Author: David Penn

Best of Show Winner Finn AI Partners with Visa Canada to Boost Chatbot Capabilities

Best of Show Winner Finn AI Partners with Visa Canada to Boost Chatbot Capabilities
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finn.ai

Visa Canada and Finn AI have teamed up to offer new capabilities in conversational banking chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI), powered by the Visa Developer Platform, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The Vancouver-based fintech firm will use Visa Developer Platform APIs to enhance its conversational AI technology to “provide a more personalised experience” for banks to interact with their customers.

Jake Tyler, CEO at Finn AI, said: “This will help banks meet consumers’ needs on their terms, allowing them to set travel notifications, flag fraudulent transactions, manage subscriptions and more – as easily as chatting to their friends – 24/7 in the channels of their choice.”

For example, users could ask “Where is the closest ATM?” or “Please cancel my card” using Finn AI technology and the APIs.

A customer could chat with a virtual assistant and follow a process to ensure their cards are optimised while they are travelling.

Or they could turn on travel notifications before departing, retrieving foreign exchange rates while at the airport, and locating the nearest ATM at their destination.

A customer can also disable a misplaced card to ensure protection against fraudulent transactions through a “simple, natural conversation”.

Other Finn AI partnerships include ATB Financial, Bank of Montreal (BMO), Banpro Grupo Promerica in Nicaragua, and Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Finn AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2016, winning Best of Show. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following fall for FinovateFall 2017, once again taking home top honors for a demonstration of its virtual banking assistant.

Finn AI has raised $3 million in funding and includes Yaletown Partners, Flying Fish Partners and angel investor John Livingston among its investors.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint, Equifax, Expensify, nextmarkets, Passport, Signicat

On Finovate.com

  • AlphaPoint Raises $15 Million in a Series A Led by Galaxy Digital Ventures.
  • Nextmarkets Picks Up $6.9 Million in New Funding.

Around the web

  • NetSuite names Expensify Innovation Partner of the Year.
  • Passport hires its first Chief Corporate Development Officer.
  • Signicat to offer Freja eID for customer onboarding thanks to partnership with IT security firm, Verisec
  • Equifax appoints former IBM Watson and Cloud Platform CTO Bryson Koehler as its new Chief Technology 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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Ondot Introduces Digital Card Services Platform

Ondot Introduces Digital Card Services Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ondot Systems

Winner of Best of Show awards at FinovateSpring and FinovateMiddleEast, Ondot Systems has launched its digital card services platform. The new offering provides card issuers with full digital card life-cycle management – from initial invitation through secure payments – in a single platform.

“In a digital-first world where payments are becoming invisible and consumers expect instant gratification, card issuers must attract, acquire, and empower consumers with personalized digital experience,” Sung-Wook Han, CTO for Ondot, explained. “Ondot provides a comprehensive set of services around the ‘digitized card,’ integrating into existing mobile apps, card management systems, and authorization platforms.”

Ondot CEO Vaduvur Bharghavan demonstrating the Ondot Digital Card Mobile App at FinovateSpring 2018.

Ondot’s latest solution takes advantage of social networking and bot technology to enhance the customer acquisition, application, and KYC processes. Approved cardholders get instant digital card issuance with dynamic security codes (CVV2) to support secure e-commerce, and the ability to make in-app push provisions to digital wallets. Ondot also brings to bear its innovations in card control technology, enabling cardholders to control how and when their cards can be used. Cardholders can also set spending limits, location parameters, and allow or block transactions with specific merchants.

Ondot’s latest offering can be integrated into current mobile banking apps via APIs/SDKs, or accessed as a white label mobile app with customized branding. The platform supports credit, debit, and prepaid cards, including Visa, Mastercard and private label cards.

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and having offices in Bangalore, India, Ondot Systems made its Finovate debut in 2014. At the event, the company won Best of Show for a live demonstration of its Mobile Card Services solution. More recently, Ondot participated in our inaugural FinovateMiddleEast conference in February, demoing its Digital Card Mobile App. The company followed its Best of Show winning demonstration with news that it was bringing Mobile Card Services to customers in Asia.

Last month, Ondot celebrated a major milestone by having 3,000 financial institutions offer mobile card controls powered by its technology. Founded in 2011, the company has raised $28 million in funding. Vaduvur Bharghavan is CEO.

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Dorsum Unveils My Wealth Mobile App

Dorsum Unveils My Wealth Mobile App
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Dorsum

Budapest, Hungary-based Dorsum launched a new wealth management mobile app this week. The investment software provider’s new My Wealth mobile app helps customers better understand and review their portfolio holdings, as well as make new investments with just a few taps. The app leverages gamification and an education marketplace toolkit to ensure that customers remain well-informed about basic investment concepts and principles. My Wealth also features a self-learning chatbot as well as the ability to request a human financial advisor to take over the conversation, giving users the benefits of both AI and human advisory.

