Author: David Penn

Fiserv Partners with Allegacy FCU

Fiserv Partners with Allegacy FCU
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fiserv

North Carolina-based Allegacy Federal Credit Union is moving its core system to Fiserv’s Open Solutions-derived DNA, reports Martin Whybrow of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The credit union’s president and CEO, Cathy Pace, said: “We needed a comprehensive solution to support our strategy of expanding commercial and member relationships, while providing the efficiency, integration and real-time processing benefits needed to manage our ongoing growth.”

Allegacy Federal Credit Union has opened six new financial centers in the last five years, with one more scheduled for this autumn. At present, it operates out 16 locations and eight high school student-run credit unions.

Allegacy is taking a host of Fiserv applications spanning loan originations, wire services, fraud management, marketing and the creation of personalized statements. It has also signed for Fiserv’s Verifast branch biometric solution, which scans a member’s unique palm-vein pattern and instantly pulls up their account for authentication and increased front-line efficiency.

Allegacy Federal Credit Union is based in Winston-Salem and has $1.43 billion in assets. It is one of the largest credit unions in North Carolina, serving more than 151,000 members.

Founded in 1984 and based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Fiserv teamed up with Samsung SDS America last year to jointly demonstrate Fiserv’s Commercial Center: Security with Samsung SDS biometric authentication at FinovateSpring 2018.

Allegacy FCU is the latest FI to collaborate with Fiserv. Earlier this month, Fiserv announced a trio of new Canadian credit union partners that would deploy the company’s DNA solution. Also this month, Mercury Payment Solutions and Arion Bank – headquartered in Dubai and Iceland, respectively – announced they had selected Fiserv’s AML solution, AML Risk Manager.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fenergo, Fiserv, Jscrambler, Ping Identity, RightCapital, Tinkoff Bank, Trustly, Vymo

On Finovate.com

  • Vymo Partners with Microsoft to Help Sales Teams Leverage AI.
  • Trustly and Collector Bank Bring Instant Payments to Nordic Merchants.
  • Fiserv Teams Up with Allegacy Federal Credit Union.

Around the web

  • Gartner recognizes Jscrambler in its 2019 Market Guide for Online Fraud Detection.
  • Fenergo launches new suite of CLM tools, Digital Client Orchestration, leveraging APIs to integrate front, middle, and back office systems.
  • Ping Identity unveils new cloud-based multi-factor authentication and single sign-on bundle do defend against identity-based cyberattacks.
  • Tinkoff Bank introduces its own branded online travel agency.
  • RightCapital announces technology integrations with advisor technology platform Capitect and independent research firm Morningstar.

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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Marqeta Secures $260 Million in Series E Funding

Marqeta Secures $260 Million in Series E Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Marqeta

Global card issuing platform Marqeta, which demonstrated its Payment Gateways technology at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, announced today that it has secured $260 million in new funding in a round led by Coatue Management. The capital will be used to further develop the company’s payment card platform and to fuel global expansion, according to company founder and CEO Jason Gardner.

The investment boosts Marqeta’s valuation to “nearly $2 billion” and featured the participation of new investors Vitruvian Partners, Spark Capital, Lone Pine Capital, and Geodesic. The company’s existing investors include Visa, ICONIQ, Goldman Sachs, 83North, Granite Ventures, CommerzVentures, and CreditEase.

In a statement, Gardner positioned Marqeta at the center of a worldwide transformation in card issuance. “When today’s innovators are in need of modern payment solutions, they aren’t turning to banks as their primary issuers any more and want a platform built for their needs,” he said. “We’ve been proud to power this transformation as the most advanced card issuing platform built in over two decades.”

With more than 300 employees around the world, Marqeta leverages its platform and open APIs to enable fintechs to build and offer a wide variety of payment-based solutions for customers. The growth in the company’s business has been connected increasingly to the rise of new technology-savvy companies entering the financial services space who seek to offer payment, lending, and other solutions without relying on traditional banks.

“Marqeta is attacking a multi-trillion dollar opportunity in this market,” Gardner said. “This investment puts us in prime position to round out our product vision, bring Marqeta to new geographies, build even more groundbreaking features for our customers and double down on our already aggressive growth trajectory.”

Founded in 2010, Marqeta is based in Oakland, California. With partners including Square, Affirm, and Kabbage, the company has doubled revenues for the past three years and opened a new office in London last fall to kick off its European expansion. TechCrunch reported that Marqeta is considering an initial public offering within the next year and a half.

Marqeta presented Democratizing Issuer Payment Processing with Just-In-Time (JIT) Funding at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. The discussion, led by Marqeta CTO Tony Ford, introduced the company’s open payment APIs, which democratize issuer payment processing by making e-commerce innovators a part of the authorization stream.

