Author: David Penn

Welcome to Day One of FinovateEurope

Welcome to Day One of FinovateEurope
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2018

We are off and running at FinovateEurope 2018! Come in from the cold, grab a cup of hot coffee and a pastry, and join us for what promises to be a fantastic first-day of live fintech demonstrations.

Day One will feature more than 40 companies demonstrating a variety of fintech solutions ranging from mobile payments and authentication to digital banking and wealth management. If you haven’t already, pick up your ticket today and join us at ExCel London on the historic Royal Victoria Dock as FinovateEurope brings you the latest in fintech innovation.

Here’s today’s lineup.

Registration begins at 8am

8:00 to 9:00: Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 to 10:15:

10:15 to 10:45: Intermission and Refreshments

10:45 to 12:00:

12:00 to 13:00: Lunch and networking

13:00 to 14:15:

14:15 to 14:45: Intermission and refreshments

14:45 to 16:00:

16:00 to 18:00: Cocktail reception and networking
Best of Show winners will be announced tomorrow.

All demo videos will be available for free in a few weeks in our video archives.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Yorkshire Building Society Leverages nCino’s Bank Operating System to Drive Corporate Lending

Yorkshire Building Society Leverages nCino’s Bank Operating System to Drive Corporate Lending
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: nCino

The U.K.’s Yorkshire Building Society has deployed nCino’s cloud-based digital Bank Operating System for commercial lending operations, reports Antony Peyton of Banking Technology (Finovate’s sister publication).

This is nCino’s second triumph in the UK – as reported in June 2017 challenger bank OakNorth deployed the same system. In the U.S., ten of the top 30 banks by asset size and the world’s largest credit union, Navy Federal, rely on the Wilmington, North Carolina-based fintech’s cloud-based banking technology.

In this latest deal, Bradford-based Yorkshire Building Society, will use the system to lets its employees make faster decisions and provide funding more quickly to its customers. According to nCino, it completed the deployment in less than 90 days.

Phil Green, head of commercial lending and social housing at Yorkshire Building Society, said: “We invested in the nCino Bank Operating System because it helps automate tasks that were previously paper-based and manual, allowing colleagues more time to deliver differentiated and personalized service.”

The nCino Bank Operating System is built on the Salesforce platform that combines customer relationship management, loan origination, account opening, workflow, enterprise content management, business process management, digital engagement and reporting.

Last month, nCino reeled in investment from Salesforce Ventures. The amount of funding was undisclosed, but the investment adds to the company’s known total capital of more than $81 million.

nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. Pierre Naudé is CEO.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Currency Cloud, Finicity, Riverbed Technology, Simility, Softjourn, Zuhlke Engineering

On Finovate.com

  • Excuse Me, Europe, Your Finovate is Showing.

Around the web

  • Avaloq wins its first Thai customer in Kasikornbank. See Avaloq at FinovateEurope in London this week.
  • Finicity adds verification reports to Advanced Data’s fraud prevention and enhanced verification tools for mortgage lending courtesy of new partnership.
  • Simility announces new VP of Business Development, Eric Newman.
  • FactoryNet profiles the new service processes app from Zuhlke Engineering. (in German).
  • McCullough Robertson Lawyers deploy Riverbed Technology’s SteelCentral Aternity solution to enhance productivity and boost innovation.
  • Kyiv Post highlights Softjourn among world’s top outsourcers.
  • Currencycloud introduces Richard Arudel as North America GM.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FLEETCOR Launches Blockchain-Based Payments Pilot with Ripple

FLEETCOR Launches Blockchain-Based Payments Pilot with Ripple
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ripple

For all the buzz around blockchain technologies, few companies have seized the moment like Ripple. And this week, the enterprise blockchain solution provider announced a new partnership with FLEETCOR Technologies. The two firms will launch a pilot program to test the viability of Ripple’s digital asset XRP to improve the efficiency of international payments.

