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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Merchant acquirer Global Payments has agreed to buy issuer processor firm Total System Services (TSYS) in a $21.5 billion deal, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
The two companies confirmed the deal today (May 28) in what will be the payment industry’s third “mega-merger” of 2019. The all-stock deal values TSYS at $119.86 per share, a rise of 20% since before news of the talks started to emerge.
Global Payments shareholders will own 52% of the combined company, while TSYS investors own 48%. TSYS CEO Troy Woods will become the chairman.
The combined entity will provide payment technology and software to more than 3.5 million small to medium-sized merchants and over 1,300 financial institutions worldwide.
It is expected that the deal, anticipated to close in the fourth quarter, will generate around $8.6 billion in adjusted net revenue annually plus network fees and make cost savings of $300 million.
TSYS was founded in 1983 and is headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. The company demonstrated its Authorization Controls solution at FinovateAsia 2013, showing how the technology enabled users to set their own default account parameters and authorization rules.
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
FintechOS of Romania raises $1.23 million (€1.1 million) in post-seed funding.
Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Central Bank of Russia, talks about the state of Russian fintech.
Lithuania’s Evarest to launch a stock trading app in the second half of the year.
Vents Magazine highlightsTrustly’sPay’N Play technology.
The 2019 Aspire Leaderboard recognizes Quadient as overall leader for CCM for the second year in a row.
Star Tribute profilesSezzle and its plans to go public in Australia later this year.
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.
According to financial data services innovator MX, if you’re going to bring your new, self-guided financial wellness tool in Canada, you might as well start big.
MX announced today that its Pulse solution will be available to members of Meridian, the largest credit union in Ontario, Canada, and the third largest CU in the country. The move will benefit not only Meridian members, but also those who are members of Meridian’s new digital entity, motusbank. According to the credit union, the partnership is part of its larger strategy to leverage digital technology to promote financial wellness.
“By investing in data and the latest personalized AI tools, we’re showing our members that we are serious about improving their financial health in the present and in the future,” motusbank SVP and COO David Baldarelli said. “Being able to get up and running so quickly with MX and work together as partners to customize Pulse for our members really sealed the deal.”
Pulse helps users make better financial decisions by providing AI-powered, personal, predictive, and proactive financial guidance. The solution benefits financial institutions by delivering customer engagement improvements like more logins (+60%), increased transactions per login (+32%), and an increase in NPS (+28%).
Founded more than 75 years ago, Meridian has grown into a credit union with 340,000 members and more than $21 billion in assets under management. The credit union has a network of 91 branches across Ontario, with commercial banking services available in 11 locations. Merdian launched its digital bank, motusbank, in April of this year, which offers savings and checking accounts, GICs and mortgages, as well as personal loans and lines of credit.
“We’re extremely excited about Meridian and motusbank choosing MX Pulse to provide AI-driven insights and advice to its members through online and mobile banking,” MX Chief Product Officer Brett Allred said. “This is a wonderful example of an industry leader using the power of clean data to deliver a world-class experience to its members while outpacing the competition in a rapidly evolving industry.”
The partnership news from MX is the second big fintech headline for the Utah-based fintech this month. Earlier in May, the company announced that it was teaming up with fellow Finovate alum, Kony, to bring PFM and spending categorization and classification to Kony’s digital banking solution, DBX.
MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2017. At the event, the company showed how its Discovered Accounts solution leverages enriched transaction data to help banks and credit unions build and deepen customer engagement.
Featured in PaymentsSource’s list of the Best Fintechs to Work For at the beginning of the year, MX announced a collaboration with Personetics in March that will bring AI-powered, real-time insights on customer behavior and preferences to more banks and credit unions. The company unveiledMoneyMap with Pulse, a self-guided financial wellness solution in April and, later that same month, picked up a 2019 Utah Genius award.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX has raised $75 million in funding. USAA, Digital Garage, and Commerce Ventures are among the firm’s investors. The company has partnered with 1,800+ FIs and 43 of the top 50 digital banking providers. Ryan Caldwell is CEO and founder.
Thanks to the power of mobile technology, you won’t have to leave the poolside, barbeque pit, or beach during this long Memorial Day weekend in order to enjoy your favorite demo videos from FinovateSpring.
Every demo video from our just-completed conference in San Francisco is now available for viewing – for free – in our video archives. Rewatch some of your favorites or catch-up on the demos you missed.
Here’s a sample of what’s waiting for you – courtesy of the Best of Show winners of this year’s FinovateSpring.
Enveillaunches its enhanced ZeroReveal 2.0 data-in-use security solution.
Bokuintegrates with digital payments solution Grab in order to expand payment options in Southeast Asia.
