Interactions Partners with Next Caller for Phone-Based Threat Assessment

Interactions Partners with Next Caller for Phone-Based Threat Assessment

Intelligent Virtual Assistance (IVA) company Interactions recently announced a new partnership with Next Caller, a phone fraud detection and authentication firm, with a goal of boosting Interactions’ fraud protection.

“At Interactions, security is a top priority,” said Mary McKenna, director of product management at Interactions. “Customer service interactions generate massive amounts of data that are often sensitive, so being able to provide our clients with state of the art security is a must. With this enhanced security offering, we strengthen our commitment to protect our clients and their customers from security threats.”

Under the agreement, Interactions will expand security services for its IVA enterprise clients by leveraging Next Caller’s VeriCall tool, which will add a layer of security to prevent fraudulent phone calls. VeriCall will help IVA assess the threat level of an incoming call using the caller’s automatic number identification (ANI) and network information. The resulting risk score will route high risk calls to either further screening questions or to a live agent, and will direct low-risk calls via a more frictionless user experience.

“Our partnership with Interactions will provide sophisticated real-time call verification and authentication technology to their customers,” said Ian Roncoroni, co-founder and CEO of Next Caller. “Fraud is a growing problem for businesses today, and can be especially damaging to companies that have to deal with large amounts of customer data. One small mishap can provide a fraudster with enough personal information to steal a customer’s identity.”

Interactions will use Next Caller’s technology alongside its current security offerings, including Voice Biometrics, which creates a personalized voice print for customers; ANI Blacklists, which cross-checks a caller’s ANI against existing databases of blacklisted numbers; and Voiceprint Blacklists, which uses the caller’s voiceprint to search an existing database of fraudster voiceprints.

Massachusetts-based Interactions leverages AI and voice-recognition technology to help big brands offer a more friendly, automated customer experience. The company most recently presented its IVA at FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2004, Interactions facilitates 1 billion customer interactions per year across six different channels for large brands including Hyatt, Humana, LifeLock, and Mountain America Credit Union.

Boku Acquires Mobile ID and Authentication Company Danal

Boku Acquires Mobile ID and Authentication Company Danal

Carrier billing company Boku is set to expand its expertise with a new acquisition this week. The San Francisco-based company agreed to acquire mobile identification and authentication company Danal for up to $68 million. The acquisition is expected to close December 31, 2018.

The deal is being structured as a reverse triangular merger to ensure Boku acquires 100% of Danal, a subsidiary of DFS Services. To finance the acquisition, Boku is issuing 26.7 million common shares for $0.0001 each, $3 million in Boku warrants, and $1 million in cash. In addition, Boku will pay deferred consideration of up to $64 million, the exact amount dependent on Danal’s future performance.

Leveraging its connections to MNOs, Danal offers data matching, account baselining, phone identification, and proactive monitoring to verify users’ identities for verticals including banks, healthcare, hospitality, and ecommerce. The San Jose-based company also offers solutions to satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) and Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) regulations. Some of Danal’s customers include Western Union, BNP Paribas, PayPal, Square, Moneygram, Login.gov, and USAA. The privately-held company has raised $14.5 million.

Boku will leverage Danal’s technology to offer mobile identity services to its existing customers and to provide global coverage to Danal’s U.S. customers. “Combining Danal’s customer base and technology with Boku’s international scale and global MNO connection capability, will allow us to build the world leader in this emerging space,” said Boku CEO Jon Prideaux. “This acquisition allows us to offer services that go further and to improve user quality for our customers while at the same time improving the mobile experience for users… Danal has shown that MNO data can also combat fraud, reduce friction in signup and ensure regulatory compliance on mobile.”

Boku was founded in 2008 and provides payments technology that allows consumers to charge purchases to their mobile phone bill. The company offers its operator network for acquiring, activating, and monetizing customers through their mobile phones. The Boku platform is used in large digital marketplaces such as the Google Play store, Apple’s App store, Spotify, and Facebook’s App Center.

At FinovateEurope 2011 Boku showcased its mobile payment service. Earlier this fall, Boku was awarded Best Newcomer at the AIM Awards. Boku is publicly traded on the London stock exchange with a current market capitalization of $124 million.

ayondo Goes Pro

ayondo Goes Pro

Social trading company ayondo announced a new professional trading platform this week. A complement to the Singapore-based company’s B2C product, ayondoPRO caters to the needs of professional traders.