Cambridge Global Payments, the B2B international payments provider owned by FLEETCOR will execute the pilot, using XRP in payment flows through Ripple’s on-demand liquidity solution, XRapid. Cambridge processes more than $20 billion in cross-border, B2B payments each year for its 13,000 business customers. This newly-announced initiative adds to the work Cambridge and Ripple have already done together with the latter’s real-time messaging and transaction settlement for the enterprise solution, xCurrent.

“We are excited for the insights this pilot program is expected to deliver, and we will use that information to help both Cambridge and FLEETCOR develop our use case for blockchain in international payments,” Cambridge Global Payments COO Mark Frey said. Speaking for Ripple, Danny Aranda, Director of Business Development, praised Cambridge as a company that “understand(s) the benefits of digital assets and (is) serious about using XRP to overcome the inefficiencies in the global payment system.”

Making its Finovate debut at OpenCoin at FinovateSpring 2013, Ripple has been recognized as both a pioneer and a critical company in the bringing the benefits of distributed ledger technology to the enterprise. In recent months, the company has forged a wide variety of partnerships with FIs and financial services firms such as UAE Exchange, Banco Santander, and MoneyGram to help establish pilot programs and use cases for blockchain technology in areas ranging from international payment facilitation to the Internet of Things.

Ripple has raised more than $93 million in funding and includes IDG Capital Partners, SBI Investment, Core Innovation Capital, and Santander Innoventures among its investors. Both founder Larsen and current CEO Brad Garlinghouse were featured in Forbes.com’s article Prophets of Boom: Meet Crypto’s Richest, “a list of the richest secretive freaks, geeks, and visionaries” in the world of cryptocurrencies,” earlier this year. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in San Francisco, California, with offices in New York, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, Singapore, and Sydney, Australia.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Cardlytics, ChartIQ, Chetu, Electronic IDentification, First Data, HackerOne, NuCypher, SoFi

Around the web

  • TechCrunch talks with HackerOne CEO Marten Mickos on bug bounties and the value of white hat hackers.
  • Cardlytics bolsters executive ranks with pair of new group presidents: Randall Beard and Shannon Johnson.
  • American Banker interviews new SoFi CEO Anthony Neto.
  • First Data goes live with Clover Mini and Clover Flex smart terminals in Germany and Austria.
  • Chetu earns Best Custom Business Software Developer Award from US Business News.
  • Ivan Nabalon, CEO and founder of Best of Show winning Electronic IDentification discusses the mainstream potential for cryptocurrencies.
  • ChartIQ teams up with Trading Central to provide technical insights and tool to traders.
  • Blockchain healthcare platform HealthCombix partners with NuCypher.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Kore.ai Unveils New Bots Platform, Adds Former Citi CIO as Strategic Advisor

Kore.ai Unveils New Bots Platform, Adds Former Citi CIO as Strategic Advisor
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Kore

Developer of conversational AI solutions for the enterprise, Kore.ai has launched the latest version of its Bots Platform. Version 6.1 not only enables enterprises to build high-value chatbot solutions faster and more efficiently, but also gives companies the ability to better understand how their chatbots are performing compared to user expectations.

The new platform includes usability enhancements such as a collapsible sidebar navigation and revised layouts. Version 6.1 also provides better bot insights by analyzing how user utterances are processed by the platform’s natural language processing engine and graphically displays how these utterances are classified against various bot tasks. Additionally, the platform enables developers to combine individual bots into a multi-purpose, branded universal bot or VPA (virtual personal assistant) that can communicate with many bots on behalf of an individual. Other features include smart alerts, IVR voice support, new channels including telegram and live person, and a bot sharing facility across users of different domains.

“Our promise has always been to design an end-to-end platform, running in the cloud or on-prem, creating secure, smart, conversational and quick-to-market bots for enterprises,” Raj Koneru, CEO and founder of Kore.ai said in a statement. “We’ve bolstered our Kore Bots Platform with rich new capabilities for enterprises, and are also bringing in fresh thinking into how AI-powered conversational solutions could be engineered better for specific industries.

This “fresh thinking” comes in the form of Devendra Kumar Sharma, former CIO of Citigroup International, who has joined Kore.ai as a strategic advisor and will, in the words of Koneru, “advise us on how to create strategic digital value through great customer engagement.”

