Author: David Penn

Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, BBVA, Configo, Doxo, Fiserv, Meniga, Realty Mogul, VISA

On Finovate.com

  • Digital Experience Specialist Configo Launches Cloud Environment.

Around the web

  • Spanish bank IberCaja deploys digital banking technology from Meniga.
  • Fiserv to help prepare European banks for transition to real-time payments.
  • BBVA and Samsung partner to bring iris scanning technology to smartphones.
  • VISA announces bank partnerships in preparation for Visa B2B Connect commercial launch in 2018.
  • Everest Group names billpay service specialist doxo to list of Top 40 FinTech Trailblazers.
  • FST Media interviews Avoka Chief Experience Officer Derek Corcoran.
  • RealtyMogul wins Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year in the Consumer Services category.

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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Coinbase Custody Helps Institutional Investors Securely Store Digital Assets

Coinbase Custody Helps Institutional Investors Securely Store Digital Assets
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase

 

Who knows how much more appreciation in the price of bitcoin will be required to encourage notorious crypto-currency skeptic and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to endorse investing in digital assets. But when he does, a new company launched by Coinbase called Coinbase Custody will be there to make sure he does it the right way.

“By some estimates there is $10B of institutional money waiting on the sidelines to invest in digital currency today,” Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong wrote in a blog post this month. He highlighted the number of hedge funds that have been set up solely to trade and invest in bitcoin and other digital assets, as well as the growing number of family offices, sovereign wealth funds, and others examining ways to add digital currencies to their portfolios. He also noted that the primary obstacle to broader investment in these assets is the ability to store client’s digital assets safely.

With Coinbase Custody, Armstrong has set out to meet a set of factors – ranging from strict financial controls with audit trails to multi-user accounts and exceptional cyber and physical security – he believes FIs require in order to trust a digital asset custodian. He pointed out that because Coinbase “already store(s) billions of dollars worth of digital assets” for its customers – and currently serves “thousands of institutions” on its U.S. digital currency exchange, GDAX – Coinbase is an ideal partner for FIs looking to securely store digital assets. “Our goal with Coinbase Custody is to help dramatically accelerate the flow of institutional money into digital currencies over the coming years,” Armstrong wrote.

Institutions that sign up for Coinbase Custodian will get access to an early version of the solution to be released in 2018. The product is exclusively for institutional investors with a minimum of $10 million in deposits. Coinbase presently charges an initial set-up fee of $100,000 plus a fee of 10 basis points per month on assets stored.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Coinbase demonstrated its Instant Exchange platform at FinovateSpring 2014. In August, the company closed a $100 million Series D round led by IVP, which took Coinbase’s total funding to $217 million and a valuation of $1.6 billion. Named to KPMG/H2 Ventures Fintech 100 for 2017’s Leading 50, Coinbase introduced its Instant Purchases option in October, which enables users to buy digital assets directly using a U.S. bank account.

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ForwardLane Launches New AI APIs

ForwardLane Launches New AI APIs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ForwardLane

ForwardLane has introduced a pair of new artificial intelligence APIs that apply natural language processing and deep learning AI to help financial market professionals better manage research data as well as improve communication among advisors and end investors.

“The two APIs empower the world’s leading asset managers, wealth mangers, and insurers augment the capabilities of their star performers and bring a consistently high-quality, personalized experience to their clients,” ForwardLane CEO Nathan Stevenson said in a statement. “It ties humans with machines for exciting new solutions.”

ForwardLane CEO Nathan Stevenson demonstrating the company’s wealth management solution at FinovateSpring 2016.

The two API frameworks are Personalized Insights and Expert Conversation. Personalized Insights helps professionals working in advisory, sales, and distribution automate and augment the research and preparation process ahead of client meetings. The API leverages natural language processing to read client profile information and complies configurable human business data with commentary. This provides “high-touch customization” for all of an asset manager’s clients while giving professionals a prioritized client list, and guidance on which research content to share and why.

Expert Conversation is designed for institutional finance and enables on-demand access to company and market intelligence. Financial professionals and individual investors can use the technology to query the firm about how market-related issues and the company’s investment strategies can affect their portfolios.

Headquartered in New York City, ForwardLane demonstrated its cognitive productivity solution for wealth management at FinovateSpring 2016. The company’s technology combines “massively scalable” machine intelligence with institutional-grade risk analytics supported by more than 14 years of actionable investment insights derived from the company’s data aggregation platform. The result is a system for RIAs, IFAs, family offices, and other wealth managers that learns over time, providing the kind of “personalization at scale” that has enabled users to boost client loads up to 3x.

