1Kosmos Raises $57 Million in Series B Funding for Identity-First Security

1Kosmos Raises $57 Million in Series B Funding for Identity-First Security
  • 1Kosmos has secured $57 million in Series B funding for its passwordless identity verification technology.
  • The company will use the investment, which includes a $10 million line of credit from Bridge Bank, to fuel product innovation, expand integrations with IAM, CIAM, PAM, and zero trust platforms, and accelerate global growth.
  • Today’s momentum comes amid recent achievements for the company, including FedRAMP High and Kantara certification, a $194.5 million Login.gov contract, and a Microsoft Entra ID integration.

Passwordless identity verification company 1Kosmos raised $57 million this week in a Series B round. The investment, which boosts the company’s total funding to $72 million, consists of a $10 million line of credit from Bridge Bank, as well as contributions from Forgepoint Capital and Origami’s Oquirrh Ventures, which led the round, and Craig Abod, NextEra Energy Ventures, Gula Tech Adventures, and the 1Kosmos management team.

“Identity has become the first step in the kill chain. This investment allows us to strengthen the proactive controls organizations need to prevent impersonation-based attacks—whether it’s a sophisticated hacking group or a state-sponsored developer hiding in plain sight,” said 1Kosmos CEO Hemen Vimadalal, noting the rise in impersonation-based attacks from sophisticated hacking groups and state-sponsored actors. “1Kosmos identity verification is the only practical solution that can be quickly deployed in a matter of hours to effectively combat this threat.”

1Kosmos will use the funds to advance product innovation; deepen technology integrations with identity and access management (IAM), customer identity and access management (CIAM), privileged access management (PAM), and zero trust platforms; and accelerate global expansion across North America, EMEA, and APAC.

Founded in 2018, 1Kosmos uses live biometrics to facilitate passwordless access for workers, customers, and citizens to digital services. The company’s BlockID platform creates a distributed digital identity that prevents identity impersonation, account takeover, and fraud while reducing friction. 1Kosmos’ technology performs millions of authentications each day for some of the largest banks, telecommunications, and healthcare organizations across the globe.

“The mission at 1Kosmos since its inception has stayed remarkably focused on providing individuals with a secure digital identity, one they control and use to prevent identity fraud when accessing digital services,” said Forgepoint Capital Managing Director Ernie Bio. “As the largest investor in the company, we are proud of their track record of innovation and delighted to see their accelerating growth.”

1Kosmos’ announcement comes amid a string of successes. Recent wins for the New Jersey-based company include:

  • Integrating its BlockID platform with Microsoft Entra ID for streamlined identity and access management.
  • Becoming the only full-service Kantara-certified credential service provider with FedRAMP High authorization, making it eligible for the US government’s most security-sensitive workloads.
  • Winning a 10-year, $194.5 million blanket purchase agreement, in partnership with Carahsoft, to supply identity proofing for Login.gov.

As organizations seek to eliminate passwords and reduce identity fraud, while improving the customer experience, 1Kosmos’ biometrics-driven approach positions it to capture the identity verification market. With fresh funding and new federal certifications, the Best of Show-winning company is aiming to scale quickly across North America, EMEA, and APAC.


Photo by George Becker

Hoosier Hills Credit Union Teams Up with Teslar Software

Hoosier Hills Credit Union Teams Up with Teslar Software
  • Teslar Software announced a new partnership with Indiana-based Hoosier Hills Credit Union this week.
  • The partnership will enable Hoosier Hills CU to “refine its lending operations from the ground up,” the community financial institution said in a statement.
  • Headquartered in Arkansas, Teslar Software made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.

Indiana-based Hoosier Hills Credit Union has teamed up with Teslar Software in an effort to “refine their lending operations from the ground up.” In a statement, the financial institution, which serves 40 counties in southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, identified both streamlining internal processes and enhancing data visibility as key priorities.

“We recognized that many of our back-office processes involve too many touchpoints and too much manual effort,” Hoosier Hills CU SVP of Lending Operations Ashley Wilkerson said. “Right now, many of these functions are decentralized and rely heavily on email. One of our goals with Teslar is to automate and centralize these functions to improve efficiency and enhance the experience for both our members and our team.”

Teslar offers a Lending Process Automation Platform that automates labor-intensive tasks and builds efficient workflows that are configured specifically for the individual institution. These include workflows for processes such as loan origination, deposit operations, advanced portfolio and credit risk management, as well as operational workflows, including exceptions and tickler tracking. The platform aggregates and unifies data in a single system and provides tools and visibility that ensure consistent, rapid processing, and foster collaboration.