Sharma praised the company’s “powerful and unique combination” of growth potential and what he called “strategic relevance in an emerging technology space.” With almost three decades of experience in working with consumer banking technology platforms and operations capabilities, Sharma led initiatives on core operating platforms, digital transformation, and more while working at Citigroup International. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and an MBA in Information Systems and Finance from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, and founded in 2013, Kore.ai demonstrated its Bots Platform at FinovateFall 2016. With strategic partners ranging from Facebook to SAP to Cisco, Kore.ai has developed more than 150 pre-built bots that use machine learning, natural language processing, AI, and speech recognition to provide actionable, “human-like” communications to the interactions between businesses and their customers, employees, systems, and things.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CapitaWorld ME, Carta Worldwide, Google, Lendio, OPENTECH, Samsung, Sberbank, Unison, Yoyo

Around the web

  • Opentech ranked third in the Mastercard’s worldwide Directory of Digital Wallet providers. Come see Opentech’s live demo at FinovateEurope next week.
  • Yoyo named Best Mobile Payment Solution at MPE Awards. Come see Yoyo’s demo at FinovateEurope next week in London.
  • CapitaWorld launches smart loan disintermediation ecosystem for micro, small, and medium (MSM) enterprises.
  • Unison launches 5% down payment program in conjunction with an 80% LTV mortgage.
  • Sberbank adds Google Pay and Samsung Pay services for the customers using its business cards.
  • Railsbank partners with Carta Worldwide.
  • Lendio Franchise Announced in Clemson Region.

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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection to E-commerce Merchants

Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection to E-commerce Merchants
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Signifyd

Fraud prevention specialist Signifyd announced a strategic partnership with e-commerce website designer Corra that will bring guaranteed fraud prevention technology to Corra’s high-end enterprise retail customers.

“Corra embraces the same deep commitment to merchants that Signifyd does,” Lee Hadsock, head of partnerships for Signifyd, said. “We believe in doing what needs to be done to ensure that merchants are successful – and to provide fraud-protection services, technology and tools that mean they don’t have to be distracted by issues and operations that are outside the core of their businesses.”

The partnership, announced at the eTail West conference, will give Corra clients both full financial protection from fraud costs, as well as the technology merchants need to establish the legitimacy of customer orders within milliseconds. Corra is a digital agency that builds commerce experiences for fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands around the world. Signifyd’s partnership with the company is in some ways an extension of the relationship the company developed with Magento Commerce last fall.  The press release accompanying the announcement noted that both companies had been honored by Magento in 2016 – with Corra being named Magento Omnichannel Partner of the Year and Signifyd earning plaudits as Magento Best New Technology Partner of the Year.

Director of Global Strategic Alliances for Corra, Martina England praised Signifyd as an “enterprise-ready partner that can help us help our customers grow and succeed.” England referred specifically to the fraud fighter’s technology and domain expertise, as well as the firm’s sizable customer roster and history of success in supporting e-commerce. “We examined the full complement of guaranteed fraud protection players and found that Signifyd, far-and-away, met the needs of our clients,” England said.

Leveraging big data, machine learning, and human intelligence, Signifyd’s technology protects more than 5,000 online merchants and more than $37 billion worth of products against fraud. Available as an e-commerce platform plug-in as well as via an API, Signifyd automates back office operations including auto-fulfill and auto-cancel on orders, and makes it easy for merchants to get paid for chargebacks within 48 hours. Additionally, Signifyd offers a 100% financial guarantee in the event that an order approved by Signifyd’s technology proves ultimately to be fraudulent.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Signifyd demonstrated its Guaranteed Payments solution at FinovateSpring 2013. Earlier this month, the company’s co-founder and CEO, Rajesh Ramanand, was named to One World Identity’s Top 100 Influencer’s list (along with 19 other Finovate alums). Signifyd partnered with Authorize.Net to bring its fraud protection technology to that firm’s U.S.-based e-commerce merchants last summer, less than one month after being added to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list. The company has raised more than $89 million in total capital, including picking up $56 million in funding last year in a Series C round led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Capitalise, Dynamics, FICO, Infolio, Klarna, MasterCard, MaxMyInterest, Nopsec, Signifyd, TSYS, Worldline

On Finovate.com

  • Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection for E-Commerce Merchants.

