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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Canoe received $25 million for its alternative investment intelligence platform.
The Series B round was led by F-Prime Capital with participation from Eight Roads Ventures and others.
Canoe will use the funds to hire new employees, enhance its products, and expand into Europe.
Alternative investment intelligence company Canoe Intelligenceclosed out its Series B round today, announcing a $25 million round led by F-Prime Capital with participation from Eight Roads Ventures and others.
“Following a year of significant growth and progress for Canoe, we are thrilled to partner with F-Prime and Eight Roads to advance Canoe’s capabilities for the alternative investment ecosystem,” said company CEO Jason Eiswerth. “As alternative investments continue to gain popularity amongst institutional and individual investors, the new injection of capital will allow us to further serve our customer base and streamline alternative investment data globally.”
Today’s round follows the company’s Series A rounds, which were announced in 2020 and 2021 and led by The Carlyle Group and Nasdaq Ventures. All previous investment amounts were undisclosed, so Canoe’s total funding is unknown.
Canoe will use the funding to hire new employees, enhance its offerings for enterprise customers, develop new data products, and work on its core platform. The company will also begin a push to expand into European markets. “The EMEA alternative investment industry is nearly the same size as North America and its data challenges are identical, yet today there is no comparable local solution,” said Eight Roads Partner Alston Zecha. “Canoe has a significant opportunity to deliver customer value in Europe first where it already has a presence, as well as other regions in [the] future.”
Canoe was founded in 2013 to help alternative investment firms streamline their data management processes. The company’s platform leverages AI and machine learning to automatically collect and categorize documents, extract and validate data, and deliver the sorted data investors need to make more informed investment decisions.
Each year, Canoe processes over six million documents and extracts more than 20 million data points. When compared to a manual approach, Canoe’s AI-based automation results in a 20x increase in the number of funds each employee can process. The New York-based company, which currently supports more than $5 trillion in assets under advisement, grew its client base over 200% in both 2021 and 2022.
Oracle launched Banking Cloud Services, a suite of six services to help banks modernize their offerings.
Banks can mix and match the services and use them as standalone capabilities or incorporate them within their existing infrastructure.
Oracle has financial services clients in 140 countries and manages risk for 24 of the 28 top systemically important financial institutions.
Cloud application services company Oracle unveiledBanking Cloud Services, a set of six composable cloud native services aimed to help banks modernize their capabilities.
“Banks must innovate to succeed in today’s hyper competitive environment,” said Oracle Financial Services Executive Vice President and General Manager Sonny Singh. “We have built one of the world’s most comprehensive suites of cloud-native SaaS solutions so that banks of all sizes can innovate with speed, security, and scale without compromising their existing environments.”
Banks can select any combination of the six services as standalone capabilities or to work within their existing infrastructure. The Banking Cloud Services include:
Banking Accounts Cloud Service This service offers scalable demand deposit account processing that integrates with a bank’s existing process flows and technology.
Banking Payments Cloud Service The payments tool facilitates real-time processing for payment types including for cross-border, high-value, bulk, retail, and 24×7 payments.
Banking Enterprise Limits and Collateral Management Cloud Service This service offers banks a holistic view of their collateral management exposure and reduces risk by tracking exposure, credit underwriting, decisions, and approvals.
Banking Origination Cloud Service This tool helps banks streamline the onboarding process and automate underwriting decisioning for retail and small business customers. The automation helps banks scale originations to increase deposit and credit volumes.
Banking Digital Experience Cloud Service This digital banking solution serves as a customer acquisition tool that offers digital experiences supported by video, chatbot, AI, and natural language processing-based engagement tools.
Banking APIs Cloud Service Oracle Banking APIs Cloud Service offers more than 1,800 banking APIs to help banks establish an open banking platform that boosts innovation while remaining compliant. Banks can leverage open banking to improve their customer experience and increase revenue by embedding their services among third party providers.
Oracle is a 46-year-old company based in San Francisco. The firm has financial services clients in 140 countries and manages risk for 24 of the 28 top systemically important financial institutions. Oracle is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ORCL and has a current market capitalization of $236 billion.
