Bill.com Launches International Business Payments

Bill.com Launches International Business Payments

Business payments innovator Bill.com has introduced a new service to make it easy to pay international vendors digitally – putting cross border payments on par with domestic payments. The solution, International Business Payments, will save users more than 50% on the cost of international wire transfer fees and is available in more than 25 countries – with more countries to be added in the months to come.

“Bank wires typically cost $25 to $40 each,” Bill.com CEO and founder René Lacerte said. “International payments through a bank requires a separate bill payment process with many extra steps. There is no automated approvals or accounting software integration, which means less controls and more errors.”

In the company’s press release, Bill.com noted a Deloitte Consulting study that indicated cross-border payments make up 26% of all U.S. B2B payment value. The study also pointed out that bank wire transfers are still the most common method for international payments. “Bill.com is changing that,” Lacerte said. “We are very happy to be delivering a simple and cost-effective way to pay vendors around the world inside the same Bill.com service with all the same features customers love.”

These features include an automated approval process, vendor management, online document storage, and seamless integration with leading accounting software solutions such as Intuit Quickbooks, Xero, Sage Intacct, and Oracle NetSuite.

With an introductory price of $9.99 per transaction, International Business Payments is currently available to select Bill.com clients. The service will open to all Bill.com customers by the end of August.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Bill.com recently surpassed a milestone of $50 billion in business payments processed annually. In May, the company announced new Chief Marketing Officer Yael Zheng. Bill.com began the year introducing its Accountant Partner Program, which provides accounting firms with tools to manage billpay services for clients.

Bill.com demonstrated its CashView Command and Control System at FinovateSpring 2012. The technology enables businesses to manage AP and AR and provides online billpay, custom invoicing services, unlimited document storage, collaboration tools, and mobile access.

With partnerships with four of the top 10 largest U.S. banks and more than 60 of the top 100 accounting firms and major accounting service providers, Bill.com has raised more than $259 million in funding. The company includes Temasek Holdings, JP Morgan, Silicon Valley Bank, Scale Venture Partners, Bank of America, Financial Partners Fund, Icon Ventures, DCM Ventures, and Emergence Capital Partners among its investors.

Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World


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

  • Brazilian card processor Conductor to deploy 3D Secure authentication technology from TAS Group later this fall.
  • Distributed check capture specialist Panini and technology distributor J. Fleischman team up to bring check truncation to Paraguay.
  • Visa introduces loyalty program available to issuing banks in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Asia-Pacific

  • TransferWise opens office in Hong Kong as part of expansion into Asia.
  • AsiaCollect, a credit management services provider based in Singapore, raises $4.5 million in funding.
  • Foreign exchange and international payments company, Frontierpay, opens Asian headquarters in Singapore.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South African fintech walletdoc partners with EasyPay to make it easier for consumer to pay monthly subscriptions and utilities.
  • Western Union opens office in Ivory Coast.
  • Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Procurement introduces eGovernment Procurement System.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Albania’s Raiffeisen Bank Shqipëri partners with NF Innova to deploy digital self-service kiosks.
  • Efigence provides UI/UX design, development and implementation for new investment platform from Polish home equities broker, CDM Pekao.
  • Russian SME crowdfunding platform SimplyFi partners with Tochka Bank to offer direct lending to the bank’s business customers.
  • Sberbank introduces support for Google Pay.
  • Western Union partners with Russia’s Post Bank, enabling money transfers via Post Bank’s mobile app.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Kuwait Finance House (KFH) to use VISA’s token service for its mobile wallet.
  • Saudi Arabia-based Maalem Financing to deploy Islamic core banking technology from Path Solutions.
  • Turkish government launches fintech task force to improve fintech ecosystem locally.

Central and South Asia

  • The Economic Times looks at the role of bankers in India’s “coming fintech revolution.”
  • RBS India, the innovation hub of the Royal Bank of Scotland, to launch forum on disability inclusion.
  • PaySend joins Astana International Finance Centre (AIFC), a central Asian fintech hub based in Kazakhstan.

Top image designed by Freepik

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Best of Show Winner Bambu Raises $3 Million in Series A.
  • Bill.com Launches International Business Payments.

Around the web

  • Onfido to provide identity verification for HBUS, the strategic partner of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi.
  • Jack Henry migrates 66 FIs to its JHA Card Processing Solutions.
  • Avaloq to help U.K.-based financial services firm Smith & Williamson deliver investment management services to clients.
  • PYMNTS.com looks at Emailage and its expansion into the Canadian market.
  • Jumio and Backbase partner to improve customer onboarding with online identity verification technology.

