Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Arxan Technologies, BondIT, Dwolla, Finicity, Flywire, ieDigital, Intelligent Environments, Mortgage Cadence, OurCrowd, Outsystems, PayPal, ThreatMetrix

On Finovate.com

  • Arxan Brings its App Protection Technology to Android.
  • BondIT Integrates Bond Portfolio Solution with FIIG Securities.
  • Dwolla Launches Start, a Pay-as-You-Go Payment Solution.
  • Intelligent Environments Rebrands as ieDigital.
  • Finicity Forges New Partnership with Mortgage Cadence.

Around the web

  • Low-code development specialist OutSystems launches OutSystems Sentry, a new proactive security monitoring service for the company’s PaaS clients.
  • PayPal acquires Jetlore, an AI-powered prediction engine for retailers.
  • Halma partners with OurCrowd for life protection technologies.
  • CNP Awards recognizes ThreatMetrix for ThreatMetrix ID.
  • EY names Flywire CEO Entrepreneur of the Year finalist in New England.

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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Tradeshift Raises $250 Million in Round Led by Goldman Sachs

Tradeshift Raises $250 Million in Round Led by Goldman Sachs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Tradeshift

Fintech has a brand new unicorn.

Supply chain financing innovator Tradeshift has locked in $250 million in new capital courtesy of a just-completed Series E round. The investment was led by Goldman Sachs and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board, and featured participation from HSBC, H14, Bullhound, and a new venture firm founded by Tradeshift founders called Gray Swan.

“We are very happy with this validation of our vision,” Christian Lanng, Tradeshift founder and CEO said. “We have always believed that the future of supply chains is 100% digital and that connecting trade is the first step to a digitally connected economy. This investment will enable us to continue our rapid growth and consolidate our leadership position. We welcome Goldman Sachs and PSP Investments as our newest investors and look forward to their valuable contributions as we enter our next growth phase.”

The latest round of funding takes Tradeshift’s total capital to more than $400 million and gives the San Francisco-based firm a valuation of $1.1 billion.

Working with more than 1.5 billion businesses in 190 countries around the world, Tradeshift enables supply chain payments and marketplaces, supporting trade finance alternatives, spend and receivables management, lending and payments, as well as private marketplaces. Tradeshift has helped free the $9 trillion in capital locked in online payments and was referred to in the November 2017 Forrester report on the Vendor Landscape: B2B Business Networks as the company whose technology “cause(s) other PO/invoice network vendors to change strategy.”

Tradeshift demonstrated the Instant Payments feature of its platform at FinovateEurope 2012. Instant Payments enables SMEs to receive instant payment for invoices approved through the platform, giving businesses access to lower interest rates compared to other funding opportunities. The solution also helps relieve pressure on cash flow due to late payments and extended payment terms.

Recently recognized with Best B2B Payments Platform honors from the FinTech Breakthrough Awards, Tradeshift launched Tradeshift Pay in May which combines supply chain payments and financing and blockchain-based early payments into a single solution. In March, the company partnered with Canon Business Process Services in a deal that enabled Canon customers to leverage Tradeshift’s platform to improve their supply chain, including source-to-pay processes.

The company began the year with the launch of Tradeshift Frontiers, an innovation lab and incubator geared toward helping bring the benefits of new technologies like AI and distributed ledgers to the world of supply chain management and global trade. Tradeshift was founded in 2010.

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Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Diebold, Finovate Global, Lidya

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.

Africa

  • Lidya Scores $6.9 Million in Series A Investment.
  • Kenya finance ministry publishes draft of initial regulations its digital lending industry.
  • Fintech Futures profiles Cameroon-based crypto wallet and exchange app, Interstellar.

LATAM

  • Argentine lending platform Moni raises $3 million in funding.
  • Brazil’s central bank launches new fintech sandbox, Laboratório de Inovações Financeiras e Technológicas (LIFT).
  • MarkitSERV extends network of derivatives clearinghouses to include Mexico’s Asigna.

