Author: David Penn

Forward Bank Turns to Larky to Drive Personalization

Forward Bank Turns to Larky to Drive Personalization
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Larky
  • Customer engagement innovator Larky has teamed up with Wisconsin-based Forward Bank.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, Forward Bank has integrated Larky’s nudge push notifications into its banking app.
  • Nudge provides personalized, timely push notifications and can increase customer engagement by 7x compared to traditional marketing methods.

Larky, a fintech that specializes in helping banks and other financial institutions better engage with their customers and members, has partnered with Wisconsin-based Forward Bank. The institution has deployed Larky’s nudge solution, which delivers personalized, timely push notifications to account holders. The technology is integrated into the FI’s existing mobile banking app and Forward Bank plans to use nudge for a variety of use cases including post-visit surveys, geofenced event announcements, and on-site financial service recommendations, as well as thank you messages to account holders after they opt in to receive nudge notifications. The goal is to help Forward Bank better anticipate customer needs, preferences, and behavior.

“Previously, we reached our account holders through email and direct mail, which presented challenges with timeliness,” Forward Bank VP and Marketing Director Jennifer Sobotta said. “By now delivering nudge notifications that reach account holders more quickly with relevant messages, we hope to strengthen our commitment to them as a trusted financial resource and ultimately strengthen our long-term customer relationships.”

A customer-owned, independent community bank, Forward Bank serves communities in central Wisconsin and nearby areas. Founded in 1919 and headquartered in Marshfield, Forward Bank has more than $930 million in assets and is a major supporter of local businesses, schools, clubs, and sports organizations.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Larky made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014 in New York. Founded in 2012, Larky enables financial institutions to better engage their customers by leveraging push notifications as a sophisticated marketing tool to promote products and services, popularize financial literacy and financial wellness initiatives, and important branch information and updates. The company says its technology can help financial institutions boost mobile app engagement and generate revenue growth via an engagement rate that is 7x better than traditional marketing strategies.

Larky closed out 2022 with a new partnership announcement, teaming up with Gerber Federal Credit Union to enhance the Michigan-based credit unions digital customer communications. Also last year, Larky announced that its nudge technology has been added to Finastra’s mobile banking platform.

“This collaboration signifies a momentum step forward and reinforces our belief that push notifications are not optional, but rather an integral must-have for financial institutions seeking to successfully compete in today’s digital age and enhance customer engagement,” Larky CEO Gregg Hammerman said when the Finastra integration was announced.

Larky has raised $2.4 million in funding according to Crunchbase. The company’s investors include Michigan Angel Fund and North Coast Technology Investors.

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People, Communication, and Fintech Innovation: Greg Palmer on the Banking on Digital Growth Podcast

People, Communication, and Fintech Innovation: Greg Palmer on the Banking on Digital Growth Podcast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: David's column, Podcasting

Finovate VP and host of the Finovate Podcast Greg Palmer (@GregPalmer47) recently sat down with James Robert Lay of the Banking on Digital Growth podcast. The two talked about a wide range of topics, from Finovate’s return to live, in-person fintech conferences to the challenges of building a truly people-focused fintech business in a post-COVID world.

Palmer: “What I didn’t necessarily expect was the way that the financial industry was going to respond to the pandemic by really diving in to technology and seeing a lot of these kinds of older holdouts all of a sudden saying, “wait a minute, we really have to do things differently.” This impetus, this drive to change, I think is the thing that surprised me the most.”

Lay and Palmer also talked about what it takes for a fintech company to manage the balance between creating novel, ground-breaking technology on the one hand, while remaining accessible, and easy to use for consumers on the other.

Palmer: “(Financial technology) tends to draw people in who are comfortable with numbers, who are comfortable in front of a computer screen, who want technology to do things that it hasn’t been able to do before, which is obviously really impressive and these are intelligent people. But what sometimes gets missed is the idea that, at the end of the day, you’re not building technology for yourself.”

To whet your appetite for the full, 40-minute conversation, here are a handful of excerpts from the discussion.

On Finovate’s return to live, in-person events.

Palmer: “The number of people, the number of interesting companies that came across our radar over 2022 was really exciting. And I think, for me, obviously getting people there is great, getting the right companies on stage is great, but the energy of the room was what was really positive for me. Hearing those conversations, watching people connect and engage with each other organically and discovering where you have common interests or places where you can help each other out, that’s really why we do what we do at Finovate.”

On the challenge of putting people first in fintech and financial services

Palmer: “Well, I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to people. I think people forget that financial technology is ultimately about serving people … at the end of the day, you’re not building technology for yourself. You’re building technology for other people to use. And if I look back and say, what is one of fintech’s biggest failings over my time (in) fintech, I think it’s really been around people.”

On leveraging data to become a more people-focused business

Palmer: “The first step is understanding the data that you have, looking at this and really making sure that you have a good idea of how people are engaging with your technology. The other one, which is almost so simple that I can’t believe I need to say it, (is) you need to hire up. You need to hire people who have this as a skill.”

