Author: David Penn

BeSmartee Pursues Opportunities in Commercial Lending with FlashSpread Acquisition

BeSmartee Pursues Opportunities in Commercial Lending with FlashSpread Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, BeSmartee, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

With its acquisition of financial analysis as a service company FlashSpread, digital mortgage platform BeSmartee’s ability to deliver a complete, digital lending experience just got that much more complete.

“We are excited to welcome FlashSpread and Ariel Trybuch to the BeSmartee family,” CEO and co-founder of BeSmartee Tim Nguyen said in a statement. “This is an acquisition that not only brings new clients, technologies, and talents to BeSmartee, but one that also sparks further innovation into all lending verticals, including mortgages, consumer, and commercial.”

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Glendale, California, FlashSpread specializes in instant tax spreading for commercial lenders and fintechs. The company’s proprietary algorithms enable lenders to convert scanned tax returns into customized and comprehensive financial reports with the click of a button. The technology brings significant efficiencies to the commercial loan process – from origination to servicing – and empowers lenders to make accurate, data-driven credit decisions quickly.

Via its acquisition of FlashSpread, BeSmartee will be able to accelerate its growth strategy, prioritizing increased automation as it expands into the commercial lending space. FlashSpread is integrated with some of the largest loan origination systems in the commercial lending industry, with more than 100 financial institutions relying on its technology to automate manual processes. Post-acquisition, FlashSpread will continue independently to serve customers as a “BeSmartee Company” with FlashSpread founder and CEO Ariel Trybuch taking on the role of General Manager.

“This partnership will provide the resources necessary to support the hyper-growth FlashSpread is currently experiencing, as well as allow us to provide our customers with an even higher level of customer support, rapidly introduce new features and functionality, and expand our ever-growing library of supported document types,” Trybuch said. The company will continue growing its document library to support a broader range of financial statements, as well as launch a no-code reporting module to offer instant custom reports, and unveil an ongoing credit monitoring tool.

BeSmartee’s acquisition announcement comes just days after the company reported a partnership with Freddie Mac. The Huntington Beach-based fintech will integrate Freddie Mac’s automated underwriting system, Loan Product Advisor, improving workflows for lenders by automating risk assessment, and both asset and income data review. The integration will also improve lenders’ ability to make smart business decisions, leveraging actionable insights from Loan Product Advisor’s rich data visualization features.

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Biometric Authentication Innovator iProov Secures $70 Million in Funding

Biometric Authentication Innovator iProov Secures $70 Million in Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, iProov

An investment of $70 million from Sumeru Equity Partners will enable online facial biometric authentication specialist iProov to expand its business in the United States, grow its worldwide partner network, and add more “top-quality staff” to its global team.

“This investment by one of America’s leading growth funds recognizes the preeminent position we have established,” iProov CEO and founder Andrew Bud said in a statement. “Our potential is enormous and we now have the resources to scale in the United States and worldwide. Our strong balance sheet will give our customers and partners confidence in our long-term ability to keep them and their customers secure.”

Updated valuation information was not immediately available. The company secured Series A funding in 2019, though the amount of the investment was not disclosed. In a statement, the company announced that it had tripled its revenues from 2020 to 2021, and processed more online verifications during a single 10-day period in 2021 than in the whole of 2020. The company added that it had completed more than one million verifications in a single day multiple times in 2021.

As part of the investment, Sumeru Managing Partner Kyle Ryland will join iProov’s Board of Directors. Ryland praised the company’s “combination of patented deep technology, exceptional customer references, and hugely capable team.”

A three-time Finovate Best of Show winner, iProov made its most recent Finovate appearance last spring at FinovateEurope 2021. At the event, iProov demonstrated Flexible Authentication which combines two of the company’s solutions – Genuine Presence Assurance and Liveness Assurance – to enable firms to choose the appropriate level of verification to be applied in a given situation.

Last month, iProov announced a partnership with high-speed passenger rail service Eurostar to test a new contactless fast-track service. The solution, SmartCheck, leverages iProov’s Genuine Presence Assurance technology to provide biometric face verification during the U.K. exit check to both streamline and better secure the travel experience. The pilot project was launched at London’s St. Pancras International station.

