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While many view Walmart as simply a retailer, millions of Americans rely on the company as their main source for financial products. Walmart offers a variety of debit and credit card options, as well as services such as money transfers, remittances, check cashing, tax preparation, and billpay. So it’s no surprise to see that PayPal has joined forces with the retailer today to fortify services for their joint customers.
As part of the partnership, PayPal users will be able to withdraw and deposit cash into their PayPal account at one of Walmart’s 5,000 brick-and-mortar stores. In addition, PayPal Cash Mastercard customers can access their cash balance using Walmart service desks, ATMs, and cash registers. This is the first time PayPal users have had the flexibility to transact in cash, but it comes at a cost. Each cash transaction is priced at a flat, $3 service fee. The parties have not disclosed how that fee is divided between Walmart and PayPal.
In a press release, Dan Schulman, President and CEO of PayPal said, “We consider this a key collaboration for both PayPal and Walmart. We are committed to working together to make it simple and easy for people to use PayPal cash in and cash out money services at every Walmart location in the U.S. We look forward to working hand-in-hand to help people and families with their financial services needs.”
PayPal’s mobile app offers many of the same features as a traditional banking app, including PFM and money management tools, peer-to-peer money transfer options, and investment opportunities via its partnership with Acorns. Qualifying borrowers also have access to a line of credit. Today’s partnership with Walmart is likely a move to stave off the threat from Amazon, which has been rumored to further its lineup of alternative banking options via partnerships with traditional U.S. banks.
Tying cash into PayPal’s existing robust mobile infrastructure is a key way to target the underbanked population. Now that Walmart is serving as PayPal’s brick-and-mortar “branch,” what’s next for the payments company– mortgages?
Starting today, PayPal users are able to deposit cash at Walmart. The cash out feature will be available at all U.S. Walmart locations next month. Founded in 1998, the alternative banking provider showcased its Instant Account Creation feature at FinovateFall 2012. PayPal’s market cap sits at $90 billion.
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Lending automation platform CUneXus announced that community banking marketing provider Kasasa has integrated with its cplXpress offering.
Under the agreement, banks can leverage CUneXus’ technology to generate and extend approved offers for multiple loan types, including the Kasasa Loan, which enables borrowers to pay off their loan ahead of time and take back a portion of the funds they’ve paid off if they need it. CUneXus’ cplXpress will allow eligible borrowers to instantly access their Kasasa Loan.
“Our goal is to enable lenders to deliver the simple, personalized, mobile-friendly experience consumers expect,” said Dave Buerger, CEO of CUneXus. “With cplXpress, lenders can let their customers shop, borrow and buy in just seconds–speeding up the process and creating a superior customer experience. We’re extending this service to now include Kasasa Loans, allowing financial institutions to expand their loan options and offer something unique.”
Kasasa showed off its new loan product at FinovateSpring earlier this year. The demo won Best of Show honors. Describing Kasasa Loans, Gabe Krajicek, CEO of Kasasa said, “Designed to meet consumers’ wants and needs, it puts the customer in control.” He added, “By partnering with CUneXus, we’re elevating that experience and providing community financial institutions with an even greater competitive edge. Not only can they talk to consumers about something completely unique – a loan with take-backs – but they can offer a more convenient shopping experience overall through cplXpress.
CUneXus also most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2018, where Buerger showcased the newest version of cplXpress that offers a more friendly user interface and more scalable SaaS format. Earlier this year, the company was awarded Gold in the Electronic Marketing Category of the MAC Awards. Founded in 2011, CUneXus is headquartered in California.
Kasasa, which was honored on the 2018 IDC Financial Insights FinTech Rankings last month, recently unveiled a new compliance tool, RegGen. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Texas.
Employer-provided financial wellness platform PayActiv is receiving some wellness of its own this week in the form of $20 million. The Series B financing round was led by Generation Partners, with contributions from existing investors Ziegler Link•Age Fund II and affiliate funds of Softbank Capital.
Combined with its previous investments totaling $13.5 million, today’s round more than doubles PayActiv’s total funding, which now adds up to $33.5 million. PayActiv will use today’s investment to expand its platform, accelerate growth, and develop more financial solutions for workers across the globe.
Mark Jennings, Managing Partner at Generation Partners, said that his firm chose to invest because it believes PayActiv has “the potential to positively change the lives of millions of workers, while also growing a profitable and successful business.”
The California-based company has experienced significant growth since its launch in 2012, expanding six-fold in the past year alone. Contributing to that growth was a large-scale contract signed with Walmart in December of 2017 and an agreement with ADP in July of 2018, which makes PayActiv’s services available to more than 600,000 businesses across the U.S.
