Author: David Penn

Bankjoy Teams Up with Account Activation Specialist Pinwheel

Bankjoy Teams Up with Account Activation Specialist Pinwheel
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bankjoy, Daily news
  • Bankjoy, a digital banking provider for banks and credit unions, announced a partnership with Pinwheel this week.
  • Bankjoy will help its more than 70 bank and credit union customers integrate Pinwheel’s digital deposit switching (DDS) solution, Pinwheel Prime.
  • Pinwheel Prime has been credited with increasing direct deposit enrollment by 32%.

Digital banking provider Bankjoy has partnered with Pinwheel to help financial institutions remove friction from the account activation process.

Via the partnership, Bankjoy will enable its 70+ bank and credit union customers to integrate Pinwheel’s digital deposit switching (DDS) solution, Pinwheel Prime. Pinwheel Prime offers a two-click deposit switch that enables customers to set up their direct deposit in seconds rather than dealing with a multi-step process that requires customers to exit the banking experience.

“By seamlessly integrating from Bankjoy online account opening through various tightly-knit third-party integrations like Pinwheel, we can equip our clients to excel in the competitive deposit market,” Bankjoy COO Weiwei Duncan said. “Our goal is clear: to ensure that our clients not only compete but win the deposit war, leveraging technology to streamline processes and enhance user engagement.”

According to research from Pinwheel, solutions that make deposit switching faster and easier can significantly impact deposit growth. Pinwheel’s own deposit switching technology can enable FIs to boost direct deposit enrollment by 32%, and reduce the amount of time before a customer makes their first direct deposit by 65%.

“With this collaboration, we can bring the ability to easily switch direct deposit settings to an even wider set of consumers, facilitating a fairer financial systems with greater choice and portability,” Pinwheel Co-founder and CEO Kurtis Lin said.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2018, Pinwheel began the year teaming up with Finovate alum Jack Henry to imbed its direct deposit switching (DDS) solution into Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Toolkit. Pinwheel has raised $77 million in funding according to Crunchbase, and includes Indeed and Franklin Templeton among its investors.

A Finovate alum since 2016 , Bankjoy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall last year. At the conference, the company, in partnership with Panacea Financial, showing how the fintech helped the digital neobank provide financial services to medical professionals.

So far this year, Bankjoy has added two new financial institutions to its customer base: Oregon State Credit Union, which teamed up with Bankjoy in February, and Emporia State Federal Credit Union, which partnered with Bankjoy in March. Oregon State CU ($2+ billion in assets; 142,000+ members) will deploy Bankjoy’s online account opening solution as part of its strategy to fuel new member acquisition and grow deposits. Emporia State FCU, headquartered in Emporia, Kansas, launched its online and mobile banking app in March courtesy of its partnership with Bankjoy. Emporia State FCU has more than $130 million in assets and 7,800+ members.

Founded in 2015 , Bankjoy is headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan.

Photo by Min An

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AI Squared Secures $13.8 Million in Series A Funding

AI Squared Secures $13.8 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AI Squared, Funding, Fundings
  • AI integration platform AI Squared raised $13.8 million in Series A funding this week.
  • Participating in the round were ANSA Capital (Allan Jean-Baptiste), NEA (Greg Papadopoulos), and Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve System and CEO of TIAA.
  • AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 in San Francisco, California.

AI integration platform provider AI Squared has raised $13.8 million in Series A funding. The Washington, D.C.-based startup, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last year, said that the investment will help the company fulfill its goal of “fostering widespread AI adoption by embedding AI-generated data insights directly into mission-critical applications and everyday workflows,” wrote AI Squared Founder and CEO Benjamin Harvey in a blog post this week.

“As we embark on the next phase of our post-Series A journey,” Harvey added, “AI Squared remains committed to advancing seamless AI integration and real-time feedback capabilities through the development of reverse ETL and lean AI functionalities.”

Participating in the Series A were ANSA Capital (Allan Jean-Baptiste), NEA (Greg Papadopoulos), and Roger W. Ferguson Jr., former Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve System and CEO of TIAA. The investment takes the company’s total equity capital to $19.8 million, according to Crunchbase.