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.

PayPal’s Pledge: CEO Commits to $3 Billion a Year in M&A Spending

PayPal’s Pledge: CEO Commits to $3 Billion a Year in M&A Spending

PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman told a German business daily, Handelsblatt, that the spending spree the company has been on in over the past few years (five acquisitions in the past 24 months) is not slowing down yet.

“We have a healthy balance sheet and we are ready to put it to work to buy more companies,” Schulman told Handlesblatt this week, adding that the company was prepared to invest up to $3 billion a year on acquisitions geared toward “specific capabilities.”

Some of these specific capabilities include fraud prevention, courtesy of PayPal’s acquisition of Simility for $120 million; merchant payouts thanks to its purchase of Hyperwallet for $400 million; and even AI-powered marketing technology with its pick up of Jetlore this spring for an undisclosed sum.

But PayPal’s biggest buy of 2018 so far is clearly the $2.2 billion in cash spent on Swedish payments startup iZettle, which the company acquired in May. Referred to as the “Square of Europe,” iZettle is the largest acquisition in PayPal’s history and will help put the company’s service in hundreds of thousands of brick and mortar stores, and help PayPal compete with rivals – like Square.

In addition to a busy acquisition pace, PayPal has been making friends and influencing people, as well, of late. The company sold its consumer credit receivables business to Synchrony for $6.9 billion earlier this month. Schulman noted at the time that the move would help the company invest in other areas of the business or fund future acquisitions. PayPal expanded its partnership with Google Pay in May, making PayPal as a payment option throughout the Google ecosystem. Also that month, the company extended its agreement with Visa to speed the adoption of digital and mobile payments in Canada. In April, PayPal teamed up with Yahoo to make PayPal subsidiary Braintree available to online merchants using Yahoo Merchant Solutions and Yahoo Stores platforms.

PayPal demonstrated its Instant Account Creation solution at FinovateEurope 2012. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in San Jose, California, PayPal is a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “PYPL.” PayPal has a market capitalization of more than $100 billion.

Thinking Capital and Equifax Launch ‘Cash Flow Revolution’ for Canadian SMEs

Thinking Capital and Equifax Launch ‘Cash Flow Revolution’ for Canadian SMEs

Now we know what happens when a global information solutions company with a talent for credit scoring and a small business financing specialist get together to help SMEs in Canada to better understand their credit profile and obtain the financing they need.

Equifax Canada and Thinking Capital have launched a new solution, BillMarket, designed specifically to enable Canadian small businesses to leverage their credit profile to extend payment terms in their supply chain.

“BillMarket creates a new language of credit for small business in Canada,” Thinking Capital CEO and co-founder Jeff Mitelman said. “For the first time, there is a practical way to talk about and put a dollar value on small business credit in Canada.”

The new solution works by using Equifax’s Small Business Grade to establish a credit limit businesses can use to extend payments. Businesses can learn how much credit they are eligible to access by registering with BillMarket and reviewing their certification report. Financing via BillMarket gives small businesses more time to pay suppliers, increased purchasing power, and the ability to deepen relationships with business partners thanks to greater potential spending and consistently prompt payment.

Suppliers benefit from on-time payment, as well, and have the ability to pick up new business from companies unable to pay cash upfront for purchases. Small Business Grade also helps suppliers determine a company’s credit and purchasing power, helping them spot and manage potential late payment risks in advance.

“BillMarket expands the purchasing power for Canadian SMBs and eliminates friction in the supply chain,” Mitelman said. “Through BillMarket, small businesses can translate their credit grade to real-time available credit that they can use to extend payments with suppliers by up to 120 days.” The service, he added, represented a “cash flow revolution for the Canadian small business market.”

Thinking Capital participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr New York 2016. The company’s Chief Strategy Officer, Anthony Lipschitz, and Chief Technology Officer, Pat Forgione, presented Lending as a Service, a look at how the company leveraged big data to streamline the complex lending process for small businesses in Canada.

Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Thinking Capital was founded in 2006. Since inception, the company has facilitated business financing for more than 14,000 Canadian SMEs. Financing from $5,000 to $300,000 is available to small businesses through Thinking Capital’s fixed and flexible payment solutions. SMEs must be based in Canada, in operation for at least six months, and have average monthly sales of at least $7,000. Thinking Capital was acquired by Purpose Investments in May in a deal reportedly valued at more than $200 million.

Atlanta, Georgia-based Equifax demonstrated its mobile app at FinovateFall 2011. Earlier this month, the company – with operations in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific – announced a partnership with account information service provider Consents.online. In June, Equifax hired former IBM Watson and Cloud Platform CTO Bryson Koehler as its new Chief Technology Officer.

Equifax is publicly owned and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “EFX.” The company has a market capitalization of $15 billion.

NF Innova | NFG and Mambu Team Up to Deliver New Digital Banking Solution

NF Innova | NFG and Mambu Team Up to Deliver New Digital Banking Solution

New Frontier Group (NFG), the company behind software development and digital transformation firm, NF Innova, has announced a new partnership with SaaS banking specialist Mambu. The partnership will enable NFG to extend its digital banking offering, creating a fully online and automated digital banking solution that will make it easier for FIs to not only digitize and automate customer-facing processes, but also get new products and services to market faster.

“Customer expectations have changed and institutions need to be flexible enough to respond quickly in an evolving market,” NFG Managing Director Gregor Bierent said. “Our partnership with Mambu is a natural fit that creates an integrated solution where the approach to agility, integration, modularity is aligned.”

NFG’s platform provides personalized, real-time service and easy onboarding across all digital channels. Leveraging Mambu’s banking engine, the solution delivers PFM, customer segmentation, smart bots and other applications via a cloud-native API-enabled architecture. Institutions can readily integrate complementary solutions to the platform to suit the specific needs of their markets, as well.

“We can now deliver an end-to-end solution from online onboarding to loans administration, KYC and availability across opti-channels, ranging from mobile to watches which are all managed through a single interface,” Bierent added. “Through the intuitive and configurable combined solution, institutions can offer their customers a rich and seamless experience.”

“We are pleased to welcome NFG to our growing partner ecosystem,” Mambu CTO and CPO Ben Goldin said. “Their opti-channel solution will help our mutual clients to create intuitive and seamless experiences for digitally driven financial institutions.”

NF Innova was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Serbia. The company demonstrated its iBanking Opti-Channel Bot at FinovateEurope 2018. Part of the New Frontier Group, NF Innova is dedicated to building state-of-the-art customer engagement solutions. The company also announced this week that Albania’s Raiffeisen Bank will be deploying its digital self-service kiosks to provide 24/7 availability, reduced transaction times, and improved ease of access for the bank’s customers.

Mambu made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2013 in Hong Kong. Based in Berlin, Germany, and founded in 2011, Mambu leverages its cloud-based SaaS technology to provide financial institutions with a state-of-the-art, end-to-end core banking system. Mambu’s offering provides FIs with a range of solutions including loan and deposit product creation and servicing as well as client relationship management and reporting. With more than $13 million in funding, Mambu includes Acton Capital Partners and CommerzVentures among its investors. Eugene Danilkis is co-founder and CEO.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • NF Innova | NFG and Mambu Team Up to Deliver New Digital Banking Solution.
  • Thinking Capital and Equifax Launch ‘Cash Flow Revolution’ for Canadian SMEs.
  • PayPal’s Pledge: CEO Commits to $3 Billion a Year in M&A Spending.

Around the web

  • AI Foundry forges integration partnership with MTS Software Solutions.
  • PaySend joins Astana International Finance Centre (AIFC), a central Asian fintech hub based in Kazakhstan.
  • Thomson Reuters expands strategic partnership with SAP to simplify costs of cross-border transactions.
  • GreatHorn welcomes Vijay Malik as its new Vice President of Engineering.
  • Nanopay plans for B2B cross border and domestic transfer service.
  • Multiple Best of Show winner Trusona launches partner program.
  • Kinetica taps Gary West as Vice President of Sales, EMEA.

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.

BeSmartee and LoanFuel Help Make Mortgage Lending Mobile

BeSmartee and LoanFuel Help Make Mortgage Lending Mobile

Courtesy of a new partnership between mobile platform designer LoanFuel and next generation loan origination platform BeSmartee, mortgage borrowers will benefit from a faster, more efficient lending process whether they are using a mobile device, desktop, or both.

The two companies have announced that LoanFuel will integrate BeSmartee’s technology into its mobile app. BeSmartee uses AI and big data to drive an advanced origination process that takes borrowers from initial contact to underwriting in 20 minutes. This includes supporting the customer through key initial steps including loan application, credit report, income and asset documents, as well as eSigned and eDelivered disclosures and paid appraisal.

Available as both an iOS and an Android mobile app, LoanFuel is a product of Easy Mortgage Apps, a Massachusetts-based company founded in 2012, that builds innovative mobile apps for lenders. LoanFuel uses mobile capture technology to accelerate the lending process, making it easier for prospective borrowers to upload documents and deliver them to their lender. The app helps mortgage lenders process applications faster and more efficiently, and also enables them to reach out to customers with drip marketing via push notifications.

“More and more customers want to receive data and information whenever and wherever they are,” BeSmartee co-founder Arvin Sahakian said. “As these on-demand needs increase, partnerships like this will provide the options to meet those needs. By accommodating customer expectations for on-demand access, loans will close even faster as consumers enjoy an enhanced experience and up-to-the-minute information on their loan on their preferred device.”

LoanFuel President Michael Kelleher highlighted the compatibilities between the two solutions, adding, “”LoanFuel is always interested in leveraging technologies and relationships to make the loan experience more enjoyable. As an organization, we identified the need to offer a mobile POS and looked to partner with market leaders in this sector. BeSmartee has been an amazing addition to our list of third-party integrations.”

Founded in 2008 and based in Huntington Beach, California, BeSmartee demonstrated its Smart Mortgage solution at FinovateSpring 2017. In February, BeSmartee picked up $150,000 in debt financing from Lighter Capital. The following month, the company announced that it was partnering with fellow Finovate alum Finicity, integrating the company’s Verification of Assets (VoA) solution into its loan origination platform. BeSmartee also integrated with FormFree’s AccountChek Asset Verification service this spring.

Strands, Mastercard to Develop Cash Management Platform for SMEs

Strands, Mastercard to Develop Cash Management Platform for SMEs

Strands and Mastercard are working together to provide issuing banks with an integrated platform of digital cash management and commercial payment tools designed for SMEs, reports Antony Peyton of FinTech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

According to the duo, Strands’ business financial management (BFM) will use Mastercard’s digital payment technology to deliver solutions to these businesses to understand their finances, project short-term cash flow and see personalised recommendations for customised solutions.

“SMEs are the backbone of the global economy and represent one of the biggest potential sources of revenue for banks; yet they are typically offered banking solutions designed with the retail customer in mind. Our in-house research shows that 61% of SMEs place cash flow management as one of their top three priorities to help them secure their financial future,” said Erik Brieva, Strands’ CEO.

Strands’ BFM solution helps manage accounts payables, receivables, budgets and provisions and is powered by a layer of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning models.

For example, SME users can predict income, expenses, forecast balances, receive alerts and notifications, and recommend products and/or services.

Going forward, Strands adds that users of this BFM platform will also have access to Mastercard In Control, which can help businesses track the use of commercial credit cards, Mastercard Merchant Match Tool to identify merchants that accept credit cards as a form of payment or Mastercard Easy Savings to provide loyalty rewards at select merchants and retailers.

Strands has done more than 600 bank implementations with over 100 million customers in 36 countries. Clients include Barclays, BBVA, Santander, Commercial Bank of Africa, Deutsche Bank, and Huntington.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Barcelona, Spain, Strands demonstrated its white-label BFM solution at FinovateAsia 2017. The technology leverages Strands’ API Hub, as well as machine learning, to enable banks to better analyze and understand the preferences and behaviors of their SME clients. Banks can then use these insights to make recommendations to help them improve their businesses.

Strands has raised $55 million in funding, and includes Dalbergia, Debaeque, Sequel Venture Partners, and Indigo Investment Corporation among its investors.

Aixigo Relaunches Digital Portfolio Management System

Aixigo Relaunches Digital Portfolio Management System

Digital wealth manager investify has a new high performance portfolio management system courtesy of its partnership with Germany’s aixigo. The system, accessible via API, features a variety of enhancements that make it easier for the portfolio to intake and manage large data sets from legacy systems, quickly refine them, and make the data available to all customer systems.

With nearly 100 services, the API provides digital wealth managers with the necessary processes and functions for high-volume business, enabling the platform to serve both average and wealthy customers. And as a REST API, the technology supports innovation from financial services providers looking to further develop their digital customer journeys with apps, chatbots, or voice interfaces. For its part, investify will take advantage of the portfolio analysis, monitoring, and reporting services available through aixigo’s solution.

“The speed and mass suitability of the module enables an extremely scalable portfolio analysis, which is crucial for digital asset management,” founder and managing director of investify, Sebastian Hasenack said. “Moreover, it is a decisive advantage of investify for high volume B2B cooperation in the banking and insurance sector.”

“The aixigo high performance portfolio API is based on five basic principles that we have not invented but consistently apply,” Fabian Budde, aixigo Head of Customer Projects, added. “To make the data quickly available, it is stored in an in-memory database. We use so-called cache-oblivious algorithms to reduce processor waiting times.”

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Aachen, Germany, aixigo demonstrated its Digital Financial Portfolio Management Backoffice at FinovateEurope 2018. The company is also an alum of our developers conference. Aixigo Head of Portfolio Management Systems Marcus Gruendler presented Digital Wealth Management with APIs at FinDEVr London 2017 last summer.

In June, aixigo’s wealth management technology won the Outstanding Front-End Digital Solutions Provider (Vendor) category of the Private Banking Conference & Awards. Last fall, the company was honored with the Banking IT-Innovation award from the Business Engineering Forum of the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.

Luxembourg-based investify demonstrated its online advisory technology at FinovateEurope 2016. The solution not only guides users through the process of determining personal financial goals, but also makes it easy for a customer to open an investment account at the same time. The B2C company has 15 employees and has raised more than €2 million in funding.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Aixigo Relaunches Digital Portfolio Management System.
  • BeSmartee and LoanFuel Help Make Mortgage Lending Mobile.

Around the web

  • Albania’s Raiffeisen Bank Shqipëri partners with NF Innova to deploy digital self-service kiosks.
  • TransferWise opens office in Hong Kong as part of expansion into Asia.
  • Equifax teams up with digital consent management platform Consents Online to support open banking.
  • Nomis Solutions picks Melbourne as site of new regional headquarters.
  • Efigence provides UI/UX design, development and implementation for new investment platform from Polish home equities broker, CDM Pekao.
  • Braintri discusses the commercialization of its contactless payment technology, Jiffee, at SelectUSA Investment Summit 2018.

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.

Enveil Launches its ZeroReveal Compute Fabric Technology to Defend Data In Use

Enveil Launches its ZeroReveal Compute Fabric Technology to Defend Data In Use

Enveil, the cybersecurity company that specializes in protecting data in use, introduced its latest innovation – ZeroReveal Compute Fabric – this week. The technology is a two-party platform that enables users to access a variety of Enveil’s ZeroReveal solutions to protect data in its most vulnerable state: when it is being used.

“Continued reports of chip flaws and data breaches in recent months make it clear that encrypting data at rest and in transit isn’t good enough in today’s volatile security environment,” Enveil founder and CEO Ellison Anne Williams explained. “Organizations must eliminate the Data in Use security gap and do so in a way that won’t negate investments in existing systems and protocols.”

“We allow you to securely use data where it is and as it is today, delivering nation-state level security – no system overhaul required.”

Ellison Anne Williams, Enveil founder and CEO, demonstrating the company’s technology at FinovateFall 2017.

Because most data needs to be decrypted when subjected to search or analytics, a potential vulnerability exists every time data is being accessed. With Enveil, this “last gap in data security” is sealed, giving enterprises the ability to securely work with both encrypted and unencrypted data in the cloud, on premises, and in between.

Enveil is an innovator in the field of homomorphic encryption, a protocol that has been known for more than 30 years but until now never practically applied to consumer use. In an article for Dark Reading last month, Williams pointed to the value of homomorphic encryption, which she referred to as the “holy grail” of cryptography.

“If we ignore the need to protect data while it’s being processed (in use), it really doesn’t matter how secure the data is on the way to the vault (in transit) or while stored in the vault (at rest); an attacker can simply patiently wait until the data is completely exposed during use to steal it,” Williams wrote. “Homomorphic encryption can ensure this final piece of the data security puzzle is solved by eliminating the data in-use security gap.”

This week, Williams referred to the company’s Compute Fabric as the first practical application of this technology. “And certainly the first to have any kind of nation-state security certification coming out of active deployment in the operational capacity,” she added.

Enveil’s Compute Fabric technology builds on the company’s previous client stand-alone application for point-to-point security during data use. The new solution represents an expansion of that product, providing more multiple deployment options and enterprise-wide security. Additionally, Enveil’s solutions do not require firms to replace their current cybersecurity systems in order to defend data in use.

Enveil demonstrated its data security technology at FinovateFall 2017. The company’s point-to-point solution featured a client application that encrypts operations and decrypts results. Enveil’s server application resides inside the environment of the data repository and processes encrypted operations over the data.

The company’s solutions are deployed in a variety of industries including financial services, healthcare, supply chain, and cloud security. Enveil has raised $4 million in funding and includes Thomson Reuters, In-Q-Tel, DataTribe, and Bloomberg Beta among its investors.