Author: David Penn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Horizn

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Horizn
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2019, FinovateSpring 2019 Sneak Peek, Horizn

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.

Horizn’s award-winning platform equips frontline employees and customers directly with the knowledge needed to improve customer experience and dramatically increase digital adoption across all channels.

Features

  • Gets employees and customers fluent on the latest digital innovation
  • Improves customer experience and drives digital adoption
  • Combines a simulation microlearning methodology with gamification and analytics

Why it’s great
Using Horizn, banks increased digital adoption by 25% and brought call center times down by 45 seconds. Using the in-branch demo with non-digital customers, up to 20% converted to digital banking.

Presenters

Janice Diner, CEO and Founder
Diner founded Horizn in 2012. Her creative vision and determination makes Horizn a world-class fintech used by 500,000+ frontline employees and over 60 million bank customers.
LinkedIn

 

Steve Frook, VP of Sales
As VP of Sales at Horizn, Frook works closely with financial institutions to significantly increase adoption and awareness of new and existing innovations.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Trust Science

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Trust Science
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2019, FinovateSpring 2019 Sneak Peek, Trust Science

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.

Credit Bureau 2.0 provides AI-native data gathering and credit scoring. Trust Science will show how Credit Bureau 2.0 can unlock trillions of dollars of stranded loan capital for unbanked “credit invisibles” in the U.S. and globally.

Features

  • More profitable, risk-reduced lending to borrowers with scores below 650
  • Financial inclusion and dignity for borrowers
  • Hell for our competitors: 30 patents across six countries

Why it’s great
The old credit bureaus are working under a broken, faulty model. Personal data privacy and mobile-only living requires smart credit scoring: Credit Bureau 2.0

Presenters

Evan Chrapko, CEO
Chrapko is a lifelong technology inventor and successful commercializer with $600+ million in value-creation via exits. Chrapko lived in a jungle village on the island of Sumatra.
LinkedIn

 

Bryan Katis, CPO
Katis ran a $750 million (topline) business for SAP with full bottomline responsibility. An advisor to VC and PE, Katis is an avid cyclist and organizer of charity cycling events.
LinkedIn

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FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Biometric Signature ID

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Biometric Signature ID
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Biometric Signature ID, FinovateSpring 2019, FinovateSpring 2019 Sneak Peek

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.

BioSig-ID is the world’s only biometric password. The simple change to a drawn password creates a multi-factor authenticator that secures online transactions and stops impostors.

Features

  • Patented software biometric. No hardware required.
  • Use on any device anywhere with a five second ID authentication
  • Finger or mouse activated

Why it’s great
BioSig-ID offers the highest level of security on the market today: a biometric with a twist – no hardware required. The solution provides verifiability and controls access to online transactions.

Presenters

Jeff Maynard, CEO and Founder
Maynard became involved with biometrics when he ran divisions for a publicly traded company that utilized biometrics in healthcare. He has published numerous white papers on identity proofing.
LinkedIn

Chad Steen, Chief Technical Architect
Steen has over 25 years as an architect, engineer, developer, and consultant. He is BioSig-ID’s point man for the White House-sponsored NSTIC pilot and the NASPO/ANSI identity standards.
LinkedIn

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Fiserv Helps Hellenic Bank Streamline Payments

Fiserv Helps Hellenic Bank Streamline Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fiserv

Fiserv announced a partnership with one of the most innovative banks in the Mediterranean region today. The financial services technology company will help Hellenic Bank pursue its digital transformation by providing the Cypress-based institution with its Dovetail Payments Platform.

“Hellenic Bank is leveraging advanced payments technology to ensure that they are well positioned to meet the needs of their customers in a rapidly changing digital landscape,” Fiserv President of Enterprise Payment Solutions Jan Kruger said.

The technology will give Hellenic Bank a single platform from which to manage all payment types and clearing schemes, enabling the bank to move away from multiple siloed payment systems, streamline its payments architecture, and support process automation.

In a statement, Hellenic Bank COO Phivos Leontiou highlighted this aspect of the Dovetail platform. He pointed out that the diverse needs of the bank’s customers have traditionally been met with “a variety of payment systems.” With Dovetail providing a centralized payment platform, Leontiou explained, “we have been able to streamline our payments operations while offering the payment options customers expect. We’re also able to easily add capabilities, such as support for new real-time payment schemes.”