“This secure, convenient, and privacy-protecting technology will make life easier and safer for travelers around the world,” Bud said when the Eurostar collaboration was announced in December. “The days of rooting around in your bag for your passport or hoping that your phone battery doesn’t run out before you show your e-ticket at the gate are over. It’s effortless and convenient while also delivering the reassurance and security that travelers expect.”

Photo by Sourav Mishra

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Will 2022 Be the Year Central Bank Digital Currencies Break Out?

Will 2022 Be the Year Central Bank Digital Currencies Break Out?
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Finovate Global, MasterCard, Tinkoff Credit Systems

The news is flying a bit under the radar. But from China to Bahrain to Jamaica, central banks are beginning 2022 having made major moves recently in support of digital assets.

We covered China’s CBDC announcement earlier this week. In short, the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, made its digital yuan wallet available via both the Android and Apple app stores. Select Chinese citizens in a wide range of provinces – including Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Chengdu – will be able to download the e-CNY wallet. The Chinese government hopes that there will be significant use of the technology in the weeks leading up to the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which could represent a showcase for the digital currency.

Halfway around the world, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) announced that it has successfully completed its test with Onyx by JPMorgan’s JPM Coin System. The test, the first of its kind in the MENA region, enabled Bank ABC to launch real-time payments for Aluminum Bahrain (ALBA) in the U.S. JPM Coin is a permissioned system that provides payment rail and deposit account ledger services that allow participants to transfer U.S. dollars that are held on deposit with JPMorgan.

“We at the Central Bank of Bahrain are extremely pleased to announce the success of this test which aligns with our vision and strategy to continually develop and enrich the capabilities extended to the stakeholders within our financial services sector in the Kingdom using advanced and leading emerging technologies,” Central Bank of Bahrain Governor Rasheed Al Maraj said in a statement.

JPM Coin is the inaugural product offering from JPMorgan’s Onyx, a blockchain-based platform that facilitates the exchange of value, data, and digital assets. Onyx was formed in 2020.

Several hundred miles to Bahrain’s west, the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) announced that it also has completed a cryptocurrency pilot. Here, the digital asset is a central bank digital currency (CBDC), which has been undergoing testing in the island nation for the past eight months. The project was conducted in partnership with Irish fintech eCurrency Mint, a company with a 10+ year pedigree in innovation on CBDCs. The stated goal of the initiative was to determine “whether a central bank digital currency along with the attendant technology solution could be successfully implemented in Jamaica.”

Three specific tasks were part of the test: minting of the CBDC, issuing the CBDC to wallet providers, and distributing CBDCs to retail customers. This final component of the test involved wallet provider NCB, and the successful onboarding of 57 customers who conducted person-to-person, cash-in, and cash-out transactions with small businesses as part of an NCB-sponsored event in December called “Market on the Lawn.”

In the wake of the successful test, the Bank of Jamaica has planned a national roll-out of its new CBDC in the first quarter of 2022. The roll-out will feature the continued onboarding of new and existing customers by NCB, the introduction of two additional wallet providers, and a test of transactions between customers of different participating wallet providers to establish interoperability.

Note that Jamaica’s Caribbean neighbor, the Bahamas, launched its CBDC, the Sand Dollar, in October of 2020. The Sand Dollar is the the world’s first official central bank digital currency to reach full circulation.

FinovateEurope 2022 is right around the corner. If you are an innovative fintech company with new technology to show, then there’s no better time than now and no better forum than FinovateEurope. To learn more about how to demo your latest innovation at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, March 22-23, visit our FinovateEurope hub today!

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

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CSI Inks Partnerships with Cypress Bank & Trust, NYDIG

CSI Inks Partnerships with Cypress Bank & Trust, NYDIG
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news

End-to-end fintech and regtech solution provider Computer Services, Inc. (CSI) has announced a pair of new partnerships to start the new year. At the beginning of the week, the Paducah, Kentucky-based company announced that Cypress Bank & Trust would deploy CSI’s NuPoint core platform to serve as the backbone for its integrated banking services. A de novo bank headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida, Cypress Bank & Trust will leverage its new platform to offer a suite of commercial and consumer banking services to new customers and expand its services to current trust and investment management customers.

