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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Vehicle refinance startup MotoRefipulled in a $45 million Series B round of funding this week. The Virginia-based company received the funds from investors including Goldman Sachs, which led the round, along with IA Capital, Moderne Ventures, Accomplice, Link Ventures, Motley Fool Ventures and CMFG Ventures.
“In 2020, we proved we are the go-to platform for auto refinance. In 2021, we’re scaling that offering to make auto refinance accessible to everyone- helping more people save money on their car payments,” said MotoRefi CEO Kevin Bennett. “Goldman is the best in the business when it comes to financial services, and we’re thrilled to partner with Jade Mandell and the Goldman Sachs team on our next phase of growth.”
MotoRefi will use the investment to boost growth by investing in its platform and build out its team.
The funds come just months after the company raised a $10 million Series A round in January. MotoRefi’s funding now totals $60 million.
Today’s news also comes during a time of major growth for MotoRefi. The company, which works directly with lenders to help them facilitate refinances on auto loans, has seen an increase in demand during the low interest rate environment. From the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of this year, MotoRefi has seen:
7x revenue growth
5x loan volume growth
2.5x team growth
Founded in 2016, MotoRefi has been in the fintech headlines a handful of times this year, having recently announced senior hires, a new headquarters location, and a new partnership with SoFi.
This is a guest post by John Minor, SVP of Product and Support at PayNearMe.
Pay by check? Yes, that’s still a thing. In fact, nearly a quarter of consumers (22%) pay their monthly utility bill and 9% make monthly mortgage payments by mailing a check or money order to the biller, according to a recent bill payment study by PayNearMe.
Traditional, non-digital forms of bill payment can be expensive. The labor cost to have employees available to accept cash or check payments and then manually count, sort, reconcile, and deposit these payments throughout the day is reason enough for businesses to encourage customers to adopt digital bill payments.
However, eliminating these familiar payment types and transitioning customers to electronic payments can be challenging. Here are three strategies to try:
Put electronic bill pay options front and center
At every opportunity, put digital pay options in front of your customers — on billing statements, through customer service representatives, via emails, on your website, and through push notifications.
For example, savvy billers are now generating personalized QR codes for customers that can be printed on paper billing statements. Customers then can pay their bill by scanning the code and choosing their preferred method of payment without having to log into their account. It’s frictionless, fast, and encourages your customers to pay their bills electronically.
Offer mobile payments
Mobile payments are nearly ubiquitous. The majority of Americans (74%) use their phone to order and pay for food and merchandise at least once a week, and nearly 1 in 3 Americans (29%) would like to pay with their smartphones all the time.
This same consumer behavior translates to the way they expect to pay their bills. In fact, according to this bill payment study, Americans are likely to pay their bills using one of the following forms of mobile payment, if they have the option:
26% — likely to pay bills via text message on their mobile phone
32% — likely to pay bills by scanning a QR code on their bill and paying using their mobile phone
37% — likely to pay bills using their mobile wallet (Apple Pay / Google Pay)
The data is clear: your customers want to pay with their mobile devices. To accommodate them, look for a payment platform that enables your business to accept multiple forms of payment, including Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Enlist your customer service staff
Every time traditional bill payers pick up the phone to make a payment or drop by the office to pay in person, the customer service agent has an opportunity to promote digital bill payment options. The agent can ask questions like:
“Have you considered paying your loan through our electronic payment system? Let me tell you why it is such a convenient option!”
“Can I email or text you a link so you can enter your payment information directly?”
“Would you like me to assist you in signing up for autopay to make your monthly payment easier?”
These one-on-one conversations can help get customers over the initial learning curve and help those who are hesitant feel more confident in making the switch from traditional to digital payments.
The majority of consumers (69%) prefer digital payment channels to paying bills by mail, phone, or in-person. But, getting set up on electronic payments has to be easy. Your customers don’t want to deal with lengthy forms, frustrating sign up processes, or having to provide payment details every month. Instead, use techniques like embedding personalized payment links or QR codes in billing statements and reminder messages so your customers can simply click a link or scan a code to go directly to their payment screen.
Transitioning your customers to digital bill payment will save your company time and money while affording your customers greater freedom and flexibility. It’s worth the effort.
John Minor is SVP of Product and Support for PayNearMe, leading the product, merchant services and support teams. By combining industry research with client and partner feedback, he ensures that PayNearMe’s solutions continue to lead the market in terms of mobile readiness, ease of use, and advanced bill pay and collection techniques.
