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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Apex Fintech Solutions has agreed to acquire fintech design agency, FinTron. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
The digital wealth management company will leverage FinTron’s technology to provide its customers with the ability to create customized user interfaces and experiences.
Apex Fintech Solutions’ subsidiary Apex Clearing made its Finovate debut at FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2015.
Digital wealth management company Apex Fintech Solutions has agreed to acquire FinTron, a fintech design agency that creates high-end digital experiences for investors and advisors around the world.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed and the deal is subject to approval by FINRA. Once completed, the strategic acquisition will enable Apex’s customers to deliver customized user interfaces and experiences for brokerage platforms that are pre-integrated into the Apex platform. This will enable them to easily deploy turnkey investing experiences and front-ends from within their current digital footprint, powered by Apex’s custody platform.
“FinTron has revolutionized the process of launching a brokerage or wealth management platform,” Apex CEO Bill Capuzzi said. “Their innovative platform aligns perfectly with our mission to empower the next generation of investors through technology. This acquisition is a significant step in our journey to provide a fully integrated, digital-first platform that meets the diverse needs of our clients.”
Known for its white-label and embedded components, as well as its Software Development Kit (SDK) for mobile and web platforms, FinTron empowers brokerages and wealth management firms to embed self-directed and managed investing functionality into their offering. Apex will leverage its acquisition of FinTron to expand its services to clients ranging from financial advisors and fintech firms to neobanks, insurance companies, and retirement planning companies. In fact, FinTron’s technology already has been integrated into the company’s suite of services to streamline investment processes, enhance the user experience, and bring more advanced investment capabilities to a wider audience of investors.
“We are thrilled to join forces with Apex,” FinTron CEO and Founder Wilder Rumpf said. “Our shared vision of democratizing financial services and providing intuitive, powerful tools to investors will only be strengthened through this partnership. Together, we can make a significant impact on the financial futures of many.”
Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, FinTron was founded in 2017. The company has raised more than $14 million in funding from investors including Connecticut Innovations and Sage Venture Partners. FinTron’s embedded wealth solutions help broker-dealers, community banks and credit unions, investment advisors, and fintechs lower CAPEX and time to market, capture engagement, and offer clients versatile digital wealth experiences.
Apex Fintech Solutions introduced itself to Finovate audiences at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2015, via its subsidiary, Apex Clearing. Recently, the New York-based company launched its real-time cloud-native investment infrastructure, Apex Ascend, and announced a collaboration with wealth management solution provider YourStake. FinTron is Apex’s fourth acquisition; the firm purchased AdvisorArch, its third acquisition, in March of this year.
Payments credit union service organization (CUSO) Velera has turned to Arroweye Solutions for its dual interface debit and credit card portfolio.
The multi-year partnership will provide faster speed to market and change orders, as well as zero inventory to avoid having to manage stores of pre-printed cards.
Headquartered in Nevada, Arroweye made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2011.
Payments credit union service organization (CUSO) Velera has partnered with Arroweye Solutions to provide card production, personalization, and fulfillment for Velera’s dual interface debit and credit card portfolio.
The multi-year partnership announced this week will enable Arroweye to provide Velera and its financial institution partners with a variety of benefits for their card programs. These include fast speed to market and change orders; dynamic card personalization; zero inventory as cards are manufactured, personalized, and fulfilled as needed; quality materials, vertical or horizontal orientation, and other options.
“Supporting Velera’s card diversification strategy, Arroweye’s capabilities will help Velera enhance time to market and deliver a more seamless, frictionless card personalization experience to our financial institutions’ clients,” Velera SVP for Product Enablement & Growth, Cody Banks said. “We view Arroweye as a true financial services partner and look forward to integrating their suite of capabilities into our core offering.”
Arroweye CEO Dan Oswald praised Velera as a “premier fintech solutions provider for credit unions in North America.” Oswald added, “Arroweye’s solutions and capabilities align perfectly with Velera’s card issuance needs today and into the future, and we look forward to providing Arroweye’s best-in-class services to their financial institutions.”
Created via a merger between PSCU and Co-op Solutions earlier this year, Velera is both a premier payments credit union service organization (CUSO) and an integrated fintech solutions provider. Velera serves more than 4,000 financial institutions throughout North America, offering a product portfolio that features solutions for payment processing, fraud and risk management, data and analytics, digital banking, instant payments, strategic consulting, ATM and POS networks, and more. Charles E. Fagan III is President and CEO.
Founded in 2000, Arroweye Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2011. In the years since, the Henderson, Nevada-based company has grown into a leading card delivery firm, offering EMV, dual-interface, and magnetic stripe cards approved by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and UnionPay.
This year, Arroweye has formed partnerships with small business financial services platform Affinity Finance and professional banking services provider BankPro, a subsidiary of FxPro Group. The company has raised more than $76 million in funding according to Crunchbase, and includes Multiplier Capital and Landa Ventures among its investors.
The goal of the collaboration is for the bank to leverage Token.io’s open banking connectivity and infrastructure to enhance the customer experience and develop new, real-time payment solutions. Santander will first use Token.io’s infrastructure to enable direct payments from external bank accounts as an option for credit card repayments, creating a more seamless payment experience compared to both direct debit and manual bank transfer. These direct account-to-account payments for card repayments also support biometric Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for payments made on mobile devices.
“We are thrilled to partner with Santander, a forward-thinking institution committed to driving open banking innovation and enhancing the experience of millions of customers,” Token.io CEO Todd Clyde said. “Token.io’s technology, combined with Santander’s dedication to exceptional service, will undoubtedly set new standards for how financial institutions leverage open banking to create innovative value propositions that meet the evolving needs of consumers and businesses.”
A subsidiary of Banco Santander, Santander UK has more than 14 million customers in the U.K. The bank offers mortgages, auto financing, unsecured loans, credit cards, banking, savings and investment accounts, as well as insurance products. In addition to using Token.io’s technology to support its A2A offering, Santander UK also plans to leverage the fintech’s infrastructure to enhance its real-time money movement capabilities for its retail banking customers.
This week’s news from Token.io comes just days after the U.K.-based fintech announced that it had expanded its partnership with global payments platform Ecommpay. The global payments platform added Token.io’s virtual accounts in four new markets — France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain — to its Open Banking Advanced solution. The virtual accounts will enable e-commerce companies to get real-time settlement confirmation and make API-powered refunds or payouts, boosting both the speed and efficiency of transactions.
“Our partnership with Ecommpay continues to demonstrate the immense potential of open banking in transforming payment experiences and also highlights the opportunities that PSPs can realize when they embrace innovative, customer-centric solutions,” Clyde said.
Token.io made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015 and returned to the Finovate stage two years later at FinovateEurope in London. The company provides direct connectivity to more than 567 million bank accounts in 20 markets. Token.io’s customers include HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Global Payments, as well as fellow Finovate alums Mastercard and ACI Worldwide. The company has raised $90 million in funding according to Crunchbase, most recently securing a Series C investment of $40 million in 2022.
The conversation continues with Greg Palmer, host of the Finovate Podcast. This week, we share three of Greg Palmer’s latest podcast interviews with leaders, innovators, and analysts in fintech and financial services.
Elizabeth Osborne, Chief Operations Officer at Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU), and Greg Palmer talk about successfully onboarding third-party fintechs, from strategy to selection to implementation. EP 231.
Osborne is an experienced operations and information technology leader with a background in both the credit union and banking industries. In her role as COO for GLCU, Osborne oversees areas such as technology, digital, contact center, deposit operations, payments, and PMO.
Max Grande, VP of Vertical Market Solutions at Onbe, and Greg Palmer discuss why you should be thinking about B2C payments. EP 230.
Onbe is a Chicago, Illinois-based fintech that manages and modernizes both consumer and workforce disbursements for corporate clients. The company’s platform powers a suite of turnkey, managed distribution solutions that enable clients to outsource their entire B2C disbursement operation.
Greg Palmer talks with Howard Xiao, Head of Partnerships at VGS, about payments, security, and the importance of staying flexible as an innovator. Ep 229.
As Head of Partnerships at VGS, Xiao leads the global partnership team, managing both VGS’ Payments Partners Channel and Alliance Partners.
VGS is a universal vault that supports the storage and transmission of payment credentials for its business customers around the world. The San Francisco, California-based company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022.
Financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank.
TSB bank will visit schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s financial literacy app.
Headquartered in London, Doshi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024.
Gamified financial literacy platform Doshi has teamed up with London-based TSB Bank. The financial institution will spend the next six months traveling to schools to encourage students to use Doshi’s app to learn about responsible savings and spending, as well as other issues critical to financial literacy.
The initiative is targeting 1,000 students between the ages of 13 and 18. Doshi features a series of interactive lessons on financial topics based on financial goals such as managing debt or avoiding stress over saving and spending. The app leverages gamification strategies including awarding points and showcasing leaderboards to enable users to check their progress. The app also rewards students who complete the learning modules with perks like shopping vouchers to help boost engagement.
“Entering adulthood Money Confident is vital to ensuring young people are set up to enjoy a lifetime of stable finances and informed financial decisions,” TSB Head of Responsible Business Kate Osiadacz said. “We’re on a mission with Doshi to help young people boost their knowledge using the app’s innovative learning platform, so that they start their financial lives in the best place possible.”
According to the Young Persons’ Money Index, more than 81% of young people worry about money and/or personal finances. Additionally, the same percentage of young people also want to learn more about better managing their finances as part of their school curriculum.
“Only two out of five young adults have received financial education in secondary school,” Doshi CEO Daniel Rose said. “At Doshi, we believe that financial education is essential for building healthy, confident lives.”
In addition to the Doshi app, the company’s technology is available via its own branded, out-of-the-box website as well as via API integration. Regardless of environment, Doshi delivers more than 1,000 pieces of financial wellness and education content, tools, and videos. With more than 30,000 engaged users, the platform has provided more than 100,000 hours of learning and handed out thousands of rewards to users.
Headquartered in London, Doshi App made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company demoed its white-label app that helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs promote financial literacy via a personalized, gamified, learning journeys. In August, the company partnered with Yorkshire Building Society to help provide financial education to first-time, prospective homebuyers.
The partnership between Doshi and TSB Bank is a product of the financial institution’s Money Confident Communities program. This program sends TSB Bank professionals to schools as volunteers to help young people learn more about financial wellness and financial independence. Doshi was one of the companies to successfully apply to TSB Bank’s TSB Labs program which partners with fintechs to enhance the bank’s financial literacy offering.
At the same time, such partnerships are fuel for innovation for fintechs, as well. “As a startup, you don’t get many opportunities to collaborate with senior leaders of a leading U.K. bank,” Rose noted. “Working with TSB has enabled us to co-create an exciting solution with the potential to change the lives of thousands of young adults.”
This week’s edition of Finovate Global features news from the fintech scene in Hong Kong.
Worldline partners with BOCHK
International payment services company Worldline has forged a partnership with the Bank of China (Hong Kong), also known as BOCHK. The partnership makes the bank the first Hong Kong-based customer of Worldline’s open platform card solution, Paysuite Essential Edition. Previously called “Cardlite,” the solution will enable BOCHK to enhance the customer experience with new offerings, including its multi-currency Mastercard debit card.
“We are excited to partner with BOCHK, a prestigious bank in the region, to launch our new innovative Paysuite Essential Edition in Hong Kong,” Worldline’s Head of Financial Services Asia-Pacific, Noel Chow, said. “The partnership highlights the trust and confidence from leading financial institutions in our innovative open platform solutions. We believe the partnership paves the way for other banks to modernize their card systems and migrate from legacy systems to open systems.”
BOCHK’s partnership with Worldline reflects the trend in the payments industry toward open platform solutions. Already available in other markets, Worldline’s Paysuite Essential Edition offers issuing, acquiring, authorization, switching, and routing functionality. The technology supports Mastercard’s multi-currency card, and provides an infrastructure that accelerates time-to-market and deployment of new products and services.
Additionally, Worldline will provide a local support team with local expertise to assist BOCHK as it scales its operations in the future. This team will also help ensure the institution will meet Hong Kong banking industry compliance requirements.
“As open platform solutions are the future in digital payments, BOCHK is pleased to partner with Worldline, known for its comprehensive innovative fintech solution and unparalleled local support it offers, to provide our customers with the Mastercard multi-currency debit card powered by its Paysuite Essential Edition,” said Daniel Li, Chief Digital Officer of Personal Banking & Wealth Management, BOCHK. “This collaboration marks a significant step forward in our commitment to delivering seamless payment experiences to our valued customers and promote the wider use of digital payments.”
Worldline made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017. At the conference, the company demoed its Connected Piggy Bank, which helps parents provide financial education for their young children via a “playful” end-to-end savings solution. Today, Worldline processes more than 43 billion payment transactions a year, serves more than 14 million merchants, and is active in 170 countries. Founded in 1972, Worldline is headquartered in Bezons, France.
RD Technologies secures $7.8 million investment
RD Technologies, a Hong Kong-based financial platform that seeks to “bridge the worlds of Web2 and Web3,” has raised $7.8 million in Series A1 financing. Participating in the round were HongShan, Hivemind Capital, Aptos Labs, Hash Global, SNZ Capital, Solana Foundation, Anagram, and Upward Capital. The company will use the funds to further build out its financial platform and help encourage the development of the Web3 ecosystem in Hong Kong.
“The legacy payment industry is ripe to be disrupted using blockchain technology and stablecoins to provide more efficient and cheaper cross-border payment networks,” RD Technologies CEO Rita Liu said. “Hong Kong is leading the world in virtual asset regulation. We are confident that compliant and transparent stablecoins will invigorate the market and address the pain points of traditional payments and finance to bring in institutions and help Hong Kong become a global Web3 hub.”
Founded in 2020, RD Technologies offers two primary solutions via its subsidiaries: the RD Wallet and the HKDR stablecoin (HKDR). RD Wallet is a licensed Stored Value Facility that enables businesses around the world to open multi-currency fiat accounts via mobile device anywhere and at any time. The wallet supports eight currencies — HKD, CNY, USD, JPY, SGD, EUR, GBP, and AUD — that are commonly used in the region, offers fund transfer via TT and CHATS, and provides competitive FX rates with a 0% fee.
Issued by RD InnoTech Limited, the HKDR stablecoin is backed 1:1 by the Hong Kong dollar, with high-quality, liquid assets kept in segregated custody accounts with licensed financial institutions. In July, the firm was one of the first companies to be admitted to the stablecoin issuer sandbox by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
“Hivemind is thrilled to support RD Technologies as they seek to lead the future of stablecoins and cross-border payments,” Hivemind Partner and Head of Asia Stanley Huo said. “We believe regulated stablecoins are a critical growth area in crypto, offering real product-market fit, particularly as global demand for regulated stablecoins rises among enterprises and institutions.”
Checkout.com launches Octopus in Hong Kong
London-based Checkout.com is the first international payment services provider (PSP) to offerOctopus, the leading payment method in Hong Kong, as a payment option at checkout.
With 98% penetration in a region with 7.5 million residents, Octopus is Hong Kong’s first, “homegrown” fintech. Octopus was launched in 1997 as a contactless card for multimodal transportation. In the years since, the solution has grown into a popular and versatile payment system, used for retail and shopping as well as food and beverage transactions both in Hong Kong and abroad. The company introduced its mobile app in 2012 and now reports that there are more than 4.5 million Octopus digital wallets.
“At Octopus, we pride ourselves (on) making everyday life easier,” Octopus Head of Business Development and International Business Edwin Lai said. “This partnership with Checkout.com will enhance and broaden the payment experience not just for our customers, but also merchants within Hong Kong and beyond. We anticipate robust demand from global and local businesses eager to access Hong Kong’s consumers. We hope this collaboration will help support the growth of the city’s digital commerce.”
“Catering to local payment preferences is crucial for success in the Hong Kong market,” Checkout.com General Manager of APAC Brian Sze said. “Our strategic partnership with Octopus underscores Checkout.com’s commitment to investing in our Asia footprint, delivering localized payment solutions that empower merchants to thrive in this dynamic region.”
Founded in 2012, Checkout.com processes payments for thousands of companies around the world. The company’s international digital payments network supports more than 145 currencies, and processes billions of transactions a year. Checkout.com’s technology helps merchants increase acceptance rates, lower processing costs, fight fraud, and transform payments into a significant source of revenues. The company has raised $1.8 billion in funding, most recently closing a $1 billion Series D round in January 2022. Guillaume Pousaz is founder and CEO.
Hong Kong’s fintech celebration only weeks away
Some of the biggest fintech news in Hong Kong is likely less than three weeks away. Hong Kong Fintech Week begins on October 28 and extends through November 1. The event expects to host 30,000 participants and feature 800 speakers and 500 startups. Finovate participated in the city’s Fintech Week back in 2018 as part of FinovateAsia.
We’ll have more to say about fintech in Hong Kong in the wake of the city’s conference. For now, check out this interview with Lareina Wang, who was appointed chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) in August. In this interview, Wang — who is also executive director, head of digital and innovation at DBS Bank Hong Kong — talks about some of the major issues facing both the growth of the association as well as fintechs in Hong Kong.
“We have some of the world’s best universities in town, while, overall, the fintech industry is short of fintech talent,” Wang told FinanceAsia. “Advocating for policies and reaching collaborations might not appeal to them, but they are interested in being educated around fintech topics.”
Founded in 2017, the FTAHK has 300 corporate members.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
86400, a payments technology firm based in India and formerly known as Mobileware Technologies, raised $1.8 million (INR 15.6 crore).
The New South Wales (NSW) government teamed up with Indian incubator Afthonia Labs to help NSW fintech startups enter the Indian market.
An industry organization consisting of fintech lenders, Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment (FACE), secured “self-regulatory organization” status from the Reserve Bank of India.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazilian paytech Barte raised $8 million in Series A funding in a round led by AlleyCorp.
Norway’s MeaWallet partnered with Peru-based neobank B89.
Grupo Bancolombia’s crypto platform, Wenia, launched its WeniaCard that lets users pay with cryptocurrency at any merchant that accepts Mastercard.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based fintech Surfin announced a $12.5 million Series A investment from Insignia Ventures Partners.
JCB enabled Google Pay for customers in Japan starting on September 6.
Checkout.com added Octopus as a payment method in Hong Kong.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Mastercard and ACI Worldwideteamed up to bring real-time card payments to South Africa.
Network International went live with new payments services in Kenya.
Nigerian’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced a crackdown on fraud in the country’s fintech industry.
Central and Eastern Europe
INDEXO Bank partnered withMambu as part of its launch in Latvia.
Austrian payment orchestration platform IXOPAY introduced new CTO Ronnie Thomson.
Croatia-based fintech Fonoa acquired PwC UK’s GITC product to faciliate management of partial tax exemptions.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Calcalist interviewed former CEO of Bank Leumi and current Managing Partner at Team8 Rakefet Russak-Aminoach on the current state of fintech in Israel.
The UAE announced that cryptocurrency transactions will be exempt from value-added tax (VAT) effective November 15.
American Express Middle East forged a partnership with Dubai-based payment gateway Telr.
ANNA, a small business banking and tax app for SMEs, has implemented biometric re-authentication strategies to fight fraud.
The new re-authentication procedures are designed to help combat the threat of Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud.
U.K.-based ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.
All-in-one business and tax app for SMEs, ANNA, has become one of the first financial institutions in the U.K. to deploy biometric re-authentication strategies to fight financial crime. The new procedures are being used specifically to prevent fraudsters from using accounts they have accessed illegally.
“ANNA was one of the first in the industry to start pushing these changes live and we continue to make updates and improvements,” ANNA Chief Compliance Officer Leven Li said. “Our random biometric re-authentication programme went live this week and we expect that other financial institutions will likely follow our lead.”
The re-authentication process is initiated whenever someone attempts to access an ANNA account on a mobile device that is different from the one used to initially set up the account. When this occurs, a request for a selfie is issued. Insofar as the fraudster will not be able to produce an accurate facial match, the access attempt is stopped and the account is immediately suspended. Additionally, ANNA has introduced random biometric authentication checks that also leverage a customer selfie to re-verify identity.
The new procedures come as new laws designed to stop Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud in the U.K. came online this week. APP fraud occurs when a person is tricked into sending money to a fraudster who is posing as a legitimate payee. The new regulations require payment services providers (PSPs) such as ANNA to reimburse eligible claims from APP victims when the fraud takes place via faster payments and CHAPs.
And while ANNA currently has a number of strategies to help prevent fraud, including the use of national databases like CIFAs and limiting ANNA accounts to U.K. residents and businesses, the new requirements are designed to help financial institutions, fintechs, and their customers stay one step ahead of continuously-evolving fraud threats – without compromising the customer experience.
“While these measures are mainly aimed at detecting accounts accessed and misused by criminals who have not been through our Know Your Customer process, there’s no friction at all for our regular customers,” Li said. “It’s just a quick selfie — which we are all used to doing — and it’s keeping our customers and their accounts much safer from day-to-day threats, like fraudsters trying to scam their way in or phone snatchers who try to access accounts by bypassing security protections.”
ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the company demoed its automated tax calculation solution that manages self-assessment and VAT return. The technology automatically categorizes and reconciles expenses, and calculates VAT and tax in real time. The solution then completes and submits tax and VAT returns to the HMRC.
This spring, ANNA acquired business spend management platform GetCape for an undisclosed sum. The transaction enabled ANNA to enter the Australian market; GetCape is headquartered in Sydney. The goal of the acquisition was to provide a challenge to Australia’s Big Four banks when it comes to offering expense management and corporate cards to SMEs.
ANNA was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in the U.K. Boris Dyakonov and Eduard Panteleev are Co-CEOs.
This week, Klarna Checkout, also known as KCO, announced its official rebrand as Kustom. The rebrand comes 12 years after the launch of Klarna Checkout, which at the time set a new standard for e-commerce in Northern Europe. The rebrand also arrives months after Klarna sold KCO to a consortium of investors led by BLQ Invest CEO and Founding Partner Kamjar Hajabdolahi.
“Klarna Checkout is very dear to me, and the impact it’s had on Klarna’s journey is immense,” Klarna CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski said in June when the divestment was announced. “I’m so pleased it’s finding a new home, with owners who are carefully handpicked to continue to create outstanding value for our merchant partners.”
A new home back then, and now, a new name. As Kustom, the digital checkout solution stands as one of the largest digital checkout providers in Europe. Kustom has 24,000 e-merchants and annual transaction volume of more than $14 billion (150 billion SEK). Kustom will focus on e-merchants and will add to its suite of payment methods, while keeping Klarna a key component of Kustom’s offering. Additionally, Kustom will focus on optimizing the checkout experience and building related services as opposed to offering its own payment methods or credit products.
“Our full focus will now be on our merchants and continuing to develop this great product based on their needs,” Hajabdolahi said. “We have an incredibly strong customer base, we are profitable, and we have secured financing for strategic acquisitions, which provides an excellent foundation. In the coming months, we will put all our efforts into further developing our infrastructure to expand our offering in 2025, including the introduction of new payment methods.”
Here are a trio of top takeaways from the rebrand.
Kustom will start strong
The rebrand comes at a time of strength for the digital checkout platform. The solution has a market share of more than 40% in Sweden and more than 20% across the Nordics. Kustom will also benefit from its new owners who have been credited for their “Buy and Build” strategy when it comes to acquisitions.
Strategic partnership with Stripe
In addition to its rebrand announcement, Kustom also shared news of a new strategic partnership with payments innovator Stripe. Stripe’s platform will be instrumental to Kustom’s plans to introduce new features and payment methods for e-merchants, starting in the first half of 2025.
Continued collaboration with Klarna
Despite the summer sale and the autumn rebrand, Kustom will retain its relationship with Klarna and, in fact, plans to offer Klarna’s payment methods in the future. Also many of the personnel moves accompanying the rebrand reflect more continuation than separation. Jesper Eriksson, previously Country Manager for Klarna in Sweden, will become Chief Commercial Officer for Kustom. Rasmus Fahlander, previously Senior Product Director for Klarna Checkout, will become CPO. Alexander Olsson, former finance director for the U.S. at Klarna, will take the role of CFO.
Automated reconciliation software company AutoRek has joined the Swift Partner Program.
The partnership will enable companies to have greater integration between their operations and third-party data sources.
Scotland-based AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.
AutoRek, an automated financial controls platform based in Scotland, has joined the Swift Partner Program. The move will enhance the consolidation and reconciliation of financial data and provide greater integration between companies’ operations and their third-party data sources. Leveraging its predefined catalog of API connections, AutoRek will consume messages directly from the Swift network, making the reconciliation process more efficient and providing wider data management. This will eliminate the need for AutoRek customers to both source and manage files and statements from the third-parties they are working with. Futhermore, AutoRek will investigate the creation of additional solutions to help its customers maximize the company’s connection with the Swift network.
“AutoRek is on a mission to set the benchmark in trust for finance operations and controls,” AutoRek Head of Strategic Partnerships Alastair MacKenzie said. “As a member-owned organization, we believe this collaboration with Swift will allow us to gain in-depth insights to help meet the needs of the world’s leading financial services firms.”
SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, offers a network that enables financial institutions to communicate and exchange information about financial transactions in a secure manner. Launched in 1973 and owned by the banks and member institutions that use the messaging network, the Belgian-based cooperative connects more than 11,500 banking and securities organizations, market infrastructures, and corporate customers in 200+ countries and territories.
AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope last year. At the conference, the company’s Kashif Aslam demonstrated how AutoRek’s technology helps financial institutions — including banks, asset managers, insurers, and payments businesses — manage high-volume reconciliation challenges. “Some of the benefits include a significant reduction in cost through automation of otherwise manual and intricate business processes, an increase in control over your data through increased transparency so you can see and track everything that’s happened to your data throughout its lifespan within the system, and an increased ability to demonstrate compliance with financial regulation,” Aslam explained.
In the months since then, AutoRek has forged partnerships with J.P. Morgan Payments, global funds network Calastone, and French IT services and consulting firm Capgemini. The company’s customers include fellow Finovate alums eToro and Marqeta.
Founded in 1994, AutoRek is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland. Gordon McHarg is CEO.
Customer interaction technology company Glia launched its Unified Interactions Index Online Calculator this week.
The new offering is based on the company’s Unified Interactions Index, and enables financial services companies to benchmark the quality of their customer interactions against that of their peers.
A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Glia most recently demoed its technology at Finovate’s all-digital conference in 2021.
Leave it to customer interaction technology innovator Glia to take the idea of “Knowing Your Customer” to another level.
This week, Glia unveiled its Unified Interactions Index Online Calculator. Based on the company’s Unified Interactions Index, the new tool enables financial services companies to benchmark themselves against more than 500 peer companies in terms of the efficiency, effectiveness, and overall experience in customer interactions.
“Customer interactions are the new litmus test for loyalty, but until now financial institutions haven’t had an accessible way to compare their interaction strategy with peers and relate it to tangible KPIs,” Glia Co-Founder and CEO Dan Michaeli said.
Glia’s calculator gives financial institutions apples-to-apples benchmarking data on how they compare against peers and competitors. From the answers to 14 questions, the calculator provides a score that categorizes respondents into one of three areas –front runner, pacer, or straggler — based on the efficiency, effectiveness, and experience of their customer interaction strategy. With this information, Glia provides customer recommendations to help the institution improve its interaction strategy, and improve business results based on their own unique circumstances.
“Our calculator offers a quick, simple way to evaluate where an institution stands and then provides actionable steps on easy areas of improvement,” Michaeli added. “This ultimately helps deliver the information and tools necessary to modernize and enhance customer interactions and drive successful business outcomes.”
Headquartered in New York, Glia made its Finovate debut (as SaleMove) at FinovateFall in 2015, earning its first of several Best of Show awards. Most recently, the company demoed its technology before Finovate audiences at our all-digital conference in the spring of 2021. Today, Glia has partnered with more than 500 banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions around the world to help them improve the customer experience, boost loyalty, and drive revenues. The Glia Interaction Platform unifies voice, digital customer service, and AI in an architecture that eliminates data siloes and enables companies to shift traffic between channels, enabling customer interactions to evolve naturally.
The launch of Glia’s new offering follows the introduction of the company’s ChannelLess AI-powered Interactions for Financial Services experience. This platform, in the words of Glia Chief Product Officer Jay Choi, combines a best-in-class virtual assistant, back-end AI tools, and a data analysis solution for managers to help them “find new ways to drive efficiency, performance, and increase the value delivered by the contact center.”
Back before regtech was cool, a Brooklyn, New York-based company called Alloy was introducing Finovate audiences and others to its technology that enables banks and other financial institutions to build fully-customizable APIs for customer identification and compliance. Even more, the company demonstrated how its graphical rules engine implements compliance rules in a way that actually optimizes conversions and coverage. Alloy’s technology empowers companies to choose which data sources are used and how they are applied. This lets companies decide how to customize and optimize this aspect of their own onboarding processes.
We first met Alloy in 2016, when the company demoed its technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. In the years since then, Alloy has grown into an end-to-end identity risk management platform with more than 600 banks, credit unions, and fintechs using its technology to manage fraud, credit, and compliance risks. The company has raised more than $207 million in funding according to Crunchbase. Glia most recently secured an investment of $52 million in follow-on Series C funding in September 2022 from Avenir, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and other investors.
Alloy was founded in 2015 by Tommy Nicholas (CEO), Laura Spiekerman (President), and Charles Hearn (CTO) who met while working at a payments startup. In their mission statement they note that, in the company’s early days, they faced skepticism from investors, but were heartened by client feedback, which they said was “overwhelmingly positive” and inspired the founding trio to forge ahead.
These days, more and more companies are getting the message. In the past few days, Alloy announced partnerships with commercial lending platform Numerated and embedded finance and payment solutions provider Sonovate.
Alloy’s strategic partnership with Numerated will enable the latter’s customers to conduct robust fraud checks seamlessly from within their own lending operations. The partnership will bring streamlined onboarding, enhanced fraud prevention, and a unified digital experience to Numerated’s platform. This will help Numerated’s customers capture deposits and offer competitive lending products to their SME and commercial borrowers.
“Fraud prevention and lending automation are crucial in today’s financial landscape,” Numerated CEO Dan O’Malley said. “By partnering with Alloy, we are ensuring that our platform not only meets but exceeds the expectations of financial institutions looking for secure, scalable lending solutions. This partnership allows us to deliver the best of both worlds — top-tier risk management combined with the efficiency and speed of automation.”
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Numerated leverages advanced data and AI to help companies automate their business lending operations — from application to closing. With 500,000+ businesses and 30,000+ lenders among its customers, Numerated processes $400 million in loan volume every hour and, since inception, has processed more than $50 billion in loans on its platform.
With Sonovate, Alloy’s identity risk technology will be deployed to help the company combat rising fraud trends in the U.K. as it seeks to scale its operations. In a statement announcing the partnership, the companies noted a report from UK Finance that underscored the challenge of more sophisticated, AI-powered tools that fraudsters are using against financial institutions. The report discovered that $1.5 billion (£1.17 billion) was lost to financial criminals in 2023 alone.
“With its network of data sources, Alloy gives us the power to protect our business and customers from financial crime and the flexibility to make adjustments as needed as our business scales,” Sonovate Global Head of Risk and Compliance Tom Wilson said. “We are excited for this next step in our global growth.”
U.K.-based Sonovate serves recruitment businesses, consultancies, and labor marketplaces with embedded finance and payment solutions for their workforces. Sonovate provides swift credit decisioning, same-day funding, credit insurance, collection services, and both timesheet and workflow automation. Founded in 2014, the company has funded nearly $8 billion in invoices, supporting 3,300 businesses and 50,000 workers in 44 countries.
In addition to its partnerships with fintechs, Alloy announced last month that it was working with Meridian Credit Union, to help Canada’s second largest credit union enhance its user experience and reduce fraud risk for its 380,000+ members. Also this year, Alloy published its 2024 State of Embedded Finance report which examines trends in embedded finance risk management and compliance.
Property data innovator Chimney announced a new collaboration with digital banking solutions provider Jack Henry.
The collaboration will make Chimney’s product suite available on Jack Henry’s digital banking platform.
Chimney won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2023 in New York. Previously known as Signal Intent, the company also won Best of Show at our online FinovateSpring conference in 2021.
A collaboration between property data innovator Chimney and Jack Henry will help financial institutions empower their homeowners with actionable advice about their home value, home equity, borrowing power, and more. That’s because Chimney has made its product suite, including its latest offering Chimney Home, available via Jack Henry’s digital banking platform.
Chimney’s embedded financial tools enable banks and other financial institutions to engage more account holders digitally, generate more deposits, and fund more loans by leveraging intelligent recommendations to guide customers to the products that are most appropriate for them. Chimney Home, the company’s latest product, gives homeowners actionable information about the value of their home, potential borrowing power, and the availability of pre-qualified offers — all embedded within the bank’s digital channels.
“For many years, financial institutions have lacked the resources needed to personalize product recommendations for homeowners,” Chimney Co-Founder and CEO Matthew Covi said. “At the same time, getting approved for a home equity loan is a big feat, sometimes taking months and causing frustrations for many consumers. That’s why we created Chimney Home.”
Among the financial institutions currently using Chimney’s tools via Jack Henry’s digital banking platform is Financial Plus Credit Union. The technology will help the institution better serve members who are homeowners with the data they need to maximize their home’s value and equity. Chimney’s offering also replaces the credit union’s previous, more cumbersome cross-departmental strategy in favor of an omni-channel approach that makes access easier for homeowners and the process more efficient for the credit union’s mortgage services team.
“By combining financial health data and blending it with a homeowner’s property data, we’re empowering financial institutions to make more personalized loan recommendations in the fiercely competitive home equity space and allow account holders to take action on those recommendations right within their digital banking app,” Covi said.
Jack Henry first demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2010. Today, the Monett, Missouri-based company provides banks and credit unions with an ecosystem of modern technology solutions developed internally as well as the ability to integrate with leading fintechs. Founded in 1976, Jack Henry is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker JKHY. The company has a market capitalization of $13 billion.
