Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Socure Raises $14 Million in New Funding
  • BioCatch Partners with LexisNexis to Leverage Data and Analytics for Better Risk Management
  • Colorado’s PSCU Completes Digital Banking Roll Out Powered by Malauzai Software

Around the web

  • Voice collaboration specialist GreenKey wins patent for speech-to-text technology.
  • NCR deploys Windows 10 IoT Enterprise with major European financial institution.
  • IdentityMind Global announces enhancements to its Enterprise Fraud Prevention platform.
  • Vantiv goes live with its cloud payment API, triPOS.
  • Forbes lists SoFi, Credit Karma and Prosper in its list of the 10 biggest fintechs in America.
  • ABN AMRO selects DemystData for Launchpad Program.

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.

HooYu Brings Identity Confirmation Technology to BCRemit

HooYu Brings Identity Confirmation Technology to BCRemit

Better onboarding and fewer fraud incidents are the goals of U.K.-based, online money transfer platform, BCRemit. And this week, the UK.-based company partnered with identity confirmation specialist HooYu to help them reach both of those critical objectives.

“HooYu is a great complement to the traditional database identity check approach,” BCRemit Managing Director Oliver Calma said. Because most of BCRemit’s customers are migrant workers without a credit “footprint”, Calma explained, verifying and onboarding them can be a cumbersome process. In addition to making verification and onboarding easier, HooYu’s technology will provide valuable anti-fraud protections. “HooYu also catches fraudsters that sometimes slip through identity database checks where they have already committed identity theft and know the name and address of the person they are impersonating,” Calma said.

BCRemit specializes in providing online money transfer services to migrant workers, particularly from the Philippines, who are employed in Europe. A registered payments institution with the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), BCRemit enables recipients to collect cash at any one of more than 7,000 branches of BCRemit’s pay-out partners. Bank transfers can be made to any bank in the Philippines, including Allied Bank, BDO, and PNB.

Pictured: HooYu Marketing Director David Pope and Product Director Grant Greenwood demonstrating the HooYu identity confirmation platform at FinovateEurope 2017.

Director of Marketing for HooYu David Pope pointed to the ease-of-use of HooYu’s platform for the end user as another major selling point for the technology. “This enables our clients to improve conversion, still offer the consumer a smooth customer journey, and comply with AML regulations,” Pope said.

HooYu demonstrated its global identity confirmation service at FinovateEurope 2017. The company’s technology enables real-time identify verification without requiring any exchange or storage of sensitive personal information like social security numbers. Once integrated into the firm’s online application process, the HooYu service analyzes and cross checks data from the person’s digital footprint. At the same time, the technology extracts, analyzes, and validates information from the person’s ID documentation, including a biometric facial recognition check with the person’s photo ID.

In addition to money transfer firms, HooYu serves lenders, banks, and even individuals with its identify confirmation technology. “It’s our philosophy that in today’s digital age sometimes consumers want to check the identity of other consumers,” Pope said, using the example of P2P commerce via online marketplaces. “And it shouldn’t just be the privilege of big banks or clever online businesses to check someone else’s identity.”

Last month, HooYu announced a partnership with Australia’s first crowd investment platform, Vestabyte. In May, HooYu teamed up with Irish information services provider Stubbs Gazette. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in London, U.K. Keith Marsden is CEO.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • HooYu Brings Identity Confirmation Technology to BCRemit.
  • StreetShares Raises $10.3 Million for “Shark Tank Meets eBay” Approach to P2P Lending.
  • Flywire Expands Operations in Japan, Forms Partnership with Volvo.

Around the web

  • UPS Capital launches cross-border B2B payment service powered by Payoneer.
  • Risk Ident opens new U.S. office at Cambridge Innovation Center, near Boston, Massachusetts.
  • Venmo introduces QR code feature to help users find payee profiles faster.
  • eMoney launches redesigned website with a new UX enhanced navigation and multimedia content.
  • Digiliti Money (formerly Cachet Financial Solutions) appoints interim CEO.
  • Qapital now offers checking account and debit card.
  • BBVA joins Singapore-based trade finance platform Capital and Credit Risk Manager
  • Al Masraf selects Temenos’ digital banking technology
  • Kony announces V8 release of Kony AppPlatform to help developers design, develop and deliver omnichannel apps fast.
  • Shoeboxed launches Fetch, a new expense system
  • Trusona opens new office in Tokyo, Japan.

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.

Emirates NBD Enlists Efigence for UX/UI Makeover

Emirates NBD Enlists Efigence for UX/UI Makeover

When we first met efigence back at FinovateEurope 2013, the Polish customer experience designer for financial services companies was sharing the stage with Bank 3.0 innovator mBank. A year later, efigence was back on stage, this time arm–in-arm with SME-banking specialist, Idea Bank.

You get the feeling that efigence has a way with banks.

The latest bank to partner with the company is Emirates NBD, which announced this week that efigence helped the leading Middle Eastern banking group build a new interface and enhanced user experience for its bankingplatform. In addition providing a new graphical user interface (GUI) and improving the platform’s information architecture, the new solution will enable customers to personalize their online experience, manage finances from a “smart insights” equipped dashboard, and use video banking and chat via FaceBanking to talk with a bank advisor. Suvo Sarkar, SVP and Group Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at Emirats NBD said the new technology “brings Emirates NBD’s clients to the future of banking.”

“Making use of our broad experience, together with the client’s team, we created a completely new innovative digital banking experience,”Andrzej Szewczyk, VP and MD of Efigence, added. “(This) means that Emirates NBD leaves the competition in its wake. Szewczyk referred to the partnership as “re-invent(ing) digital banking from scratch.”

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Warsaw, Poland, Efigence most recently demonstrated its Efi4 Digital Banking platform at FinovateEurope 2017. The company’s platform includes a tailor-made interface and experience for users, as well as forecasting, payments, and transactions automation modules. With Efi4, Efigence provides a digital banking solution that marries off-the-shelf technology with UI and UX customized for each financial institution. This enables the company’s technology to provide banks with fast implementation, while retaining the look and familiarity of the bank’s brand.

Roostify Celebrates Growth, Role of External Developers on its Platform

Roostify Celebrates Growth, Role of External Developers on its Platform

How many fintechs can boast of having more external developers working on its platform than in-house talent?

That’s the happy situation Roostify finds itself in. The automated lending technology innovator announced this week that the number of external developers working on the online mortgage platform now exceeds the number of Roostify’s in-house engineers. For newly-hired VP of Products, Sandeep Aji, this milestone is a major validation of the company’s ability to successfully promote the functionality of its API. “Our clients are finding value in the flexibility and extensibility that Roostify offers versus a static, off-the-shelf software program,” Aji said.

Pictured: Roostify co-founder and Head of Product Nathaniel Sokoll-Ward demonstrating the company’s platform at FinovateSpring 2016.

The ability to build customized workflows is at the heart of what is attracting both large enterprise customers as well as “tech-savvy smaller lenders” to Roostify’s platform. The Roostify API enables users to design their own processes to run within the platform and to easily integrate with their own CIS, CRM, LOS, and Access Control systems. This allows a wider number of potential users of the technology, who don’t have to wait for a specific integration for their system. “The API allows them to build that integration themselves and create the workflow that’s right for their business, rather than forcing them to adopt a different program in order to use Roostify,” Aji explained.

Founded in January 2014 and based in San Francisco, California, Roostify demonstrated its SaaS-based, end-to-end lending platform at FinovateSpring 2016. Last month, the company was named to the Forbes 2017 Cloud 100 list and was credited by First California Mortgage (First Cal) for helping them reduce average loan timeframes to 15 days (national average is 43 days). Also a member of CB Insights Fintech 250, Roostify added former Appfluent Technology CEO Frank Gelbart as Chief Revenue Officer in April, and announced a deal to power Chase Bank’s self-serve mortgage platform in February. The company has raised $8 million in funding, and includes USAA and Colchis Capital Management among its investors. Rajesh Bhat is co-founder and CEO.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Roostify Celebrates Growth, Role of External Developers on its Platform.
  • Emirates NBD Enlists Efigence for UX/UI Makeover.

Around the web

  • Icon Solutions initiates functional testing between the Instant Payments Framework and EBA Clearing’s RT1 platform.
  • Infosys to acquire product design and CX specialist, Brilliant Basics.
  • TechCrunch: Coinbase to provide support for Bitcoin Bash in 2018.
  • RealtyMogul.com celebrates the first anniversary of the first crowdfunded REIT, MogulREIT 1.
  • AutoGravity announces reaching 500,000 download milestone for its app.

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.

Huntington National Bank Chooses PFM, BFM Solutions from Barcelona-Based Strands

Huntington National Bank Chooses PFM, BFM Solutions from Barcelona-Based Strands

Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington National Bank will offer personal finance management (PFM) and business financial management (BFM) solutions from Spanish fintech, Strands. “We are pushing the envelope and delivering a product that will align seamlessly to Huntington’s brand and unique digital banking experience,” Strands CEO Erik Brieva said.

For Strands the partnership is both an opportunity to expand in the North American market as well as a chance to further demonstrate its technology’s difference from traditional PFMs. Strands’ technology combines machine learning, Big Data, and a streamlined UI to provide a personalized, data-driven banking experience used by more than 600 banks including BBVA, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of Montreal. Payments and Channels Director for Huntington Mark Sheehan, called Strands a ‘leader” in the industry and said the partnership would enable the bank to bring “new, customer-centric, digital banking solutions” to its customers and further separate its offerings from those of its competitors. Huntington National Bank has $101 billion in assets, a network of nearly 1,000 branches, and more than 1,800 ATMs in eight states in the midwest.

Founded in 2004 and based in Barcelona, Spain, Strands demonstrated its Business Financial Management solution at FinovateFall 2016. The company has more than 600 product implementations, with 100 million users in 36 countries. Strands has raised $55 million in funding, and includes Debaeque, Dalbergia, Indigo Investment Corporation, and Sequel Venture Partners among its investors. This spring, Strands announced it would provide the PFM technology for the digital banking service launched by Commercial Bank of Africa, the largest bank in Kenya. In December, the company inked a PFM implementation deal with major Colombian bank, Davivienda.

Kabbage Collects $250 Million Investment from SoftBank

Kabbage Collects $250 Million Investment from SoftBank

Online small business lender Kabbage has raised $250 million in funding from Japan’s SoftBank Group. The capital, which takes Kabbage’s total funding to more than $488 million, will be used to support new lending products for small businesses, as well as “explor(ing) non-lending products and services” for its customers. The partnership with SoftBank will also likely help as Kabbage looks to expand beyond North America and Europe to markets in Asia.

Kabbage co-founder and CEO Rob Frohwein praised SoftBank’s “scale, global reach, relationships, and unparalleled expertise in building transformative industry leaders.” He emphasized Kabbage’s goal of using “real-time and persistent access to data” to give small businesses a range of financial services and said the partnership with SoftBank would “accelerate” the process. SoftBank Managing Director David Thevenon added, “We invested in Kabbage because their unique automated lending platform leverages open data networks and best positions them to empower small businesses around the world.”

Kabbage uses data generated from a wide range of business activity to help provide small businesses with the funding they need to grow. The company offers a line of credit of up to $150,000, with six and 12-month terms, and provides funding decisions within minutes. Kabbage loans have no origination fees or prepayment penalties, and funds can be accessed online, using Kabbage’s mobile app, or with the Kabbage Card.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Kabbage demonstrated its Kabbage Card small business line of credit at FinovateSpring 2015. The company was named to CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list in June, and voted one of the best places to work in the U.S. last year, Kabbage surpassed a major milestone in April, topping $3 billion in funding to more than 100,000 small business customers. The company drives automated lending for three of the biggest 50 global banks by asset size: ING, Santander, and Scotiabank, and maintains 1.5 million live connections to customer data.

 

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Kabbage Collects $250 Million Investment from SoftBank.
  • Huntington National Bank Chooses PFM, BFM Solutions from Barcelona-based Strands.

Around the web

  • Mastercard and Paypal deepen Asia Pacific partnership.
  • GlobalOnePay teams up with InvoiceASAP to improve electronic invoicing for SMEs.
  • Fidor Bank launches fintech education program 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.

nCino Inks 100th Customer in Pacific Western Bank

nCino Inks 100th Customer in Pacific Western Bank

With all due respects to customers #99 and #101-to-be, congratulations to $21 billion asset Pacific Western Bank for being the 100th FI to deploy the Bank Operating System developed by cloud-banking innovator, nCino. Mark Christian, Operations and Systems Group EVP for Pacific Western credited the relationship between nCino and the bank’s Square 1 division for helping turn the firm into a customer. “The nCino team is knowledgeable, innovative, and responsive,” Christian said, “which combine to make them a valuable new partner to our enterprise.”

nCino EVP of Sales for the Americas Josh Glover pointed to the scalability, security, and cloud-based technology of the company’s solution as reasons why more and more banks like Pacific Western are choosing nCino’s Bank Operating System. “(The technology) will allow the bank to continue to grow efficiently without compromising credit quality or the overall borrower experience,” Glover said.

Built on Salesforce.com, nCino’s Bank Operating System gives banks the ability to centralize data and reporting across divisions on a single, unified platform. The technology combines a number of key services – from CRM, loan origination, workflow, content and business process management to customer engagement and instant reporting – in one secure location, improving both oversight and visibility. “With nCino, your customers get a transparent, digitally-optimized process, quick access to capital, and a true valued long-term relationship with your financial institution,” CMO Jonathan Rowe said during the company’s live demo at FinovateEurope earlier this year. He added, “(And) financial institutions achieve increased loan growth while lowering costs and increasing productivity and maintaining the highest levels of safety and soundness.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017. The company recorded its first European customer last month when U.K.-based OakNorth Bank announced it would deploy nCino’s platform. Also in June, nCino expanded the credit analysis functionality of its solution, streamlining the underwriting process for customers. The company announced partnerships with Great Southern Bank and CrossFirst Bank in May, with North State Bank in April, and with Valley National Bank in March. nCino has raised more than $79 million in funding and includes Insight Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, and Wellington Management among its investors. Pierre Naudé is CEO.

Conversational AI Comes to USAA Courtesy of Clinc

Conversational AI Comes to USAA Courtesy of Clinc

Clinc’s newly-announced integration with the Alexa skill of USAA will give the 12 million members of the financial service provider access to what the Clinc calls the “first, fully-conversational, AI banking solution.”

“With absolutely no rules or commands to learn, USAA members will enjoy an unexpected, delightful experience that actually feels like an intelligent human interaction,” Clinc CEO Jason Mars explained. “Clinc’s unique approach to conversational AI removes restrictions so consumers can focus on their finances and speak naturally,” he said.

Ann Arbor, Michigan-based Clinc won Best of Show for its demonstration of Finie, a live personal assistant for mobile banking. Finie was an example of the kind of solution that can be built from Clinc’s conversational AI platform. The company’s technology leverages natural language processing, machine learning, and deep neural networks to identify and recognize context, sentiment, and word structure. This enables Clinc to develop solutions that answer users’ follow-up questions, for example, and create technologies that learn and add to their knowledge over time.

USAA members can begin using the solution by registering the USAA skill with Amazon, and syncing their accounts through USAA. Members can also take advantage of a voice PIN option for additional security. Sign up at USAALabs.com.

Pictured: Clinc co-founder and CEO Jason Mars during his live demo of Clinc’s personal assistant for mobile banking technology at FinovateFall 2016.

“This pilot is designed to better replicate the interaction members would have with a USAA service representative on the phone, open new avenues to better serve our members and create more opportunities for our member service representatives to handle more complex member needs,” USAA Labs assistant vice president Darrius Jones said. “What we learn from this pilot will help shape how we view member service in years to come.”

San Antonio, Texas-based USAA has provided financial services to current and former members of the U.S. military and their families since 1922. USAA Labs, launched earlier this year, is designed to give USAA members both access to and opportunity to provide feedback on the firm’s newest technology innovations and exclusive pilot projects. As USAA Labs Strategic Innovations Manager Christee Kahn explained earlier this year in an interview at the USAA Money Matters blog: “(Members) will have the opportunity to vote on specific ideas and concepts developed by our business teams, join pilot programs, provide input and utilize new tools and products that USAA is testing.”

Founded in 2015 by University of Michigan professors Jason Mars (CEO), Lingjia Tang (CSO), Michael Laurenzano (CTO), and Johann Hauswald (Chief Architect), Clinc demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2016, winning Best of Show. The company raised $6 million in funding in February, boosting its total capital to $7.75 million. Mars participated in our spring webinar, How to Make it In the Fintech Industry: Three Success Stories, along with Jeff Cain, Director of the Envestnet | Yodlee incubator and Moven CTO Kumar Ampani. The company raised $6 million in funding in February, boosting its total capital to $7.75 million.

Juvo Raises $40 Million in Round Led by NEA, Wing Venture Capital

Juvo Raises $40 Million in Round Led by NEA, Wing Venture Capital

In a round led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Wing Venture Capital, mobile identity scoring specialist Juvo raised $40 million in new funding. The Series B, which featured participation from SignalFire and other existing investors, takes the company’s total funding to $54 million. Juvo will use the funds to drive global expansion, especially in Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The additional financing will also help Juvo grow its product offerings for the financially underserved.

“It has been an exciting ride to date, surrounded by passionate people who believe deeply in Juvo’s mission,” company CEO Steve Polsky said. “This new funding will allow Juvo to expand and deepen our product offerings as well as continue to build the best in class teams in data science, financial services, and consumer mobile services.” Managing general partner at NEA  Scott Sandell called Juvo a company that was “helping to shape the innovation economy” and credited the San Francisco-based firm for “addressing a vital global need while providing distinct value to its partners.” Founding partner of Wing Venture Capital Peter Wagner, who will join Juvo’s board of directors as part of the investment and whose firm has been involved with Juvo “since their earliest days”, praised the company’s “potent combination of data, the mobile platform and the cloud to bring the power of identity to massive untapped markets.”

Pictured: CEO and founder Steve Polski demonstrating Juvo Identity Scoring at FinovateFall 2016.

Juvo works by teaming up with mobile phone operators and financial institutions to enable members of underserved communities to build financial identities. The company’s technology uses credit algorithms based on advanced data science to find creditworthy individuals among what Polsky says are the “two billion underbanked people in the world – most of whom have a mobile phone” and to ensure their access to financial services. Juvo has been a beneficial partner, as well, helping its operators lower churn by 50% or more, increase average revenue per user (ARPU) by up to 15%, and realize an average increase in subscriber lifetime value of 65%.

Juvo demonstrated its identity scoring technology at FinovateFall 2016. Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2014, Juvo is currently operating in 25 countries on four continents. Named to CB Insight’s Fintech 250 list in June, Juvo added Prosper president Ron Suber as strategic advisor in May and, last fall, the company partnered with Cable & Wireless to bring mobile credit services to customers in the Caribbean.