Imre Rokob, Director of Business Development at Dorsum noted that innovations like the My Wealth app are driven largely by a combination of a shift in investing preferences and the arrival of non-financial participants in the investment arena. “Present-day investors want to manage their portfolios on the go while staying in control in an efficient and intuitive way,” Rokob explained. “I’m very proud that our continuous effort to revolutionize our B2B software offerings has resulted in a digital innovation offering a unique wealth management mobile application with the right balance between intelligent automation and a human approach.”

My Wealth not only helps bridge the gap between AI and human financial advice. The technology also helps investors bridge the gap between their actual and optimal investment portfolios. When this occurs, the app provides customers with a list of potential investments the user could make that would help bring the actual portfolio more in line with the optimal portfolio. Users can receive personalized notifications and news on the app, as well as set up a meeting for a call or chat with an advisor. The solution works for both iOS and Android, and can be readily integrated into any wealth management platform or system. While designed for customers, financial advisors can use the app to keep in touch with clients and to send personalized notes and advice, as well.

“Our exceptional solution merges with the traditional advisory and the digital advisory process into a hybrid model,” Dorsum CEO Robert Ko said. “Our software meets the digital expectations of the younger generations, ready to fight with robo disruptors and boost performance of personal financial advisors.”

Dorsum demonstrated its Botboarding platform at the inaugural FinovateMiddleEast 2018 conference earlier this year. The technology, which won the company a Best of Show award last year at FinovateEurope 2017, creates customer onboarding chatbots that combine natural language communication with traditional data collection and user profiling.

In addition to its Botboarding platform, Dorsum offers a client acquisition tool that supports client engagement with vivid presentations and a portfolio calculator that provides instant financial planning simulations, as well as its wealth management platform. With subsidiaries in Romania and Bulgaria, Dorsum includes Raiffeisen Bank International, Erste Bank, and Generali among its clients.

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Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daon, Equifax, Finovate Global, Revolut, Samsung, Tinkoff Credit Systems, TransferTo, TransferWise

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

  • Revolut announces recruitment initiative in Kraków, Poland to hire 100 new workers in a single day employment in its offices in Eastern Europe.
  • Forbes features Tinkoff Bank in look at Russia’s efforts to develop its digital economy.
  • Polish financial group Aforti Holdings to launch non-bank lender for SMEs and startups in Romania.

Asia

  • Banks in South Korea to introduce blockchain based identity verification for mobile and online logins. The technology is reportedly built on a private blockchain system developed by Samsung SDS.
  • Daon Partners with Tradelink to Bring Biometrics to Dah Sing Bank.
  • Bank of Thailand is developing and testing blockchain apps in its regulatory sandbox.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Financial technology services firm, One Global, discusses plans for expansion into Egyptian market.
  • ADGM Reglab reports record number of fintech applications for its third cohort.
  • Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange turns to Equifax for advice on development of new technologies to improve operational efficiency.

Africa

  • TransferTo, Orange Money Botswana, and EcoCash partner to support digital money transfers between Zimbabwe and Botswana.
  • IMF review of South Africa suggests “increased focus on the role fintech …” could access to credit for SMEs and promotion broader financial inclusion.
  • Nigerian startup, Piggybank.ng, raises $1.1 million to further develop its online savings platform.

Latin America

  • Diario Financiero interviews Ángel Sierra, executive director of La Asociación Fintech Chile, on digital innovation (video in Spanish).
  • TransferWise initiates service in Argentina.
  • PayU goes live in Colombia with its PayU te fía (PayU You Trust) solution that enables borrowers to extend repayment terms (in Spanish).

Top image designed by Freepik

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Daon Partners with Tradelink to Bring Biometrics to Dah Sing Bank

Daon Partners with Tradelink to Bring Biometrics to Dah Sing Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daon

Biometric authentication specialist Daon has teamed up with Tradelink to give customers of Hong Kong’s Dah Sing Bank the option of biometric authentication when accessing bank services. The bank, one of the top 10 banks in Hong Kong, will leverage Daon’s IdentityX platform to offer both fingerprint and facial authentication.

“We are pleased to partner with Tradelink on this innovative initiative for Dah Sing Bank. Our partnership with Tradelink continues to make a significant impact in the financial and banking industry throughout Hong Kong,” Daon CEO Tom Grissen said. “Daon’s technology provides a trusted digital security experience for all of our customers. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Tradelink as the demand for more secure and convenient authentication increases among mobile banking customers.”