Founded in 2019, AI Squared helps companies integrate AI functionality into their applications. The company’s integration platform enables the integration of AI and machine learning technology into any web-based application, shortening integration times from eight months to eight hours. AI Squared enables companies to build seamless connections between data sources and applications; give their business teams easily consumable, relevant, actionable insights; and create feedback loops between consumers and developers that enhance data quality.

In his statement on the company’s recent funding, Harvey underscored that third point about AI Square’s technology, emphasizing it as a “core differentiation” from other providers. “By incorporating real-time feedback mechanisms, like survey questions, directly within business application workflows, we create a feedback loop between line of business employees and data science teams,” Harvey explained. “This allows for prompt improvements to the performance and accuracy of AI models and how insights are delivered to the business.” The result, Harvey said, was a gain in “confidence in AI’s effectiveness within business operations and workflows.”

Learn more about the company and its founder. Read our interview with AI Squared’s Benjamin Harvey from August of last year.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

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Wealthtech, Open Banking, and Personalization: 3 Conversations from FinovateEurope

Wealthtech, Open Banking, and Personalization: 3 Conversations from FinovateEurope
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, List series, Streamly

Our series on conversations with fintech experts from FinovateEurope continues this week. Today we feature three interviews I conducted with fintech professionals innovating in some of the more interesting areas of our field:

  • a discussion with everyoneINVESTED’s Jurgen Vandenbroucke on the challenge of embedding emotion into financial technology
  • a conversation with BBVA’s Jose Luis Navarro on open banking and the future of financial services
  • an interview with Katharina Lüth, Chief Client Officer and Managing Director at Raisin, on the importance of personalization in the customer experience.

Wealthtech: bringing investment solutions to banks and customers

Jurgen Vandenbroucke, Managing Director at everyoneINVESTED, talks about the unique challenges of innovating in the wealth management and investment space. He shares his thoughts on what digital engagement really means when it comes to serving investors, and discusses what changes he sees in the regulatory landscape for investors in the U.K. and Europe.

Open banking and the future of financial services

Head of Open Banking Strategy at BBVA, Jose Luis Navarro, discusses the different approaches to open banking in Europe, North America, South America, and beyond. He covers the role of regulation, the importance of understanding third party risk, and the way customer demand is shaping the perception of open banking.

Personalization and customer engagement in an international financial services company

Chief Client Officer and Managing Director at Raisin Katharina Lüth talks about the importance of personalization and customer engagement in an international financial services company. Lüth discusses how Raisin develops personalization strategies across multiple geographies, how to manage friction in the customer experience, as well as current economic trends in the U.K., Europe, and the U.S.

Photo by Donald Tong

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Coinme and CiNKO Team Up to Boost Digital Asset Adoption

Coinme and CiNKO Team Up to Boost Digital Asset Adoption
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Coinme, Daily news, MoneyGram
  • Cash exchange network Coinme has partnered with digital payments platform CiNKO.
  • The collaboration will enable Coinme customers to send funds to CiNKO wallets and cash out at participating MoneyGram locations in Latin America.
  • Seattle, Washington-based Coinme made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

A collaboration between digital payments platform CiNKO and cryptocurrency cash exchange Coinme is designed to boost access to digital assets for millions around the world. Courtesy of the partnership, Coinme customers will be able to send funds to CiNKO wallets and pick up cash from participating MoneyGram outlets in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“Our collaboration with Coinme represents a pivotal step towards advancing financial inclusion and democratizing cryptocurrency access,” CiNKO Co-founder and CEO Richard Douglas said. “By leveraging our platforms, we aim to establish a more accessible, secure, and cost-effective ecosystem for users globally.”

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Costa Rica, CiNKO innovates at the intersection of decentralized blockchains and inexpensive mobile technology to help provide banking and payment services to the unbanked and underbanked. The company offers a digital payments platform that enables cross-border transfers, payout distributions, and payment processing via traditional rails, stablecoins, and more. Available in 44 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, the company boasts low fees, including no administrative or processing fees.

