Author: David Penn

Growth, Wealth, Modernization Drive Fintech Innovation in the MENA Region

Growth, Wealth, Modernization Drive Fintech Innovation in the MENA Region
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateMiddleEast 2018


Designed by Freepik

The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region has experienced the highest rate of population growth of any region in the world over the past 100 years. Today, the countries of MENA boast more than 380 million people or 6% of the world’s population. And as leaders in the region respond to this population growth, developing a financial infrastructure capable of serving those who live in the Middle East and North Africa – from the underbanked to the ultra high net worth individual – is a massive challenge.

Much of what is driving change in the MENA region is taking place in partnership with some of the world’s biggest financial institutions. But as the foreword to EY’s World Islamic Banking Competitiveness Report 2016 cautions,

Participation banks are still attempting to transform their rather generalist business models to more direct integration with priority sectors of the Islamic economy. There is increasing pressure on these banks to demonstrate the purpose of existence – specifically their role in enabling important sectors such as transportation, retail, telecommunications, and SMEs to name a few – that have the greatest impact on the economy and on creating employment alternatives.

So how does financial technology make it possible for the people of the MENA countries to have the tools necessary to manage their finances efficiently and securely in the context of an emerging, increasingly mobile, increasingly social, and yet exceptionally diverse Islamic world? Fintech authority Chris Skinner observed last spring:

The net:net is that you have a rapidly growing economy, with a mix of young migrant workers who need remittance services; another group of professionals who expect mass affluent services; and a small group of High Net Worth and Ultra High Net Worth individuals who take exceptional service for granted.

An interesting place to be a bank.

Fintechs

Or a fintech? Looking at a map of the MENA region – which consists of more than 20 countries from Algeria to Yemen – the first observation to make is that a majority of MENA fintechs come from a handful of countries. According to a recent study by Wamda Research Lab (WRL) and Payfort and published in their Spring 2016 report, State of Fintech, three out of four fintech companies in the MENA are based in just four countries: UAE, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon. And four out of 12 countries host 73% of all MENA fintech startups. A second observation is that, as is the case with fintech in most areas of the world, payments and lending are the areas with the greatest number of fintechs in the Middle East and North Africa. Per Wamda, payments-based companies represent 84% of all MENA fintech startups.

Who are these companies? Among payments companies, Jordan’s MadfooatCom (founded in 2011), UAE’s Beam Wallet (founded in 2012), and PayMob and Fawry of Egypt (founded in 2015 and 2008, respectively) are some of the more notable fintechs in this space. MadfooatCom is a online real-time bill presentment and payment system. Beam Wallet is the leading mobile wallet in the UAE with more than 500,000 users. PayMob builds white label mobile wallet solutions for MNOs and FIs. And Fawry is an electronic payment network that provides billpay, mobile wallet, and other services.

Given Islamic sanctions against usury, or charging interest, there is ample space for companies specializing in Sharia-compliant lending practices. In the MENA region, this includes companies like Moneyfellows of Egypt (founded in 2014) , Zoomaal of Lebanon (founded in 2012), Jordan’s Liwwa (founded in 2013), and companies like YallaCompare (formerly Compareit4me) and Durise from the UAE (founded in 2011 and 2014, respectively). Moneyfellows is a social savings and lending service. Zoomaal is a crowdfunding platform. Liwwa caters to small business borrowers. YallaCompare is an insurance, credit card, personal loan comparison shopping site. Durise specializes in real estate crowdfunding.

It’s also worth pointing out that many companies headquartered outside the MENA region have nevertheless made major commitments to bringing fintech innovation to communities in the Middle East. Among Finovate alums recently making major MENA-related headlines are ACI Worldwide, Fidor Bank, NCR, NetGuardians and Thomson Reuters.

That said, behind every great fintech startup is not just a great idea, but also significant guidance and support. In the MENA region both accelerators and incubators as well as leadership from the public sector play major roles in helping area entrepreneurs turn their technologies into solutions that can be brought successfully to market.