CEE

  • Czech Republic’s Worldcore announces completion of its cryptocurrency exchange.
  • Is fintech an “opportunity or threat” to emerging Europe?
  • Czech utility conmpany, Pražská Plynárenská, to accept payments in bitcoin.

Asia

  • Ant Financial inks deal with Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, its third deal with an established Chinese bank in a week.
  • Malaysian fintech Jirnexu raises $11 million in Series B led by Japan’s SBI Group.
  • Philippine government points to northern Philippines as a future blockchain, cryptocurrency, and fintech hub.

MENA

  • Emirates NBD teams up with Diebold Nixdorf to introduce digital kiosk, Emirates NBD EasyHub.
  • ADGM and KPMG Lower Gulf announce FinTech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge.
  • Emirates NBD introduces its NBD Accelerator Auto Loans program.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Azimo Raises $20 Million in New Funding

Azimo Raises $20 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Funding

International money transfer innovator Azimo has locked in $20 million (£15 million) in new funding. The Series C investment was led by Rakuten Capital, and featured participation from a host of investors including e.ventures, Frog Capital, GR Capital Partners, Greycroft Partners, MCI, Quona Capital, and Silicon Valley Bank. The new funding takes Azimo’s total capital to $66 million.

Founder and CEO Michael Kent said the funding would help the company improve its platform and continue to grow its customer base. He added that Azimo would continue to focus on the European market, which he referred to as “the largest, most diverse and chronically underserved money transfer market in the world.”

Rakuten Capital managing partner Oskar Mielczarek de la Miel credited Azimo’s ability to keep customer acquisition costs low as one of the benefits of its partnership with the London-based fintech. “Customer acquisition costs have dropped by two-third since we first got involved with Azimo,” he said. “This latest funding will comfortably bring the business to sustained profitability within 12 months.”

Japan-based Rakuten Capital has been a consistent investor in fintech companies, including funding for other Finovate alums like CurrencyCloud, BlueVine, and Kreditech. Mielczarek de la Miel told The Financial Times that growth in the international digital money transfer industry has not only attracted investors, but also made firms like Azimo “very coveted assets,” that could be the target of acquirers.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, U.K., Azimo demonstrated its international digital money transfer service at FinovateEurope 2013. The company offers safe and secure money transfers, verified by MasterCard and Visa, to more than 195 countries and in more than 60 different currencies. Azimo provides instant cash delivery to more than 50 countries, and most money transfers are processed in less than 24 hours. Azimo’s mobile app, available at Google Play and the Apple App Store, gives users instant updates and real-time currency alerts, as well.

With more than 1.5 million registered customers and more than $1 billion in annualized sending volume, Azimo has made significant additions and enhancements to its coverage in recent months. The company announced new, improved service to China in March and last December, Azimo revamped its service in Nigeria to bring faster transfers and broader cash delivery options. Also that month, Azimo launched its cash pick-up service in the Philippines.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Baker Hill, CREALOGIX, EdgeLab, Lidya, payworks, Persado, Revolut, Ripple, ThetaRay, WorkFusion

On Finovate.com

  • Lidya Scores $6.9 Million in Series A Investment.
  • Azimo Raises $20 Million in New Funding.
  • WorkFusion Closes Add-On Funding Round.

Around the web

  • Baker Hill to provide loan origination technology for Old Point National Bank, a Virginia-based FI with $988 million in assets.
  • Multiple-time Best of Show winner CREALOGIX adds cryptocurrency and blockchain market data to its Digital Banking Hub.
  • EdgeLab honored as MarketPlace Provider of the Year at the Temenos Partner and Customer Awards.
  • MarTechSeries features Persado’s AI platform.
  • CryptoGlobe: Currencies Direct Completes Successful European Pilot of Ripple’s xRapid and Calls XRP ‘A Game Changer.’
  • Payworks teams with Visa to enable omnichannel payments for CyberSource’s merchants.
  • ThetaRay wins Asian Banker Risk Management Award for “Regulatory Technology Implementation of the Year.”
  • Revolut unveils its “App Store for Business Banking” solution, Revolut Connect.

