Author: Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz)

W.UP Launches Money Stories to Win Consumers’ Divided Attention

W.UP Launches Money Stories to Win Consumers’ Divided Attention
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, W.UP

Customer-focused banking tools provider W.UP revealed its latest development today. The Hungary-based company is launching Money Stories.

The new embeddable tool enables banks to offer their customers bite-sized snapshots of their financial lives. These easily consumable bits of content combine data analytics with digital storytelling to make it even easier for banks to help users to understand their financial standing in a fast-paced way.

The new tool takes the concept from millennial-friendly mobile apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Each of these social media platforms are notorious for enabling users to quickly publish and view life updates and ideas, share new songs, and even exchange gossip. The micro-content requires little attention from viewers, who are easily distracted and prone to multi-tasking.

Similarly, Money Stories leverages transactional and behavioral analytics to show users daily highlights, weekly and monthly forecasts, and yearly summaries. Overall, these updates take the form of unusually large transactions, double charges, sharp balance drops, recurring transitions, top spending categories, changes in spending or credit card usage, and more. In addition to showing users their historical data, Money Stories can also help users plan for the future by showing options to pay off credit card debt, avoid overdrafts, and more.

All of the graphics appear on a single screen for seven-to-ten seconds, so the user does not need to scroll or set aside much time in their day to understand the analyses.

W.UP is keeping the integration easy for banks. “When all is said and done, the only decision for banks to make remains what product and service offers to slide into the story stream to boost targeting accuracy, conversion, and customer satisfaction levels,” said W.UP Head of Product Gellért Vinnai.

Founded in 2014, W.UP takes PFM to a personalized level by leveraging AI and real-time data. These product offerings have obviously struck a chord in the banking crowd; the company has won Best of Show awards at FinovateEurope 2018, 2019, and most recently for its demo in 2020.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

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eBay Now Allows Sales of NFTs

eBay Now Allows Sales of NFTs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

The last time eBay truly dominated news headlines may have been in 2015, when it split from payments giant PayPal. Since then, the online marketplace has been quietly fending off new competitors including Amazon, Etsy, Rakuten, Mercari, and even Facebook Marketplace.

Today, however, the California-based company made an announcement that will help differentiate it from every other online marketplace– the company’s users can now buy and sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to eBay’s updated policy, trusted sellers can now list and sell NFTs across multiple categories.

“This isn’t new to eBay,” said Senior Vice President and General Manager for eBay’s North America Market Jordan Sweetnam. “For 25+ years we’ve been the world’s destination for collectibles, connecting millions of buyers with sellers who have deep knowledge of the things they care about most. Our platform has helped collectors turn their hobbies into their livelihoods and, along the way, collectibles – ranging from beanie babies and railroad memorabilia to high-end art and rare coins – became an alternate asset class, combining passion with investment.”

Currently, eBay is allowing NFTs that fit categories such as trading cards, music, entertainment, and art. However, the company notes it will expand to facilitate the sales of NFTs across more categories.

You may inherently associate NFTs with cryptocurrencies because they, too, are held on the blockchain. However, eBay has not indicated any current plans to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, so users can expect to pay for their NFT using a traditional online payment method such as a credit card.

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

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Curve Turns to Crowdfunding for New Funding Round

Curve Turns to Crowdfunding for New Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Self-proclaimed “financial super-app” Curve announced it will soon go live with a crowdfunding campaign.

The campaign, which will launch “sometime in May,” will be held on Crowdcube and will enable Curve’s more than two million customers to invest and be part of its journey. Curve will use the funds to fuel its launch into the U.S. market and help it to expand further into Europe.

“We know many new customers missed out on our 2019 crowdfunding, and we’ve fielded constant requests to open a new round,” said Curve Founder and CEO Shachar Bialick. “Since we place our customers at the heart of everything we do, we wanted to offer another chance for them to be involved in our success, enabling them to be part of our journey.”

Funds raised from the campaign will add to the $169 million Curve has raised since it was founded in 2015. This includes the company’s recent $103 million (£72.5 million) Series C round it closed in January which received contributions from Fuel Venture Capital.