The IdentityX platform provides FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) capabilities that enable authentication based on a wide variety of biological attributes including voice, face, behavior, and palm. Institutions can integrate their current security systems into the platform, as well as add new authentication systems as they become available. This enables institutions to extend the lives of their older or customized security systems and devices. The component approach also makes it easier for organizations like Dah Sing Bank to make more specific decisions on which cybersecurity technologies best suit their specific customer preferences.

Daon’s collaboration with Tradelink to support FIs in Hong Kong is part of an initiative the two firms have launched to provide authentication solutions for banks in the region. In February, Daon reported on the successful implementation of a FIDO biometric solution with one of Hong Kong’s largest banks. The deployment was completed in partnership with Tradelink subsidiary, Digi-Sign, and has proven to be a model for similar implementations for “multiple financial institutions in the region,” the company noted in a statement.

Headquartered in Reston, Virginia and founded in 2002, Daon demonstrated its IdentityX platform at FinovateFall 2016. The company began the year partnering with North African security and document dematerialization specialist GEMADEC. Last fall, Visa announced that it would leverage IdentityX to power biometric services for its Visa ID Intelligence platform. The Visa news came during a season of partnership activity for the company, which also announced agreements with Kony in September and Nations Trust Bank of Sri Lanka in November.

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PayStand Announces Canadian Expansion

PayStand Announces Canadian Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: PayStand

Next generation payment solution provider PayStand is expanding into Canada. The Scotts Valley, California-based company announced that its digital payments platform will support domestic B2B commercial payments and help it earn a share of the Canadian payments volume that takes place over electronic funds transfer (EFT) – more than a third of which is B2B.

“Today’s commercial payments infrastructure in Canada is built on many layers of outdated technology and processes that are needlessly complex and time-consuming, not to mention error-prone and labor-intensive,” Jeremy Almond, PayStand CEO, explained in the company’s press release announcing the expansion. He pointed out that PayStand’s infrastructure provides native support to Canada’s EFT and card payment technology, “essentially transforming and modernizing the entire payments lifecycle for businesses, no matter the type or matter of payment.”

Founded in 2013, PayStand helps businesses access the “$550 billion stuck in pre-Internet paper, plastic, and manual processes.” By leveraging smart network and blockchain technologies, PayStand’s platform digitizes account receivables and automates processing. Its customers, representing verticals ranging from manufacturing to software services, use its Payments as a Service (PaaS) technology to integrate digital payments into their mobile apps, websites, ERP billing systems, and invoices.

An alum of our developer’s conference, PayStand presented Comparing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Payment Terms at FinDEVr 2014. At the event, PayStand’s Almond compared the relative advantages and disadvantages of card networks, eChecks, and digital currencies as payment options, and the value of flexible payment rails that provide multiple alternatives.

Earlier this year, PayStand announced B2B payments integration with SuiteCloud, which enabled quick fund transfer from 18,000 financial institutions and six major credit card brands. In January, PayStand was featured along with fellow Finovate alums Truphone and Featurespace in The Silicon Review’s 50 Smartest Companies of 2017 roster. The company has raised $8.3 million in funding, and includes BlueRun Ventures and LEAP Global Partners among its investors.

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German Banking Software Provider NDGIT Raises $4.7 Million in Series A Funding

German Banking Software Provider NDGIT Raises $4.7 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, NDGIT

Here’s a bit of funding news from a new Finovate alum that slipped beneath the radar earlier this year. Open banking and insurance platform NDGIT has raised $4.7 million (€4 million) in new funding. The investment comes courtesy of a Series A round led by Capnamic Ventures and featured participation from PROfounders and existing investors Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures and business angels. The funding takes NDGIT’s total capital to $5.8 million.

The Munchen, Germany-based fintech said the additional capital will be used to grow its team and further product development. NDGIT, which stands for “Next Digital Banking”, is the developer of the first API platform for both banking and insurance, and its technology helps banks leverage open banking APIs and PSD2-ready solutions to work and integrate with digital partners. NDGIT includes Swiss bank Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and Germany’s Bank fur Sozialwirtschaft among its bank, fintech, and insurance company clientele.

“In Capnamic we have gained a leading investor with experience in the FinTech and InsurTech sectors,” NDGIT founder and CEO Oliver Dlugosch said in a statement. “In light of the common PSD2 Directive and international Open Banking developments, the investment by PROfounders Capital provides further proof of NDGIT’s European market relevance. With the support of our partners we intend to accelerate our growth and keep on driving NDGIT’s development into a market-leading Open Banking platform in Europe.”