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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nCino Partners with Tech Qualled to Help Veterans Get into Fintech

nCino Partners with Tech Qualled to Help Veterans Get into Fintech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: nCino

While many Americans are firing up the grill to prepare for Memorial Day weekend, nCino is celebrating the holiday with a new partnership. The company is teaming up with U.S. military veteran training organization, Tech Qualled, to help qualified veterans land jobs at the Wilmington, North Carolina-based fintech.

“At nCino, we are committed to hiring people who embody our culture and core values, and who bring a unique set of knowledge, skills, and experience to the table,” nCino EVP Josh Glover said. A former Marine and combat veteran himself, Glover added, “We are extremely proud to work with Tech Qualled to ensure we continue to hire the right people, and are honored to expand opportunities and access for those who give so much to our country.”

With 80% of its graduates meeting employer expectations in their first year after being hired, Tech Qualled credits its industry-relevant curriculum for helping veterans succeed. This includes focus on topics ranging from data center solutions and basic networking to cloud computing and software applications. Co-founder and president Justin Ossola noted that the company’s selection process was also instrumental in guiding veterans to opportunities that were ideal fits. “We have selective and specific criteria for making sure we pick candidates with the right blend of soft skills and personality traits,” Ossola said. Since its founding in 2015, the company has helped more than 120 veterans secure jobs in the technology industry.

Founded in 2012, nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. With more than 275 employees and more than 130 clients, nCino provides a solution that combines CRM, loan originations workflow, ECM, business intelligence and reporting in a single, secure, cloud-based environment. nCino’s client institutions have experienced a 19% increase in loan value, a 34% shortening in loan closing time, and a 54% reduction in policy exceptions thanks to nCino’s platform.

In a busy 2018, nCino has added a Retail Sales and Service solution to its Bank Operating System, and won deployments of its technology with Banesco USA, TD Bank, and Yorkshire Building Society. In March, nCino worked with Enforce to help FIs transition to cloud-based solutions, and in April the company partnered with fellow Finovate alum VASCO to integrate its eSignLive-developed e-signature technology into its platform for banks.

nCino has raised more than $133 million in funding and includes Salesforce Ventures and Insight Venture Partners among its investors. Pierre Naudé is CEO.

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BondIT Raises $4 Million in New Funding, Adding to Series B

BondIT Raises $4 Million in New Funding, Adding to Series B
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BondIT, Funding

With $4 million in new funding, BondIT has added to the Series B investment it announced last fall and taken the round’s total to $18.2 million. St. Louis Business Journal reported this week that the fixed income portfolio management platform provider plans to use the capital for product development among other initiatives.

The company’s Series B round has been led by major investor Fosun Group, a division of Fosun International Limited, a Hong Kong-based investment holding company. When the investment in BondIT was initially announced last fall, Fosun Chairman Guo Guangchang said that BondIT’s technology “compliments (its) own financial ecosystem” and will enable wealth managers to upgrade their solutions with disruptive technology. The Group also said the investment reflected a commitment to the Israeli market.

BondIT uses machine learning algorithms and data science to enable fixed income advisors to make superior recommendations, improve client engagement, manage risk better, speed trade execution and meet compliance regulations easier. The platform improves productivity by automating portfolio construction, optimizing returns tailored to the individual customer, and enhancing analytics, and risk monitoring.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Herzliya, Israel, BondIT demonstrated its fixed income portfolio management platform at FinovateFall 2016. The company began the year leveraging its strategic partnership with Fosun Group and relationship with Chinese financial data provider Wind to expand its coverage of China’s $7+ trillion interbank bond market.

In January, BondIT partnered with IBM, choosing the company’s ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio to enhance its fixed income portfolio services. “By harnessing the ILOG CPLEX Optimization Studio tool within our framework, our platform can find the optimal solution within the constraints,” BondIT Chief Scientist Dr. Hillel Raz said. “If a perfect solution is not feasible due to the combination of constraints and market conditions, it can relax constraints to provide the closest fit for any set of portfolio requirements.”