“With increasing fragmentation in financial services, and growing demand from consumers for a simpler way to control and manage their finances, the scene is set for Curve to seize a global opportunity,” said Bialick. “We are investing in our people and the business to make that happen.”

This news follows Curve’s 2019 crowdfunding round, which raised $5.7 million (£4 million) in 42 minutes. The move tripled the company’s valuation. The announcement also comes after a year of growth during which Curve hired over 100 new employees, doubled its customer base to over two million, and saw its transaction volume increase to $3.7 billion (£2.6 billion).

Curve has big plans for 2021, including the launch of its crowdfunding campaign. This year, the company is also working on the rollout of its Curve Credit product and will increase its workforce by 60%, hiring 200 additional employees.

Photo by gdtography from Pexels

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Credit Karma Launches Instant Karma Rewards

Credit Karma Launches Instant Karma Rewards
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Credit Karma, Daily news

You can thank Gen Z’s “I want it now” mentality for Credit Karma’s freshest release. Dubbed Instant Karma, the newest product is the latest to come from Credit Karma Money, the company’s challenger banking service.

According to TechCrunch, which covered the launch, Instant Karma rewards users by randomly reimbursing their purchases.

Credit Karma General Manager Poulomi Damany told TechCrunch that, since the purpose behind Credit Karma Money is to “change people’s relationship with money” the new rewards product is an extension of that goal.

There are two major differentiating factors of Instant Karma over traditional payments rewards programs. The first is that the rewards are issued based on purchases made on debit cards, not credit cards. That’s because, as Credit Karma Product Manager Kyle Thibaut said, “Gen Z do not necessarily like credit cards. When you talk to them, they like debit cards and debit cards are the way they spend. Debit card usage is higher than credit cards in the U.S., and it’s actually growing while credit card usage is declining.”

The second point of differentiation is that the reward is issued the instant the user makes the transaction. Traditional cash-back programs, in contrast, will only issue rewards based on a time scale (eg., monthly) or once they reach a certain threshold (eg., the balance reaches $25).

So far, Credit Karma has rewarded $5 million in rewards on 100,000 transactions.

Founded in 2007, Credit Karma added a checking feature to its Credit Karma Money suite in October of last year. This complements the savings tool the company launched in October of 2019, when it initiated its entrance into the neobanking space. Prior to this, Credit Karma operated solely in the financial wellness space, in which it continues to offer its 110 million members access to credit scoring data, loan and credit card marketplaces, identity monitoring, and tax filing tools.

Photo by jom jakkid on Unsplash

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Divvy Sells to Bill.com for $2.5 Billion

Divvy Sells to Bill.com for $2.5 Billion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bill.com, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

Corporate expense management platform Divvy has agreed to sell to small business financial software provider Bill.com for $2.5 billion.

Adding Divvy’s technology to its platform expands Bill.com’s solution. The new capabilities will help the California-based company enable its 115,000 customers to automatically manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, and corporate card spend. Additionally, Divvy’s tools will offer businesses real-time insight into their B2B spending and provide them access to multiple payment solutions.

Combining the two companies also boosts Divvy’s capabilities. The Utah-based company will be able to offer its 7,500 small business customers automated payable, receivables, and workflow capabilities. “As we listened to our customers, we heard them ask for a comprehensive payments platform so that they don’t have to use multiple software systems to manage their finances,” said Divvy CEO and Co-Founder Blake Murray. “Today I’m proud that Divvy is joining Bill.com to bring the one-stop-shop platform that our customers and the market have been asking for.”

“Since founding Bill.com, I have been driven by the desire to build solutions that make a real difference for small and mid-sized businesses. Customers have been asking us to help them with their spend management, and I am excited that together with Divvy, we can deliver on that ask, furthering our vision to transform SMB financial operations. Our expanded platform will provide more automation and real-time information to SMBs, enabling them to make more informed decisions,” said Bill.com CEO and Founder René Lacerte. “We are excited to work with the talented Divvy team. We have a shared passion for helping SMBs succeed and both companies are driving our customers’ digital transformations. Together, we can further empower SMBs to transition quickly and easily.”

Today’s deal is expected to close by the end of September and is subject to regulatory approvals closing conditions.