Founded in 2016, NDGIT made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2018 where the company demonstrated its Ecosystem Builder solution. Ecosystem Builder is based on NDGIT’s open banking platform and enables banks to build app stores to offer their fintech partner network to their clients. The solution gives FIs an engaging front end that provides an overview of all the apps available via the banking portal, an SSO connection to fintech partners, secure data integration with the bank’s systems, as well as analytics and reporting.

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Avoka Unveils Springboard Deposit Account Opening Solution

Avoka Unveils Springboard Deposit Account Opening Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka

Could Avoka make digital customer acquisition any easier? With the release of its Springboard Deposit Account Opening Solution, Avoka is offering FIs an off-the-shelf solution that integrates digital KYC, fraud and risk evaluation, and funding that will help them provide “outstanding customer acquisition and onboarding journeys.” In its announcement, Avoka cited Aite Group Senior Analyst Tiffani Montez who said the new solution “gives financial institutions a digital account opening and on boarding solution prebuilt with best-in-class customer experience and Fintech integration.”

Built on Avoka’s Transact platform, Springboard Deposit Account Opening leverages technologies from a number of partners to deliver a range of features. These include Data Pre-Fill, courtesy of an integration with Mitek’s Mobile Fill solution; Fraud Screening and Scoring via iovation’s FraudForce technology; and Risk Screening using ChexSystems’ Product Suite. Address Lookup and Instant Funding are also components of the new solution. The Springboard Deposit Account Opening Solution features configurable branding, decision rules, and deposit account type options, as well.

Avoka Chief Product Officer Steve Demchuk called digital account opening “the most rapidly changing capability on the U.S. retail banking landscape.” He cited a company report from earlier this year that pointed to a large and growing gap between the digital account opening capabilities of larger banks and those of smaller regional and community banks and credit unions. “It’s clear consumers already expect a first-class digital experience for deposit opening, so banks of all sizes must act fast to remain competitive,” Demchuk said.

At its most recent Finovate appearance – FinovateEurope 2017 – two-time Best of Show winner Avoka demonstrated the Transact Insights module of its Transact digital sales platform. Insights continuously optimizes the account opening journey by measuring and analyzing how customers progressing through the application process, noting areas of friction, requests for assistance, and even abandonment. This enables businesses to quickly spot problems in the process, make necessary changes, and then measure results.

Recent headlines for Avoka include the company’s partnership with RACQ Bank of Australia to enhance account opening and on boarding at the newly-launched financial institution – the first bank in the world to be opened by an automobile club. In April, Avoka teamed up with Alpine Bank, a Colorado-based bank with more than $3.5 billion in assets that will use the company’s Transact solution to support expansion and better serve current customers.

Avoka has raised $28 million in funding courtesy of rounds led by Moelis Australia Asset Management and professional investor Roger Allen. Philip Copeland is CEO.

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DarcMatter Partners with Crypto Fund #Hashed

DarcMatter Partners with Crypto Fund #Hashed
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: DarcMatter

Alternative investment platform DarcMatter has teamed up with South Korean crypto investment fund and accelerator, #Hashed. The partnership will enable DarcMatter, which specializes in providing direct access to pre-vetted hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital funds, to extend its reach into the Asian market and gain insight into the crypto investment industry.

And as a blockchain-based investment fund and an incubator with an emphasis on community-building and impact investing, #Hashed will benefit from DarcMatter’s connections with both the traditional and alternative investment worlds.

Discussing the news in an interview with Tech Bullion, DarcMatter CEO Sang Lee pointed out that both companies share experiences and a vision that are “very aligned and rooted in the core premise of increasing transparency and efficiency throughout financial markets globally.”

Simon Kim, CEO of #Hashed, called DarcMatter a “great partner and a leader in the fintech industry that can utilize blockchain and cryptocurrency to accelerate the industry towards the next level.”

With offices in Seoul, South Korea, and San Francisco, #Hashed was founded in 2017 and has become the largest blockchain fund in Korea. The company has accelerated the largest wallet provider in South Korea, CoinManager, as well as a number of startups applying distributed ledger and blockchain technology to cybersecurity, social networking, and payments – among other areas.

This week’s news adds to the blockchain and crypto-based headlines DarcMatter has been making of late. Last month, the company’s blockchain project, DarcMatter Coin, revealed in April, announced its first strategic investment and partnership with trade.io. The firm’s seed and venture arm will invest $2 million into the coin’s public presale. Aside from blockchain news, the company won the Retail Investment Innovation Award at the 2018 FinTech Breakthrough Awards in May.

New York City-based DarcMatter was founded in 2014 and made its Finovate debut one year later at FinovateSpring 2015 where it demonstrated its decentralized alternative investment platform.