The fact that the technology is cloud-based is also a major plus enabling the company, in the words of BondIT CTO Amit Godel, to scale as required to meet customer needs, as well as to “provide platform enhancements immediately.”

“The main advantage of the IBM technology for us as a startup was fast time-to-market, as well as its ability to handle many different types of variables and objectives, control numerous parameters, and handle infeasible problems,” Godel said.

Etai Ravid is BondIT founder and CEO. Check out our profile of the company featuring a Q&A with Ravid.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blend, BondIT, Currency Cloud, Ellie Mae, Fiserv, Google, Lending Club, OurCrowd, PayPal, Prosper, Revolut

On Finovate.com

  • BondIT Raises $4 Million in New Funding, Adding to Series B.
  • Mortgagetech Magnates Ellie Mae and Blend Team Up.

Around the web

  • Merchant Bank of Sri Lanka & Finance to deploy core account processing platform and front-end teller systems from Fiserv.
  • PayPal expands its relationship with Google Pay, enabling PayPal as a payment option across the Google ecosystem.
  • Revolut announces plans to open office in Edinburgh, Scotland later this year.
  • Prosper increases borrower lending cap to $40,000, matching Lending Club’s cap.
  • OurCrowd signs MOU with Intesa Sanpaolo to promote access to capital.
  • IDG Connect interviews CurrencyCloud CTO Ed Addario.

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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PaySend Adds KYC and Risk Management Tech from 4Stop

PaySend Adds KYC and Risk Management Tech from 4Stop
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: PaySend

Moving money with international money transfer platform PaySend just got a lot more secure. German KYC and anti-fraud technology solutions provider 4Stop has integrated its KYC, compliance and risk management technology with the company’s platform.

“We have always been focused on solving and removing the complexities for businesses’ KYC, regulatory obligations and fraud prevention obstacles in a manner that truly performed on a global scale,” 4Stop CEO Ingo Ernst said. “We are thrilled to see our technology integrated with PaySend and to further support their KYC, compliance and anti-fraud requirements with a fail-safe accuracy, and in the most streamlined and efficient manner possible.”

4Stop leverages hundreds of global KYC data sources, as well as a multi-faceted rules engine, real-time monitoring, rich database management, and data science to provide maximum, real-time KYC coverage. The company’s platform also enables businesses to future-proof their technology by activating any required KYC for compliance as regulations are updated.

Headquartered in Malta and founded in 2015, PaySend demonstrated its international payments and money remittance platform at FinovateEurope 2016. The company leverages a global banking network – as well as partnerships with Visa, MasterCard, and UnionPay – to enable FIs to participate in a network that simplifies remittances, tokenizes card data in demand for social-based transfers, and decreases the cost of sending money.

Earlier this month, PaySend was shortlisted in the Best Consumer Payments category of the PayTech 2018 awards. In 2018 alone, the company has launched its service in the UAE, Canada, Mexico, and Israel – with more than 50 countries now able to receive PaySend transfers. More than 100,000 people currently use its service.

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Finovate Alums Take Top Honors at FinTech Breakthrough Awards

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Apex Clearing Corporation, BizEquity, Cloud Lending Solutions, Dynamics, eMoney Advisor, Experian, Finicity, Fiserv, Green Dot, Klarna, Kofax, MasterCard, NuData Security, PayPal, Risk Ident, Stash, TD Ameritrade, ThreatMetrix, Tradeshift, TransUnion

Dedicated to recognizing “the top companies and products in the financial services and technology industry today,” FinTech Breakthrough has announced its FinTech Breakthrough Award Winners for 2018. This marks the second year the independent organization has sponsored the fintech awards event, recognizing fintech startups and veterans from a wide variety of categories including payments, lending, investing, and regtech.

“The FinTech Breakthrough Awards serve as a testament to the passion, skill and vision of individuals and teams that are truly setting the standard for innovation in the global FinTech industry,” Managing Director for FinTech Breakthrough James Johnson said in 2017 during the Awards’ inaugural year. “We are thrilled to recognize all of the FinTech Breakthrough Award winners for their well-deserved industry recognition as they drive the global FinTech market forward.”