“I was initially expecting Teslar’s main benefit to be data and reporting, but once I saw the workflow capabilities, it was eye-opening. Teslar is really an efficiency tool more than anything,” Hoosier Hills CU Chief Operations Officer Charlie King said. “We do so many things well as a credit union—by leveraging Teslar’s innovative tools we can complement our strengths, increase our efficiency, and deliver even more value to our members.”

Founded in 1969 as the Bedford Independent Federal Credit Union, the institution was launched by workers at the GM Foundry in Bedford, Indiana. Today, as Hoosier Hills Credit Union, the credit union has more than $895 million in assets, and nearly 40,000 members.

Springdale, Arkansas-based Teslar Software made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its technology enables community banks and credit unions to offer indirect lending via simplification, digitization, and automation. Indirect lending enables community financial institutions to grow their customer and member base by teaming up with local businesses to offer financing to consumers for purchases such as outdoor equipment, furniture, and more.

Teslar Software was founded in 2008. The fintech’s partnership news with Hoosier Hills CU comes less than a month after the company reported that Altamaha Bank and Trust had selected it to help streamline lending operations, enhance exception tracking, and provide both employees and customers with a more unified experience. Altamaha Bank and Trust serves communities in Southeast Georgia and was founded in 1946.

“For us, Teslar checked all the right boxes,” Altamaha Bank and Trust Chief Technology Officer Shan Venable said. “We looked at a lot of fintechs, but the features Teslar offers and their long-term experience integrating with both our core and imaging systems fit exactly what we needed. We didn’t want a platform that requires large resource commitments or dedicated staff to manage. We wanted something intuitive and easy for our employees to use.”


Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

AI Squared Unveils Sparx, Unifying Sales, Finance and Operations Data

AI Squared Unveils Sparx, Unifying Sales, Finance and Operations Data

The rapid adoption of AI in financial services has its challenges. Among them is the lack of AI-ready data, which can be a major problem when it comes to effectively deploying AI. Running AI-powered systems on flawed data can have consequences ranging from mere missed opportunities to operational failures that lead to both reduced customer trust and reputational damage for the company. According to a survey by research firm Gartner, 60% of AI projects through 2026 are expected to fail due to a lack of AI-ready data.

To this end, AI integration solutions provider AI Squared has launched Sparx, a Data-Science-In-a-Box offering that enables small businesses, mid-market companies, and non-profits to access production-ready AI. Sparx integrates AI into existing business workflows, yet requires no coding, infrastructure changes, or participation by data scientists. Sparx unifies sales, finance, and operations data into a real-time, AI-powered view, and deploys in less than an hour.

“Until now, building AI-powered insights meant investing in complex systems and tools, and hiring specialists,” AI Squared CEO and President Darren Kimura said. “With Sparx, we have removed that complexity. Businesses can start seeing value in hours, not months. Sparx empowers customers to integrate AI quickly and affordably, accelerating decision-making and enhancing operational efficiency so they can move faster and uncover new opportunities.”

Sparx connects to existing systems and automatically syncs and cleans the data. The solution has an intuitive interface that enables users to communicate with their data in conversational English and to receive actionable insights instantly—without requiring the involvement of IT experts or data scientists. Sparx offers real-time visibility into operations and provides contextual data to help teams identify trends and boost efficiency.

Having established itself as a solution provider for large institutions in financial services, insurance, and SaaS—to say nothing of the company’s founding contracts with the US Department of Defense—AI Squared’s decision to develop and launch Sparx is an effort to bring AI to smaller businesses and non-profits. Where typical AI platforms—including AI Squared’s own Unified Platform—are often much more than these firms need, Sparx is tailor-made for smaller organizations. The solution is easy to set up and customize while still providing robust data integration and real-time AI insights.

“Like most small and medium-sized enterprises, we faced high costs, complexity, and a long development cycle to address our needs to deploy production-ready AI for our mountain of data,” said Steve Braaten, Chief Architect at Khasm Labs, a partner of AI Squared. “Sparx is solving this for us, giving our team fast and actionable insights without the heavy lift.”

Founded in 2019 by Dr. Benjamin Harvey, AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 and returned later that year for FinovateFall 2023. Darren Kimura succeeded Harvey as CEO earlier this year, having joined the company in 2024 as President and Chief Operating Officer. He has been credited with helping shape the company’s operational growth and strategic direction. With more than 25 years of experience in scaling technology companies, Kimura praised Harvey, who will transition to a new role focused on positioning AI Squared as a thought leader, and bolstering customer engagement.