The role of accelerators

With regard to accelerators, a recent look by Forbes shared 15 Middle East Accelerators to Watch, and a number of the organizations featured in the Forbes article have made significant recent commitments to supporting fintech innovation. Flat6Labs, founded in Egypt, partnered with Barclays to launch a fintech accelerator, 1864 Accelerator, in the fall of 2016. Last month, Jordan’s Oasis500 announced its latest round of investments including support for fintechs like Akaryana.com (global platform for marketing real estate properties), Amwal.com (comparison shopping for financial products), and DareebaTech (online tax return filing and payment facilitator). Lebanon’s Berytech includes interactive retail banking portal Bnooki.com, mobile payments solutions provider Via Mobile, and the Bank of Baghdad among its fintech alums.

But no discussion of the development of fintech in the MENA region is possible without a discussion of the sizable degree of support from the leaders of countries in the area. Last month the Bahrain Economic Development Board partnered with fintech accelerator FinTech Consortium to launch Bahrain FinTech Bay. The goal is to help support MENA-area fintechs and guide Bahrain toward becoming a regional fintech hub. In the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), which launched in 2015, will play a major role in helping build a 21st century financial services sector and, by extension, stimulate development of vibrant fintech innovation, as well. Back in October, ADGM announced a pair of new initiatives – launching the ADGM FinTech Innovation Centre and a partnership with Plug and Play – as part of its first FinTech Abu Dhabi Summit.

The blockchain

Sophisticated technologies such as bitcoin and blockchain are being studied by governments and central banks in the MENA region. This is particularly the case in the UAE, but is also true for institutions in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Bahrain. In a post called “GulfTech is the Next Big Thing,” Skinner underscored the area’s fascination with the blockchain in a subsection titled “Everything on a blockchain.” Skinner discusses how blockchain technology might be used to help turn the region into an international leader in Islamic finance:

IslamTech is an opportunity for the GCC, and one they need to grasp, You would think that the GCC countries would lead in Islamic Finance, but they don’t. Kuala Lumpur and London take those honors. However, as a FinTech opportunity, building their presence as an Islamic FinTech center, or IslamTech as I like to call it, makes sense. In particular, because Dubai wants to build everything on a blockchain, and transparency of products through a shared ledger service for Islamic investments makes absolute sense.

Skinner also links to an article from CoinDesk that discusses Dubai’s strategic partnership with IBM for a city-wide blockchain pilot project run by Dubai’s innovation arm, Smart Dubai.

Partnerships

Partnerships are also developing between MENA countries as well as within them. In December, the central bank of UAE announced a joint project with the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (Sama) to use blockchain technology to issue a digital currency that would be accepted for cross-border transactions between the UAE and KSA. Individual companies in the MENA region that are innovating with blockchain technology include firms like ArabianChain, a UAE-based startup founded in 2016 that is building a public blockchain for Islamic banking and government services-related apps.

There are many aspects of fintech in the MENA region that make it easy to be optimistic about the industry’s future. According to Wamda, MENA-area fintech startups have raised more than $100 million in the last 10 years. And the opportunity is clear: 86% of the adult population in the MENA is unbanked, and SME lending by regional banks is significantly below the average for middle income countries. Combine this with (1) the growing appetite for mobile-based solutions driven in part by the disproportionately large under 30-population, (2) the emergence of increasingly-diversified sources of wealth and investment, and (3) the clear commitment of leaders in the region to leverage fintech to help modernize their societies and provide better life outcomes for their citizens, and you have one of the world’s most worthwhile fintech industries to watch.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

figo Announces “License as a Service” PSD2 Solution, RegShield

figo Announces “License as a Service” PSD2 Solution, RegShield
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Figo

German banking service provider figo has joined the fight to ensure that fintechs and other third parties are able to make the most from the arrival of PSD2. The company announced its new “license as a service” solution – RegShield – which will enable figo to serve as a regulated partner for firms looking to offer or use payment initiation account information services (PSIP/AISP). This will allow figo’s partners to operate without having to apply for their own authorization.