When every year is declared the year of the customer, it means more firms are motivated to upgrade their customer service technology. That may be why Listerhill Credit Union selected digital customer service company Glia to overhaul its digital customer service technology.
“Glia has enabled us to provide online service that mirrors our personalized, in-branch experience, allowing members to feel connected as a part of the Listerhill community regardless of communication channels,” said Listerhill Digital Strategist Dustin Holland.
Listerhill is leveraging Glia’s Digital Customer Service (DCS) suite, which includes online collaboration tools such as co-browsing to support its 92,000 members across five U.S. states. The credit union has implemented DCS in its mortgage lending department to guide members through mortgage applications and help them if they have a question or need assistance completing the process.
Listerhill said that this application of Glia’s DCS has resulted in “significant” new growth for its mortgage business. In fact, the credit union’s mortgage application conversion rate is four times the industry average, which has added up to an additional $2 million in mortgage sales year-over-year.
“By seeing who is actively reviewing mortgage information on our site, I’m able to connect and offer assistance that can help move a member closer to applying for a mortgage with Listerhill, without bothering members who are looking for other services,” said Listerhill Mortgage Originator Specialist Angela Underwood. “It’s a high-touch sales process that aligns to Listerhills’ focus on great member experiences.”
New York-based Glia was founded in 2012 as SaleMove. The company offers digital communication environments, on-screen collaboration, and AI-enabled assistance tools for clients who need to support end customers online, over the phone, in home office environments, and via video. Glia has taken home 10 Finovate Best of Show awards for its live demos and most recently showcased its tools at FinovateSpring 2021.
Last June, Glia acquired conversational AI creator Finn.ai for an undisclosed sum. Last month, Glia announced a major update to its call center platform that integrates Finn.ai’s conversational AI to automate phone interactions and facilitate banks’ migration from phone-centric to digital-first customer service.
Since it was founded in 2012, Glia has raised $152 million. The company has partnered with more than 400 credit unions, banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions, and was recently named a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 company for a third year in a row. Daniel Michaeli is CEO.
Fraud prevention fintech SEON has acquired anti-money laundering (AML) due diligence software company Complytron in a deal today.
SEON is leveraging Complytron’s expertise to launch a new AML API, which will help companies comply with the European Union’s Sixth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD).
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Two Hungary-based fintechs have combined this week. Fraud prevention company SEONacquired due diligence software company Complytron for an undisclosed amount.
Complytron was founded in 2019 after the founders received Google DNI funding for Source Code Leak, a project that used digital fingerprinting software to form connections between seemingly unrelated companies. The group found a commercial use for the software in helping firms comply with AML requirements. The company has received a total of $275k (€257k) funding from a Seed round in 2020.
SEON is leveraging the purchase to launch its new anti-money laundering (AML) API, which incorporates Complytron’s AML expertise. The new API aims to help clients comply with the European Union’s Sixth Anti Money Laundering Directive (6AMLD) by enabling them to check customer names against politically exposed persons, relatives and close associates, and crimes and sanctions lists.
“Our goal at SEON has always been to deliver the best products to our customers with maximum efficiency,” said SEON CEO Tamas Kadar. “Rather than building an AML solution from the ground up, it made perfect sense for us to integrate Complytron’s proprietary algorithms and worldwide databases – as well as the expertise of its talented team.”
The new API offers continuous monitoring that makes it easy for users find and block suspicious customers, add them to monitoring lists, and export the data for Suspicious Activity Reports. The AML API is currently available for all SEON clients, including those using the free version, which the company released last year.
In combining its flagship fraud prevention tools with the new AML API, SEON aims to help companies reduce information silos, run more thorough onboarding checks, and centralize customer data. The company is calling the integration a “crucial first step” in the process of creating a complete risk management toolkit.
Since it was founded in 2017, SEON has raised a total of $108 million. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Bulgaria-based tbi bank, which will deploy SEON’s fraud detection tools.
U.K.-based digital bank Zopa landed $92 million from existing investors IAG Silverstripe, Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP and Augmentum.
The funding, which “cements and enhances” the company’s unicorn status, brings Zopa’s total raised to $880 million.