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iSignthis Unveils B2B Transactional Banking Service; Partnership with Gobbill

iSignthis Unveils B2B Transactional Banking Service; Partnership with Gobbill
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: iSignthis

Australian payments and identity solutions provider iSignthis is adding to its offerings by launching a Euro-based, B2B transactional banking service. The company said the service was being provided to serve clients in the small to mid-scale CFD, FX, and gaming industries who are often underserved by traditional retail banks.

The service features:

  • Inbound processing for Visa and Mastercard cards
  • Inbound processing of BPAY and EFT (direct debit) payments
  • Availability of alternative payment options including Trustly and Sofort
  • Support for outbound OCT payments across the Visa network for MCC6211 (Brokers) and Visa and Mastercard for MCC7995 (Gaming/Wagering/Gambling)
  • EMA deposit facilities with SWIFT, SEPA and OCT outbound facilities

iSignthis noted in a press release that the new e-money account (EMA) service is independent from its payment processing business, “but may supplement payment services by Clients.” This includes allowing merchants to keep funds on deposit with iSignthis, and to use those funds to make payments to suppliers and service providers.

Today’s news follows on the heels of the company announcement last week that it was partnering with Gobbill, an AI-based fintech bill payment automation startup. This agreement will enable Gobbill to process card transactions through iSignthis’ iSXPay solution and to use the company’s Paydentity technology to provide global digital identity verification and payment processing.

“Gobbill represents an opportunity for iSignthis to support a prospective leader in bill payment automation, as well as for us to provide a means for them to expand outside of Australia, by providing facilities to them in Europe as they expand,” John Karantzis, CEO of iSignthis, said. “Having witnessed Gobbill emerge over the last three years, we are delighted to be part of their future growth.”

Founded in 2013 and based in Melbourne, Australia, iSignthis demonstrated its cloud-based identity and transaction authentication solution at FinovateEurope 2015. This spring, the company’s subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney, announced a payment aggregation agreement with American Express Australia. Also this year, iSignthis announced that it would expand the scope of its Paydentity service to XM.com to serve as an option for Chinese eKYC. iSignthis finalized its partnership with Worldline to start the year, finishing an integration that will bring ecommerce merchants in Europe access to iSignthis’ ISXPay and Paydentity solutions.

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Xero Launches Connected Accounting

Xero Launches Connected Accounting
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Xero

At its Xerocon Atlanta event this week, online accounting software specialist Xero announced the first wave of new features designed to automate many basic daily business tasks. Calling the new solutions, Connected Accounting, VP of Products and Partnerships for Xero Americas Herman Man added that in addition to automatically categorizing accounting data, Connected Accounting gives businesses insights that can help them better understand their finances.

“With the features introduced at Xerocon Atlanta today, we’re delivering connected accounting so accountants and bookkeepers can help their clients ask the big questions, on cash flow, profit, and revenue,” Man said. “It is these kinds of capabilities working seamlessly together that enables small businesses to pursue their passion, be successful and do beautiful business.”

Initially, Connected Accounting will enable Xero’s platform to capture and automatically populate data from PDF bills to make bank reconciliation simpler. Xero Projects, a job tracking solution for small business now available to Xero’s U.S. customers, is now connected to the platform in a way that allows businesses to combine contact, invoicing, billing, and reporting information with the rich data existing on the platform. The Projects app has also been improved, making it easier for workers to track project work on the go and giving business owners more control over access permissions.

Xero also announced coming enhancements to its query solution Ask and a to-be released solution for Xero HQ, Relationships, that will make it easier for businesses to maintain contacts and sync data across the Xero platform.

In addition to product announcements, Xero also shared news of a new partnership with Citibank. Via the agreement, joint Citibank-Xero customers will get access to direct bank feeds from within the Xero platform. This will give businesses real-time visibility of their finances, including cash flow and overall business performance. The deal with Citibank builds on the relationships with FIs that Xero has forged in 2018 alone, including deals with the National Bank of Australia in February, and the Development Bank of Singapore in January.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Wellington, New Zealand, Xero demonstrated the Business Identification feature of its online accounting platform at FinovateSpring 2011. Earlier this month, the company announced its Canadian launch, partnering with Deloitte Private’s financial collaboration platform ctrl by Deloitte. In February, Xero teamed up with IT management solutions provider Kaseya, providing direct integration between the company’s business management solution, BMS by Kaseya, and Xero’s platform.

Xero is publicly-traded on the Australian stock exchange under the ticker “XRO” and has a market capitalization of $5 billion. Rod Drury is CEO.

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