Listen to the complete interview, which includes examples of some of the fintech innovators that Greg Palmer has worked with in recent years – from Dreams to MX – who truly “get it” when it comes to creating innovative, people-first, fintech innovations. And be sure to catch up with the latest episodes of the Finovate podcast, including an interview with Ukrainian fintech founder Igor Tomych of Fintech Garden.

Photo by John-Mark Smith

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Neobank Oxygen Raises $20 Million; Introduces New CEO David Rafalovsky

Neobank Oxygen Raises $20 Million; Introduces New CEO David Rafalovsky
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Neobank Oxygen has raised $20 million in Series B funding, taking its total capital to $45 million according to Crunchbase.
  • The funding -“led largely by return investors” – will help Oxygen further develop its product, improve the user experience, and grow its workforce.
  • San Francisco, California-based Oxygen won Best Digital Bank in the 2021 Finovate Awards.

San Francisco-based digital banking platform Oxygen has secured $20 million in Series B funding. The funding round was “led largely by return investors,” and will support product development and enhancements to Oxygen’s core offerings. The funding will also help Oxygen grow its team to help meet demand. The company’s total capital raised now stands at $45 million, according to Crunchbase.

Oxygen’s funding announcement comes at the same time that it is introducing a new CEO. David Rafalovsky, former Group CTO and Global Head of Operations & Technology for European digital banking ecosystem Sber, will take the helm, succeeding company founder Hussein Ahmed. Ahmed will remain with the company as Oxygen’s Chief Product Officer.

The new funding and new CEO “mark a new era” for Oxygen, Rafalovsky said in a statement. He underscored the size and importance of the small business community in the United States, and said that he believed Oxygen should play a role in helping these enterprises grow and thrive. “I look forward to charting the path forward for the company, building world class solutions for small businesses and gig economy participants,” Rafalovsky said. “Not only are small businesses driving the U.S. economy, but they also keep the American dream alive.”

A neobank designed from the start to serve both consumers and small businesses, Oxygen offers digital natives, creatives, and entrepreneurs an all-in-one digital banking platform that provides cashback rewards, early direct deposit, money transfers, and high-yield savings. Oxygen offers four tiers of membership – from the $0 annual fee “Earth” level to the $199.99 annual fee “Fire” level – which enable accountholders to choose their preferred debit card spending and payroll direct deposit limits – as well as the annual spending required in order to access these features. Banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank, which also issues the Oxygen’s Visa debit card.

Founded in 2020, Oxygen was named Best Digital Bank in the 2021 Finovate Awards and Best Overall Mobile App in the Fintech Breakthrough Awards that same year. In December, the company launched its OTags functionality that makes it easier for Oxygen accountholders to send and request money, OGifts – which enable multiple Oxygen members to send money to a single Oxygen member – and more.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Finovate Global Estonia: Partnerships, Fundraising, and the Fight Against Financial Crime

Finovate Global Estonia: Partnerships, Fundraising, and the Fight Against Financial Crime
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bankish, Crypterium, Finovate Global, MasterCard, Modularbank, TeamViewer

In this week’s edition of Finovate Global, we take a look at a handful of developments in Estonia’s fintech industry. With a population of more than 1.3 million, Estonia has the Baltic Sea to the west, the Gulf of Finland to its north, Latvia on its southern border, and the Russian Federation on its eastern flank. The Northern European nation achieved its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 following the “Singing Revolution” between 1988 and 1990. Estonia is considered a high-income economy per the World Bank, and has been referred to as a “Baltic Tiger” due to the country’s rapid growth.

First up is news on the regtech front. Estonian startup Salv announced that it recently secured a $4.3 million (€4 million) seed round extension. The funding was led by New York-based ffVC and featured participation from Germany’s G+D Ventures, as well as existing investors. Salv’s signature offering, Salv Bridge, is a real-time collaborative crime-fighting platform that leverages the power of its network to reduce non-compliance and combat financial crime. The company said that the funding will help accelerate development of its technology, as well as support Salv’s expansion into other markets, starting with Poland.

“The digitalization of the financial industry has resulted in an avalanche of financial crime, and the numbers are only projected to grow,” Salv CEO Taavi Tamkivi said. “Salv Bridge is proven to be effective against money laundering, sanctions, and fraud.”

The new funding takes Salv’s total capital raised to $8.2 million. Headquartered in Estonia’s capital city of Tallinn, Salv was founded in 2018. The company wrapped up 2022 with a pair of new partnership announcements – teaming up with Estonian-based banking platform Tuum and collaborating with greentech innovator Single.Earth.

Speaking of partnerships, Estonia-based identity verification and AML services provider Veriff announced a partnership with digital asset company Baanx. Veriff will provide identity verification services to the firm, enabling Baanx to confirm user identity during the onboarding process. Veriff’s technology can verify more than 11,200 government-issued identification documents from more than 190 countries and in 47 different languages.