Since launching its digital bank in 2020, Zopa has attracted $3.69 billion (£3 billion) in deposits, added more than $2.46 billion (£2 billion) in loans on its balance sheet, and issued more than 400,000 credit cards.
Zopapulled in $92 million (£75 million) this week to bolster its digital banking capabilities, proving that the race is still going strong in the challenger banking arena. The funding brings the U.K.-based company’s total raised to more than $880 million.
While Zopa did not disclose an updated valuation, the company said it “cements and enhances” its unicorn status. Zopa originally became a unicorn in 2021 after its $304 million funding round.
Also undisclosed is the round’s lead investor. Interestingly, the lead investor in the company’s 2021 round, SoftBank, is not participating in today’s investment. Zopa CEO Jaidev Janardana told TechCrunch, however, that SoftBank is still an active board member. He also mentioned that today’s funding included investments from existing investors IAG Silverstripe, Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP, and Augmentum.
Founded in 2005, the former peer-to-peer lending platform launched its digital bank in 2020 and has since attracted $3.69 billion (£3 billion) in deposits, added more than $2.46 billion (£2 billion) in loans on its balance sheet, and issued more than 400,000 credit cards.
“We are happy to have investors who share our excitement at the opportunity to serve more customers across more product categories,” said Janardana. “This has already led to several profitable months in 2022 and will very likely convert into full-year profitability in 2023 for the first time.”
Zopa said that it will use the funding received today to pay off its debts and fuel upcoming mergers and acquisitions, which could begin this quarter.
It’s the first day of Black History Month, and this year’s theme is Resistance. We’ll be serving up related coverage all month, and today’s piece sets the scene.
In an effort to highlight Black founders in our industry, we gathered a list of 70 fintechs with Black founders. This is far from an exhaustive list of fintechs with African American founders, but it is a good representation of diverse, relevant* companies.
Helps reduce delinquencies and increase revenue while helping people pay off debt sooner and with fewer penalties Founders: Diana Frappier, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
Empowers general partners and limited partners to focus on building enduring relationships and investment opportunities Founders: Adam Ginsburg, Alex Robinson, Yonas Fisseha
Enables secure and seamless data transmission using the ultrasonic data technology Founders: Chris Ostoich, Chris Ridenour, Josh Glick, Nikki Ridenour, Rodney Williams
Provides a financial advice platform that powers SmartAdvisor, a marketplace connecting consumers to financial advisors Founders: Michael Carvin, Philip Camilleri
Offers a social investing platform where you can talk about investments with friends and make trades on the market. Founders: Darian Bhathena, Jack Phifer, Michael Liu, Roger Cawdette
An all-in-one platform that offers financial tools to help creators grow their business Founders: Arabian Prince, Chris Mendez, Chris Schwartz, James Jones Jr.
Provides a community finance platform where members request and fund emergency needs Founders: Jarrel Carter, Rodney Williams, Taylor Bruno, Travis Holoway
Offers a lending platform that provides short-term financing to qualified TV and Film productions Founders: Janelle Alexander, Jon Gosier, Josh Harris, Mickey Vetter
Helps essential professionals buy homes and build financial security near the communities they serve Founded: Alex Lofton, Jesse Vaughan, Jonathan Asmis
Offers a relationship-based lending application that simplifies and automates loans between friends, family, and trusted relationships. Founders: Dennis Cail, Michael Seay
Provides a rewards and loyalty infrastructure for banks and businesses in Africa Founders: Harshal Gandole, Madonna Ononobi, Simeon Ononobi, Suraj Supekar
Offers an Automated Mortgage Advisor that simulates buying a home with multiple lenders to determine mortgage approval odds and affordability impact based on lifestyle Founders: Bryan Young, Steven Better, Tim Roberson
Provides an operating system for active investment management, powering investment products, and experiences for retail investors Founders: Clayton Gardner, Joe Percoco, Max Bernardy
Offers a global split payment platform built for co-creators on any project, anywhere Founders: Adam Clabaugh, Mangesh Bhamkar, Marcus Cobb, Rachel Knepp
Enables lenders to open more accounts by showing users the actions necessary to meet eligibility for their financial goals Founders: Abb Kapoor, David Potter
Provides an AI-powered 401K alternative stock investing platform helping everyday investors retire early Founders: Ben Malena, Johnathon Albercrombie, Lakeisha Turner, Ronnie Green
Partners with mortgage lenders to offer a seamless digital homebuying experience for their clients Founders: Frederick Townes, Marcos Carvalho, Mauro Repacci
American Express is launching American Express Business Blueprint, a set of digital cash flow management tools for small businesses.