Equifax Canada announces partnership with SecureKeyTechnologies.
Artivesttaps Paul Nobile as its new Chief Marketing Officer.
Lattice80 interviews Ashish Gadnis, Co-Founder and CEO of BanQu.
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.
UK-based international payments fintech TransferWise has doubled its value to $3.5 billion after raising $292 million in secondary funding, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
The Telegraph reports that the round was led by investors including Lead Edge Capital, Lone Pine Capital and Vitruvian Partners. The Sir Richard Branson-backed firm also received investment from BlackRock and existing investors Andressen Horowitz and Baillie Gifford.T
TransferWise’s strategy of providing cheap exchange rates by using two local transfers for each transaction, instead of more expensive single international payments, has attracted more than five million customers since the fintech was founded in 2011.
According to The Telegraph, TransferWise will use the funds to take on 750 more staff over the next year.
“TransferWise is experiencing phenomenal growth and this investment is testament to that,” said Kristo Käärman, chief executive and co-founder. “We don’t need to raise funds on this trajectory, but we’re humbled by the persistent level of interest.”
TransferWise handles a transaction volume of $5.1 billion across its 12 global offices every month. The company demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013.
Financial process automation innovator Bill.com has launched its new Intelligent Business Payments platform, a solution that puts AI to work to bring end-to-end automation to financial workflows. The platform leverages its Intelligent Virtual Assistant capacities to automatically capture data from invoices and start the approval process, as well as recognize workflows, and create new business rules.
The new solution also drives payment flexibility, enabling international payments, virtual cards, and other options to accelerate the payment process; and supports auto pay for recurring bills.
“Our new intelligent platform, which is the most significant update to Bill.com since its inception, is built on ten years of experience managing business payments and hundreds of millions of bills and invoices to train the AI,” Bill.com CEO and founder Rene Lacerte said. “Increasing the speed and ease of payments will help businesses get ahead.”
The company said that customers in a recent survey reported averages weekly savings of 5.5 hours, more than 35 business days a year, using Bill.com’s process automation solution. In a statement noting that many companies spend nearly a quarter of the work day managing manual processes, Bill.com suggested there was a growing need for work flow automation technology.
“Bill.com has focused on developing new technologies that help SMBs grow,” Lacerte said. “Automating the back office is a huge industry-wide need.”
The company’s latest announcement comes a little over a month since it picked up $88 million in new funding in a round led by Franklin Templeton. The investment boosted Bill.com’s total capital to $275 million, and puts the company’s valuation above $1 billion. Also this year, Bill.com teamed up with American Express to offer a new AP solution, VendorPay for the firm’s business and corporate cardholders.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Bill.com demonstrated its CashView Command and Control system at FinovateSpring 2012. The technology helps businesses better manage their accounts payables and receivables, and provides online billpay, custom invoicing, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access.
With more than $60 billion in payments managed every year and a network of three million members, Bill.com works with 70+ of the top 100 accounting firms, as well as accounting software providers like NetSuite and fellow Finovate alum Xero. The company is also CPA.com’s preferred provider of digital payments.
One month after launching its InstantPay solution, Checkbook.io is back in the fintech headlines with news of its partnership with event production booking platform Castifi. The hub for event and media production managers is leveraging technology from Checkbook to make it easier to ensure that short term workers get paid as quickly as possible.
“Many of the cast and crew members that we work with can’t wait 2-3 weeks to get paid, which is the industry norm,” Castifi founder and CEO Rum Sheikhani said. “Our users regularly tell us about the difficulties of managing everyday expenses and (the) uncertainty around when they will get paid.” Sheikhani noted that the partnership with Checkbook has helped workers get paid in two business days or less, which she called “a game changer for our core business.”
Checkbook offers a secure payments alternative for companies that avoids the inefficiency – in time and cost – of paper checks. The company’s Digital Checks enable recipients to get payments online without requiring them to create an account or enroll in a specific digital wallet. With Checkbook, as soon as the recipient authenticates their bank account, they will see that the money is being sent to them. Recipients can deposit the funds online, print their digital check and make a remote deposit capture with their mobile device, or get their funds transferred instantly on their debit card.
Culver City, California-based Castifi was founded in 2015. The company has raised $600,000 in seed funding, and helped event managers in more than 250 productions find, hire, manage, and pay their cast and crew. Most recently, Castifi was involved in the digital series, Grown, produced by Adaptive Studios.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Checkbook demonstrated its digital check technology at FinovateSpring 2017. The company celebrated surpassing the two million user mark last fall. Check out our profile of the company from last December, in which Checkbook CEO P.J. Gupta explained how accounting firms are taking advantage of digital check technology.