“Cryptocurrencies are disrupting the world of finance, and the crypto industry has evolved dramatically over the past few years,” Veriff COO Indrek Heinloo said. “However, transactions between users are generally anonymous and instantaneous, providing more opportunities for fraudsters and criminals looking to evade conventional anti-money laundering controls. And right now, fraud rates for crypto transactions are at an all-time high.” Heinloo added, “it has never been more important for online banking platforms that offer crypto services to be several steps ahead of these bad actors.”

Veriff was founded in 2015 and is based in Tallinn. The company has raised more than $192 million in funding from investors including Tiger Global Management and Alkeon Capital, who led the company’s Series C round in January of 2022. Also this month, Veriff announced the appointment of Javier Ortega as the firm’s new Chief Revenue Officer.

In recent years, Finovate has showcased a handful of Estonian fintechs. Among the Finovate alums that call Estonia their home are: Bankish, which demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2020; Modularbank, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2019; and Crypterium, which demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2018. At FinovateEurope 2023 next month, we will feature our latest Finovate alum from Estonia: call center performance management software provider, Ender Turing. Learn more about our upcoming fintech conference, FinovateEurope, March 14 through 15 in London, at our FinovateEurope hub.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Tech.eu profiled Germany-based connectivity platform, Team Viewer, and its new partnership with global consumer goods company Henkel.
  • Lithuanian regtech firm AMLYZE teamed up with fraud prevention company Ondato.
  • Turkey-based fintech Papara reached 15 million users, ranking the firm among Europe’s largest neobanks.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo by Marlene Leppänen

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Celebrating Black History Month with Voices from the Finovate Stage

Celebrating Black History Month with Voices from the Finovate Stage
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Altro, Bankjoy, Deposits, Diversity in Fintech, FinGoal, QuickFi, Spave, Speaker series, unitQ

For a second year in a row, Finovate is commemorating Black History Month by showcasing those Black and African-American founders and executives who demoed their company’s fintech innovations on the Finovate stage in 2022.

Ariam Sium – VP of Product with FinGoal

Sium not only leads Product at FinGoal, the self-described “Listener. Thinker. Doer” also led FinGoal to a Best of Show award at FinovateSpring last year. In her role at FinGoal, Sium said that she uses the tenets of focus and value to govern each product decision made in the rapidly changing world of fintech.

FinGoal most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in September. The Boulder, Colorado-based company offers an insights platform that helps financial institutions better understand their customers.

Joseph Akintolayo – CEO and Founder of Deposits

Akintolayo is a “builder of ethical products that solve complex problems in fintech, insurtech, and social enterprise.” As CEO and founder of Deposits, Akintolayo heads a startup that offers banks, brands, and communities a plug and play solution to deliver financial services such as payments and lending, without requiring coding experience.

Deposits made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in September. The Dallas, Texas-based company was founded in 2021.

Left to right: Joseph Akintolayo and Samuel Ailemen of Deposits

Samuel Ailemen – Director of Mobile and Identity at Deposits

As Director of Mobile and Identity at Deposits, Ailemen helped lead the company’s demo at FinovateFall 2022. A fraud prevention expert who is “building cool stuff everywhere”, Ailemen leverages his talent as “a software engineer who loves research” to solve real-world problems using new technologies.

Nathan Gibbons – Chief Experience Officer at QuickFi

Gibbons oversees the customer experience at QuickFi, a company that provides “nearly instant,” self-service 24/7 term financing to business equipment buyers. Demoing the company’s technology at FinovateFall last year, Gibbons and colleague Jillian Munson earned QuickFi its first Finovate Best of Show award.

A C-suite executive with QuickFi since 2018, Gibbons previously spent more than 11 years as Project Manager and later Vice President with First American Equipment Finance. QuickFi was launched by founders of First American Equipment Finance in 2018.

Michael Duncan – CEO and Founder of Bankjoy

Founder and CEO of Bankjoy, Duncan demoed his company’s Business Banking Platform at FinovateFall 2022. The company he launched in 2015 offers a range of modern banking technology solutions, including mobile and online banking, as well as a banking API.

Before founding Bankjoy, Duncan spent more than four years as a Programmer/Analyst and later Software Development Manager at Michigan First Credit Union.

Michael Broughton – CEO and Co-founder of Altro

Broughton co-founded and is CEO of Altro, a solution that helps consumers build credit through non-traditional recurring payment processes such as rent and even monthly subscriptions to services like Netflix. Altro’s app is free-to-use, and helps increase financial literacy while boosting existing credit and helping stabilize credit histories. The company made its Finovate debut last May at FinovateSpring.

Broughton is also Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors for the USC Credit Union (since 2017), and was both a Scout at Sequoia Capital and a Thiel Fellow at The Thiel Foundation.

Christen Wright – Head of Product at Spave

As Head of Product at Spave, Wright was part of the three-person demo team that won Best of Show at the company’s Finovate debut last May at FinovateSpring. Spave is a financial wholeness solution that enables users to easily save and donate as they purchase products and services. The Spave app provides purchase tracking and analysis, goal setting, group giving, and more.

