restaurants, and a variety of entertainment venues.
Live Demos and Deep Dives
FinovateSpring begins Wednesday morning, May 10, and continues through Friday afternoon. The first two days of the conference will feature our presenting companies as they demonstrate their latest technologies live on our stage.
On Friday, we will invite the fintech experts to take over and have them put into context the innovations that have been on display over the past few days. We’ve prepared a full day of keynote addresses, debates, fireside chats, and panel discussions on a wide range of critical trends and themes in fintech.
This year we will also feature a special, pre-FinovateSpring Summit Day on Tuesday. This Summit Day consists of two tracks: one focusing on the evolving role of the customer experience in fintech and the other examining the rise of artificial intelligence as an enabling technology in the industry. We’re looking forward to the conversations with and insights from our speakers in both of these tracks.
With all we’ve got planned for FinovateSpring next week, we are thrilled to be back in San Francisco for this year’s conference. If you’ve got any questions about the event, check out the FAQ section on our FinovateSpring page or contact us directly.
The new mobile app from Paysend, Paysend Link, enables users to send money to anyone, anywhere, with just the recipient’s mobile phone number.
“We are constantly looking for ways to simplify and improve (the) customer experience and make it even easier for the sender to initiate a transaction,” Paysend CEO Ronald Millar said. “Now all they have to do is provide a recipient’s phone number and click send.”
Available in the iOS and Google Play app stores, PaySend Link enables fund recipients to see the incoming transfer and direct it to their Visa, Mastercard, or UnionPay card. The recipient can then immediately use the funds for transactions or withdraw the funds as cash at any ATM. PaySend added that it will make fund transfers directly to bank accounts available “soon.”
Millar pointed out that one of the advantages of PaySend Link is that it doesn’t require the exchange of personal information. “This sets a new standard when it comes to security and safety of customer data and financial information shared across borders,” Millar said. “What’s more – it’s a recipient who decides where they want to direct the incoming transfer to – their bank account, debit, or credit card.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, Paysend demonstrated its Global Account at FinovateSpring 2018. The account enables users to store fiat and crypto currencies, move funds between different currencies, transfer funds to other Global accounts or crypto wallets, and make purchases online or in-person. The account also comes with a prepaid card (both physical and virtual) to facilitate in person transactions and make cash withdrawals.
Earlier this year, the company announced that it would support money transfers to bank accounts in 34 European countries. Paysend began 2019 with news that it had forged a payments partnership with Vietcombank. The company has raised $20 million in funding, and includes MARCorp Financial and Digital Space Ventures among its investors.
A new straight through processing technology platform for alternative investments from WealthForge will make it easier for advisors and sponsors to manage alternative investment transactions for their clients and partners. The solution, Altigo, leverages automation to improve accuracy and save time in what the company called a typically “lengthy, error-prone, paper-based process.”
WealthForge CEO Bill Robbins cited the “poor experience” most customers face when trying to invest in alternative assets as one reason why interest in alternative investing remains limited among higher net worth clients. “If straight through processing provides a stable foundation for alternative investments, as it has for other asset classes, ” Robbins said, “then we can expect it to expand the pie for everyone involved.”
Errors in alternative investment subscriptions are a major issue. In its statement, WealthForge cited industry analysis that indicated that up to 60% of subscriptions are deemed not-in-good-order (NIGO), and require some correction before the transaction can be processed. This correction process can result in per document costs climbing by as much as 4x, the company noted.
Altigo is being offered to sponsors who then can make the platform available to their distribution partners. WealthForge announced that Cantor Fitzgerald is Altigo’s first major sponsor, and that advisor-focused functionality will be added to the platform later in 2019.
Jay Frank, Head of Distribution at Cantor Fitzgerald Capital, pointed to a variety of ways Altigo will help make operations more efficient for all parties involved. “Consistent with our leadership position in the industry, improving the investor, advisor, and back office experience is a key focus as we continue to scale our unique solution set of real estate and cash management programs,” Frank said.
WealthForge demonstrated its WealthForge Network at FinovateSpring 2016. The Network makes private capital markets more efficient by enabling issuers to display offerings to registered intermediaries, and by providing a branded online investment process for investors. In 2018, WealthForge announced that it has processed more than $500 in capital investments on its platform.
A member of both the WealthTech 100 and the Inc. 5000, WealthForge was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The company has raised $5.2 million in funding courtesy of investors including NRV and SenaHill Partners.
Pacific National Bank (PNB), with nearly $500 million in assets, has selected technology solutions provider NYMBUS to support the infrastructure and operations of its new digital-only bank. PNB will leverage NYMBUS’ SmartLaunch solution to bring a seamless online and mobile banking experience to Florida’s Millennial professionals.
PNB CEO Carlos Fernandez-Guzman underscored that the process of deploying the new bank will be as smooth and effortless as the user experience PNB hopes to provide. “In less than 90 days, and without disruption or cost to our existing bank infrastructure, SmartLaunch will provide all the necessary technology, resources, and digital marketing support to ensure our digital bank gets maximum exposure to reach and acquire a new audience of tech-savvy young professionals,” Fernandez-Guzman explained. Pacific National Bank was established in 1985 and is the 19th largest bank headquartered in Miami-Dade County, Florida based on assets.
SmartLaunch enables FIs to offer a customized digital-only banking experience without the need to add human resources or undergo a major conversion process. The Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution is built on NYMBUS’ digital-first SmartCore platform to eliminate the need for the bank to pursue a technology overhaul. Everything from the customer-facing call center and back office operations to digital marketing is provided by the platform.
NYMBUS President David Mitchell said the technology helps “level the playing field,” making it easier for smaller banks and credit unions to compete with the offerings of their larger rivals. Solutions like SmartLaunch, Mitchell said, will enable PNB to “focus on (its) core business while NYMBUS handles the entire back-office, operations and world-class digital marketing support to get its new digital-only bank up and running quickly.”
NYMBUS demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2016. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, the company announced last month that it will partner with MOXY, the first new financial institution in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area in more than 10 years.
Inspire Federal Credit Union went live with NYMBUS’ SmartCore platform in March and, last fall, TransPecos Banks picked the company to launch its new digital bank brand, BankMD.com. With more than $33 million in funding, the company includes Home Credit Group and Vensure Enterprises among its investors.
