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This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
No blockchain experience? No problem.
Business payments platform PayStand is launching what it’s calling Assurety-as-a-Service, which is exactly what it sounds like. The new API allows businesses with no prior blockchain experience to verify any event, action, or identity in real-time by creating a record that is notarized on the blockchain.
To picture what this looks like, imagine having a frictionless notary public that can scale; notarizing an unlimited number of documents. In a blog post detailing the API, PayStand illustrates a multitude of use cases across a variety of industries. In the insurance industry, for example, businesses can track the exchange of high-value assets and use an automated collections process to settle a claim more efficiently. And businesses in the real estate vertical can record, track, and transfer land titles, property deeds, and liens, and ensure all documents are accurate and verifiable.
The solution levels the blockchain playing field by not requiring businesses to have any prior experience with the enabling technology. “Assurety-as-a-Service lets businesses skip the steep learning curve and start using blockchain right now,” said PayStand CEO Jeremy Almond. “Any developer can use our API and spin up their own blockchain app in minutes,” added Omar Baqueiro, Director of Product and Engineering.
The Assurety-as-a-Service API helps businesses deploy applications that prevent fraud by leveraging PayStand’s hybrid blockchain to document proof-of-action without allowing anyone to edit the record. The tool offers the accountability of a public blockchain while providing data privacy of a private blockchain. As Baqueiro phrased it, Assurety-as-a-Service “combin[es] the advantages of a trustless, decentralized, immutable public chain with the privacy and security expected of enterprise-level solutions.”
Today’s development comes after the company’s 2018 launch of a blockchain that ensures payment, adding security to the PayStand Bank Network. On that blockchain is stored an immutable record of every transaction the company processes.
PayStand showcased at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. Earlier this year the company launched a service that uses the blockchain to automate invoice collection. Businesses can integrate the tool, Automated Receivables, into their existing customer payments infrastructure.
Alternative banking provider Revolut announced the roll out of commission-free stock trading on its app today. Starting today Revolut Metal customers in the U.K. and Europe can buy and hold shares of 300+ stocks listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ directly from the Revolut app.
The feature is powered by DriveWealth, which is registered as a full-carrying and clearing broker-dealer and will help Revolut navigate the complexities of brokerage. New Jersey-based DriveWealth offers a suite of APIs that allow companies across the globe to help their users invest in the U.S. stock market. The firm provides digital investment products for brokerages to offer clients as well as a brokerage service offering dollar-based, real-time investing.
Overall, Revolut is making stock market investing more inclusive. Trades are free, the annual custodian fee totals 0.01% (when others in the industry charge 0.25% to 1.5%), and there are no account minimums. At launch, all fees are waived for eligible customers during the beta period. The company did not specify when it plans to implement fees but said, “These will come into effect later, and we will communicate with you in advance about when that will be.”
Revolut said it is most proud of integrating the ability to buy partial shares of stock. Fractional share investing, one of DriveWealth’s flagship features, allows users to purchase a small portion of a stock. This democratizes investing by making a stock like Amazon, which trades at almost $1,900 per share, more accessible to investors with lower capital.
Another badge of honor is that trades can be made instantly, meaning users will pay the asking price of a stock when their order hits the market. And, specific to Revolut, users can fund their trading account in multiple currencies and benefit from the interbank exchange rate.
The trading feature not only helps Revolut compete with banks, but also helps the company build its user base for its Metal account. Launched last August, the Metal account offers users 100 free trades per month, along with a host of other features, for $14.99 per month.
In the future, Revolut plans to open trading to users outside of Europe, offer ETFs and other new products, and introduce European stocks. Additionally, the company will open up free trades to Premium and Standard customers, who will be able to make 8 free trades per month and three free trades per month, respectively. This variance is representative of Revolut’s tiered pricing model, which offers free Standard accounts while charging $9.99 per month for a Premium account.
Revolut debuted at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. The company’s CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky showed off the app’s money transfer capabilities that help users avoid banking fees without actually using a bank.
Adding Revolut as a client is another notch in the belt for DriveWealth, which last month partnered with Sigma Securities and Trove Technologies to offer digital U.S. equities trading in Nigeria. Last August, DriveWealth collaborated with fellow Finovate alum Bambu to launch a white-label roboadvisory platform for U.S. wealth managers. Other DriveWealth clients include MoneyLion, Vested Finance, and INVSTR.
At FinovateAsia 2016, DriveWealth released a new API to enable partners to offer a robo advisory product suite and a self-directed equity investing platform. Robert Cortright is CEO.
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This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Digital wealth technology company Bambu is bringing home the bacon today in the form of Series B funding. The $10 million round comes courtesy of three-time investor Franklin Templeton and new investor PEAK6 Strategic Capital, both of which co-led the round.