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Fundopolis Turns to AlphaPoint for Tokenization Initiative

Fundopolis Turns to AlphaPoint for Tokenization Initiative
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint

Equity crowdfunding portal Fundopolis will partner with asset tokenization and digital asset trading technology provider AlphaPoint to support its tokenization initiative. The company will use AlphaPoint’s technology to facilitate the issuance of equity crowdfunding perks, as well as make it easier for fundraising customers to interact with investors.

“Small businesses have been priced out of traditional capital markets due to their prohibitive upfront costs, listing fees, compliance costs, complex terms, and the list goes on,” Fundopolis Chief Strategy Officer Ben DiScipio said. “AlphaPoint’s cloud-based blockchain technology helps us as we work to change the game for small businesses by providing them (with) an opportunity to reach funding goals with less costs and fewer headaches than traditional capital markets.”

Greater transparency is also the gift that blockchain technology keeps on giving. Together, AlphaPoint and Fundopolis will be able to provide investors and issuers with updates during the entire fundraising lifecycle, letting them know when they will receive perks or pay-out once the fundraise is complete.

AlphaPoint CEO Igor Telyatnikov underscored this point. “By building Fundopolis’ portal on AlphaPoint’s powerful blockchain technology,” he said, “this new crowdfunding approach will provide investors and companies alike (with) the peace of mind that investments are secure, transparent, and verifiable.”

AlphaPoint was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in New York City. The company demonstrated its AlphaPoint Distributed Ledger Platform (ADLP) at FinovateFall 2017. The proprietary blockchain platform enables users to digitize, trade, and manage any asset, and is currently powering digital asset networks on five continents. Designed to optimize for high data throughput and low system latency, the technology helps financial institutions access new sources of capital while keeping operational costs low.

Recent headlines for AlphaPoint include the company winning a spot in the inaugural cohort of cross-border regulatory sandbox, Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN), earlier this month. In March, AlphaPoint announced that it had enhanced its technology stock to service security token issuance and exchange customers.

With $17.6 million in funding, AlphaPoint includes Galaxy Digital LP, Blockchain Capital, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and Robin Hood Ventures among its investors.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Ethoca, Marqeta, MasterCard, ThetaRay, YellowDog

On Finovate.com

  • Marqeta Secures $260 Million in Series E Funding.
  • Fundopolis Turns to AlphaPoint for Tokenization Initiative.

Around the web

  • Mastercard partners with Samsung Electronics to develop mobile digital verification solutions.
  • YellowDog appoints James Stevens as its new Chief Commercial Officer.
  • Chile’s largest acquirer Transbank to deploy UP Retail Payments solution from ACI Worldwide.
  • ThetaRay adds Steve Mann as Chief Marketing Officer.
  • Spectrum Equity closes sale of Ethoca to Mastercard.

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 and Azlo Launch Mission Street Capital to Help Fund SMEs

Kabbage and Azlo Launch Mission Street Capital to Help Fund SMEs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Kabbage

A new partnership between cash flow technology and SME lending innovator Kabbage and online banking platform Azlo will make it easier for small businesses to secure growth financing. The two companies have launched a new program, Mission Street Capital, which will provide loans of up to $250,000 for SMEs.

“Azlo is helping fill a crucial gap in our financial system to serve underbanked small businesses,” Kabbage Chief Revenue Officer Laura Goldberg said. “Kabbage’s real-time lending platform allows Mission Street Capital to effectively serve any small business in any location to access the funding they need to grow.”

Firms with an Azlo small business banking account will be eligible to participate in the program, and can apply via Mission Street Capital to access Kabbage loans. Azlo will use Kabbage’s technology to analyze banking and other business performance data in real-time in order to generate a fully automated financing decisions for the customer. The digital-only bank with no physical branches believes Mission Street Capital will make it easier to reach its business customers who may struggle to secure financing because they have relatively thin-file credit histories or because they are a part of the gig economy.

“Azlo is proud to be serving today’s small businesses,” Azlo Chief Operating Officer Bryan Crumpler said. “Our mission is enabling small businesses to succeed in their mission and partnering with Kabbage is a huge step forward in being able to accomplish that.”

More than 175,000 small businesses have accessed more than $6.5 billion through Kabbage’s platform. In its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateSpring in 2015, the company demonstrated its Kabbage Card solution. The card, part of its Kabbage Everywhere initiative, gives small businesses the ability to use their Kabbage credit to pay for inventory or supplies wherever they may be. Also that year, the Kabbage participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, showing how developers can leverage its technology to build their own automated lending platform.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Kabbage has raised more than $2.3 billion in funding, including a debt financing round this April that added $700 million to the company’s coffers. Also this spring, the firm was highlighted in Inc.com’s feature: 5 Companies That Prove You Must Evolve to Thrive.