“At CSI, our top priority is providing industry-leading technology and services that empower community banks to grow their businesses and innovate,” CSI Enterprise Banking Group President Giovanni Mastronardi said. “As a de novo, Cypress Bank & Trust has the opportunity to establish a modern technology foundation for their banking services.”

NuPoint is a cloud-based, core banking system that leverages seamless integration and the ability to connect to third-party APIs to enable banks to deploy customer-facing banking solutions and streamline back office operations. Cypress Bank & Trust President, CEO, and Director Dana Kilborne noted that the partnership will help the financial institution, which grew out of The Cypress Trust Company last year, to continue to evolve and build out its offerings.

“For the last 25 years, we have specialized in providing personalized trust services to meet the holistic needs of our clients,” Kilborne said. “To successfully expand into banking services, it is imperative that we work with a provider that has the technology advancements and proven experience to support our initiative.”

Computer Services, Inc. followed up its bank partnership announcement with a fintech partnership announcement a few days later. The company announced that it was teaming up with bitcoin innovator NYDIG to enable community financial institutions to offer a full suite of turnkey Bitcoin services. This includes giving banking customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin from within CSI’s digital banking platform.

In a statement, Gerald Reiter, president and CEO of CSI core banking customer Granite Bank, noted the growing popular interest in cryptocurrencies and the importance of ensuring that consumers have a safe way to participate in digital asset trading and investing. NYDIG Chief Innovation Officer Patrick Sells underscored the point, emphasizing that safety and regulatory compliance need to keep up with customer enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies.

“Community banks are excited about offering Bitcoin services to their customers,” Sells said, “but they also know that they need to provide a secure and compliant environment to maintain the trust that their customers place in them.”

Founded in 2017 and based in New York, NYDIG ended 2021 with a $1 billion investment that gave the company a valuation of more than $7 billion. New investor WestCap Group led the round, which also featured participation from Affirm Holdings and Fiserv. Also involved in the funding were existing investors Morgan Stanley, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, and New York Life Insurance.

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3 Takeaways from the Launch of China’s Digital Yuan Wallet on Android and iOS

3 Takeaways from the Launch of China’s Digital Yuan Wallet on Android and iOS
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, List series

Will 2022 be the year that CBDCs – central bank digital currencies – finally emerge from concept to solution? One of the countries that has been most aggressive in developing these digital assets – China – announced this week that it has launched its digital yuan wallet in both the Android and iOS app stores. The launch comes after more than seven years of development and extensive field testing across the country. This includes a pilot project that involved using the digital yuan (or e-CNY, as it is also known) for transactions worth more than $5 billion as of June of 2021. The Chinese central bank claims that, to date, its digital yuan has been used in more than 70 million payments across 1.3+ million scenarios.

What does this suggest for the digital yuan in specific and CBDCs in general going forward? Here are a handful of takeaways from this week’s announcement out of China.

China is still the global leader in CBDC innovation

Talking with CBDC experts like James Wallis of RippleX about which countries are leading the way on innovation in CBDCs, China is often treated as if it is in a category of its own. Among the more advanced economies in the world, none rival China in terms of their commitment to developing a CBDC. This week’s news of China’s digital yuan wallet being made available via the Android and iOS app stores is a testament to this leadership in the field.

While the United States has certain advantages in what has been called “the digital currency space race,” the lack of institutional support compared to what the e-CNY is receiving could play a significant role as digital currencies move toward broader use. This relative lack of support is a potential challenge both inside of the U.S. as well as internationally. “In the long term, the absence of U.S. leadership and standards setting can have geopolitical consequences, especially if China maintains its first-mover advantage in the development of CBDCs,” researchers from the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank on international affairs, concluded in December.

A digital yuan challenges offerings from Ant Group and Tencent

The timing of the Android and iOS app store launches is also noteworthy. The Winter Olympic games begin in less than a month in Beijing and it is believed that the Chinese government hopes to showcase the new technology during the weeks-long event. It has been suggested that if the new digital yuan wallet gains traction swiftly enough – selected Chinese citizens in any one of 10 provinces including Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Chengdu are eligible to download the wallet – there is a likelihood that the wallet will compete with commercial payment options from domestic firms like Ant Group and Tencent.

