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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Voca.ai has created a smart, human and empathetic virtual call-center agent for financial institutions that helps banks, lenders and insurers increase revenue while reducing operational costs.
Features
Human-like speech
AI and Machine Learning-based optimization
Emotional and intent detection that is instantly scalable
Why it’s great
Voca is the call-center agent you’ve always dreamed of. Voca can handle over 80% of all call and contact center interactions so your agents can focus on what’s really important to your business.
Presenters
Einav Itamar, Co-founder and CEO Itamar is a serial tech entrepreneur with vast experience in AI and Big Data. He is founder of Corrigon, which was acquired by eBay. LinkedIn
Danny Ruchman, VP of R&D Ruchman has 20 years of experience in R&D. He is a former director at eXelate, which was acquired by Nielsen. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
RESPONSIVE helps wealth managers work faster and smarter with advisor Next Best Actions. Private managers and banks use our human-centric AI to grow client wealth and loyalty.
Features
Aggregate client data to provide holistic wealth view
Detect client financial events based on behavioral analytics
Give advisors Next Best Actions to capture revenue and mitigate risk
Why it’s great
Responsive evolves enterprise wealth team performance with proven innovation roadmaps and human-centric AI.
Presenters
Davyde Wachell, CEO and Co-founder
Wachell earned a Symbolic Systems Bsc in AI from Stanford University. He has 15+ years in fintech. LinkedIn
Logan Grosenick, VP of Research
Grosenick has a MSc in Statistics, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University. With 40+ scientific publications with 5000+ citations, he has 12+ years in machine learning and animal behavior prediction. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
MSTS is a B2B payments and credit leader. Banks can use MSTS’ Credit as a Service to offer direct billing (terms) to their merchants’ buyers.
Features
Provides a solution for banks to offer direct billing options for its merchants
Enables banks to capture nearly all B2B spend
Creates new lending activity
Why it’s great
Credit as a Service is a valuable tool for FIs to offer additional merchant services and alternative lending options to strengthen relationships with SMB clients.
Presenters
Brandon Spear, President
With experience leading entrepreneurial startup companies in the SaaS and Internet space, Spear helps companies navigate through the early years to become scalable businesses. LinkedIn
Dan Zimmerman, Chief Product and Information Officer
Zimmerman has over 20 years of experience leading technology, product, and software engineering teams concentrated in the card and payment processing industry. LinkedIn
Michelle Faul, Senior Director of Global Marketing
Faul leads marketing strategies and initiatives to increase global thought leadership eminence and brand awareness to drive business results. LinkedIn
Alternative payments specialist Sezzle has raised $5.6 million in funding in advance of its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) later this year. The financing was led by Continental Investors of Chicago, and featured participation from a total of 10 investors. Sezzle plans to raise $6 million in the current round, which was described as a “pre-IPO” round by the Australian Financial Review.
Sezzle hopes to raise between $20 million and $30 million via initial public offering on the ASX. The company admits that it has no plans to begin operations in Australia, and that the listing on the ASX was to take advantage of the investment interest that Afterpay, a Sezzle rival based in Melbourne, has enjoyed since its own arrival on the ASX. Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim noted that investors in Australia have been quicker than investors in the U.S. to embrace what he called “the potential of the payment method.”
Sezzle empowers consumers by enabling them to make purchases and pay for them in four, interest-free installments, payable every two weeks. The company’s merchant partners have recorded higher average order value and higher conversion rates since adding Sezzle to their checkout systems. More than 3,500 stores currently offer Sezzle as an option.
Sezzle’s funding comes just a few months after the company announced that its Shop Now Pay Later option would be available on the 3dcart ecommerce platform. Founded in 1997, the Florida-based, Inc. 5,000 company has more than 22,000 merchants using its technology to build and manage online stores and shopping carts, and engage in content marketing.
“By providing our merchants with an easy way to allow customers to finance their purchases, we open up possibilities for both retailers and customers,” 3dcart founder and CEO Gonzalo Gil said.
Sezzle demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company was named to American Inno’s Top Minnesota Startup Fundings of 2018 in December, the same month the company announced the hiring of new Chief Risk Officer Jamie Kirkpatrick.
Also late last year, Sezzle picked up a $100 million line of credit from Connecticut-based investment firm, Bastion. The financing helped Sezzle promote its pay-in-2019 initiative with online retailer Tobi during last year’s holiday season. Sezzle also partnered with Priority Payment Systems last fall, which began offering Sezzle’s alternative payment option to the 174,000+ merchants on its network.
After two days of live fintech demonstrations, FinovateSpring turns to the experts. Our Content Day on Friday, May 10, will give attendees the opportunity to hear industry professionals share their insights into how the technologies of today are building the fintech of tomorrow.
To whet your appetite, here’s a quick survey of the presentations we’ll feature on the main stage on the final day of the show. Be sure to check out the afternoon sessions in our Digital Banking, Digital Payments, Community Banking, and Digital Lending content streams, as well.
For tickets, visit our FinovateSpring registration page.