Before the PSD2 deadline earlier this month, Cornelia Schwertner, Head of Governance, Risk & Compliance at figo warned, “Implementation of PSD2 is imminent and the license application period for companies is tight. So it is particularly alarming that many companies do not even know that they will soon be subject to authorization, let alone when. Importantly, Schwertner added, PSD2 implementation is a challenge for both fintech startups and more established players. For newer companies, the process of securing a BaFin permit can challenge the financial resources of smaller firms. Larger companies, on the other hand, typically find it difficult to integrate their own processes with a changing regulatory environment.

With RegShield, figo takes responsibility for “all relevant processes and licensing requirements,” giving third parties the ability to focus on developing their solutions rather than negotiating regulations. RegShield will provide for many of the authorization requirements including:

  • PSD2-compliant customer processes
  • Execution of internal audits to prepare for external examinations
  • Setup of governance and security policies
  • Management of security incidents
  • Regulatory and compliance expertise
  • Outsourcing controlling
  • Business continuity management

According to figo, more companies may be affected by the need to meet these requirements than they may think. In Germany, for example, companies looking to offer services this year are required to apply for authorization as PISP or AISP under the Payment Services Supervision Act (ZAG). And this is precisely where figo’s RegShield can play a role.

“Being touched by authorization requirements is a certainty for any company that can answer the following questions with a yes,” figo CEO André M. Bajorat said. “‘Do I offer an online service that includes display or processing of account information?’ ‘Does my service enable transactions on my customers’ bank accounts?’ or ‘Do I need online banking login information for my product or service?'” Find out more about figo’s RegShield offering.

At FinovateEurope 2013, figo demonstrated its consumer-facing, cloud-based service that aggregates bank and payment accounts, enriches transaction data and gives customers real-time notification. The company’s technology complements the rise of open banking by making it easier for third parties to access a wider range of financial resources, and enabling banks to develop value-added products and services for their customers.

“The tried and true technical solutions which we already offer, which preeminently match up to the basic idea of PSD2, show how forward-looking our approach is,” the company observes in an introductory note on its website.

Last August, the company announced that Consorsbank would leverage technology from figo to power its multibanking service. In June, figo was named to FinTechCity’s FinTech50 for 2017. Founded in 2012, the company has raised more than $12.5 million in funding and includes Berliner Volksbank Ventures and Deutsche Borse among its investors.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Payoneer Partners with Waze to Power Local Payments

Payoneer Partners with Waze to Power Local Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Payoneer

Ride-sharing services are one of many new industries that has benefitted from fintech innovation. Now Waze Carpool, a service from social navigation innovator Waze which makes it easier for users who share routes to commute together, announced that it will use technology from cross-border payments specialist, Payoneer, to power local payments.

“Creating a fully mobile and integrated payment solution that would meet their high expectations was a challenge we were excited to take on,” Payoneer CEO Scott Galit said. “Waze’s goal of helping connect local communities through a global network perfectly complements Payoneer’s mission to connect the digital economy. We look forward to helping Waze expand their carpool services to communities all over the world.”

Waze Carpool, currently available in Texas, California, and Israel, is a service offered by the social navigation innovator that differs from the “transport-for-hire” approach of services like Uber and Lyft. Instead, Waze Carpool enables its 90+ million users around the world to connect with each other to find drivers and riders with similar routes and destinations. Riders use the app to pay drivers a rate of up to the federal mileage rate to cover the costs of gas and wear on the vehicle. And Payoneer makes sure that drivers have a simple and flexible way to get paid via their mobile devices.

With the first foray into managing payments, Waze wanted to ensure that transactions would not only be seamless from a user’s perspective, but also would be as secure as possible. “When selecting a payment provider, we need to ensure that they are tightly regulated and that their data protection protocols meet Google’s strictest standards,” Head of Waze Carpool Josh Fried said. Note that Waze was acquired by Google in 2013. “At the same time, it’s crucial that the payment process is convenient, highly localized, and 100% mobile,” Fried added. Waze said in a statement that it plans on expanding the service to other areas “soon.”

