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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.
Online alternative lending company Kabbage has revealed its 2017 milestones this week. Here’s a quick, data-heavy review of the Atlanta-based company’s success:
Kabbage is also announcing today it has appointed Robert Sharpe (pictured) as Chief Operating Officer. Sharpe brings 20 years of executive leadership experience from North America, Europe and Asia, and 10 years of commercial banking and corporate finance experience. In a statement, Sharpe said that he is “excited to contribute the benefits of these experiences to Kabbage’s mission of driving small business success.”
The company recently made headlines when it brought in a $200 million credit facility. Kabbage demoed its Kabbage Card small business line of credit at FinovateSpring 2015. Check out our video interview with Kabbage’s President and Co-Founder Kathryn Petralia at FinovateFall 2017 last month.
Global payments company Worldpay and online payments innovator Klarna are joining forces this week. Starting today, Worldpay clients in Austria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the U.K. will be able to use Klarna’s invoice and credit-based payments.
The new capabilities will enable Worldpay’s ecommerce business clients to offer shoppers new payment options that will allow consumers to decide how and when to pay for the goods after they receive them. Consumers can manage the terms of their payment, opting for a 14-day payment by invoice, fixed, or flexible installments, or choosing to spread the cost over several months. The new checkout experience does not request payment credentials at the point of checkout, but rather requests only their email address and postal code. This offers a faster checkout experience and helps retailers improve conversion rates by 20%.
With consumers turning to online shopping to fulfill not only their gadget and clothing needs but also for daily grocery and sundry items, ecommerce is more popular than ever. And with so many players flooding the market, retailers are facing increased competition. Implementing Klarna’s fast and flexible payments options allows ecommerce players to differentiate themselves and compete on more than just free shipping.
Worldpay is one of the first companies piloting Klarna’s new payment technology. The company notes that, because there is no plug-in, the service is easy to integrate and results in faster time-to-market. Additionally, risk management is taken care of. According to Michael Rouse, Klarna’s Chief Commercial Officer, “Klarna assumes responsibility for managing credit and fraud risks, allowing companies to quickly receive payment for orders, and allowing consumers to pay only if they’re happy with their purchase.”
Dave Glaser, Chief Product Officer of Global eCom at Worldpay said that the company is “seeing increased demand from customers wishing to create more reasons to shop with them over their competitors.” Because some merchants consider accepting credit card payments “risky” and “old fashioned,” Glaser noted that “being able to adapt to new and local payment preferences is a way to rectify this.” He added, “We believe that this solution will empower companies to see a real increase in sales.”
Founded in 1989, Worldpay presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 about the payment journey. The company offers payment products and services to a client base of 400,000. Worldpay’s technology can process payments from 146 countries and 126 currencies, enabling customers to accept more than 300 different payment types. Earlier in the fall, the company built an SDK for IoT shopping and this summer Worldpay agreed to merge with U.S. credit card processor Vantiv in a $10 billion deal.
Klarna demonstrated its online payment-processing service at FinovateSpring 2012. In August, the company launched a free P2P payments service called Wavy. Earlier this year, Klarna acquired online payment provider BillPay from Wonga for $75 million.
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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.
Cross-border payments company Payoneer announced today it has received funding from China Broadband Capital (CBC). While the amount of funding was undisclosed, the company specified that this week’s Series E-1 round follows the $220+ million Series E round received last year. This adds to the company’s total funding amount, which previously stood at $270 million.
This marks the second China-based investor for Payoneer, which picked up an investment from PingAn in 2014. Scott Galit, CEO of Payoneer, referred to CBC as “one of the most prestigious and respected investors” and noted that the investor’s knowledge of the China market align them very well.
The company, which facilitates mass payouts for businesses looking to transfer money internationally, will use the funds to strengthen its global partner program and to bolster investment in its China operations. Edward Tina, Chairman of CBC said, “Payoneer is positioned better than any other payments company to help Chinese companies grow globally, as well as help non-Chinese companies sell into China.” He added, “Payoneer’s global footprint, banking ecosystem, and proprietary compliance infrastructure will position Payoneer as the preeminent solution to help companies of all sizes grow internationally.”
At FinovateAsia 2013, Payoneer launched a commercial account that offers businesses the ability to receive funds from a global network. Payoneer’s money-transfer solutions enable millions of businesses from more than 200 countries to reach new audiences by facilitating cross-border payments. The technology supports companies such as Newegg, Airbnb, and Fiverr; as well as Amazon, Google, Airbnb, and Getty Images, who use Payoneer’s mass payout services.
