Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Socure Unveils Digital Identity Bot Aida.

Around the world

  • PayStand teams up with Silicon Valley Bank and First Data in fintech accelerator, Commerce, Innovated.
  • Hydrogen launches Hydro mobile app, a security and identity management app that leverages the public blockchain.
  • India’s self-driving mobility platform Zoomcar partners with identity verification specialist Onfido.

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.

The ID Co. Unveils Open Banking API Platform

The ID Co. Unveils Open Banking API Platform

It’s Open Banking Season in the U.K. And this makes this week’s launch of The ID Co.’s Open Banking API platform especially timely. The new solution enables business customers to use The ID Co.’s DirectID user verification technology to access open banking services with live connections to all major U.K. banks.

These connections provide access to institutions including Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Group, Santander, The Royal Bank of Scotland, and Nationwide. Digital banks like Starling and Monzo are supported, as well.

“Open banking in the U.K. represents a huge opportunity for not only businesses but consumers to benefit from,” The ID Co. CEO and founder James Varga said. “We are passionate to enable our customers to take advantage of the Open Banking opportunity and help them unlock the true value of Open Banking. After all, it’s not just about the raw data – it’s what you do with it that counts.”

DirectID provides businesses with a plug and play, identity and bank data service that is designed to increase conversions, reduce risk, and save time and money. The solution features tools for income verification and underwriting, and verifies account information with instant access to digital bank statements. DirectID also includes a complete AML compliance and KYC verification process, and real-time assessments of credit risk exposure.

CTO for The ID Co. Scott Leckie called completion of the open banking integrations “an exciting step” and added that support for additional U.K. banks – as well as support for new Open Banking V2 data blocks and new products and services leveraging bank data – are forthcoming in the next few months.

DirectID is currently live with leading lenders, FIs, and fintechs in the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. As miicard, the company demonstrated its identity-as-a-service technology at FinovateFall 2013. Last month, The ID Co. was granted FCA Authorization as Open Banking AISP in the U.K. market, and announced at the time that “key Open Banking customers and platform enhancements” would be added to the platform soon.

An inaugural member of the fintech accelerator, SixThirty, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based firm has raised more than $9 million in funding. The ID Co.’s customers include OakNorth Bank, Navient, and fellow Finovate alum Prosper.

P2Binvestor Teams Up with Amalgamated Bank to Help SMEs Get Funded

P2Binvestor Teams Up with Amalgamated Bank to Help SMEs Get Funded

New partnership. More deals. Bigger financing opportunities for small businesses.

That’s the plan for online SME lender P2Binvestor (P2Bi) and Amalgamated Bank, a socially responsible bank headquartered in New York. By working together, P2Bi and Amalgamated Bank will be able to provide more financing with less risk to early-stage SMEs that have traditionally struggled to secure credit.

“Our partnership with Amalgamated Bank signifies another important step in further validating our Bank Partnership Program,” CEO and co-founder of P2Bi Krista Morgan said. “Our technology, combined with Amalgamated’s record of success, allows us to provide affordable, scalable financing options to up and coming brands across the country. In addition, we’re proud to partner with a socially responsible company that shares similar values not only with us, but with many of our clients.”

Working with P2Bi will enable the $4+ billion bank to expand its loan portfolio and fund more emerging, socially responsible commercial and industrial businesses. P2Bi benefits from access to those businesses currently doing business with the bank. For SMEs, P2Bi’s lower rates on its lines of credit provide affordable, flexible financing on a platform that is easy to use.

“Amalgamated is dedicated to developing innovative and tailored banking and financing solutions for mission-driven organizations and companies who are working to make a positive impact in our society,” President and CEO of Amalgamated Bank, Keith Mestrich said. “By partnering with P2Bi, Amalgamated is able to help these businesses access capital they might not have otherwise had access to – and in turn grow their business and their impact.”

