Author: David Penn

Jumio Unveils Automated AML Screening Solution

Jumio Unveils Automated AML Screening Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jumio

Courtesy of an integration with ComplyAdvantage, trusted identity as a service innovator Jumio is launching a new, fully-automated AML solution, Jumio Screening. The new solution leverages ComplyAdvantage’s automated watchlist and politically exposed persons (PEPs) screening and monitoring to streamline the compliance process.

Chief Product Officer for Jumio Philipp Pointner highlighted the role of sanctions lists in helping fight financial crime such as money laundering. “This integration equips our clients with market-leading data and best-of-breed digital identity and screening technologies to make the right AML risk decisions with automated customer onboarding and ongoing monitoring,” Pointner said.

ComplyAdvantage’s technology is integrated into the dashboard of Jumio’s Netverify platform, making identity verification, sanctions and adverse media screening available from one location. The screening solution automatically flags new online customers during initial onboarding if their name appears on any of the sanctioned lists, and alerts compliance professionals who can conduct a more detailed review.

Jumio’s technology leverages AI, computer vision technology, machine learning, and live verification experts to verify the authenticity of ID documents and real-world identities, as well as provide authentication, in seconds. The company has verified more than 170 million identities issued by 200+ countries, and its solutions have been deployed in use cases ranging from customer onboarding to high-risk transaction monitoring.

Founded in 2010, Jumio demonstrated its Netverify platform at FinovateAsia last fall. Earlier this month, the company announced the latest stage in its expansion in Latin America: the opening of a sales office in Brazil. Jumio was recognized recently with top honors in the compliance, biometrics, and fraud prevention categories at the 2019 InfoSec Awards, and began the year winning a 2019 Innovation Award from the Business Intelligence Group. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California.

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Nordigen, Sensibill Earn Spots in Fintech Europe’s Incoming Cohort

Nordigen, Sensibill Earn Spots in Fintech Europe’s Incoming Cohort
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Nordigen, Sensibill

A pair of Finovate alums – including a Best of Show winner – are among the nine companies chosen to participate in the incoming group of startups for Plug and Play’s Fintech Europe. Nordigen, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall last year, and Sensibill, which won Best of Show in its FinovateFall debut in 2017, will join the fintech accelerator’s 12 week program.

“This batch has a strong focus on AI and Machine Learning,” Program Director  Fernando Zornig said, “with startups in their seed stage all the way to Series C.” Also participating in the upcoming class are: Bankify, Digital Shadows, E-bot7, Fino Digital, Labest, Precire, and Spin Analytics.

The nine startups in the incoming cohort, Fintech Europe’s third, were selected from more than 214 applicants. The program will give startups the opportunity to meet and work with Plug and Play’s corporate partners, as well as examine pilot projects and potential business and investment opportunities. “We are very excited with this new class of companies that are bringing a new atmosphere to the corporate ecosystem,” Zornig said. “They will get connected with financial institutions from all over the Euro-Zone and beyond.”

Fintech Europe also announced that its partner base had expanded to nine financial institutions: Deutsche Bank, TechQuartier, BNP Paribas, Nets Group, Aareal Bank, Abanca, Danske Bank, DZ Bank, and Elo.

Nordigen demonstrated its Nordigen Report at FinovateFall 2018. The Report gives banks and lenders more information about applicants with little credit history, and supports verification of any current liabilities or “red flags” like previous debt collection. The solution also gives lenders new predictive features for credit risk modeling. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Riga, Latvia, the company returned to the Finovate stage earlier this year.

Last month, Nordigen was featured in EU Startups’ article, 10 Latvian startups to look out for in 2019. The company raised $800,000 in new funding last fall.

Sensibill was founded in 2013 and is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company demonstrated its Insights+ technology, which helps FIs spot revenue opportunities from on- and off-card purchase data, at FinovateFall 2017, earning a Best of Show award. Named to KPMG and H2 Venture’s Fintech 100’s Emerging Stars, Sensibill since then has announced partnerships with NatWest, Quontic Bank, and Royal Bank of Scotland.