“Ben’s vision and leadership have positioned AI Squared as a market leader, and I am honored to build upon that strong foundation,” Kimura said. “We have an exceptional team, and I look forward to driving forward our mission of making AI more accessible and impactful for organizations worldwide.”


Photo by Magda Ehlers

FinovateFall 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 8 – 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.

ebankIT

ebankIT’s Agentic AI empowers FIs to boost engagement, streamline operations, and deliver hyper-personalized banking across every digital channel.

Features

  • Agentic AI: Powers smarter decisions and automation
  • Personalized journeys: Engages users across channels
  • Efficiency and scale: Unlocks agility and fuels growth

Who’s it for?

Community banks and credit unions.

Jump

Jump’s AI meeting assistant streamlines client meetings, automates administrative tasks, reduces workloads, and strengthens relationships—positioning Jump as a leading AI solution for financial advisors.

Features

  • Offers a live notetaking widget
  • Connects to Zoom as an in-client app
  • Provides a PDF export of notes and pre-meeting prep

Who’s it for?

RIAs, broker-dealers, independent advisors, and wealth management firms.

OPL

OPL, India’s AI-driven credit infra company, offers cashflow-based credit and transaction financing through its integrated framework, analyzing sales, purchases, and bank data via an AI-powered BRE.

Features

  • Administers robust credit evaluation through AI-powered BRE
  • Includes open banking integration via OPL’s APIs
  • Provides auto-decisioning through OPL’s STP process
  • Delivers pre-approved working capital offers
  • Offers instant funding through digital line of credit

Who’s it for?

Tailored for BFSI and financial institutions to accelerate SME lending and cashflow-based financing.

Zeplyn

Zeplyn streamlines advisor workflows, cutting down tasks from hours to minutes with unmatched accuracy, while surfacing trends and insights that empower firms to optimize practice management.

Features

  • Automates workflows with unmatched accuracy (ex. meeting notes, tasks, and CRM updates)
  • Surfaces client trends and actionable insights
  • Saves advisors 10+ hours weekly for enhanced client focus

Who’s it for?

Financial advisory firms and wealth teams, from solo shops to enterprises with more than $25B AUM.

Stripe Taps EBANX to Facilitate Pix Payments in Brazil

Stripe Taps EBANX to Facilitate Pix Payments in Brazil
  • Stripe is expanding in Brazil with Pix integration via EBANX.
  • The move will enable Stripe’s business customers, as well as merchants using ecommerce platforms tied to Stripe, to accept the central bank’s instant payment system at checkout.
  • The partnership targets financial inclusion and growth, giving global merchants access to 60 million Brazilians without credit cards while allowing settlements in domestic currency.

Stripe is continuing its busy season this week. The California-based fintech has deepened its partnership with payment gateway company EBANX to expand the coverage of Brazilian payment methods.

The two unveiled this week that Stripe’s business customers can now offer Pix as a payment method. Pix is Brazil’s central bank–operated instant payment system that the country launched in November 2020 to modernize its retail payments. It enables real-time money transfers in Brazilian reais. The transactions are settled in seconds, available 24/7 (including weekends and holidays), and are designed for person-to-person, person-to-business, and even government transactions. Users send funds using simple Pix keys, such as a phone number, email address, or a QR code.

Brazil-based EBANX was founded in 2012 to help expand international ecommerce. The company combines its technology with market expertise and infrastructure to enable companies across the globe to offer hundreds of local payment methods and streamline cross-border payments.

Today’s collaboration will enable businesses that are directly integrated with Stripe and those with ecommerce management platforms that use Stripe to offer Pix at checkout. Adding the new payment method will expand merchants’ prospective clients in Brazil while making settlements available in their domestic currency.

“Our partnership with EBANX is important for increasing Stripe users’ reach in Brazil, Latin America’s largest market,” said Stripe global head for Expansion, Strategics, and Incubation Partnerships Krishnan Rajagopalan. “For global commerce today, enabling how customers pay is often just as important as what’s being sold. Customers prefer payment methods they know and trust, which directly impacts the bottom line. Our research found businesses on Stripe that offered at least one additional relevant payment method beyond cards grew revenue by 12% and improved conversion by 7% on average.”