The new relationship with Amalgamated is a function of P2Bi’s partnership program, launched last year. The program enables banks to finance SMEs, taking a 50%, senior secured position, with P2Bi’s investors providing the other half of the funding. Interest rates range from 8% to 12% on asset-backed lines of credit from $500,000 to $10 million.

P2Bi demonstrated its P2B crowdlending platform at FinovateFall 2014. Last month, the company raised more than $17 million in combined debt and equity funding, taking P2Bi’s combined overall funding to $33.76 million. Earlier this year, American Banker took a look at how another FI, New Resource Bank, was leveraging its partnership with P2Binvestor to reach SME clients in San Francisco. P2Binvestor was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • OnDeck Scores $93 Million in Two Credit Facilities.
  • P2Binvestor Teams Up with Amalgamated Bank to Help SMEs Get Funded.
  • The ID Co. Unveils Open Banking API Platform.

Around the web

  • Carte Wealth Management to deploy advisor engagement platform powered by BlueRush.
  • CREALOGIX wins Best Web Front End Solution at the 2018 Systems in the City Awards for fintech in banking and wealth management.
  • Technology from Cognizant and Temenos helps Julius Baer complete core banking modernization.
  • Coinbase correction: No SEC approval received for acquisitions.
  • BehavioSec’s behavioral biometrics platform fulfills critical requirements achieving Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) compliance.
  • Roostify partners with Colonial National Mortgage to provide customers with a simple and intuitive online mortgage experience.

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.

FundAmerica Acquired by Prime Trust

FundAmerica Acquired by Prime Trust

From “key vendor” to acquirer, Prime Trust has just purchased crowdfunding regtech specialist FundAmerica. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In an email, FundAmerica CEO Scott Purcell emphasized the deep relationship between the two companies (Purcell is CEO of both firms and is Chief Trust Officer of Prime Trust). He wrote “Prime Trust (is) developing a massive amount of proprietary software on top of FundAmerica’s code-base, so the acquisition is symbiotic for everyone involved.”

FundAmerica builds SEC-compliant solutions for technology-based securities offerings. The company’s platform provides AML screening and bad actor checks, payment acceptance solutions for both fiat and cryptocurrencies, online investing, escrow management, and broker-dealer compliance and syndication tools. To date, FundAmerica has raised more than $750 million from 150,000 investors in more than 1,000 offerings.

Prime Trust is a blockchain-driven trust company that sees itself disrupting the traditional trust industry in the same way PayPal disrupted merchant processing. The firm serves as a custodian and trustee for personal and corporate trusts, as well as for crowdfunding platforms. It holds cash and non-cash assets including stocks, bonds, and cryptocurrencies.

Combining the two companies provides capital markets participants with a one-stop-shop in terms of both regulatory and custodial services. And Purcell pledged that there would be no disruption for clients and partners of FundAmerica or Prime Trust. “The APIs, the technology, and the services all continue without interruption,” Purcell wrote. “They will just get better and better.”

He added, “The important thing is that Prime Trust and FundAmerica are now unified and even better positioned to deliver best-in-class technology, compliance, trust, and custodial services to everyone involved in online capital markets; including ICOs and SCOs.”

Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, FundAmerica demonstrated its API for crowdfunding platform compliance at FinovateSpring 2015. Previous to its acquisition, the company had raised $2.3 million in funding.

Algomi Picks Up Investment from Euroclear

Algomi Picks Up Investment from Euroclear

Fixed income liquidity matching innovator Algomi is the recipient of new funding courtesy of an investment from Euroclear Information Services (EIS). Existing investors Euronext, AllianceBernstein, and S&P Global also participated. The exact amount of the funding was undisclosed; the company’s previous total capital stood at $14 million.

“Our investment in Algomi is driven by client demand to access untapped liquidity pools,” Euroclear CEO Peter Holder said. “This venture represents an opportunity to transform our data into an asset to increase transparency and provide a substantial boost for global fixed income markets.”

Algomi’s fundraising comes just a month after the company appointed a new CEO, Scott Eaton, who was formerly EMEA COO at MarketAxess. In a statement, Eaton praised Euroclear as a “partner who understands the value of information and the importance of improving liquidity in the fixed income market.”

