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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Shift4partners with Atlante to provide payments solution for electric vehicle charging.
Cryptocurrency / Blockchain
African-based blockchain payments network Zoneraises $8.5 million in seed funding.
Figure TechnologiesunveilsFigure Markets, a single platform where investors can trade a wide range of blockchain-native assets from crypto to stocks to alternative investments.
Financial inclusion
Building society Nationwideintroduces new digital service using British Sign Language (BSL) for deaf and hearing-challenged customers.
Insurtech
iPipeline, a digital solutions provider for the insurance industry, launched its OneView solution that tracks the progress and status of annuity orders in real-time.
Taxation / Accounting
Free Agentexpands its smart tax calculation functionality to all NatWest Group customers via their business banking app.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments and news from Sweden. Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a number of fintechs from Sweden, a country with a population of more than 10.5 million and the twelfth largest economy as measured by GDP.
Last month at FinovateEurope, we introduced Swedish embedded banking and payments company Visualizy to our audiences. Founded in 2022, the company offers a multi-bank platform that helps businesses lower costs, reduce errors, and boost security in their financial and payment operations.
Other recent Finovate alums headquartered in Sweden include StockRepublic (FinovateEurope 2023), Econans (FinovateEurope 2021), Minna Technologies (FinovateEurope 2019), and Trustly (FinovateEurope 2013. This week’s Finovate Global will include news from two older Finovate alums hailing from Sweden: Tink – which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014 – and Klarna, a Finovate alum since 2012.
Klarna rolls out open banking-powered settlements in the U.K.
Swedish payments network and shopping assistant Klarnahas begun to introduce open banking-powered settlements in the U.K. This means that consumers in the U.K will be able to pay Klarna directly from their bank account rather than a debit card. It also means that the company is making good on its objective of building a payments network outside the traditional card networks.
“Open banking offers a huge opportunity for Klarna to reduce the cost of payments to society by cutting out the established card payment networks, and using up-to-date bank account data to make ever better lending decisions,” Klarna VP, Open Banking, Wilko Klaassen said. “This new launch builds on the success we have seen in 10 countries across Europe and will give U.K. open banking a major boost.”
Ease of use is one major advantage open banking settlements provide consumers. For example, there is no need to enter personal payment details into the website of retailer that the consumer might not know very well. Instead, all a consumer needs to do is click on the “Pay by bank” option. This delivers the consumer to their mobile banking app where they can complete their transaction quickly and securely.
Launching the service in the U.K. is expected to be a major boon for Klarna; approximately five million U.K. consumers currently use open banking payment each month. Outside of the U.K., Klarna’s “Pay by bank” solution is currently live in 10 countries. More than 20 million consumers each month are taking advantage of the technology.
Tink adds to U.K. leadership team
Speaking of open banking, Swedish open banking platform Tink announced this week that it is bolstering its leadership ranks. The company – which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2014 – has appointed Ian Morrin as Head of Payments & Platforms, Andrew Boyajian as Head of Products for Payments & CX, and Jack Spiers as Banking and Lending Director.
Of the three new hires, Jack Spiers may ring a bell with Finovate audiences. Spiers was a recent speaker at FinovateEurope, where he provided a Special Address on “Transforming Lending in the Cost of Living Crisis.” In his presentation, Spiers – whose ten years of fintech experience include tenures at both Klarna and Clearpay – discussed how traditional methods are falling short in their ability to accurately assess creditworthiness. Instead, he pointed to new research from Tink that showed how data-enriched affordability checks can do better.
The new hires come just days after Tink announced a partnership with German railway company Deutsche Bahn. Via the new agreement, Tink will offer Deutsche Bahn customers optimized direct debit setups. This will enable customers to use Deutsche Bahn’s modern mobility-sharing systems, which are run by Deutsche Bahn subsidiary DB Connect. The railway company will also leverage Tink’s Account Check technology for its car-sharing and bike-sharing networks, Flinkster and Call a Bike.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Tink most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2019. A two-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Tink was acquired by Visa in 2022 for $2 billion.
Swedish Central Bank looks to defend cash
If the Swedish Central Bank is for cash, then who can be against it?
That’s one of the questions the nation’s central bank is asking in the wake of 2023 survey that indicated that half of the survey’s respondents had run into circumstances in which they wanted to pay with cash, but merchant would not accept it. According to a report issued by Sweden’s Riksbank that is based on those results, this number was only 37% a year ago.