The Rise of the Machines – The Artificial Intelligence Revolution and the Road to Superintelligence. What Will AI Mean for the Future of Financial Services – And the Future of Work? – read more
Which Artificial Intelligence Technologies Will Really Change Financial Services? – read more
Turning the Tide on Credit Visibility through Data and Innovation – read more
How Can Financial Institutions Capture the Fintech Opportunity and Collaborate with New Players to Transform Customer Experience –read more
Simplifying and Securing Digital Commerce through Tokenization – read more
How Are Regulators Approaching Cryptocurrencies – read more
The Evolving Role of Cybersecurity – Are Banking Treating Technology Risk as Extensions of their Businesses? – read more
Investors Debate: Where is the Smart VC Money Investing in Fintech? – read more
Finovate Finale! The Accelerators Showcase – read more
Here’s a look at our four content streams – Digital Banking, Digital Payments, Community Banking, and Digital Lending – which will run concurrently from 1:25pm through 2:40pm on Friday afternoon.
Digital Banking
Next Generation Banking – What Is the Next Phase of the Digital Banking Revolution – read more
Open Banking is Coming! How Will it Change Banking Forever? – read more
How New Players, New Platforms, and New Technologies Will Transform Digital Banking. Is There a Role for the Branch in the Digital World? – read more
Digital Payments
What Are the Digital Giants Going to do to Payments? Who Will Disrupt the Disruptors? – read more
Payments Innovation – Why Experience is the New Reward – read more
How New Technologies and New Competitors Will Solve Payments Pain Points Both Online and at Point of Sale – read more
Community Banking
How Can Community Banks Collaborate to Find a Path to Change to Compete in a Digital World? – read more
Community Bank + Core Vendor + Fintech – What It Takes to Make the Partnership Work – read more
How Community Banks Can Take a Strategic Approach to Fintech. What Bumps in the Road Did We Encounter? – read more
Digital Lending
How Digital Players Can Transform Small & Medium Sized Enterprise Lending – read more
Alt Credit Scores – Enhancing Underwriting Using Big Data & AI – read more
How New Players are Harnessing New Technologies to Disrupt the Retail, Small Business, & Commercial Digital Lending Landscape – read more
RightCapitalselected to join LPL Financial’s Vendor Affinity Program.
American Banker: Envestnetto add lending option to its wealth services.
Tauliataps Google Cloud to launch AI-powered invoicing solution.
LendIt recognizesCuneXus as Top Emerging Tech Company, marking the company’s 3rd major industry recognition of 2019.
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.
Real-time financial data access and insights provider Finicity has a new partner in the mortgage space. The company announced today that it is teaming up with Pulte Mortgage to help the firm improve the home financing process for borrowers.
“Today’s consumers have come to expect simple and rapid experiences enabled by digitization,” Finicity CEO Steve Smith said. “Pulte is an innovator that is embracing digital solutions to further deliver a superior borrower experience by giving their loan consultants more time to engage with their buyers.”
Pulte Mortgage will leverage Finicity’s technology to accelerate asset verification, reducing the time-consuming, manual, and paper-intensive process “from weeks to minutes” the company said in a statement. Finicity’s platform will enable lenders to access up to 24 months of bank, brokerage, and 401k information to quickly confirm assets without requiring paper verification.
“The average loan file used to be about 300 pages, but today’s regulatory and compliance demands have pushed this figure to more than 800 pages,” President and CEO of Pulte Mortgage Debra Still explained. “The need for ever-increasing volumes of supporting data puts an incredible burden on the borrower, which is why we strategically invest in integrated technology solutions, like Finicity, to reduce the time and complexity associated with securing a mortgage.”
A subsidiary of Pulte Group, Pulte Mortgage was founded in 1972, and finances new home construction for customers of Pulte Homes, Centex, Del Webb, DiVosta, and John Wieland Homes. Pulte Group has financed 700,000+ homes in the U.S., offering home buyers more than 200 different home loan solutions. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Finicity demonstrated its credit decisioning technology – including its Verification of Income (VoI) and Verification of Assets (VoA) solutions – at FinovateFall 2017. Via API, Finicity’s data aggregation and insights platform provides clients with consumer-permissioned data in real-time to support financial management, payments, and credit assessment services and solutions.
Featured earlier this year in PaymentsSource’s roster of the Best Fintechs to Work For, Finicity partnered with Princeton Mortgage in December, integrating its Verification of Assets solution into Princeton Mortgage’s SnapApp digital mortgage platform. Last fall, the company teamed up with Experian and FICO to introduce a new solution, the UltraFICO credit score, to help bring financing to borrowers with credit scores between 550 and 650.
The identity verification specialist formerly known as miiCard has launched its new income verification solution. The ID Co.has leveraged bank data, its own unique algorithms, and a comprehensive data-set to build a solution that enables lenders to get a better accounting of a loan applicant’s income.
“Once again, the capabilities of bank data have allowed us to build a new tool that is unrivaled and unparalleled anywhere in the market,” The ID Co. CEO James Varga said. “We know the challenges that banks and lenders have in accurately establishing applicant income, and now, using our experience in bank data, we have a solution that will present this information in mere seconds.”