Wright has a diverse background, having served in senior management roles at AT&T and Delta Air Lines. A member of 100 Black Men of Atlanta, a mentoring and empowerment organization for African American youth, Wright is a graduate of the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business, where he earned an MBA.

Anthony Heckman – as Director of Sales at unitQ

Heckman was part of the founding team at unitQ, a company that turns customer insights into data-driven decisions for firms ranging from Chime to fellow Finovate alum Klarna. At FinovateSpring 2022, Heckman led the company’s live demo of its unitQ monitor, which serves as a centralized, searchable, repository for customer feedback.

Heckman founded TWC Advisors in October of last year. The firm specializes in providing go-to-market and sales support to early-stage, high-growth, VC-backed startups.

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell

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Financial Intelligence Platform Provider Cion Digital Rebrands as UPTIQ

Financial Intelligence Platform Provider Cion Digital Rebrands as UPTIQ
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cion Digital, Daily news, UPTIQ
  • Cion Digital announced a rebrand to UPTIQ this week.
  • The new name is designed to reflect the company’s focus on bringing financing solutions to wealth managers and advisors.
  • Headquartered in Texas and founded in 2021, the company made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

Financial intelligence platform provider Cion Digital, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last May, has rebranded. The Austin, Texas-based company announced this week that its new name is UPTIQ. The new moniker is designed to underscore the company’s commitment to bring its lending solutions to businesses in the wealth management industry.

“As our business model evolves, we want our name to reflect who we are and what we do,” company Chief Marketing Officer Katie Robinson said. “UPTIQ reflects the results we expect our solutions to bring to advisors and their clients – the upward movement we want for all our stakeholders. We want to inspire and establish our trustworthiness as a partner to financial advisors.”

UPTIQ offers a platform that enables wealth advisors to grow their AUM by providing loans to help finance purchases, liquidity, and working capital. The company’s Financial Intelligence Platform leverages data analytics and AI to ensure clients are offered financing solutions that match their goals and preferences. The company has secured partnerships with a number of lenders such as Credibility Capital, Bank 34, and Celtic Bank that have made their lending solutions available on the platform.

“With the UPTIQ Financial Intelligence Platform, wealth advisors can collaborate with lenders and their clients throughout the loan origination process and feel confident they’ve identified the best loan product to meet their clients’ needs,” UPTIQ founder and CEO Snehal Fulzele said. “Our new name reflects the value we offer to all stakeholders.”

UPTIQ will also offer wealth managers and advisors other services in addition to financing. These offerings include access to deposits, alternative investments, and insurance. The goal is to enable wealth managers to grow their businesses by offering more holistic services that encompass more than traditional wealth management.

Founded in 2021, the company demoed its Crypto Dealership Platform at FinovateSpring 2022. The technology, a blockchain orchestration platform, enables auto dealers and other retailers of “big ticket” items to accept cryptocurrency as payment. The company ended last year with a new partnership, teaming up with fellow Finovate alum upSWOT to bring embedded finance solutions to wealth managers and commercial loan brokers to help them serve their SME customers. UPTIQ raised $12 million in seed funding a little over a year ago in a round led by Green Visor Capital and 645 Ventures.

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Ncontracts Launches its Risk Management Suite

Ncontracts Launches its Risk Management Suite
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ncontracts
  • Risk management and compliance software company Ncontracts unveiled its new risk management suite, Ncontracts RPM, this week.
  • Ncontracts RPM integrates four of the company’s solutions — Nrisk, Nvendor, Ncomply, and Nfndings – into a combined offering that will help FIs leverage data to enhance risk and compliance management.
  • Headquartered in Tennessee, Ncontracts made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in September.

Integrated risk management and compliance software provider Ncontracts launched its risk management suite this week. The Ncontracts RPM Suite blends risk, vendor, compliance, and finding management solutions to help boost efficiency and drive better-decision making. Known separately as Nrisk, Nvendor, Ncomply, and Nfindings, the combined elements of Ncontracts’ RPM Suite help financial institutions turn data into the kind of relevant, actionable insights to reduce the burden of risk and compliance management.

“Financial institutions need better, more comprehensive risk management tools to successfully respond to digital disruption, economic uncertainty, regulatory change, staffing shortages, and other challenges,” Ncontracts CEO Michael Berman said. “Our RPM suite brings knowledge and insights to our clients to create a high-performing system that helps financial institutions efficiently leverage data to drive success.”

Headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee, and founded in 2009, Ncontracts made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. With a customer base of more than 4,200 financial institutions, mortgage companies, and fintechs in the U.S., Ncontracts offers a cloud-based technology solution that encompasses vendor, organizational, audit, and compliance risk management.

In the months since the company’s Finovate appearance in September, Ncontracts added C-suite talent in the form of new Chief Customer Officer Melissa Outlaw, new Chief Sales Officer Michelle Amato, and new Chief Human Resource Officer Cathy Guthrie. Named to the Inc. 5000 roster of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. for the fourth year in a row in 2022, Ncontracts raised $1.1 million in funding prior to being acquired by Gryphon Investors in 2020 for an undisclosed sum.