The report indicates that the supply of cash services in Sweden is decreasing and has been since at least 2016. Cash services refer to those locations for cash withdrawals, deposits of daily takings, as well as over-the-counter payments. This decline has slowed somewhat in the past five years, as new regulations have insisted that banks share the responsibility of providing cash services with other non-bank institutions. But the downward trend is clear.
“Payments must work for everyone, Riksbank governor and chairman of the executive board Erik Thedéen said in a press release. “In the longer term, all payments may be digital – but until then, cash plays an important role. We need legislation to ensure that cash can be used to pay. Banks must also ensure that more customers have access to payment accounts.”
To this end, in addition to calling for further research and study, the Swedish central bank proposed, for example, that banks should ensure that cash can be transferred to and from retail outlets at reasonable prices. At present, only one private company does this. Another proposal suggests that banks be obligated to accept banknote and coin deposits from private individuals. As noted above, there is not a current requirement for banks to do so.
These changes, along with others to help more individuals secure payment accounts, are likely to help Sweden increase financial inclusion as the country continues the rapid digitalization of its payment market. There will be no retreat from this drive for “faster, smoother, and more efficient payments.” But ensuring the availability and utility of cash, at least in the meantime, will both support that transition as well as ensure fewer Swedes are left behind on the way.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa
U.K.-based fintech Unlimit secured a license from the Bank of Tanzania to do operate as a payments service provider (PSP) in the country.
African fintech PalmPay launched a pair of new products in Nigeria: Unlimited Free Transfer and Target Savings.
Mastercard and South African fintech SAVA teamed up to bring innovative payment options – including digital bank accounts and accounting integration tools – to small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs).
Central and Eastern Europe
Berlin, Germany-based brokerage-as-a-service platform lemon.markets launched this week in partnership with Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Tradegate.
The Hungarian Ministry of the Economy has suggested new rules to codify the use of digital assets in the country.
German fintech Naro emerged from stealth this week with $3 million in pre-seed funding.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Israel-based fintech Nayaz shared its plans for expansion in Latin America following its acquisition of Brazil’s VMtecnologia.
Dunes Financial, headquartered in the UAE, agreed to acquire the technology assets of Be Mobile Africa.
The Financial Brand profiled former Bank Leumi CEO Rakefet Russak-Aminoach.
Central and Southern Asia
India’s UPI linked with Nepal’s largest payment network, Fonepay.
Writing in IBA.org, Sahar Iqbal assessed the current fintech landscape of Pakistan.
Courtesy of a partnership with Mastercard, India’s IndusInd Bank will launch an tokenizable wearable solution called Indus PayWear.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Aquis Technologies secured a contract to support the operation of the Central Bank of Colombia, Banco de la República.
Mexican challenger bank Fondeadora turned to MeaWallet for tokenization services.
Banco do Brasil teamed up with Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to test offline payments for its CBDC project.
Asia-Pacific
Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (Bank Muamalat) forged a multi-year collaboration with Google Cloud en route to its transformation into a digital Islamic bank.
Philippines-based Metropolitan Bank & Trust (Metrobank) partnered with Temenos to enhance its wealth management offerings.
Australian regulators are looking to regulate Buy Now Pay Later products under the nation’s Credit Act.
En route to FinovateEurope in London last month, a cab driver asked me what I did for a living. After giving it a few moments of thought (“fintech research analyst” doesn’t always cut it), I told him, “I get to meet interesting people and ask them interesting questions.”
This year at FinovateEurope, I had the opportunity to sit down with more than a baker’s dozen of fintech entrepreneurs, analysts, and authors to talk about some of the top trends in fintech and financial services. Here, as part of our Finovate Speaker Series, I’m looking forward to sharing these conversations with you over the next few weeks.
First up, in commemoration of International Women’s History Month, my interviews with Samantha Seaton, CEO of Moneyhub, and Anette Broløs, founder of Finthropology.
Samantha Seaton is CEO of open banking, open finance, and open data platform Moneyhub. The company’s technology helps transform data into personalized digital experiences and initiate payments. Seaton is also a Non-Executive Director at the Charities Aid Foundation Bank and at The Investing and Savings Alliance (TISA).
In our conversation, Seaton discusses the contemporary “obsession with personalization.” We also talk about the latest trends in financial services, the impact of AI, and what financial services can learn from other sectors when it comes to best leveraging new technologies.