The Singapore-based company will use the funds to expand its reach of B2B clients, an audience Bambu sought out while a multitude of players in the space were taking a direct-to-consumer approach. And during the four years since launch, Bambu has made sizable gains in this market. Originally limited to Asia– the company marketed itself as Asia’s Premier B2B Roboadvisory– the company has since grown its client base into international markets. Bambu landed its first U.S.-based client and opened a new London office in March of last year.
As part of its B2B expansion, Bambu will target new segments in the financial services vertical and build teams in offices across the globe. As a part of that effort, the company will demo its technology at this year’s FinovateFall conference in New York, which kicks off September 23. Today, Bambu provides solutions to more than 15 financial institutions across the U.S., Europe, UAE and Asia including Standard Chartered, Refinitiv, and Connect by Crossroads.
“We are committed to working with a global client base to digitize saving and investing so it’s easier and more accessible to investors everywhere. We welcome PEAK6 together with the continued support from Franklin Templeton in this round,” said Bambu founder and CEO Ned Phillips. He added, “This is a strong confirmation that we have built a unique business and platform for the global market. We see growing demand across all markets, and we are increasing our ability to serve clients globally.”
Bambu’s cloud-based technology helps wealth managers bring automated investment services to their clients. The three-tiered approach includes the company’s Intelligent Advisor, a private banking product that creates efficiencies for relationship managers; White Label Robo, a white-labeled solution that helps asset managers create a personalized portfolio and risk profile for clients; and the BambuAPI developer hub, which offers developers their choice of modules to integrate into their own solutions.
With 70 employees working across Singapore, London, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Johannesburg, Bambu has raised a total of $13.4 million in funding. The company won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateAfrica last year. Earlier this year, Bambu earned a spot on Fintech News Singapore’s list of 29 Hottest Fintechs in Singapore 2019.
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Alternative ecommerce payments company Sezzle made its public debut this week. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) under the ticker SZL.
Within two hours of listing, Sezzle was being traded 82% above its opening price of $0.83 (AUD $1.22). The company was ultimately able to raise $30 million on its first day of trading. Sezzle will use the funds to attract more retailers to its platform, which currently boasts just over 5,000 merchants. The company will also enhance support for its 430,000 clients.
Why Australia? Sezzle is the first one to admit it has no plans of operating in Australia in the near future. The company’s reasoning for listing on the ASX is that the country’s investors are more familiar with Sezzle’s buy now, pay later model since one of its rivals, Afterpay, is based in Melbourne. Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim explained this in further detail during an interview with Bloomberg yesterday.
Sezzle’s technology, which allows customers to split their ecommerce purchases into four installments with only 25% down and no fees, is only available for shoppers in the U.S. and, as the company just announced this week, Canada. It is also available for merchants regardless of their location across the globe as they seek to expand their North American customer base.
When asked about international expansion, Youakim told Bloomberg in an interview, “The product lends itself to expanding internationally,” he said. “We’re researching new markets but the vast majority of our focus is in North America.”
The company makes money not by billing users, but by charging merchants, which face a 6% + $0.30 fee on each transaction. And the model seems to be working. From March 2018 to March 2019, Sezzle’s merchant sales grew by 16x to $28.3 million. In exchange for the fee, merchants are paid upfront and don’t inherit the risk of the customer not paying back all of their installments.
Sezzle demoed its alternative payment platform at FinovateFall 2018. Prior to today’s IPO the company had raised almost $117 million.
Financial market data provider Xignite serves 9+ million API calls per day and with today’s announcement of a new partnership, the company will add handsomely to that number. Xignite has partnered with Canada’s WealthSimple, which will leverage the California-based company’s APIs to power its new mobile stock trading app, WealthSimple Trade.
The app enables users to buy and sell more than 8,000 publicly-traded stocks and ETFs. Embedded within the app, Xignite’s APIs offer users real-time stock price data, information to power trades, and algorithms that automate users’ investment decisions.
“We are proud to be a key enabler of the fintech revolution in Canada,” said Stephane Dubois, Xignite CEO. “We help power and inspire the disruption of the financial services industry by providing entrepreneurs like Wealthsimple with financial data APIs to help them invent new businesses and revolutionary user experiences. The world’s leading robo-advisors use Xignite market data to power their platforms and apps.”
Xignite sources its cloud-based market data from 250+ providers, including data collectors, data originators, feed consolidators, OTC marketplaces, and index companies. In addition to leveraging data from Morningstar, FactSet, and EuroNext, Xignite also curates its own data. The comprehensive nature of Xignite’s data eliminates the need for clients to work with multiple vendors.
Xignite, which counts Interactive Data and Quandl as competitors, provides data to more than 800 organizations across the globe, including fellow Finovate alums Betterment, Personal Capital, Envestnet, and eToro. The company has raised almost $38 million since it was founded in 2000.
At the company’s FinovateAsia 2017 demo, Dubois showcased the Xignite Cloud Add-in, which integrates market data into spreadsheets.
