Author: David Penn

Finovate Global Scandinavia: Subaio Partners with Aiia, Boost.ai Brings Conversational AI to DNB

Finovate Global Scandinavia: Subaio Partners with Aiia, Boost.ai Brings Conversational AI to DNB
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Aiia, Alumni News, Finovate Global, Jumio, Scalable Capital, Subaio

Denmark-based Subaio announced this week that it was teaming up with fellow Danish fintech – and fellow Finovate alum – Aiia. Subaio will leverage its partnership with Aiia to better assess creditworthiness for its new white label offering. The collaboration will streamline creditworthiness assessment through a combination of Aiia’s access to financial data and Subaio’s recurring payments detection technology.

“To create automation and a product that works for solid credit scoring across industries, we need as solid and deep quality of data as possible to label the transactions and categorize them afterwards,” Subaio Chief Commercial Officer Soren Nielsen said. “That’s why we chose Aiia to help us bring this next exciting step in the Subaio journey up to speed.”

In some ways, partnerships like this are being encouraged by regulatory decisions. The EU’s revised Consumer Credit Directive of 2021 mandates that financial services firms document customer income and recurring expenses before offering financing to help lower the number of non-performing loans.

“With Aiia, Subaio will be able to offer their customers a hassle-free, cost-efficient and data-driven solution to assess creditworthiness,” Aiia SMB & Fintech Director Tanya Slavova said. “With our high quality data in mind, this open banking empowerment will grant borrowers better loan assessments based on the accurate overview of the consumer’s actual financial situation.”

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Denmark, Subaio made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the company demoed its white label subscription management service, which gives customers a comprehensive overview of their recurring payments, helps them cancel unwanted subscriptions, and provides notifications to enable customers to avoid “subscription traps.” The company returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateEurope 2022 in London with a demo of its automatic creditworthiness assessment solution.

Subaio has raised $4.9 million in funding from investors including Global PayTech Ventures. Thomas Laursen is CEO.

Making its Finovate debut at our all-digital FinovateEurope 2021 conference, Copenhagen, Denmark-based Aiia was launched in 2017. A leading open banking platform in Northern Europe, the company demoed its account-to-account payment services at FinovateEurope 2021, showing how the technology facilitates everything from one-off payments for ecommerce to bulk payments for SMEs using a single API. Aiia was acquired by Mastercard in the fall of 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Rune Mai is CEO and co-founder.

In other fintech news from the Nordics, Boost.ai, a Finovate alum from Norway, announced that it will bring its conversational AI technology to Nordic bank DNB. Specifically, DNB will use Boost.ai’s technology to automate more than half of the bank’s chat traffic with its Aino virtual agent. Aino presently automates upwards of 20% of the bank’s customer service requests. According to DNB, more than one million of its customers have interacted with Aino.

Boost.ai VP of EMEA Sanjeev Kumar praised DNB has “one of the many forward-thinking organizations that are reaping the benefits of embracing a conversational AI solution.” Kumar highlighted the fact that conversational AI helps free up staff to enable them to focus on higher-order and more complex customer service tasks. Headquartered in Oslo, DNB is the largest financial services group in Norway. DNB offers a full range of financial services, including loans and savings, insurance and pension products, as well as advisory services for both retail and corporate customers.

“Artificial intelligence is an important part of our digital strategy,” DNB SVP and Head of IT Emerging Technologies Jan Thomas Lerstein said. “In leveraging AI, our aim is to revitalize our value chains, creating better service for our customers and, of course, value for the bank.” Lerstein added that DNB is evaluating other AI-enabled solutions including voice APIs to help the bank reach “higher levels of personalization.”

Boost.ai made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York in 2019, demoing its virtual agent technology. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Sandnes, Norway, the company introduced a new CEO – Jerry Haywood – in the fall of 2022. Haywood took over the position from founder and previous CEO Lars Selsås, who will focus on product development and innovation going forward.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Photo by Mihis Alex

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Robinhood Launches New Retirement Account Offering with 1% Match

Robinhood Launches New Retirement Account Offering with 1% Match
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Robinhood announced that its Robinhood Retirement offering was now available to all eligible customers.
  • The company, which offered a waitlist for interested customers in December, said that more than one million people have signed up for the new investment service.
  • Robinhood will provide a 1% match for every eligible dollar customers contribute to their Robinhood Retirement plan.

