Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Behalf, Blockchain, CapitaWorld ME, Dorsum, Equifax, Personetics, TransferWise, Wealth Migrate

On Finovate.com

  • TransferWise to Power Payroll for Crowdfunding Platform Seedrs.
  • Behalf Lands Equity Funding and Secures $150 Million in Debt Financing.
  • Blockchain Appoints New President and Chief Legal Officer.

Around the web

  • Challenger bank Tandem to leverage Personetics Cognitive Banking Brain to provide personalized financial guidance for customers.
  • Equifax introduces commercial credit data sharing solution for SME lenders.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems partners with EDC Corporation to improve security for credit card transactions.

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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Xero Announces Partnership with IT Management Solutions Provider Kaseya

Xero Announces Partnership with IT Management Solutions Provider Kaseya
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Xero

Cloud-based accounting platform for small businesses Xero has signed a deal with IT management solutions provider, Kaseya, that will provide direct integration between BMS by Kaseya and Xero. Kaseya’s business management solution supports the back-end operations of managed service providers (MSPs) and mid-market enterprises (MME); the integration will ensure synchronized financial and operational data between both Xero and Kaseya’s platform.

General Manager for Cloud Computing at Kaseya Jim Lippie said, “As the industry’s only next generation PSA (professional services automation), BMS empowers our customers to be more profitable and operationally efficient through easy to access data capture and analysis.” He added that it was critical for PSAs to stay innovative in order to avoid what he called “the problems inherent in first-generation PSA solutions,” and pointed to Kaseya’s new relationship with Xero.

“Our latest partnership with Xero provides an added layer of financial intelligence that can be leveraged within BMS’ single pane of glass,” Lippie said. “This powerful integration saves our MSPs countless hours of admin and back office time.” Specifically, MSPs will be able to see client information such as invoice history, payment status, credit status, and products and services purchased in one location. Accounting departments benefit from seamless synchronization of operational data such as tickets and time tracking.

This week’s partnership news is accompanied by an announcement that Xero has opened its “newest and largest global office” in Wellington, New Zealand. The new HQ now supports more than 650 Xero staffers who were previously working in three separate locations around the city.

Founded in 2006, Xero demonstrated the Business Identification feature of its cloud-based accounting platform at FinovateSpring 2011. The company also participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014, presenting “Building an API-Driven Ecosystem for Small Business.”

The partnership with Kaseya is Xero’s second of 2018. The company announced an agreement with DBS (the Development Bank of Singapore) in January, which will give the bank’s small business customers the ability to have their transactions automatically imported to their Xero accounts. Last fall, Xero was named to KPMG/H2 Ventures’ Fintech 100, and teamed up with Worldpay to simplify invoicing for small businesses.

With more than 1 million subscribers, Xero’s technology integrates with more than 600 business apps. The publicly-traded company has a market capitalization of $3.4 billion ($4.7 billion NZD) and is currently trading on both the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges under the ticker symbol “XRO.”  Xero is planning to transition to a sole listing on the Australian exchange later this year.

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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

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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.

  • Cryptocurrency exchange BitOasis to add Ripple to its platform.
  • Gulf Business interviews Dubai Chamber president and CEO Hamad Buamim on the importance of developing a culture of innovation.
  • Saudi Arabia’s mada payment system chooses FIME to develop bespoke cloud-based testing platform and certification process.

MENA Fintech Fact UAE startups received 70% of all investment amounts in 2017, with Saudi Arabia seeing the biggest pick up in investments, a gain of 4%. The two most active VC firms in 2017 were 500 Startups and Middle East Venture Partners.

  • Dubai-based IBC Group-owned Acumen Advertising to now accept payment in digital currency.
  • Tehran Stock Exchange to reduce settlement cycle to T+2 from three business days.
  • Bahrain Fintech Bay (BFB) and Fintech Consortium (FTC) team up with U.S.-based fintech RobustWealth to provide robo advisory services.

Thought Leadership – Challenges, Successes and Opportunities of Financial Inclusion in MENA – A Webinar on Fintech in the Middle East with Hans Henrik Christensen (CEO, Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority) and Devie Mohan (CEO, Burnmark). Thursday, February 8.

  • Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) reports value of financial transactions via Fawry electronic payment network in Egypt grew to EGP 25 billion ($1.4 billion USD) in 2017.
  • Luxury retailer Al Tayer Insignia announces acceptance of mobile payment platform, Alipay, at select outlets.
  • Forbes presents its list of the Top 100 Startups in the Arab World for 2017.