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Community Access from Urban FT Brings Digital Tools to Small Banks

Community Access from Urban FT Brings Digital Tools to Small Banks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Urban FT

Urban FT Group, a fintech provider, is launching Community Access, an agent bank program that delivers financial tools on mobile banking for community banks’ consumer and commercial customers, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Richard Steggall, Urban FT CEO, said: “With Community Access, community banks can truly compete with the bigger, national banks by offering a product that serves their entire communities with tools, features and support. This program doesn’t just empower the underdogs, it puts them on an entirely new path when it comes to reach and the ability to serve new demographics.”

The official launch of Community Access is taking place at ICBA Live in Nashville in cooperation with ICBA Bancard, the payment services subsidiary of the Independent Community Bankers of America, and Mastercard.

Heather Schumacher, newly appointed Urban FT COO, will oversee the deployment and support of this program as it reaches “untapped demographics”. Schumacher is the former COO of Sunrise Banks and comes comes to Urban FT with over 11 years of experience in card issuing, platform operations and program delivery.

The program features a managed card service for community banks that includes program setup and compliance, card issuance and fulfillment, instant account opening and cardholder support.

ICBA member banks can take advantage of special pricing and incentives provided by Urban FT and Mastercard. Additionally, ICBA members will have access to Urban FT’s full suite of digital banking and digital payment services, such as consumer and commercial RDC.

Urban FT demonstrated the Workshop, a real time, multi-tier mobile app management platform, at FinovateFall 2016. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in New York City.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, HackerOne, Jumio, Modo Payments, Nordigen, PayPal, Ping Identity, Sensibill, Urban FT

On Finovate.com

  • Nordigen, Sensibill Earn Spots in Fintech Europe’s Incoming Cohort.
  • Jumio Unveils Automated AML Screening Solution.
  • Community Access from Urban FT Brings Digital Tools to Small Banks.

Around the web

  • PayPal teams up with JP Morgan Chase to offer instant transfer option.
  • Coinbase’s Custody service completes its first over-the-counter trade directly from offline storage.
  • HackerOne announces detecting vulnerabilities in up to 43 digital asset projects.
  • Ping Identity wins the DeveloperWeek 2019 Devies Award and the Info Security Global Excellence Award.
  • The Paypers interviews Modo CEO and founder Bruce Parker.

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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FIS Acquires Worldpay

FIS Acquires Worldpay
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FIS, WorldPay

Banking technology giant FIS is acquiring payments firm Worldpay via a cash and stock combination – bringing Worldpay’s enterprise value to approximately $43 billion (including the assumption of Worldpay debt, which FIS expects to refinance), reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

According to Bloomberg, FIS is spending $34 billion on this purchase.

“Scale matters in our rapidly changing industry,” said Gary Norcross, chairman, president and CEO, FIS. “Upon closing later this year, our two powerhouse organisations will combine forces to offer a customer-driven combination of scale, global presence and the industry’s broadest range of global financial solutions.”

“At Worldpay, our focus has always been on delivering more value to our clients and partners and making decisions that achieve our growth and performance objectives,” said Charles Drucker, executive chairman and chief executive officer, Worldpay.

Organic revenue growth outlook has grown from 6% to 9% through 2021 for FIS, in conjunction with $700 million of total EBITDA synergies from the combination of revenue and expense opportunities over the next three years.

This acquisition comes hot on the heels of another massive deal in the payments space: Fiserv, another US heavyweight and direct rival of FIS, buying First Data.

Worldpay, as it is today, is also the result of a big merger with Vantiv announced back in 2017.

The combined company of Worldpay and FIS will have pro forma 2018 annual revenue and adjusted EBITDA of approximately $12.3 billion and $4.9 billion, respectively.

Upon closing, the combined company’s Board of Directors will consist of 12 members, seven of which will come from FIS’ board of directors and five of which will come from Worldpay’s.

Gary Norcross will remain as FIS chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer. Charles Drucker, Worldpay’s current executive chairman and CEO, will serve as the executive vice-chairman of the board.

The transaction is subject to receipt of required regulatory and shareholder approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the second half of 2019.

FIS demonstrated its Cardless Cash solution at FinovateFall 2016. Cardless Cash provides consumers with faster, more secure options when it comes to sending and accessing cash via ATMs, including the ability to pre-order funds from their mobile banking app.

Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “FIS.” The company has a market capitalization of $35 billion.