EBANX estimates—based on data from the Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI), the World Bank, and the Central Bank of Brazil—that offering a local payment option in cross-border transactions will enable global ecommerce companies to reach twice as many consumers in Brazil compared to relying solely on international acquirers. Over a six-month period, the data showed that merchants offering Pix experienced a 16% increase in revenue and a 25% growth in consumers.

“Working with Stripe to offer Pix is a no-brainer,” said EBANX CEO and Co-Founder João Del Valle. “There are 60 million people in Brazil who lack a credit card. Meanwhile, 93% of Brazilian adults use Pix and, by the end of this year, its usage is projected to surpass credit cards in online purchases, according to PCMI in EBANX’s study Beyond Borders 2025. Working together with Stripe ultimately empowers Brazilian consumers and businesses to participate more fully in the global economy.”

Stripe, which processed more than $1.4 trillion in total payment volume in 2024, has made two notable acquisitions recently, scooping up real-time payments platform Orum last month, user data API company Privy in June, and stablecoin platform Bridge in February.


Photo by Caio

Telesign Teams Up with PCI Pal to Help Contact Centers Fight Fraud

Telesign Teams Up with PCI Pal to Help Contact Centers Fight Fraud
  • Identity verification provider Telesign, a Proximus Global company, has teamed up with SaaS-based secure payments provider PCI Pal.
  • The two companies will offer a Fraud Management Suite that uses Telesign Intelligence to provide fraud teams and AI bots with real-time risk intelligence before potentially fraudulent transactions occur.
  • Headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, Telesign made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023.

A new partnership between identity verification innovator Telesign, a Proximus Global company, and SaaS-based secure payments provider PCI Pal will create a Fraud Management Suite to help international businesses leverage AI to identify fraudulent payments before they occur.

The new solution is designed to be especially effective against Card-Not-Present (CNP) attacks that are easy for fraudsters to use and difficult for fraud prevention teams to stop before they make their impact. Because fraudsters only need the expiration date and three-digit CVV number in order to assume another person’s identity over the phone and make fraudulent transactions, this type of fraud can be especially difficult for contact center workers to detect.

The new offering from Telesign and PCI Pal provides agents and AI bots with real-time risk insights before the transaction begins. This reduces chargebacks and revenue loss, but does not add friction to the customer experience. The solution leverages Telesign Intelligence, an AI-powered tool that identifies fraudulent activity by scoring the level of transaction risk associated with the phone number being used for the transaction. This score can be used to determine whether or not the transaction should be allowed to go through, blocked, or flagged for further review and additional verification.

“AI is transforming how we approach security—not just in detecting fraud, but in anticipating it,” PCI Pal CTO Mufti Monim said. “This launch lays the groundwork for a more intelligent and adaptive platform, that secures payments across all channels while enhancing both customer and agent experiences. It’s the first step in a broader roadmap to unify fraud prevention, compliance, and customer experience into one seamless, scalable platform.”

The partnership comes as Juniper Research reports that the cost of payment fraud to consumers and businesses is expected to grow from $44 billion in 2024 to $109 billion in 2029. Further, Juniper Research notes that 79% of companies reported being victims of payment fraud attacks in 2024.

“Payment card fraud is a significant challenge for contact centers, and this partnership addresses that issue by making voice-based interactions with enterprise more trusted, seamless and secure,” Proximus Global Business Lead Rajdip Gupta said. “Our work with PCI Pal aligns with our ongoing commitment to protect enterprises from evolving threats, without disrupting the customer experience.”

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, Telesign made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, the company introduced a new tool that depicts risks inherent in the onboarding process and showed how firms can mitigate the risk via intelligent phone number analysis and insight.


Photo by Jed Azzam

The Latest Trends at FinovateFall 2025 May Not Be the Ones You Think

The Latest Trends at FinovateFall 2025 May Not Be the Ones You Think

We’ll have 60+ demos on stage at this year’s FinovateFall conference, taking place September 8 through 10 at the Marriott Marquis in New York. As always, the lineup blends first-time startups with established players, with all demos running on a single track. That concentrated view makes it easy to spot the patterns shaping bank roadmaps for the next 12 to 18 months.

To get a pulse on what trends lie ahead, we distilled common threads across this year’s demo companies. Below are the big themes to watch.