Around the web

  • Estonian financial group LHV to leverage technology from FICO to fight money laundering.
  • Klarna announces double-digit sales growth thanks to more retailers using the company’s solutions.
  • CNBC quotes MaxMyInterest head of business development and partnerships Michael Halloran on cash strategies for investors during times of market volatility.
  • Dynamics unveils enhanced functionality for its connected Wallet Card. See its latest demo at FinovateEurope next week.
  • TSYS Extends Existing Agreement with Capital One UK.
  • Mastercard to use Facebook Messenger to help small businesses in Africa and Asia drive mobile and electronic payments acceptance.
  • Worldline teams with Total to launch TOTAL eWallet.
  • FutureTech Podcast hosts Capitalise CEO Shahar Rabin on using natural language to automate trading strategies.
  • NopSec Awarded Most Innovative Cybersecurity Company 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.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateMiddleEast Best of Show Winners Announced!

FinovateMiddleEast Best of Show Winners Announced!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: APPICS, Best of Show, Electronic IDentification, FinovateMiddleEast 2018, Ondot Systems

 

The votes have been counted and the winners of the first FinovateMiddleEast Best of Show competition have been selected.

Congratulations are due to all of the companies that presented their latest fintech innovations live on stage this week. From wealth management and lending to innovative approaches to making payments faster, more efficient, and more secure, what makes Finovate such a great opportunity for fintech professionals is the breadth and variety of technologies on display.

And while we love seeing which companies – new or old, local or global – are the ones that have developed solutions that capture the imagination of our knowledgeable fintech audience, we always maintain that the value of our Finovate demos lies in the diversity of approaches taken by different creative, insightful entrepreneurs and engineers solving real world problems for individuals, consumers, SMEs, corporations, and even governments all over the globe.

That said, there are always a handful of demos that stand out to our attendees – and these are the innovations we highlight with our Best of Show awards. So with no further ado, let’s take a look at the companies taking home Best of Show trophies for their demos this week at FinovateMiddleEast 2018 (in alphabetic order):

APPICS for its next-generation, rewards-based, social media app that enables people to connect with one another around the globe and leverages blockchain technology to turn social media “likes” into currency. Video.

Electronic IDentification for its VideoID solution which combines video streaming, advanced machine learning, and AI to remotely identify customers in seconds from any device and over any channel. Video.

 

 

Ondot Systems for its card control technology that empowers card holders to “remote control” their credit and debit cards from a smartphone app. Video.

Our first foray to the Middle East has been a huge success for us. We’ve both seen and learned a great deal about the kind of fintech innovations that are making it easier for those living in the MENA region to have safer, more transparent, and – hopefully – more prosperous financial lives.

We want to thank our sponsors and partners – especially the UAE Ministry of Finance, which was indispensable in helping make FinovateMiddleEast happen. We had a wonderful time bringing our fintech conference to Dubai for the first time and are looking forward to coming back soon. Remember to follow us on Twitter @Finovate, as well as here on the Finovate blog to keep up with the latest in fintech news from the Middle East and elsewhere around the world.

To see all of the demo videos from FinovateMiddleEast, visit our video archives.

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

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Welcome to Day Two of FinovateMiddleEast 2018

Welcome to Day Two of FinovateMiddleEast 2018
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateMiddleEast 2018

Pictured: Raja Al Mazrouei, Executive Vice President, Fintech Hive, Dubai International Financial Centre

Day One of FinovateMiddleEast is in the books – which means there is one more day of our fintech conference left to go. And while Day Two will also feature fintech insiders and thought leaders discussing issues like financial inclusion, artificial intelligence, the blockchain, and fintech regulation, the second day of FinovateMiddleEast will swap live demos with emerging and incumbent fintech players for an Accelerator Showcase.