How can the study of human cultures benefit banks? We posed this question to Dr. Anette Broløs, co-founder and Director of Finthropology.
For all the discussion of the power of data in financial services in recent years, Broløs believes that companies in this space have not yet done all they can do in order to take advantage of qualitative research that can help them become more customer-centric. As the co-author of the soon-to-be-released book, Customer-Centric Innovation in Finance, Broløs explains how methods common in anthropology can be effectively applied to financial services, potentially revealing insights that banks have been missing for years.
Payments technology company Icon Solutions has secured a strategic minority investment from NatWest. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The funding follows a December investment Icon Solutions secured from Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS).
NatWest integrated Icon Solutions’ Icon Payment Framework in September as part of its payments modernization strategy.
Payments technology company Icon Solutions has secured a strategic minority investment from NatWest. The amount of the investment was not immediately disclosed. The funding is the second for Icon Solutions in the past four months; the company announced in December that it had received an investment from Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS), a division of Citi’s Services organization. The amount of that investment was similarly undisclosed.
In both instances, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions and NatWest have integrated or further integrated Icon Solutions’ Icon Payments Framework (IPF) as part of their investments. Citi TTS will expand its use of IPF to enhance its micro-services orchestration architecture. NatWest announced its plan to integrate IPF as part of its payments modernization efforts in September.
Icon Payments Framework is a low-code payment framework that enables business payments professionals to build payment workflows and empowers bank software engineering teams to create customizable integrations into their existing systems. Both NatWest and Citi TTS noted that the technology will help them build on current relationships as well as enhance their ability to keep pace with changes in payments technology.
“Overcoming vendor lock in and powering in-house builds with the Icon Payments Framework (IPF), NatWest can now drive change from within,” Icon Solutions co-founder and Director Tom Kelleher said. “Building new revenue streams, anticipating regulatory change, responding to market changes or competitive pressures. Today’s investment is much more than an investment, it’s a commitment to a future where payments are safe, immediate, and flexible.”
Icon Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017. In addition to its partnership announcements, the company in recent months secured “Qualified Software” status from Amazon Web Services (AWS). “Qualified Software” status is granted to technologies validated as meeting AWS cloud infrastructure’s performance, security, and reliability standards.
Icon Solutions also recently launched a FedNow scheme pack for IPF. This will help banks negotiate the balance between “near-term requirements like FedNow compliance and ISO2022” and their “longer-term strategies around driving innovation, improving CX and reducing costs,” Icon Solutions CTO Donal Fleming explained.
Verification provider Sumsub announced a partnership with blockchain data platform Chainalysis this week.
The integration will bring automated crypto transaction monitoring and secure data storage, as well as ensure regulatory compliance.
Sumsub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
Full-cycle verification provider and FinovateEurope alum Sumsubannounced an integration with blockchain data platform Chainalysis this week. The partnership brings Sumsub’s Transaction Monitoring and Travel Rule solutions to the Chainalysis platform. This will enhance regulatory compliance and secure data storage, as well as provide automated crypto transaction monitoring for Chainalysis’ clients.
In a statement, the companies suggested that the partnership will help encourage greater digital compliance for businesses in the crypto space with functionality like unified workflows and automated transaction monitoring. Sumsub’s Transaction Monitoring solution is designed to help firms deal with the estimated $48+ billion in total fraud losses last year alone. The solution gives fraud and risk teams a single tool to manage the transaction monitoring process with provides fewer false positives and more efficient case management.
Additionally, the technology enables real-time fraud detection, and users can connect KYC, AML, and KYB verification with transaction monitoring for further vigilance against suspicious activity. With Travel Rule, Sumsub automates data transfers with counterparties to make sure firms remain compliant with regulatory obligations in different jurisdictions around the world.
“This partnership enables us to offer access to over one billion mapped addressses across multiple blockchains to those customers who use Sumsub’s Transaction Monitoring and Chainalysis crypto risk solutions,” Sumsub co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer Jacob Sever explained. “Sumsub’s solution’s enhanced capabilities, integrated with Chainalysis’ analytics and key management model, are reshaping the landscape of crypto compliance and security in the digital realm.”
Sumsub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. The company currently has more than 2,000 clients in fintech, crypto, e-commerce, transportation, gaming, and more. Businesses working with Sumsub have experienced 2.4x return on investment (ROI), $3.2+ million in net present value (NPV), and a payback period of less than six months.