To use the new tool, participating banks run application data through The ID Co.’s Income Verification API. The solution provides a calculated salary amount, with the option to factor in benefits, and a confidence score. The technology is especially helpful for lenders working with thin file customers and other borrowers without a significant credit history. The ID Co.’s Income Verification solution also provides information such as material supplemental income and changes to an applicant’s salary or wages over time.
“We’ve known for some time that this would be of value to banks and lenders and have worked tirelessly to ensure that this product fits their requirements,” The ID Co. Product Owner Helen Stewart said. “The solution has already been highly commended by banks and lenders that have trialled using it.”
The ID Co. (as miicard) demonstrated its Identity-as-a-Service technology at FinovateFall 2013. More recently, the company unveiled its DirectID Decisioning Platform and DirectID Insights, an online decisioning solution for underwriters, fraud analysts, and credit risk officers. The tool requires no integration, and provides prepackaged reports for lenders and underwriters to help them make better lending decisions faster while reducing operational costs.
Last fall, The ID Co. launched its consumer app, NoMo. The mobile app leverages Open Banking to enable users to conduct basic financial cashflow tracking. This includes cash-flow averaging, spending recommendations, personalized updates, as well as a financial performance overview.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, The ID Co. has raised $9.1 million in funding. The company includes New Wave Ventures, Par Equity, and angel investor Rob Dobson among its investors.
Brewin Dolphin, one of the UK’s largest wealth managers, has selected Avaloq to transform its back-office infrastructure through Avaloq’s Software as a Service (SaaS) solution, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
The project aims to enhance Brewin Dolphin’s digital capabilities to address the rising competition, says the wealth manager, which claims to have £34.9 billion ($45.5 billion) in discretionary funds under management.
Avaloq was awarded the contract after “an extensive selection process” by Brewin Dolphin. The appointment follows a collaboration with UK wealth manager Smith and Williamson which chose Avaloq’s SaaS solution, and complements other UK clients such as Coutts and Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management.
“We have created a high-calibre team who have built a detailed implementation plan to deliver this programme,” said Grant Parkinson, COO of Brewin Dolphin. “It gives us significant opportunity to increase straight-through-processing, improve the efficiency of handling client accounts and reduce operational risk.”
The tech supplier says it experienced strong results for 2018 driven by the demand for the firm’s SaaS, BPaaS and on-premise solutions from new and existing clients and accelerated growth in markets such as the UK and the wider EMEA region.
Overall, the firm generated full-year revenues of CHF579 million ($579 million), a year-on-year rise of 6% on an underlying basis.
New wealth management clients and projects either won or completed in 2018 included Pictet Group, Intesa Sanpaolo Private Bank Suisse, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg, Edmond de Rothschild and Smith & Williamson.
Avaloq demonstrated its technology at FinovateAsia 2018, winning Best of Show honors for its double marketplace that enables fintechs and FIs to take an “app store” approach to discovering and integrating new solutions. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the company was founded in 1985.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Cinchy is a real-time data collaboration platform for solving complex data integration, data access, data governance, and solutions-delivery challenges in the enterprise, saving companies millions.
Features
Enterprise-wide data access (with unlimited users)
Why it’s great
Cinchy brings data collaboration to the enterprise, eliminating the need to buy, build, and integrate thousands of separate business applications.
Presenter
Dan Demers, CEO and Co-founder
Demers is the co-founder and CEO of Cinchy, the enterprise data collaboration company. Previously, Dan spent 10 years as an IT executive with leading global FI companies including Citi and RBC. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Status Money is a marketing platform that enables advertisers to deliver hyper-targeted offers and rewards via its budgeting app, email, and Chrome extension.
Features
Hyper-targeted offers produce profitable leads
Rewards motivate consumers to engage
Chrome extension delivers contextual offers
Why it’s great
The Status Money platform enables advertisers to reach the right person, with the right offer, at the right time.
Presenters
Majd Maksad, CEO and Co-founder
Maksad is the co-founder and CEO of Status Money. He was previously the Head of Analytics for the Citi Global Digital Payments group. LinkedIn
Korash Hernandez, COO and Co-founder
Hernandez is the co-founder and COO of Status Money. He was previously a VP at Marcus by Goldman Sachs. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Trulioo presents EmbedID, a fast and simple way for startups and developers to verify customers across multiple markets while supporting AML/KYC compliance requirements.
Features
EmbedID will allow companies to:
Integrate and test Trulioo’s identity verification API in minutes
Fully customize onboarding fields and forms
Verify customers in real-time
Why it’s great
With only a few lines of code embedded into any website, Trulioo’s EmbedID enables organizations to verify over five billion identities worldwide.
Presenter
Anatoly Kvitnitsky, Vice President of Growth
Kvitnitsky has a wealth of experience working in fintech and identity markets, and is committed to helping solve identity challenges that organizations face in scaling their products for global use. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Einav Itamar, Co-founder and CEO
Ruchman has 20 years of experience in R&D. He is a former director at eXelate, which was acquired by Nielsen.
Brandon Spear, President
Dan Zimmerman, Chief Product and Information Officer
Michelle Faul, Senior Director of Global Marketing
Presenter
Presenters
Korash Hernandez, COO and Co-founder
Presenter