One of the largest banks in Cyprus, Hellenic Bank opened for business in 1976. The firm has 180 retail branches; ten business, corporate, and shipping centers; three international business centers, and 2,600 employees. In 2018, the bank acquired “certain assets and liabilities” of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank which helped establish Hellenic Bank as the island’s leading retail and SME bank.

Fiserv demonstrated its Commercial Center: Security platform at FinovateFall 2017. The technology protects Fiserv’s business banking and cash management application, Commercial Center, as well as other online banking apps such as lockboxes, business billpay, and remote deposit. Commercial Center: Security also offers data reporting, electronic payment, and file transfer processing, and features cash management functionality that is optimized for digital channels.

Last year at FinovateSpring, the company partnered with Samsung SDS to present the integration of the company’s SDS biometric authentication with its Commercial Center platform.

More recently Fiserv announced that it was working with NationalLink to support the use of smart safes in supply chain management. The company has been busy forging partnerships with banks and credit unions in 2019, inking deals with HealthCare First CU and Portland Local 8 FCU in March, and partnering with Kazakhstan’s Halyk Bank, Kentucky’s Forcht Bank, and New York Community Bancorp in February.

In January, Fiserv launched a new mortgagetech solution, Mortgage Momentum, that leverages workflow automation to streamline the loan origination process.

Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Fiserv began the year with an announcement that it was merging with payments giant First Data Corporation in a deal valued at $22 billion.

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Endor Protocol Brings Big Data Prediction Power to the People

Endor Protocol Brings Big Data Prediction Power to the People
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Endor

Predictive analytics platform Endor announced the launch of its Endor Protocol this week. Powered by MIT’s Social Physics technology, the solution empowers organizations and individuals to analyze and query sizable data sets and produce AI-generated business predictions. The technology enables observers to identify patterns in customer behavior that can be used to tailor services and offerings in multiple use cases – including fintech.

One big advantage of Endor’s use of Social Physics technology is that it enables users to work on encrypted data streams. This means that businesses can leverage data for insights and predictions without jeopardizing user privacy.

“We are extremely excited to officially launch the first version of the Endor Protocol,” company CEO and co-founder Dr. Yaniv Altshuler said. “Our vision from the company’s inception was to enable anyone, regardless of size and budget, to benefit from advanced AI and predictive analytics at an affordable price.”

Raw ERC-20 and Ethereum blockchain data will be the first data available during the Protocol’s launch, and will be unlocked via the EDR utility token. Altshuler has extended the invitation to potential data partners to join Endor in what he called “the AI revolution,” and assures customers that all future partners will be reviewed to “ensure the highest quality of data.”

Endor demonstrated its “Google for predictive analytics” platform at FinovateFall 2017. With partners including Coca-Cola and fellow Finovate alum Mastercard, Endor made headlines last December when CEO Altshuler was named to Silicon Republic’s 15 trailblazing entrepreneurs to watch in 2019 roster.

Earlier this year, the company added Cardano CEO and co-founder of Ethereum, Charles Hoskinson, as senior advisor. Hoskinson, whose firm is developing a smart contract platform that leverages open source blockchain technology, called the launch of Endor’s platform “an important step towards democratizing access to AI and data science.”

Endor was founded in 2014, and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company has raised $50 million in funding, and includes Innovation Endeavors among its investors.

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Finn AI Powers Chatbots in South Africa; Token Drives Open Banking in MENA

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Asseco, Finn.ai, Finovate Global, NF Innova, Ripple, Tinkoff Bank, Token

Finovate Global 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

  • NF Innova to power “Customer-First” experience for APS Bank.
  • Tinkoff Group of Russia builds supercomputer dubbed the most powerful in financial sector.
  • Raiffeisen Bank Serbia picks Asseco SEE as its strategic vendor.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Khaleeji Commercial Bank of Bahrain partners with Token.io.
  • AI chatbot maker Kasisto and UAE-based digital bank Liv partner to launch new conversational chatbot, Olivia.
  • Smart Dubai gives the nod to blockchain platform developed by Du, formerly known as the Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company.

Central and South Asia

  • Indian point-of-sale terminal developer Mswipe raised $30 million in new funding.
  • Fintech startups are among those looking for capital from the new $20 million fund launched by China’s Gobi Partners and Pakistan’s Fatima Ventures.
  • India’s Federal Bank turns to Ripple to power cross-border remittances.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • The Paypers interviews allpago Founder and CEO, Philipp Bock, on ecommerce in Latin America.
  • HSBC Uruguay announces partnership with Spanish biometric authentication firm, FacePhi.
  • Latin American payments processor EBANX initiates local operations in Brazil.

Asia-Pacific

  • Hong Kong-based SME lender Qupital raises $15 million to fuel expansion to mainland China.
  • Krungthai Bank, EVX Holdings, and Shwe Rural and Urban Development Bank agree to launch the first blockchain-powered, cross- border money transfer service between Thailand and Myanmar.
  • UnionBank of the Philippines introduces the first cryptocurrency ATM in the country.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Finn AI Brings Conversational Banking to South Africa’s TymeBank.
  • Korepay helps Nigerian migrant workers in 12 U.S. states send money back home.
  • Xente, a fintech that enables Ugandan merchants to offer pay by installment, announces expansion to Nigeria.

Top image designed by Freepik

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The Rise of AI and the Role of the Customer in Fintech

The Rise of AI and the Role of the Customer in Fintech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2019

This year, FinovateSpring will feature a special day dedicated to two critical issues in fintech: the rise of AI and the importance of the customer journey.

On May 7th, the day before the conference begins, we’ll host an AI Summit and a Customer Experience Summit that will provide both a broad overview and a deep dive into both timely topics.

Join us Tuesday morning at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square for a day of insightful keynote addresses, fireside chats, strategy roundtables, case studies, and debates.

AI  Summit

In addition to opening and closing remarks from our chair, Ron Shevlin, Head of Research, Cornerstone Advisors, here’s a look at the sessions available in our AI Summit:

  • What Can Artificial Intelligence Do for Your Business? – read more
  • Making AI Walk the Talk – It’s All About the Data – read more
  • 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? – read more
  • The Rise of Natural Language Processing & How it is Reshaping
    Financial Services – read more
  • AI for Fraud Detection and Risk Management – read more
  • Let’s Chat About Chatbots – read more
  • Six Business Applications Within Investing, Compliance, Credit Scoring, Marketing, and Customer Support – read more
  • Oxygen for AI, How Data Management and Data Governance Can Make or Break Your AI Journey – read more
  • Using AI to Transform Customer Experience – read more
  • Building a Cognitive Bank from the Inside Out – read more
  • AI to Streamline Operational Processes – read more
  • Fintechs and Financial Institutions on the Journey Towards a Productive Partnership in AI – read more

Customer Experience

With opening and closing remarks from Beyond the Arc CEO Steven Ramirez, who will serve as Chair, here’s a look at the sessions being offered in our Customer Experience Summit.

  • The Evolution of Innovation: Build, Buy or Partner? – read more
  • Return on CX – 80% of the Potential ROI is Typically Left Untapped – read more
  • How Can Financial Institutions Transform Customer Experience through Deep Customer Insights? Why Powerful Data Analytics Will Be Critical for Success – read more
  • How to Innovate on Behalf of the Customer and Build a Business Around Customer Needs to Drive Loyalty and Sustained Growth – read more
  • Bridging the Gap Between the Customer Experience Promise and the Customer Experience Reality to Deliver Outstanding CX at Scale – read more
  • How to Align Your Whole Organization to a Common Customer. Purpose and Harness Future Technology to Redraw the Customer Experience Landscape – read more
  • Creating a Seamless Digital Customer Experience – read more
  • How We Are Creating a Seamless Customer Experience – read more
  • Harnessing Disruptive Technologies to Maximize Customer Experience and Loyalty – read more
  • Delivering Outstanding Customer Experience by Harnessing Open APIs – read more
  • Transforming the B2B Customer Experience – read more
  • Fintechs and Financial Institutions On the Journey Towards a Productive Partnership in CX – read more

Tickets to FinovateSpring are available now. Visit our registration page today and save your spot.

Note that registration for Tuesday’s Summit’s is separate from registration to attend the main, three-day FinovateSpring conference beginning on Wednesday, May 8.

Take advantage of our special discount when purchasing your ticket before April 26, or when packaging a Summit Day registration with a registration for the main conference.