Bill.com was founded in 2006 and went public in 2019. With a market capitalization of $12.33 billion, the company trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BILL.

Founded in 2016, Divvy has raised $418 million from investors including PayPal Ventures, Insight Partners, and New Enterprise Associates.

Photo by Maranda Vandergriff on Unsplash

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Ripple Brings on Kristina Campbell as CFO

Ripple Brings on Kristina Campbell as CFO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ripple, Uncategorized

Payments network Ripple is bolstering its ranks this week with the appointment of Kristina Campbell as CFO.

Campbell has been tapped to drive Ripple’s financial strategy, accelerate growth, and deliver value to shareholders. She most recently served as CFO at PayNearMe and has also held multiple roles at GreenDot.

“Digital asset technology allows us to rethink and improve the systems and infrastructure around how money moves. With this technology, we will make the global financial system accessible to all,” said Campbell. “Ripple is uniquely positioned to improve global payments in ways that have yet to be defined and I’m excited to be a part of that solution.”

Ripple also revealed that Rosa Gumataotao Rios, 43rd Treasurer of the United States, has joined its Board of Directors. In her role as Treasurer, Rios oversaw all currency and coin production and focused on economic development, urban revitalization, and real estate finance.

“I’ve dedicated my career to financial inclusion and empowerment, which requires bringing new and innovative solutions to staid processes. Ripple is one of the best examples of how to use cryptocurrency in a substantive and legitimate role to facilitate payments globally,” said Rios. “Blockchain and digital assets will underpin our future global financial systems. Cryptocurrency is the what. Ripple is the how.”

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said that the new appointees come “at a pivotal time for the company.” Garlinghouse’s phrase, “pivotal time,” is in reference to Ripple’s international expansion efforts; earlier this spring the company acquired a 40% stake in Asia-based cross-border payment specialist Tranglo. It is also a head nod to the lawsuit Ripple is currently facing.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse conducted an illegal securities offering that raised more than $1.3 billion through sales of Ripple’s XRP currency. Ripple, which considers XRP as a currency and not an investment contract, is denying the allegations.

Backed by SBI Holdings, Santander, Andreessen Horowitz, and Lightspeed, Ripple has raised $294 million and is valued at $10 billion.

Photo by Burak K from Pexels

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Cinco de México: 5 of the Region’s Top Fintechs

Cinco de México: 5 of the Region’s Top Fintechs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series

Mexico is known for a lot of things. The region is blessed with a rich food and drink culture, is home to historic Mayan temples, offers beautiful cenotes, and is lined with picturesque beaches.

Typically, Mexico is not associated with being a global fintech hot spot. However, the region is prime for growth. Half of Mexico’s residents are unbanked, more than half own smartphones, and 70% have internet access. These factors, combined with the country’s relatively young population (43% of people there are under the age of 25) make Mexico fertile ground for alternative banking services.

We took a look at Mexico’s 441+ fintech startups to bring you the top five (based on website visits):

Kueski

Founded in 2012, Kueski uses big data and analytics to approve and deliver loans in minutes. Headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico, the online lender has delivered 3.3 million loans and raised $39 million in funding.

Kubo Financiero

Headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico, Kubo Financiero is a digital alternative lending platform that offers financial products including savings, personal loans, and term deposits. The company was founded in 2012 and is aimed at serving the country’s middle class.

Konfio

A digital banking and software tool provider, Konfio was founded in 2013 by David Arana and Francisco Padilla and is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico.

Prestadero

Founded in 2012 and with $909 million in funding, Prestadero is Mexico’s most well-known P2P lending platform. The Mexico City, Mexico-based company offers competitive rates on both loans and investments, making it a popular alternative to traditional banking services.

Conekta

Leveraging AI, Conekta processes online and offline payments to enable financial institutions to identify fraudulent purchases by analyzing transaction behavior while encrypting and protecting financial information. The company is headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico and was founded in 2011.

Photo by Hugo Entrepreneur from Pexels

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Curve Taps Cardlytics to Power Rewards Program

Curve Taps Cardlytics to Power Rewards Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cardlytics, Daily news

Loyalty and rewards may seem like dated technology. After all, the conversation around loyalty and rewards peaked in 2012 when merchant-funded rewards and in-statement offers were the hottest new customer acquisition bait.