Specifically, ayondoPRO clients will be able to trade more than 2,000 instruments with leverage of up to 200 times. Participants can also join a Spread Rebate Program that gives clients part of the spread they have paid back to their trading account. And professional traders don’t need to sacrifice ayondo’s standard benefits such as negative balance protection and free additional insurance that covers each Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) eligible customer up to $1.3 million in excess of the FSCS standard.

To qualify as a professional for an ayondoPRO account, users must:

  • Have executed significantly sized leverage trades at an average frequency of 10 per quarter over the last four quarters
  • Have a financial instrument portfolio, including cash deposits, exceeding $569,000
  • Currently work or have worked in the financial sector for at least one year in a professional position

“With ayondoPRO, professional and experienced traders will benefit from a combination of excellent service, great trading conditions, and customer protection. We have seen a lot of demand for a platform that provides high-leverage with trading conditions offering tight spreads,” said Raza Perez, Chief Product Officer of ayondo. “The launch of ayondoPRO is part of our commitment to keep improving and investing in our B2C product offering while introducing a PRO White Label facility for B2B clients, at the same time.”

Founded in 2008, ayondo offers a brokerage platform that lets users copy the moves of top traders to optimize returns. At FinovateEurope 2013, the company unveiled a new version of its service, its London brokerage, and a trader career training curriculum. The company became the first fintech to list on the Singapore Stock Exchange this March, following a failed reverse takeover deal from Starland Holdings. Earlier this fall, ayondo formed a white-label agreement with Phnom Penh Derivative Exchange to provide its TradeHub to its derivative broker clients in Cambodia.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Boku Acquires Mobile ID and Authentication Company Danal

Around the web

  • CU Broadcast interviews Larky CEO Gregg Hammerman on what credit union CEOs are prioritizing for their members’ engagement today.
  • IdentityMind protects FIs with virtual currency risk assessment.
  • 32 fintechs graduate from Envestnet | Yodlee’s incubator.
  • Token brings Open Banking to Mena region.
  • Coinbase continues to explore support for new digital assets.
  • The city of Rye, NY partners with Passport to manage parking.
  • Mortgage Cadence integrates Radian’s mortgage insurance service into its Enterprise Lending Center solution.
  • The CX Show interviews SaleMove co-founder and CEO Dan Michaeli about creating contact center leaders.
  • TechCrunch interviews Transferwise cofounder and CEO Kristo Käärman on growing money transfers despite global turbulence.
  • Pendo Systems partners with Azimuth GRC and Global Comply.

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.

TIBCO Acquires Orchestra Networks

TIBCO Acquires Orchestra Networks

It’s the second acquisition this year for TIBCO. The integration and analytics software company announced this week that it purchased Orchestra Networks for an undisclosed amount.

“This is a very important acquisition for us, supporting our mission to create the world’s leading platform for digital business. Orchestra Networks will allow TIBCO to address our customers’ simple and complex master data and data asset management needs quickly and easily,” said Matt Quinn, chief operating officer, TIBCO.

Founded in 2000, Orchestra Networks specializes in master data management and data access management solutions, including EBX a solution that helps clients manage, govern, and share all master data, reference data, and metadata assets. The addition of the Paris-based company to TIBCO’s portfolio will help it expand its Connected Intelligence platform with data assets for operational and analytics processes.

“EBX, an industry-leading master data management solution, will be further amplified as part of the TIBCO Connected Intelligence Cloud. EBX customers will gain instant access to our leading integration and analytics capabilities for their data assets. Orchestra Networks brings an exceptional team that, with TIBCO, will continue to support their customers and partners,” said Quinn.

In the press release, Christophe Barriolade, co-founder and CEO of Orchestra Networks mentioned how the acquisition will boost EBX, saying that the company will support it on a “larger, more global scale while offering complementary API-led integration and AI-driven analytics capabilities” to Orchestra Network’s customers.

This is TIBCO’s 23rd acquisition since it was founded in 1997. TIBCO itself was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2014.

The company demoed at FinovateAsia 2013, showcasing how banks can leverage their clients’ transactional data to gain insight into customer behavior. At the beginning of this year, TIBCO made two C-level appointments, transitioning Matt Quinn to a new role as TIBCO’s COO and hiring Nelson Petracek as its new CTO.

Pindrop Advances into Smart Devices with $90 Million in Funding

Pindrop Advances into Smart Devices with $90 Million in Funding

Phone-based fraud prevention company Pindrop closed a Series D funding round today valued at $90 million, bringing the Atlanta-based company’s total funding to almost $213 million. Pindrop is not disclosing its valuation, but did say that it is “much higher” than the $600 million it was valued at after its $75 million funding round in 2016.