Small businesses can access the MyInsights cash flow solution within Business Blueprint at no charge.
Business Blueprint evolved out of Kabbage, an alternative lending startup that the company acquired in 2020. With the launch of Business Blueprint, the Kabbage brand is now retired.
Cash flow management tools are not new to fintech, but the industry gets excited when card giant American Express launches new tools. That’s the case today– the company unveiledAmerican Express Business Blueprint, a set of digital cash flow management tools for small businesses.
Business Blueprint offers small business users digital financial products, payment card management tools, and cash flow insights via its MyInsights tool. The platform offers to lighten the load of small business owners by helping them manage cash flow, take out a loan, pay bills and vendors, check their account balances, deposit checks, accept card payments, and more. Additionally, the tool projects cash balances out to 30 days and sends spending alerts, as well as enables users to view and redeem their membership rewards points.
“Business Blueprint marks a critical next step in American Express’s vision of becoming a digital one-stop shop for small businesses’ financial needs, whether to manage their cash flow, make payments, get paid, or access working capital,” said company Group President of Global Commercial Services and Credit & Fraud Risk Anna Marrs.
American Express is onboarding small businesses onto Business Blueprint for free, and offering its MyInsights cash flow solution to them at no charge. That’s because the company is looking to sell businesses on its small business lending products, including:
American Express Business Line of Credit for a commercial line of credit ranging from $2,000 to $250,000 with interest rates ranging from 2% to 27%, depending on the term
American Express Business Checking for a digital business checking account that earns 1.30% APY on balances up to $500,000, and the ability to earn Membership Rewards points
American Express Payment Acceptfor accepting all major card payments from customers online
The new offering is rising out of the ashes of Kabbage, an alternative lending company launched in 2009 that American Express acquired in 2020. As Kabbage Co-Founder Rob Frohwein explained in a post on LinkedIn, “The end of era – for me and my Kabbage from American Express colleagues. Our company is fully integrated with Amex (and I’ve been gone for over a year).”
Frohwein went on to reminisce about how the day his team named the company “Kabbage.” One of the company’s early investors, Nicholas Steele, wanted to go with the name Cabbage. However, the “C” was changed to a “K” when the team discovered the cost of the Kabbage domain name was $73,800 cheaper. “Congrats to all Kabbagers – old and current. You may now refer to our business as Business Blueprint, but you’ll always bleed green and think twice when you enjoy actual cabbage in your salad or soup,” Frohwein added.
Moov landed $45 million to refine its API that creates a modern payment stack.
Commerce Ventures led the round. Additional contributors include Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Visa, and Sorenson Ventures.
Moov’s total funding now sits at $77.5 million.
Modern money movement innovator Moov is going places. The Iowa-based company landed $45 million in a Series B financing round, bringing its total raised to $77.5 million.
As far as the company’s plans for the new funds, Moov Founder and CEO Wade Arnold said, “This new round of capital will help us refine our platform, address new payments use cases, and scale everything we’ve built so far. We’re a small and mighty team, so we’re looking forward to onboarding even more talented people…”
Moov will also use today’s funding to fuel its conference that fosters collaboration in the developer community. The company’s fintech_devcon event takes place once a year to share fintech building deep dives, best practices, and new ideas.
Arnold founded Moov in 2017 to offer a simpler way to move money. The company creates a cloud-based API that creates a modern payment stack that includes acquiring, ledgering, issuing, and disbursements. Since launch, Moov has built integrations to all major card brands, The Clearing House, and the Fed. The company won the Visa Everywhere Initiative in 2021 and was recently ranked on Built In’s list of top 50 fully remote startups and Purpose Job’s Best Remote Places to Work in 2023.
Understanding the impact Moov’s money movement platform has had in the fintech community, doesn’t even require a visit to the company’s website. The list of investors in today’s round– which was led by Commerce Ventures– includes big names such as Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Visa, and Sorenson Ventures. What’s more, Moov closed this Series B round in the midst of a difficult funding environment. While many fintechs have been able to close Seed rounds and even some Series A rounds, VCs have typically holding back on later stage rounds.
European fintechs in search of venture capital funding are in luck this spring. The Startup Booster Program at FinovateEurope, taking place March 14 through 15, has been crafted to help early stage companies pitch their new ideas in front of investors from across the U.K. and Europe.
Fintechs that are less than five years old and haven’t closed a Series A round can apply now for the opportunity to have two hours to network and pitch their innovation to an audience of VCs, angels, corporate venture studios, and accelerators. Some of the investors participating in this year’s program include:
Here are three reasons why early stage, European companies in search of venture funding should make this year’s Startup Booster Program a priority:
Two-hour investor networking reception All startups accepted into the Startup Booster Program will have a table to pitch, ask and answer questions, and make an impression.
Your three-minute pitch video and pitch deck are shared with investor attendees Finovate provides startups with guidance and best-practices to make an engaging, three-minute pitch video. We’ll also share your video with the investor audience and event attendees.
A full event access pass for only £600 per ticket Startup Booster participants receive special, discounted tickets to FinovateEurope that grant access to the entire event for only £600 per ticket. That’s a discount of £1,199 when compared to the current rate of £1799 for general audiences.
We’re also hosting a dedicated stream with content aimed to help early stage companies on their journey towards growth. Session topics include discussions on scaling your startup, selecting the right funding, landing a bank client, regulations, and a look at the newest opportunities in the space.
Since we launched in 2007, we’ve actively looked for ways to foster growth in the fintech industry. Helping early stage companies find access to funding is one way we’re doing so– which helps build and better our industry, as well. If you meet the criteria listed above, apply today.
Marqeta is acquiring credit card program management platform Power Finance.
The company will add Power Finance’s credit card program management capabilities to its own card issuing platform.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Global card issuer Marqeta agreed to acquire credit card program management platform Power Finance. Terms of the deal, which is scheduled to close in the first quarter of this year, were not disclosed.
Power Finance was founded in 2021 by CEO Randy Fernando and CFO Andrew Dust to offer credit card program management services to companies seeking to create new credit card programs. The company’s platform takes care of credit card management, customer experience, application decisioning, transaction processing, and more. And because Power Finance is pre-integrated with third-party data vendors, it saves companies time when setting up KYC and underwriting processes.
“Companies like ours were made possible because of the path Marqeta blazed in modern card issuing, demonstrating the possibilities in payments with flexible and modern payment infrastructure,” said Fernando. “At Power, we built a full-stack, cloud-native credit card issuance platform, and by becoming a part of Marqeta we have the ability now to bring this innovation to a much larger market at global scale.”
Once the deal is finalized, Fernando will lead the product management of the Marqeta credit card platform.
Marqeta will leverage the acquisition by adding Power Finance’s credit card program management capabilities to its own card issuing platform. “It will allow us to accelerate processing revenue derived from credit programs, and improve our competitive positioning when competing for new deals, offering our customers a holistic credit card program management solution,” Marqeta said in a blog post announcement.
Marqeta launched its card issuing platform in 2010 to enable clients to manage their own card programs. The company offers configurable and flexible payment tools and customizes payment cards for their end customers. Earlier this month, Marqeta launched a Web Push Provisioning Solution to enable consumers to transact from their mobile wallets without having to download a separate mobile app.
Marqeta is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker MQ. The company has a market capitalization of $3.54 billion.
OneSpan is acquiring blockchain-based document storage company ProvenDB.
The purchase will help OneSpan add document storage to its existing product offerings.
Terms of the agreement, which is expected to close this quarter, were not disclosed.
