Author: David Penn

HooYu Brings Verification Services to Alt Banking Startup Suits Me

HooYu Brings Verification Services to Alt Banking Startup Suits Me
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: HooYu

Identity verification specialist HooYu is collaborating with alternative banking solution provider Suits Me to help un- and underbanked workers get better access to financial services.

“Suits Me is an innovative solution that gives temporary workers freedom and choice through financial inclusion,” HooYu Marketing Director David Pope explained. “HooYu Identify blends a range of identity verification techniques into one service. By choosing the services according to their needs, Suits Me has built their ideal customer onboarding process balancing the twin objectives of security and convenience.”

Suits Me offers a hassle-free alternative for many workers, including temporary and migrant workers who are often unable to open traditional bank accounts. With Suits Me, account holders can send wages directly to their account and get a VISA debit card that can be used anywhere VISA is accepted – online, in person, and over the phone.

Courtesy of the partnership with HooYu, new Suits Me customers will benefit from an online verification process that is both seamless and comprehensive. With HooYu’s Identify solution, new customers simply take a selfie, and provide social media or online account information, and a photo of their ID document.

HooYu then conducts a biometric facial verification and authenticates the ID documents. Identify cross-references all of the collected identity attributes and scores them to create an overall identity confirmation score and report that show the degree of confidence in the accuracy of the customer’s claimed identity.

“Our mission is to help workers get paid, ” Suits Me CEO Matthew Sanders said. Pointing out how Suits Me relieves workers of the hassles of checks and check cashing, Sanders added “Integrating HooYu Identity removes yet another hurdle – we can trust who the customer says they are and, this can happen even more quickly, without unnecessary complications or bureaucracy.”

HooYu demonstrated its identity verification technology at FinovateEurope 2018. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, U.K., the company earlier this month announced that it would provide online verification services for mobile e-gaming operator, Small Screen Casinos. In September, HooYu reported partnering with U.K. casino operator, Bear Group, as well as teaming up with EasyMoney, a firm that offers a variety of innovative finance ISAs.

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Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Finovate Global

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.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexican fintech Albo raises $7.4 million in Series A round led by Mountain Nazca.
  • Mobile digital wallet BPP Pay goes live in Brazil.
  • The Inter-American Development Bank and Finnovista publish their Fintech in Latin America 2018: Growth and Consolidation report.

Asia-Pacific

  • R3 and SBI Holdings launch joint venture to boost use of Corda in Japan and East Asia more broadly.
  • Mizuho inks memorandum of understanding for business cooperation with Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG) in quest for Chinese fintech startups.
  • Phillippine “fintech city” Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (CEZA) unveils new regulations for trading cryptocurrency assets.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Standard Chartered begins the second phase of its digital-only, retail bank rollout in four African markets.
  • The Standard reflects on Kenya’s progress in promoting financial inclusion via financial technology.
  • Modern Ghana considers Five Ways Fintech Will Change E-Commerce.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Fintech Futures takes a look at the growth of Lithuania’s fintech sector.
  • ACI Worldwide to drive real-time payments for 17 banks in Hungary.
  • Belarus turns to the example of Lithuania as the country considers how to regulate fintech.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Sharia’h compliant insurance solution provider Solidarity Bahrain opts for core insurance system from TCS Bancs.
  • Al Bawaba looks at how Egyptian banks are moving toward digitization and embracing fintech.
  • Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority and United Arab Emirates Central Bank announce plans for a blockchain-based digital currency to improve financial settlements between the two countries.

Central and South Asia

  • Indian alternative credit scoring startup CreditVidya raises $3 million in funding.
  • A partnership between 11 banks in India has led to the country’s first blockchain-linked funding for SMEs.
  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launches Ombudsman Scheme for Digital Transactions to improve response to complaints regarding digital transactions.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Mambu Takes its SaaS Core Banking to Orange Bank in Spain

Mambu Takes its SaaS Core Banking to Orange Bank in Spain
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mambu

Mambu has signed a deal to implement its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based core banking system at Orange Bank‘s new location in Spain, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Mambu has also confirmed that it recently completed a funding round, and said it will be revealing details about this soon.

Fintech Futures understands the value of this round is in the tens of millions, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.

According to Fintech Futures’ sources, Orange Bank has also picked Mambu for one of its Eastern Europe locations, possibly Romania or Bulgaria.

These may be just rumors, however, as Orange Bank says: “For the moment the contract does not stipulate any other country. This will be seen later, depending of future deployments in Europe.”

It is understood that for these new locations, Orange Bank went through a selection process that Mambu won.

Mambu has declined to comment on the deal.

The French business of the bank uses the SAB AT system from French core banking tech supplier SAB.

In 2016, the French mobile operator acquired 65% of Groupama shares, to launch a bank, and leveraged its tech to do so.

For its mobile front-end, Orange Bank uses Backbase’s platform.

Mambu demonstrated its cloud native, SaaS banking solution at FinovateAsia 2013. A few years later, the company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr New York 2016, presenting Smart Consumer Lending: Platform and Scoring Architecture, a look at the company’s collaboration with alternative lender, Lenddo.

Founded in 2011, Mambu is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: HooYu, Mambu, NDGIT, Nordigen, Qover

On Finovate.com

  • HooYu Brings Verification Services to Alt Banking Startup Suits Me.
  • Mambu Takes its SaaS Core Banking Solution to Orange Bank in Spain.

Around the web

  • API platform provider for banking and insurance NDGIT signs Banco BNI as a strategic customer.
  • EU Startups features Nordigen in its look at the top 10 Latvian startups to look out for in 2019.
  • Qover, an insurtech startup from Belgium, opens a new office in France.

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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Ephesoft Helps Businesses Leverage the Cloud to Meet Demand

Ephesoft Helps Businesses Leverage the Cloud to Meet Demand
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ephesoft

When the going gets tough, the tough take to the cloud.

Enterprise content capture and data solution provider Ephesoft unveiled its Ephesoft Cloud HyperExtender today. The new technology enables Ephesoft Transact users to optimize their on-premise solution by more than 10x, bringing processing speeds up to 2,500 pages per minute to satisfy instances of peak demand.

An add-on application, the Cloud Hyperextender combines high-performance cloud image processing with Transact’s supervised machine learning, shifting processing intensive Optical Character Recognition (OCR) operations to the cloud once documents are captured on-premise. After processing, the documents are returned to the on-premise system for classification, extraction, validation, and export.

Click the image above to see a YouTube video of the Cloud HyperExtender in action.

The solution is designed to help companies meet peak demand which “stress(es) the infrastructure for document intelligence,” the company noted in a statement. Retailers experiencing surges in invoices and credit card applications during shopping holidays and tax preparation companies managing heavy processing during tax season are among the examples of how the technology can be deployed.

“Ephesoft’s Cloud HyperExtender is bridging the gap for our customers who want to continue using their existing systems while reaping the benefits of ultra-fast processing in the cloud,” company founder and CEO Ike Kavas said. “This first-to-market offering provides the best of both worlds. As the world’s first hybrid capture microservice, this product maximizes efficiency and profitability for our customers and epitomizes our vision to lead the market to the cloud.”

Above: Scott Lee (Senior Product Manager) and Chris MacWilliams (Lead Solution Engineer) demonstrating the Ephesoft platform at FinovateSpring 2018.

Ephesoft demonstrated its smart document capture and analytics platform at FinovateSpring 2018. The firm has hundreds of customers in more than 50 countries who rely on the company’s technology – including its Ephesoft Insight document analytics and business intelligence solution – to become more productive and efficient, as well as boost ROI.

Earning a finalist spot in the 2019 Cloud Awards Program in the Best Cloud Automation Solution category last month, Ephesoft was named a 2018 Top Workplace by the Orange County Register. Over the summer, Ephesoft was recognized as a Hot Vendor in Document and Contract Analytics, 2018, and launched its Swagger/OpenAPI-web services for Ephesoft Transact. This simplified API makes it easy to integrate Ephesoft’s document capture solutions into openAPI-compliance platforms such as Microsoft Flow.

Ephesoft has raised $15 million in funding, courtesy of a Series A round led by Mercato Partners. Founded in 2010, the company is headquartered in Irvine, California with offices in the U.K., Germany, France, Australia, Singapore, and Italy.

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Now a Temenos Company, Avoka Unveils Workspaces for Retail Banking

Now a Temenos Company, Avoka Unveils Workspaces for Retail Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Temenos

Workspaces for Retail Banking is the first offering from digital customer experience specialist Avoka since the company was acquired by fellow Finovate alum Temenos in a $245 million deal in December.

A new module within the Temenos Infinity product, Workspaces gives professionals at retail banks and credit unions a digital review and approval workspace to provide better support and service during customer account opening and onboarding.

The new solution will be especially helpful for financial services professionals when dealing with applications submitted via Straight Through Processing (STP) that can neither be immediately approved or declined. Workspaces is built to improve the efficiency and productivity of the resolution process necessary to manage these pending applications, helping bank staff avoid delays and negative customer engagement.

“Orchestrating a fast, accurate and collaborative decisioning process is a critical aspect of an applicant’s customer journey,” Steve Demchuk, Chief Product Officer for Avoka, a Temenos Company, explained. “We validated this as an important problem to solve for our bank and credit union customers as they look to remove costly delays in account acquisition.”

Demchuk added that making application review and live customer service a part of the digital account opening process – instead of relying on separate systems – was a major innovation with Workspaces. “This is key to providing excellent service to prospective customers,” he said.

A multiple time Finovate Best of Show winner, Avoka demonstrated its digital account opening solution, Transaction Insights, at FinovateEurope 2017. With offices in Denver, Colorado, as well as London, England, and Sydney, Australia, Avoka had digitized more than 100 million transactions for more than 150 clients around the world.

With customers in more than 145 countries, Temenos introduced its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateEurope 2015. The company announced a partnership with Credorax earlier this week, helping the payments firm provide SME, merchant acquiring, and cross-border payment services. Also this month, Temenos partnered with Bloomberg to help provide contingency net asset value )NAV) calculations to buy-side institutions.

Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos was founded in 1993.

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Fincite & ABN AMRO

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Fincite & ABN AMRO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ABN AMRO, Fincite, FinovateEurope 2019, FinovateEurope 2019 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on February 12 through 14, 2019 in London, U.K. Register today and save your spot.

Recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in Germany, Fincite provides an investment suite with a 360° customer view, intelligent recommendations, and portfolio management for banks and asset managers

Features

  • Automatically provide an individual investment proposal based on customer and bank restrictions
  • Reduce the effort of an investment advisor to handle a portfolio by 4x
  • Ensure portfolio compliance

Why it’s great
The tool allows investment advisors to quickly give accurate financial advice and optimize portfolios, providing a completely new user experience for advisors and customers.

Presenters

Friedhelm Schmitt, Co-CEO, Fincite
Schmitt is a German technology entrepreneur and founder of Fincite and Fincite Ventures. Fincite is creating solutions to reinvent investment and portfolio management in a digital world.
LinkedIn

 

Maarten Heyboer, Business Developer, Investments, ABN AMRO
Heyboer is a Dutch business developer working for ABN AMRO Private Banking. His drive is to optimize customer satisfaction by developing great investment products using the latest innovations.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Keepabl

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Keepabl
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2019, FinovateEurope 2019 Sneak Peek, Keepabl

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on February 12 through 14, 2019 in London, U.K. Register today and save your spot.

How good’s your GDPR answer? Keepabl helps you feel confident about GDPR and gives you a great GDPR answer for the board, investors, and customers in an intuitive, simple SaaS solution.

Features

  • Incredibly simple, user-friendly interface
  • Instant reports, registers, and analysis to help you get the GDPR job done
  • Years of legal expertise baked into the product

Why it’s great
Have a great GDPR answer and unlock investment and revenue blocked by privacy concerns.

Presenter

Robert Baugh, CEO
Baugh founded Keepabl after 13+ years as General Counsel, EVP and Director of VC-backed growth SaaS companies, combining legal and SaaS expertise with the coal-face experience of being the customer.
LinkedIn

 

Andrea Spataro, Privacy Executive
Spataro is a qualified Italian lawyer and Data Protection consultant, combining legal expertise with experience implementing practical and achievable compliance programs in Italy and the U.K.
LinkedIn

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Salt Edge

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Salt Edge
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2019, FinovateEurope 2019 Sneak Peek, Salt Edge

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on February 12 through 14, 2019 in London, U.K. Register today and save your spot.

Salt Edge is a leading financial API platform that offers a range of PSD2 and Open Banking solutions. By having a global vision and EU focus, it securely connects to 3,100+ banks in over 60 countries.

Features

  • Verification of payee before the confirmation of payment
  • Built-in payment templates for all instant payment schemes
  • Notifications about banks’ PISP/AISP channels availability

Why it’s great
Salt Edge enables your company to experience the full power of Open Banking. With a single integration, you get access to thousands of banks and dozens of unique services.

Presenters

Lisa Terziman-Gutu, Head of Business Development
Terziman-Gutu has five years working experience in the fintech industry developing Open Banking products. She leads Salt Edge’s business expansion around the world.
LinkedIn

 

Andrei Scutari, Senior Sales Manager
Scutari is a fintech and Open Banking industry expert. He has international experience in product management, sales, and corporate business.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Icefire

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Icefire
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2019, FinovateEurope 2019 Sneak Peek, Icefire

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on February 12 through 14, 2019 in London, U.K. Register today and save your spot.

Icefire‘s Modularbank is a true BaaS platform built on decades of industry expertise. It allows banks to run their businesses in real-time and rapidly leverage new business models.

Features

  • Rapidly launch business lines like accounts, payments, and loans on the side of your existing business.
  • Replace your existing systems step-by-step
  • Launch a new credit institution in no time

Why it’s great
Icefire has successfully replaced the heart of numerous established banks. With its API-based banking platform Modularbank, Icefire can now serve its clients with the most aggressive timeline possible.

Presenters

Rivo Uibo, Head of Business
Uibo has been leading and advising many influential and award-winning business cases in the banking and financial services industry. He is one of the driving forces behind Modularbank.
LinkedIn

 

Ove Kreison, Head of R&D
Kreison has extensive banking and financial services experience backed with deep technical know-how. He is one of the founders of Modularbank.
LinkedIn

 

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ABN AMRO, Avoka, Ephesoft, Fincite, Fiserv, HooYu, Icefire, Keepabl, Lendio, NCR Corporation, Onfido, Salt Edge, Temenos

On Finovate.com

  • Ephesoft Helps Businesses Leverage the Cloud to Meet Demand.
  • Now a Temenos Company, Avoka Unveils Workspaces for Retail Banking.

Around the web

  • Onfido forges partnership with PensionBee.
  • Portugal’s Banco CTT to leverage technology from Fiserv to fight money laundering.
  • Lendio announces providing more than 5,000 Kiva loans to support women-owned businesses.
  • NCR unveils its EMV-integrated Equinox Luxe devices for NCR Connected Payments, giving a secure payment route for retailers.
  • Hooyu to provide online verification for mobile egaming operator, Small Screen Casinos.

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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CuneXus Starts New Year Signing its 100th Customer 

CuneXus Starts New Year Signing its 100th Customer 
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CUneXus, CUneXus Solutions

Lending and marketing automation platform CuneXus announced signing its 100th customer today. The partnership news shows the Santa Rosa, California-based company continuing the momentum in 2019 after a year that featured major new partnerships, new product features and platform integrations, and a handful of industry awards.

“Since the launch of CuneXus, we have relentlessly pursued the idea that all consumers deserve an easier, more transparent lending experience,” CuneXus CEO Dave Buerger said. “Our achievements in 2018 advanced that goal significantly. I am incredibly proud of the team’s accomplishments last year and our current high growth trajectory.”

Above: CuneXus co-founders John Reich (CTO) and Dave Buerger (CEO) demonstrating cplXpress at FinovateSpring 2018.

CuneXus’ latest client adds to the 27 new partners the company signed last year. These partners now represent more than $175 billion in combined assets and more than 10 million U.S. consumers. The company also noted that its platform averaged more than $8 million in daily loan requests in 2018, with more than $5 billion in total approved loan requests by year’s end.

New clients for CuneXus include community FIs like Redwood CU, Suncoast CU, Community Choice CU, Commonwealth CU of Kentucky, and Nassau Educators FCU. The firm noted that one partner in particular leveraged CuneXus’ technology to lower average processing time for personal loans by 60% and its auto loan time by 80%. Another partner reported an increase of nearly 36% in overall response rates to its loan officers, with more than 10% of the credit union’s members activating offers via CuneXus’ technology.

“We are excited to build on the momentum of 2018 with a brand-new software release that delivers the ability to integrate with partner products from Kasasa, Rollick, and GrooveCar,” Buerger added. “Our outlook for 2019 is strong and we predict another year of growth, robust engagement, and product innovation.”

Founded in 2011, CuneXus demonstrated its cplXpress lending and marketing automation technology at FinovateSpring 2018. The presentation introduced a redesigned and rebuilt platform with improvements to UI, new features, faster processing speeds, deeper campaign analytics, and turn-key integration into dozens of partner systems.

Last fall, the company partnered with fellow alum and Best of Show winner Kasasa, making the its Kasasa Loans product available via CuneXus’ cplXpress platform. Over the summer, CuneXus’ technology was recognized at the 2018 Marketing Association of Credit Unions (MAC) awards, earning top honors in the Electronic Marketing category.

With $6.7 million in funding, CuneXus includes CMFG Ventures among its investors.

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