“The risks facing financial institutions are multiplying and becoming more complex, and no bank, regardless of size, can justify using spreadsheets today to manage the process when the stakes are so high,” Gryphon Investors Software Principal Jon Cheek said when the acquisition was announced. “Ncontracts’ software has made it easy for financial institutions of all sizes to manage the spectrum of complex risks and regulations facing them today.”

Photo by Martin

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B2B Payments Innovator TreviPay Teams Up with Cashflow Specialist Cloudfloat

B2B Payments Innovator TreviPay Teams Up with Cashflow Specialist Cloudfloat
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TreviPay
  • B2B payments and invoice networking operator TreviPay announced a partnership with B2B cashflow specialist Cloudfloat.
  • The goal of the partnership is to help stimulate business opportunities for both companies. TreviPay serves the enterprise market. Cloudfloat specializes in serving small and medium-sized businesses.
  • TreviPay made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall in New York.

B2B payments and invoice networking innovator TreviPay has partnered with B2B cashflow specialist Cloudfloat. The collaboration is designed to bring new business opportunities to both parties: TreviPay – with $7 billion in transaction volume across 34 countries – serves mostly the enterprise market while Cloudfloat specializes in serving small and medium-sized businesses. Via the partnership, the companies expect to serve as valuable references for each other’s respective customer type.

“TreviPay is delighted to be a referral partner with Cloudfloat,” TreviPay Managing Director, APAC, Piers Gorman said. “As the B2B payments landscape matures, there is a significant runway to support all areas of the B2B economy. With opportunities for merchants of all sizes, our referral relationship with Cloudfloat will help bring best-in-class payment options to businesses of all sizes.”

Cloudfloat, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Australia, provides small and medium-sized businesses with time-of-purchase financing, enabling them to make full, timely purchases without immediately impacting cashflow. The financing comes with terms up to 90 days, with no interest charged. The company has realized month-on-month growth of 10% since inception, serving businesses in verticals ranging from hospitality and construction to retail and digital services. “This partnership presents a tremendous opportunity for our business because it unlocks business opportunities which have the potential to help us grow exponentially,” Cloudfloat founder and CEO Aleem Habibullah said.

TreviPay made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall in New York. At the conference, the Overland, Kansas-based fintech demoed its Small Business Supplier Payments Network (SBSN). The network provides a way for banks to grow their small business product suite via a solution that enables them to tap into the small business, B2B trade credit market.

In the months since then, TreviPay has partnered with BlueSnap, integrating card-based payments processing into its platform; acquired payment platform Apruve (terms not disclosed); and hired Allen Bonde as its new Chief Marketing Officer.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger

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Trulioo Unveils New Global Identity Verification Platform for Individuals and Businesses

Trulioo Unveils New Global Identity Verification Platform for Individuals and Businesses
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Trulioo
  • Trulioo unveiled a new global identity verification platform this week.
  • The new offering combines both individual and business verification with no-code workflow building, low-code integrations, and more into a single platform.
  • A Finovate alums since 2014, Trulioo won Best of Show in its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateEurope last March.

Identity verification specialist Trulioo launched a new global identity verification platform this week. The new offering combines individual and business verification solutions with no-code workflow building, low-code integrations, and more in a single platform. The platform will give companies the ability to provide a streamlined onboarding experience, as well as the kind of intuitive user experiences that help build both trust and inclusivity.

“Trulioo is the identity platform businesses turn to in order to solve the inherent complexity in onboarding customers globally,” Trulioo CEO Steve Munford said. “We enable businesses to offer their goods and services in nearly every country in the world and remain compliant. We provide our customers with industry-leading capabilities backed by best-in-class customer success so they can focus on their business and customers.”

With a single contract, the new offering will enable Trulioo customers to readily access:

  • Personally identifiable information matching
  • Identity document verification
  • Utility data for proof of address
  • Business verification for in-depth person-of-significant-control
  • Ultimate-beneficial-owner verification
  • Watchlist screening and monitoring
  • Anti-fraud capabilities

“Trulioo is the only company that delivers an integrated, high-performance platform with comprehensive capabilities, out-of-the-box processes and models, easy no-code configurability, and the ability to customize and amend functionality,” Trulioo Chief Product Officer Michael Ramsbacker said. “We are giving our customers the power to create verification workflows that best meet their needs with just one contract and in one intuitive platform.”

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Trulioo has been a Finovate alum since 2014. Demoing its latest technology on the Finovate stage most recently at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, Trulioo won Best of Show for its GlobalGateway Business Verification to Identity Verification workflow. This functionality, using Trulioo’s GlobalGateway Orchestration, enabled easy-to-do business verification, simple verification of owner identities, and world-class orchestration and workflow building.