Digital agreements security company OneSpan agreed to acquire blockchain-based document storage company ProvenDB. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Australia, ProvenDB was founded in 2018. The company provides a blockchain-based database that enables users to store data, cryptographic signatures, documents, and more. The company also offers a product that adds proof, trust, and integrity to clients’ existing databases.
Under the agreement, ProvenDB will enhance OneSpan’s Transaction Cloud Platform to public and private blockchains. Integrating ProvenDB’s technology into OneSpan’s existing offerings will also add a new product offering that provides customers with secure vaulting capabilities and helps OneSpan secure digital agreements.
“Digital artifacts are simply too easy to fabricate, tamper, or delete in the era of Web3 leading to security breaches and loss of trust in digital information. In this world of evidence tampering and deep fakes, it is critical that we have non-repudiation and copies of the original artifact with an immutable chain of custody throughout the entire customer journey,” said OneSpan President and CEO Matthew Moynahan. “Securing business processes end-to-end leveraging blockchain technology will play an increasingly critical role in preserving the integrity of digital transactions and agreements to fuel this modern digital era. We have an ambitious plan to disrupt the digital agreement market and ProvenDB will accelerate that plan. OneSpan’s mission, the focus of our entire go-to-market strategy, is to restore trust and confidence in today’s most critical customer experiences, such as revenue-generating transactions or customer and vendor onboarding, and ensure that their integrity is never in question.”
The transaction is expected to close the first quarter of this year.
Founded in 1991 and formerly known as VASCO, OneSpan offers a range of digital identity and anti-fraud solutions. The Chicago-based company authenticates four billion users each year and counts 60% of the world’s largest banks as clients. OneSpan went public in 1997 and has a current market capitalization of $540 million. Matt Moynahan is CEO.
Digital mortgage lending company Better launched a new product, One Day Mortgage, that offers borrowers a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours of applying for a loan.
During a period of beta testing, Better reported that it processed over $50 million in commitments, offering commitment letters in an average of 12 hours.
To qualify for the One Day Mortgage, borrowers must be salaried, make a down payment of at least 3%, and upload required documents within four hours.
Digital mortgage lending company Better launched One Day Mortgage, a new tool that does what it says– it enables borrowers to get a mortgage in a single day.
Using One Day Mortgage, home loan borrowers can get pre-approved, lock-in their rate, and receive a mortgage commitment letter, all within 24 hours. This timeframe is weeks faster than the industry average of more than 30 days.
Today’s announcement comes a couple of weeks after Better first launched the service in beta to a small group of customers. Since then, Better has processed over $50 million in commitments from its One Day Mortgage product. What’s more, it has helped customers receive a commitment letter in an average of 12 hours.
The One Day Mortgages are available to borrowers working in a salaried job and making a downpayment of at least 3% on a Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac mortgage. To further qualify, applicants must provide requested documents– including pay stubs, W2s, bank statements, and more– within four hours of locking in their rate.
Better’s One Day Mortgage product is a fairly large step forward for the mortgage industry, which has not seen much innovation in the past decade, despite the onslaught of new enabling technologies. The fast turnaround is made possible by Better’s digital-first approach that takes place completely online. This model enhances the user experience by offering a fully digital document upload and tracking tool.
“One Day Mortgage unlocks it all,” said Better shareholder and Partner at Novator Capital Prabhu Narasimhan. “It takes away the weeks of uncertainty that permeate the entire real estate transaction. If we can execute mortgage commitments in one day and closings in three days, we can complete entire transactions in less than one week to make the entire process better.”
Offering customers a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours is certainly a competitive advantage for Better. As company chairman Harit Talwar explained, “This milestone will add immense value to the consumer, create a significant strategic moat for Better, and be a near impossible act for competitors to follow.” And he’s most likely right– for the time being. We probably won’t see other mortgage lenders offering 24-hour mortgage loans any time soon, but it’s quite possible the new offering will be industry standard by the end of the decade.
Founded in 2016, Better has seen its share of hardships in the past year. Last year, Better conducted its fourth round of layoffs in less than nine months, letting go of almost 4,000 employees during that time. What’s more, the company’s CEO Vishal Garg made headlines numerous times last year for his contributions to what employees described as a toxic work environment.