The investment will enable EIS to improve liquidity in the global fixed income market by leveraging Algomi’s bond liquidity matching system to make information about specific bond holdings available anonymously. Counterparties can use Algomi’s data aggregation tool, ALFA, to access Euronext’s Synapse Multilateral Trading Facility to query and trade these securities.

Writing about the funding news, Algomi Head of Marketing and Communications Tim Binnington noted this would help increase both trading opportunities and transaction volume in the more illiquid fixed income products, including corporate and government bonds. Algomi acquired ALFA from AllianceBernstein last May in a deal that gave AllianceBernstein an undisclosed, minority stake in the company.

Founded in 2012, Algomi demonstrated Honeycomb, its buy-side GUI at FinovateFall 2014. This spring, the company was included in the Tech Tour Growth 50 – its third year in a row making the list of top European private technology companies with a valuation of less than $1 billion. In 2017, Algomi was named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 roster.

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.

Asia-Pacific

  • Chinese fintech solutions provider Pintec files $70 million IPO.
  • Shwe Rural and Urban Development Bank in Myanmar partners with JMR Infotech to better scale its online services.
  • Hong Kong banks team up to launch blockchain-based trade finance platform.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • The Fintech Association of Nigeria celebrates its first anniversary.
  • Disrupt Africa looks at a pair of investments in Nigerian fintechs: CowryWise and Bitcoin Africa.
  • SophiaTX and South Africa’s ArkTree announce new strategic alliance to expand the global reach of blockchain technology

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Hungarian bank MKB, the fourth largest commercial bank in the country, deploys Oracle Flexcube to streamline operations.
  • Open banking platform innovator Token announces that its technology has been implemented by Sberbank in Slovenia.
  • Israel-based cashless payments solution and management platform Nayax opens office in Lithuania.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Jihad Azour, Director of IMF Middle East and Central Asia, delivers a speech at the Arab Economic Forum in Lebanon: Promoting the Inclusive Growth Agenda in the Arab Region.
  • Saudi Arabia grants its first set of fintech licenses to a pair of Saudi crowdfunding platforms, Manafa Capital and Scopeer.
  • Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) notes a strong start in 2018 with the number of active registered companies climbing by 8%.

Central and South Asia

  • Study from JP Morgan looks at the untapped opportunities in the Indian fintech space.
  • FSS introduces FSS eFinclusiv, a financial inclusion solution geared toward serving the underbanked in India.
  • Russia’s National Settlement Depository to connect Kyrgyzstan’s Bank of Asia to SWIFT.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • El Cronista interviews Rafael Hernandez, senior partner of fintech at Village Capital, on business opportunities in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In Spanish.
  • Brazilian online broker Toro Investmentos begins operation this week.
  • Bank of Asia goes live as the first digital bank in the British Virgin Islands.

Top image designed by Freepik

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Algomi Picks Up Investment from Euroclear.

Around the web

  • YUKKA Lab selected to participate in the Swiss Kickstart Accelerator.
  • Finicity announces integration with SimpleNexus’ enterprise digital mortgage platform and mobile app.
  • Diebold Nixdorf teams up with Progress Systems to bring self-service cash withdraw and deposit services to credit unions in Ireland.
  • Lending Club appoints Ronnie Momen as Chief Lending Officer.
  • Kabbage appoints Scott Rosenberg as CFO.
  • BeSmartee integrates with Equifax to automate service options.
  • Crowdfund Insider: OurCrowd celebrates 5 years with $750 million raised, 160 companies & 21 exits.

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.

Sberbank in Slovenia Partners with Open Banking Platform Provider Token

Sberbank in Slovenia Partners with Open Banking Platform Provider Token

By partnering with Token.io, the open banking platform provider based in San Francisco, California, Sberbank in Slovenia is signaling more than just its compliance with PSD2. Instead Slovenia’s seventh largest bank seeks to move beyond PSD2 compliance and toward a full embrace of open banking.

“Our choice to work with Token reflects our commitment to shaping a new era of banking and payments,” Aleš Zajc, Deputy CEO in charge of retail banking for Sberbank in Slovenia, said. Zajc added that the technology would enable the bank to provide customers with a better, safer experience. “With Token’s frictionless authentication programmed into each transaction,” Zajc said, “we will be able to increase payment speed and convenience without ever compromising on security.”

Token enables banks to issue and redeem payment and account data authorizations as programmable smart tokens. Smart tokens are unique to the transactions they represent, and because account information is never transmitted beyond the bank, the technology helps minimize security risks. Not only does this make Token’s technology an ideal deployment for banks looking to meet PSD2 requirements, smart tokens can also serve as the basis for faster, more secure online transactions for customers.

“Token offers the industry’s simplest and most secure transaction-based open banking API, which will provide Sberbank Slovenia quicker data aggregation and direct payments driven by Smart Token technology,” Token CEO and founder Steve Kirsch explained. “Crucially, our cloud-based platform will give Sberbank both flexibility and scalability when creating and handling transactions.”

Token’s news comes one month after the company announced that it would facilitate direct payments for cross border payments platform and fellow Finovate alum, Caxton. Also last month, the company completed the first Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) to complete an end-to-end payment via a public bank API. In May, Token was granted FCA authorization for open banking payment and information services, and partnered with Paymentworld Europe to enable direct payments for the Malta-based electronic money institution.

Founded in 2015, Token demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2017. With $18.5 million in funding, the company includes EQT Ventures, OP Financial Group, Octopus Ventures, and Plug and Play among its investors. Check out our conversation on open banking and PSD2 with Token’s VP of Marketing, Marten Nelson, from earlier this year.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Sberbank in Slovenia Partners with Open Banking Platform Provider Token.
  • Equifax Acquires DataX to Promote Financial Inclusion.

Around the web

  • Wirecard and Mastercard collaborate to make contactless payments using wearable technology more accessible.
  • Roostify expands leadership ranks with new Chief Customer Officer, new VP of Sales, and new General Counsel.
  • VyStar Credit Union ($7.6 billion in assets) to upgrade core banking solution with technology from FIS.
  • Hyperwallet to provide mass payment distribution for content processing platform, Wordapp.com.
  • Premier America Credit Union ($2.5 billion in assets) to deploy core processing technology from Jack Henry & Associates.
  • Santander integrates nCino’s Bank Operating System.
  • Carte Wealth Management to launch advisor engagement platform powered by DigitalReach from BlueRush.
  • TechCrunch reports: Coinbase Reportedly Gets Approval from US regulators to Start Listing Tokenized Securities.
  • Ephesoft releases new Swagger/OpenAPI-web services for Ephesoft Transact.

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.

Mastercard Teams Up with Worldpay to Launch ‘Pay by Bank’ in the U.K.

Mastercard Teams Up with Worldpay to Launch ‘Pay by Bank’ in the U.K.

With Pay by Bank, Mastercard and Worldpay are making it easy for shoppers in the U.K. to pay directly from their bank account when purchasing goods and services online. The technology, originally developed by Zapp (which was a division of VocaLink, a company Mastercard acquired in 2016) is expected to be available to customers of HSBC in the second half of 2018. Additional customers will be added later in the year, with new merchants to be added starting early in 2019.

“This is the latest way we’re able to deliver on consumer’s expectations, whether they’re shopping online or paying for utilities,” Mark Barnett, president of Mastercard U.K., Ireland, Nordics, and Baltics. “(Pay by Bank) is set to play a big role in U.K. digital commerce as more banks and merchants offer this as a payment option to millions of their customers.”

The initiative and partnership is also likely to play a big role in Mastercard’s ability to participate in the U.K. debit market, where Visa is common. The agreement will also enable Mastercard to leverage Worldpay’s strong market share in the U.K.

“Through this partnership, Worldpay and Mastercard will help expand payment acceptance options for U.K. consumers and retailers by leveraging account-to-account payments technology with Mastercard’s Pay by Bank app,” Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer for Worldpay Kevin McCarten said. “This – combined with our joint efforts in making digital payments even more convenient and secure globally – creates a powerful partnership that benefits all payments stakeholders.”

Some of the technical features of the new solution include support for EMVCo’s Secure Remote Commerce (SRC), a framework that provides a consistent payment experience for consumers, as well as Mastercard’s Digital Enablement Service which uses a token for enhanced payment security as opposed to a card’s primary 16-digit account number. Worldpay will also take advantage of Mastercard’s MoneySend to enable merchants to get settlement payments to Mastercard debit cards faster.

Mastercard partnered with Vipera for a demonstration of SME Pay at FinovateEurope 2018. SME Pay is a mobile payment solution geared specifically toward small business owners. The technology gives business operators the ability to control how and when company payment cards are used, and includes capture features to make record-keeping and expense reporting easier.

The company made its most recent solo appearance at a Finovate conference the previous year at FinovateFall 2017, where it demonstrated its Cash Pick-Up solution. The technology enables a wide variety of disbursers – from P2P providers and corporate entities to NGOs and government agencies – to deliver cash to consumers through enabled ATMs without requiring a card. In addition to helping serve the underbanked, the solution can be used for emergency funds when cards are lost or stolen, P2P payments, or even for disaster relief. Trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “MA,” Mastercard has a market capitalization of $213 billion. The company was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.

Worldpay participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. The company’s presentation, It’s Not Just About Getting Paid, It’s About the Payment Journey, discussed the importance of implementing a “consumer friendly buying journey” when it comes to growing sales. Worldpay provides technology-led payment products and services to more than 400,000 customers using more than 300 different payment types. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in London, U.K., Worldpay merged with Vanitv at the beginning of the year in a deal valued at $10 billion.

ACH Alert Reports Record Growth, Stops More Than $388 Million in Fraudulent Transactions

ACH Alert Reports Record Growth, Stops More Than $388 Million in Fraudulent Transactions

Electronic payments fraud prevention specialist ACH Alert has doubled its staff in response to record growth, the Tennessee-based fintech announced this week. The company partnered with more financial institutions in the past 12 months than in the last four years combined, it reported. Over the same time, ACH Alert has prevented more than $388 million in fraudulent transactions.

“Our extensive product suite, including our enterprise level check positive pay service with full back-end reconcilement and payee positive pay, have helped financial institutions prevent millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions, resulting in ACH Alert’s explosive growth and increased demand for our services,” company CEO Deborah Peace said. “As we continue to grow, we plan to use this momentum to protect a greater number of financial institutions and their account holders from payments fraud, as well as the frustration and financial loss associated with it.”

ACH Alert CEO Deborah Peace demonstrating Fraud Prevention HQ at FinovateSpring 2017.

ACH Alert demonstrated its Fraud Prevention HQ at FinovateSpring 2017. The company, which monitored more than $817 billion in transactions over the past year, partners with financial institutions to provide automated fraud detection and prevention services. ACH Alert’s technology protects a variety of payment types against fraud including incoming and outgoing ACH, wire transfers, and checks. The company’s solutions enable banks and credit unions to send actionable alerts to account holders when suspicious activity is detected, giving account holders the opportunity to stop the transaction before it occurs. This combination of automated fraud prevention and “shifting control to the account holder” is a key differentiator in ACH Alert’s ability to help FIs and their customers combat fraud.

Headquartered in Ooltewah, Tennessee and founded in 2007, ACH Alert won the 2016 BankNews Innovative Solutions Award for its Fraud Prevention HQ solution. Earlier this year, the company introduced new anti-fraud solutions for real-time payments and ACH credits. Trustmark National Bank, Venture Bank, and Hancock Whitney Bank are among ACH Alert’s customers. Read our profile of the company from last fall featuring a Q&A with CEO Peace.