Interestingly, some American politicians are concerned enough about the presence of a digital yuan at the Winter Games that they have written a letter to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee asking that American athletes be banned from using it. The authors of the letter point to possible security risks, including potential “tracking and tracing” of athletes. The Chinese central bank, for its part, has indicated that the e-CNY will feature “controllable anonymity” that will protect data and prevent fraud.

The e-CNY could serve both China’s consumer tech and international finance goals

One of the conversations from 2021 that China watchers will be continuing in 2022 is the degree to which the country’s government is incentivizing “science-based” technology such as its semiconductor industry relative to more consumer tech/internet-based technologies. In some ways, development of its digital yuan cuts against this dichotomy. On the one hand, a digital yuan opens up consumer payment opportunities that could disadvantage commercial payment offerings, as noted above. On the other hand, the rise of a Chinese CBDC has the potential to play a major role not only in the digitization of China’s financial system, but also as a potential reserve currency for emerging countries or as a universal payment instrument for China’s economic partners.

“In the coming years, the e-CNY will likely be deployed across China as part of Beijing’s focus on bolstering domestic financial security,” Robert Greene wrote in a commentary for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace last July. “The e-CNY could also be used to navigate international transactions around payment systems and networks that can be shut off to Chinese financial institutions serving U.S.-sanctioned entities.”

For more on China’s plans for its CBDC, check out this white paper published by the People’s Bank of China in July of last year.

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FinTech Automation Inks Consumer Data Agreement with Finicity

FinTech Automation Inks Consumer Data Agreement with Finicity
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finicity

FinTech Automation (FTA), an infrastructure-as-a-service platform, announced that it has partnered with Finicity to access consumer data to ensure secure account validation during the account opening process. The collaboration also will drive a transition away from outdated validation methods such as time-consuming micro-deposits.

“Integrating consumer-permissioned data from Finicity’s open banking network streamlines account opening and funding, making it safer, easier, and faster, which reduces account opening abandonment for our customers,” FinTech Automation founder and CEO David Park said. “It’s a great example of how open banking can improve banking and personal financial management offerings and their customer experience at the same time.”

Courtesy of the agreement, FTA customers will be able to connect to their primary accounts in order to fund new investment accounts. FinTech Automation will also be able to use consumer-permissioned data from Finicity’s open banking platform to show customers a more holistic view of their finances that takes into account holdings across multiple financial and wealth accounts. Customers will be able to download and integrate transactions from their wealth accounts into their personal financial management tools.

“Secure account opening is crucial for financial institutions today,” Finicity President and COO Andy Sheehan said. “Open banking data can reduce the friction and mitigate the risk associated with digital account opening. FTA’s integration of Finicity’s open banking platform will further empower consumers to take charge of their financial data and financial futures.”

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and founded in 2016, FinTech Automation offers a platform that automates administrative activities, integrates enabling technologies, and supports management with instant data and dashboards. The company’s platform and Acceleration Cloud give businesses the ability to manage APIs, relationships, and methods between workers, clients, and documents in an integrated, fully-compliant fashion. With 30 fintech partners and more than 50 advisory firm clients, FinTech Automation helps SMEs take advantage of innovative new financial technologies.

Finicity has been a Finovate alum since 2014. The company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr 2021, last year with its VP of Data Science Nick Baguley giving a talk on Connecting Siloed Financial Data: Open Banking’s Impact on the Financial Experience. A few months later, Baguley was recognized by HousingWire in its 2021 Tech Trendsetter Awards for improving income identification and categorization to recognize a broader range of income streams. Also earning plaudits in December was Finicity CEO Steve Smith, who was nominated for Executive of the Year by the Lendit Fintech Industry Awards.

Founded in 1999 by Nick Thomas, Warren Rosner, and Smith, Finicity is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was acquired by Mastercard in June 2020 for $825 million.