“Coinme is proud to be aligned with CiNKO in a vision that both companies share,” Coinme Co-founder and CEO Neil Bergquist said. “Our mission is to provide more individuals around the world with access to a better financial future via cryptocurrency. This partnership serves that mission and the millions of people who benefit from trusted access to cryptocurrencies.”

Coinme made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco, California. At the conference, the company demoed its Embedded Crypto Finance solution, a crypto-as-a-service offering that “crypto-enables” fintechs and financial institutions, allowing them to add digital asset transaction and storage functionality to their platforms. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded in 2014, Coinme powers the world’s largest cash exchange, with more than 40,000 brick and mortar locations to facilitate instant transfers from cash to crypto and from crypto to cash.

Last month, Coinme introduced its latest cash-to-crypto experience. In addition to announcing new automatic fulfullment functionality via Coinme’s partnership with Coinstar, the company also announced higher purchasing limits. Users can now buy up to $9,500 in crypto daily and $60,000 in crypto monthly for cash transactions. Also in March, Coinme announced a major expansion of its cash network, adding 22,000+ ATMs to facilitate instant cash outs.

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More Than $113 Million Raised by Nine Alums in Q1 2024

More Than $113 Million Raised by Nine Alums in Q1 2024
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Allied Payment Network, Altro, Amplify Life Insurance, Argyle, David's column, Debbie, Digital Onboarding, Funding, Fundings, NayaOne, Quarterly Funding, Stratyfy, Trust & Will

Nine Finovate alums raised more than $113 million in Q1 of 2024. The relatively low fundraising results for the first three months of the year do reflect larger trends in fintech funding. But the fact that nearly half of the alums that raised funds in Q1 did not disclose the amounts raised tells us that the quarterly funding haul for Finovate alums was higher than the $113 million we have been able to confirm.

Previous quarterly comparisons

  • Q1 2023: $453 million raised by 13 alums
  • Q1 2022: $365 million raised by 11 alums
  • Q1 2021: $3.3 billion raised by 26 alums
  • Q1 2020: $1.3 billion raised by 14 alums

The biggest fundraising month of Q1 was likely January, which featured the $58 million investment secured by Digital Onboarding. Again, the high number of “amount undisclosed” investments makes comparison difficult.

Top Equity Investments from Q1 2024

  • Digital Onboarding: $58 million
  • Argyle: $30 million
  • Amplify Life Insurance: $16.3 million
  • Altro: $4 million

As noted above, Digital Onboarding pulled in the biggest investment of any Finovate alum in the first three months of the year. Also noteworthy was the $30 million raised by Argyle, a real-time income data platform that made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2022.

Here is our detail alum funding report for Q1 2024.

January: More than $58 million raised by three alums

February: More than $21 million raised by three alums

March: More than $34 million raised by three alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the first quarter of 2024 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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Satago Teams Up with Embedded Finance Innovator mmob

Satago Teams Up with Embedded Finance Innovator mmob
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, mmob
  • Embedded finance innovator mmob announced a partnership with U.K.-based fintech Satago.
  • The partnership will make it easier for lenders and corporations to integrate Satago’s cash flow and invoice financing solutions for SMEs.
  • mmob won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022.

Embedded finance specialist mmob has forged a partnership with U.K.-based fintech Satago. The partnership will help lenders and corporates more easily integrate and embed Satago’s Invoice Finance and Cash Flow solution – including its 3-in-1 Working Capital solution. This is courtesy of mmob’s hyper-efficient, “single snippet of code” integration that reduces the time required to embed Satago’s technology to “mere hours.”

After it has been embedded, the solution then enables SMEs to access Satago’s Invoice Financing, Risk Insights, and Credit Control offerings via their digital channels. Automatic, periodic updates ensure that the technology scales and optimizes as the business grows and expands.

“Satago’s invoice financing and cash flow management solution is a vital tool, and we are delighted to be able to help them integrate into SME-facing platforms at speed,” mmob Founder and CEO Irfan Khan said. “Mmob’s universal API adaptor removes the barriers of time and cost for companies who want to add a new solution for their customers, so now it’s easier than ever to work with Satago.”

Satago leverages real-time data, Open Banking, and API technology to help lenders and other businesses streamline operations, increase revenues, and improve the customer experience. Its 3-in-1 Working Capital solution combines invoicing financing, risk insights, and credit control to enable lenders to offer faster financing, control credit risk, and get repaid sooner. In February, the company announced that it was joining NayaOne’s Tech Marketplace. Founded in 2012, Satago was acquired by Oxygen Finance in 2017.

Headquartered in London and founded in 2020, mmob won Best of show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, the company showed its Intelligent Partnerships Infrastructure, which enables third-party providers to leverage no-code tools to build and deploy digital customer experiences. The solution includes an Analytics Module that allows companies to analyze both user behavior and revenue to further innovate and enhance the user experience.

mmob has raised $6.2 million (€5.8 million) in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company’s financial backers include high net worth individuals, banking executives, as well as angel investors.

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Brian Solis and the Case for Innovation in Financial Services

Brian Solis and the Case for Innovation in Financial Services
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2024, Speaker series

Innovative technologies are proliferating. From the renewed excitement around cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to the challenges and opportunities of AI, individuals and organizations alike are discovering novel ways to live, learn, and earn.

Banks, financial services companies, and fintechs are no exception – which makes us all the more excited to feature futurist, digital anthropologist, and author Brian Solis as our FinovateSpring Out of the Box Keynote speaker at our upcoming fintech conference in May.

Titled The Cycle for Emerging Technologies: Which Will Really Matter to Financial Services Providers and Why?, Solis’ keynote address will encourage financial institutions to be proactive when it comes to engaging emerging technologies. Indeed, the extended title of his presentation warns: “If You’re Waiting for Someone to Tell You What to Do, You’re On the Wrong Side of Change.”

Referred to as “one of the more creative and brilliant business minds of our time” by Forbes, Brian Solis specializes in the impact of technological innovation on business and society. In his most recent book, Lifescale: How to Live a More Creative, Productive, and Happy Life, Solis discusses the challenges of – and solutions to – living in a world of ever-present digital distractions. His upcoming book, Mindshift: Ignite Change, Inspire Action, and Innovate for a Better Tomorrow, is designed to help people navigate, or even lead, in a digital-first, post-industrial era.

Formerly VP of Global Innovation for Salesforce, Solis is currently Head of Global Innovation for ServiceNow. As such, he leads vision, strategy, and programming for the company’s international innovation and Executive Briefing Centers. In addition to his keynote address on Day One of FinovateSpring, Solis will also join attendees for a book signing during the networking session immediately following his presentation.

FinovateSpring is coming to San Francisco, California, May 21-23, at the Marriott Marquis San Francisco. Visit our registration page today to save your spot and take advantage of big early-bird savings!

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DataVisor and Mitek Team Up to Help Financial Institutions Fight Check Fraud

DataVisor and Mitek Team Up to Help Financial Institutions Fight Check Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, DataVisor, Mitek
  • Fraud and risk platform DataVisor announced a partnership with identity verification company Mitek this week.
  • DataVisor will integrate Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender solution into its platform to offer FIs real-time check fraud decision orchestration.
  • DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall in New York. Mitek has been a Finovate alum since winning Best of Show at its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2011.

AI-powered fraud and risk platform DataVisor has teamed up with identity verification innovator Mitek. Courtesy of the partnership, DataVisor will integrate Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender with its own advanced machine learning and real-time data analysis to give financial institutions comprehensive check fraud protection in a single platform. The partnership will enable financial institutions to execute real-time orchestration of check fraud decisions, minimize fraud losses, and boost operational efficiencies.

“Our vision has always been to create an end-to-end, comprehensive platform that effectively combats all types of financial fraud,” DataVisor CEO and Co-Founder Yinglian Xie said. “By joining forces with Mitek, we’re elevating our check fraud protection capabilities. It also streamlines the experience for our customers, eliminating the need to engage with multiple solutions in silo and therefore can address different fraud challenges more effectively with a centralized, holistic view.”

Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender puts AI and computer vision technology to work to visually evaluate distinct check attributes in real-time. The solution leverages a consortium model, which enables DataVisor customers to proactively flag future check deposits connected to stolen or fraudulent checks across participating institutions. Additionally, the combination of Mitek’s check image analysis and DataVisor’s analysis of check and customer lifecycle data will enable users to detect a wide variety of check fraud tactics including check kiting, remote deposit capture fraud, check washing, counterfeit checks, and identity theft.

“Together, we leverage our collective advanced technologies to safeguard financial transactions,” Mitek VP of Digital Banking Strategy Kerry Cantley said. “By combining DataVisor’s comprehensive platform with Mitek’s robust Check Fraud Defender consortium, we’ve created a top-tier solution, setting new standards in proactive fraud prevention.”

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateSpring in 2011, Mitek has grown into a leader in digital access solutions. The company’s technology helps increase approval rates while keeping fraudsters at bay, and enables companies to meet compliance demands from AML and KYC to GDPR and PSD2. In addition to its solution for check fraud, Mitek also offers a low code identity verification solution, an biometric authentication solution MiPass, and Mobile Deposit, the company’s mobile remote deposit capture offering. Today, 99% of U.S. banks and 7,900 of the world’s largest organizations use Mitek’s technology for mobile check deposits.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, Mitek was founded in 1986. The company trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker “MITK,” and has a market capitalization of $673 million. Max Carnecchia is Chief Executive Officer.

Among Finovate’s newest alums, DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, the company demoed its Fraud & Risk Platform that enhances fraud detection and minimizes fraud losses via a combination of device intelligence, rules and decision engines, case management, and the ability to seamlessly integrate any data source, including third-party data.

DataVisor’s partnership with Mitek comes less than a month after the Mountain View, California-based firm launched its end-to-end anti-money laundering (AML) solution. The new offering integrates with the company’s fraud platform natively to provide additional support against emerging cybersecurity threats.

Founded in 2013, DataVisor has raised more than $94 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company includes TruStage Ventures and NewView Capital among its investors.

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European Neobank Bunq Raises $31 Million in New Funding

European Neobank Bunq Raises $31 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Dutch-based digital bank bunq has secured $31 million (€29 million) in new funding.
  • The funding announcement came after the company reported a profit of $57 million (€53 million) for 2023.
  • bunq added that it will re-submit its application for a banking license in the U.S. as part of its expansion plans.

European digital bank bunq has raised $31 million (€29 million) in new funding. The capital infusion from the company’s shareholders came in the wake of bunq’s announcement that it has achieved a net profit of $57 million (€53 million) in 2023. The funds will accelerate bunq’s development strategy, as well as ensure that the company satisfies Dutch Central Bank capital requirements.

The digital bank has credited interest income for its profitability, not just in 2023, but in 2022, as well. The company reported that interest income tripled in 2023, growing from more than €41 million to more than €127 million. In addition to its profit milestone in 2023, bunq also announced that customer assets climbed from $1.9 billion (€1.8 billion) to $7.4 billion (€6.9 billion).

Bunq plans to leverage the new capital to expand more in the U.K., as well as move into the U.S. market. To this end, the institution noted that it plans to resubmit its application for a banking license with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Bunq withdrew its application earlier this year citing issues between Dutch regulators, the OCC, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In a statement, bunq noted that it was “fully committed to resolving all the differences between De Nederlandsche Bank’s, and the FDIC’s, and OCC’s supervisory expectations.”

That said, it has not been easy for financial institutions outside the U.S. to secure approval to operate within the U.S. For example, Monzo, a U.K.-based challenger bank, tried and walked away from the process in 2021 when approval seemed unlikely. Unfortunately, new U.S.-based firms looking for bank charters have only fared a little better. For every Savi Financial, there is a New Canaan Bank.

Bunq raised $111 million last July, boosting the firm’s valuation to $1.8 billion. The company ended 2023 with the launch of its generative AI financial copilot Finn. Fundamentally, Finn will help replace the search function on the bunq app. But the technology will also assist users as they plan their finances, build budgets, review transactions, and more.

“Finn will wow you,” bunq founder and CEO Ali Niknam said when the product was launched. “Years of AI innovation, coupled with a laser focus on our users, allowed us to completely transform banking as you know it. Seeing Generative AI make life so much easier for our users is incredibly exciting.”

Photo by Chait Goli

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Onboarding Automation Specialist Setuply Partners with CheckmateHCM

Onboarding Automation Specialist Setuply Partners with CheckmateHCM
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Setuply
  • Setuply and CheckmateHCM have announced a new collaboration.
  • Checkmate will deploy Setuply’s platform to help companies onboard new employees and enhance skill acquisition.
  • Setuply made its Finovate debut last May at FinovateSpring in San Francisco.

A strategic relationship between client onboarding automation specialist Setuply and human capital management solution provider CheckmateHCM will help new employees “adapt and excel in their roles swiftly,” Setuply CEO Rachel Lyubovitzky said in a statement.

“Observing our technology facilitate streamlined onboarding and creating opportunities for emerging knowledge workers is gratifying,”Lyubovitzky said. “This showcases the potential of our technology but also serves as a beacon of innovation and inspiration for the entire industry.”

Checkmate’s decision to deploy Setuply’s advanced onboarding technology comes amidst an economic backdrop of increased competition and low unemployment. This makes it a challenge for firms to hire and retain workers of all kinds, including B2B knowledge workers. Setuply’s platform not only helps bring new talent into organizations efficiently and quickly. The company’s technology also gives businesses the tools they need to close expertise gaps, provide advanced training, and accelerate skill acquisition. Using a project and template-based approach, with detailed instructions in multiple formats, the platform helps establish processes to accelerate job training that are both repeatable and testable.

“Leveraging Setuply for our client onboarding and support has transformed our approach to client onboarding and service delivery,” Checkmate CEO Josh Robinson said. “It has amplified our processes, enabling us to surpass our goals and expand our capabilities. Going beyond operational efficiency has sparked a new era of expansion for us.”

Setuply’s partnership news with Checkmate comes just weeks after the company announced the release of a suite of new features and enhancements to its platform. The updates include:

  • Questions functionality to centralize and streamline project communication between workflows.
  • User-friendly customizable data forms built natively into the product.
  • A secure data repository to simplify complex data management tasks.
  • Automated project creation to leverage comprehensive data integration to intelligently initiate new projects.
  • A customer engagement portal to enhance client interaction and project visibility.

“As companies navigate the complexities of digital transformation, the demand for intuitive and yet comprehensive solutions has never been higher,” Setuply Head of Product Kelly Blackledge said. “Setuply’s latest update responds to this need, providing innovative tools that streamline onboarding processes, enhance data management, and improve client interactions.”

Headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Setuply was founded in 2022. The company made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring 2023 and returned later that year to demo its technology at FinovateFall in New York.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

Photo by Seth Dewey on Unsplash

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Lucinity’s AI-Powered Platform Delivers Innovations in Workflow Automation

Lucinity’s AI-Powered Platform Delivers Innovations in Workflow Automation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Lucinity

Regtech innovator Lucinity is starting to draw attention.

The company, headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, Lucinity demonstrated its AI-enabled copilot, Luci, which enhances financial crime compliance via insight generation, report writing, and automation. The solution uses GenAI to streamline tasks for compliance professionals, enabling them to make informed, data-driven decisions and to address higher order challenges directly. The technology performs internet searches, background checks, fraud detection, sanctions screening, and more.

As the team explained at FinovateSpring last year, financial crime fighters spend a significant amount of their time reviewing fraud alerts to determine whether or not they are significant. A major challenge lies in the fact that accurately evaluating the risk of a given alert requires understanding a great deal about the context in which the alert occurred. Compounding this challenge is the reality that much of the information required to do this can be scattered across multiple systems, making the process both more complicated and more time-consuming. Lucinity’s technology helps financial crime professionals simplify and understand the data quickly; a tier 1 bank estimated that Luci could save them $100 million a year by slashing alert review times from an average of 2.5 hours to 25 minutes.

“What we are doing with Lucinity is taking different transactions, KYC information, etc. and creating a picture or story of what the possible financial crime could look like,” Lucinity Co-founder and CEO Gudmundur Kristjansson explained during the company’s demo. “And with that story, we’re enabling the financial crime investigators to take the investigation time from hours to minutes.”

The company’s innovations have been noticed. Just last month, Lucinity secured the Chartis Research Award for Workflow Automation. The honor recognizes the way the company’s technology leverages AI and automation to enhance compliance processes and remove inefficiencies. Lucinity was also named to Chartis Research’s top 50 Financial Crime and Compliance Companies (FCC50) for 2024.

“Through our focus on workflow automation, Lucinty is able to save thousands of hours from the investigation process, drastically reducing the cost of compliance for financial institutions,” Kristjansson said. “This means that banks can then shift resources to revenue-generating areas of the business, rather than pouring more resources into compliance.”

Lucinity enters 2024 with a host of new partnerships. Icelandic neobank indó, financial crime fighting platform Neterium, and fellow Finovate alum Trustly were among the firms Lucinity joined forces with in 2023. This year, in addition to the accolades mentioned above, the company announced the appointment of Theresa Bercich as Chief Product Officer and recognition of her as a Co-Founder. In a statement, Kristjansson credited Bercich for her work on Luci and for her contributions to the company as a whole. “Her journey from a data scientist to VP of Product, and now to CPO and Co-founder, mirrors the growth and dynamic evolution of Lucinity itself,” Kristjansson said.

Lucinity has raised more than $25 million in funding. The company’s total includes an investment of $17 million it raised in 2022. Keen Venture Partners led that Series B round.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

Photo by Marc-Antoine

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Wise Platform Powers New Global Account and Card Program for Brazilian Fintech Nubank

Wise Platform Powers New Global Account and Card Program for Brazilian Fintech Nubank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Nubank, Wise
  • Brazilian fintech and financial services giant Nubank has teamed up with Wise Platform.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, Wise Platform will power a new global account and international debit card for Nubank.
  • Wise Platform offers banks, financial institutions, and businesses the ability to leverage its infrastructure to make cheaper, easier payments.

Brazilian fintech Nubank has partnered with Wise Platform to power its global account and international debit card. Wise Platform, Wise’s infrastructure solution for banks, financial institutions, and businesses, now counts more than 85 partners around the world, including Bank Mandiri, Monzo, and Google Pay.

The partnership will power Nubank’s new global account and international debit cards for the fintech’s premium tier, “Ultravioleta,” customers. The collaboration will also enable Nubank customers to hold both U.S. dollars and euros, as well as use their card to spend in local currencies in 200 countries and territories.

“Through this partnership, we’re helping Nubank customers access fast, transparent payments and the ability to easily manage money across currencies,” Wise Platform Global Managing Director Steve Naudé said. “Across the sector, we are seeing a real push from banks and financial institutions to provide their customers with best-in-class international payments services. By working with Wise Platform, banks are able to achieve this in a matter of months or even weeks.”

Wise’s partnership with Nubank represents continued growth for the company in Brazil; Wise reports that it has issued more than one million Wise cards within 15 months of its going live in the country. For its part, Nubank has more than 90 million customers in South America, with more than 85 million in Brazil.

Nubank introduced itself to Finovate audiences in 2016 with its presentation at FinDEVr NewYork. In the years since, the company has grown from a financial services startup to the largest digital bank in Brazil and the second largest financial institution in the country. Late last month, Nubank announced that it has reached the four million customer milestone for its Nubank PJ offering, launched in 2019, which provides solutions for entrepreneurs. This week, the firm’s subsidiary, Nu Colombia, secured a $150 million loan from DFC, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, to help expand its services in the country.

Making its Finovate debut as TransferWise in 2013, the company rebranded as Wise in 2021 to reflect its evolution beyond its origins as an innovator in the international money transfer space. Today, the company supports three main lines of business: its global money transfer service and international account; Wise Business, a global business account with features such as mass payouts and multi-user access; and Wise Platform, which enables companies to give their customers easier, cheaper payments by leveraging Wise’s infrastructure. Co-founder Kristo Käärmann is CEO.

Photo by Caroline Cagnin

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