Earlier this fall, Payoneer ranked 1,912 on the Inc. 5,000 list, making the company a five-time Inc. 5,000 honoree. In June, Payoneer opened offices in the U.K. to take advantage of the Brexit opportunity, and in March the company earned a spot on CNBC’s Disruptor 50 list.
Consumer interest in digital currency is at an all-time high. Much of this is thanks to Bitcoin which, as of this morning, is valued at over $11,800. So this week is the perfect time for global banking company Revolut to launch cryptocurrency trading on its platform.
Starting Thursday, Revolut account holders will be able to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ether. The mobile banking company, which also supports 25 fiat currencies, aims to “erase the divide between old and new money,” according to TechCrunch. The article notes that during Revolut’s one week beta test, 10,000 users traded $1 million in cryptocurrencies.
In line with its transparent pricing strategy that allows users to send more than $5,900 per month in 16 currencies with no fee, U.K.-based Revolut will offer low rates on cryptocurrency trading. The company will charge a flat fee of 1.5% and, thanks to its global currency platform, does not charge additional foreign exchange fees for purchases made with most fiat currencies.
Revolut debuted at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. The company’s CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky began working on the idea after his bank charged him $2,000 in fees after spending $12,000 while traveling abroad. “That is why we built Revolut,” Storonsky said during the demo. “It allows you to exchange, send, and spend your money, completely avoiding all your banking fees without actually using a bank.”
Founded in 2013, the company has experienced sharp growth recently. Over the past two years, Revolut has processed 42 million transactions for 1 million users in Europe, tallying up $160 million in savings on foreign transaction fees. According to TechCrunch, Revolut is “doubling the rate of new customer sign-ups versus three months ago.”
Revolut has been busy lately. Here’s a quick timeline overview of the company’s progress over the past three months:
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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.
Having finalized its acquisition of WePay today, JP Morgan Chase announced that it has already put the payments platform to work: powering commerce platform Volusion.
Since it was founded in 2009, WePay has been creating payment APIs and processing payments on behalf of small businesses. Earlier this fall, the company announced it would be acquired by J.P. Morgan Chase in a deal that was finalized today. While the terms of the deal were officially undisclosed, TechCrunch reported that Chase picked up WePay for $300 million (up to $400 million including retention bonuses and potential earn-outs).
Now that the acquisition is complete, WePay will continue to operate as a stand-alone entity and serve its 1,000 clients, including Freshbooks, Constant Contact, and GoFundMe. Under its new parent company, California-based WePay will continue to expand its client-base. The company’s CEO Bill Clerico will remain as head of the company, working alongside Chase Merchant Services CEO Matt Kane.
“We see exponential growth ahead of us as we combine our fintech products and culture with the global brand, scale, proficiencies, and distribution of Chase,” said Clerico. “We are headed into a massive expansion of our team, with particular focus on engineering and product management, and looking for a new headquarters in the Bay Area to accommodate our planned growth.”
As a part of this growth, WePay will power a new service from Volusion called Volusion Payments. The Austin-based ecommerce company serves 30,000 active SMB merchants with $28 billion in cumulative sales. In a statement, Kevin Sproles, Volusion’s founder and CEO, said that the new offering will allow Volusion to help its SMB clients “get up and running instantly, with next-day settlement, competitive rates, and all of their payment processing tightly integrated within the software they’ve already chosen for managing their online stores.”
WePay launched its Veda Risk API at FinovateSpring 2014. In 2015, the company was named to the Inc. 500 list as the 62nd fastest-growing private company in the U.S. In May 2016, WePay launched a white-label mobile card reader, and this March, WePay announced its merchant clients can now use Apple Pay and Google’s Android Pay.
With our newest conferences– FinovateAsia and FinovateMiddleEast– back-to-back, we wanted to examine unique trends to those regions. Each place has its own distinctive culture, and with that comes not only individual financial needs, but also a particular set of regulatory rules. These factors not only create different fintech environments but also heavily influence the trends of each region.
With that, we’ve dissected both regions and the trends that are most popular to each area. While both of these geographical areas share most of the trends listed, this classification showcases which are most popular in each area.
Population of around 4.5 billion people
Population of around 381 million people
You can get a closer look at fintech in Asia by taking a look at the demo videos (available soon) from FinovateAsia last week. And for fintech in the MENA region, check out our FinovateMiddleEast conference early next year.