Commenting on the growth, John Hawkins, Managing Partner at Generation Partners, said, “PayActiv has created a massive positive impact on the relationship between employees and employers. Already, they are settling more than $100 million in earned wage access transactions each month, and the company estimates that employees are avoiding an estimated $10 million each month in eliminated late charges, overdraft fees, and interest charges.”
As part of the deal, Hawkins will join the PayActiv Board of Directors.
At FinovateSpring 2016, PayActiv CEO and Founder Safwan Shah demonstrated how the PayActiv app encourages saving by helping users approach saving in units of time vs. percent of income. Earlier this fall, NPR featured PayActiv as Walmart’s payday loan alternative and in May the company was highlighted in the Wall Street Journal as a better alternative to payday loans.
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Online payments innovator Klarna landed a strategic partnership along with a new round of funding this week. The Sweden-based company has partnered with fashion retailer H&M, which has invested $20 million in Klarna, bringing its total funding to almost $682 million.
Klarna, which is already partnering with retailers such as Ikea and ASOS, will work together with H&M to offer omni-channel payments, provide an in-app post-purchase service, and power payments for H&M’s digital loyalty program, H&M Club. As a result, millions of H&M customers across 14 countries will benefit from a simplified and more personalized payment experience. The retailer will go live with the U.K. and Sweden markets in 2019.
In the press release, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO and co-founder of Klarna said, “Customers will no longer be forgiving of unnecessary complexity or when their retail experience does not leverage the insight available to make their engagement smart, personal and easy. This partnership is rooted in a shared obsession about just how good that shopping experience should be. Together we have worked hard on developing a unique solution for instore and online that will delight customers, drive economic value, and build loyalty.”
According to TechCrunch, today’s round values Klarna “north of $2.5 billion.” The publication also seeded a rumor that Klarna has been considering going public to gain liquidity.
Founded in 2005, Klarna offers shoppers a range of options– pay at the point of sale, pay over time, or pay later. In addition to offering consumers more options, the payment variety helps businesses improve sales and Klarna’s online merchant portal helps them manage all of their payment and marketing tools from a single platform.
At FinovateSpring 2012, the company demonstrated its online payment-processing service. Klarna has formed a variety of merchant partnerships this year, and the company began 2018 with a partnership with ACI, in which the electronic payment solutions provider will enable online businesses to integrate Klarna’s payment products.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateAsia on October 29 and 30, 2018 in Hong Kong. Register today and save your spot.
Top Image Systems (TIS)’s eFLOW Intelligent Capture is designed to operate in high-volume situations, regardless the scale of most companies’ non-structured data capture challenges.
TIS’ eFLOW Intelligent Capture provides data extraction with machine learning, a branch of AI, and dynamic redaction – it helps companies thrive in the digital age.
Why it’s great
TIS’ eFLOW Intelligent Capture is able to manage the broadest collection of content formats and sources. Its configurable platform is able to address ever-changing business needs over time.
Presenters
Wei Hao Goh, Head, Technical Account Manager
Providing thought leadership to operation leaders across various industries, Goh leverages his expertise in intelligent document content capture and processing to help firms succeed on a global scale.
LinkedIn
Jimmy Chim, Technical Account Manager
With over seven years’ experience improving operational processes for firms across industries, Chim excels in planning strategic directions, while managing the implementation of complex solutions.
LinkedIn
Rootant empowers global financial institutions to transform to a cross-platform, easy-to-use, and user-friendly financial platform with applications and services that improve the end user experience.
Features
Why it’s great
Rootant (Finance_Design+Tech+Global) provides better financial experience for clients.
Presenter
Lincoln Yin, CEO
Yin is a young entrepreneur who started Rootant at the age of 19. He is a member of the Global Shapers Community and a delegate of the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance.
LinkedIn
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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.
Voca.ai is a human-friendly virtual agent supercharging contact centers. The Voca agent significantly reduces costs of call centers while increasing revenues.
Features
Why it’s great
Voca.ai is the only scalable way to reach out to your customers over the phone without losing the human touch.
Presenter
Einav Itamar, Investor, Director
Itamar is a serial tech entrepreneur with 12 years of experience in AI and big data.
LinkedIn
DepositBook is a wholesale deposit marketplace that connects institutional and corporate depositors with banks globally.
Features
Why it’s great
DepositBook’s deposit marketplace creates a win-win for all stakeholders. Banks can raise funding with global depositors who discover the best rates and transact through a central account in a seamless manner.
Presenters
Siddharth Bhandari, CEO
Bhandari is the founder CEO of DepositBook. He has been a career banker for over 20 years, holding leadership positions globally. Bhandari has a Masters degree in Finance from the London School of Economics.
LinkedIn
Samir Rajpurkar, CTO and Co-founder
Rajpurkar has 25+ years of experience in banking and technology. He was formerly Regional Head of Technology at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), where he was responsible for managing technology services.
LinkedIn