Providing services for Generation Z is increasingly on the minds of both banks and fintechs alike.
One such fintech, EarlyBird, is making it easy for a child’s community to invest in their future. We spoke with the company’s CEO Jordan Wexler on the current childhood investing environment and what it takes to compete.
Talk to us about the current state of financial literacy in the U.S.
Jordan Wexler: The numbers tell us that most American families aren’t doing a great job at teaching financial literacy. According to a recent survey, 19% of Americans reported that their household spent more than their income over the past year. Add in the fact that 43% of adults say they haven’t got a rainy day fund, and that means huge chunks of our society simply aren’t prepared to face financial hurdles. This shows that good financial habits and knowledge aren’t being effectively passed down either.
Research suggests there isn’t much time to sow the seeds of financial literacy into a kid’s headspace. Children generally have their financial habits set by the age of seven. That means to set kids up for financial independence, they have to be taught the basics of financial literacy sooner rather than later. Not only will you instill good habits early, but you’ll also be setting them up to make smart investment and financial choices throughout their lives.
Most wealthtech tools target high net worth individuals. What benefits are there to having a young client base that typically has no income?
Wexler: The benefit of helping the youth is that we’re trying to set them up for financial success in the future. We aren’t encouraging spending – we’re instilling good financial habits early on that will help kids flourish in their adult lives.
With EarlyBird, our vision is to have parents start investing in their children from day one. That way, in 18 years, they will have a solid financial foundation for their child to give them the freedom to pursue their aspirations – traveling the world, going to college, starting a business, whatever it may be.
EarlyBird was built for more than the children with their name on the custodial account. It’s for parents, family, and friends that want to give meaningful and purposeful gifts to the children in their lives to help support them financially. We’re making it accessible to all because it doesn’t matter which household income bracket a family falls under, investing just a little bit each month for your child can go a long way.
What elements do you use to cater EarlyBird to such a young audience?
Wexler: We’re catering EarlyBird to parents, their children, and also the community around them that wants to see them succeed. For parents, we’ve simplified the process to kickstart their child’s future by opening a custodial investment account. It doesn’t matter if the parent is a beginner, novice, or expert in investing in the stock market, we’re allowing families to gift meaningful and sustainable financial contributions for all life’s milestones.
For children, we’re creating a platform that allows them to learn about finances. They can better understand investing/saving, watch their money grow, and then one day have a bank account with accumulated funds to use as they please. Our hope is that from being a lifelong EarlyBird user, they’ll know how to manage those assets responsibly.
We’ve also created a great user experience for the ‘givers.’ They are able to record a video memory with their contribution and can use it as an opportunity to pass down stories and knowledge from the world of money. Video memories are placed into an archive on the EarlyBird app for the children to look back on and learn from forever.
EarlyBird was founded in 2019. How have you seen the childhood financial services space grow since then?
Wexler: Being in the weeds in the childhood financial services space, it’s apparent that there’s been massive growth and that it’s on an upward trajectory, especially with latest funding news from services like Greenlight, Current, Step, and Till Financial.
One thing we are noticing right now is that “kids” and “children” are being somewhat generalized into one category of fintech. The reality is – there are different offerings in the space that make sense for different ages and parental comfort levels. I feel that we’re at the point where parents need to start to consider their “ideal mix” when it comes to the fintech tools and apps they use to save for their children, teach them financial literacy, and also get them started with spending when it’s time.
For example, parents can get started with EarlyBird when their child is born and then later on incorporate an app with teen-focused debit card to begin digital banking. This is similar to the “old school” trajectory of starting off with a 529 account then adding a standard savings account and later a checking account.
It’s great to see so much growth, innovation, and potential happening in childhood financial services. We’re beyond excited to be a part of this movement and to set the next generation up for financial freedom!
Millennial investing app Acorns announced plans today to go public using a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
The SPAC, Pioneer Merger Corp, is a blank check company founded in 2020 that aims to acquire Acorns in a deal valuing the fintech at $2.2 billion. The transaction is expected to complete in the second half of this year. Once finalized, Acorns will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker OAKS.
Acorns’ new valuation of over $2 billion is more than double its last valuation. The company was estimated to be worth $860 million in January of 2019.
Prior to today’s announcement, Acorns was in the middle of another funding round, which would have added to the $207 million it had already raised since it was founded in 2014. Instead of closing another round of funding in the private markets, Acorns CEO Noah Kerner chose the SPAC route because he felt that Pioneer Merger Chairman John Christodoro was the right partner.