So far in 2024, Sumsub has forged partnerships with B2B Gaming Services and embedded finance integrator AAZZUR. The company began the year teaming up with digital banking technology firm Plumery. In February, Sumsub launched its deepfake detection solution for video identification, an industry-first, and made its non-doc verification solution available in the U.S.
Headquartered in London, Sumsub – which stands for “Sum & Substance” – was founded in 2015. Co-founder Andrew Sever is CEO.
The Harbor Bank of Maryland has partnered with digital account onboarding specialist Prelim.
Courtesy of the partnership, the Baltimore, Maryland-based financial institution will leverage Prelim’s technology and expertise to enhance its account opening services.
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Prelim made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.
Digital account onboarding specialist Prelim and the Harbor Bank of Maryland have teamed up to bring digital account opening services to the customers of the Baltimore, Maryland-based financial institution.
Founded in 1982 with $2.1 million in assets, Harbor Bank of Maryland serves the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area with seven branch locations and a loan office in Silver Spring, Maryland. The bank offers a wide variety of banking services, including checking, savings, time deposits, credit and debit cards, and commercial real estate, as well as personal, home improvement, and other installment and term loans. With total assets of $377 million, Harbor Bank of Maryland is a designated Minority Depository Institution (MDI) and the first community bank in the U.S. to have an investment subsidiary, Harbor Financial Services.
San Francisco, California-based Prelim made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2022 and returned again the following year for FinovateSpring 2023. Co-founded in 2017 by Heang Chan (CEO) and Chris Blaser (CTO), Prelim offers a white-label platform that empowers banks to digitize their business banking operations. Via API, Prelim enables financial institutions to automate their business account onboarding, as well as connect to third party providers to meet AML, BSA, and CIP requirements. The platform also helps FIs launch other financial services and banking products from lending to merchant services.
In addition to its partnership with the Harbor Bank of Maryland, Prelim last month announced a collaboration with Movement Bank. Headquartered in Danville, Virginia, Movement Bank was launched in 1919 by a team of African American doctors, teachers, farmers, and preachers. From humble origins in a church basement and $6,500 in capital, the financial institution has grown into a major community resource. The bank was among the first to reopen during the Great Depression after banks were forced to close. The institution was also one of the first banks in Virginia to issue Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans back in 1934. Movement Bank currently has $150 million in total assets.
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.
A pair of Canada-based Finovate alums – Coconut Software and PayTic – have earned spots in the first cohort of the UK Fintech CTA program. The program runs for eight-weeks, much of it conducted online, and includes a needs assessment and company analysis, participation in the Innovate Finance Global Summit, virtual market briefings, mentor-matching and coaching, as well as strategic business-to-business introductions.
In addition to the digital sessions, participants in the program will be invited to attend local events in the U.K. that will help the firms build and grow their in-market presence and their network. This will enable them to introduce their value proposition to key market participants, investors, as well as potential customers.
Joining Coconut Software and PayTic are a number of other Canadian startups including Symend, OneVest, VoPay, Four Eyes Financial, Octav, and Sibli.
“We are so excited to be selected for the first cohort of the UK Fintech CTA, proudly representing our country’s growing payments landscape as we expand our efforts in the U.K.,” PayTic noted on LinkedIn last week. “Thank you Canadian Technology Accelerators | Accélerateurs technologiques canadiens for this recognition and opportunity to scale!”
Headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, PayTic made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring. The company offers a SaaS solution that manages all of the significant aspects of program management for card issuers and BIN sponsors in a single interface. PayTic’s technology serves as a central hub within the payments ecosystem, enabling users to automate reconciliation, network report generation, dispute submission, fraud detection, network fee analysis, and robust business intelligence.
At FinovateSpring, PayTic founder and CEO Imad Boumahdi and Director of Product Kate Firuz demoed how PayTic’s platform can help banks, card issuers, BIN sponsors, and fintechs save significant amounts of money by analyzing and optimizing network fees against program activity. The technology enables users to instantly reconcile data across the payments ecosystem from the program and account level to the transaction level. This empowers users to identify exceptions in real-time, generate accurate reports, and remain compliant.
Founded in 2020, PayTic has raised $4 million in funding. Visa Accelerator and Outlierz Ventures are among the firm’s investors.