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in New York, Payoneer demonstrated its Payoneer Commercial Account offering at FinovateAsia 2013. The company made headlines last month when it picked up an investment from China Broadband Capital that boosted its total funding to more than $270 million. Payoneer partnered with UPS Capital to power the firm’s cross-border, B2B payment service back in August and, also last summer, the company was named to the Inc. 5000 and ranked in CB Insights’ Fintech 250. Also featured on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 for 2017, Payoneer opened a new office in London last summer, saying it saw an “opportunity” in the Brexit decision.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateMiddleEast 2018

Designed by Freepik

As Finovate prepares for its first conference in the Middle East, here’s a round up of recent fintech news and need-to-knows from the MENA region. Learn more about how to join us in Dubai in February for FinovateMiddleEast.

  • Panamax Partners, a technology business vertical of Bankai Group, announces partnership with UAE-based fintech, Trriple.
  • Zawya looks at Oman’s leading Islamic bank, Bank Nizwa and its range of sharia-compliant, wholesale banking solutions.
  • Tahawul Tech profiles “The Dubai banking CEO with a PhD in AI,” Dr. Bernd van Linder.

MENA Fintech Fact Analysts expect the number of startups in the MENA region to grow to 250 by 2020, with half offering payment solutions and a third innovating in the money lending and capital raising space, per to Wamda.

  • U.A.E.’s NOW Money offers an explainer: UAE VAT for Fintech companies explained
  • Revenue management and customer experience specialist SunTech teams up with Abu Dhabi’s Al Hilal Bank.
  • BitOasis founder Ola Doudin talks crytocurrency regulation with Zawya.

Thought Leadership Bahrain aims to become gateway to FinTech in the Middle East according to Bahrain Economic Development Board managing director Simon Galpin in FinTech Global.

  • JadoPado and Esanjo founder Omar Kassim previews plans to launch cryptocurrency exchange, BitPado.
  • The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) to modernize online banking transactions with tokenization announcement.
  • Kuwait Times article on rental laws in Kuwait references Ajar Online as an example of an innovator in paying rent online.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Wipro Announces Minority Stake Investment in Harte Hanks

Wipro Announces Minority Stake Investment in Harte Hanks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: wipro

Wipro has announced that its subsidiary Wipro LLC will take a $9.9 million minority stake in omni-channel marketing services firm, Harte Hanks. The two companies will jointly market the Opera Solutions’ Signal Hub platform, which is an advanced big data analytics and machine learning solution that gives clients the ability to provide customers with a relevant, personalized UX.

“Wipro’s investment in Harte Hanks reflects our continued commitment to offer leading-edge marketing technology and digital services that cater to the needs of Chief Marketing Officers and marketing professionals, across industry segments,” said Srini Pallia, President of Wipro Limited’s Consumer Business Unit. “This investment strengthens our existing partnership with Harte Hanks and enables us to address a key industry challenge by offering ‘Marketing as a Service.'”

U.S.-based Harte Hanks is an omni-channel marketing solutions specialist with emphasis on customer interaction marketing. This includes consulting, data and analytics, digital and social media, contact center, and fulfillment. Through its partnership with Wipro, the company looks to combine Wipro’s experience and insight into industry verticals, cognitive and analytic capabilities, and process animation with its own customer insights and experience offerings, as well as its “MarTech” (marketing technology) strengths.

“Enterprises and brands are working hard to better understand their customer’s buying journey and are deploying technology to help them interact with customers in relevant, meaningful ways,” Harte Hanks CEO Karen Puckett explained. “However, CMOs are increasingly concerned about marketing’s capability to acquire and manage technology effectively, This partnership squarely addresses those opportunities.”

Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Wipro demonstrated its Wipro ngGenie myAdvisor intelligent banking assistant at FinovateEurope 2015. The technology uses natural language and gestures to communicate with bank customers, providing personalized financial assistance by studying and analyzing the user’s spending and savings patterns.