“Now was the time to go public to accelerate our growth and get the tools of responsible wealth-making in everyone’s hands as fast as possible, when they need it most,” Kerner told CNBC. “We just saw this as an accelerant on that journey.”
The timing is also right from a demand perspective. The pandemic, combined with media frenzy around meme stocks, fueled interest from new investors. Acorns clearly benefitted from this, having just completed its best quarter on record. The company doubled its number of subscribers compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 and now counts four million users.
Acorns has long been known for helping its millennial client base invest the “spare change” from their card purchases into index funds. The company has since expanded and now offers a debit card offering and more robust banking services such as mobile remote deposit check capture, direct deposit, check sending tools, and automated IRA investing for retirement.
Global payments platform Flywire began trading on the Nasdaq today under the ticker FLYW.
The Boston, Massachusetts-based company is offering 10,440,000 shares of its stock at $24 per share and expects to raise about $300 million with a market capitalization of $3 billion. These figures are at the top range of what Flywire originally expected; last week the company announced it planned to offer 8.7 million shares priced between $22 and $24 a share.
The Flywire team gathered at the exchange in person this morning for the IPO. The reunion was especially notable since this was the first time in 15 months that team members have seen each other in person due to COVID lockdowns.
Flywire originally launched as peerTransfer in 2009, when it focused on streamlining international payments to save schools and international students money on tuition and fees. The company rebranded to Flywire in 2011 and expanded from education to facilitate international payments in healthcare, travel, and select B2B payments. Flywire now counts 2,250 customers.
Differentiating itself from competitors, Flywire focuses on high stakes, high value transactions. That’s because once transactions exceed $10,000, the funds are subject to a different set of regulations and must be exchanged using a purpose-built network– that’s where Flywire comes in.
“We’re just getting started,” Flywire CEO Mike Massaro told CNBC in an interview. “We see this business as a cornerstone of how money moves within the industries that we serve. If you look at the four industries we’re in now it’s $12 trillion of opportunity. There’s so much room to grow here. We’ve got clients in 30 countries already… I see us going into more industries. I see us going into more countries, and really just try and digitize more payments for our clients.”
In addition to its Boston headquarters, the company has offices in Chicago, London, Manchester, Valencia, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Cluj, and Sydney. Prior to going public, Flywire had raised $323 million.
Global financial services company Revolutadded an invoice creation tool for its Revolut Business clients today. The added capability enables businesses to create, send, and reconcile invoices from within the Revolut app.
By using Revolut’s invoice tool, the fintech’s business banking clients are able to send their customers professional-looking invoices with customized branding. The tool also offers customers more payment options, including credit card, bank transfers, and Apple Pay. Once payment is made, the business receives the funds faster– directly into their Revolut Business account.
One of the biggest benefits of Revolut’s invoices is that it helps with heavy lifting on the administrative side of things. For example, businesses can use Revolut to monitor invoices and receive real-time tracking and notifications.
The new development comes on the heels of the company’s rollout of currency forward contracts in the U.K. that enables companies to set their fixed future FX rate online to help manage market risk. It also closely follows the launch of QR code payment capabilities for businesses. Both of these features make Revolut an increasingly robust option for companies seeking a banking option. As a result, the Revolut app is even more sticky for business users.
Banking technology startup Zeta dominated the fintech headlines yesterday. The company raised $250 million, which boosted its valuation up over $1.45 billion.
The funding round was led by Softbank with participation from Sodexo. This is Zeta’s third investment round since it was founded in 2015. Notably, the cash brings the company into unicorn status.
So what is it about Zeta that has struck a chord in the fintech industry? The company offers a full-stack, cloud-native, API-ready core banking and transaction processing platform. The tools enable legacy banks to issue credit, debit, and prepaid offerings and provide modern fintech products to both retail and commercial clients.
In addition to its credit, debit, and prepaid card processing capabilities, Zeta’s products include:
Zeta Tachyon Loans – a BNPL and personal loan management platform
Zeta Tachyon Deposits – a modern core for DDA, checking accounts, savings accounts, and deposits
Zeta Tachyon Mobile – a ready-made, customizable mobile app for credit cards, checking accounts, prepaid, loans, BNPL, personal finance management, and more
Zeta’s tools help traditional banks compete with the onslaught of digital banks that are bringing consumers fresh new products and services to today’s digital-first customers. Those tools also help fintechs stay competitive in a world of super-apps by focusing on their core competencies.