The company’s new product launch this week comes as a growing number of businesses are pursuing opportunities in online commerce, mobile payments, and digital currencies. And while these avenues represent significant innovation and progress, they also bring with them new concerns over fraud and financial crime. Being able to know your customer, know your business, identify money laundering and more have become critical – and complex – compliance issues for businesses of all sizes. As such, it is as important for growing companies to have a verification solution that is customizable to their particular needs and workflows, while at the same time providing the requisite scale to support rapidly expanding enterprises. This is especially true when it comes to international expansion.

Trulioo’s platform reaches more than five billion consumers in 195 countries, and enables companies to access more than 450 data sources globally to provide broad, comprehensive identity and business verification. The company has raised more than $474 million in funding from investors including TCV, which led Trulioo’s $394 million Series D round in 2021; and Goldman Sachs, which led the company’s $52 million Series C in 2019.

Photo by Min An

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AKUVO Partners with Eltropy to Help Credit Unions Leverage Text to Improve Collections

AKUVO Partners with Eltropy to Help Credit Unions Leverage Text to Improve Collections
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Eltropy
  • Digital communications platform Eltropy and collections platform provider AKUVO announced a new partnership, integrating Eltropy’s texting functionality into AKUVO’s Aperture solution.
  • The integration will enhance the collections process for community financial institutions (CFIs).
  • Eltropy made its Finovate debut in 2017 and returned to the Finovate stage last year for FinovateFall in New York.

A newly-announced partnership between digital communications platform Eltropy and cloud-based collections platform provider AKUVO will enable credit unions to leverage the texting capabilities of Eltropy’s platform to enhance collections operations. Now, credit unions, community banks, and other community financial institutions (CFIs) will be able to access Eltropy’s texting communications platform from AKUVO’s Aperture solution.

“Integration between Eltropy and AKUVO’s Aperture will provide collectors with a powerful texting platform to guide their account holders through a proactive, effective collections experience,” AKUVO Chief Revenue and Operating Officer Steve Castagna said.

Headquartered in California and founded in 2014, Eltropy made its Finovate debut in 2017 and most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022 last September. At the conference, Eltropy demoed its Eltropy One offering, an all-in-one omni channel solution that lets financial institutions manage both inbound and outbound member and customer communications from a single console. Text, secure chat, video, voice, co-browse, chatbot, and secure file exchange are among the functionalities Eltropy provides – all in a secure and compliant fashion.

In addition to facilitating the delivering of seamless omnichannel customer experiences, Eltropy’s platform leverages AI to help CFIs better resolve issues and consumer inquiries. The technology detects both subjective conditions like consumer sentiment and mood as well as objective data like specific relevant keywords and phrases to provide real-time guidance and personalized recommendations. The company’s partnership with AKUVO, according to Castagna, underscores a shared “visionary approach” to using both data and analytics to help enhance the financial wellness of members and customers.

“One of our primary goals in 2023 is to build stronger integrations with vendors who have strengths in areas of need from our CFI customers, so we look forward to partnering with AKUVO who is making waves in the collection industry with their Aperture platform,” Eltropy VP of Strategic Partnerships Jason Smith said.

With $25 million in funding, Eltropy closed out 2022 with new partnership announcements with digital banking solutions provider Tyfone and credit union lending technology company Origence. Also last year, Eltropy acquired both video banking company POPi/o and AI conversational intelligence platform Marsview.ai. Ashish Garg is Eltropy’s founder and CEO.

Learn more about Eltropy in its upcoming Finovate webinar, 7 trends for community financial services in 2023.

Photo by Lukas

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Finovate Global Africa: Revolutionizing Payments and Promoting Inclusion with Paga’s Tayo Oviosu

Finovate Global Africa: Revolutionizing Payments and Promoting Inclusion with Paga’s Tayo Oviosu
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finastra, Finovate Global, Hawk:AI

This week on Finovate Global, we feature an extended conversation with Paga founder and CEO Tayo Oviosu.

Serving more than 21 million unique users in Africa, Paga is a payments and financial services ecosystem that makes it easy for people to request, send, and receive money; pay bills; get remittances and more. Founded in 2009, Paga is Nigeria’s leading mobile money company.

We caught up with Tayo Oviosu to discuss the current state of fintech in Nigeria and in sub-Saharan Africa, in general. We also talked about how Paga is helping boost financial inclusion and empowerment in the region, and what we can expect from the company in 2023.

Paga was recently recognized with placement on the CB Insights 250 list – one of seven African start-ups featured. What is going right with fintech in sub-Saharan Africa these days? 

Tayo Oviosu: It was an honor to be ranked by CB Insights in its Fintech 250 list and, as one of only seven African start-ups featured, it speaks to the pioneering approach we are introducing to the world – revolutionizing payments and creating a financial services ecosystem for Africa.

As sub-Saharan Africa gains recognition on the global stage, we are seeing innovative and pioneering products emerge and rise in popularity amongst consumers, diversifying the products they can choose from.

In 2020, we saw Stripe acquire Nigerian fintech Paystack – which disrupted the ecosystem and spoke to a future-oriented outlook that has validated the region as an exciting space, full of potential. This speaks to the increase in funding and investment opportunities in the region.

As the ecosystem continues to rapidly grow, the vision of an integrated African market is closer to being realized, with new opportunities constantly emerging. At Paga, this is something particularly pertinent to our mission of making life possible for businesses and individuals. Our consumer ecosystem (Paga) helps people send, pay, and bank digitally. We now serve over 21 million unique users at our agents and consumer direct channels. We developed our seller ecosystem (Doroki) to help businesses digitize their payments and to manage their business operations digitally. Our Platform-as-a-Service offering enables ecosystem businesses and developers to build, launch, and grow, via our API infrastructure. 

Looking at Nigeria specifically, what is the most interesting thing going on in fintech in Nigeria right now?

Oviosu: We are seeing more options for customers come to fruition through a growing market. Fintechs are competing innovatively to meet customers’ different needs with various tailored products.

Subsequently, there are more lending products and services, which are crucial in affording consumers more flexibility, and options to help them reach their goals and needs, and unlock their potential.

Overall, the landscape is improving in terms of communication between companies and regulators – helping firms overcome short and long-term obstacles in compliance.

The recognition of Paga amongst such a global cohort speaks to the innovation we are driving – and the calibre of our ecosystem. Our market potential, investor profile, technological innovation, and business relationships are on a global scale. To have a Nigerian platform lauded globally is an achievement in the Nigerian fintech space in and of itself.

Let’s talk about Paga. What services does Paga offer and who is the company’s target market?

Oviosu: Paga offers an extensive, hybrid payments ecosystem for online and offline customers. We make it easy for people to send, pay, and bank digitally.

For the individual customer, we allow simple seamless payment transactions, transfers, and bill payments – embedding our services into the daily needs of our users. We also help businesses to achieve their goals; powering reliable, real-time transactions, allowing online payment collections, and bill payments – all with minimal transaction charges. For Paga agents in our offline channels, we create jobs and incentives for those helping serve their communities – and also offer financial support via our overdraft offering. We also help developers to build, by enabling them to leverage our extensive platform via our (payment) APIs and providing them with the needed technical support.

In November, we launched our cards in partnership with Visa – both physical and virtual cards – enabling our consumers to pay at over 100 million merchant locations globally, anywhere Visa is accepted. This is just another example of how we make life possible for all our users.

Our current target market is largely contained in Africa, and driving accessibility to what is still a comparatively under-served market. That said, we have plans to expand beyond this and we will keep you posted on our journey.

What makes Paga unique in the payments business?

Oviosu: Paga emerged within the context of a largely cash-dependent economy, with both individuals and businesses suffering from this inefficiency. We took on the mission of improving financial accessibility in Africa as part of the digital payments revolution – and our growth is ever-accelerating as we do so. Our transaction values are soaring: from achieving our first two trillion Naira (over $4 billion based on current official exchange rates) from January 2012 to March 2020, to achieving our most recent two trillion Naira from February 2022 to September 2022 – in just eight months!

Our ecosystem aims to solve payments and services for consumers and sellers, but what makes us unique is our ecosystem approach. We understand that cash is still popular in Africa, and so we provide onramps and offramps in order to increase our reach. Our on-and-offline infrastructure makes us accessible and we pride ourselves on our deeply connected ecosystem – connecting our users to all the banks, enabling seamless transactions to individuals and merchants, and ensuring convenience for our users in their day-to-day lives.

Our customer-first approach is embedded into our DNA, and as we enter new phases of innovation, we strive to solve problems and provide opportunities for our users – whether that be helping people to save, helping businesses digitize, or offering lending services to consumers and SMEs amongst others. Foundational to this is our Platform-as-a-Service and our strong infrastructure – for consumers, sellers, and third parties.

You recently launched a Visa-branded virtual naira card. Why virtual first?

Oviosu: We wanted to address the need in Nigeria for effective virtual cards. As a digital financial services company, we felt a digital product would adhere to our mission and address our customers’ needs quickly and effectively. We have always sought to simplify the use of and access to payments and financial services.

Customers are able to activate their digital cards in less than 20 seconds – immediately gaining access to Visa’s global network. Moreover, for both physical and virtual, we offer benefits unique to Paga’s digital platform, such as real-time transaction notifications, seamless payments via unique ‘JustPaga.me’ pages, and unique Nigerian Uniform Bank Account Numbers (NUBANs) that serve as added protection for the card.

Paga and Visa have worked together before. What makes Visa a good partner for Paga right now?

Oviosu: On our mission to power payments and accessibility, our partnership with Visa has facilitated the growth of our reach. Visa’s significant coverage means we can reach even more consumers and diversify our offerings for our existing consumers. Through our strategic partnership, we can carry more Africans into the financial system and bridge the accessibility gap.

The partnership has also further strengthened aspects such as reliability and security – facilitated in collaboration with Visa’s Cybersource in launching our direct online card processor. The partnership has been instrumental in bettering the user experience.

What can we expect from Paga in 2023? New services? New markets?

Oviosu: We are focused on deepening our current offerings in our ecosystem. We are staying true to our customer-focused mission and are constantly seeking to better serve all our users.

In 2023, we expect to see more significant partnerships occurring in the fintech space, as well as more niche focuses. This will widen options for businesses and consumers to meet their needs. More widely, this will accelerate economic growth as jobs are created, and infrastructure is improved. We are also looking to increase our reach. Currently, our customer base stands at over 20 million, with 140,000 agent points. We are projected to reach 40 to 50 million users in Nigeria – but are also looking beyond this. Earlier last year, we announced our operational license in Ethiopia – in partnership with the Bank of Abyssinia – and as we continue to work towards making it simple for people to send, pay, and bank digitally, we invite you to watch this space!

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • TechCrunch profiled Mexican fintech Zenfi.
  • Mexico-based “fintech meets healthtech” startup Medsi raised $10 million in debt financing.
  • Want to learn more about the new fintech law in Chile? InvestChile has you covered with a new e-book.

Asia-Pacific

  • Indonesian fintech iSeller raised $12 million in Series B funding to help businesses digitize their sales.
  • Bangladesh’s central bank launched its QR code payments system nationwide this week.
  • Philippine-based payments processing firm PayMongo introduced new president and CEO Jojo Malolos

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South African cross-border money transfer company Mama Money announced a partnership with Zimbabwe’s AFC Commercial Bank.
  • Zawya looks at the relationship between financial literacy and the rise of insuretech in Africa.
  • Ecobank and MTN teamed up to launch mobile money microfinancing in Guinea

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Germany-based fraud prevention company Hawk AI secured $17 million in Series B funding.
  • Munich Re and Unifiedpost announced a new strategic partnership this week.
  • Lithuanian technology company iDenfy to provide identity verification and AML services to Finora Bank.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Egyptian embedded finance provider XPAY teamed up with Finastra to help support its growth agenda.
  • MoneyGram announced a strategic partnership with MENA-based VoIP solution, BOTIM.
  • Open ecosystem regtech firm Konsentus went live in the Middle East and North Africa this week.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Worldline launched its digital payments suite for small businesses in India.
  • Bangaldesh Finance announced a partnership with SM Fintech.
  • Forbes India looked at the country’s “matuing fintech ecosystem.”

Photo by McBarth™ Obeya

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Hawk AI Scores $17 Million to Help Banks Fight Money Laundering and Fraud

Hawk AI Scores $17 Million to Help Banks Fight Money Laundering and Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Hawk:AI
  • Germany-based fraud prevention and AML solution provider Hawk AI has raised $17 million in Series B funding this week.
  • The round was led by Sands Capital and featured participation from DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital, and adds to the $10 million Hawk AI raised in 2021.
  • Hawk AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

In a round led by Sands Capital and featuring participation from DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital, Germany-based fraud prevention and anti-money laundering solution provider Hawk AI has raised $17 million in Series B financing. The capital adds to the $10 million in Series A funding the company raised in June of 2021, and will be used to help fuel both product development and global expansion.

“My co-founder Wolfgang Berner and I started this business based on the strong belief that only leading edge, real-time surveillance technology can deliver the change needed to fight financial crime,” Hawk AI CEO and co-founder Tobias Schweiger said. “This contrasts (with) the obvious, drastic deficiencies in legacy technology. Hawk AI’s growth will continue to be fueled by industry-wide demand for AI, cloud outsourcing, and a convergence of fraud and AML technology.” Schweiger added that this week’s investment would help Hawk AI “become the leading global surveillance platform faster.”

Founded in 2018, Hawk AI made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, the company demoed its AML Surveillance Suite, which combines explainable AI with traditional rule-based strategies to monitor transactions for fraud and evidence of potential money laundering in real time. The technology alerts financial crime specialists when suspicious behavior is detected while at the same time significantly limiting the number of false positives – by more than 70% – compared to legacy systems.

In its funding announcement, Hawk AI noted that more than $2 trillion is laundered every year, with U.S. fraud losses in 2022 topping $41 billion. Additionally, for what the company referred to as “high-growth markets,” fraud increased by more than 37% over the past 12 months. This has put additional pressure on institutions as both the volume and sophistication of financial crime continue to grow. Complicating matters further are an ever-changing array of regulations which Sands Capital’s Chris Eng said has made fighting financial crime “historically” challenging. To this end, Eng noted that, “Hawk AI’s sophisticated technology and use of explainable artificial intelligence present critically needed straightforward solutions for institutions across the payments landscape.”

Hawk AI’s funding news comes in the wake of a year in which the company realized year-over-year revenue growth of nearly 3x. Hawk AI also expanded its operations to Singapore last year, and now operates in more than 60 countries across Europe, North America, Asia, and Latin America. Hawk AI includes fellow Finovate alums VISA, Diebold Nixdorf, and Mambu among its partners.

Photo by Frans van Heerden

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