Wipro began 2018 earning recognition as a leader in cloud enablement services by Everest Group PEAK Matrix, and winning a business process services contract with Denmark’s Nilfisk. The company acquired InfoSERVER in January, as well, paying $8.7 million for the Brazil-based company. Back in December, Wipro teamed up with Headspin to provide next-generation mobility quality engineering and testing solutions for global mobile networks.

Abidali Neemuchwala is Wipro’s CEO.  With 2017 revenues of more than $8 billion, Wipro is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “WIT”. The company has a market capitalization of $23 billion.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Signicat Raises $2 Million to Build Out its Identity Assurance as a Service Technology

Signicat Raises $2 Million to Build Out its Identity Assurance as a Service Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Signicat

Identity Assurance as a Service (IDAaaS) innovator Signicat has won phase two funding from Horizon 2020, the EU framework program for research and innovation. The $2 million grant (€1.6 million) will enable Signicat to continue development of its IDAaaS toolbox for use in Europe, and takes the company’s total funding to $3.9 million.

“A single digital ID market in Europe is vital so that financial service providers can easily offer their services across borders without the customer struggling to assert their identity,” Signicat CEO Gunnar Nordseth said. “Cross-border digital ID creates greater choice and convenience for the customer, and opens up new markets for financial institutions.”

Left to right: Business Development Director Robert Kotlarz and Product Expert Kåre Indrøy demonstrating Signicat Assure and Signicat Sign at FinovateEurope 2017.

The development of a single digital identity market for Europe is a goal for the European Commission by the second half of the decade, Signicat noted in a statement. Signicat’s IDAaaS technology, the first of its kind, will give financial service providers and e-commerce businesses the ability to verify new customer identities using electronic identity (eID) and digital verification of paper ID. IDAaaS also enables them to take advantage of a range of other solutions such as facial recognition.

Signicat secured phase two funds following successful completion of phase one, which was begun and funded by Horizon 2020 at the end of 2016. During phase one, Signicat partnered with Innopay to analyze the demand and potential for digital onboarding solutions in a set of European countries. The study uncovered areas where current European eID protocols were lacking in terms of providing sufficient information for effective digital onboarding, and indicated how Signicat’s IDAaaS technology could fill those gaps.

“While eIDAS is a step in the right direction, it does not yet go far enough,” Nordseth said. “Our vision is to integrate eIDs across Europe, making on-boarding customers simple for financial institutions and their customers, while still meeting KYC regulations.”

Founded in 2007, Signicat demonstrated its Signicat Assure and Signicat Sign identity verification solutions at FinovateEurope 2017. The company, which is based in Trondheim, Norway, earned a spot in the European Fintech 100 last September, and launched its mobile authentication solution, MobileID, last year in May. Also that month, the company partnered with Rabobank to launch a Digital Identity Service Provider (DISP) to provide a variety of online login, identity, and signature solutions. Check out our profile of Signicant from last spring: Signicat Delivers On Demand Digital ID Verification.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

AutoGravity Tops $2 Billion in Financing Requested Milestone

AutoGravity Tops $2 Billion in Financing Requested Milestone
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AutoGravity

Mobile auto shopping and financing startup AutoGravity announced a new milestone this week: the Irvine, California-based company surpassed $2 billion in financing requested via its platform.

“With more than $2 billion in finance amount requested in 2017, AutoGravity is at the forefront of digitizing the car-buying and financing experience,” Andy Hinrichs, AutoGravity CEO, said (pictured). “AutoGravity technology makes it possible for car buyers to access any showroom right from their smartphone, take control with personalized payments on any car in minutes – close the deal – and drive off the lot with confidence.”

AutoGravity’s milestone comes less than six months after the company announced topping more than $1 billion in financing requested via its platform. To date, more than 1.3 million Americans have used the AutoGravity platform to shop, buy, and finance a vehicle.

Available as an iOS app, an Android app, or online, AutoGravity enables car buyers and leasees to browse through thousands of cars for sale at participating dealerships. Users then receive as many as four targeted offers based on their preferences. Personalized financing offers from the same lenders used by the dealer ensure that auto buyers get a monthly payment that works for them. Once the financing is done – a process that often takes only minutes – the buyer can have the car delivered to them, or pick the vehicle up from the dealership.

Founded in 2015, AutoGravity demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2016, earning a Best of Show award. Recently profiled in both Auto Finance Excellence and Forbes, AutoGravity hired a new Chief Technology Officer, Sheng Wang, back in December, and won a spot on the KPMG H2 Ventures Fintech 100 for 2017 in November – the same month the company topped one million users of its app.

AutoGravity forged a number of major partnerships in 2017, including agreements with Global Lending Services and Hyundai Capital America. The company has raised $80 million in funding and includes VW Credit, Daimler Financial Services, and DA Investments Co. among its investors.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Geezeo Powers PFM Platform for F&M Bank of Virginia

Geezeo Powers PFM Platform for F&M Bank of Virginia
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Geezeo

F&M Bank of Virginia, a community bank with $700 million in assets, has introduced its new, personal finance management solution, Squirrel. The solution will be powered by Geezeo’s engagement banking platform, which gives FIs the ability to deliver highly relevant content to their customers. At the same time, the solution gives consumers the ability to use digital tools to help make informed decisions about their financial lives.

“We knew we wanted to enhance our digital prowess and offer customers a solution to help them manage their financial well-being,” F&M Bank CEO Dean Withers said. “We are excited to launch Squirrel and look forward to leveraging digital and data to foster long-lasting relationships and mutually rewarding customer relationships.”

Serving the Shenandoah Valley with 13 full-service branches and more than 160 full and part-time employees, F&M Bank named its PFM solution “Squirrel” in harmony with its “long-standing tree logo.” The company noted in a statement that it hopes that Geezeo’s PFM solution will enable its customers to ‘stow away’ savings (the way squirrels notoriously stow away tree nuts) by helping them keep a sharper eye on their spending.

Platforms like Squirrel enable community banks to better compete with larger financial institutions. By enhancing customer engagement and offering unique services, community banks with robust digital platforms can also serve as a convenient hub for syncing financial information between a home bank and other accounts. Geezeo’s platform also provides banks with analytics based on their aggregated transactional and behavioral data, giving bank marketing teams the ability to offer more informed and targeted products and services to customers.

Geezeo demonstrated its TruBusiness white-label, BFM platform at FinovateFall 2014. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts, Geezeo teamed up wth fellow Finovate alum, Digital Onboarding last fall, and last August introduced its new suite of UI/UX personalization and customization tools, Responsive Tiles. The company unveiled its new digital reputation management solution back in May – the same month Geezeo was named a finalist in NAFCU’s 2017 Innovation Awards. Geezeo includes TheStreet.com among its investors. Peter Glyman (President) and Shawn Ward (CEO) are co-founders.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Tradeshift Launches Innovation Lab to Bring the Blockchain to Business Commerce

Tradeshift Launches Innovation Lab to Bring the Blockchain to Business Commerce
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Tradeshift

Business commerce platform Tradeshift announced today the launch of Tradeshift Frontiers, an innovation lab and incubator designed to apply emerging technologies like AI, distributed ledgers, and IoT to business networks, supply chains, and global trade.

“Our goal is simple and singular: To significantly impact B2B commerce and global supply chains in the next 5 years,” co-founder and GM of Tradeshift Frontiers Gert Sylvest said. “We will leverage emerging technologies to make trade more inclusive, empowering, transparent, and sustainable.”

Applying blockchain technology to areas such as supply chain financing, asset liquidity, and supply chain transparency is one of the initial goals of Tradeshift Frontiers. In a press release, the company pointed to its role as a governing member with the Hyperledger project as one reason the company will be positioned to make an “industry-wide impact” in terms of using blockchains to “enable new incentive models to collaborate across the supply chain.”

“With Frontiers, we aim to bring the transformative potential of these technologies into the hands of every company in the network, no matter their size or role in the supply chain,” Sylvest said. “That also means unlocking greater value for small businesses and their trading partners to bring them on equal footing with the companies that dominate the digital supply chains today.”