Agentic AI moves from pilots to production

If 2024 was about AI leveraging LLMs, 2025 is about agents that actually do the work. At FinovateFall 2025, we can expect live demos of AI agents that triage alerts, auto-draft responses, and fetch context across systems, with guardrails for compliance and trust. Look for Lyzr AI’s autonomous agents, WNSTN’s human-in-the-loop agents, Castellum.AI’s agents that clear L1 AML alerts, LemonadeLXP’s InsightAI for training and knowledge at scale, and Clarista’s productivity push.

Identity, authentication, and scam defense sharpen

Identity verification and step-up authentication continue to improve, especially now that they are paired with real-time scam and dispute tooling. Watch for ID-Pal, which combines identity verification and AML; Keyless, which offers passwordless biometrics replacing legacy OTP MFA; and LexisNexis Risk Solutions that will be showcasing IDVerse. AirKey leverages card rails to secure high-value transactions, while Charm Security and Quavo spotlight dynamic risk profiling and faster, more transparent dispute resolution.

Personalization and customer experience now come with measurable ROI

Technology to improve the customer experience is getting more predictive and robust. Vertice AI translates data into next-best-product recommendations, Mall IQ uses location intent for hyper-personalized engagement, WaveCX brings AI-powered support and documentation flows, and CollaborationRoom.ai re-creates the contact center virtually. Expect demos to quantify the increase in acquisition and retention.

Product launch without rip-and-replace

Banks want speed without having to completely take out their core. FintechOS will show how to create products and modernize experiences without swapping their core, ebankIT focuses on omni-channel orchestration, Chimney aligns data and automation to loan growth and digital engagement, and Appli adds AI-driven approvals and payment estimates.

Small business lending, portfolio growth, and risk ops

Small business lending remains a battleground in today’s post-COVID environment. Kaaj AI helps institutions deeply understand small-business needs and grow portfolios; Abacus unlocks the power of enterprise search to offer lenders valuable time savings and loan asset growth; and Conductiv uses data combined with AI to detect fraud, predict charge-offs, and safely increase approvals without lowering standards.

From wellness to wealth: deposits, planning, and advice

The wealthtech industry has accelerated from PFM technologies into engagement engines that grow not only balances, but also trust. Eko helps banks bring digital investing to everyone, BankingON’s Boucoup funnels parents and teens into new accounts, Gentreo meets families where they are with estate planning, and Zeplyn streamlines advisor workflows to help reduce manual tasks and surface growth opportunities.

What’s missing?

Two once-hot categories feel comparatively quieter on the demo stage this year:

  • Standalone AI as a theme
    Companies are no longer touting AI as a feature. This is not because the technology is absent, but because it’s everywhere. It’s baked into identity, customer experience, lending, operations, and training. This year, it is assumed that most solutions out there use AI. Companies now need to differentiate themselves by how outcomes are measured.
  • Consumer BNPL
    While BNPL is still growing, it is no longer cutting edge. These point-of-sale installments aren’t front-and-center like they were a few years ago.

FinovateFall isn’t just demos, but the demos offer a good preview of the storylines you’ll hear on stage: cybersecurity and financial crime, data-driven personalization, agentic AI in production, faster product launch without core swaps, and practical growth plays in deposits and SMB. We’ll see you in New York!


Photo by Alexandr Borecky

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Over the weekend we learned that fintech investment in the UK reached $7.2 billion in the first half of 2025. That figure is down slightly from last year’s total of $7.6 billion, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech report. Meanwhile, here in the US, President Trump has signed an executive order enabling investors to buy alternative assets, including cryptocurrencies, for their 401(k) retirement savings plans.

Be sure to check back for more fintech news headlines all week long here at Finovate’s Fintech Rundown!


Digital banking

New Zealand-based Co-operative Bank partners with 10x Banking for core replacement.

Lending

Finastra inks collaboration with NTT Data, extending its Lending Cloud Service.

Payments

Payments processor Silverflow teams up with fintech provider payabl. to upgrade its payments infrastructure.

TransferMate secures in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to add payment services.

Global payroll and financial platform Ontop partners with Thunes to offer real-time wage access.

Payments company Nayax embeds its payment technology into 100,000 Autel Energy EV chargers in North America and Europe.

Crypto and Defi

Digital asset platform Zodia Markets raises more than $18 million in Series A funding.

E-commerce

Klarna unveils new enablement via the Stripe for WooCommerce integration.

Financial wellness

Jack Henry and Array team up to launch new Banno Digital Banking Platform capability, MyFinancialHealth.

Fraud prevention

Sidney Federal Credit Union deploys Illuma’s IllumaSHIELD voice authentication and caller fraud prevention solution.