More than 4,000 kilometers to the west via the Trans-Canada Highway (44 hours if you’re driving), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Coconut Software is the other Finovate alum that will be joining PayTic as part of the UK Fintech CTA program. Founded in 2007, Coconut Software offers a customer engagement platform to help financial institutions better schedule, manage, and measure customer, prospect, and employee interactions.
Coconut Software made its Finovate debut as part of our special all-digital FinovateSpring conference in 2021. At the event, Senior Solutions Engineer Andre Doucette demoed enhancements to the firm’s appointment scheduling and lobby management technology. These upgrades improved the platform’s online queuing and lobby management capabilities.
Named to the 2023 Technology Fast 50, Coconut Software counts a number of North American financial institutions among its customers, including RBC, Arvest Bank, Vancity, and Rogue Credit Union. The company has raised more than $35 million in funding from investors including Klass Capital and Information Venture Partners. Katherine Regnier is founder and CEO.
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.
Funding search engine Fundica announced a collaboration with Visa last week.
The partnership will make it easier for entrepreneurs to access government funding.
Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Fundica made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring 2023.
A newly announced collaboration between North American funding search engine Fundica and Visa will democratize the process of securing government funding for SMEs, especially those founded and led by members of underrepresented communities. Together Fundica and Visa will offer an intelligent solution that helps SMEs and entrepreneurs find relevant government funding and private sector grants based on their individual business’ needs and goals.
“We are thrilled to be working with Visa to further democratize access to government funding for small businesses across North America,” Fundica co-founder and CEO Mike Lee said. “Visa and Fundica are both deeply committed to fostering accessibility and inclusion in business communities – making this collaboration a great fit.”
Fundica’s platform enables small businesses to identify and apply for relevant government and private sector funding, while giving financial institutions the ability to promote inclusion and serve as a more comprehensive financial advisor to its SME clients. The technology aggregates data from tens of thousands of funding programs, leveraging strategies from discovery and tracking bots to funders, collaboration partners, and its own internal research team.
The search experience for the business customer is straightforward; companies enter basic information about their business and Fundica displays appropriate funding options in order of relevance. The solution presents each opportunity in a detailed, one-page summary, making it easy for business customers to confirm their suitability for the funding and to begin the application process. Funding sources include grants, tax credits, government loans and loan guarantees from federal, state, provincial, and municipal entities – as well as the private sector.
On the backend, FIs can see the profiles of the companies looking for funding and make informed connections with qualified leads and clients. The platform also enables institutions to identify key business behavioral trends. Some of the largest FIs in North America license Fundica’s AI-powered funding search engine to help them acquire and retain business customers.
Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and founded in 2017, Fundica made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. At the conference, Fundica’s Lee demonstrated new enhancements to the platform’s front- and back-ends. These enhancements included a traffic augmentation solution, improved traffic conversion, and improved user engagement.
A Finovate alum for more than a decade, Visa made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2010 in San Francisco. The company is also an alum of our developers conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2014.
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.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments in Latin America. The region was one of the few places in the world to see significant fintech funding in Q2 of 2023. Further, fintech in Latin America will be the focus of a special panel at FinovateSpring in May.
Here are a handful of headlines to help you get up to speed on the variety of fintech innovation happening in countries like Mexico and Colombia.
Colombian payments orchestration platform Yuno raises $25 million
Payments, as we say in the fintech business, is the gift that keeps giving. And this week, Colombian payments orchestration platform Yuno is on the receiving end. The company announced this week that it has raised $25 million in funding from a consortium of investors including DST Global Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Kaszek Ventures, and Monashees.
With customers ranging from McDonald’s to Avianca, Yuno offers fast and reliable payments orchestration for businesses in industries like e-commerce, retail, and mobility. The company’s platform offers features such as one-click checkout modifications and smart routing. Yuno also integrates data from all payment processors and anti-fraud tools into a single, unified interface. The company will use this week’s investment to support its operations in both North and South America. The investment also will help fuel Yuno’s expansion to new markets in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
“This financial backing validates our vision and our ability to take the global payments industry into the future, helping fuel positive change across many different sectors of the economy. We are thrilled to bring our cutting-edge solutions to new markets,” Yuno CEO and co-founder Juan Pablo Ortega said.
Mexico’s Ziff acquires digital lender Arrenda
Meanwhile, a few miles north, Mexican revenue-based financing company Ziffhas acquired Arrenda, a Mexico-based digital lending startup. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Arrenda founder and CEO Joe Merullo will take the position of Chief Technology Officer in Ziff’s C-suite.
Ziff founder and CEO Gerardo Name said the acquisition will boost the company’s product offering and “enable us to rapidly penetrate new market sectors.” Currently, Ziff’s revenue-based financing solution provides liquidity to Mexican SMEs – which often have little to no credit histories – by funding up to 36 months of receivables. The acquisition will enable Ziff to leverage Arrenda’s Adelanta digital lending platform, which enables Mexican property owners convert future rental payments into cash within 24 hours. Name added that he hopes to see Ziff distribute more than $1 billion pesos to Mexican SMEs by the end of 2027.
BBVA Technology expands to Latin America
Created in 2023, BBVA Technology announced its expansion to Latin America this week. To be headquartered in Mexico, the new entity – officially titled “BBVA Technology en América” – represents the merger of a number of technology companies that previously operated under the name BBVA Axial Tech. The goal of the nearly 600-strong body is to help advance BBVA Group’s digital transformation objectives. The company noted that in addition to a regional expansion, the creation of BBVA will help boost career opportunities for BBVA’s tech talent.
From Mexico City, Mexico, BBVA Technology will provide technology services to BBVA firms operating in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Former BBVA Axial Tech CEO Robert Altes will serve as CEO of the new company.
Note that BBVA has also set up a companion entity in Europe – “BBVA Technology in Europe” – led by CEO Ricardo Jurado and headquartered in Spain.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Savis and Open Banking advisory firm Konsentus announced the creation of an operational structure for open banking in Vietnam.
New Zealand-based Kiwibank went live with ACI Worldwide’sEnterprise Payments Platform.
Hong Kong’s Mox partnered with Wise to enable low-cost, international payments directly from the Mox app.
Sub-Saharan Africa
South African payroll and HR software company PaySpace agreed to be acquired by HR startup Deel for $100 million.
Kenya’s Equity Bank launched instant withdrawals courtesy of a partnership with PayPal.
A partnership between Mastercard and Ethiopian commercial bank Awash Bank will bring new payment solutions to consumers in the country.
Payroll connectivity provider Argyle raised $30 million in Series C funding this week.
The round was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund.
New York-based Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.
Income and employment data provider Argylesecured $30 million in new funding in a Series C round led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund. Bain Capital Ventures, SignalFire, and Checkr also participated in the round. The investment consists of both equity and debt and takes the company’s total capital raised to more than $100 million. The funding will help Argyle continue to adapt and expand its automated income and employment verification platform. No valuation information was provided in the funding announcement.
This week’s news comes in the wake of a year in which Argyle notched a number of significant accomplishments and milestones. In 2023, Argyle onboarded more than 90 new customers. The company also boosted its total customer count to more than 140 firms in verticals such as mortgage, personal lending, and background screening.
To date, Argyle has processed more than 1.6 million annual verifications. This includes direct-source income and employment verifications for 90% of the U.S. workforce. Last year, the company achieved a 3.6X growth in bookings, generated cost savings for up to 80% of customers, and built integrations with lending partners ICE and nCino. Argyle also became the first consumer-permissioned provider to integrate into Dark Matter’s Empower LOS.
“Our verticalized approach and direct-source model has provided accurate data and an enhanced consumer experience for our customers,” Argyle CEO and founder Shmulik Fishman said. “With this capital from our valued investors, we will continue to tailor our solutions to priority verticals while improving the verification experience for the next wave of prospective customers that can benefit from our services.”
In an extended “Letter From Our Founder & CEO”, Fishman articulated the journey his company has made and underscored Argyle’s commitment to what he referred to as the “human side of digital transformation.” Noting that even “novel technology” is “only half the equation,” Fishman added “widespread digital transformation only happens when people trust new technologies enough to change their behavior. And change is really hard – even when it’s absolutely essential.” Calling the current moment Argyle’s “enterprise-adoption era” Fishman wrote that now was the time to ensure that “people and process take center stage.”
Headquartered in New York and founded in 2018, Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, company co-founder and COO Billy Marsden showed how Argyle’s Link 4.0 design update enhanced account connectivity, and decreased drop-off rates for users of its real-time income data platform. Link 4.0 also upgrades the platform’s visual style to boost consistency across Argyle’s product line.
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.
Open data fintech Moneyhub is teaming up with fellow fintech providers, Rebcat and Navos Technologies.
Via the partnership, the three companies will work together to develop solutions to help large financial institutions offer personalized financial advice to their customers.