Cross-border remittance startup Paysend has received a money transfer of its own this week. The London-based company landed $10.6 million (£8.5 million) in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $30.7 million.
There’s no word on an updated valuation but before today’s round, the company was valued at $155 million.
The investment comes courtesy of GVA, which contributed almost $5 million (£3.95 million), as well as a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign that brought in $5.6 million (£4.6 million). Launched last month, the Seedrs campaign garnered contributions from investors, including Plug and Play and Digital Space Ventures, which co-led the round.
Regarding company’s decision to crowdfund the round, Paysend CEO Ronald Millar said, “This funding round has been the next step in our journey to create money for the future, and we’ve been delighted that we’ve been about to open it up to our customers in order to give them the opportunity to join us on the exciting next phase of the Paysend journey.”
Paysend, which demonstrated its Global Account at FinovateSpring 2018, competes with the likes of Transferwise and CurrencyFair to help users request money from 50 countries and send money across 70 countries. On a monthly basis, the company facilitates more than 2 million transactions totaling $55 million for its 900,000 users.
The company recently released Pays XDR, its own digital currency. Pays XDR is a stable coin backed by cash reserves, matched to the proportion of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights.
Adding to its already busy year, in May Paysend launched Paysend Link, an app that allows users to send money to anyone with just their phone number. Fund recipients can immediately transfer payments they receive to their Mastercard, Visa, or UnionPay card. The money is immediately available to use or to withdraw.
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This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Betterment knows its clients are smart when it comes to saving for their futures. And with that well-established, financially savvy client base, the company launched a checking and savings platform this week.
The new platform is called Betterment Everyday (because what’s better than a user base that logs in every day?) and is aimed to help the company’s clients better manage their money today so that they can maximize earnings for the future.
Betterment Everyday offers savings and checking accounts, with customer deposits held at partner banks including Citi, Barclays, and Valley National. The savings accounts, available today, can earn up to 2.69% APY until the end of this year, after which will drop to 2.43% and be subject to change.
The checking product will be available later this year and comes with benefits typical of online-only banks. Users will receive a debit card issued by nbkc bank of Overland Park, Kansas, will be reimbursed for all ATM fees worldwide, will not be charged monthly maintenance fees, and do not need to maintain a minimum balance.
“As we launch Betterment Everyday, we’re starting to bring our role as your financial advisor into your everyday life, turning your daily choices and transactions into saving for the future,” said Betterment CEO Jon Stein in a blog post. “We’re building the framework for where we believe the industry can (and should) move. We believe the future is smart money management, and we’re leading the way.”
In addition to attracting new clients and refocusing existing users, the new account offerings also serve to compete with fintechs that have launched similar products in recent months. Wealthfront, SoFi, which offer high interest savings accounts boasting yields of 2.57% and 2.25%, respectively, and Acorns, which offers a debit card for a fee of $3 per month.
Last year Robinhood launched a checking account that boasted a 3% interest rate, but quietly rescinded the product after regulators from the SEC and SIPC cited lack of regulatory oversight. The startup had not consulted regulators before the proposed launch and is now working on a new version of the checking account. Today, Betterment may be in a similar situation. The company did consult regulators before this week’s launch, but, according to CNBC, has been asked to provide more information on the new offering.
Betterment CEO Jon Stein debuted the company’s MultipleGoals feature at FinovateFall 2011. Since it was founded in 2008, the company has raised a total of $275 million. Last fall, Betterment unveiled a Trust Account Opening feature that allows advisors to manage the entire process. And this year, the company was honored on the Forbes Fintech 50 list for the 4th year in a row.
There’s one perk that comes with working as a woman in a male-dominated field– there’s never a line for the ladies restroom. In fact, at a handful of Finovate conferences, we’ve had to convert some of the women’s restrooms into men’s rooms in order to make a the wait time for the men more reasonable. When that happens, you know there’s a problem– one that goes beyond toilets.
Lack of workforce diversity has many drawbacks, the most obvious of which is the gender pay gap. According to the film Equal Means Equal, a documentary that looks at how women in the U.S. are treated today, “Compared to white men, white women working full time, based on median annual full-time earnings, earn 78 cents to every dollar a man earns.”
In an effort to help tip the scales of the gender ratio and bring awareness to the wage gap, Finovate is offering female registrants tickets to FinovateFall for 78 cents on the dollar. That means women who register by this Friday, July 26, can purchase a ticket to FinovateFall for 22% off just by entering the code EQUALITY on page two of the booking form.
Here are a handful of speakers who are helping to bring the female quotient up a notch at FinovateFall this year:
The conference takes place September 23 through 25, with an additional summit day on September 26, at the New York Marriott Marquis.
To take advantage of this offer, book online today with code EQUALITY, contact our customer service team at +1 (888) 670-8200, or register@knect365.com. Rooms can be reserved at the New York Marriott Marquis.