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Personetics Powers New Intelligent Financial Assistant Didi from Israel Discount Bank

Personetics Powers New Intelligent Financial Assistant Didi from Israel Discount Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Personetics

Israel Discount Bank is jumping on the intelligent assistant bandwagon. This week, the bank launched its new digital financial assistant, Didi –  a solution powered by Personetics‘ Cognitive Banking Brain.

“Utilizing advanced AI capabilities to provide personalized and proactive guidance is quickly becoming a must-have for financial institutions that want to increase customer engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty,” Personetics co-founder and CEO David Sosna said. “While digital banking assistants are gaining popularity, the ones that will stand out will be those that deliver smart interactions based on true understanding of each customer’s financial behavior and needs.”

Digital banking assistants may offer efficient customer service, but the key to higher engagement lies in the ability to offer insight and guidance that is both personalized and proactive. Didi, which will be available for free to all Discount Bank customers via the mobile app, leverages Personetics’ Cognitive Banking Brain, which analyzes specific transactions to spot spending issues or opportunities for greater saving.

“Proactively providing insight and advice, Didi is always one step ahead, empowering customers to be more efficient and effective in managing their money,” Head of Technologies & Operations division at Discount Bank, Levi Halevi, said. In addition to delivering AI-powered personalized insights and guidance, the technology also features “hundreds of pre-built insights” which, in addition to being market-tested by banks around the world, will help Discount Bank roll out the technology that much more quickly.

At FinovateFall 2016, CEO Sosna and Solution Architect Sudharshan Krishnan demonstrated Personetics Anywhere, a chatbot solution for financial services providers that works across most common messaging platforms. Last fall the company launched a new service, Personetics Act, designed to give banks a new way to help customers repay their student loans ahead of schedule. Also last fall, Royal Bank Canada announced that it was leveraging the company’s technology to deliver two new services – AI-powered finance guidance and an automated savings program – through its mobile app.

Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Personetics was featured in our look at fintech innovation in Israel. The company has raised $18 million in funding and includes Lightspeed Venture Partners, Viola Ventures and Sequoia Capital among its investors.

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Fenergo Forges Strategic Partnership with Arachnys

Fenergo Forges Strategic Partnership with Arachnys
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fenergo

Client lifecycle management technology specialist Fenergo announced a strategic partnership with another regtech innovator, Arachnys, this week. The agreement will integrate Arachnys’ due diligence research and management solution within Fenergo’s end-to-end on boarding workflow. The combination of Arachnys search, audit trail, and reporting functionality with Fenergo’s regulatory rules and risk scoring engine will give FIs a comprehensive KYC and CLM solution. Investment, corporate, and private banks alike will benefit from an integrated audit trail, automated periodic review, and accelerated on boarding and compliance for businesses.

Fenergo CEO Marc Murphy called partnerships like this “key” to his company’s ability to expand and better serve its clients. Adding that “our community is seeking to deploy new technologies for automating regulatory compliance,” Murphy praised Arachnys’s use of robotics for investigative processes in particular as “cutting edge.”

“We are delighted to partner with Fenergo to improve the visibility and tracking of due diligence processes across the customer risk lifecycle, eliminating the need to work across multiple systems,” said Arachnys president Ed Sander. “The harmony between Fenergo’s rules engine and Arachnys’s search, audit trail and reporting techniques will convert compliance into an accelerator for top line revenue.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Fenergo demonstrated its Deal Manager client on boarding and account opening solution at FinovateEurope 2012. More recently, the company partnered with BNP Paribas to deploy its Client Lifecycle Management solution, and teamed up with compliance and risk management solutions provider Opus to improve integration of risk relevant data in the KYC process. In December, the company was recognized by Chartis RiskTech100 as the only CLM provider in the top 40 of the world’s major risk and compliance technology companies.

Fenergo has raised more than $80 million in funding. The company includes Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, Aquiline Capital Partners, Insight Venture Partners, and Investec among its investors.

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Finect Raises Capital as BME Takes Minority Stake

Finect Raises Capital as BME Takes Minority Stake
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finect, Funding

Spanish fintech Finect announced today that Bolsas y Mercados Españoles (BME) has acquired a 9.7% stake in the company in a transaction valued at “lower than one million euros.”

Finect provides a social trading community for investors to communicate with and learn from financial professionals. Nearly two million users take advantage of Finect’s solutions, including its financial aggregator for portfolio tracking, interactive “pildoras” to respond to specific user questions, and a knowledgeable community of both private and professional investors.

“The transaction is a milestone in our mission to assist investors in their financial decisions,” Finect CEO Antonio Botas said. “BME will bring us experience and leadership, both financial and technological, which are of great help towards our goal of improving the finances of investors.”

BME CEO Javier Hernani added, “This investment and the alliance with Finect is another step forward in the company’s diversification policy and growth of the business’ technological area. The objective of BME is to offer its clients and investors a wide range of services and products so that they can compete in the complex financial and digital environment in which they operate.”

BME’s investment comes amid a major digitalization initiative for the Spanish stock market operator, which is moving to increase the role of technological consultancy services among its offerings. BME integrated its IT, consulting, regulation, and innovation value-added services into BME Inntech last year, as part of this process.

With origins as a social network for financial advisors, asset managers, and their clients, Finect was launched by founder Nicolas Oriol in Spain in 2008 and in the U.S. in 2012. The company demonstrated its Global Library and Pros on Products solutions at FinovateFall 2013. Global Library facilitates content sharing between financial advisors and their customers. Pros on Products makes it easy for financial professionals to track investment products on the Finect platform, along with peer opinions, real time news, and social media. We highlighted the company in our RegTech Reality Check back in October 2016.

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Meniga to Support Digital Transformation for French Banking Group, BPCE

Meniga to Support Digital Transformation for French Banking Group, BPCE
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Meniga

With FinovateEurope right around the corner, our antennae is tuned to any and all news from what Americans call “The Old Country.” The latest dispatch features European digital banking solutions provider – and multiple Finovate Best of Show winner – Meniga and its newly announced partnership with France’s second largest banking group, BPCE.

“Meniga is excited to be partnering with BPCE,” Meniga co-founder and CEO Georg Ludviksson said. “We have been very impressed by BPCE’s commitment to digital innovation and their clear focus on their mobile banking application through a simple and personal user experience.”

Per the agreement, BPCE will deploy Meniga’s technology across its Banques Populaires and Caisses d’Epargne in France. The first phase of the rollout will feature Meniga’s Financial Activity Feed, a real-time spending overview with personalized, data-driven alerts and insights for customers. The partnership comes as the EU Payment Services Directive (PSD2) compels new relationships between banking customers, financial services providers, and third party fintechs.

“As we enter into an era of open banking, we look forward to working closely with Meniga to transform our digital customer experience,” said Francois Perol, BPCE CEO. “Meniga’s data-driven digital banking solutions will help accelerate our digital transformation journey and help us adapt to the ever-evolving needs of our customers.”

Winner of Best App and Best Web Solution at the Icelandic Web Awards for 2017 earlier this month, Meniga was named one of five Reyjavik startups to watch by Wired in December and announced a new deployment of its technology at Spanish bank IberCaja in November. Meniga has raised nearly $23 million in funding, most recently picking up an $8 million investment in April. The company has offices in London, Reykjavik, Stockholm, and Warsaw, and serves more than fifty million digital banking users in 20 countries.

Meniga’s most recent Finovate appearance was at FinovateEurope last February. Ludviksson and Chief Product Owner Finnur Magnusson demonstrated Personal Finance Challenges, a new UX and API designed to help users take short-term actions that can improve their financial fitness. The solution leverages goal-making, community reinforcement, and “nudges” to help users accept and meet challenges that will encourage better financial habits. Challenges won a finalist spot at the FStech Awards earlier this month.

Be sure to check out Meniga’s latest solution when the company returns to FinovateEurope next month in March.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Actiance, Finect, Handle Financial, LendUp, Meniga, Neustar, OurCrowd, Tinkoff Credit Systems, Tuition.io

On Finovate.com

  • Tuition.io to Power Student Loan Repayment Benefit for Estée Lauder Employees.
  • Check out sneak peeks from next month’s FinovateEurope presenting companies:
  • Meniga to Support Digital Transformation for French Banking Group, BPCE. See Meniga at FinovateEurope 2018 in March.
  • Handle Financial’s Prism Mobile App Reaches $1 Billion in Bills Paid.
  • Finect Raises Capital as BME Takes Minority Stake.

Around the web

  • Actiance forges partnership with Relativity to bring seamless data delivery to eDiscovery platform.
  • Neustar unveils multi-factor authentication risk assessment tool to help enterprises mitigate fraud risk.
  • Tinkoff Bank and AHML to launch joint venture to offer mortgage loans via new electronic platform.
  • Y Combinator interviews Jake Rosenberg, cofounder and CTO of LendUp.
  • VentureBeat highlights OurCrowd, which has raised $650 million for 145 startups and plans to top $1 billion in 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.

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nCino Reels in Investment from Salesforce Ventures

nCino Reels in Investment from Salesforce Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, nCino

The amount of the funding was undisclosed. But cloud-based banking innovator nCino has just picked up a fresh infusion of capital courtesy of a round led by Salesforce Ventures. The investment adds to the company’s known total capital of more than $81 million, which includes a $17 million private equity round back in August.

“From day one, our vision has been to be the worldwide leader in cloud banking,” nCino CEO Pierre Naude said. “We are successfully executing on that vision and empowering financial institutions around the globe to grow their business and better serve their customers. Our strong alignment with Salesforce has been a key factor in our growth and success.”

nCino will use the funds to help drive its global expansion, as well as speed innovation on its Bank Operating System technology. The solution is built on the Salesforce platform and is integrated with Salesforce Financial Services Cloud. nCino has been a Salesforce partner since it was founded in 2012.

SVP and GM of Financial Services for Salesforce, Rohit Mahna highlighted the long-term relationship between the two companies. “nCino extends the power of the Salesforce platform, enabling banks to get closer to their customers than ever before,” Mahna said. “The investment from Salesforce Ventures is the latest evolution in our strong partnership, and we’re thrilled to help fuel nCino’s global growth and innovation.”

The company’s Bank Operating System integrates with core banking and transactional systems. The technology combines CRM, deposit account opening, loan origination, workflow, enterprise content management, digital engagement, and real-time reporting to enable financial institutions to provide the kind of personalized, streamlined experience customers and bank employees alike have come to expect. nCino notes that on average its client institutions have experienced:

  • 17% reduction in operating costs
  • 19% increase in loan volume
  • 22% increase in staff efficiency
  • 34% decrease in loan closing time
  • 54% reduction in policy exceptions

nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, the company began the year with a major new partnership with Navy Federal Credit Union, the largest credit union in the world with more than $87 billion in assets, more than seven million members, and 300 branches. 2017 was a big year for nCino, with deployments of its Bank Operating System announced with CFCU Community Credit Union in December, Iberiabank in November, and Pacific Western Bank in August – to name just a few recent wins. The cumulative result was that nCino ended the year with 10 of the 30 largest U.S. banks by asset size as customers and 180 financial clients around the world.

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London-based Lender EZBOB Raises $21 Million in New Funding

London-based Lender EZBOB Raises $21 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EZBOB, Funding

Small business online lender EZBOB has raised $21 million in new funding (£15 million) courtesy of an investment from Moscow-based PE firm Da Vinci Capital Management. The funding puts the company’s total capital at more than $146 million (£103 million).

Founded in 2011, EZBOB demonstrated its lending platform at FinovateEurope 2014. The company provides small and medium-sized businesses with up to £120,000 in financing in minutes. There are no pre-payment penalties, and borrowers are offered a flexible repayment schedule of up to 24 months and an APR as low as 18%.

What will EZBOB do with the additional financing? Some clues hinted at in a Forbes interview with EZBOB co-founder and CEO Tomer Guriel from last summer suggest that new products (“such as a consumer lending platform and a mortgage platform”) may be in the offering. The idea is to model any new lending product after the company’s current SME lending platform.

So it was no surprise that when asked by interviewer Omri Barzilay what EZBOB’s advantage is in the SME lending space, Guriel answered “technology” and discussed the company’s commitment to improving the customer experience. But he segued quickly to the “fin” part of “fintech,” adding that:

“Our advantage is that we are solely focused on digital lending solutions. We live and breathe the lending space. Lending is at the heart of the bank’s business and our experience in lending has given us phenomenal insight into what works for a customer and from a lender perspective.”

So far, so good. EZBOB ended 2017 winning “Best Technology Initiative” from the Financial Innovation Awards. In November, Yorkshire Bank said that it would deploy technology from EZBOB to speed the loan application process from two weeks to less than 24 hours. Back in August, the company announced that it would extend its contract with AU10TIX for ID authentication and automating customer onboarding. The Royal Bank of Scotland has also used EZBOB’s technology to launch its automated lending platform, Esme.

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BlueVine Boosts Invoice Factoring Credit Line to $5 Million

BlueVine Boosts Invoice Factoring Credit Line to $5 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BlueVine

Small business lender BlueVine announced today that it would double the size of its invoice factoring solution and increase the limit for its business line of credit, Flex Credit, by more than 30%.

“In just four years, we’ve dramatically increased our invoice factoring credit line to $5 million, and our business line of credit to $200,000,” Eyal Lifshitz, BlueVine CEO and founder, said. “We continue to be fully committed to providing business owners with robust financing options to help them thrive.”

BlueVine provides two avenues for small businesses looking for funding. With Flex Credit, SMEs can get approved for a line of credit product in 24 hours. With the click of a button, borrowers are able to withdraw funds whenever they need them, with available credit replenished as the funds are repaid. No maintenance fees or prepayment penalties are charged, and interest rates as low as 4.8% are available.

Designed to help free up cash flow, BlueVine’s invoice factoring product differs from traditional factoring solutions by giving businesses flexibility in choosing which invoices they want to fund rather than having to fund all of them. Bluevine also distributes rebates on the same day instead of once a month, and syncs with accounting platforms instead of requiring mailed or faxed original invoices. Businesses can also use BlueVine’s invoice factoring without fear of being locked in to a long-term contract or having to pay sizable termination fees. BlueVine offers flat 85% to 90% advance rates, free ACH transfer, and $15 per wire.

BlueVine’s news comes just a few days after announcing its new Chief Financial Officer. After joining BlueVine as Vice President of Finance and Capital Markets in 2016 – and being named to the Women in Fintech Powerlist last November – Ana Sirbu (pictured) has been appointed CFO. Sirbu has a degree from Harvard University, a background in investment banking, and was a technology investor at both Silver Lake Partners and Google Capital before her tenure at BlueVine.

“Ana has played a critical role in BlueVine’s growth and success,” Lifshitz said. “She has done an incredible job spearheading our capital markets strategy, building out our finance and analytics functions, and strengthening our position in the online business lending market.”

BlueVine demonstrated its small business lending platform at FinovateFall 2014. The company was featured by Entrepreneur magazine earlier this month, in a look at the top 360 best entrepreneurial companies in the U.S. Last fall, BlueVine was awarded Best Business Finance Provider, North America, at the Trade Finance Global awards. BlueVine reeled in $130 million in debt financing back in October – its second in 2017. This gave the firm overall financing of $273 million, of which $68 million is equity funding.

In addition to its Redwood City, California headquarters, BlueVine has offices in New Orleans and Tel Aviv, Israel. The company also today announced a new office in Jersey City, New Jersey, which it believes will help grow its customer base on the east coast of the U.S.

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French PFM Innovator Linxo Partners with Raisin

French PFM Innovator Linxo Partners with Raisin
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: linxo

A Franco-German alliance has formed with Linxo and Raisin teaming up to target the European savings sector, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (sister publication of Finovate).

Linxo, a smart financial assistant from France, and Berlin-based financial marketplace Raisin said via their collaboration 1.6 million Linxo users will get access to a choice of savings accounts across the continent.

Bruno Van Haetsdaele, co-founder of Linxo, said with the “impetus of the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), we will now be able to create a harmonised approach in Europe” and the partnership “reflects our desire to create an open European ecosystem of financial services directly accessible from Linxo whatever the European country you live in”.

Tamaz Georgadze, founder of Raisin, said with Linxo, a French citizen can open a term savings account in Austria, Portugal or the Czech Republic “while benefiting” from the respective national deposit guarantee scheme in all EU countries that covers invested capital of up to €100,000 per customer and per bank.

Established in 2013, Raisin said it works with more than 40 banks and financial institutions. To date, more than 100,000 European customers have invested over €5 billion via its platform. It said it operates country-specific platforms in Germany, France, Spain and Austria, as well as its European platform.

Linxo is available on mobile devices and the internet. The start-up was launched in 2010 by Van Haetsdaele, an engineer at Stanford Research Institute and former CTO and co-founder of Wimba, a start-up devoted to on-line education, and Hugues Pisapia (formerly of Wimba and the initiator of the Linxo project). Based in Aix-en-Provence, Linxo demonstrated its PFM platform at FinovateEurope 2011. The company has raised more than $26 million in funding (€23.2 million) and includes Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa and MAIF among its investors.

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