Vitruvian Partners led the round. Strategic investors Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Goldman Sachs also participated, along with existing investors, including CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV and Citi Ventures.

According to Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Pindrop, the company will use the investment to advance in consumer IoT and voice technology while strengthening its existing solutions. Specifically, the company outlined plans to boost its presence in Europe and Asia, citing investments from U.K.-based Vitruvian Partners, Singapore-based EDBI, and Japan-based Dimension Data.

“One of our key goals is to help leading high-growth companies like Pindrop grow in Europe and internationally,” said David Nahama, senior partner at Vitruvian Partners. “We are confident that Pindrop is poised for massive expansion given the company’s depth of engineering expertise, pioneering efforts in machine learning technology and patent portfolio.”

Pindrop will also use the funds to support research and development efforts into providing security solutions for voice-controlled smart devices, including Google Home, smart locks, and connected cars. “Voice is fast emerging as the next generation human user interface with wide consumer and commercial applications, yet security remains a major concern,” said Chu Swee Yeok, chief executive and president of EDBI. “Pindrop’s world class AI voice security technology will be a significant enabler for wider voice UI adoption, beyond call centers.”

Founded in 2011, Pindrop debuted its Phoneprinting technology at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. The technology detects 80% of fraudulent calls into call centers and protects “hundreds of millions” of calls annually. Pindrop is working with eight of 10 of the largest banks as well as the five of the seven largest insurance companies in the U.S. Overall, the company protects more than 200 million consumer accounts and has stopped more than $350 million in voice-based fraud attacks this year.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Pindrop Advances into Smart Devices with $90 Million in Funding.

Around the web

  • iSignThis begins accepting customer deposits to its own issued International Bank Account Numbers (IBANs).
  • Personal Capital moves headquarters to Redwood Shores.
  • Signifyd opens EMEA headquarters in London to support its ecommerce fraud protection business in Europe.
  • Juvo expands across Asia with regional headquarters in Singapore.
  • Ondot announces new digital card services platform to support U.K. banks.
  • Lighter Capital provides NinjaCat $1.1 million.
  • R3’s new Corda App supports Ripple’s XRP.
  • Upserve (formerly Swipely) releases newest point-of-sale device, Upserve POS, now available for Android.

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.

Zopa’s New Bank Launches in Beta

Zopa’s New Bank Launches in Beta

Just over two years ago, P2P lending company Zopa announced its plans to launch a challenger bank. Today, the U.K.-based company announced it received authorization from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).

Zopa is currently operating in a period called AWR (authorization with restrictions), meaning it has met all of the FCA’s conditions and is allowed to begin testing the new banking products. The company will use its own staff to serve as the beta testers for the new banking products.

There is no word yet on when the restricted period will be lifted to allow Zopa to fully launch, but when it does, it will offer savings accounts and credit cards that can be managed within a new mobile app. The app will offer money management tools that help place customers in control of their finances by showing all of their accounts in a single place.

To position itself as more user friendly than traditional banks, the company is branding itself as the Feelgood Money company. Backing this ideal, Zopa is avoiding hidden fees and promising to have “helpful humans” on the other end of customer service calls.

“This is a huge milestone for Zopa as we are now the world’s first combined peer-to-peer lender and digital bank,” said Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana. “It also brings us one step closer to being the best place for money in the U.K. by offering a broader selection of personal finance products.” Janardana discusses what’s next for Zopa in the video below:

Zopa was founded in 2005, pioneering peer-to-peer lending in the U.K., and has since amassed 400,000 customers and  facilitated $5 billion (£4 billion) on its platform. The company plans to continue to grow its peer-to-peer platform, which will run alongside Zopa’s bank offerings.

Zopa’s former CEO Doug Dolton debuted the P2P lending platform at FinovateSpring 2008 at Finovate’s very first show in the Bay Area. Last month, the company added $20.7 million to its Series G funding round, bringing its total funding to more than $77 million. Earlier this fall, Zopa earned recognition on the Inc. 5,000, ranking 1,314.

Switch Granted $2 Million in Funding

Switch Granted $2 Million in Funding

Credit card information management platform SWITCH announced its largest round of funding to-date. The Seattle-based company just closed a $2 million investment, bringing its total funds to more than $2.3 million.

Founded in 2013, SWITCH enables cardholders to automatically update their card-on-file information across multiple accounts. This comes in handy for consumers replacing the 700 million U.S. credit and debit cards that are lost, stolen, or reissued each year.