Photo by Alexandre Chambon on Unsplash

Finovate Global Pakistan: Profits in E-Commerce, Investment in Logistics, and Partnerships in Cybersecurity

Finovate Global Pakistan: Profits in E-Commerce, Investment in Logistics, and Partnerships in Cybersecurity

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features news on recent fintech developments in Pakistan.


Fintech Deal Draws Bazaar Technologies Closer to Profitability

A report in Bloomberg indicates that Pakistan’s most well-funded startup, Bazaar Technologies, is closing in on profitability. The company, which was founded in 2020, offers a B2B e-commerce platform that connects small retailers with suppliers. This digitization of traditional supply chains has been credited with empowering thousands of smaller merchants, known as “kiryana” shops, to participate in the digital economy.

It is the company’s recent acquisition of digital payments platform Keenu that has observers believing that Bazaar could achieve profitability in the coming quarters. Keenu offers payment services, including point-of-sale (POS) solutions, an online payment gateway, and a mobile wallet app, via a merchant acquiring network that spans more than 150 cities throughout Pakistan. A licensed Electronic Money Institution (EMI), Keenu processes more than $1 billion in annual payments.

The acquisition marked the first time a major Pakistan-based e-commerce company integrated payments into its operations, and has been seen as part of the State Bank of Pakistan’s National Payment Strategy to advance digital transformation and financial inclusion in the country.

“This is more than an acquisition—it’s a strategic alignment that redefines what it means to serve households and businesses in Pakistan,” Bazaar Technologies Co-Founder Saad Jangda said.

Bazaar has raised more than $100 million in funding from investors including Dragoneer Investment Group, Tiger Global, and Indus Valley Capital. The company is headquartered in Karachi.


Logistics Fintech Trukkr Secures Funding from UAE’s Yango Group

Via its investment arm, Yango Ventures, UAE-based technology company Yango Group announced an investment in Trukkr, a fintech platform in Pakistan that provides financial services to companies in the trucking business. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but the funding does represent the first Pakistan-based investment for Yango Ventures. The investment will also provide Trukkr with Yango Group’s product expertise and insights from its operations in more than 30 markets around the world.

“We are excited to partner with Yango Group, in addition to their strategic equity investment, we find that their experience in building state-of-the-art logistics tech and deploying it in over 30 countries will allow us to strengthen our offerings in Pakistan and beyond,” Trukkr CEO Sheryar Bawany said.

Founded in 2019 by Hisham Adamjee, Mishal Adamjee, Kasra Zunnaiyyer, and Ali Haji, Trukkr is digitizing and modernizing Pakistan’s logistics market—a market alued at more than $35 billion. The company’s integrated SaaS platform and embedded finance solutions help trucking companies better conduct fleet management, trip coordination, invoicing, and lending operations. Recently securing a Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) license from the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), Trukkr also provides working capital and fleet financing solutions, as well as a robust loan management suite.

“Pakistan’s logistics sector is full of potential, and Trukkr is helping move it forward—by giving operators the financial tools they need to scale and succeed in a competitive market,” Yango Group CEO Daniil Shuleyko said. “We’re here to support that transformation with our experience and technology. This is the kind of local innovation we want to help grow, and it’s just the start of our work in Pakistan.”


Pakistan Bolsters Cybersecurity in Fintech as NIBAF Teams Up with Risk Associates

In a bid to enhance cybersecurity for the financial sector, the National Institute of Banking and Finance-Pakistan (NIBAF Pakistan) partnered with Risk Associates to deliver training on the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The training featured cybersecurity professionals and representatives from leading Pakistan-based banks and financial institutions, and was led by Risk Associates, an internationally recognized certification body and PCI Qualified Security Assessor (QSA).

The training included discussion on payment security architecture, cardholder data protection, and compliance lifecycle management. The partnership between NIBAF Pakistan and Risk Associates was made official via a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in June.

“Together with NIBAF Pakistan, we are delivering forward-looking training that empowers banking professionals to anticipate, adapt, and respond to dynamic threats with operational precision and confidence,” Risk Associates CEO Aftab Rizvi said in a statement. NIBAF Pakistan Co-CEO Lubna Farooq Malik noted that insofar as the financial industry is at the “forefront of profound digital transformation,” it must also lead the way in developing solutions that keep the financial industry and its customers safe.