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Conversational AI Fintech Clinc Raises $52 Million in Series B

Conversational AI Fintech Clinc Raises $52 Million in Series B
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Clinc, Funding

In a round featuring participation from Insight Partners, DFJ Growth, Drive Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and other investors, conversational AI innovator Clinc has raised $52 million in new funding. The Series B round brings the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based fintech’s total capital to $60 million.

“We’ve had phenomenal growth and built unbelievable momentum in a very short period of time,” Clinc CEO Jason Mars said. “Now we’re adding more world-class investors to support our growing team as we work to accelerate the pace of innovation and to reshape the conversational AI landscape, one industry at a time.”

Mars, who recently participated in FinovateSpring’s AI Summit Day conversations on AI in financial services, noted that the new investment would help the company add to its team and expand to new, larger offices in Ann Arbor. He also suggested to TechCrunch that this funding, which dwarfs the company’s $6.3 million Series A round from two years ago, could be the firm’s last financing before pursuing an IPO.

Clinc’s technology leverages natural language processing, advanced machine learning, and neural networks to decipher and respond to not just the meaning, but also the context and intent of human speech. In addition to being able to comprehend unstructured speech, the technology’s ability to learn and improve itself with every interaction allows it, for example, to quickly support new languages after being introduced to as few as 500 utterances.

Clinc demonstrated its conversational AI technology at FinovateFall 2016, winning Best of Show honors. Earlier this year, the company proved its technology could be used to provide in-game assistance for gamers, enabling them to communicate with the game using natural language, including slang, without requiring the use of specific commands.

In 2018, Clinc announced that it was expanding its technology to the automotive industry to give developers the ability to add natural language-based interaction and control functionality to vehicles. Also last year, the company teamed up with Turkey’s Isbank to launch the world’s second biggest mobile banking voice assistant.

With customers including USAA, Barclays, S&P Global, OCBC Bank, and US Bank, Clinc was founded in 2015. The company has achieved 300% year-over-year revenue growth, and anticipates tripling its business in 2019. Via its partners, Clinc estimates that more than 30 million people are using its conversational AI technology.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Clinc, Kabbage, MasterCard, Plaid, Sezzle

On Finovate.com

  • Conversational AI Fintech Clinc Raises $52 Million in Series B.
  • Kabbage and Azlo Launch Mission Street Capital to Help Fund SMEs.

Around the web

  • Mastercard unveils its Mastercard Innovation Engine, an API-based platform to enable easier deployment of digital customer experiences.
  • Sezzle teams up with Bank of America Merchant Services, who will serve as the fintech’s digital card processor.
  • Plaid earns recognition as one of the Best Workplaces from Inc.com.

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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Jumio Teams Up to Fight Financial Crime with TruNarrative

Jumio Teams Up to Fight Financial Crime with TruNarrative
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jumio

Financial crime specialist TruNarrative is partnering with identity verification innovator Jumio to bolster its fraud detection and customer onboarding platform. The integration will enable TruNarrative’s existing customers and prospects to verify the authenticity of more than 3,300 ID document types from more than 200 countries and territories.

“We are very pleased to welcome Jumio as a partner within our Appstore,” TruNarrative CEO John Lord said. “The service helps our customers comply with their obligation to verify that their customers are who they say they are, enhancing the use of traditional evidence databases and document verification.”


Jumio’s identity verification and authentication solution combines AI, OCR, and biometrics to help organizations fight fraud, onboard customers faster, and remain compliant. The company’s AI-powered, Trusted-Identity-as-a-Service technology provides ID, identity, and document verification and authentication. Jumio also offers a new screening service – unveiled this spring – that combines ID verification and complete AML screening and monitoring.

Jumio head of worldwide partnerships Stephen Kearney explained the partnership as a way for businesses to provide a comprehensive anti-fraud solution without relying on multiple “disparate” solutions. “With TruNarrative, Jumio’s identity proofing, fraud detection, and eKYC solutions can be easily integrated into a single platform that enables these organizations to better defend themselves against financial crime,” he said.

Jumio demonstrated its Netverify identity verification solution at FinovateAsia 2018 in Hong Kong. The technology helps establish that the individual behind a transaction is physically present and is who they say they are by using a combination of ID and identity verification, as well as liveness detection.

More recently, Jumio reported that challenger bank Monzo would use Netverify for customer identity authentication. We highlighted Jumio this spring in our look at companies that can help banks compete against the new credit card from Apple.

Founded in 2010 and based in Palo Alto, California, Jumio has raised more than $55 million in funding from investors including Millennium Technology Value Partners and Centana Growth Partners, which acquired Jumio in 2016.

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Revolut Seeks Banking License in Russia; Mastercard Pledges Partnerships with Indian Fintechs

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Uncategorized

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

  • DisruptAfrica profiles TeamApt and its role as the “go to” fintech startup for Nigeria banks.
  • Nairobi, Kenya-based CarePay International raises $44.7 million (€40 million) for expansion into new markets.
  • expressPay goes live with Visa on mobile in Ghana.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Austrian fintech Bitpanda launches gold and silver trading on its platform.
  • Revolut announces plans to pursue banking license in Russia.
  • Nayax introduces its new cashless payment integration, the Bluecode payments solution, in Austria and Germany.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Visa teams up with Bahrain FinTech Bay to drive fintech innovation in the country.
  • Saudi Payments inks memorandum of understanding to introduce QR code-based national payment system in Saudi Arabia.
  • National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) says it is the first MENA-based bank to launch an open banking offering.

Central and Southern Asia

  • PayPal India unveils its OneTouch feature which, integrated with Google Smart Lock, enables users to register their Android device with PayPal and remain logged in for all subsequent PayPall purchases on that device.
  • Mastercard pledges partnerships with Indian fintechs via its India Investment Fund.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Descendants of the Medici banking family launch a digital bank, Medici Bank, in Puerto Rico.
  • Japan’s SoftBank invests $20 million in Mexican payments innovator Clip.
  • Scotiabank’s fintech accelerator, FactoryA, introduces its incoming cohort of startups from Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based YouTrip raises $25.5 million for its multi-currency payments app.
  • Hong Kong Monetary Authority issues another four virtual bank licenses.
  • South Korea unveils new regulations to empower robo-advisory services.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Artivest Inks Deal with Institutional Investment Manager LaSalle

Artivest Inks Deal with Institutional Investment Manager LaSalle
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Artivest

Curated online platform for alternative investments Artivest announced a major new partnership today. The firm has been selected by institutional investment manager LaSalle to help it enter the retail market for privately-held value-added real estate investment programs via a closed end fund.

“We are delighted to find a compelling platform to seamlessly connect financial advisors and qualified high net worth investors to our flagship, U.S. value-add investment strategy,” Jason Kern, CEO of the Americas at LaSalle Investment Management, said.

One of the largest real estate investment managers in the world with $65 billion in assets under management, LaSalle will leverage Artivest’s Open Network to make its offerings available for investment by advisors and qualified purchasers. In an investment environment increasingly characterized by passive management and low-fee ETFs, LaSalle sees Artivest as a partner to help it meet investor demand for alternative solutions that can provide outperformance.

Artivest combines expert insights, extensive due diligence, and a streamlined investor experience to improve the process of finding, evaluating, and investing in leading private funds for advisors and fund managers. The solution reduces the complexity of private fund investing, helping clients save time and more readily identify opportunities that are most compatible with their investment goals.

“Our platform brings together data-driven insights, proprietary technology, and robust diligence expertise to deliver a simplified, efficient experience and remove the barriers that have traditionally stood in the way of advisors and investors seeking access to alternatives,” Artivest founder and CEO James Waldinger said.

Artivest demonstrated its curated investment platform at FinovateSpring 2014. Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2012, the company completed a merger with alternative investment manager Altegris last summer that made the company one of the biggest independent alternative investment solution providers in the world.

Earlier this year, Artivest announced that was expanding its services to include both product structuring and fund distribution solutions for asset and wealth managers. Back in December, Chicago-based Northern Trust added private market capabilities to its ArcLine Alternatives platform for its wealth management customers courtesy of a partnership with Artivest.

With more than $17 million in funding, Artivest includes 500 Startups, RRE Ventures, Founders Fund, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Signatures Capital among its investors.

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Holvi Expands to Five New European Markets

Holvi Expands to Five New European Markets
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Holvi

BBVA-backed start-up Holvi will expand its offering to micro businesses in Ireland, Italy, Belgium, France and the Netherlands after reaching a 150,000-customer milestone, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Claiming to provide small business banking services for “everyday entrepreneurs”, the Finnish firm has experienced significant growth, particularly since its acquisition by global bank BBVA in 2016.

Holvi has been providing business banking in Germany, Austria and Finland for over three years and has seen year-on-year growth of 60% from 2017 to 2018.

CEO Antti-Jussi Suominen said: “2019 is set to be an exciting year for Holvi. Having become the leading business banking service for micro-entrepreneurs in our home market of Finland, and rapidly growing in Austria and Germany, we are setting our sights on the rest of Europe.”

Holvi caters for customers such as freelancers, small family-run businesses and gig economy workers, through a combination of banking, a Mastercard and smart digital business tools.

The firm is authorized to operate across the European Economic Area (EEA) under the Payment Services Directive by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).

Holvi was founded in 2011. The Helsinki, Finland-based company demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013, and was acquired by fellow Finovate alum BBVA in 2016.

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