Alternative credit company Kabbage has a lot to be thankful for this week. The Atlanta-based startup received a new $200 million revolving credit facility from Credit Suisse this week. This brings Kabbage’s total debt funding to $750 million.
Kabbage emphasized that this credit facility diversifies its funding sources, which will help it scale faster and bolster its growth. Specifically, the new funds will help the company serve more and larger small businesses while offering higher lines of credit with longer terms.
Global rating agency DBRS gave investment-grade ratings to the the top two classes of the transaction, which earned ratings of A and BBB. Both classes are collateralized with assets originated through Kabbage’s automated
underwriting technology. This marks the first time DBRS has rated one of Kabbage’s credit facility transactions.
Deepesh Jain, Kabbage’s Head of Capital Markets, commented on the rating from DBRS, saying, “To earn an investment-grade rating requires a rigorous evaluation of not only our lending models, automated risk analysis, and successful history of reducing bad debt to an industry-low, but also our operational processes—from exceptional customer service to unmatched technology development.”
Kabbage has served more than 125,000 small business customers since it was founded in 2009. This week, KPMG ranked Kabbage number 10 of 50 in its list of Fintech 100 for 2017. Earlier this Fall, CB Insights listed the company in its round-up of Top-Targets for European banks. That same week, Kabbage earned its place on the Inc. 5000 list. The company most recently demoed its Kabbage Card small business line of credit at FinovateSpring 2015. Check out our video interview with Kabbage’s COO and co-founder Kathryn Petralia at FinovateFall 2017 last month.
Communications compliance and analytics company Actiance has made its exit this week. The California-based company has been acquired by K1 Investment Management, an investment firm focused on acquisition-based growth opportunities.
K1 will join Actiance with its rival, Smarsh, which specializes on archiving compliance. The combined company will reach more than 6,500 financial services companies, including the top 15 global banks. Neil Malik, Managing Partner at K1, said, “This combination of capabilities from Actiance and Smarsh provides the industry with a means to get ahead – and stay ahead – of compliance trends, while introducing the latest communications technologies to increase efficiency and effectiveness in the modern enterprise.”
The service can be deployed in the cloud, dedicated, on-premise, and hybrid and will offer capture, compliance, archiving, and supervision support across a range of communication channels, including email, social media, mobile messaging, instant messaging/collaboration, encrypted chat and voice communications. K1 plans to enhance the service by investing in product capabilities, increasing flexibility in deployment options, accelerating expansion in Europe and developing a joint channel partner program.
Kailash Ambwani, CEO of Actiance said that the new combined entity is “incredibly well-positioned” to address the growing compliance needs of financial services firms. He added, “Together we will enhance our combined sales and distribution capabilities, offer our customers additional resources and services, and accelerate our product development.”
Founded in 1998, Actiance most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2012 where it showcased Socialite, an active social compliance tool. Last month, the company launched a Safe Landing program for continuous compliance and in August, Actiance introduced a compliance and archiving solution for WeChat and WhatsApp. Before today’s acquisition, the company had raised $43.6 million.
Robo advisory platform Betterment made an announcement today that it is not only making it easier to give to charities, it is also giving consumers more reasons to do so.
Starting November 28, on Giving Tuesday, Betterment investors will be able to donate shares of long-term investments from their taxable accounts directly to charitable organizations. While the act of giving may grant users a warm heart, Betterment has made a point to emphasize the self-serving part of the equation– tax benefits. Investors who donate can eliminate capital gains tax on the contributed shares and can also deduct the value of the gift on their tax return. To make the process as easy as giving cash, the company does four main things:
Tracks how much of your account is eligible to give to charity (i.e., it sorts for stocks that you’ve held for more than one year)At launch, investors can give to eleven charities, including UNICEF USA, Wounded Warriors Family Support, Hour Children, Against Malaria Foundation, DonorsChoose.org, GiveWell, Save The Children, Feeding America, Big Brothers Big Sisters of NYC, World Wildlife Fund, and Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Betterment is soliciting user requests for new charities to be added.
Founded in 2008, Betterment CEO Jon Stein debuted the company’s Multiple Goals feature at FinovateFall 2011. This summer, the New York-based company received a $70 million investment from Sweden’s Kinnevik, bringing Betterment’s total capital to $275 million and boosting it up to a valuation of $800 million.