CheckbookTeams Up with Event Management Platform Castifi.
TransferWiseDoubles Valuation with $292 Million Funding.
Bill.comUnveils New Intelligent Business Payments Platform.
Around the web
CardFlightpartners with payment solutions provider Talus.
Revolutintroduces social savings solution, Group Vaults.
Plaidunveils its easy integration toolkit, Plaid Direct.
Temenosforges partnership with UBX, the fintech subsidiary of Philippines-based UnionBank.
Wiprodevelops blockchain-based payment solution for Travacoin.
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.
A new collaboration between online banking e-payments innovator Trustly and digital bank Collector will bring instant bank payments to the checkouts of Nordic merchants of all sizes. The partnership seeks to take advantage of the popularity of online bank payments in the region; nearly one in three shoppers in Finland, for example, expressed preference for paying directly from their online bank, according to a recent report.
Trustly’s cross-border pedigree was an important factor for Collector Bank. Calling the company a “great match” on this score, the bank’s General Manager for Payments Mikael Anstrin said, “(Trustly’s) cross-border payment solutions are available in our all of our existing markets and its vast coverage also opens up the opportunity for us to expand into new geographies.”
Trustly enables users the ability to shop and pay directly from their bank accounts. Individuals can Pay with Trustly by simply choosing and logging into their bank, selecting the account from which they want to pay, and then confirming the payment with the authentication option of their choice. The company processes transactions to and from consumer bank accounts at more than 3,000 banks in 29 European markets.
“We’re delighted to partner with Collector and offer our fast, simple, and secure bank payment solution to their hundreds of merchants,” Chief Commercial Officer for Trustly, Johan Nord said. “The partnership is very much aligned with our strategy of delivering the best, most versatile and, for PSPs as well as merchants, most operationally easy-to-use bank payment solution in the markets where we operate.”
Trustly demonstrated its Direct Debit solution at FinovateEurope 2017. The technology adds support for recurring charges and one-click payments from a bank account, and offers the highest encryption standard available. More recently, the company teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Eurobits Technologies to help form the European Third Party Suppliers Association (ETPPAO, and announced that it had reached the 300 employee mark.
Founded in 2008, Trustly was acquired by Nordic Capital last spring. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden.
Giving sales professionals the ability to leverage AI to provide better service is the goal behind the new partnership between Vymo and Microsoft. Specifically, the two will work to grow the market for Vymo’s intelligent personal assistant for sales, bringing predictive and actionable insights to customer relationship management (CRM).
“We are helping organizations move to a more proactive CRM experience powered by mobility and intelligence,” Vymo co-founder and CEO Yamini Bhat explained. ” With Vymo, salespeople can operate more effectively in a deskless environment and that has translated into a significant revenue impact for businesses. We look forward to working closely with Microsoft as we scale.”
Vymo’s intelligent personal assistant delivers intelligent and actionable insights to sales professionals. The solution helps boost productivity by more than 30% by detecting the sales representative’s actions, and anticipating what the rep should do next. The technology learns from the most effective sales reps in the network and helps users achieve the best possible outcomes for customers. Sales productivity metrics from conversion percentage to turnaround time to activity per opportunity are among the KPIs Vymo can help sales teams improve.
The collaboration between Vymo and Microsoft builds on the existing relationship between the two companies. Vymo is a 2015 graduate of Microsoft’s Winter Accelerator, and won the Microsoft’s AI for All award in 2018. Vymo is already working with more than 85,000 users in verticals ranging from banking and financial services to insurance and pharmaceuticals, powering machine learning and AI-based tools backed by Microsoft Azure.
In Vymo’s statement announcing the news, Microsoft General Manager for Partner Ecosystem Rajiv Sodhi said the partnership represented “Microsoft’s commitment to enabling its partner ecosystem to leverage AI capabilities to be able to build powerful solutions and tap growth.” Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, added that the Vymo “was fundamentally changing both how retailers work and (how) financial services work.”
Headquartered in Bangalore, India, and founded in 2013, Vymo demonstrated its technology at FinovateAsia 2018. The company began this year with news that it would be a part of Bangkok Bank’s 12-week accelerator program, and announced that Zurich Topas Life, a division of Zurich Group, had selected Vymo’s solution to boost sales productivity.
In March, Vymo announced that it was going live in Vietnam courtesy of a partnership with local consumer finance firm, FE CREDIT. That month the company also announced that it won the FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce) Award for Innovation in Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics. Vymo also reported that its technology was available on the Salesforce AppExchange.
Vymo has raised $5 million in funding. The company includes Sequoia Capital India, who led the company’s Series A round in 2016, among its investors.