Headquartered in Bella Vista, NSW, Australia and founded in 2004, Risk Associates assess and certifies businesses in order to establish their commitment to maintaining high security standards and complying with regulatory requirements. The company offers a variety of robust preventive, detective, and corrective cybersecurity solutions, and is a specialist in cybersecurity, risk, compliance, information governance, strategy, and training.


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Latvian fintech Handwave secured $4.2 million in seed funding for its palm-based payment and identity platform.
  • Deutsche WertpapierService Bank (dwpbank) agreed to acquire Berlin-based brokerage-as-a-service platform lemon.markets.
  • Dutch paytech Mollie launched in Hungary, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Alaan, an AI-powered corporate spend management platform based in the UAE, secured $48 million in Series A funding.
  • Israel-based startup QuamCore raised $26 million to build one million qubit quantum computer.
  • Open banking and embedded finance platform Tarabut secured in-principle approval from the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE).

Central and Southern Asia

  • Uzbekistan-based fintech and digital bank Uzum locked in $70 million in equity financing at a valuation of $1.5 billion.
  • Logistics fintech Trukkr secured investment from UAE-based tech company Yango Group.
  • Indian debt collections platform DPDzero raised $7 million in Series A funding.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexican fintech platform Finsus acquired the technology of merchant cash advance platform Anticipa.
  • Stablecoin-based financial infrastructure company VelaFi forged a strategic partnership with stablecoin-powered payment network Noah.
  • Clip launched its all-in-one (AIO) point-of-sale (POS) device in Mexico.
  • Cross-border payment platform dLocal unveiled its SmartPix solution that enable merchants to process tokenized Pix payments including recurring and on-demand charges.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa


Photo by Abuzar Xheikh on Unsplash

Streamly Snapshot: Startup Success, Financial Management, and the Innovation Ecosystem

Streamly Snapshot: Startup Success, Financial Management, and the Innovation Ecosystem

This week’s Streamly Snapshot features our final interview from FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California.

What does it take for a startup to be successful? In today’s innovation ecosystem, one increasingly important skill is not just building innovative solutions, but also managing the finances—the investment capital, the debt financing, the cash flow—that support a growing enterprise. In this interview, Christopher Hollins, Global Head of Product Sales and Design at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), a Division of First Citizens Bank, talks about the challenges that startups face when it comes to optimizing financial operations, scaling businesses, and managing cash flow. Hollins also shares his insights on the digital tools and platforms that are available to startups to help them grow and scale their businesses.

“Even in this environment, which is short on IPO exits, the innovation is not showing that it’s short of anything other than tremendous creativity, driving for positive results, and actually managing through all of the change that is happening in the macro economy and within the innovation ecosystem, itself.”

In his role at SVB, Hollins has been instrumental in transforming the platform’s solution delivery model to ensure that SVB’s Commercial Bank innovation economy clients can access the best partners and solutions to solve their challenges as they grow. Hollins joined SVB in May 2021, bringing more than 20 years of international marketing, sales, and strategy experience in financial services, mobile telecom, and technology to the firm.

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, SVB was founded in 1983. Acquired by First Citizens Bank in 2023, the firm today is the bank of choice for many of the world’s most innovative technology companies and investors. SVB provides commercial and private banking services to individuals and companies in technology, life sciences, healthcare, private equity, venture capital, and premium wine industries. The institution reports $99 billion in total client funds and counts 40% of the Forbes 2025 AI list among its customers.


Photo by Alexas_Fotos on Unsplash

FinovateFall 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 2

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 8 – 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.

LemonadeLXP

LemonadeLXP is an all-in-one learning and knowledge platform built specifically for banks and credit unions.

Features

  • Automates training from existing resources
  • Delivers instant answers to staff
  • Cuts costs by streamlining content creation and knowledge sharing so that teams work smarter, faster

Who’s it for?

Banks and credit unions.

LendAPI

LendAPI is a venture-backed fintech infrastructure empowering banks and fintechs to launch products in minutes.

Features

LendAPI’s all-in-one platform—featuring Product Studio, Rules Studio, Pricing Engine, and Integrated Partners—makes banking and lending innovation seamless.

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, e-commerce companies, and fintechs.

Quavo Fraud & Disputes

Quavo Fraud & Disputes’s QFD® platform delivers real-time fraud decisioning and automation, empowering issuers to stop friendly fraud and resolve disputes within the first 48 hours.

Features

  • Deflects friendly fraud instantly with enriched merchant data
  • Flags abuse and resolves cases with AI trained on 20M+ disputes
  • Provides real-time decisioning using Investigation AI’s 18-point framework

Who’s it for?