Robinhood, which gained notoriety in recent years as a platform for traders of meme stocks like AMC and Gamestop, announced this week that it is making its Robinhood Retirement offering available to all eligible customers. Unveiled via waitlist in December, the new IRA product offers a 1% match for every eligible dollar contributed – the first and only individual retirement account to do so, according to Robinhood.

Baiju Bhatt, company co-founder and Chief Creative Officer said in a statement: “Systems are failing to catch up to the needs of how many people live and save (or don’t) … We see an opportunity to be a part of the solution, to build products that adapt to the way work and savings will evolve, and ensure people have the tools to control their financial future – just like the way we started.”

Robinhood claims that more than one million people have signed up for the new service via the company’s waitlist. A significant number of these individuals, according to Robinhood, are freelancers and members of the so-called “gig economy,” who often struggle to find solutions to help them prepare for retirement. Robinhood Retirement will enable customers to open multiple Robinhood brokerage accounts and earn a 1% match from Robinhood on eligible contribution dollars. Customers will be able to grow their earnings in tax-free or tax-deferred accounts, and can invest in both stocks and ETFs. The product’s Portfolio Builder feature helps customers build their own investment portfolio, use a custom recommended portfolio, or a combination of both – all without having to pay a commission. Robinhood added that the company plans to authorize options trading in retirement accounts as well – also with no commission or per-contract fees.

“In 2023, Robinhood remains a company fundamentally focused on the unmet needs of the next generations,” Bhatt noted in a blog post announcing the availability of Robinhood Retirement. “No matter how income is earned, we believe the impact of providing long term savings incentives are just as powerful today as they were for our parents’ generation.”

Founded in 2013 by Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, Robinhood offers commission-free trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds, and cryptocurrencies. With total assets of more than $19.7 billion and revenues of $1.8 billion – both as of 2021 – Robinhood boasts more than 22 million funded accounts and nearly 16 million monthly average users as of the spring of 2022. Robinhood is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker HOOD. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.8 billion.

Photo by ANTONI SHKRABA

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Five Tales from the Crypto: A Look at Recent Fundings, Payments, and Partnerships

Five Tales from the Crypto: A Look at Recent Fundings, Payments, and Partnerships
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: List series

Our first Five Tales from the Crypto column of 2023 takes a look at cryptocurrency firms receiving funding, launching new payments solutions, and teaming up with e-commerce innovators to help bring cryptocurrencies and digital asset technology into the mainstream.

Tap Global Secures $3.7 Million in Funding

Cryptocurrency firm Tap Global went public this week in an IPO that raised $3.7 million (£3.1 million) for the Gibraltar-licensed firm. But don’t go looking on the NASDAQ for shares; the company is trading on a London-based alternative trading platform called the Aquis Stock Exchange. Aquis was founded in 2001 as a primary and secondary market for both equity and debt securities. Approximately 90 primary market securities are listed, with more than 600 names on Aquis’ secondary market.

Tap Global CEO David Carr addressed the controversy surrounding the company’s decision to go public at a time when cryptocurrency-related businesses are under additional scrutiny. “Our decision to list now raised some eyebrows, particularly in the wake of the FTX fallout,” Carr said. “But it is our focus on regulation and customer protection that sets us apart from less responsible operators.”

Tap Global shares were priced at $0.05 (4.5 pence). Nearly 69 million shares were listed. The listing was accomplished via a reverse takeover by Quetzal Capital and the company will trade under the ticker “TAP.”

With more than 100,000 registered users in more than 46 countries, Tap Global offers fiat banking and crypto settlement services. Users can purchase up to 26 different crypto assets on the Tap Global app and store them directly in the customer’s wallet. Fiat currencies such as the British pound, the Euro, and the U.S. dollar can also be stored. Tap Global leverages proprietary AI middleware to help users secure the best execution and pricing in real time.

Crypto Exchange Yellow Card Financial Unveils Yellow Pay

Africa-based crypto exchange Yellow Card introduced a new payment feature this week called Yellow Pay. The new offering enables Yellow Card customers to send and receive money instantly via the Yellow Card crypto exchange platform with only a few taps on their phone. There are no additional charges for the service.

“This is more than just a money transfer service – it’s a powerful tool that will unlock new opportunities for people across Africa,” Yellow Card co-founder and CEO Chris Maurice said. “By enabling instant, low-cost transactions across borders, we are helping to create a more connected and dynamic Africa.”

Yellow Card enables users to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT via bank transfer, mobile money, cards, or cash. In order to send funds, users simply require the recipient’s phone number. Fund recipients, as well as those looking to withdraw sent funds, must enroll in Yellow Pay.

“This new product feature not only makes it easier for family members to support each other across Africa with ease,” Maurice said, “but it also opens up the continent to more investment, access to credit, business grants, and generally will improve the ease of doing business.”

Yellow Card was founded in Nigeria in 2019. The company is currently active in 16 countries and, in September, announced that it had surpassed the one million user mark earlier in the year. Also in September, Yellow Card reported that it had received $40 million in Series B investment. The round was led by Polychain Capital, and featured participation from a number of investors including Valar Ventures, Third Prime, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, and more. The funding took Yellow Card’s total funding to $57 million. Polychain Capital Partner Will Wolf praised the company as having “the best executing team on the continent.”

Nebeus Launches Visa-backed Debit Card

Back in Europe, cryptocurrency app Nebeus went live with its Visa-backed Nebeus debit card. The Nebeus Card will enable users to spend directly from their Nebeus accounts, and will be available in markets throughout Europe.

“With this, Nebeus reaches another level of integration and offers a solid connection of everyday payments with superior crypto services,” Nebeus COO and Head of Product Michael Stroev said. “It is a significant accomplishment for us and the most recent illustration of the enormous complementarity between the current banking system and digital assets.” Stroev also noted that the company plans to add Apple Pay and Google Pay functionality as part of “upcoming development phases” of the card. Nebeus also plans to launch a line of credit to enable customers to make transactions without having to sell their cryptocurrency holdings. Stroev said the developments are part of the company’s determination to “contribute towards global financial inclusion.”

Headquartered in Barcelona, Nebeus is registered as a cryptocurrency custodian and a Virtual Assets Service Provider by the Bank of Spain. The company was founded in 2014.

Revelator Partners with Stripe on NFT Payments

Does anyone still care about NFTs? Digital IP infrastructure provider to music companies Revelator announced this week that it was teaming up with Stripe to help it launch a new NFT payment infrastructure. The new functionality would reside on top of Revelator’s digital music supply chain management services.

Revelator CEO and founder Bruno Guez said that the partnership between Stripe and Revelator would play a key role in encouraging those in the music industry who are “non-crypto natives” to learn about the opportunities in Web3. “This is a major step toward Revelator’s vision of onboarding more labels, artists, and fans onto Web3, to bring these promising digital assets to the mainstream of music fans,” Guez said.

Guez said that integrations like this are critical in lowering the technical barriers that currently exist between musicians, music fans, and music companies on one side and what Guez called “a thrilling new medium” on the other. The new NFT functionality will give Revelator Pro platform users the ability to create, sell, distribute, and manage NFTs from a single location. The Stripe integration will enable NFT buyers to set up an account and purchase NFTs with a single click.

Coinbase’s Armstrong: “Dark Times Weed Out Bad Companies”

If it’s always darkest before the dawn, then hopefully a new day is indeed ahead for Coinbase. The company struggled with challenging headlines this week as the sentiment around cryptocurrencies continues to be mixed, at best. On Tuesday, the brother of a former Coinbase product manager was sentenced to 10 months in prison for what is believed to be the first case of cryptocurrency-based insider trading. The same day, the company announced that it would reduce operating expenses by 25%, which included laying off approximately 20% of its workforce, representing some 950 employees.

In a blog post addressed to Coinbase employees, company co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong expressed optimism toward the future of cryptocurrencies. Despite the falling prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies – as well as the “fallout from unscrupulous actors in the industry” – Armstrong wrote that he believed “recent events will ultimately end up benefiting Coinbase greatly.” He compared the current challenges faced by the cryptocurrency industry to the early days of the Internet and suggested that “the most important companies not only survive but thrive” in what he called “dark times.”

Coinbase made its Finovate debut in 2014 at FinovateSpring.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

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Spanish Fintech Divilo Tuns to ThetaRay for AML Transaction Monitoring

Spanish Fintech Divilo Tuns to ThetaRay for AML Transaction Monitoring
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ThetaRay
  • Spanish fintech Divilo partnered with financial crime prevention specialist ThetaRay.
  • Divilo will deploy ThetaRay’s SONAR platform, a SaaS-based AML transaction monitoring and sanctions list screening solution.
  • ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall in New York.

A partnership between Spain-based fintech Divilo and ThetaRay will enable the B2B financial services provider to better defend itself against money laundering, sanctions violations, and other financial crimes. Divilo will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based AML transaction monitoring and sanctions list screening platform, SONAR. The technology is capable of detecting the earliest indications of sophisticated money laundering activity infiltrating the domestic and cross-border payments process.

“Our advanced AI solution also makes the entire process of transaction monitoring much more efficient and effective, while improving customer satisfaction, reducing compliance costs, and increasing risk coverage with safe and secure payments,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said.

SONAR leverages advanced AI, as well as proprietary and patented algorithms, to identify anomalies in data sets to detect potential cases of money laundering. SONAR delivers transaction monitoring with very low (“virtually no”) false positives, giving firms like Divilo the ability to provide trusted and reliable payment services to the SMEs and self-employed professionals it serves.

“Divilo is a fintech leader providing valuable and innovative payment solutions that are growing the global financial system,” Gazit said. “ThetaRay is thrilled to provide Divilo with technology that instills trust into cross-border payments, enabling revenue growth by opening doors to business with new customers and financial partners.”

Founded in 2020, Divilo offers a complete payments, collections, and accounting services for small businesses and freelancers. The company offers payments cards, facilitates money transfers and, offers technology to enable businesses and freelancers to manage payments through mobile devices courtesy of PINs or QR codes. In 2022, Divilo launched a new solution called Diveep that enables charging via mobile device simply by tapping a card or another mobile device.

“Divilo is on a mission to transform payments and collections by providing greater agility, a better user experience, high-security measures, transparency, and simplicity,” Divilo founder and CEO Juan Guruceta said. “Using ThetaRay’s AML solution, we will be able to grow our network of relationships and increase business internationally with the assurance that next-generation AI detection will provide enhanced coverage and highly accurate alerts to allow businesses to focus on what really matters.”

ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall. In the years since then, the company has grown to support more than one billion users, and its platform monitors more than $15 trillion in transactions every year. ThetaRay closed out 2022 with a pair of partnership announcements, teaming up with mobile banking solution NOW Money and partnering with fintech platform Ontop, both in December.

Photo by Alex Azabache

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Tax Status Partners with authID to Protect Tax Data with Human Factor Authentication

Tax Status Partners with authID to Protect Tax Data with Human Factor Authentication
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Tax Status
  • Tax Status announced a partnership with authID this week.
  • The partnership will give Tax Status’ customers access to authID’s Human Factor Authentication (HFA) technology to better protect sensitive data and fight fraud.
  • Based in Texas, Tax Status made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall.

Tax Status, a Texas-based fintech company that offers a digital IRS account monitoring solution, has announced a partnership with identity authentication solutions company authID. The collaboration enables Tax Status to go live with the full range of authID’s identity authentication technologies, including authID’s Human Factor Authentication services (HFA). These resources will enable Tax Status’ enterprise partners to better protect sensitive tax data, as well as prevent password compromise and ensure secure account onboarding for new customers.

“authID’s innovative biometric authentication has proven to be a cut far above other identity management solutions,” Tax Status CEO and founder Charles Almond said. “We are proud to offer the most fortified fraud prevention and enterprise security technology on the market, without compromising on convenience and user experience.”

authID’s Human Factor Authentication enhances the online customer onboarding process by leveraging strong identity and document authentication to eliminate fraud. HFA relies on FIDO2 passwordless authentication that provides seamless login across devices. The technology also offers an unphishable authentication protocol of passkeys and device biometrics for high-risk transactions or transactions that mandate an audit trail.

“Our next-gen Verified platform, which prioritizes ethical, consent-based biometrics, provides Tax Status and their clients with a comprehensive fraud prevention solution and ‘unphishable’ authentication that is more secure than legacy MFA,” authID CEO Tom Thimot explained.