Today’s banking environment that focuses on the customer is proving that the technology isn’t all hype, however. Almost a decade after the merchant-funded rewards conversation, there’s still activity going on in the loyalty and rewards space.

As proof, banking app and smart card Curve announced today it is partnering with purchase-based marketing intelligence firm Cardlytics, which will power Curve’s new rewards program. Dubbed Curve Rewards, the app will offer Curve users a range of rewards from Cardlytics’ brand partners, including Pret a Manger, JustEat, FatFace, Harvey Nichols, and Cult Beauty. Two of the merchants piloting Curve’s new program, Harvey Nichols and Cult Beauty, will offer 20% off and 5% off respectively.

Curve Rewards leverages Cardlytics’ purchase intelligence data and will help customers earn while they spend. This data-driven approach ensures that the rewards offered to the consumer are personalized to their spending habits.

“Today’s consumers want a reward scheme that is tailored to how they shop and why they shop,” said Cardlytics’ Head of Bank Partnerships Campbell Shaw. “We’re pleased to have built a reward scheme for Curve that does just that, putting customers back in the driving seat while building loyalty and engagement for Curve.”

The partnership is especially notable for Cardlytics. In the company’s thirteen year history, the partnership with Curve is its first digital-native brand. Up until this point, Cardlytics’ partnerships were primarily with traditional financial institutions, including Lloyds Banking Group, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Santander.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels

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Dwolla’s Evolution from Direct-to-Consumer

Dwolla’s Evolution from Direct-to-Consumer
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Dwolla

Founded in 2008, Dwolla is one of the fintech originals. Because of its long-standing history in the fintech space, the Iowa-based company has been through a lot of changes as it evolves with banks, fintechs, and consumer demand.

Since its start, Dwolla has focused on offering an alternative to the traditionally slow ACH money transfer system. Initially, the company tackled this objective through a direct-to-consumer (DTC) product, which allowed individual users to sign up for Dwolla to make peer-to-peer money transfers and transact with the company’s merchant partners.

As part of its DTC solution, Dwolla even offered a cardless credit product called Instant. The tool would lend users up to $5,000 for one month, with no interest, in exchange for a $3 per month subscription fee.

As an evolution of its credit offering, the company partnered with Alliance Data to launch Dwolla Credit. The ecommerce point of sale product worked much like PayPal in that users would select a Pay with DWOLLA button at the point of sale to complete their purchase. Funds would transfer on Dwolla’s rails to enable merchants to receive the funds instantly in their Dwolla account.

Despite the company’s numerous innovations in the consumer space, Dwolla received the most traction from its bank-focused product, FiSync, a payments protocol for real-time money transfers. The success of this tool prompted the company to exit the consumer space in 2016 to focus on creating payment APIs.

Today, Dwolla’s API helps organizations integrate payments into their application to send, collect, and facilitate payments. Earlier this year the company doubled down on its roots in faster payments to deliver real time payments in collaboration with Cross River Bank. The new, instant payment option leverages the RTP Network to send money directly to a bank account in seconds.

In a post-COVID world in which consumers have been trained to conduct more of their daily transactions online, Dwolla’s real-time payments capability will play a key role. “The immediacy of real-time payments will fundamentally change how businesses operate,” said Dwolla CEO Brady Harris. “As electronic payments continue to grow in adoption, RTP is the perfect complement to our ACH and Push-to-Debit offerings.”

Dwolla, a three-time Finovate alum, most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2015 where it debuted FiSync. The company has raised $51.4 million from investors including Union Square Ventures, High Alpha, and Foundry Group.

Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

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Expensify Planning IPO

Expensify Planning IPO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Expensify, IPO

In an era when SPACs are the hip new way to take a company public, corporate expense management technology company Expensify is taking the old fashioned route.

The San Francisco-based fintech announced this week it has submitted an S-1 document– a key step on the road to an initial public offering to the SEC. The S-1 was submitted confidentially. Since Expensify is considered an “emerging growth company,” the contents of the filing do not need to be made public until 21 days prior to the road show for the IPO.