SWITCH’s technology is embedded into its CardSavr API which it launched in February of this year. The CardSavr API allows card issuers to place new cards into circulation immediately after they are issued instead of waiting for a new one to arrive by mail. SWITCH enhanced the technology earlier this year by integrating voice technology, enabling customers to update card information and add a new card to their account simply by using voice commands.

SWITCH also offers TopWallet (pictured right), a card issuer-branded app that allows cardholders to manage all of their payments and passwords in one place. TopWallet is currently being offered in beta.

“Switch is a win-win-win for card issuers, cardholders and merchants/billers,” said Switch CEO Chris Hopen, who demoed SWITCH’s platform at FinovateSpring 2016. “Merchants and billers want… cards on file in order to operate and provide friction-free purchasing for customers. Top financial institutions gain valuable insight and higher transaction volume by helping their customers with the burden of managing payments online.”

Backbase Powers OmniChannel Digital Services for BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank

Backbase Powers OmniChannel Digital Services for BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank

BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank, the Polish bank, is going omnichannel with Backbase, as is it aims to enhance its digital services and ability to link up with fintechs, reports Henry Vilar of Finovate’s sister publication, Fintech Futures.

The Backbase Omni-Channel Banking Platform introduced a new digital platform that aims to encourage the use of agile project management in the bank. BGŻ BNP Paribas’ Fast Forward strategy has focused on digitization as it looks to be more agile and more able to quickly respond to market changes. Having grown from a series of mergers, the bank had previously inherited various legacy systems – thus requiring to up its game in terms of flexibility and agility.

“Cooperation with Backbase is a natural consequence of the requirements of our transformation program. Our new strategy is based on five core pillars: simplicity, digitization, quality, growth, and enthusiasm,” said Piotr Marciniak, head of digital and mobile of Bank BGŻ BNP Paribas.

Initially, internet banking will be moved over to the new platform, but plans are to move to a single architecture, and implement Backbase mobile as part of this. BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank is also changing the way it develops and runs projects, with a heavy emphasis on fintechs, digital, and continuous integration continuous development (CICD).

“BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank emphasizes cooperation with sought-after fintechs. We constantly seek out the best, most innovative projects to support our operations, and are glad to implement some of their ideas in our bank,” added Marciniak.

At FinovateEurope earlier this year, Backbase unveiled the Customer OS in a demo that won the Amsterdam-based company Best of Show honors for the fourth time. In July, the company teamed up with Jumio to deliver online ID verification services.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com 

  • Backbase Powers OmniChannel Digital Services for BGŻ BNP Paribas Bank.
  • Switch Granted $2 Million in Funding.

Around the web

  • IBM partners with Thought Machine for legacy systems.
  • TransferWise introduces its borderless account – with a debit card – to Ireland.

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.

Q2 Acquires Gro Solutions

Q2 Acquires Gro Solutions

Digital banking solutions company Q2 Holdings boosted its capabilities this week with the acquisition of account opening technology provider Gro Solutions. This follows Q2’s purchase of Cloud Lending Solutions in August, making it the Austin-based company’s fifth acquisition since it was founded in 2004.Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“With Q2’s recent acquisitions of Cloud Lending and now Gro—combined with our leading, secure digital banking platform—we are delivering powerful solutions for the financial services vertical to provide exceptional experiences needed to keep pace with the high expectations of today’s account holder,” said Matt Flake, CEO of Q2. “Our acquisition of Gro adds yet another element that helps our customers reduce user friction, increase engagement in the digital channel and expand their offerings.”

Once the acquisition closes, Q2 will benefit from Gro’s omni-channel account opening technology, Gro Checkout, which CEO David Eads launched at FinovateFall 2015. Q2 will also boost its portfolio with Gro’s other solutions, including Gro Funnel, a set of marketing automation and CRM tools; Gro Business, tools for business clients; and Carrier Data Integration, technology that leverages information from a customer’s wireless billing record to auto populate data fields.

“As a combined force, we look forward to providing leading account opening, ecommerce and end-to-end digital financial solutions to banks, credit unions and other financial technology companies,” said Eads. “We are delighted to be joining the Q2 team and look forward to delivering best-in-class in financial digital sales and marketing solutions.”

Gro Solutions most recently demoed an extension of its digital sales platform at FinovateFall 2017. The company had raised $4.3 million since it was founded in 2015. Gro has been named a Fintech Company to Watch by American Banker and was recently awarded the TAG Fintech Advance Award.

Q2 debuted Q2 Biller Direct at FinovateSpring earlier this year. The company had 2017 revenues of $194 million, has 10.4 million end users, and 382 bank and credit union customers. Matt Flake is CEO.