U.K.-based Moneyhub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2015 in London.
Open data fintech provider Moneyhub announced a new partnership this week. The U.K.-based firm has teamed up with fellow fintechs Rebcat and Navos Technologies to help financial institutions offer personalized financial advice and guidance to their customers. The companies will collaborate to launch a number of personalized plug-and-play services, focusing initially on closing the so-called “advice gap.” Additionally, the services will also include financial management, investments, and mortgages.
Moneyhub CEO Samantha Seaton pointed to regulatory changes in the U.K. as one of the trends that guided the partnership decision. “The upcoming changes to the Data Bill and the FCA’s proposals to relax the advice-guidance boundary highlight the significant role of digital advice businesses in the future,” Seaton said. “We have seen first-hand how advanced and robust Rebcat technology is and are delighted with this partnership and the opportunities it brings to unlock financial wellness for more people.”
The joint statement makes clear that Rebcat’s technology is at the core of the offering. The firm is a spin-out of OpenMoney, a digital adviser that Octopus Group acquired in 2023. With nearly 20,000 customers, Rebcat provides a range of B2B financial services. These include white-labeled, end-to-end investment and mortgage advice, as well as a bespoke personal finance and engagement app. Headquartered in Manchester, Rebcat leverages Open Data to help companies offer their customers personalized support and advice. Based in Bristol, Navos Technologies provides services ranging from building digital strategies to implementing effective cybersecurity. Founded in 2020, the company leverages its 120 years of combined experience at U.K. investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown to help companies reach their digital transformation goals.
A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope in 2015, Moneyhub supports seamless connections via a single source to thousands of financial institutions in 37 countries. This enables financial services companies to access a comprehensive view of their customers needs, habits, preferences, and aspirations. Banks, pension companies, wealth managers, lenders, retailers, and insurers all use Moneyhub’s open data platform to transform data into personalized digital experiences and insights – as well as initiate payments.
Headquartered in Bristol, Moneyhub was founded in 2011. The company began this year by earning a spot as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) framework for its Open Banking and Payment services. CCS is an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office. The entity helps the public sector secure maximum commercial value when procuring goods and services.
Do you remember the parable about the blind men and the elephant? In some respects, trying to encapsulate the two days of FinovateEurope into a single conversation recalls their challenge.
It will come as no surprise that AI was top of mind. However, less than three years into this AI revolution, it was impressive to see calm heads and cautious strategies among the enthusiasm and anxiety. From AIs working with human agents to AI-enabled automation, putting the technology to practical use – on both the backend and frontend – is helping integrate AI more constructively into financial services than we might have imagined back in the days when we were first enthralled by ChatGPT.
That said, there is more to financial services and fintech in 2024 than AI. As more than one observer noted over the two days of FinovateEurope last week: AI may be king, but the kingdom is still the customer experience.
A View from the Keynote
That said, our Out of the Box Keynote address from author and Generative AI expert Nina Schick set the AI-powered tone early on Day One. From her presentation – Will AI Be More Profound Than The Invention Of The Internet? What Do Financial Institutions Really Need to Understand About Generative AI? – three points stood out to me.
First, popular opinion – and mass media news coverage – tends to treat AI and its innovations as either “dangerous” (New York Times, May 30, 2023: “AI Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn”) or “dumb” (The Guardian, March 16, 2023: “The stupidity of AI”). Thinking, or assuming, that AI will clearly be one or the other blinds us to the potential for the technology.
Furthermore, it is commonplace to suggest that AI will only be as “dangerous” or as “dumb” as its creators (not an entirely comforting thought, but …). Nevertheless, our relationship with AI will not be static; it will evolve as the technology evolves. In the process, we will become more attuned to, and aware of, the limitations of both AI as well as ourselves. In this, I am reminded of an observation by another AI expert who remarked that our experience with AI might actually help us understand more about what it means to be human. With each successive conversation about this technology, this viewpoint becomes more credible to me.
A second point from Schick is that many observers are focused on what is called “Artificial General Intelligence.” This refers to AI that is able to perform as well or better than humans at a variety of cognitive tasks, including the ability to self-teach. This is also the AI that the world is alternately anxious and excited about. Schick noted that before we get to artificial general intelligence (AGI), however, we will experience a period when what she called “Artificial Capable Intelligence” (ACI) will drive innovation.
ACI bridges the gap between the AI we see on display with large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI solutions on one hand and a potential future AGI on the other. Rather than what we can compel AI models to say or generate, ACI seeks to figure out what AI is “capable” of doing with its intelligence. As AI researcher Mustafa Suleyman wrote in an article for MIT Technology Review last July: “We don’t want to know whether the machine is intelligent as such; we want to know if it is capable of making a meaningful impact in the world. We want do know what it can do.”
As Schick elaborated on this concept, the ACI stage of AI’s evolution will not require machines that think or have achieved some level of sentience. Nevertheless, at this point, AI technology can perform highly specialized tasks – including emotional tasks – that would have been considered impossible for machines to conduct before. A recent Google study that showed its Articulate Medical Intelligence Explorer (AMIE) LLM outperforming human doctors, as well as, AI-assisted doctors, in a test of diagnostic reasoning and conversation. This is an example from health care, but the use cases in financial services – from debt resolution to wealth management – are clear.
Lastly, Schick emphasized that AI is a meta-technology rather than a single technology. As such we will be able to apply AI to a wide and growing variety of experiences and challenges. Moreover, as a meta-technology, AI will also have the ability to upskill a sizable range of activities – from the quantitative to the creative. This will cause no small measure of anxiety among many, but Schick believes that the benefits will be significant – and in many cases, surprising – enough to fuel continued engagement and innovation rather than retrenchment.
A View from the Money
What can we expect on the funding front for innovative startups in fintech? Where is the Smart Money looking – and investing – in 2024?
Our panel – Investor All Stars: Where Is The Smart Money Investing in Fintech? – is always one of the most well-attended sessions at FinovateEurope. These are the conversations that put technological innovation in the context of what’s actually possible. After a full day of watching live fintech demos, our All-Star Panel often arrives the following afternoon as a bracing tonic: what did you see? what did you like? what would you buy?
Claire Mongeau
This year, our investor panel at FinovateEurope featured Robin Scher, Head of Fintech Investment, Lloyds Banking Group; Sophie Winwood, Operating Partner, Foxe Capital; and Dallin Bills, Principal, Battery Ventures. Founders Factory Investor Claire Mongeau moderated the conversation.
If AI is the big driver for technological innovation in fintech and financial services, then the cost of money – namely, interest rate policy in the U.S. and Europe – are likely to give us the clearest indication of what to expect when it comes to investment in our industry this year.
While the panel in general was optimistic about funding in 2024, especially in the second half, they also agreed that interest rates will help determine the appetite for investment in fintech and that appetite will, in turn, help drive valuations.
Dallin Bills
There was also robust discussion of the M&A front. Capital One’s acquisition of Discover Financial in February was an early sign that 2024 might feature some welcome consolidation in the financial services space. And while the panel was united on the likelihood that M&A could be surprisingly active this year, there was debate on whether strategic transactions or private equity-fueled moves would dominate.
Bills noted, in favor of private equity, that there is $2.5 trillion in “dry powder on the sidelines”, a record amount, he said. Bills added that there are potential opportunities not only in AI and AI-powered automation, but also in niche areas like tax and accounting. Scher added that strategic M&A was “very much still in play” for 2024. “There are too many fintechs doing the same thing,” Scher observed, “and they don’t seem to realize it.”
Sophie Winwood
What do our panelists like? Winwood echoed Bills interest in the tax and accounting space. She also highlighted a “new wave of insurtechs” as worth keeping an eye on, as well as continued innovations in the wealthtech/wealth management space. With Millennials well into family formation mode, and both homebuying and saving for college becoming top agenda items for them, companies who are able to help these young families navigate these major financial challenges could be in high demand.
That, however, does not necessarily mean good times for lenders – digital or otherwise – as Bills noted. Many of these companies are still reeling from the interest rate hikes of 2023, and the prospect of interest rates remaining relatively high in the near-term is likely to encourage investors to take a hands-off, or at least wait-and-see, approach to the space.
Robin Scher
Perhaps most inspiring was Winwood’s observation that often some of the best companies are started during times of crisis and uncertainty. Further, she added, it’s never been easier to launch a new fintech. Maybe, if the previous fintech boom was characterized by a YOLO, ZIRP-fueled, free money mania, then perhaps the next boom will be characterized by greater sense and sobriety.
After all, she concluded wryly, if you’re starting a fintech today “you’re either mad or really love the problem and want to solve it.”