Worldpay participated in our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley 2015. The company’s Head of Strategic Partnerships discussed how businesses can add secure payments to any website, app, or mobile device via the Worldpay Securenet API.

Worldpay was founded in 1971 (as Midwest Payment Systems) and is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. With a market capitalization of $33 billion, Worldpay trades on the NYSE under the ticker “WP.”

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IBM Debuts Blockchain Network for Cross-Border Payments

IBM Debuts Blockchain Network for Cross-Border Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: IBM

 

IBM has unveiled a global blockchain network, Blockchain World Wire, that will offer near real-time cross-border payment exchange and international settlement. Blockchain World Wire can transfer funds in 47 currencies to locations in 72 countries, and the company is calling it the first blockchain network of its kind to integrate payment messaging, clearing and settlement in a single unified network.

“We’ve created a new type of payment network designed to accelerate remittances and transform cross-border payments to facilitate the movement of money in countries that need it most,” General Manager of IBM Blockchain Marie Wieck said. “By creating a network where financial institutions support multiple digital assets, we expect to spur innovation and improve financial inclusion worldwide.”

Blockchain World Wire leverages the Stellar protocol to support point-to-point money transfers, cutting out the intermediaries of conventional correspondent banking. World Wire also shortens settlement time by transmitting value via digital assets (i.e., cryptocurrencies or stable coins).

The network currently supports settlement with Stellar Lumens and a U.S. dollar-based stable coin. Six global banks have signed letters of intent to issue their own stable coins on the network, which will add the Euro, the Indonesian Rupiah, the Philippine Peso, the Korean Won, and the Brazilian Real to the mix.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) of the Philippines and Banco Bradesco of Brazil are among the banks that have announced their participation in IBM’s new initiative. Representatives from both institutions highlighted “innovation” and the need to “enhance” or “add value” to the customer experience as key factors in the decision to join the network. Also believed to have signed a letter of intent is South Korea’s Banco Busan.

IBM participated in our developers conference, FinDEVrNewYork 2017, discussing the IBM Cloud for Financial Services. The company’s security division, IBM Trusteer, demonstrated its latest technology to fight new account fraud at FinovateEurope earlier this year. A leader in open source blockchain technology solutions for the enterprise, IBM has a market capitalization of $124 billion, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “IBM.”

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PayPal in Argentina; Temenos Backs African Challenger Bank

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, ArthaYantra, Bluefin Payment Systems, BLUERUSH, Experian, Finovate Global, iSignthis, NCR Corporation, PayPal, Sberbank, Temenos, ThreatMetrix, Tinkoff Bank

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.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • PayPal invests $750 million in Argentina-based e-commerce company MercadoLibre.
  • First Data to acquire Brazilian electronic funds transfer (EFT) solution provider Software Express.
  • NCR, Bluefin, and Powertranz team up to support POS card processing for Caribbean quick serve restaurants.
  • BlueRush deploys its Individeo platform with a large Colombian bank courtesy of a partnership with Bee Concept.
  • The Wall Street Journal looks at how global FIs are gaining interest in the Latin American alternative lending market.

Asia-Pacific

  • Experian launches Singapore-based incubator, Experian X Labs.
  • South Korean crypto company Kakao raises $90 million via private coin offering.
  • Thai Stock Exchange to launch a digital asset exchange next year.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Front office and core banking technology from Temenos to drive digital revamp for African challenger bank, Vista Bank.
  • Financial Software and Systems takes 46% stake in South Africa’s Ecentric Payment Systems.
  • South Africa’s second largest retail bank, Capitec, extends its partnership with ACI Worldwide.
  • ThreatMetrix teams up with Blue Turtle Technologies to help market its fraud prevention solution to customers in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Tinkoff Bank reports 2018 highlights including launch of new mortgage app, a joint P2P money transfer offering with Sberbank, and more than 2.7 million new active credit customers.
  • iSignthis Inks Banking and Payments Deal with Ibanera.
  • Bulgaria-based Software Group scores €18 million loan from Europe Investment Bank.
  • EU Startups features lending platform Inlock its look at 10 Hungarian startups to look out for in 2019.
  • Bulgaria’s Municipal Bank to deploy new core and payments solutions from Oracle.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) launches $10 million fund for fintech startups in the MENA region.
  • Commercial Bank of Qatar joins R3.
  • Credit scoring solution provider Creditinfo opens regional hub in Muscat following new strategic partnership with the Central Bank of Oman.

Central and South Asia

  • ArthaYantra wins Fintech of the Year (India) at The Asset Triple A Digital Awards.
  • Africa’s Naspers plans to spend $1 billion on investments in Indian fintechs.
  • Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures division to launch digital platform for Indian SMEs.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Biometric Signature ID, Envestnet, Finanteq, HooYu, IBM, PayPal, Temenos, wipro, WorldPay

On Finovate.com

  • IBM Debuts Blockchain Network for Cross-Border Payments.
  • Finovate Global: PayPal in Argentina; Temenos Backs African Challenger Bank.

Around the web

  • Envestnet to acquire PIEtech, maker of MoneyGuide, in $500 million deal.
  • HooYu partners with online lottery betting operator, Lottomart, to help the Gibraltar-based firm meet AML requirements.
  • Wipro launches its AI and machine learning-powered accounts payable, KYC, and other solutions on Amazon Web Services.
  • Polish neo bank Nest Bank unveils new lifestyle services module, Finanteq’s SuperWallet, to its mobile banking app.
  • FindBiometrics interviews Biometric Signature ID CEO, President, and founder, Jeff Maynard.

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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LendingFront, Veridium, Voca.ai Join Mastercard’s Start Path

LendingFront, Veridium, Voca.ai Join Mastercard’s Start Path
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: LendingFront, MasterCard, Veridium, Voca.ai

LendingFront, Veridium, and Voca.ai are three of the seven companies recently selected to participate in Mastercard’s startup engagement program, Start Path. The accelerator program works with startups from a variety of fields ranging from banking and biometrics to data intelligence and security. Participating companies will access Mastercard’s worldwide ecosystem and leverage their new relationship with Mastercard and its customers to expand into new markets.

“After searching around its presence in 210 geographies and beyond,” a statement from Mastercard Start Path read, “Mastercard and seven startups are descending upon Dublin this week to ignite their collaboration.”

Start Path begins with a kick-off event that helps the program administrators get to know the companies, define goals and introduce startups to Mastercard’s partners, as well as future channels and customers. The majority of the program consists of a six-month virtual engagement that companies participate in from their home location.

Upon successful completion of the Start Path program, companies that have produced what the program referred to as “tangible value” for Mastercard’s partners will be eligible for potential strategic investment.

“The diverse technologies comprising the latest Start Path wave is a snapshot of the nearly 10,000 startups and fintechs connected to Start Path since its founding in 2014,” the program announcement noted. “It also shows how, through Mastercard Labs, we partner successfully to explore new technologies, accelerate new concepts and deliver transformative growth and change to the commerce landscape.”

The full roster of companies also includes Fligoo, mfarmPay, Monsoon CreditTech, and Segasec.

LendingFront demonstrated its Small Business Platform at FinovateFall 2016. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, the company offers an automated lending platform that consolidates processes typically conducted by disparate systems. The technology features application workflow for loan processing, a data engine, decision engine, offer screens, documentation and booking functionality, as well as servicing. LendingFront raised $4 million in Series A funding at the beginning of the year.

Massachusetts-based identity and access management solution provider Veridium demonstrated its VeridiumID with 4Fingers Touchless ID technology at FinovateEurope 2017. Earlier this month, the company unveiled its InMotion solution that leverages user behavior analytics to help secure online identities and prevent cyberfraud. Also this spring, Veridium partnered with Blue Turtle Technologies to drive adoption of biometric technology in Africa.

Best of Show winner Voca.ai demonstrated its intelligent virtual agent for call centers at FinovateEurope 2019 in February. It was the second Best of Show win for the company, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia last fall. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, the company’s technology provides a flexible, natural-sounding, automated human voice system that improves customer satisfaction, and helps businesses convert and qualify more leads.

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Once SaleMove, Glia Raises $20 Million in Post-Rebrand Funding

Once SaleMove, Glia Raises $20 Million in Post-Rebrand Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Glia, SaleMove

Omnichannel digital customer engagement platform for financial services Glia has raised $20 million in new funding. The Series B round for the Best of Show winning company formerly known as SaleMove was led by Insight Venture Partners, and takes Glia’s total capital to $29 million.

The company will use the funds to get bigger, adding to its product development, sales, solutions, and marketing organizations and infrastructure. Glia co-founder and CEO Dan Michaeli praised Insight’s record of collaborating with “best-in-class SaaS companies” and made a direct connection between the firm’s investment with Glia’s growth plans.

“By adding an investor as strong and experienced as Insight, we are poised to rapidly expand Glia’s market reach,” Michaeli said.

Left to right: Glia’s Jordan Christopher (SVP Sales) and Patrick Yoon (Account Executive) demonstrating Omniguide at FinovateEurope 2019.

Glia specializes in helping companies maximize the way they engage with their customers. Its digital communications platform enables businesses to leverage messaging, video, co-browsing, AI, and voice to communicate with their customers the way they want to communicate and via the channel of their choice – whether between sessions or in the middle of a session.

“Almost every interaction between businesses and customers today involves a screen, yet the main method of getting in touch is still an old-school phone call,” Michaeli explained. “Over the next 3-5 years, the move from phone-first to digital-first communication will define the businesses that win customer experience in their category.”

With Glia, a customer service conversation can begin on a smartphone, transition seamlessly to co-browsing, and then move on to conversational AI with an intelligent agent or live chat with a human representative. And while the technology has strong application for sales teams (hence the company’s original name, SaleMove), the evolution of the technology has led to an evolution in the way the technology can be deployed.

“As we’ve built on (our) initial vision, our customers have found many ingenious uses for our functionality that we didn’t imagine at the time,” Michaeli said. “We realize now that the platform does so much more than move sales, so we’ve made the decision to build a brand which supports that wider vision of the value our customers are achieving.”

A four-time Best of Show winner as SaleMove, Glia picked up a fifth Best of Show award for its live demo at FinovateEurope earlier this year. At the conference, the company showed how its new solution, OmniGuide, enables companies to deploy one or more conversational AI engines across the enterprise.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CallVU, Doxo, Finastra, Glia, Kony, NICE Systems, OurCrowd, Outsystems, Vera

On Finovate.com

  • Once SaleMove, Glia Raises $20 Million in Post-Rebrand Funding.
  • Doxo to Provide Electronic Billpay Solution to R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company.

Around the web

  • Low code development platform OutSystems reports record revenues for 2018.
  • NICE Robotic Process Automation (RPA) teams up with CallVU.
  • Finastra named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide End-to-End Corporate Banking Solution Providers 2019 Vendor Assessment report.
  • Kony named a leader for low-code development platforms by independent research firm.
  • OurCrowd announces it has raised $1 billion to date.

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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Stash Scores $65 Million; Launches Stock-Back Rewards

Stash Scores $65 Million; Launches Stock-Back Rewards
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Stash

With the stock market in rally mode and up significantly from the Christmas Eve lows, micro-investing fintech startup Stash is celebrating the occasion with a $65 million fundraising.

The Series E was led by an unnamed private institutional investor and featured participation from current investors including Union Square Ventures and Breyer Capital. The new capital takes Stash’s total funding to $181.3 million. The company said it will use it to drive product growth as well as marketing.

Stash also announced this week that it was launching a new rewards program, leveraging its Stash debit card, that will provide users with fractional shares of stock whenever qualified purchases at publicly-held companies are made. The Stock-Back rewards program gives consumers a micro-investment in companies like Amazon and Chipotle every time they shop using the Stash card. For privately-held companies that do not have stock available, consumers will get their Stock-Back rewards in the form of fractional shares in a broad-based, global equity exchange-traded fund (ETF).

“During the testing period, we saw an overwhelming positive response from users as they pay ordinary bills like Netflix, and in returned received Netflix stock as well as access to dividends, educational resources and financial advice,” Stash co-founder and president Ed Robinson said.

Stash demonstrated the Stash Retire feature of its mobile-first, micro-investing platform at FinovateFall 2017. Stash Retire offers users a low-fee, self-directed Roth IRA account that can be invested in for as little as $100 to start. Users of Stash Retire can take advantage of all of the options available in their Stash Invest accounts, such as auto-invest and $5 investment minimums.

Named to the Forbes Fintech 50 last month and honored by the FinTech Breakthrough Awards in the Best Robo Advisory Platform category last spring, Stash was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in New York City.

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