A graduate of the FinTech Innovation Lab’s mentoring program, ForwardLane has raised more than $1 million in funding, and includes Thomson Reuters among its investors. The company was founded in 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blend, Coinbase, Ellevest, Featurespace, ForwardLane, Kabbage, Overbond, PayPal, Unison, WealthForge

On Finovate.com

  • Coinbase Custody Helps Institutional Investors Securely Store Digital Assets
  • Kabbage Expands Small Business Funding with $200 Million Credit Facility.

Around the web

  • Overbond offers U.S. corporate issuers and institutional investors real-time access to its platform.
  • PayPal and Synchrony Financial expand strategic consumer credit relationship.
  • U.K.-based Featurespace to open office in Atlanta in November.
  • WealthForge Debuts Its First Regulation A Offering with New Investor Workflow
  • GoBankingRates features Blend, Unison, and Ellevest in its 10 Startups to Watch in 2018 list.

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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PayStand Scores $6 Million in Series A Funding

PayStand Scores $6 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, PayStand

In a round led by BlueRun Ventures and featuring participation from Cervin Ventures, Serra Ventures, TiE, and Capital for Founders, B2B payment platform PayStand has raised $6 million in Series A funding. The company says that it will use the additional capital to build up its account receivable systems and help launch its new free accounts payable product line – which entered beta availability today. The Series A takes PayStand’s total capital to more than $8 million.

With self-driving cars and rockets to Mars on one side of the balance and paper checks and spreadsheets on the other, PayStand founder and CEO Jeremy Almond made clear which side of history his company was on. Pointing out that “most U.S business payments still run on manual, pre-internet systems,” Almond said, “PayStand takes the best of automation, customization, and blockchain technology to finally bring B2B payments into the Digital Age.”

PayStand CEO and founder Jeremy Almond during his FinDEVr presentation, Comparing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Payment Types.

BlueRun Ventures General Partner Jonathan Ebinger added that PayStand’s emphasis on back-office payments in the enterprise “melds seamlessly into our investment themes of digital transformation.” Saying “we see big things ahead for PayStand,” Ebinger added that PayStand represents many of the best practices and “key financial processes that are vital to our economy.”

PayStand also announced the beta availability of its new AP solution. The technology automates the accounts payable process, eliminating the need for paper checks while providing full data tracking throughout the entire cash cycle to maximize visibility and control. The early-access AP release is free to all beta participants.

Founded in 2013, PayStand leverages blockchain and SaaS technologies to provide a smart billing and B2B payment network based on digitization and automation. The company’s Payments-as-a-Service helps businesses lower time-to-cash, cut costs, and generate additional revenue. Headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, PayStand participated in our first developer’s conference, FinDEVr 2014 in Silicon Valley. At the event, Almond presented “Comparing the Strengths and Weaknesses of Different Payment Types,” as an introduction to his company’s multi-payment network technology.

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KPMG, H2 Ventures Unveil Fintech 100 for 2017

KPMG, H2 Ventures Unveil Fintech 100 for 2017
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AdviceRobo, AutoGravity, Coinbase, Kabbage, Kensho, Klarna, Kreditech, Lending Club, Leveris, Moneytree, Nubank, On Deck Capital, SecureKey, Sensibill, SoFi, Stash, ThetaRay, Token, Trusona, VATBox, Wave, Xero

It’s that time of the year once again: KPMG and H2 Ventures have teamed up to introduce their Leading Global Fintech Innovators roster, the Fintech 100 for 2017. The judges for this year’s Fintech 100 included more than 20 professionals from KPMG and other organizations with expertise in IT, data analytics, capital markets, financial services, and more.

This year 11 Finovate/FinDEVr alums made the Leading 50, with another 12 alums making the Emerging 50. New entrants to the KPMG/H2 Ventures roster include SoFi and Revolut among the Leading 50. All 12 the alums on the Emerging 50 are making their first appearance. See the full list.

Some of the highlights from the 2017 Fintech 100 include the observation that five of the roster’s top 10 companies are from China, as are the top three companies on the list: Ant Financial, ZhongAn, and Qudian (Qufenqi). The U.S. has a pair of companies in the top five: Oscar and Avant, and Europe and the U.K. each have one company in the top ten: Kreditech and Atom Bank, respectively.

Speaking of Asia, the Asia-Pacific region has 30 fintech companies in the top 100. The United States has 19 companies – the most from any single country – and the U.K. and EMEA areas have 41 companies in the list. The U.K. and EMEA region are also responsible for the highest number of companies on KPMG/H2 Ventures’ Emerging 50 list with 26.