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Bank of Charles Town to Digitize its Commercial Lending Experience in Partnership with Jack Henry

Bank of Charles Town to Digitize its Commercial Lending Experience in Partnership with Jack Henry
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Jack Henry

The latest chapter in Bank of Charles Town’s digital transformation was written today. The West Virginia-based financial institution announced that it is collaborating with Jack Henry & Associates to digitize its commercial lending operations.

“We selected Jack Henry’s lending platform because it supports our broader digital banking strategy,” Bank of Charles Town (BCT) Vice President Anthony J. Ranghelli said. “The platform will help us grow with scale and efficiency while improving everyone’s experience. Our immediate goal for the next few years is to expand our digital lending footprint geographically to support businesses in neighboring communities and diversify our portfolio.”

Bank of Charles Town has spent the past few years investing in digital banking solutions, including a new website, digital wallets, and mobile deposit functionality. This week’s announcement will enable the FI to move away from the manual backend processes that have governed its previous loan origination system. The new technology from Jack Henry & Associates will bring new efficiencies, an improved customer experience, and streamlined workflow for employees. Ranghelli noted that the partnership will enable BCT to better serve its small and medium-sized business customers, especially “niche industries” such as dentist offices and law firms which he called “a priority for our bank.”

Founded in 1871 by a coalition of Jefferson County, West Virginia farmers and business leaders, Bank of Charles Town has grown into a $511 million-financial institution serving communities in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia; Loudon County, Virginia; and Washington County, Maryland. BCT was named a Best Bank to Work For by American Banker in 2020 for a second year in a row. Alice Frazier is President and CEO.

A Finovate alum since 2011, when the company showcased its ProfitStars division, Jack Henry & Associates finished 2021 with new partners and new functionalities for its solutions. The company announced a collaboration with Envestnet | Yodlee in December and also reported that its Jack Henry Lending platform, the centerpiece of its partnership with Bank of Charles Town, has been upgraded to include tax return spreading capabilities. This move will further reduce the amount of manual work that typically burdens the lending process and will accelerate the time to loan fulfillment.

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The Conversation Continues: Catching Up with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast

The Conversation Continues: Catching Up with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, Help With My Loan, Long Game, Moven, Podcasting

Miss an episode of the Finovate Podcast during the holiday rush? No need to fear; the Finovate blog has got your back.

From insights into the rise of embedded finance and prospects for “technosocialism” to discussions with innovators in the field of personal finance and roboadvisory, the Finovate Podcast is your one-stop-shop for fascinating, in-depth conversations between Finovate VP Greg Palmer and fintech’s finest analysts and entrepreneurs. Today we’re sharing some end-of-year episodes of the podcast that might have slipped beneath your radar as 2021 drew to a close.

Find the Finovate podcast at Soundcloud and follow Greg Palmer on Twitter for the latest in programming news and updates.

Chris Karageuzian, CEO and Co-founder, Help With My Loan. Host Greg Palmer and Chris Karageuzian talk about how the Finovate newcomer is making the lending process more pleasant for borrowers.

“I was in the industry for 20+ years so I felt the frustration – that’s why I left and created this company. (There’s a) lack of technology and fragmented software – you have to use almost seven to ten pieces of software just to deal with one file. That’s really not productive in my opinion. We closely work with banks right now. We have 300+ banks signed up in our database and in our software. So deals get automated and matched and we are within an earshot of every deal.”

Vivek Krishnamurthy, Principal, Commerce Ventures. Host Greg Palmer sits down with Vivek Krishnamurthy for a conversation on “embedded finance” and an overview of the field’s opportunities and pitfalls.

“There’s a split between the infrastructure layers that enable third parties to launch financial services products. And then there are the instances in which financial services products are launched inside of other ecosystems. We think that latter aspect, that latter space of being able to turn on a financial services product in the customer journey inside of a non-financial services ecosystem, that’s what we think about as ’embedded finance.'”

Ned Phillips, Founder and CEO, and Mike Larsen, Head of Sales, Bambu. Host Greg Palmer talks about the challenges facing the automated investment business with Ned Phillips and Mike Larsen of Best of Show winning roboadvisor Bambu.