“Most banks are using decades old software built at a time when Mainframes and Cobol were in vogue. As a result they have been slow to innovate and provide poor user experiences,” said Zeta CEO Bhavin Turakhia. “With Zeta, FIs can leverage a modern, cloud native platform and improve speed to market, agility, cost to income ratio and user experience.”
Turakhia showcased Zeta’s capabilities at FinovateWest 2020 last fall in his Best of Show-winning demo.
Zeta counts 10 banks and 25 fintechs across eight countries among its customers. The company plans to use the new funding to boost its growth in the U.S. and Europe by scaling its operations, team, and platform.
Online payments technology provider Zip has agreed to fully acquire remaining shares of BNPL players Twisto and Spotii. The acquisitions are expected to close for $109 million and $16.3 million, respectively.
By purchasing Czech Republic-based Twisto and United Arab Emirates-based Spotii, Australia-based Zip will grow its global presence. Specifically, the deal enables Zip to extend its BNPL services into the Czech Republic and United Arab Emirates.
This follows Zip’s recent expansion into the U.S. and the U.K. that was made possible after it acquired QuadPay in September of last year for $269 million.
Founded in 2013, Twisto is more than just a BNPL technology provider. The company offers its accountholders one-click payment convenience for online purchases, a unique billpay experience by enabling users to pay by taking a photo of the paper bill, and a touchless in-person payments experience with a special payment bracelet. Additionally, Twisto provides a payment card that charges no interest until the following month and an app that makes it easy for users to track their monthly expenses.
“With Twisto’s existing operations in Central Europe, we are uniquely positioned to tackle the $1.1 trillion European eCommerce market,” said Twisto Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michal Smida. “Being part of Zip’s global platform will allow us to accelerate growth, expand to new markets, win global merchants operating in Europe, leverage global partnerships already in place and broaden our product offering. We share the same ethos – striving relentlessly to deliver the best omnichannel payments experience to both customers and merchants.”
Spotii is relatively new to the BNPL game, having been founded last year by Anuscha Iqbal and Ziyaad Ahmed. Despite this short tenure, the company has already seen impressive traction. Not only has Spotii integrated 650 merchants into its platform, it has also grown its total transaction volume at an average of 90%+ month-on-month since it was founded.
The Twisto and Spotii acquisitions are expected to be finalized in the fourth and third quarters of this year, respectively.
Two fintech megaliths, financial data and infrastructure platform Plaid and merchant services company Square formed a partnership this week that will offer merchants a smoother experience when it comes to ACH payments.
Through the deal, U.S. merchants can process ACH payments without storing clients’ bank account information. Square is leveraging a tokenized check system that uses Plaid to help customers connect their bank accounts. Plaid enables customers to enter their bank login credentials to connect their account and enable the payment.
This system works especially well for businesses that take payments for high-value orders. That’s because it increases the certainty that they payment will go through. Making acceptance even easier, Square offers fee-free refunds on ACH payments processed.
“Payment flexibility, security, and transparency are core to Square’s Payment Platform,” said the Head of Square’s Payment Platform Dennis Jarosch. “By offering ACH payments, we can help businesses process large transactions online at a low cost without worrying about bank authentication, compliance, or any managed payment complexities. We’re excited to offer ACH as one of many ways that businesses get paid fast and securely with Square.”
For Plaid, this news comes shortly after the company closed a $425 million round of funding. Plaid was founded in 2012 to build APIs to connect consumers, financial institutions, and developers. Today, the company also offers a suite of analytics products that provides further insights into transactions.
Privacy.com has a new name and new funding this week. The card issuing platform has rebranded to Lithic and raised $43 million in Series B funding. This brings the company’s total funding to $61 million. The investment was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and saw participation from Index Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Rainfall Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, and Walkabout Ventures.
The company initially launched as Privacy.com, a consumer-facing platform that offers tools to help shoppers generate virtual “burner cards,” which are single-use, disposable card numbers that shoppers could use to shield their actual card number. Going forward, Lithic will maintain this consumer-facing product under the Privacy.com brand.
Last fall, Lithic unveiled its card issuing API for developers. In the past four months, the company has seen impressive growth, with enterprise issuing volumes ballooning by 3x. Lithic will use today’s funding to fuel that growth even further.
The developer-facing tools help them create payment cards for their customers, optimize back-office operations, and simplify disbursements. These capabilities help developers issue a card instantly, reduce administrative burden, and earn a percentage of the interchange revenue.
“We built all these foundational card processing tools for ourselves to power Privacy.com,” said Lithic CEO and Co-founder Bo Jiang. “Then we found that other companies, especially developers, needed the same types of tools. The more we thought about it, the more it made sense to give these tools their own name—Lithic. Its own business, with its own separate customers and its own mission.”
Founded in 2014 by Bo Jiang, Jason Kruse, and David Nicholsand, Lithic is headquartered in New York City.
With vaccination programs in full swing in many nations across the globe, the spread of COVID is finally beginning to slow. What is not slowing, however, is the change that the pandemic has brought to consumers’ finances, including how they spend their money.
With that in mind, here are five aspects of payments that will change in 2021, as consumers solidify the habits they picked up last year.
QR codes
As we’ve mentioned on the blog in the past, QR codes have been making a comeback as a mobile payments tool. That’s because QR codes are both versatile and universal– they can be printed out on physical paper and can be scanned by a range of devices across operating systems.
These attributes make QR codes the perfect tool to facilitate P2P payments and to implement low-touch checkout solutions at in-store points of sale. Earlier this year, PayPal partnered with InComm to launch its QR code technology at pharmacy chain CVS. Just last month, Fiservteamed up with PayPal to enable businesses to use QR codes to offer touch-free payments at the point of sale on Clover devices. And yesterday SafetyPay began enabling users to use QR codes for real time payments in Brazil.
These use cases, combined with the increased demand for low- and no-touch payment options, are fueling the rise of the QR code.
Digital
The case for digital is a no-brainer these days, as consumers have shifted their habits to conduct not only their shopping but also many other aspects of their daily lives online. When brick-and-mortar shops were closed, consumers were left with online shopping (and therefore payment) options.
It is clear that, even as the pandemic winds down, consumers are maintaining these digital-first habits. In fact, shoppers of all ages and demographics are more comfortable paying online than before.
Embedded
With the increase in digital comes the increase in embedded payments and embedded finance. Retailers and service providers have figured out that the more seamless they make the payments experience, the less friction will interfere with the customer experience and the more the customer will return.
By saving users’ payments credentials, ridesharing services, food delivery companies, and even online grocers increase the chance of a return purchase. It also provides the retailer with more data and offers enhanced data surrounding consumer habits.
Visibility
When it comes to security, with more data comes more responsibility. On the flip side, the extra data also brings additional visibility into consumer habits. From bank’s and merchant’s perspectives, this visibility can help them personalize products, services, and even the client experience.
Visibility into consumer spend data also helps banks and merchants anticipate customers’ needs and may enable them to more efficiently market up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.
On the consumer side of things the increased data can help them plan, budget, and manage their spending when the right tools are provided. Even technology as simple as purchase notifications can not only increase shoppers’ awareness of where their money is going, but also can help them prevent fraud.
Collaboration
It is becoming increasingly clear that in the banking and fintech space, no player is an island. By collaborating with other players, both banks and fintechs can maximize their competitive advantages by sticking with their core competencies.
So far this year, we’ve seen multiple successful bank-fintech partnerships, including this week’s mash-up between Ally Financial and buy-now, pay-later player Sezzle. Other headline-worthy mash-ups, such as Apple’s partnership with Goldman Sachs, highlight the benefits of leveraging others’ strengths, even when they appear to be a competitor on the outset.
Ally Financial’s Ally Lending announced this week it is now offering financing on buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) platform Sezzle. The new collaboration enables select shoppers to pay for purchases over time using Ally’s installment loans or Sezzle’s BNPL installment offerings.
If a purchase is eligible for an installment loan from Ally, the shopper will see the message “financed by Ally” at checkout. Loans will be available for purchases of up to $40,000 with terms ranging from three to 60 months. This broadens the availability of financing typically available on Sezzle, which currently limits shoppers to four installments paid over the course of six weeks on purchases up to $2,500.
“We’re on a mission to financially empower the next generation,” said Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim. “With Ally Lending’s personalized, flexible financing solutions now available on our platform, we’re able to offer even more options for consumers to budget their purchases and responsibly pay for what they want and need.”
Today’s news comes during a time when both online shopping and BNPL are on the rise. Over the past year, BNPL increased 17% in Gen Z populations and 21% for millennials.
Sezzle initially went public on the ASX in July of 2019, and now has a market cap of over $777 million, a figure that is almost 5x higher than it was at the start of 2020. The company announced earlier this month it will IPO in the U.S. later this year.