With regard to sectors within fintech, the Fintech 100 breaks down as follows:

  • 32 lending companies
  • 21 payments companies
  • 14 transaction and capital markets companies
  • 12 insurance/insurtech companies
  • 7 wealth management/wealthtech companies
  • 6 cybersecurity/regtech companies
  • 4 blockchain/digital currency companies
  • 3 data and analytics companies

Alums from the Leading 50

Alums from the Emerging Stars

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Actiance, CREALOGIX, Econiq, PayStand, Ripple, Unison, Veridium

On Finovate.com

  • PayStand Scores in $6 Million Series A Funding
  • Actiance Acquired by K1 Capital Management

Around the web

  • American Express, Santander UK, and Ripple team up to support blockchain-enabled, cross-border, B2B payments.
  • Veridium announces partnership with Walla to pilot digital banking model in sub-Saharan Africa that uses biometrics for authentication.
  • Econiq wins Honorable Mention at annual BankNews Innovative Solutions Awards for its Conversation Hub.
  • Best of Show winner Unison unveils 2018 expansion plans.
  • CREALOGIX announces expansion into Asia-Pacific with new offices in Singapore.

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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EyeLock Partners with ViaTouch to Bring Iris Authentication to Smart Shelf Vending

EyeLock Partners with ViaTouch to Bring Iris Authentication to Smart Shelf Vending
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: EyeLock

Iris-based biometric authentication specialist EyeLock has signed an agreement with ViaTouch Media that will integrate EyeLock’s iris recognition technology within ViaTouch’s smart-shelf vending solution, Vicki.

Calling the new partnership a “major breakthrough,” EyeLock CEO Jim Demitrieus said the agreement was the culmination of years of working with leaders from a variety of industries to bring embedded security solutions to market. “This win is indicative of the many potential commercialized applications for iris authentication,” Demitrieus said. “The ViaTouch partnership underscores an innovative approach to protecting consumer identity and transaction security.”

EyeLock’s iris authentication will be deployed as part of the interface for Vicki (ViaTouch Intellishelf Cognitive Kinetic Interactions), a smart shelf vending machine with an AI-enabled shopping assistant. Formerly known as Lisa, Vicki engages consumers by authenticating them, learning their preferences, providing loyalty, rewards, and discounts, and using smart shelf technology to note what products shoppers are viewing as well as  which they are selecting and deselecting. The virtual clerk-powered machine communicates using directional speakers so that only the person standing in front of it can hear the conversation.

The company said EyeLock-enabled machines will be available early in the second quarter of 2018. ViaTouch Media CEO Tom Murn said the solution, which will be operated on First Data online payment networks, will “create the most secure AI iris authentication self-checkout payment solution in the world.”

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, Eyelock demonstrated its USB-powered Iris Identity Authenticator, myris, at FinovateFall 2014. A majority-owned subsidiary of Voxx International Corporation, the company announced a trio of new patents last month, affirming the company’s innovations in iris and facial imaging, biometric matching, and visual guidance in gaze alignment.

“We continue to achieve significant technical breakthroughs that have served as significant barriers to market-wide adoption of iris authentication technology,” EyeLock CTO Jeff Carter said. “With each successful patent, we are able to expand our IP to deliver the fastest, most cost-effective and easy-to-use solutions that our end users require.”

EyeLock has spent much of 2017 forging major partnerships that will bring its full suite of hardware and software access control solutions to customers throughout North America and around the world. In October, EyeLock teamed up with Australian security solutions vendor, CSD (Central Security Distribution), and in August, the company signed a licensing agreement that will enable the company to build iris authentication solutions for Qualcomm Technology’s Qualcomm Mobile Security platform. A May partnership with STANLEY Security, an integrated security solutions provider and division of Stanley Black & Decker, rounds out a busy year of partnerships for EyeLock.

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Rising in the East: Asian Fintech Startups Shine in Showcase

Rising in the East: Asian Fintech Startups Shine in Showcase
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateAsia 2017

Designed by Freepik

From lending and P2P payments to the blockchain and AI, fintech companies and entrepreneurs in Asia are innovating in every area of fintech. The unique cultures of the Far East – increasingly mobile-friendly, cash-agnostic, and with fewer legacy financial institution incumbents and more willing government support – create a set of opportunities for businesses and technologies that are unlike those anywhere else in the world.

So who are the companies taking advantage of this new landscape for fintech in Asia? This year at FinovateAsia we highlighted some of the rising fintech startups from the Asia-Pacific region in our Startup Showcase. Through the lens of some of the area’s most engaged incubators and accelerators, we got a glimpse of what the future holds for fintech in Asia. Below are the four incubators and accelerators that participated in our Showcase, along with their respective portfolio companies.

Cyberport

With more than 900 technology companies, Cyberport is a Hong Kong-based digital community. Cyberport’s emphasis on fintech, ecommerce, IoT/wearables, and Big Data/AI is designed to help transform Hong Kong into a Smart City. Initially conceived in 1999, Cyberport is owned and managed by the Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company, which is owned by the Hong Kong SAR Government.

Notable startups:

  • Galileo Platforms is an insurtech innovator founded in 2016 and headquartered in Hong Kong. The company leverages blockchain technology to connect all parties of the insurance agreement efficiently and in real-time. The company’s principals are co-founders Annette King, Jenny Sutton, and Mark Wales.
  • With more than $18 million in funding, InstaReM is a cross-border remittance and money transfer startup based in Australia. The company was founded in 2014 by Michael Bermingham (COO) and Prajit Nanu (CEO).
  • Kristal.AI is an asset management platform, based on artificial intelligence, that gives investors access to independent advisors and portfolio managers. Vivek Mohindra, Asheesh Chanda, and Vineeth Narasimhan founded the company in 2016. Kristal.AI has offices in Hong Kong, India, and in Singapore.
  • Starling Trust Sciences provides financial services companies with a predictive behavioral analytics engine that leverages “augmented management intelligence” to help managers mitigate risk. Starling was founded in 2014 by Stephen Scott, Alif Saleh, Jeff Kupfer, and Erich Hoeffer.
  • Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Hong Kong, Valoot Technologies helps consumers save on foreign exchange costs when shopping with credit cards overseas. Ovidio (Ovi) Olea is founder and CEO.

FinTechBase

FinTechBase Taiwan has more than 180 partners, more than 25 training teams, and 55 experts providing startups, financial professionals, and students with the counseling, guidance, and networking they need in order to become successful in fintech. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, FinTechBase is a collaborative effort between industry, government, and research initially conceived in 2015.

Notable startups:

  • FundPark offers a P2B trade financing for SMEs. The match-making platform connects funding sources in the form of wealthy families, funds, and licensed lenders with businesses looking for working capital. Headquartered in Hong Kong, the company was founded by Anson Suen (CEO).
  • Quanffett Financial Technology Company is a robo advisor and trading platform for individuals and institutions. The platform uses financial engineering, algorithmic trading, and data science to help investors reach their goals with less risk and volatility. Chao-Yueh Liu is co-founder and general manager.
  • LnB, also known as Lend & Borrow, is the biggest P2P investment and lending platform in Taiwan. Founded in 2015 by Joanna Yang, LnB has acquired 26,000 members, and facilitated more than $120 million in loans within 18 months.
  • Leveraging gamification and competition to help users improve investment results, TOZZI’s platform enables new and inexperienced investors to develop a strategy and find top financial experts. Zac Yang is co-founder of the company.

SuperCharger

Founded by Janos Barberis, SuperCharger seeks to help develop the “next generation of change-makers” through a combination of better business sense and optimizing human capital. SuperCharger focuses on a wide variety of fintech categories and verticals – from payments to lending to insurtech – and has offices in both Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Notable startups:

  • Neat offers an alternative current account for underbanked startups and individuals in developing markets. Founded in 2015 by David Rosa (CEO) and Igor Wos, Neat also provides a free, prepaid Neat MasterCard. The Hong Kong based company is the recipient of the ICT Fintech award 2017.
  • KYC-Chain leverages distributed ledger technology to provide a digital identity platform that allows users to manage their digital identity securely, while enabling businesses and FIs to access customer data reliably and efficiently. Headquartered in Hong Kong, KYC-Chain was founded in 2013 by Edmund Lowell (CEO).

Chinaccelerator

Chinaccelerator has as its mandate helping startups succeed across borders – specifically the Chinese border. This means both helping companies around the world gain access to markets in China as well as enabling Chinese companies to better compete internationally. Chinaccelerator has accelerated 130 companies since inception, and includes early Paypal investor Peter Davison and 55tuan.com co-founder James Tan among its mentors.

Notable startups:

  • bitHolla develops cryptocurrecny financial tools to facilitate online trading, global money transfers and blockchain analysis. The company’s XRay Trade solution is a professional-grade trading station that enables access to some of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms in the world.
  • The CareVoice is the first, review-based social platform in China that helps consumers make more informed healthcare choices. The Shanghai-based company, founded in 2014 by Sebastien Gaudin, Neil Liang, and Jan Velich, includes AXA and Ping An among its customers.
  • With its pledge to help investors “outperform the property market with smart data,” Property Passbook’s data algorithms provide insights into 45 major real estate markets around the world. The company was founded in 2015 by Colin Bogar (CEO) and is headquartered in Shanghai, China.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Blackhawk Network, Boku, D3 Banking, FICO, Lighter Capital, Prosper, Quid, Thomson Reuters, TrueAccord

On Finovate.com

  • TrueAccord Lands $22 Million to Humanize Debt Collection
  • Rising in the East: Asian Fintech Startups Shine in Showcase
  • BOKU to Raise $60 Million Ahead of London IPO

Around the web

  • UBS Card Center leverages AI technology from FICO to lower fraud write-offs.
  • D3 Banking adds new payment options, flexible card controls to its digital banking platform.
  • Thomson Reuters introduces new set of MiFID II reference data capabilities available on its data and analytics platform, DataScope.
  • Prosper Reports Third Quarter Growth; Closes $1.5 Billion of Securitizations in 2017
  • AngelList picks Quid as a top machine learning company.
  • Lighter Capital partners with Intuit to launch $15M fund for QuickBooks developers.
  • Blackhawk Network Expands Partnership with eBay to Provide B2B Gift Card Solutions

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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Token Forges Strategic Partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee

Token Forges Strategic Partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Token, Yodlee

Token and Envestnet | Yodlee are combining their respective talents in PSD2-compliant payments and financial data aggregation to give banks in the EU a new, open-banking friendly, payments and data option. The partnership will leverage Token’s open banking operating system, TokenOS, which supports PSD2 compliant payments, including bill pay, e-commerce, B2B payments and money transfers, with Envestnet | Yodlee’s Financial Data Platform and Aggregation API. Via the API, banks will get access to the bank, card, investment, loan, reward and other financial account data required to support a variety of PFM, wealth, and debt management apps and services.

Making the case for the alliance, Token CEO and founder Steve Kirsch said, “When it comes to PSD2, developers are not going to support hundreds of unique bank APIs; they will only write to one common API, maybe two. This means that banks that create their own proprietary APIs risk not being able to deliver the variety of freedom that customers expect in the digital age.” Kirsch characterized the kind of open banking platform that banks should support as “easy, secure, interoperable, low cost and developer friendly.”

Envestnet | Yodlee SVP for EMEA and Australia Jason O’Shaughnessy underscored Kirsh’s observations on the importance of open banking. “Both Token and Envestnet | Yodlee believe that open data access is critical to enabling innovative tools that can help consumers improve their financial lives.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Token demonstrated its fully PSD2 compliant open banking solution at FinovateEurope 2017. The company also participated in our developer’s conference, presenting The Future of Payments Now at FinDEVr San Francisco 2015. Token was named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list in June, and began the year teaming up with information technology consulting and outsourcing company, VirtusaPolaris. Token has raised more than $18 million in funding, and includes EQT Ventures, Octopus Ventures, and OP Financial Group among its investors.

Acquired by Envestnet two years ago, Yodlee is a multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner headquartered in Redwood City, California. The company took home top honors more recently for its demo of Financial Health Check financial wellness technology at FinovateFall 2017. A partnership with Home Credit India to digitize loan processing and an integration with Fannie Mae’s Desktop Underwriter Validation Service are among the company’s top headlines since the conference.

Envestnet’s technology and services are used by 16 of the 20 largest U.S. banks, 39 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms, and more than 500 of the largest Registered Investment Advisors. With a market capitalization of $2 billion, Envestnet trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ENV.” The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, AutoGravity, BioCatch, Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, Envestnet, Meniga, Mortgage Harmony, NCR Corporation, PayPal, TIO Networks, Token, TransferTo, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

  • Token Forges Strategic Partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee.

Around the web

  • ACI Worldwide to provide “technology backbone” for real-time payments platform designed by Payments Network Malaysia.
  • NCR partners with Samsung to launch new all-in-one POS commerce station, NCR Silver Quantum.
  • Grab chooses TransferTo to deliver real-time digital payments to its drivers in Southeast Asia.
  • Meniga wins London Design Awards for brand design experience.
  • PayPal’s TIO Networks suspends operations to protect TIO’s customers.
  • Kinecta FCU to Offer Mortgage Harmony’s CU RateReset products.
  • App Informers lists Credit Karma and Credit Sesame in list of top 5 Identity Monitoring Apps for 2017.

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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