Questions about FinovateSpring? Send us an email for more information.

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Germany’s aixigo Forges Strategic Partnership with Synpulse

Germany’s aixigo Forges Strategic Partnership with Synpulse
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: aixigo

A strategic partnership that combines the digital wealth management and investment advisory platform of aixigo and the implementation expertise of Swiss consulting firm Synpulse is the latest big development on the European wealth management scene.

The two companies announced a strategic partnership this week that will provide financial service providers in Switzerland and beyond with a digital API platform that is fast, flexible, and has what the company called “mass suitability.” aixigo’s platform offers more than 100 API-based services, delivering value-added digital services to branches as well as via mobile devices. The solution can provide large volumes of raw data for legacy systems, and then refine the data quickly at scale without regard for the client’s underlying core banking system.

Left to right: Marcus Grundler (Head of Portfolio Management Systems) and Mario Alves (Head of Sales & Partner Management) demonstrating aixigo’s Digital Financial Portfolio Management Back Office solution at FinovateFall 2018.

aixigo CEO Erich Borsch underscored the need for speed when it comes to providing services in wealth management. “(The) attention span of clients in the digital age continues to decline,” he said. “So the goal must be to get at least two minutes of attention a day from the client. And you can only do that if you can offer relevant information extremely quickly, digitally, and attractively.”

Banks are as much a beneficiary of faster, more flexible solutions as customers are, Borsch added. And by meeting customer expectations in the digital realm, he said, it is easier “for the bank to become an integral part of daily digital habits.”

Synpulse Managing Partner Raphael Jung explained the importance of aixigo’s technology in a world of open banking and open APIs. He said, “In order to be able to use this potential for digital offers in asset management and investment advisory as well, a system is needed that records all relevant data at high speed and makes it available again in a redefined form – an API platform.”

Headquartered in Aachen, Germany, and founded in 1999, aixigo demonstrated its Digital Financial Portfolio Management Back Office solution at FinovateFall 2018. The technology enables wealth managers to leverage relatively small staffs to manage hundreds of thousands of investment portfolios quickly and efficiently.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: aixigo, Bento for Business, Biometric Signature ID, Fintech OS, Klarna, Kony, Temenos, Tradeshift, Trunomi, Voleo

On Finovate.com

  • Germany’s aixigo Forges Strategic Partnership with Synpulse.
  • The Rise of AI and the Role of the Customer in Fintech.

Around the web

  • Payment service provider Truevo to deploy front office and core banking solutions from Temenos.
  • Klarna launches global customer authentication platform for multinational businesses.
  • Fintech OS announces new Chief Revenue Officer Leon Stevens.
  • Best of Show winner Voleo takes home the 2019 Best Stock Trading App award in the Investment category of the FinTech Breakthrough Awards.
  • Trunomi unveils new website, branding.
  • Kony teams up with Okta to provide ID management and MFA.
  • FindBiometrics interviews Jeff Maynard, CEO and Founder of Biometric Signature ID.
  • Tradeshift to power supplier solutions for Axfood.

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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Onfido Raises $50 Million in New Capital

Onfido Raises $50 Million in New Capital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Onfido

A new round of funding led by SBI Investment and Salesforce Ventures has driven identity verification specialist Onfido’s total capital to more than $100 million.

“With this new funding, we can protect more businesses, in more countries – and in more ways – from the effects of fraud,” Onfido co-founder and CEO Husayn Kassai said. “We’ll also be able to expand the reach of our technology, so that people without a credit history can finally access the online services they badly need.”

This week’s $50 million financing, which featured participation from M12 (formerly Microsoft Ventures), FinVC, and other investors, will help Onfido fulfill its goal of leveraging AI to standardize how businesses verify identity. In a statement, the company said the funding would also help it “consolidate its core market in the U.S.” as well as support growth in areas like Europe and Southeast Asia.

As part of the investment, former Chief Sales Officer and Vice Chairman of Salesforce Frank van Veenendaal (pictured right with Onfido CEO Kassai) will join Onfido’s board of directors. “There has never been a more important time for companies to build trust with their customers by showing they are one step ahead of fraudsters,” Veenendaal said.

“I believe Onfido has the unique opportunity to transform the digital identity market and deliver robust and scalable authentication-as-a-service,” he added, “similar to how Salesforce transformed customer relationship management.”

Onfido demonstrated its Facial Check with Video solution at FinovateFall 2018. The technology offers enhanced security during new user onboarding by having users video themselves performing specific actions such as repeating random numbers to ensure liveness. Onfido’s solution then leverages machine learning to compare the facial image in the video to the image on the user’s identity document.

Appointed to the FIDO Alliance Board of Directors in March, Onfido also last month announced a project to help train officials at INTERPOL to better identify fraudulent ID documents. The company has made a number a partnerships in the first few months of the year including teaming up with PensionBee, collaborating with P2P RV rental firm, RVshare, and providing verification services for extended stay marketplace, 2nd Address.

Most recently, Onfido partnered with IDValidation to fight the growing problem synthetic identity fraud in which only a single element of an individual’s identity – rather than the users’s complete identity – is stolen and used to make transactions.

With more than 1,500 customers around the world – including industry leaders like DraftKings, Remitly, and Zipcar – Onfido was founded in 2012. The company is headquartered in London, U.K.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Capsilon, Checkbook.io, EVRY, Insuritas, NestReady, Onfido, PayPal, ProfitStars, Salt Edge, SocietyOne, Tinkoff Bank, Tyfone

On Finovate.com

  • Onfido Raises $50 Million in New Capital.
  • Salt Edge Earns Account Information Service Provider License from FCA.

Around the web

  • Tinkoff Group of Russia builds supercomputer dubbed the most powerful in financial sector.
  • PayPal joins Series A round for Cambridge Blockchain.
  • EVRY partners with ACI Worldwide to enhance its mobile payment service in the Nordics and Europe.
  • ProfitStars wins 2019 FinTech Breakthrough Award for Best Business Lending Platform
  • Capsilon expands executive team, forms new product organization to drive mortgage innovation. Check out Capsilon’s newest tech at FinovateSpring in May.
  • SocietyOne launches new investor trust.
  • Portland Business Journal: Tyfone brings credit unions the digital tools members want.
  • Insuritas partners with Nymeo FCU to launch digital insurance agency.
  • NestReady to power integrated homebuying experience for Resource Financial Services.

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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Fintech’s Newest Unicorn Bill.com Raises $88 Million in New Funding

Fintech’s Newest Unicorn Bill.com Raises $88 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bill.com, Funding

In a round led by Franklin Templeton, business payments innovator Bill.com has raised $88 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured participation from Mastercard, Fidelity Canada, FLEETCOR, Tamasek, and others, takes Bill.com’s total funding to $275 million, and gives the company a valuation of more than $1 billion.

“Bill.com is changing how payments are made in the SMB market by defining an industry leading payment and software platform for SMBs,” company founder and CEO René Lacerte said. “Businesses struggle with conventional payment processes which are complex, manual, paper-based and not always secure. Our cloud payment platform is changing all that. We automate payments and back office business processes resulting in significant efficiencies and cost savings.”

In addition to the funding announcement, Bill.com revealed that it has teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard to offer its virtual cards as part of Bill.com’s automated AP solution for SMEs. The move is part of Bill.com’s effort to further digitize the payment process, leveraging virtual card technology to make funds more readily available to cardholders and to ensure accurate matches between payments and receivables.

Mastercard Small Business Lead for North America Ginger Siegel highlighted the advantages of virtual cards, and praised the collaboration with Bill.com as a way to increase adoption of the technology. “Virtual cards are more secure and provide transparency into cash in-flows and out-flows, which is critical to the growth of all small businesses,” Siegel said. “With the partnership with Bill.com, we can bring the benefits of virtual cards to hundreds of thousands of smaller enterprises in the United States.”

Bill.com demonstrated the Cashview feature of its platform at FinovateSpring 2012. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company made fintech headlines recently when it announced that it was ending wire transfer fees for small businesses using its International Payments technology. Earlier this year, Bill.com announced a partnership with American Express to offer a new solution to streamline vendor payments, Vendor Pay.

Founded in 2006, Bill.com manages $60+ billion in annual payment volume in its three million member network, and includes more than 70 of the top 100 accounting firms in the U.S. among its clients. Bill.com is also partnered with major accounting software providers like QuickBooks and Xero, and is the preferred digital payment solutions provider for CPA.com.

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