Expensify, which reached profitability at the end of 2018, has not yet determined the size and price range for the proposed IPO.

Founded in 2008, Expensify launched with its flagship receipt-scanning app and a simple motto, “Expense reports that don’t suck!” Since then, the company has gone on to launch a corporate payment card, offer a COVID-friendly virtual travel assistant, and expand into billpay.

Expensify’s IPO is expected to commence after the completion of the SEC review process, subject to market and other conditions. The company has raised a total of $38.2 million. David Barrett, who Finovate interviewed about the company’s launch, is CEO.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels

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Sezzle Plans to File for U.S. IPO

Sezzle Plans to File for U.S. IPO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Sezzle

Buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Sezzle is planning to strike while the iron is hot.

The Minnesota-based firm, which is already publicly-listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), is hoping to capture U.S. investors, now that the BNPL trend has exploded in this continent. Plans for the public listing are still in early stages. Details, such as the timing, price, and use, have not been revealed.

Prompting the plan to list is the company’s recent growth. According to its latest earnings announcement, Sezzle added 400,000 customers and recruited 7,300 active merchants in the first quarter of this year. This boost brings the firm’s total users to 2.6 million and total merchants to 34,000. Not surprisingly, the surge in usage helped increase the company’s first quarter income, which was reported at $22.3 million.

Sezzle initially went public on the ASX in July of 2019, raising $30 million on its first day of trading. The company now has a market cap of over $777 million. This figure is almost 5x higher than it was at the start of 2020. Sezzle’s move to the U.S. public markets follows its competitor, Affirm, which debuted on the Nasdaq at the start of this year.

Sezzle’s BNPL technology allows customers to split their ecommerce purchases into four installments with only 25% down and no fees. The offering is currently available to shoppers in the U.S., Canada, and India, and will soon be offered to residents in Brazil.

In February, Sezzle teamed up with Discover to work with select merchants on Discover’s network to help them provide their customers with additional payment options. Last September, the company launched a virtual payments card that helps customers benefit from Sezzle’s BNPL tech when they make purchases at brick-and-mortar stores.

Sezzle was founded in 2016. Charlie Youakim is CEO. 

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

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Google Pay Steps Up Embedded Finance, Banking Tools

Google Pay Steps Up Embedded Finance, Banking Tools
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Google

After reviving Google Pay in November of last year, Google made an announcement today that is sure to turn some heads in the fintech space. The two most relevant elements in today’s news release are new shopping options and spending insights.

To offer new shopping options, Google has partnered with Safeway and Target to help users browse weekly deals on groceries at Safeway and Target locations from within the Google Pay app. The app will enable shoppers to save their favorite items to purchase at a later date. Soon, users will be able to turn on push notifications to see deals from 500 Safeway stores and nationwide Target stores when they are nearby (if they have location services enabled).

The additional embedded shopping tools bring added stickiness to the app. However, Google will need to offer shopping experiences at more than just two stores to truly capture users’ attention.

Google Pay’s new spending insights tool comes a bit closer to what consumers may expect to see at their traditional bank. Via the Insights tab, users can see their account balance, view upcoming bill reminders, analyze weekly spend summaries, and receive alerts when large transactions are made. Under the Insights umbrella, Google also made it easy for users to view transactions by merchant or by category.

While the new spending insights may prove to be useful to shoppers, without more robust budgeting, planning, and forecasting tools Google Pay is unlikely to win consumers over from their traditional bank.

In today’s release, Google also added two more cities in which travelers can pay for transit. Via an integration with Token Transit, users in the San Francisco Bay area and Chicago can purchase and use mobile transit tickets through the Google Pay app. The two new cities join the list of 80 cities and towns across the U.S. that already offer travelers transit purchasing capabilities via Google Pay.

Regardless of the shortcomings of today’s new features, both banks and fintechs should be wary of Google Pay’s next moves. The app’s embedded finance capabilities, including grocery shopping and added transit ticket purchasing, are a signal of what is to come. Similarly, if Google Pay continues to add more personal financial management tools, such as budgeting and retirement planning, consumers may want to spend more time within the Google Pay environment and less time in their traditional banks’ app.

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