Issuing banks, fintechs, processors, and credit unions of all sizes and anyone subject to Regulation E/Z dispute requirements or serving institutions subject to it.

TurmaFinTech

TurmaFinTech is an AI-driven fintech company. TFT’s product RedBee is an AI platform that empowers banks to enhance client engagement, improve retention, prevent defaults, and promote growth.

Features

  • Provides AI-powered insights for smarter client engagement – upsell and cross-sell
  • Offers early risk detection to reduce loan defaults
  • Delivers real-time hyper personalization to boost retention and growth

Who’s it for?

Community banks, regional banks, and credit unions.

WNSTN AI

With Compliant, an AI-driven investment assistant, WNSTN AI delivers a superior user experience through personalized engagement—boosting retention and increasing LTV for investment platforms and brokers.

Features

  • Offers a multi-AI-agent system for personalization at scale
  • Provides a back-office intelligence tool for actionable insights
  • Includes a built-in compliance module aligned with global regulations

Who’s it for?

Online brokerages, trading platforms, wealth managers, advisors, institutional investors, financial information platforms, and publishers.

Uptiq Announces Strategic Partnership with Broadridge

Uptiq Announces Strategic Partnership with Broadridge
  • AI-powered financial services platform Uptiq has forged a strategic partnership with and received a minority investment from Broadridge Financial Solutions. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, Uptiq will integrate its technology into Broadridge’s Wealth Lending Network (WLN) to give financial advisors access to AI-automated, securities-based lending workflows.
  • As Cion Digital, Uptiq made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. The company rebranded the following year.

AI platform for financial services, Uptiq, announced a new strategic partnership with and a minority investment from Broadridge Financial Solutions. The company, which made its Finovate debut as Cion Digital at FinovateSpring 2022, will integrate its technology into Broadridge’s Wealth Lending Network (WLN). This will give financial advisors and banks working with Broadridge access to turnkey, agentic AI applications to automate securities-based lending workflows. The amount of the minority investment was not disclosed.

“Uptiq was purpose-built to remove the heavy lifting from lending,” Uptiq CEO and Founder Snehal Fulzele said. “Our AI-driven platform surfaces the most relevant loan options, actively guiding advisors so they can focus on serving clients instead of wrestling with process complexities. By connecting directly with Broadridge’s Wealth Lending Network banks, we’re making it easier than ever to provide securities-based lending as a compelling and compliant liquidity solution.”

Via its Wealth Lending Network, Broadridge provides a digital platform that connects wealth managers, financial advisors and their clients with a network of lenders that offer securities-based lines of credit. This streamlines access to securities-based lending solutions, especially for those financial advisors and wealth management firms that are not affiliated with a bank. The Uptiq integration will make it easier for financial advisors to source and compare loan options, as well as automate a range of manual tasks including referral submission, loan processing, and covenant tracking. The partnership helps financial advisors provide more credit options for clients, enhances client service and compliance, and streamlines the process of providing lending solutions to wealth management customers.

“This strategic partnership helps modernize wealth management, addressing the growing demand for artificial intelligence in financial services, as well as a need to develop a better wealth lending process that is efficient, compliant, and personalized,” Broadridge President of Wealth Management Mike Alexander said. “With Uptiq’s AI-powered tools and Broadridge’s Wealth Lending Network, we’re enabling advisors to deliver smarter lending recommendations, save time, and ultimately help their clients access the liquidity needed to achieve their financial goals. Our investment demonstrates our commitment to driving innovation in the wealth lending ecosystem.”

Broadridge serves clients in asset management, capital markets, wealth management, and related industries. The company’s technology and operations platforms process and generate more than seven billion communications a year, and support the trading of more than $10 trillion of securities internationally. Broadridge was founded in 1962 as a part of Automatic Data Processing (ADP), and was spun off as an independent company in 2007. Headquartered in Lake Success, New York, Broadridge employs more than 14,000 associates in 21 countries, and is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker BR. The company has a market capitalization of $31 billion.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 as Cion Digital, Uptiq rebranded the following year in an effort to underscore the company’s commitment to serving wealth managers and financial advisors. The company’s platform combines deep domain expertise with AI to streamline operations and produce better outcomes across financial workflows. Uptiq’s agentic AI-powered apps automate lending, banking, and wealth management workflows, while the firm’s AI Workbench provides a no-code platform to facilitate both workflow deployment and future growth.


Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash