Author: David Penn

Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group

Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Thought Machine

Lloyds Banking Group has taken a 10% stake in core banking technology provider Thought Machine. The investment of $14.4 million (£11 million) represents the lion’s share of the company’s $23.6 million Series A round (£18 million) and is part of a strategic partnership that will help Lloyds reach its digital transformation goals.

Lloyds will leverage Thought Machine’s Vault solution, a cloud-based, next generation core banking platform to provide its customers with more personalized solutions, as well as accelerating the development cycles for additional digital banking additions. Lloyds noted in a press release that not only has it “completed extensive testing and proofs of concept” with Thought Machine, but also that the firm plans to continue helping develop Vault’s capabilities.

Thought Machine CEO and founder Paul Taylor and Chief of Sales & Marketing Travers Clarke-Walker demonstrating Vault at FinovateEurope 2018.

“A key part of our recently launched three-year strategic plan is applying technology innovation to meet our customers’ evolving needs,” Lloyds Group Director for Transformation Zak Mian explained. “I’m really excited to work with the Thought Machine team to explore ways to simplify and enhance our IT architecture and (help) on our journey to make banking easy and simple for customers.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, U.K., Thought Machine demonstrated Vault at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The flexible, end-to-end, cloud-based platform comes with a full suite of banking solutions including current accounts, loans, savings, mortgages, and credit cards – all delivered via Vault’s system of smart contracts. Driven by what Thought Machine founder and CEO Paul Taylor called a reaction to “the horror of the legacy IT systems” used by banks, Thought Machine and its team of 60 are dedicated to helping banks provide their customers with the “quality and richness of service they deserve.”

“We are delighted to announce this partnership with Lloyds,” Taylor said. “Lloyds has shown a deep commitment to embrace the opportunities that new technologies can bring in improving customers’ banking experience and it is a pleasure to take this partnership forward.”

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FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Bambu

FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Bambu
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, FinovateAfrica 2018, FinovateAfrica 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAfrica on November 27 and 28, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Register today and save your spot.

Bambu is a leading robo-advisor technology provider, transforming digital wealth globally. The company enables businesses by making saving and investing more straightforward and intelligent for their clients.

Features

  • Customizable, goal-based robo advisor platform
  • Natural and effortless experience
  • Combination of personalization advice, investment strategies and the latest technology

Why it’s great
A smarter way to invest and save for the future.

Presenters

Ned Phillips, CEO and Founder
Former MD and now an entrepreneur, Phillips is the founder and chief executive officer of Bambu. Based in Asia for the past 25 years, he started his journey in fintech in 1999 with E*TRADE.
LinkedIn

 

Nick Wood, Senior Representative, Middle East and Africa
With over 20 years of work experience in the international financial services environment, Wood is a successful business builder with extensive South African and global contacts and track records.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Drive Revenue

FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: Drive Revenue
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Drive Revenue Holdings, FinovateAfrica 2018, FinovateAfrica 2018 Sneak Peek

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAfrica on November 27 and 28, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Register today and save your spot.

Drive Practice, a Drive Revenue Holdings product, provides real-time online accounting and practice management for the legal profession.

Features

  • Instant insight into practice and professional performance
  • Visibility of trust monies held and disbursements incurred
  • Automation created management by exception.

Why it’s great
Legaltech is a buzzword, focused on operational innovation. Drive Practice innovates the strategic management of the business practice, critical for the survival of the #21stCenturyLawyer.

Presenters

Jenny Assheton-Smith, CEO
Assheton-Smith is experienced in Business Process Re-engineering, design and implementation of business systems. She is passionate about automating business processes, strategic alignment, and management by exception.
LinkedIn

 

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FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: RISQ

FinovateAfrica Sneak Peek: RISQ
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAfrica 2018, FinovateAfrica 2018 Sneak Peek, RISQ

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAfrica on November 27 and 28, 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa. Register today and save your spot.

RISQ empowers corporate/SME banking divisions with a solution that combines an efficient platform with intelligence, data integration, and AI, presented in a radically intuitive user experience.

Features

  • Manages complex credit decisions with ease
  • Provides integrated analytics and AI components to support the process
  • Integrates “out-of-the-box” with multiple external data repositories

Why it’s great
RISQ | corporate lending powered by CRIF puts the business banking user in the driver’s seat, giving them a 360-degree visibility of every credit decision in real-time.

Presenters

Michael Jesse, CEO and Co-Founder
Jesse has met with over 150 banks in 35+ countries as part of various management roles. This unique insight was channeled into RISQ to create a radically new approach to financial software.
LinkedIn

 

Ozan Vakar, CTO and Co-Founder
Vakar, being an entrepreneur for over 25 years in the financial services industry, has the unique capability to transform a business requirement into a software solution that exceeds clients’ expectations.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Bambu, Drive Revenue Holdings, eToro, Finn.ai, FIS, Outsystems, RISQ, Signicat, Thought Machine

On Finovate.com

  • Thought Machine Announces Strategic Partnership with Lloyds Banking Group.

Around the web

  • OutSystems announces its partner of the year awards.
  • A €5.5 billion independent French bank will deploy Ambit Focus, a regulatory reporting as a service solution from FIS.
  • eToro invests $1 million into cryptocurrency experiment, GoodDollar, designed to reduce wealth inequality.
  • Dell Small Business’ BetaKit interviews Finn.AI co-founder and COO, Natalie Cartwright.
  • Signicat launches new B2B document signing solution, Signicat Business Signature.
  • Backbase names Capgemini its Global Solution Partner of the Year.

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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Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 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.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Tinkoff Bank launches its Tinkoff Mortgage mobile application for its mortgage customers and partners.
  • Emerging Europe looks at the growth potential of the Romanian fintech market.
  • Government of Ukraine announces plans to legalize cryptocurrencies within three years.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Emirates NBD launches its API sandbox.
  • Arab Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade (Al Masraf) licenses Temenos‘ Learning Community Engine.
  • Bahrain’s Ahli United Bank (AUB) signs up for merchant acquiring solutions from Arab Financial Services (AFS).
  • Alejma’s Alarabi Bank (AAB) of Libya picks Temenos’ T24 core banking system as part of infrastructure renovation.

Central and South Asia

  • State Bank of India (SBI) to build card acceptance and digital payments platform as part of collaboration with Hitachi Payments.
  • Tajikistan’s first Islamic bank, Sohibkorbank, to deploy Ethix core banking system from International Turnkey Systems.
  • Open Financial Technologies and ICICI Bank of India partner to offer payments platform for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Fiserv powers digital banking platform for Bogota Savings Bank.
  • BioCatch partners with 7 tier-one Latin American banks.
  • Visa makes its first investment in Brazil, announcing a minority stake in payment processing platform, Conductor.

Asia-Pacific

  • Temenos partners with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) to launch innovation lab.
  • StashAway, a roboadvisor based in Singapore, expands to Malaysia.
  • Australian neobank, Xinja, hires Moven founder Brett King as a permanent advisor.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • New challenger mutual bank in South Africa, Bank Zero, announces trial run.
  • Core banking software technology startup, Riby, picks up investment from Nigerian firm, Microtraction.
  • First Bank of Nigeria goes live with chat banking on WhatsApp courtesy of partnership with Clickatell.
  • Absa Group collaborates with MTN to support POS payments via mobile wallet in Ghana.

Top image designed by Freepik

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TransferWise Teams Up with Dutch Digital Bank bunq

TransferWise Teams Up with Dutch Digital Bank bunq
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: TransferWise

TransferWise has bunq in the trunk.

International money transfer specialist has a new partner in Dutch challenger bank bunq, which announced today that it is integrating with TransferWise’s API to enable its customers to send money in up to 15 different currencies directly from the bunq app.

“Our mission is to free our users from borders and barriers in traditional banking, such as hidden fees,” bunq CEO Ali Niknam said. “We think TransferWise is a valuable addition to solidify that mission.” Founded in 2015, bunq is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Bunq users will also benefit from access to real exchange rates, TransferWise’s transparent and competitive fees, and fast transfer speeds – the latter courtesy of the instant SEPA payment system that shortens the time it takes EUR to GBR transfers, for example, from days to minutes. “In the future,” TransferWise noted in a blog post announcing the partnership news, “it should only take a few seconds.”

bunq is the second challenger bank that TransferWise has teamed up with this year. In June, the company partnered with Monzo, powering international money transfers for the digital bank’s 750,000 customers. And just weeks before announcing the Monzo partnership, TransferWise reported that it was working with Groupe BPCE, providing money transfer services to the French banking group’s 15 million retail customers.

TransferWise demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013. Earlier this fall, the company announced its second profitable year and annual revenue growth of 75%. This summer, TransferWise announced the opening of an office in Hong Kong as part of its expansion into Asia. With more than $396 million in funding, TransferWise is one of fintech’s “unicorns” with a valuation in excess of $1.6 billion. The company has more than three million users, and facilitates the transfer of more than $2.65 billion a month. TransferWise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann (CEO) in 2011.

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CredoLab, GoBear Launch Credit Solution for the Underbanked

CredoLab, GoBear Launch Credit Solution for the Underbanked
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CredoLab

A collaboration between alternative credit scoring specialist CredoLab and personal finance comparison site GoBear will make it easier for the underbanked to get access to credit. A new smartphone app, Easy Apply, will leverage CredoLab’s credit assessment technology to serve underbanked markets of Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Easy Apply leverages CredoLab’s predictive credit scorecard solution to the help thin-file applicants access unsecured credit products including credit cards and personal loans. The AI-powered technology extracts and analyzes data from the user’s smartphone to make highly-predictive behavioral insights. These insights are used to build customized credit risk scorecards that are tailor-made for individual lenders and specific products. This enables lenders to benefit from access to creditworthy borrowers who might otherwise be overlooked by traditional credit risk assessment strategies.

“We are excited to be partnering with GoBear to help banks profitably serve their customers including the underbanked,” CredoLab co-founder and CEO Peter Barcak said. “Since our launch in 2016, through our use of non-traditional alternative data points, we have seen a significant drop in cost of risk, helped reduce the time-to-yes to a few seconds, and achieved almost 45% increase in approval rates,” Barcak added. “I am optimistic that we can achieve similar results through this partnership.”

Easy Apply will be integrated as a downloadable app within GoBear’s Easy Choices feature, which gives customers the ability to select products that fit their financial profile. Credit card offerings will be the first products available with personal loans, insurance, and lines of credit to follow.

“There is a massive opportunity here in Southeast Asia to continue improving financial inclusion by constantly innovating solutions,” GoBear CEO Adrian Chng, said. “Our partnership with CredoLab will bridge the divide between the underbanked and financial institutions by giving both parties access to the right technology at the right moment to create better outcomes.”

Founded in 2016, Singapore-based CredoLab made its Finovate debut earlier this month in Hong Kong as part of FinovateAsia. The company, which was named among Singapore Business Review’s Top 20 Start-Ups at the beginning of the year, has served more than 40 lenders in 12 markets across southeast Asia, China, Africa, and Latin America. With $2.1 million in funding, CredoLab includes Walden International, Reliance Modal Ventura, and Fintonia Group among its investors.

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Experian Unveils New Credit Assessment Solution, Experian Credit 3D 

Experian Unveils New Credit Assessment Solution, Experian Credit 3D 
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Experian

Experian is launching a new range of consumer credit assessment products for lenders, Experian Credit 3D, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The product offers a multi-dimensional view of a borrower’s financial health, instead of a consumer’s credit information at a single point in time. The firm aims to deliver “a more granular and predictive insight into a consumer’s payment behavior”.

Business will be able to combine rental, utilities, council tax, property and mobile data, to provide a view of predictive behaviour and affordability.

“A customer’s current credit position only ever tells part of the story. People’s financial circumstances are multidimensional and unique,” said Tom Blacksell, managing director of B2B at Experian. “We are supporting our customers as they look to keep up with a diverse and ever-changing global population.”

The firm that said that moving away from traditional risk scores by augmenting them with a view of detailed consumer behaviors over time is particularly valuable in making decisions on applications which are currently on the margins.

Alternative non-credit data, including subscriptions and utilities data, can support the approval of applications from consumers with ‘thin’ credit files.

Blacksell added: “By combining all this with our global market leading decisioning capabilities in PowerCurve, and our soon-to-be-announced investments in SaaS deployment, we’ll be able to support customers of all sizes to make intelligent decisions in frictionless, digital environments.”

Recently, Experian, FICO and Finicity joined to create a new type of score, named the UltraFICO score. Designed to specifically help serve thin-file customers, the UltraFICO score focuses on how consumers actually manage their personal finances rather than repayment data from previous credit usage.

Experian demonstrated its cloud-based decisioning platform at FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Costa Mesa, California, Experian was named one of the top most innovative companies in the world by Forbes magazine for five years in a row.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Check Point, Credit Karma, Finastra, Flywire, Moneyhub, Outsystems, Roostify, Trulioo, Unison, wipro

On Finovate.com

  • Credit Karma Acquires Noddle to Launch in the U.K.

Around the web

  • Moneyhub announces integration with PensionBee API.
  • Outsystems unveils new program, outsystems.ai, to leverage AI and machine learning to improve software development.
  • Finastra introduces Open Banking Readiness Index for Asia Pacific region.
  • Trulioo reports ability to verify five billion people via its identity verification platform, Global Gateway.
  • Wipro collaborates with Check Point Software to offer cloud security services.
  • Unison expands with Goldwater Bank Partnership.
  • Flywire partners with the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council to offer members payment solutions.
  • How I Built This podcast features Betterment founder Jon Stein.
  • Roostify names Courtney Keating Chakarun as new Chief Marketing Officer.

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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FinovateAsia Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateAsia Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Arival Bank, Avaloq, Best of Show, FinovateAsia 2018, Voca.ai

Congratulations to the trio of companies that earned Best of Show honors from our FinovateAsia 2018 audience. This year’s selections reflect two key themes in fintech: the importance of enabling banks with the resources they need to empower SMEs to better serve their customers, and the rise of intelligent virtual assistants to improve efficiency and enhance the customer experience.

Arival Bank for its ArivalOS digital banking platform that integrates a full suite of third party fintech products tailored for SMEs, including bank accounts, money transfers, debit cards, mPOS, factoring, and lending. Video.

 

Avaloq for its platform that provides seamless access to fintech solutions via a “double marketplace” that brings the app store concept to banking. Video.

Voca.ai for its human-friendly, virtual intelligent agent for financial services call centers that helps drive lead generation, cross-sales, notifications, scheduling, and more. Video.

To see all the demo videos from FinovateAsia 2018, visit our video archives.

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The three companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2018 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018

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Welcome to Wan Chai: FinovateAsia Kicks Off Hong Kong FinTech Week

Welcome to Wan Chai: FinovateAsia Kicks Off Hong Kong FinTech Week
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2018

Rehearsal day is underway here at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center in Wan Chai. With FinovateAsia 2018 starting Monday morning, our demoing companies are busy practicing their pitches in preparation for two days of live fintech demonstrations.

That said, FinovateAsia is more than just fintech demos. As part of Hong Kong FinTech Week, FinovateAsia will also host a variety of in-depth presentations – from keynote addresses and expert briefings to breakout tracks on topics such as AI and blockchain technology, open banking, insurtech, payments, digital transformation, lending, and more.

And in addition to Analyst All-Star panels and our Accelerator/Incubator Showcase, FinovateAsia will also feature an “off the record” session with global regulators, a conversation among VCs on where the smart money is investing in fintech, and a special breakout track focusing on fintech opportunities on mainland China.

More detailed information about our agenda is available on our FinovateAsia event page.

We’re looking forward to seeing you this week. The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center is located at 1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong. Once you arrive at the venue, please follow the signs to rooms S221s on Level 2. The Center is readily accessible by Mass Transit Railway (MTR), bus, train, tram, ferry, and taxi.

The conference begins Monday, October 29th, and continues through Tuesday, October 30th. Registration opens at 8am, with continental breakfast and networking, and our program begins with Welcoming Remarks at 8:45am and our Keynote Address at 8:50am. Live demos on Monday will take place between 9:35am and 10:25am, and between 11:15am and 12:05pm. Monday will also feature two Analyst All-Star panels – one in the morning and one in the afternoon – as well as breakout tracks on AI and blockchain technology, open banking and the API economy, and insurance and payments.

Tuesday will run similarly to Monday, with registration at 8am, Welcoming Remarks at 8:45am, and our Keynote at 8:50am. Tuesday will also feature morning and afternoon Analyst All-Star panels, and our two live demo sessions are scheduled to start at 9:25am and 11:10am, respectively. As on Monday, our breakout tracks on Tuesday will begin after lunch and will focus on digital transformation, lending, and fintech innovation on mainland China. Tuesday will also feature our investors debate, our Best of Show awards, and our accelerator/incubator showcase.

As you can see, this year’s FinovateAsia is an action-packed affair. Be sure to check out our agenda for more details on our demoing companies, our speakers and panelists, and our breakout tracks, summits, and expert briefings.

And once you’re here, be sure to join the FinovateAsia community on our Knect365 event app. Search for “FinovateAsia 2018” once you are in the app to access Sli.do, Best of Show voting, our networking platform Brella, our attendee list, agenda, floorplan, and more. If you have any difficulty with the app, please contact us at [email protected] for assistance.

Remember that tickets to FinovateAsia are still available. If you are interested in attending, please visit our FinovateAsia registration page and save your spot. We’ll see you in Wan Chai!

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