Tradeshift connects more than 1.5 million companies in 190 countries, and is on course to process more than $500 billion in transaction value. The company offers procure-to-pay, supplier engagement, and financial services to its business clients, and enables its partners to leverage its business commerce platform to build their own apps. The company is off to a strong start in 2018: partnering with fellow Finovate alum Infosys to digitize its clients’ supply chain management and, a few weeks later, announcing that Panalpina World Transport had selected Tradeshift to support the digitization of its procure-to-pay process.

Founded in 2010, San Francisco-based Tradeshift demoed Tradeshift Instant Payments at FinovateEurope 2012. With more than $182 million in funding, Tradeshift includes Wipro Ventures, Data Collective, Scentan Ventures, Kite Ventures, ru-Net Holdings, Notion Capital, and PayPal among its investors.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

RealtyMogul Introduces New President Aaron Halfacre

RealtyMogul Introduces New President Aaron Halfacre
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Realty Mogul

Real estate crowdfunding platform RealtyMogul announced today that REIT industry veteran Aaron Halfacre will be joining the company as its new president.

“I am excited to be joining the RealtyMogul team and contributing to the continued success of the company,” Halfacre said in a statement. “I believe my industry experience across real estate and alternatives, debt and equity, retail and institutional, and both public and private markets is a perfect fit for RealtyMogul’s future.”

Halfacre (pictured) brings more than 20 years of experience in the investing industry, including five years as Head of Real Estate New Product Development for BlackRock. In addition to serving as Head of Strategic Relations for Cole Capital and Strategic Consultant for GMH Associates, Halfacre was also President and Chief Investment Officer for Campus Crest, a publicly traded student housing REIT. He has a BA in Accounting from College of Santa Fe and earned an MBA in Finance from the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.

Jilliene Helman, RealtyMogul CEO praised Halfacre’s “stellar track record and incredible depth of real estate and capital market industry expertise.” She said, “We will benefit immensely from his experience, and I am confident he will help the company reach new heights.” Halfacre will be tasked with developing company-wide strategy as well as leveraging his direct oversight of capital markets activity to grow assets under management and real estate transaction volume.

The addition of Halfacre is only the latest executive acquisition from the Beverly Hills, California-based real estate crowdfunding platform. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had appointed interim Chief Investment Officer Chris Fraley as its official CIO. In December, the company hired Soley Van Lokeren as its first “Chief People Officer.”

RealtyMogul launched its second REIT offering, MogulREIT II, last fall, giving investors the opportunity to finance multi-family apartment communities. The company’s first REIT offering, MogulREIT I, was introduced in 2016. More than $318 million has been invested across RealtyMogul’s platform, with $70 million paid out to RealtyMogul’s 150,000 members. More than $1 billion in property value has been financed since inception.

Ranked in the top 100 of real estate crowdfunding sites by The Real Estate Crowdfunding Review, and the winner of a Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year last November, RealtyMogul demonstrated its crowdfunding for real estate platform at FinovateSpring 2014. The company was founded in 2012 and has raised more than $46 million in funding. Sorenson Capital and Canaan Partners are among RealtyMogul’s investors.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

SoFi’s Choice: Former Twitter COO Anthony Noto to Take Helm as New CEO

SoFi’s Choice: Former Twitter COO Anthony Noto to Take Helm as New CEO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: SoFi

Social media’s loss is social finance’s big gain.

Anthony Noto, Chief Operating Officer for Twitter, has stepped down from his post at the popular social networking platform. His destination? A job as Chief Executive Officer for lending and wealth management firm, SoFi.

“We are simply thrilled to have found someone of Anthony’s expertise and knowledge to lead SoFi,” interim CEO Tom Hutton said. “The SoFi board unanimously agrees that Anthony’s deep understanding of technology, consumer, and financial businesses make him the perfect fit to be SoFi’s CEO. We could not be more excited to have someone of his caliber on board.”