Founded in 2017 and based in Frisco, Texas, Tax Status made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company demoed its Tax Status Platform, a fully-automated IRS account monitoring solution that provides continuous access to official IRS financial data for use in real-time income, account status, and compliance verification. Tax Status works with companies in a wide range of verticals – from wealth management to lending to accounting – providing critical notifications and insights to help them make more informed decisions.

Tax Status ended 2022 with a partnership with Morningstar. The collaboration will enable Morningstar to offer Tax Status to enterprise wealth management firms and fintechs via Morningstar’s Dynamic Services APIs. By automating the collection and maintenance of client tax data – including income, social security tax withheld, and capital gains and losses – companies will be able to better apply this information to not only client onboarding, but also to investment and financial planning, as well.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

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NorthOne Teams Up with The Bancorp Bank to Launch Real-Time Payments Via The Clearing House

NorthOne Teams Up with The Bancorp Bank to Launch Real-Time Payments Via The Clearing House
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Challenger bank NorthOne announced a partnership with The Bancorp Bank to launch real-time payments via The Clearing House’s network.
  • NorthOne customers initially will be able to receive real-time payments. The ability to send real-time payments will come with “future updates” the company said.
  • With offices in New York and Toronto, NorthOne has raised more than $90 million in funding for its deposit account that helps small businesses and freelancers better manage their finances.

U.S.-based challenger bank NorthOne has teamed up with The Bancorp Bank to launch real-time payments via The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payments network.

NorthOne co-founder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan called the new offering a “huge milestone” for both his company as well as for the fintech industry writ large. Bensoussan also underscored the value of real-time payments to NorthOne’s small business customers. “For small business owners, cash flow and liquidity are paramount,” he said. “By removing payment waiting times, we’re able to free up a frustrating technical bottleneck for our customers, making it easier for them to operate their business efficiently.”

Founded in 2016, NorthOne specializes in helping small business owners, startups, and freelancers better manage their finances. The company offers a deposit account that enables users to view full account histories and manage receipts, and provides automatic categorization of purchases. Users can connect their NorthOne accounts to their POS or payment processor to get paid faster, as well as leverage the account to pay invoices, manage payroll, and send ACH or wire payments.

With offices in New York and Toronto, Canada, NorthOne sees the introduction of real-time payments as a way to help the 61% of small businesses that it says are struggling because of poor cash management. The update announced this week will enable NorthOne customers to receive instant payments. The ability to send real-time payments will come as part of a separate, future update.

This week’s product launch is the latest news from NorthOne, which most recently made fintech headlines with a $67 million fundraising in October. The Series B investment featured participation from both new and existing investors, and brought the company’s total equity capital to more than $90 million.

“50% of small businesses in America fail over a five-year time horizon,” NorthOne co-founder and COO Justin Adler said when the company’s latest fundraising was announced last fall. “And the majority of those failures are due to financial mismanagement and a lack of financial systems and controls. Our team is proud to be able to de-risk entrepreneurship and make starting and running a successful small business accessible to anyone.”

Photo by Pixabay

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M&A Monday: Best of Show Winner TipRanks Acquires The Fly; TreviPay Agrees to Buy Apruve

M&A Monday: Best of Show Winner TipRanks Acquires The Fly; TreviPay Agrees to Buy Apruve
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Acquisition, Alumni News, Daily news, David's column, Mergers & Acquisitions, TipRanks, TreviPay

2023 is only a few days old but the merger and acquisition action in the fintech industry has already begun.

2022 featured a number of major fintech acquisitions – from Vista Equity Partners $8 billion purchase of tax compliance specialist Avalara to Technisys’ $1.1 billion acquisition of SoFi to Fiserv’s $650 million deal with Finxact. As the new year begins amid economic uncertainty and a technology industry that is contracting, will 2023 produce more deal-making activity in fintech or less?

With this question in mind, here’s a look at recent year-ending and year-beginning M&A activity from a pair of our Finovate alums: TipRanks and TreviPay.

We learned last week TipRanks had agreed to acquire real-time financial news digital provider, The Fly. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New Jersey, The Fly is a leading digital publisher that offers a live-streaming subscription service featuring short form stories and content on publicly-traded companies.

“TipRanks is a natural home for The Fly,” company President Ron Etergino said. “Both companies strive to level the playing field for investors and TipRanks’ institutional-grade research tools and data will enhance The Fly’s financial news products.”

With its technology that provides market research tools to retail investors and traders, TipRanks took Finovate audiences by storm in its debut appearance in 2013. The New York-based company won Best of Show at both FinovateSpring in May of that year and again at FinovateFall in September.

More recently, the Tel Aviv, Israel and New York-based company launched a new solution that determined risk factors for publicly traded companies, as well as a tool that analyzes publicly traded companies’ online traffic. In 2021, the company raised $77 million in funding in a round led by Prytek. Last year, TipRanks introduced country-specific websites for Australia, Canada, and the U.K.

TipRanks’ acquisition of The Fly is designed to further the company’s mission of becoming a “one-stop-shop platform for the retail investor,” according to CEO Uri Gruenbaum. “We see a lot of synergy between our companies and are excited that we can expand our offerings to provide breaking news – one of the top requirements of our Enterprise customers and end users,” Gruenbaum said.

Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in Q1 of this year.

Amid the flurry of year-ending news, one alumni acquisition we missed was TreviPay’s decision to acquire payments platform Apruve early last month. Headquartered in Overland, Kansas, and making its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, TreviPay supports B2B commerce with its payments and invoicing network designed to optimize transactions between buyers and sellers. The company’s acquisition of payment platform Apruve is designed to help complement and add to TreviPay’s current order-to-cash technology and merchant invoicing solutions.

“The acquisition of Apruve will accelerate our advancement in the technology manufacturing vertical and expand our geographic reach into key Asian markets,” TreviPay CEO Brandon Spear said.

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but all Apruve employees will be retained post-acquisition. Apruve was TreviPay’s second acquisition of 2022, having purchased B2B invoice payments network company BATON Financial Services in February.

With 90,000 buyers and 80,000 seller locations around the world, TreviPay automates the order-to-cash process via omni-channel checkout options, localized B2B invoicing, managed receivables, and fraud and risk management. The company’s tailored payments and invoicing networks enable merchants and suppliers alike to develop more profitable and enduring trade relationships. TreviPay processes $7 billion in transaction volume across 32 countries and 19 different currencies.

Founded in 1980, TreviPay demoed its Small Business Supplier Network (SBSN) at FinovateFall 2022. The offering gives banks the ability to grow its small business product offerings by enabling them to tap into the small business B2B trade credit market.

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Finovate Global China: Ant Group Expands Consumer Finance Business with Major Capital Commitment

Finovate Global China: Ant Group Expands Consumer Finance Business with Major Capital Commitment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

China’s recent emergence from severe COVID lockdowns has caught the attention of investors, who sent shares of Chinese companies soaring in the final months of 2022. The momentum has continued into 2023 with many observers and analysts suggesting that, while China’s COVID-related woes may not be over, the country and its $17+ trillion economy may be well on the way back to normal.

Or even better than normal. Even before the COVID crisis, China had shown renewed signs of economic illiberalism that had worried many Western investors. Most prominent of these concerns was the treatment of Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma. Ma is the co-founder of Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group who stepped down as executive chairman in 2018 and, By the fall of 2020, had departed the board entirely. Rumors swirled that Ma was reacting to pressure from Chinese authorities in the wake of a controversial speech in which Ma criticized both the Chinese regulatory authorities as well as Chinese banks. As New York Times reporter Li Yuan observed in December 2020:

Lately, public sentiment has soured and Daddy Ma has become the man people in China love to heat. He has been called a ‘villain,’ and ‘evil capitalist’ and a ‘bloodsucking ghost’ … Instead of Daddy, some people have started to call him ‘son’ or ‘grandson.’ In stories about him, a growing number of people leave comments quoting Marx: ‘Workers of the world, unite!’

This was a stark reversal for a man who had become, as Li Yuan noted “synonymous with success” in China. As Ma’s star faded, so did the immediate fortunes of his corporation’s star affiliate – Ant Group – which was forced to suspend its IPO slated for that year.

But it appears as if those dark days for Jack Ma and the companies he founded have ended. This week, Ant Group – a major affiliate of Ma’s Alibaba Group that owns Alipay, the world’s largest mobile payment platform – secured approval from the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission to boost the registered capital for its consumer finance unit by more than 2x from 8 billion yuan to 18.5 billion yuan. Ant Group had launched its consumer finance division in 2021 as part of a restructuring effort designed to placate Chinese regulatory concerns. The decision by Chinese authorities is believed to be the clearest indication to date that the dark clouds that have hovered over Ma, Alibaba, and Ant Group have begun to clear.

That said, there is no word yet on whether or not Ant Group’s IPO plans are back on track. For example, CNBC reported this week that Ant Group still has not received a financial holding company license from the People’s Bank of China. Being able to treat Ant Group more like a bank from a regulatory perspective – which would include the firm becoming a financial holding company – was among the chief objectives of the country’s central bank.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo by zhang kaiyv

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Saying Yes to Your Customers: Reimagining the Customer Experience in Financial Services with Steven Van Belleghem

Saying Yes to Your Customers: Reimagining the Customer Experience in Financial Services with Steven Van Belleghem
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2023, Speaker series

It may be a fintech cliche that “every year is the Year of the Customer.” But the obsession over customer experience that is sweeping through financial services is showing no signs of slowing down.

Steven Van Belleghem, author of The Internet of Customer Value, How Web3 and the Metaverse Are Changing the Game in Customer Experience, will deliver a keynote address on Day One of FinovateEurope this year that tackles this topic head-on. An expert in the future of customer centricity, Van Belleghem emphasizes the relationship between enabling technologies, customer-centric thinking, and the human touch in his work. This work includes four international best-selling books, as well as co-founding inspiration agency Nexxworks and social media agency Snackbytes.

Find out more about how to attend FinovateEurope at the O2 in London and catch Steven Van Belleghem’s keynote address live on Tuesday, March 14, at our FinovateEurope hub.

An engaging speaker and colorful writer, Van Belleghem has impressed audiences and readers with his insights into what it truly means to put the customer first – and why it is imperative for companies to do so in order to succeed. In a recent blog post, Van Belleghem explained how “customer culture” has “replaced technology as the holy grail” as a growing number of businesses recognize the value of “really try(ing) to understand what people want and then help them.” He wrote:

“Over the years, software has even become quite good at being creative, but empathy remains that last beacon, something that is typically human. And so a positive culture of being kind, of being human, of saying ‘yes’ to your customers will become a true differentiator. That’s what will bridge the most of that last 10% to get great CX.”

Read his full discussion, which includes Van Belleghem’s explanation of why this last 10% is always the most difficult to achieve, as well as a helpful strategy for keeping even the most promising of enabling technologies in the proper perspective.

Then stop by our FinovateEurope 2023 hub to save your spot at our upcoming fintech conference, March 14 through 15, featuring author Steven Van Belleghem’s keynote address on Day One.

Photo by Image Hunter

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Advanced Bookkeeping Solution Provider Uplinq Raises $5.6 Million in Seed Funding

Advanced Bookkeeping Solution Provider Uplinq Raises $5.6 Million in Seed Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Uplinq, a company that offers advanced bookkeeping solutions to SMEs, has raised $5.6 million in funding.
  • Headquartered in Arizona, Uplinq will use the capital to scale its marketing efforts to better serve fintech’s “underserved bookkeeping” market.
  • The funding was led by Arizona-based AZ-VC, and included a strategic investment from Live Oak Ventures.

Uplinq, a technology company that leverages automation and machine learning to provide businesses with advanced bookkeeping solutions, has secured an investment of $5.6 million. The funding, announced in early December, was led by Arizona venture capital fund AZ-VC and included a strategic investment from Live Oak Ventures. Live Oak Ventures is the fintech-oriented venture capital arm of Live Oak Bank. Also participating in the funding were Merus Capital and members of the Kuwaiti Royal Family.

“With continued economic uncertainty, new automated fintech like Uplinq helps businesses take advantage by keeping track of changing costs and financials more efficiently than ever before to make smart business decisions fast,” Uplinq CEO Alex Glenn said. “This funding round will accelerate the next phase of Uplinq’s growth plans and expand our reach across this lucrative $15 billion industry.”

The capital will be used to help scale Uplinq’s marketing efforts, sales power, engineering capabilities, and customer delivery departments in order to better serve what the company calls fintech’s “underserved bookkeeping” market.

Uplinq leverages its proprietary technology to gather, organize, and categorize business transactions to provide small businesses with review-ready, real-time analysis “at the touch of a button.” With seamless integrations with more than 10,000 financial institutions, Uplinq provides its customers with weekly updated financial data – instead of monthly or quarterly – and said that more solutions for SMEs are planned to go live in 2023.

“We offer businesses a better way to get professional help through our proprietary technology, that not only makes bookkeeping worry-free for the business owner, but also provides them with powerful data automation and machine learning to better understand their finances and how their business can improve,” Glenn said.

Founded in 2020, Uplinq is headquartered in Tempe, Arizona.

Photo by Pixabay

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Income Data Verification Platform Argyle Secures Accreditation from PBSA

Income Data Verification Platform Argyle Secures Accreditation from PBSA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Daily news
  • Income data verification company Argyle has secured accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA).
  • The 880+ membership organization was founded in 2003 and helps keep screening firms up to date on new legislation and industry best practices.
  • Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in May of last year.

Real-time income data platform Argyle has received accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). This accreditation provides Argyle with a “seal of approval” as well as “national recognition” that its income data verification technology complies with industry standards with regards to both compliance and consumer protection.

“Argyle is committed to automating employment verifications in the background check industry,” Argyle CEO Shmulik Fishman said. “For our consumers and end users, we operate under rigorous standards and don’t compromise or cut corners. We’re pleased PBSA’s accreditation confirms those commitments.”

PBSA Executive Director Melissa Sorenson credited Argyle for joining the 880+ member organization and for supporting the PBSA’s efforts to “advance excellence within the background screening industry.” Founded in 2003, PBSA helps keep member firms in the United States and abroad informed about legislation that potentially impacts screening, as well as helps companies access practical guidance on industry best practices, news, and trends. The organization’s member organizations are defined as “consumer reporting agencies” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and are regulated by both the FTC and CFPB.

Making its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring, Argyle is a New York-based technology company that enables consumers to connect their employment records to companies’ apps and websites. This secure connection allows businesses to access the income and identity data required in order to offer and deliver a range of digital experiences. At the same time, consumers benefit from access to more financial products and total control over the use of their data.

At FinovateSpring in 2022, the company demoed a design update for its Link technology to improve the tool’s usefulness for end users. Link is the front-end interface that lets consumers grant access to their payroll information. The 4.0 upgrade demoed last spring is designed to make it easier for users to connect their accounts, reduce drop-off rates, and improve the overall look and feel of the solution.

Argyle was founded in 2018. The company has raised more than $77 million in funding from investors including Bain Capital Ventures and SignalFire. Last fall, Argyle announced a partnership with Dallas, Texas-based payments company Highline to give lenders across the U.S. access to payroll-linked lending and billpay functionality.

“True financial inclusion begins with the recognition that there is a shortage of non-predatory options available for many Americans who need access to relatively small dollar loans,” Highline CEO Geoff Brown said. “The team at Argyle recognizes this as well and, like Highline, is committed to helping more consumers gain access to credit in a way that also makes sense for lenders and fits their business objectives.”

Photo by Ali Camacho Adarve

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FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley Showcases Fintech’s Pioneers

FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley Showcases Fintech’s Pioneers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, FinovateEurope 2023

To close out 2022, we highlighted our upcoming FinovateEurope Alumni Alley showcase. This event, part of FinovateEurope in London, March 13 through 14, will feature the companies that made their Finovate debuts at our annual European conference. Find out more about Alumni Alley and how you and your company can take advantage of this unique opportunity.

We commemorated the announcement of Alumni Alley with this multi-part look back at some of FinovateEurope’s earliest alums. Click the image to enjoy a little stroll down fintech’s memory lane.

Featuring Cardlytics, D3 Technology (formerly Lodo Software), and AcceptEasy (formerly AcceptEmail)

Featuring Xero, Tilte (formerly known as Striata), and DirectID (formerly miiCard)

Featuring Finantix, BusinessForensics, and StockTwits

Featuring Backbase, Boku, and SecureKey.

Featuring Meniga, Linxo, and eToro

Photo by Peter Spencer | Additional art credits in the original articles

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