Author: David Penn

Best of Show Winner 10x Banking Teams Up with Mortgage Origination Platform Mast

Best of Show Winner 10x Banking Teams Up with Mortgage Origination Platform Mast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 10x Banking, Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news

The partnership between core banking platform, 10x Banking, and mortgage origination platform, Mast, will enable real-time connectivity between the two systems. This connectivity will be a boon for lenders, who will benefit from streamlined data exchange. It will also deliver the kind of real-time mortgage servicing that eliminates the need for – and potential complications of – manual data entry between multiple systems.

“This partnership represents a key milestone in how we support the transformation of the UK mortgage and building societies market,” 10x VP and Global Head of GTM and Partnerships Frederico Venturer said. “This integration will enable customer-facing innovation that rethinks the mortgage lifecycle using cloud-native tools, unlocking new growth opportunities for our clients.”

The collaboration comes with an API integration guide on 10x Docs. The guide gives mortgage lenders in the UK a fast and straightforward integration path. The guide includes a number of different integration scenarios that are particularly germane to UK’s mortgage market. These scenarios include product creation and account onboarding.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with 10x and provide seamless integration for UK mortgage institutions,” Mast CEO Joy Abisaab said. “Together, we empower UK lenders to unlock new levels of operational efficiency and enable the delivery of exceptional customer experiences.”

London-based Mast offers cloud-native mortgage technology infrastructure that enables lenders to boost capacity, lower costs, and enhance operational controls. The company has helped clients reach more than 20% increases in conversion from Decision in Principal (DIP) to completion. Mast’s technology has also facilitated a more than 70% increase in lending for its customers – without adding operational capacity.

Founded in 2016, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut last year at FinovateEurope. In its live demo, the company demonstrated its 10x SuperCore Cards solution. This innovation enables banks to leverage the 10x Bank Manager interface to build a card proposition in minutes.

10x Banking’s partnership news comes shortly after the company announced a collaboration with B2B lend tech company Trade Ledger. A real-time API connection between Trade Ledger’s data platform and 10x Banking’s SuperCore platform will allow banks and alternative lenders bring complex working capital solutions to market quickly. These solutions include invoice, receivables, and supply chain finance products.

10x Banking also teamed up with compliant open banking API technology provider Ozone API late last year. The integration will enable banks to combine real-time banking capabilities with a solution that helps them take advantage of open banking. Ozone API co-founder and CEO Huw Davies praised the way the partnership will “make it easier for banks to reduce complexity in their tech stack, allowing banks to comply with any global open banking standards, so they can focus on accelerating growth and value creation.”

10x Banking has raised more than $252 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company’s investors include BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase.

Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.

Photo by Alexander Isreb

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Credit Reference Agency AperiData Teams Up with OneID

Credit Reference Agency AperiData Teams Up with OneID
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • U.K.-based digital identity provider OneID has forged a partnership with credit reference agency AperiData.
  • The collaboration combines OneID’s customer authentication capabilities with AperiData’s financial and risk insights to enhance decision-making for lenders.
  • Paula Sussex joined OneID as CEO in April of last year.

The new partnership between digital identity provider OneID and credit reference agency AperiData will empower lenders and other financial institutions to make instant credit decisions that are responsible and ethical.

“A partnership with AperiData is a natural fit for OneID,” company Chief Product Officer Stuart Kempster said. “Bringing the power of bank-verified digital identity together with AI-powered real time credit analysis gives our joint customers a better way to support their customers with their credit decision-making.”

Individuals use OneID by selecting the identity verification option during the online onboarding or signup process. With the individual’s consent, OneID contacts the individual’s bank and verifies their credentials. Upon successful verification, OneID securely confirms the individual’s identity to the online provider within seconds.

Both OneID and AperiData share the goal of blending identity verification with risk insights available via open banking in order to offer better and broader financial opportunities for customers. Notably, the combination of OneID’s customer authentication capabilities and AperiData’s financial and risk insights offers benefits beyond income verification. The partnership will also support use cases ranging from automated direct debit set-up and reinstatement to enhanced employee screening processes.