“We are a B2B wealthtech. So what does that mean? We design, build, and deploy those roboadvisor, savings and investment apps for financial institutions. So if a financial institution wants its own Betterment or its own Wealthfront, they come to us for the tech and we build it. And at Finovate, we built one on stage in seven minutes!”

Will Graylin, Chairman and CEO, OV Loop; CEO, Indigo Technologies. Host Greg Palmer chats with serial entrepreneur Will Graylin about contactless payment adoption, super apps, and the future of mobile payments.

“Why haven’t we adopted (contactless payments) in much more mass given that Apple Pay has been out for over seven years, and Samsung Pay has been out for six years, and Google Pay has been out there for seven years – eight years now? Why haven’t we adopted en masse? (Our situation is) unlike China’s WeChat/WeChat Pay/AliPay. For those solutions, they are adopted to the order of about 83% of all consumer transactions, whereas we’re still in single digits in the United States. Why?”

Brett King, Author, The Rise of Technosocialism; Founder of Moven. Host Greg Palmer and Brett King talk about King’s latest book, The Rise of Technosocialism: How Inequality, AI, and Climate Will Usher in a New World.

“When you think about why it is that we haven’t been able to tackle (climate change) and get agreement on this, part of the core problem is that we tend to be quite short-term focused in our planning as a species. We’re focused on the next quarter, the next year, in terms of financial reporting, or maybe the next two years or four years in terms of political cycles. But when it comes to planning out things for 20 years in our future or 30 years in our future, the big problem is we just ask ‘who’s going to pay for it?'”

Lindsay Holden, Co-founder and CEO, Long Game. Host Greg Palmer discusses loyalty, education, Millennials, and gamification with Lindsay Holden, founder of FinovateFall Best of Show winner, Long Game.

“Long Game is a mobile game. It’s an app that sits on top of your bank account and rewards customers for learning about financial literacy and for positive financial behaviors like saving. For banks, we are helping them have a branded experience that’s super-fun for customers, they can acquire new customers with us, and also increase their customer LTV through promoting their products, increasing savings, and increasing direct deposits.”

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Acorns Co-Founder Secures $20 Million in Funding for New Venture, Ant Money

Acorns Co-Founder Secures $20 Million in Funding for New Venture, Ant Money
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Embedded finance platform Ant Money has secured $20 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Franklin Templeton’s Franklin Venture Partners, RX3 Ventures, SteelBridge Laboratories, Steelpoint Capital Partners, and Ant Money founder Walter Cruttenden. The company, whose founder also launched micro-investing platform Acorns in 2012, also completed its stock-for-stock merger with Blast. A financial services platform for gamers, Blast went live in 2018 with its Game-Based Savings technology that leverages gameplay as a way to help individuals passively fund a free savings account.

The deal brings the total number of apps on the Ant Money platform to three: ATM, Blast, and Learn & Earn. Together the trio of offerings enables users to earn money and easily fund investment accounts.

“Building an investment account early in life can help people on the road to financial success, but many people don’t start because they lack the knowledge or funds,” Ant Money’s Walter Cruttenden said. “My hope is that Ant Money, which helps people generate small amounts of money to seed accounts, can foster new growing accounts and provide increased financial security for millions.”

ATM enables users to earn micro-income by engaging anonymously with leading worldwide brands. That income can be saved or invested in the stock market via Ant Money Advisors, a registered investment company and robo advisor that is embedded in the ATM app. Users can earn a minimum of $10 for the first month of participation, and more than $100 a month afterwards if enrolled in the ATM rewards program. Learn & Earn was developed in partnership with Junior Achievement USA. The app helps users earn money by completing lessons on concepts like budgeting, launching a business, and the power of compound interest. The money earned from Learn & Earn, like the money earned via ATM, can be automatically invested in the stock market, enabling users to start saving for the future at the same time as they are learning how to be good investors.

Ant Money co-founder Michael Gleason said that the merger of the companies made sense because they shared “similar visions for helping people enter the financial investment world.” Combined with what Gleason called “overlapping management,” the companies seemed ripe for consolidation. “(It) seemed like the logical next step was to merge the companies and build a larger one together,” Gleason said.

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Finovate Alums Raised $1.2 Billion in Q4; $8.4 Billion for the Year

Finovate Alums Raised $1.2 Billion in Q4; $8.4 Billion for the Year
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

Finovate alums notched their biggest fourth quarter fundraising since 2014, securing $1.2 billion in equity investment. The strong Q4 gives Finovate alums a 2021 fundraising total of $8.4 billion, more than double the capital raised in any previous year.

Previous Annual Comparisons

2021’s fundraising strength comes courtesy of $3.3 billion raised in Q1, $2.8 billion raised in Q2, and $1.1 billion raised in Q3. Fundraising in this year’s fourth quarter is also significantly higher than that raised in previous Q4s, and by a significant margin. The fact that Q4’s sizable fundraising totals came as a result of investments in only six alumni makes the current quarter’s accomplishment all the more remarkable.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q4 2020: More than $472 million raised by 17 alums
  • Q4 2019: More than $876 million raised by 21 alums
  • Q4 2018: More than $800 million raised by 19 alums
  • Q4 2017: More than $730 million raised by 23 alums
  • Q4 2016: More than $700 million raised by 26 alums

Four of this quarter’s fundings were at or above the $200 million mark. This marks a first for Finovate alums. The biggest investment received in Q4 of 2021 was the $450 million secured by Socure, a fundraising total that has never been met by a Finovate alum in the final quarter of the year.

Top Quarterly Equity Investments

  • Socure: $450 million
  • Zopa: $304 million
  • Mambu: $266 million
  • Thought Machine: $200 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q4 2021.

October 2021: More than $329 million raised by two alums

November 2021: More than $650 million raised by two alums

December 2021: More than $266 million raised by two alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the fourth quarter of 2021, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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Fintech in the Nordics: Innovations in Authentication and Opportunities in Acquisition

Fintech in the Nordics: Innovations in Authentication and Opportunities in Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, IDmission, MasterCard

Norway-based biometric startup Mobai won $3.16 million (EUR 2.8 million) in funding to enhance the protection of personal biometric data in coalition with Vipps BankID, Sparebank1 Østlandet, KU Leuven, and NTNU. The project, named SALT for “Secure privacy preserving Authentication using faciaL biometrics to proTect your identity,” will bring new functionalities to Mobai’s facial recognition solution, and improve the quality of the technology to help firms meet eiDAS and AML regulations.

The project will drive innovation in the field of facial biometrics, particularly in the areas of biometric template protection, face quality assessment, and presentation attack detection. Mobai CEO Brage Strand noted in a statement that innovation in facial biometrics is especially urgent insofar as vulnerabilities in current authentication strategies such as passwords and even two-factor authentication increasingly have been exploited by fraudsters and cybercriminals.

“Our aim is to offer consumers a unique opportunity to prove who they are, as a way to combat the surge in phishing and identity theft we currently experience,” Strand said. He added the goal of the project was to move “beyond comparing a photo you store on a device with a selfie” to bring the same level of trust found in ePassports “into a digital domain.” Strand also emphasized the importance of leveraging “privacy-preserving technology” to ensure GDPR compliance and the integrity of personally identifiable information.

Mobai’s partners represent an interesting cross-section of the country’s financial services industry. Sparebank1 Østlandet is the fourth largest savings bank in Norway. Vipps is a payments and electronic ID provider with more than four million electronic ID users. NTNU is the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the largest university in the country with more than 40,000 students; Mobai was spun out of NTNU’s Norwegian Biometrics Laboratory in 2019. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is a research and educational institution, one of the oldest universities in Europe, with a reputation for pioneering scientific research.

“We see face recognition as a very promising and effective way to add an extra layer of security that will help combat identity theft, fraud, and money laundering,” Sparebank1 Østlandet EVP for Innovation and Business Development Dag Arne Hoberg said. “Imagine a situation where you may actually sign a mortgage electronically and use a ‘selfie’ as part of this process to confirm that your are the right person to sign.”

Meanwhile, in nearby Denmark, leading business automation software and services provider Visma announced its acquisition of expense management company Acubiz. Term of the transaction were not immediately available.

Visma will integrate Acubiz’s expense management solution into its Visma Enterprise HRM, but Acubiz will continue to function as an independent brand. The company, which has a 20% market share in Denmark and more than 200,000 users, offers solutions to help businesses better manage employee and travel expenses, as well as mileage reimbursement, invoice management, and time registration.

“I am excited to welcome another strong, Danish company into the Visma family,” Visma Enterprise A/S Managing Director Monika Juul Henriksen said. “There is no doubt that Acubiz is a perfect match not only businesswise but also in their culture and DNA. Acubiz wants to be the best – and so do we. Together, we will be even better.”

Founded in 1997 by Lars de Nully, Acubiz is based in Birkerød north of Copenhagen. This year, the company has forged partnerships with accounting firms Tal & Tanker and Tietotili, as well as with financial administration services provider Fiscales, HR software company Sympa, and Jutlander Bank.

In a year-end statement published on the Acubiz blog, the company noted that, in addition to its acquisition by Visma, it plans to unveil a new financial interface in 2022. The new UI will feature upgrades in performance, user-friendliness, and the ability to customize.

“By becoming a part of Visma, we do not only get a shortcut to new customers, markets, segments, and partners, we will also benefit from the knowledge and skills within legal, HR, marketing, and sales,” Acubiz Managing Director Henrik Malling said. “Being able to counsel with these experts is immensely valuable for us as a relatively small organization. So we honestly cannot wait to get started and to get to know all our new colleagues within Visma.”

FinovateEurope 2022 is right around the corner. If you are an innovative fintech company with new technology to show, then there’s no better time than now and no better forum than FinovateEurope. To learn more about how to demo your latest innovation at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, March 22-23, visit our FinovateEurope hub today!

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

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Data Storytelling Innovator Narrative Science Acquired by Salesforce

Data Storytelling Innovator Narrative Science Acquired by Salesforce
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Narrative Science

Narrative Science reported on Wednesday that its acquisition by Salesforce – and integration into Saleforce’s Tableau team is complete. First announced last month, the closing of the acquisition this week will combine Narrative Science’s automated data storytelling capabilities with Tableau’s analytics platform.

“Bringing the Narrative Science award-winning, world-leading AI in analytics team and their innovations to Tableau will help us reach millions more people who are underserved with data,” Tableau President and CEO Mark Nelson wrote on the company’s blog this week. “It will help close the data literacy gap, reimagine an entirely new analytics experience, and set people up for success in this digital-first world.”

Salesforce acquired Tableau Software in 2019 in a deal that combined “the world’s #1 CRM with the world’s #1 analytics platform” Tableau announced in a press release that August. The goal of the acquisition was to enable Salesforce customers to “unlock even greater value from their data” using Tableau’s combination of diverse visualization, analytics, and AI. By adding Narrative Science’s data storytelling technology, Tableau and Narrative Science move closer to their shared goal of “making data more available to everyone, everywhere.”

A Finovate alum since 2013, Narrative Science is a leading provider of automated business analytics and natural language communication technology. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company is an innovator in the field of data storytelling. As a strategy for delivering business intelligence, data storytelling transcends both data visualization and static dashboards by translating insights into easy-to-understand stories and giving business users a personalized data digest. The company’s Lexio solution, its latest iteration unveiled in the fall of 2020, serves both businesspeople who require data insights in order to do their jobs, but do not have the time or skills to become data analysts, as well as leaders of analytics teams who need to ensure that insights are accessible to and understandable by employees who can translate them into action.

“Unlike today’s typical BI tools, Lexio anticipates what employees need to know so they can make faster and better data-driven decisions,” Narrative Science co-founder and CEO Stuart Frankel said. “Data without context is useless, and Lexio brings that context and understanding to every single employee in plain language and in a consumer-like experience.”

As of this fall, Narrative Science has raised nearly $43 million in funding from investors including Jump Capital, Sapphire, and Battery Ventures. In October, the company earned a #1 ranking in Crain’s Chicago Business Most Innovative Companies 2021 roster. Over the summer, Narrative Science’s Lexio won the “AI-Based Analytics Innovation Award” at the AI Breakthrough Awards.

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