Starting at Twitter as Chief Financial Officer in 2014, Noto became COO in November 2016. He came to Twitter after serving as co-head of global TMT investment banking at Goldman Sachs, a firm he first joined in 1999, and where he was named partner in 2004. From 2008 to 2010, Noto was CFO for the National Football League. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, and has an MBA from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

“SoFi has a significant opportunity to build on its leadership position in student and personal loans to revolutionize consumer finance and build a next-generation financial services company,” Noto said. “I’m excited to work with Tom and the rest of the SoFi team.”

Noto arrives at a time of significant growth for the company. SoFi announced surpassing $25 billion in funded loans last year, and reported that its student loan refinancing products helped borrowers save more than $2 billion. The company said that in the fourth quarter of 2017 it completed its largest securitizations to date for refinanced student loans ($776 million) and personal loans ($727 million). For the full year, SoFi’s total issuance was $6.9 billion.

A financing innovator, SoFi provides student loan refinancing, as well as mortgages and personal loans. The company looks beyond credit scores and debt-to-income ratios to consider factors such as cashflow, career, and education to offer lower rates to borrowers it refers to as “members.” This underscores another unique aspect of SoFi, which stands for Social Finance. The company proactively supports timely repayment of loans through a variety of tools, resources, and strategies including temporarily suspending payments in the event of job loss.

SoFi also provides wealth management and insurance services. The company’s investment management solution combines both live advisors and automated rebalancing to give investors comprehensive and low-cost advice and support for their long-term financial planning. The company has also partnered with Protective Life to offer life insurance coverage up to $1 million for online applicants and up to $5 million for applicants with a medical exam.

SoFi partnered with Quovo to present How Quovo and SoFi Perfected Bank Authentication at FinDEVr New York 2017, winning the Favorite FinDEVr Alum award. The company has raised more than $2 billion in funding, and has an estimated valuation of $4 billion based on its most recent $500 million fundraising in February 2017.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Zopa Boosts Executive Ranks with Trio of C-Level Hires

Zopa Boosts Executive Ranks with Trio of C-Level Hires
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Zopa

En route to its launch of a next generation challenger bank later this year, P2P lender Zopa is staffing up its executive ranks. The company announced today that it was appointing a new Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer, and Chief Customer Officer.

At the post of CFO, Steve Hulme comes to Zopa after a stint as CFO for Tandem Money. Previous to Tandem Money, Hulme was CFO for PayPal’s global credit business and CFO for Capital One’s business in the U.K. and Canada. He was educated at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, earning a BA in Geography.

Taking the helm as Chief Risk Officer is Phillip Dransfield. With a Masters in Commerce, Finance, and Banking from UNSW and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics from the University of Wollongong, Dransfield held executive positions at TSB Bank and Lloyds Banking Group.

Zopa also hired a new Chief Customer Officer to start the new year. Clare Gambardella previously worked in a number of capacities for Virgin Active, and ended her tenure at the health club, gym, and spa network as Chief Marketing Officer. Also a veteran of the Boston Consulting Group, Gambardella was educated at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a degree in English Literature.

“We’re delighted to have three high profile and exceptionally talented people join the business,” Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana said. “Our people are our biggest competitive advantage and these additions further strengthen our position.”

Along with the $41 million (£32 million) investment the company picked up last summer, the new hires are part of the preparation for the launch of Zopa Bank. The challenger bank will offer customers personal and auto loans, flat rate credit cards, and savings and investment products. “We’re uniquely placed to make the next generation bank a leader in consumer finance combining our customer-centric culture, agile technology and data excellence with a track record of loan origination and risk management,” Janardana wrote in a blog post last fall. “No other provider has this combination of attributes.”

Zopa made its Finovate debut in 2008. The London-based company* was founded in 2005 and has raised more than $112 million in funding. Named to the European Fintech 100 and ranked in the Inc. 5000, Zopa partnered with fellow Finovate alum Aire last fall and opened a new development center in Barcelona, Spain last summer.

*Updated to reflect Zopa headquarters in London.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook