Seattle-based Finagraph Completes $5 Million Financing

Seattle-based Finagraph Completes $5 Million Financing

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In a round led by Moody’s Corporation, financial business data specialist Finagraph has raised $5 million in funding. The company, which demoed at FinovateSpring 2013 as BBC Easy, will use the fresh capital for both product development as well as increasing its market reach in North America.

“Finagraph streamlines the data collection process by replacing weeks of back-and-forth emails and phone calls with the click of a button, instantly transferring financial and credit information,” Finagraph CEO James Walter explained. “Harnessing the power of technology to automate the exchange of financial information between parties is transformative,” he said.

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From left: Finagraph co-founders James Walter, CEO, and Corey Ross, VP sales, demonstrated BBC Easy at FinovateSpring 2013.

This is not the first time Moody’s has expressed interest in the company. Earlier this year, we reported that Moody’s had taken a minority stake in Finagraph, though the amount of the investment was not disclosed. At the time, Mark Almeida, president of Moody’s Analytics, said Finagraph’s technology would help “bankers make better, faster lending decisions for the growing SME market.” The current $5 million investment from Moody’s includes that funding from this spring, as well as recent contributions from other investors.

Finagraph’s flagship technology is its Finagraph Engine, which gathers, processes, and analyzes SME financial data quickly with 100% accuracy. Lenders can add the Finagraph Engine to their loan-origination system or app to better collect key business data as well as compare performance against various benchmarks as well as varying time periods. Finagraph also provides its BBC Easy solution, which automates the borrowing base certificate process for lenders and SMEs, and Finagraph Academy, a collection of webinars and seminars for bankers and business owners that provide guidance on building client relationships, managing business finances, and more.

Founded in 2010 as BBC Easy and rebranding as Finagraph in 2013, the Seattle-based company demonstrated its Base Borrowing Certificate technology at FinovateSpring. In September, Finagraph’s technology was leveraged by Moody’s Analytics to build its MARQ portal, which automates the exchange of financial data between borrowers and lenders, generating the MARQ small business score in the process.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Seattle-Based Finagraph Completes $5 Million Financing.

Around the web

  • TSYS inks agreement to process debit transactions for Virgin Money’s U.K. customers.
  • Marcus by Goldman Sachs deploys Infosys Finacle core banking technology.
  • FIS to offer Early Warning’s Zelle Network P2P service as part of real-time payments package.
  • Corezoid achieves Amazon Web Services (AWS) Financial Services Competency status.
  • Cachet Financial Solutions rolls out prepaid mobile-money-platform upgrade.
  • Tradeshift launches two new joint ventures in China to meet demand for supply-chain digitalization.
  • Cortera launches Cortera Decisions, a new automated scorecard platform.
  • Taulia to power supply-chain finance solution for Exostar.
  • CHROME FCU taps NYMBUS for SmartCore digital banking.
  • Ripple hires former CME Group executive Miguel Vias as head of XRP (extended resource planning) markets.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Five Degrees Raises $10 Million in New Funding

Five Degrees Raises $10 Million in New Funding

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A new investment of more than $10 million (€10 million) will help core banking technology provider Five Degrees focus on both product development and global expansion. The funding comes courtesy of new investor Karmijn Kapitaal and existing investors, 5Square and Velocity Capital.

Calling Karmijn Kapitaal “more than just a new shareholder,” Five Degrees CEO Martijn Hohmann said the investment was a “sign of trust in our belief that delivering top technology is about people and creating an environment that is about unconventional thinking brought to perfection.” Karmijn Kapitaal partner Hadewych Cels added that the investment in Five Degrees represented a “unique opportunity to broaden” his firm’s portfolio. “We see Five Degrees as a winner in FinTech,” Cels said.

Five Degrees’ Matrix digital banking platform provides retail and private banks with a fully automated solution that supports any product or channel via a web-based, mid-office environment connected to either the client’s legacy back-office or Matrix’s. The technology can be deployed in a variety of pre-set configurations ranging from retail and SME banking to micro finance. The Matrix platform was recently deployed by LeasePlan Bank.

Five Degrees demonstrated its back-office solution, Matrix Accounts, at FinovateEurope 2016. This past spring, Five Degrees was named to FintechCity’s Fintech50 2016 and won the Banking & IT category at the Dutch Fintech Awards. Last summer, Five Degrees announced the addition of new chief commercial officer, Peter-Jan van de Venn. Five degrees was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Breukelen, The Netherlands.

Lleida.net Brings Connectaclick to Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha

Lleida.net Brings Connectaclick to Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha

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Fresh off its performances at FinovateAsia and FinDEVr—where the company was awarded “Favorite Alum” by conference attendees—Lleida.net announces a partnership with the largest financial institution in Ecuador. The agreement will bring Lleida.net’s electronic notification and contracting technology, Connectaclick, to Banco Pichincha and its customers in Peru, Columbia, Bolivia, Panama, as well as Ecuador. “The agreement ratifies the interest of the banking sector for contracting and notification services as an added value for their clients,” Lleida.net CEO Sisco Sapena said. “We are proud that such a consolidated bank in Latin America entrusted us for an important and sensitive area for the company.”

Lleida.net’s data-validation technology provides businesses and other organizations with confirmation of both receipt and content of electronically delivered material. The company’s Connectaclick solution, active in more than 150 countries, enables e-signature contracts to be delivered from anywhere using any device, with proof of delivery provided via registered SMS, email, or invoice. “Keep in mind that (telecom) operators are considered trusted third parties in front of the law,” Sapena explained at our FinDEVr conference this fall, adding that the technology provides an additional level of assurance that satisfied legal notification requirements. “Depending on what we say on that certificate,” Sapena said, “and depending on the case obviously, people can be jailed.”

Founded in 1995 and headquartered in Lleida, Spain, Lleida.net demonstrated its registered email and electronic contracting technology at FinovateAsia 2016. In September the company announced that it had won a key U.S. patent it said marked a “turning point” for its plans to expand internationally. Earlier this year, Lleida.net launched its Platform4Shares campaign in which the company offered its services in exchange for equity shares. The initiative was modeled after MediatorEquity, in which advertising agencies provide services to startups in exchange for a stake in the company.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • “Fintech Favorites: Blockchain, the Banks, and the Underbanked”
  • Lleida.net Brings Connectaclick to Ecuador’s Banco Pichincha.

Around the web

  • Swiss fintech innovator Net Guardians to deploy its security solution, FraudGuardian, with National Bank of Malawi.
  • iSignthis partners with Leverate Financial Services, providing the online FX and CFD broker with its full Paydentity solution.
  • YourStory profiles Finovate newcomer MarketsMojo and its plan to make equity investing mainstream.
  • Frankfurter Allgemeine features Fintura in a look at the fintech scene in Frankfurt.
  • True Potential wins approval as workplace pension adviser from The Pensions Regulator.
  • PayPal reports mobile shopping represented a third of sales on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
  • Lighter Capital named the fastest growing private tech company in Washington state.
  • LTP lists BankBazaar, CoverHound, InforcePRO, and Sureify on its list of revolutionary insuretech startups.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Fintech Favorites: Blockchain, the Banks, and the Underbanked

Fintech Favorites: Blockchain, the Banks, and the Underbanked

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Bye-bye blockchain consortium?

What are blockchain watchers to make of the recent decision by three big banks to withdraw from blockchain consortium, R3?

Goldman Sachs was the first to break ranks. One of the founding members of R3 in 2014, Goldman let its membership lapse as of the end of October, according to the Wall Street Journal. The withdrawal from R3 was not a reflection of Goldman’s interest in the technology; WSJ reports that the bank continues to focus on blockchain technology internally, pursue patents in the field, and last year was part of the team that invested $50 million in bitcoin startup, Circle Internet Financial.

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Santander was second, announcing its decision “within hours” of Goldman Sachs. The Spanish bank has said little about its decision (Santander provided CoinDesk with a nine-word response that confirmed their withdrawal and nothing more). And this past week, Morgan Stanley announced it was leaving R3.

So why are these banks headed for the R3 exits? One argument is that R3 is passing the hat, looking for equity investment in order to take the consortium to the next level. In fact, R3 is said to have lowered its funding target from $200 million to $150 million, and give bank members an equity stake of 60%. In a statement issued the same day as Santander’s announcement, R3 noted that consortium members “all have different capacities and capabilities which naturally change over time.” If the $150 million fundraising target is not reached, the round will be opened up to “the strategic investors.”

Blockchain and the underbanked

  • The role of the blockchain in supporting underserved communities is more than social justice hype. This week, more than 100 migrant workers from Myanmar concluded a test of a blockchain remittance solution developed by Everex. The mobile payments app is based on the Ethereum blockchain, and more than 850,000 Thai baht (approximately $24,000) was transferred.
  • A new paper by the Charities Aid Foundation cites blockchain technology as a way to help charities better manage donations, handle complex accounting challenges, as well as conduct research. The report, “Giving Unchained—Philanthropy and the Blockchain,” discusses a variety of ways the blockchain technology could be put to use, including enabling the donation of intangible assets such as intellectual property, “radical transparency,” and smart, “self-governing contracts.”

Blockchain.gov?

RJ Krawiec and Jason Killmeyer took to TechCrunch recently to look at ways that blockchain technology can be used to improve government services. “Blockchain is already driving a tremendous amount of investment and innovation across a wide range of industries, starting with financial services,” the pair wrote. “The government could be next.”

For Krawiec and Killmeyer, the just-concluded presidential election season in the U.S. provides one example of how blockchain technology’s “unique and seemingly contradictory combination of attributes” could be put to use. Digital voting and identification, electronic health records, and “audit-free tax audits” were among the use-cases the two suggested could be right around the corner given a sufficiently motivated public sector.

Bitcoin’s mini boom

Blockchain opened its 10 millionth digital wallet this week. Peter Smith, Blockchain co-founder and CEO, credited the election victory of President-elect Trump for the surge in interest in the alt-currency. Quoted in Business Insider, Smith said, “People are basically hedging against economic instability. It’s a worrying time to be holding a lot of British pound, or if you’re America, people flee to safe-haven assets. Bitcoin is one of those.”

Part of the gain in bitcoin prices is also widely believed to be a function of India’s rumored decision to ban the importation of gold. The country is one of the largest gold importers in the world, buying 700 tons a year. But efforts to fight money-laundering and reduce corruption may lead the Indian government to put restrictions on gold imports, as criminals shift toward alternative “safe haven” assets like gold.

A bitcoin pioneer’s blockchain-based comeback

Bitcoin pioneer Charlie Shrem has launched Intellisys Capital, a startup that will offer a private equity investment portfolio called Mainstream Investment that will issue tokens representing “blockchain-based shares” in a variety of companies in manufacturing, real estate, and other industries.

“The strategy is designed to create symbiosis between blockchain assets and traditional finance and to help many traditional sectors move toward state-of-the-art improvement,” Shrem’s company said in a statement.

Shrem was arrested and convicted of money laundering and acting as an unlicensed money transmitter in 2014. He was released from a high-security federal prison camp this spring. The case was controversial, with some in the cryptocurrency community insisting Shrem did nothing wrong.

Like the blockchain? You’ll love FinDEVr

If you’re a developer working with blockchain technology, have we got a conference for you! FinDEVr returns to New York, 21/22 March 2017 for two days of presentations all about the technology driving innovation in financial services today. Visit our FinDEVr page for more information.

Germany’s figo Picks Up $7 Million in Series B Funding

Germany’s figo Picks Up $7 Million in Series B Funding

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Banking service provider figo has picked up an investment from strategic partner DB1 Ventures, the VC wing of Deutsche Börse Group. The “seven digit” investment gives Deutsche Börse a sizable minority stake in figo, and is designed to help fuel the company’s international expansion. Also participating in the round were “reputable business angels from Germany.” With the completed series B, figo raised more than $7 million (€ 6.8 million), and now has total capital of more than $12 million.

“In a changing financial landscape, figo has established itself as a reliable partner and has built up a fantastic fintech ecosystem around itself,” Deutsche Börse Managing Director Ankur Kamalia said. “We look forward to supporting their growth and also learning from the innovation they are driving.” Calling Deutsche Börse a “perfect partner” for his company, figo CEO André M. Bajorat (pictured) said the investment and strategic partnership will enable figo to “gain new enhanced visibility in the industry.”

figo_andrebajoratFounded in 2012 and headquartered in Germany, figo demonstrated its cloud banking API at FinovateEurope 2013. Europe’s first banking service provider, figo provides a banking API that enables third parties to connect apps and services to more than 3,000 FIs and financial service organizations. Operating in Germany and Austria, figo specializes in solutions to help companies with their Payments Services Directive strategies (PSD2). This, according to some, has been key to renewed investment interest in the company and was highlighted by Deutsche Börse’s Kamalia. “The figo team led by André Bajorat has made clear the opportunities that exist for virtually every player in the financial sector and the enormous potential that PSD2 implementation offers to European industry,” Kamalia said.

Last month, figo organized Hamburg FinTech Week, bringing together 85 programmers and product developers to focus on the latest innovations and trends in the German fintech scene. The event also featured a hackathon called Bankathon 2016 designed to promote development and create solutions based on PSD2 and XS2A (“access to account”). Access to account is a key component of PSD2, which encourages third parties to participate more directly in financial services, specifically in the areas of enabling financial data to be read and deployed in third-party services and solutions, as well as bank transfers using third-party apps. Writing about figo—the company’s recent funding and PSD2—Finance Magnates noted that figo’s embrace of PSD2 has “strategically placed itself at a key point in the payments realm, helping build a new banking infrastructure in a world hamstrung by open APIs.”

Finovate Alumni News

Around the web

  • Mitek recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America.
  • FinDEVr alum Hyperwallet teams up with music and media rights company, USA Media Rights.
  • San Diego Union-Tribune adds Jack Henry & Associates to its Top Workplaces list.
  • Yseop wins Information Technology Innovation award from Ventana Research.
  • Liferay opens new office in Dubai.

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.

 

Sezzle Raises Seed Funding Ahead of Shopify Debut

Sezzle Raises Seed Funding Ahead of Shopify Debut

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It’s a good time to be Sezzle.

The alternative payments company that made its Finovate Debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring has just completed a seed round of funding, raising $1.85 million. The funding surpassed expectations, according to Sezzle founder and CEO Charlie Youakim, who stated that the company has seen continued interest from investors, oversubscribing their round. “Our ultimate goal is to be successful, even if the founding team ends up owning a little less,” he said. Participating in the seed round were Belgium’s E-Merge and China’s CSC Upshot, as well as “angels, superangels, friends and family.”

The funding for Sezzle accompanies news that the company will launch on Shopify with its first set of merchants. Sezzle is in final testing with clients now and expects to be able to announce the names of its merchant partners in mid-December. Merchants are expected to roll out the integration over the next couple of weeks, Youakim said.

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CEO and founder Charlie Youakim demonstrated Sezzle at FinovateSpring 2016.

Founded in January 2016 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Sezzle introduced its payment solution at FinovateSpring 2016. Sezzle is a payment platform that leverages bank sign-on technology and ACH rails to give merchants a cheaper option—fees of 1.5% and 15 cents for transactions—that is half the cost of credit cards and PayPal. At the same time, consumers using Sezzle benefit from rewards—currently 1% cash back—on purchases that are essentially debit-card transactions. “Typically, people convert to credit cards because of rewards,” Youakim explains, “but there are issues and anxieties for young people [when it comes to credit cards and debt].” For these consumers, debit payments are much more familiar. Youakim also points out that Sezzle is a cardless option, which also appeals to younger consumers.

Going forward, Youakim hopes to add merchant-backed rewards as well as potentially increasing the cash-back amount as adoption of Sezzle increases. “We are getting more attention from users and merchants,” he said, pointing out that some merchants who are planning to deploy the technology are waiting until after the Christmas season. “We are definitely getting some interest out there from merchants,” Youakim added, “a few ‘not yets,’ but not very many [saying] ‘No.'”

True Link Financial Lands $3.6 Million Investment

True Link Financial Lands $3.6 Million Investment

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With an investment of $3.6 million, True Link Financial has more than doubled its total capital, which now stands at more than $7 million in combined equity and debt financing. The company’s latest investment comes courtesy of a quartet of investors: Kapor Capital, Initialized Capital, Symmetrical Ventures, and the Ziegler Link-Age Longevity Fund.

While much of the fintech world remains mesmerized by the millennial market, True Link Financial CEO and co-founder Kai Stinchcombe believes that baby boomers—and increasingly genX-ers—are where it’s at. “We think seniors are the most exciting market in financial services today,” Stinchcombe said. “Half of the wealth in the U.S. is owned by people 59 years and over, and as baby boomers retire, the tidal wave is only growing.”

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Fom left: Kai Stinchcombe, CEO, and Claire McDonnell, COO, demonstrating the True Link Card at FinovateSpring 2014.

True Link Financial said that the funding will help the company’s sales and marketing in support of its key products; namely, the True Link Card and a suite of solutions to help administrators manage trusts and benefit eligibility. The additional capital will also help the company as it launches its new online advisory service, True Link Financial Advisors, which emerged from private beta this week after spending the past year serving “several hundred” of the company’s existing customers.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, True Link Financial demonstrated its True Link Card at FinovateSpring 2014. The company provides a variety of financial planning and management services, specializing in retirees, including both free online portfolio planning and construction as well as fee-based, ongoing advisory services. True Link provides a hybrid investment planning solution, combining online planning technology and customized investment plans with human advisors to give clients the best of both worlds in terms of convenience and support.

“We want our customers to feel confident that investment decisions are always made in their best interest,” the True Link CEO said. Saying that “trust” is often the missing ingredient in the relationships between financial services companies and their customers, Stinchcombe added that True Link advisers do not work on commission and do not sell proprietary products. “Our broad-based approach is delivered for one simple, transparent fee,” he said.

Envestnet | Yodlee to Support Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Business

Envestnet | Yodlee to Support Morgan Stanley Wealth Management Business

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In October, Envestnet | Yodlee reported the full integration of Yodlee’s technology into the Envestnet platform. A month later, the company has announced the full integration’s latest win: a partnership that will put Envestnet | Yodlee’s data aggregation, reconciliation, and digital apps at the core of Morgan Stanley’s wealth-management business.

Anil Arora, Envestnet | Yodlee CEO, cited the partnership as evidence of his company’s ability to sell “more comprehensive solutions to large sophisticated financial institutions.” Managing more than $2 trillion in client assets, Morgan Stanley will integrate digital apps and data-aggregation technology from Yodlee and data-reconciliation solutions from Envestnet. “We look forward to building value for Morgan Stanley’s advisers and clients with our combined market leading technology,” Arora said.

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Katy Gibson, VP, product applications, demonstrated Envestnet | Yodlee’s dynamic intelligence technology at FinovateFall 2016.

The news from Envestnet | Yodlee comes as the company ramps up its relationships with wealth managers and financial planners. Earlier this month, CUNA Mutual Retirement Solutions announced a partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee that will help its financial plan-sponsors satisfy regulatory requirements. In October, Envestnet | Yodlee reported that it had “deepened its integration and relationship” with the National Advisors family of companies and in August, Envestnet | Yodlee announced that it would power United Capital’s FlexScore solution. And, yes, that’s the same FlexScore Finovate alum that was acquired by United Capital earlier this year.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, Yodlee was purchased by Envestnet for $660 million in August 2015. The company demoed its Tandem PFM app at FinovateAsia 2013, earning a Best of Show trophy, and was a crowd favorite a year later at the inaugural FinDEVr developers conference in 2014. More recently, at FinovateFall2016, Envestnet | Yodlee’s Katy Gibson (pictured above) and Sam Tomushev demonstrated the company’s dynamic intelligence technology.

Fintech Trending: Making Fintech Great Again?

Fintech Trending: Making Fintech Great Again?

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For fintech followers, one of the most interesting things about President-elect Donald Trump is the fact that his most prominent Silicon Valley supporter was and is Peter Thiel, the self-described “conservative libertarian” co-founder of Finovate alum, PayPal.

Good evening. I’m Peter Thiel. I build companies and I’m supporting people who are building new things, from social networks to rocket ships. I’m not a politician. But neither is Donald Trump. He is a builder, and it’s time to rebuild America.

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PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel addressed delegates at the Republican National Convention in the summer of 2016.

Where I work in Silicon Valley, it’s hard to see where America has gone wrong. My industry has made a lot of progress in computers and in software, and, of course, it’s made a lot of money. But Silicon Valley is a small place. Drive out to Sacramento, or even just across the bridge to Oakland, and you won’t see the same prosperity.

Thiel’s relationship with Trump has only intensified since the election. The PayPal co-founder has joined the President-elect’s transition team and is rumored to be under consideration for a position within the administration. That said, for better or worse, fintech probably will not be a focus of the Trump administration, Thiel support notwithstanding.

“Better or worse” is the question on everyone’s mind. For some, the comparisons between a Trump victory and the Brexit vote in the U.K. suggested a near-term, “wait-and-see” pullback in fintech investment. For others a Trump administration would mean labor shortages and potential brain-drain as a stricter immigration policy worked its way through the workforce. Note that Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, has supported legislation that would reduce the number of H-1B visas by more than 20%. And now that we know that the Trump presidency will be accompanied by a Republican Senate and House of Representatives, broader regulatory changes—reform or repeal of Dodd-Frank, the return of Glass-Steagall—are also poised to present challenges for fintechs across the industry.

So which fintechs seem best positioned to take advantage of the kind of policy changes we can expect from a Trump administration? Lenders in general and alternative lenders like student-loan facilitators are among the most likely winners. From increases in interest rates to regulatory relief to renewed competition from the private sector, the landscape for lenders is the one most likely to change based on policies that are most likely to be enacted. Writing for S&P Global Market Intelligence, Eric Turner explains:

With already strong brands and copious amounts of borrower data, digital lenders in this space could see an increase in originations if the federal government exits the student-loan business. While these lenders have historically focused on refinancing student debt, largely because of the inability to compete with government rates and guarantees, the door may now be open to a broader array of products including direct origination.

Turner cites SoFi’s decision to leave the direct market for MBA student loans and the company’s ill-fated return to and re-exit from that market, as the kind of opportunity that alternative lenders may circle back to. He notes that the Republican platform for 2016 states that the “federal government should not be in the business of originating student loans.”

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“The United States Senate, A.D. 1850” by Peter F. Rothermel

The outlook is less certain for other aspects of fintech. How would digital payments companies fare in a world with a weakened, or nonexistent, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Changes in the fiduciary responsibility of investment advisers might have presented a challenge for some robo-advisors (and an opportunity for some technologists) were we facing a Clinton administration. But with Trump—and advisers like Anthony Scaramucci—a move in the opposite direction seems more likely.

If lenders have something to look forward to over the next four years, are there areas of fintech with something to lose? A broader concern is that Republican opposition to “net neutrality” could change the incentive structure around open-source development in a way that could hurt innovation. Writing in American Banker, John Adams saw the potential of a significant impact from a shift in policy away from the “open internet.”

The stakes are particularly high for fintech firms, a large portion of which rely on open-source development or technology toolkits that decentralize innovation, allowing businesses to become payment companies with minimal coding. A significant amount of money has already poured into this market, notably PayPal’s transformative $800 million acquisition of Braintree, the development platform used by Uber, Airbnb, OpenTable and TaskRabbit.

In other words, without an open internet, there would be no Uber.

This goes beyond the kind of “Technophobe in Chief” remark from the wits at GeekWire, and worries over Trump’s feud with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Instead, it reminds us that any changes Washington brings to fintech will have as much to do with Republican control of Congress—and, barring an epic filibuster fight, a sympathetic Supreme Court, as well—as they do with having Donald Trump in the White House. Even without a specific agenda for fintech, the policies long sought by the GOP are more likely to have an effect on the opportunities for alt lenders, the responsibilities of robo-advisers, and the environment for open development and innovation, than the policies of the President-elect.