A U.K.-based FCA authorized credit agency and open banking provider, AperiData leverages insights from financial data and the power of open banking to enhance credit scoring and decision-making. Founded in 2020, the company has partnered with many of the largest banks in the U.K. AperiData most recently announced collaborations and partnerships with Salford Credit Union, financial inclusion software platform Inbest, and payment and retail services company PayPoint. Stephen Ashworth is CEO.

OneID covers 50 million adults in the U.K., is connected with 29 banks, and leverages 37 data sources to provide identity verification in less than 12 seconds. Founded in 2018, OneID raised $1.27 million (£1 million) in funding last fall in a round led by ACF Investors. Paula Sussex, who joined the company as CEO in April 2023, called the investment “a vote of confidence in (its) efforts to make digital identification accessible and available to more U.K. citizens.”

Photo by Porapak Apichodilok

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Finovate Global Kazakhstan: Solva Secures Investment, Kaspi to List in the U.S.

Finovate Global Kazakhstan: Solva Secures Investment, Kaspi to List in the U.S.
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

An earlier version misidentified a funding source as Zhang Capital Partners.

Some of the more interesting stories in international fintech this week come from the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. Solva, a Kazakhstani fintech that provides working capital solutions, has secured an investment of $20 million. The funds will help Solva grow from a microfinancier into a SME-based bank. The transition is expected to be completed this year. The investment came courtesy of the Sawiris family of the Egyptian Orascom Group and Zoser Capital Partners (ZCP).

Solva co-founder Boris Batine said that the capital will help drive the company’s “regional strategy and expansion plans.” Batine added that the transition from a nonbanking financial institution to a fully-licensed bank will be that much easier with “a well-known and respected international investor” such as Zoser Capital Partners (ZCP) at Solva’s side.

Founded in 2017, Solva is the first neobank for both MSMEs and consumers in Central Asia. The firm offers revolving credit lines up to $20,000; installment loans up to $30,000 with terms ranging from one to five years; and short-term working capital solutions up to $5,000 for as many as 120 days.

Solva has issued microloans worth 66 billion KZT ($145 million) to more than 50,000 small business owners throughout Kazakhstan. The company notes that 70% of the loans in its portfolio – more than $85 million – go to female-led businesses. Solva is also a supporter of the UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative. The initiative establishes principles involving human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption principles.

Financial literacy is also a priority for the company. Solva has endorsed the Kazakhstan government’s Program for Improving Financial Literacy for 2020-2024 initiative. Approximately 7,000 Kazakhstanis have participated in the Solva’s financial literacy programs over the past two years.

In other Kazazkstan-based fintech news, Kaspi.kz is on track to become the first company from the Republic of Kazakhstan to list in the U.S. A major Kazakhstani fintech, Kaspi.kz offers a payments platform that enables consumers to make payments to merchants and service providers, as well as P2P fund transfers.

The company also has a marketplace platform that connects on- and offline merchants with consumers, and a fintech platform that offers BNPL services. Kaspi.kz is the parent company of the Kasp.kz Super App, which has become among the most widely recognized financial services app in Kazakhstan. Kaspi.kz reports 13.5 million average monthly users on the app, with 65% of them using the app on a daily basis.

That said, Kaspi.kz has objectives beyond both its native Kazakhstan and Ukraine and Azerbaijan, where the company also does business. The firm’s prospectus mentions a goal of growing to 100 million users. And Kaspi.kz co-founder and CEO Mikheil Lomtadze underscored the ability of the listing to stimulate growth.

“Being in Kazakhstan, we do not have the luxury of being able to rely on private equity or venture capital money to fund our operations and growth,” Lomtadze said. “With a U.S. listing, we believe Kaspi.kz can reach a larger and more diverse investor base that will enjoy being with us for the next stage of our development.”

Kaspi.kz is already listed on the London Stock Exchange, where the company boasts a valuation of almost $19 billion.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • ADIB-Egypt launched its personalized, Sharia-compliant private banking services for high net worth clients.
  • The Jerusalem Post looked at how fintechs are partnering with Israel’s National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing (NBCTF) to deal with terrorism financing.
  • Saudi Arabian fintech savings platform Hakbah teamed up with MENA-based open banking platform Tarabut.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Photo by RDNE Stock project

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Aqua Security Earns Unicorn Status on $60 Million Funding Extension

Aqua Security Earns Unicorn Status on $60 Million Funding Extension
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Aqua Security raised $60 million in follow-on Series E funding this week. The investment boosts the cloud native security platform’s valuation to more than $1 billion.
  • New investor Evolution Equity Partners led the round. Existing investors Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and StepStone Group also participated.
  • Founded in 2015, Aqua Security maintains headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and in Israel.

With six of the top 10 banks in North America and six of the top seven banks in Canada among its customers, Aqua Security is the latest security platform to earn unicorn status.

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts – and in Israel – cloud native security platform Aqua Security has raised $60 million in funding. The round was an extension of the firm’s Series E round, and was led by new investor Evolution Equity Partners. Featuring participation from existing investors Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and StepStone Group, the investment boosts the Aqua Security’s valuation above $1 billion.

“Eight years ago, we envisioned a world where all new applications would be built native to the cloud,” company co-founder and CEO Dror Davidoff said. “Today we are here in a market we pioneered with a purpose-built solution to protect customers’ digital transformations. We are excited for what’s ahead in 2024.”

Founded in 2015, Aqua Security specializes in protecting cloud native environments. The company helps its customers build applications that are, according to Aqua Security co-founder and CTO Amir Jerbi, “secure by design, enabling agile DevOps and hybrid cloud deployment with no compromise on security or compliance.” The company’s Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) secures the full application lifecycle from threat prevention, detection, and response. This includes software supply chain security to ensure code integrity and minimize vectors for attack. The platform also provides vulnerability scanning and management, as well as comprehensive, advanced malware detection.

This week’s investment takes the company’s total equity funding to $325 million. The investment also follows a year in which Aqua Security enjoyed a 65% increase in new business and a sizable amount of industry recognition. Among these accolades were inclusion in the Fortune Cyber 60 and listing among the Gartner Market Guide for Cloud-Native.

Photo by Igor Faoro

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How Will Geopolitical Headwinds Impact Fintech and Financial Services in 2024?

How Will Geopolitical Headwinds Impact Fintech and Financial Services in 2024?
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2024, Speaker series

A U.S. presidential election with, essentially, two incumbent presidents running for office. An enduring war in Europe. A new war in the Middle East. Economic instability in China. Lingering inflationary concerns and interest rate volatility.

If the fintech industry doesn’t have enough to worry about on its own, the prospect of macro economic and geopolitical events making life even tougher for fintech and financial services is enough to make your head spin. What do banks and fintechs need to know – and do – to effectively manage the current and evolving geopolitical landscape?

To help you better brace yourself for what 2024 may bring, we’ve invited Manas Chawla, founder and CEO of London Politica, to deliver both a fireside chat and keynote address at FinovateEurope in February.

With the theme, The Global Economic & Geopolitical Outlook – What Are the Five Things You Need to Know? Chawla will outline how many of our current challenges could impact the financial services industry – and what they can do about it.

We last caught up with Manas Chawla at FinovateSpring last May. Then, concerns over the impact of inflation and rising interest rates on banks were top of mind. In this interview from the conference, Chawla explained the challenges and opportunities for banks and fintechs that lie not just in black swan events, but in what he called “grey rhino” risks, as well.

Join us next month at FinovateEurope to hear more from Chawla and other insightful analysts and observers on the impact of macro trends on fintech and financial services.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Chase Inks Partnership with Debt Advice Charity StepChange

Chase Inks Partnership with Debt Advice Charity StepChange
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Chase has teamed up with debt advice charity StepChange to build upon its own efforts to support customers with financial challenges.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, Chase specialists will direct vulnerable customers to StepChange for free, confidential, expert advice on debt management.
  • Founded in 1993, StepChange is headquartered in Leeds, U.K.

A new partnership between Chase and U.K.-based debt advice charity StepChange extends the bank’s efforts to provide support to vulnerable customers via expert advice on debt management. Chase specialists will now direct these customers to StepChange and its online debt advice solution. The online tool is free to use and will help Chase customers build a budget that will ensure they can meet their financial obligations. Customers can communicate with the tool via webchat or phone and all information submitted to StepChange is confidential.

In a statement, StepChange Director of Client Experience Gail Arkle underscored why it was important for people with debt challenges to seek assistance rather than try to solve the problem on their own. “92% of the people we support say that they wish they’d asked for help earlier,” Arkle said, “and so working closely with leading organizations like Chase is crucial to ensure we can identify and support customers who are experiencing financial difficulty as early as possible.”

According to a 2023 FCA Financial Lives survey, there has been a significant increase in what it calls “low financial resilience” as the cost of living increased in 2023. The survey defines low financial resilience as adults who are experiencing financial challenges due to missed payments on “domestic bills or credit commitments in three or more of the previous six months.” Overall, the survey revealed that just under 13 million in the U.K. have low financial resilience.

Today’s partnership is another example of how banks are becoming more involved in the financial wellness of their customers. “Financial stress can take a toll on a person’s mental wellbeing and be a constant source of worry,” Chase Managing Director for Customer Operations Alexa Collinson said. “Finding free, impartial and trusted advice is often the first step to putting an action in place.”

The largest provider of free debt advice in the U.K., StepChange works with thousands of individuals across the country. A registered charity, the company helps people improve their financial wellness via better budgeting, responsible credit card use, and debt management and repayment. StepChange has partnered with more than 900 banks, retailers, local authorities, and charities since its inception in 1993.

Photo by Pixabay

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NayaOne, NF Innova, and Realmonitor Return to the Stage for FinovateEurope 2024

NayaOne, NF Innova, and Realmonitor Return to the Stage for FinovateEurope 2024
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, NayaOne, NF Innova, Realmonitor

Last month we shared the first round of demoing companies to make the cut for FinovateEurope 2024. With more names on the way, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the return of three alums who will be demoing their latest fintech innovation live on stage in London next month, February 27 through 28.

NayaOne: De-risking innovation and facilitating partnership

A Best of Show winner in its Finovate debut last year, NayaOne offers a secure, Digital Sandbox platform that helps banks take the risk out of innovation, integration, and partnership with fintechs. Financial institutions that use NayaOne’s platform gain single key access to more than 350 technology vendors that are being actively evaluated by banks, a secure digital sandbox environment, and 2.5 billion datapoints to facilitate evaluation and review of new technologies.

NayaOne’s approach allows banks to review multiple vendors simultaneously. This helps them get their proofs-of-concept evaluated faster, saving money and enabling greater integration-induced productivity with less integration-related risk.

Among the company’s 2023 highlights are, most recently, its partnership with market network and technology platform PIMFA WealthTech. NayaOne teamed up with the wealthtech firm last fall to launch a client analytics and profiling tech sprint. The goal of the tech sprint was to explore how both unstructured and alternative data can be used to identity and attract potential clients. The sprint also examined use cases for Large Language Models in client services, such as pre-onboarding.

The partnership with PIMFA WealthTech came in the wake of NayaOne’s securing of the Digital Sandbox tender from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority last spring. “We believe that our digital transformation platform and synthetic data technology will be a valuable asset in helping fintech companies to develop and test their products more efficiently and effectively,” NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said in April.

NayaOne also announced partnerships with Polymesh, which joined the NayaOne Network in June, and Valley National Bank, which deployed its innovation platform – powered by NayaOne – the previous month.

Headquartered in London, U.K., NayaOne was founded in 2019. The company most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in September.

NF Innova: Turning traditional banks into digital leaders

NF Innova will return to the Finovate stage next month at FinovateEurope. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2014 and was among the alums to participate in FinovateAfrica in Cape Town four years later.

Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and founded in 2013, NF Innova demoed its FINTENSE Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showcased its innovation in personal finance management, leveraging augmented reality to enable users to see their financial data in a new and compelling way.

In addition to augmented reality, NF Innova’s platform automates a number of customer-facing processes, including account opening. In fact, the company notes that firms using its technology have experienced efficiency increases of up to 600% thanks to NF Innova’s end-to-end automation of five different customer facing digital products.

NF Innova also reports faster times in completing common operations ranging from credit card payments to loans, as well as greater efficiency when it comes to orchestrating digital channels and segmentation.

In August NF Innova announced a strategic partnership with proactive mobile app security company Promon. The alliance will integrate Promon’s state-of-the-art technology to enhance security for users of NF Innova’s FINTENSE platform. NF Innova began 2023 by opening the doors on new offices in Čačak, Serbia, to provide workspace closer to where a number of its employees live.

Realmonitor: Helping banks benefit more from the homebuying process

Proptech innovator Realmonitor offers a white-label, AI-based property discovery mobile app designed to help address the specific pain points of the real estate market in Central and Eastern Europe. Because of the way properties are advertised in the CEE, there are often pricing discrepancies and anomalies that make the market difficult for home sellers, buyers, and agents.

Realmonitor brings transparency to this market by featuring all listings on the market from listing sites, Facebook Marketplace, Groups, and other locations. The technology conducts price comparisons to identify the best offers for advertised properties and provides instant push notifications when opportunities arise.

At the same time, banks benefit from an increase in mortgage loan prospects, as well as early engagement insofar as prospective homebuyers have used their whitelabled solution to find their properties.

Last month, Realmonitor won recognition as the most promising Hungarian fintech and Beyond Banking Solution of the Year at the FinTechShow. In its seventh year in 2023, the FinTechshow is an opportunity for fintechs and financial services companies in the country to “discuss digital transformation directions, new technological trends, and challenges.

“The application helps users throughout the entire journey of searching for, buying and selling real estate, and in relation to renovations and maintenance, with a specialist search engine,” Realmonitor founder Péter Faragó said upon receiving the award. “The greatest value of the application is that it helps save time for the user, who can handle everything related to the purchase, renovation, and maintenance of a home in one place, through one platform.”

Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.

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HSBC Launches Money Transfer and Currency Conversion App Zing

HSBC Launches Money Transfer and Currency Conversion App Zing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, HSBC
  • HSBC announced the launch of a new money transfer and currency conversion app and debit card, Zing, this week.
  • Available in both iOS and Android, the app enables users to hold up to 10 different currencies and make transactions in local currency, avoiding point of sale currency conversion fees.
  • Zing was founded by HSBC head of FX and Payments James Allan.

Get ready Revolut and watch out Wise. There’s a new money transfer app coming to market courtesy of HSBC.

The new solution is an app and debit card combo called Zing. The money transfer and currency conversion solution will go live in the U.K. initially. But HSBC has international intentions for the technology. Nuno Matos, CEO of HSBC’s global wealth and personal banking business, noted in an interview with Bloomberg that Zing was part of HSBC’s ambition to be a platform for international payments. As such, Matos said that HSBC has a “global ambition” for Zing and expects to see the technology deployed in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

Available in both iOS and Android, Zing will be available this week in at the Apple Appstore and via Alphabet’s Google Play platform. Zing will enable users to hold up to 10 different currencies on the app, giving them the ability to lock in conversion rates and spend in local currency without having to deal with the cost of point-of-sale conversion fees. Users will also be able to send money internationally across more than 30 currencies.

HSBC has offered a currency transfer service, Global Money, since 2020. The company says that Global Money has served “hundreds of thousands” of customers to date and processed approximately $11 billion in transactions in 2022. That said, because HSBC customers and non-HSBC customers alike can use the app, the company hopes that Zing will help encourage non-HSBC customers to do more banking with HSBC.

Zing was founded by James Allan, head of FX and Payments at HSBC. In a statement, he referenced a company study that underscored the frustration many people have with money transfer and currency conversion services. “That’s why now is the time for a new kind of international payments solution,” Allan said, “one that combines cutting-edge innovation with the support of an experienced global bank.”

Photo by NastyaSensei

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The Best of Finovate Global 2023: Digital Transformation, Financial Inclusion, AI and Automation

The Best of Finovate Global 2023: Digital Transformation, Financial Inclusion, AI and Automation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, FIS, Interview, Mambu, MasterCard, Nubank, WorldPay

Our final Finovate Global column of 2023 celebrates the conversations we’ve had this year with fintech innovators from around the world.

Stay tuned in 2024 for more interviews with some of the most interesting founders, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in fintech and financial services.

“We developed BehaviorQuant because every financial decision is ultimately made by a person or a team. BehaviorQuant solves a core problem that underlies the entire investment industry: we don’t have systematic knowledge about the people and teams behind investment decisions. And that’s true for financial professionals and clients alike.” Dr. Thomas Oberlechner, founder and CEO of BehaviorQuant. Interview.

“Moniepoint solves the problem of fragmented, inaccessible, and low-quality financial services for businesses in emerging markets.  It is a full-service business banking platform seeking to provide all the digital financial services a typical business needs.” Tosin Eniolorunda, founder and CEO of Moniepoint. Interview.

“Eight hundred million voice conversations are recorded daily in Europe and many more worldwide. A tiny 1% of these conversations are checked for quality control, employee training, and business results improvement. Ender Turing is a conversations intelligence and automation platform to close 99% of the conversation gap for business growth.” Olena Iosifova, CEO of Ender Turing. Interview.

“Capital raising is broken. Private companies spend months and even years in the fundraising process, learning how to raise capital and repeating the same mistakes, approaching the wrong investors and often spamming them with irrelevant investment opportunities.” Ulyana Shtybel, CEO of Quoroom. Interview.

“At Refine intelligence, our mission is to help banks regain that superpower of really knowing their customers’ life stories, so their financial crime teams can quickly clear AML or scam alerts triggered by legitimate customer activity. We work with Risk, Financial Crime, BSA and AML teams. Fraud teams look at our technology to help with scam operations.” Uri Rivner, co-founder and CEO of Refine Intelligence. Interview.

“It was an honor to be ranked by CB Insights in its Fintech 250 list and, as one of only seven African start-ups featured, it speaks to the pioneering approach we are introducing to the world – revolutionizing payments and creating a financial services ecosystem for Africa.”

“As sub-Saharan Africa gains recognition on the global stage, we are seeing innovative and pioneering products emerge and rise in popularity amongst consumers, diversifying the products they can choose from.” Tayo Oviosu, founder and CEO of Paga. Interview.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Berlin, Germany-based cloud banking platform Mambu to power the new Neobank Engine launched by Trigger Software.
  • Mintos, a multi-asset platform based in Latvia, announced addition of personalized ETFs to its product suite.
  • Hungary’s OTP Bank partnered with Intellect Global Consumer banking (iGCB), the consumer banking arm of Indian banking technology copany Intelltect Design Arena.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast: Wrapping Up 2023 and Getting Ready for 2024

Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast: Wrapping Up 2023 and Getting Ready for 2024
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Podcasting

Join Finovate VP and host of the Finovate Podcast Greg Palmer as he wraps up 2023 and gets us ready for 2024 with a quartet of conversations about the latest trends in fintech and financial services.

From life stories about women and men who became fintech converts, founders, and innovators later in their professional careers to discussions on enabling technologies like Generative AI, the Finovate Podcast is a great place to hear some of the smartest voices in our business talk about what matters most.

Follow Greg on X at @GregPalmer47.

Podcast host Greg Palmer sits down with Barry Kirby and Dave Buerger of Union Credit, winners of the “Best Emerging Technology” category of the 2023 Finovate Awards. EP 197.

Greg Palmer interviews Dhairya Dholiya, Vice President of Growth & Innovation at Celtic Bank, on his transition from innovator to banker. EP 196.

Greg Palmer talks with tech founder, venture investor, and Head of Innovation for Better, Nneka Ukpai, on the lessons learned from a recovering lawyer turned innovator. EP 195.

Host Greg Palmer and Experian VP of Strategy, Global ID and Fraud David Britton discuss Generative AI and fraud – why it’s so scary and what you can do about it. EP 194.

Photo by Ron Lach

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SaveAway Launches “24 in 24” to Help Consumers to SaveAway Now, Buy Soon

SaveAway Launches “24 in 24” to Help Consumers to SaveAway Now, Buy Soon
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, inSpirAVE

SaveAway is celebrating the season with its “$24 to Ring in ’24 program. The new offering, timed for the New Year, will put $12 in the SaveAway wallet of new sign ups and another $12 for any referral who signs up and completes a SaveAway plan. That’s $24 for new users who bring along a referral now through January 2024.

In an email, CEO and founder Om Kundu explained the thinking behind the “$24 to Ring in ’24” plan. “The $24 to ring in 2024 initiative is a recognition for those joining the remarkable company of our pioneering users and partners who have seen the merits of SaveAway first-hand,” Kundu said.

“SaveAway is social by design, as well as its proprietary engineering – $24 to Ring in ’24 is the celebratory spirit to recognize, and make the opportunity for our users to refer other SaveAway users that much more rewarding.”

The company’s “SaveAway Now, Buy Soon” approach offers a departure from the world of Buy Now, Pay Later. The social saving and retail e-commerce platform enables consumers to buy important purchases responsibly, without having to rely on credit.

In this way, the solution combines intelligent financial planning with a sustainable path-to-purchase. The platform’s social gifting functionality enables members of the user’s trusted social network of friends and family to both support sensible spending as well as help users make purchases that they cannot afford on their own.

Users have praised the ease with which they can invite friends and family to participate in the spending process – voting on options and gifting toward the eventual purchase. The SaveAway platform also lets users see the progress they are making toward their purchase goal based on their personalized savings plan.

SaveAway made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016. Earlier this year, Kundu facilitated the Fintech and E-Commerce Meetup at the SXSW conference, and the Retail Transformation+Evolution at the NRF Big Show Table Talk. Also this year, NYCEDC tapped SaveAway as a recipient of its Founder Fellowship. The fellowship offers resources for technology entrepreneurs from historically underrepresented backgrounds.

SaveAway will begin 2024 as a presenter at VentureCrushFGX having been selected to the 14th cohort of the VentureCrushFG Pod. Run by the Tech Group at legal firm Lowenstein Sandler, VentureCrush offers programs and events for startup founders and investors. The Wall Street Journal ranked Lowenstein Sandler as one of the top five most active law firms in the U.S. in terms of the number of VC/PE deals completed.

Check out our extended Q&A with Om Kundu on making sense of spending, saving, and financial wellness.

Photo by Pixabay

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5 Tales from the Crypto: Why a Bitcoin ETF in 2024 Could Be a Big Deal for Wall Street

5 Tales from the Crypto: Why a Bitcoin ETF in 2024 Could Be a Big Deal for Wall Street
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: List series

With a spot Bitcoin ETF expected in 2024, crypto investors, traders, and enthusiasts are likely feeling as optimistic about digital assets as they have in awhile.

As the trauma of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX fades further into the background, the digital asset community has been able to refocus its energies on a number of positive developments in the space – from the surging price of crypto assets like bitcoin to the increasing interest in cryptocurrencies from major financial institutions.

So with the year drawing to a close, here are a few recent crypto- and blockchain-oriented headlines that you might have missed.

BlackRock, Nasdaq, SEC Meet Again on Bitcoin ETF

This week, according to reporting in Coindesk, representatives from BlackRock, Nasdaq, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission met for the second time to discuss the possibility of a Bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Coindesk’s reporting is based on a published memo from the SEC’s Office of Market Supervision, Division of Trading and Markets. The memo notes the subject of the meeting as “Meeting with BlackRock re: iShares Bitcoin Trust”, lists the meeting participants, and indicates that the conversation “concerned The NASDAQ Stock Market’s proposed rule change to list and trade shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust under NASDAQ Rule 5711(d).”

What does this mean for a Bitcoin ETF in 2024? Rule 5711(d) refers to a variety of specific criteria required for listing and trading shares on the Nasdaq exchange. But especially noteworthy are aspects of this rule has to do with market integrity and protections against potentially fraudulent activity. We’ve covered the “surveillance-sharing” issue before in 5 Tales from the Crypto, so it is no surprise to find that the SEC is still looking to dot “i’s” and cross “t’s” as we move closer to a potential new ETF product for crypto investors and traders.

Saylor on Bitcoin: “Biggest Wall Street Development in 30 Years”

Michael Saylor, former CEO and current Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy, was interviewed on Bloomberg TV earlier this week. Asked about the potential of a Bitcoin ETF in 2024, Saylor said that the launch of a Bitcoin ETF next year could be “the biggest Wall Street development in 30 years.” He went on to say that he thought that the launch of an institutionally supported Bitcoin ETF could ignite a major bull market in crypto assets as a new surge in demand confronts current (inadequate) supply.

In his comments Saylor compared the emergence of a Bitcoin ETF to the launch of the S&P 500 ETF, popularly known as the SPY, more than 30 years ago.

Headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia, and founded in 1989, MicroStrategy is a long-time Finovate alum. The company made its Finovate debut in 2013 at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. MicroStrategy is a public company, trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker MSTR. The firm has a market capitalization of $8 billion.

Blockchain-based micropayments company raises seed funding

Swiss-fintech Centi, which offers blockchain-based micropayment solutions, announced the completion of a seed funding round this week. The amount of the investment was not disclosed. The round was led by Archblock and Bloomhaus Ventures, with current shareholders and founders also participating. The company will use the funds to help fuel global expansion.

Centi leverages blockchain technology to address two significant challenges in the payments industry: the inefficiency of micropayments and the issue of financial inclusion. Centi responds to these problems with its proprietary stablecoin technology that facilitates transactions as small as a cent. This creates new opportunities in digital content monetization for merchants, creatives, and others.

The Swiss firm also offers a direct-to-consumer stablecoin that can be purchased with fiat currency. This technology supports financial inclusion by giving unbanked consumers a pathway to digital payments.

“We founded Centi driven by the potential of blockchain for micropayments and financial inclusion,” Centi co-founder Bernhard Müller said. “The name ‘Centi’ itself, derived from our capability to process transactions as small as one cent, encapsulates this focus.”

Connecting crypto and banking pays for Fiat Republic

Europe continues to be the source of crypto funding news this week as Fiat Republic announced a seed extension round of $7 million (€6.4 million). The investors include first-timers Kraken Ventures, Fabric Ventures, Arca, and Inovo Ventures. Existing investors Speedinvest, Credo Ventures, and Seedcamp also participated in the funding. Fiat Republic will use the capital to support growth and expansion, as well as make strategic hires and fortify banking partnerships.

London-based Fiat Republic helps crypto platforms connect with crypto-friendly banks. The company’s platform allows crypto firms to create accounts in multiple currencies and access local payment rails and FX via a single API.

Fiat Republic’s funding announcement comes as the company reports that it has been granted a full electronic money institution (EMI) license by the Netherlands’ De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). This license will enable Fiat Republic to offer regulated financial services throughout the European Economic Area (EEA). These services include the ability to offer payment services and issue e-money to EEA crypto platforms courtesy of its API. The Dutch license is the second earned by the company; Fiat Republic has held an EMI license in the U.K. for more than a year.

Fiat Republic CEO and co-founder Adam Bialy said that the addition of the Dutch license was a major step for the two-and-a-half year old startup. “Passporting from the reputable and credible jurisdiction of the Netherlands not only boosts our legitimacy in the traditional finance world, but also highlights our commitment to high compliance standards, security, and close collaboration with regulators.”

Crypto Comeback? Looking back and leaping forward

There’s a lot for crypto investors, traders, and observers to be excited about as 2024 draws near: renewed bullishness in assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, continued interest in crypto from institutional players and financial services incumbents … But before we go, here are a few last looks at crypto in 2023.

  • Bitcoin: The Year in Review – Forbes
  • Under the Hood, 2023 Was a Highly Constructive Year for Crypto – CoinDesk
  • Cryptoverse: Bitcoin defies its doubters in 2023 – Reuters
  • 2023 Year Review & 2024 Year Ahead – Crypto.com
  • Reflecting on the Transformative Year of Crypto in 2023 – VanEck

Photo by RDNE Stock project

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