This year featured 20 Finovate alums earning top honors from FinTech Breakthrough. The names and Finovate demo dates for each winning alum – as well as the category they won – are featured below. For a complete list of 2018 FinTech Breakthrough Award Winners, visit the company’s awards announcement page.

Leadership

Consumer Lending

  • Innovation Award for Consumer Lending – Text for Credit by Experian (FF17)

Business Lending

Wealth Management

Payments

Investments

Consumer Banking

Financial Research and Data

Fraud Prevention and Transaction Security

This marks the second time both eMoney Advisor and ThreatMetrix have been honored by the FinTech Breakthrough Awards. Among last year’s winners were a significant number of Finovate alums including: Sindeo, BizFi, DriveWealth, Quovo, Jumio, Trulioo, Qumram, and Xero.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, ID.me, Klarna, Mitek, Moneyhub, PaySend, Revolut, Sberbank, Temenos, Tinkoff Credit Systems, WeInvest

On Finovate.com

  • Mitek Acquires A2iA for $49.7 Million.
  • WeInvest Raises $12.3 Million for its WealthTech Platform.
  • Finovate Alums Take Top Honors at FinTech Breakthrough Awards.
  • PaySend Adds KYC and Risk Management Technology from 4Stop..

Around the web

  • Deutsche Bank Luxembourg to deploy Avaloq Banking Suite.
  • Temenos unveils new digital onboarding and origination platform, Temenos Origination.
  • Revolut announces support for XRP and Bitcoin Cash.
  • Moneyhub integrates with Intelliflo to enable real-time, two-way sharing between financial advisors and clients.
  • Klarna acquires e-commerce shopping cart, Shop.co.
  • Sberbank to test ICO technology issued by Level One.
  • Tinkoff Bank to launch a new Development Hub in Sochi.
  • ID.me teams with LinkedIn to provide one year of LinkedIn Premium for free to U.S. service members and veterans.

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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identitii Forges New Partnership with Robot Automation Specialist Blue Prism

identitii Forges New Partnership with Robot Automation Specialist Blue Prism
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: identitii

Secure information sharing specialist identitii has joined forces with robotic process automation specialist Blue Prism. Together, the two will design technology to help FIs securely digitize and automate corporate payment and trade transaction processes – including a detailed audit trail – in an effort to better detect fraud.

identitii will integrate its verification engine, Integrity, and its permission data sharing capabilities into Blue Prism’s Digital Workforce, which is used by businesses to automate complex work processes. This will help businesses better organize and verify the data required in typically manual, time-consuming processes like cross-border corporate transactions, as well as provide for needed AML review and financial crimes sanctions checking.

“By combining our core strengths, we will enable our customers to achieve enhanced transparency and a complete audit trail of the provenance of information from Blue Prism’s digital workforce,” identitii CEO and co-founder Nick Armstrong said. “This will allow users to share information more securely, reduce the risk of information being tampered with and allow for detailed reporting.”

Blue Prism’s Digital Workforce enables businesses to automate tasks such as collection and management of documentation across multiple legacy systems. Businesses using the platform can leverage AI, machine learning, intelligent automation, and sentiment analysis to improve processes, share information more securely, and provide clearer, more detailed reporting for compliance purposes.

“Security, auditability and compliance can’t be an afterthought when thinking of automation,” David Moss, CTO and co-founder of Blue Prism said. “Working with identitii bolsters our ecosystem of security partners while providing our joint customers with the Digital Workforce they need to complete their digital transformation programs, which helps ensure that every transaction is safe and accounted for.”

Founded in 2014, identitii demonstrated its identitii Serra solution at FinovateFall 2017. identitii Serra is a permissioned, append-only, federated database designed for the financial industry. Using distributed ledger technology and relational and graph databases, identitii Serra enables FIs to exchange information in a way that is both secure and auditable.

identitii raised an undisclosed amount from The Lind Partners in January 2017. The company supports offices in Sydney, Australia, and in Singapore.

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