Our special spotlight on regional accelerators and incubators will feature short, 3-minute pitches from some of MENA’s youngest and most ambitious fintech startups, and will reveal the important role incubators and accelerators play in encouraging and supporting fintech innovation. If you are interested in what the future of fintech in the Middle East and North Africa looks like, our accelerator showcase is virtually a front row seat.

Here’s a look at today’s agenda. For more details, visit our FinovateMiddleEast Day Two agenda page. And remember the Best of Show awards presentation will be held this afternoon.

8:00 – 9:00: Registration, Breakfast and Networking

9:00 – 9:05: Chairperson’s Opening Remarks

9:05 – 9:45: The Future of Financial Services – AI and the Use of Blockchain Globally

9:45 – 10:05: Update on Fintech Regulation

10:05 – 10:25: Fintech Unicorn Interview

10:25 – 11:20: Myth Versus Reality: Banks’ Perspectives

11:20 – 11:50: Morning Coffee and Networking

11:50 – 12:40: Panel Discussion: Financial Inclusion in the Middle East

12:40 – 13:00: Unicorn Interview

13:00 – 14:00: Lunch and Networking

14:00 – 14:20: Fintech Interview

14:20 – 15:10: Accelerator Showcase

15:10 – 15:20: Day One Revisit – What did the banks gain? What did the fintech gain? What do investors think?

15:20 – 15:30: Chairperson’s Closing Remarks and Summary

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Welcome to Day One of FinovateMiddleEast 2018

Welcome to Day One of FinovateMiddleEast 2018
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateMiddleEast 2018

FinovateMiddleEast has arrived in Dubai. Day One of our two-day fintech conference begins today, Monday, February 26. And after an afternoon and evening of practice runs and sound checks, our demoing companies are ready to introduce their latest fintech innovations to the world.

In addition to a slate of 14 fintech demos, Day One will also feature an interesting variety of keynote addresses and panel discussions from some of the region’s most engaged and knowledgable fintech business people, thought leaders, and investors. We’ve published an outline of today’s schedule below – including our dual track afternoon sessions on banking and payments on one side, and blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and AI on the other. So whether you like your fintech old school or new school, FinovateMiddleEast’s Afternoon Streams on Day One have you covered!

Tickets are still available. So if you’re in Dubai and interested in meeting some of the people who are helping build the future of fintech in MENA, FinovateMiddleEast on Monday and Tuesday is the place to be.

Here’s the schedule of events for today.

8:00  – 8:30: Registration, Breakfast and Networking

8:30 – 8:35: Chairperson’s Remarks

8:35  – 9:35: Demo Session 1 featuring

9:35 – 9:40: Panel discussion: Starter for one minute – What does a fintech want? What does a bank want? What does the investor think?

9:40 – 10:20: Keynote: What can digital bankers learn from the top innovators?

10:20 – 10:30: United Arab Emirates’ Ministry of Finance address and presentation on the fintech vision.

10:30 – 10:50: Embracing fintech innovation – past, present, and future

10:50 – 11:10: Bank CEO Panel: Driving innovation forward and the fintech global vision

11:10 – 11:40:  Morning Coffee Break and Networking

11:40 – 11:55: Introduction from the FinTech Hive at DIFC

11:55 -12:25:   Chatham House Rule Panel Discussion on Fintech regulation

12:25 – 13:15: Demo Session 2 featuring:

13:15 – 14:15: Lunch and Networking Speaker-hosted topic roundtables

Afternoon Streams: Banking and Payments / Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, and AI

14:15 – 15:00: Panel Discussions: How far can we go with big wallets? / Results of an Interbank Blockchain Pilot

15:00 – 15:20: Panel Discussions: What do we mean by innovation? / Blockchain Approaches – Beyond UAE

15:20 – 15:40: Address: Discussing the fintech strategies of Indian banks / What’s Happening Now and What’s Next for AI?

15:40 – 16:10: Afternoon Coffee Break and Networking

16:10 – 16:40: Big bank fireside chat

16:40 – 17:10: Demo Session 3 featuring

17:10 – 18:10: Networking Reception, Topic Led Roundtables, Best of Show Awards Ceremony

All demo videos will be available for free in a few weeks in our video archives.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook