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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
How to power rapid approvals and accelerate your SME lending processes
Forty-four percent of SMEs look to funding to meet operating expenses, with this number expected to grow considerably during times of economic uncertainty. Fifty-six percent of SMEs seek funds to expand business operations or to pursue new market opportunities. But waiting months or even weeks for credit approval and funding can mean the difference between innovation and business closure.
Traditional financial services organizations may find lending to SMEs difficult, but fintechs are rising to the challenge. Simplified application processes, rapid approvals, and access to funds quickly makes working with digital lenders an obviously attractive choice.
Because if you aren’t making it easy for SMEs to get the credit they need, your competitors will.
Catch up on this panel discussion with industry experts, in collaboration with Provenir, and discover how to: • Power faster, simplified application processes • Make smarter, faster decisions and get to market faster • Future-proof your decision technology to keep up as market trends/demands evolve • Use advanced, predictive analytics like AI to keep risk in check
Featuring Corinne Llelti, Commercial Sales Director, EMEA, Provenir; Alex Daly Chief Finance and Risk Officer, Ask Inclusive Finance Group; and Julie Muhn, Senior Research Analyst, Finovate.
Greg Palmer’s Finovate Podcast continues to be the source of many of fintech’s most compelling conversations.
From discussions with innovation experts to deep dives with veterans of the VC world, the Finovate Podcast is a great way to learn about the trends that fintech enthusiasts are most enthusiastic about.
Here’s a rundown of recent episodes you might have missed over the summer.
Michael Butler, President and CEO, Grasshopper Bank
Finovate Podcast host Greg Palmer talks with Grasshopper Bank President and CEO Michael Butler on surviving and thriving as a neobank, and lessons for the broader fintech ecosystem. Episode 142.
“(Grasshopper) is a company that is focused on providing digital financial solutions to the business and innovation economy, mainly SMBs that are focused on technology and are technophiles by nature. We think there’s a big demand pull that has been coming for some time in the business side, and we think it’s the next great place for disruption from a digital banking perspective.”
Tony Ulwick, Creator, the Outcome-Driven Innovation Process
Greg Palmer introduces Tony Ulwick, founder and CEO of Strategn and creator of the Outcome Driven Innovation process, to Finovate audiences in this podcast conversation. Ulwick explains the importance of focusing on innovation that matters and successfully bringing new ideas to the market. Episode 141.
“I thought: if we just knew the metrics they were going to use to judge the value of our product a year and a half ago when we started developing it, we could just design the product to meet those metrics and we’d win in the marketplace. It sounds simple enough. But the (next) thought was: what are those metrics? How can we capture them? Do they exist?”
Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst, Insider Intelligence
Podcast host Greg Palmer talks with Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst with Insider Intelligence. In their conversation, Montez discusses strategies for keeping customers happy in times of economic uncertainty – and finding opportunity in challenging times. Episode 140.
“How do you safeguard consumer trust? We know that digital trust is the confidence that consumers place in their bank’s digital channels. And they have a prime opportunity to build this up as a commodity. We know over the last year the largest U.S. banks have come to aid in a time of pandemic related crisis. And customers have repaid that flexibility with greater trust in their primary financial institutions.”
“I would be remiss not to say that I struggle with startup nomenclature like this (neobank). These organisms evolve so quickly. Terms like “neobank” – at first they seem grandiose, way beyond what the businesses actually are. And then, before you know it, the end up feeling overly narrow and constricting.”
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
Pidgin makes faster payments possible across different use cases – whether it’s paying a friend back for dinner, accepting payments from customers, paying employees or paying vendor invoices.
Features
Pidgin supports:
Sending and receiving faster payments
Routing payments directly from one financial institution to another
Flexibility when routing payments across different networks
Why it’s great
Pidgin allows financial institutions and their account holders to securely send and receive faster payments with lower fees.
Presenter
Abhishek Veeraghanta, Head of Pidgin Abhishek Veeraghanta is head of Pidgin and Senior Vice President at VSoft, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s growth strategies. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
The PayQuickerPayouts OS platform intelligently determines and facilitates the quickest and most cost-effective way for clients to send payouts to businesses and consumers globally.
Features
Turnkey integration with single REST API that plugs into multiple banks & global payment rails
Pay to 200+ countries, 40+ currencies
Routing intelligence based on client’s desired payout parameters
Why it’s great
Payouts OS is rooted in PayQuicker’s time-tested technology, designed to deliver global payouts faster and with more flexibility, increasing efficiency for HR, technology and treasury teams.
Presenters
Charles Rosenblatt, President A seasoned innovator in the payments industry, Charles Rosenblatt has held executive leadership positions at major global banks and prominent FinTech organizations and is now President of PayQuicker. LinkedIn
James Legan, Chief Technology Officer With over 20 years of experience in start-up and enterprise SaaS companies, James Legan leads the PayQuicker technology team to implement optimal technological solutions to complex business problems. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
MeasureOne is a consumer-permissioned data platform that enables businesses to request any data that lives in consumers’ online accounts — including income, employment, insurance, and education.
Features
MeasureOne is the only one-stop-shop for consumer-permissioned data:
MeasureOne is the only domain-agnostic consumer-permissioned data platform, which means any data type that lives in a consumer’s online accounts can be requested and shared for a business transaction.
Presenter
Yaron Oren, Chief Revenue Officer Yaron Oren is a veteran startup leader and entrepreneur with a specialization in PaaS/API-driven businesses that disrupt legacy workflows and unlock innovation for consumers and businesses alike. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
Mall IQ is a privacy-first location intelligence platform, empowering FIs to increase card and loan revenue and prevent fraud with real-time, personalized mobile engagements via proprietary location tech.
Includes store-level accurate global coverage without hardware in 1M+ stores
Why it’s great
Generate incremental revenue from current customers with precise location technology with real-time engagements before a payment or loan need to become top-of-wallet. Minimum effort needed to integrate and operate.
Presenters
Batu Sat, CEO Dr. Sat has been a business and tech leader for 20+ years. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an expert in ML/AI & Location Tech. He previously worked at Cisco and Microsoft. LinkedIn
Firuze Duygu Caliskan, COO Caliskan has an M.S. Degree in Engineering Management from Missouri University of S&T. 15+ years experience in strategic marketing and revenue expansion activities across the globe. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
Gridspace is a voice technology and artificial intelligence software company. The company provides natural-sounding virtual agents and voice observability software to contact centers.
Features
Performance – Gridspace runs neural networks directly on its own softswitches
Unified platform – Human & virtual agents in one place
Why it’s great
Gridspace is a true, full-stack provider of conversational AI – building and integrating its own enterprise-grade softswitch, conversational ASR, search engine, neural TTS, dialog systems and more.
Presenters
Evan Macmillan, CEO Before Gridspace, Macmillan co-founded Zappedy, a payments technology company that was backed by Eric Schmidt and acquired by Groupon. He has an engineering bachelor’s from Stanford in Product Design. LinkedIn
Adam Miller, Principal Engineer on Monophone Prior to Gridspace, Miller worked on the Search Webanswers team at Google and studied computer science at UIUC. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
Bankjoy’s new Business Banking platform makes it easier for community banks and credit unions to deliver truly feature-rich digital banking technology to their business customers.
Features
Use one portal for multiple business accounts
Manage users & control permissions
Send transfers to multiple recipients & more
Presenter
Michael Duncan, CEO & Co-Founder Before founding Bankjoy, Duncan managed software development for a large credit union in Michigan, including the development of their mobile banking app. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 12 and 13. Register today and save your spot.
Apiture’s embedded banking tools allow financial institutions to embed financial services into non-bank partners’ software, extending these services to new users and giving more convenient banking options.
Why it’s great
Embedded banking enables financial institutions of any size to create new revenue streams by attracting users outside of their existing geographic footprint and cross selling in new ways.
Presenters
Daniel Haisley, EVP of Innovation Haisley leads Apiture’s innovation efforts encompassing Data Intelligence and API Banking solutions. He has an extensive background in product and design management and, prior to his time at Apiture, Haisley held product leadership roles at Live Oak Bank and 1st Source Bank. He brings 10+ years of experience driving innovation in technology for financial institutions.
Haisley is a graduate of Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, where he earned a B.S. in Financial Counseling & Planning, and the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI. LinkedIn
Danielle Eriksson, Director of Product Management Eriksson is responsible for leading the API Banking and Embedded Banking initiatives on the Innovation team. She has experience in capital markets, building financial products for retail and institutional investors, as well as building financial technology solutions to help financial institutions improve cost efficiencies, engage customers, and ultimately grow the balance sheet.
Eriksson graduated from Tufts University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Quantitative Management and Business Analytics from the Fuqua School of Business. LinkedIn
Currencycloud teamed up with Future FinTech Labs (FTFT Labs) to help the New York City-based fintech launch its Tempo app.
Tempo is designed to make it easier, more secure and more effective for U.S. immigrants to send money overseas.
Acquired by Visa in 2021, Currencycloud has processed more than $100 billion in cross-border money transfers since inception in 2012.
Global payments solutions and infrastructure company Currencycloud has partnered with Future FinTech Labs (FTFT Labs) to help the NYC-based fintech launch a new remittance solution for U.S.-based immigrants. The new offering, an app called Tempo, will help immigrants living in the U.S. send money securely to North America, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, and the Philippines.
Tempo will gives FTFT Labs customers access to a multi-currency wallet that makes sending money internationally easier and more cost-effective compared to other high-fee remittance services. Tempo app users will be able to leverage both FTFT Labs’ Conversion Tool to buy and trade currencies and use FTFT Labs’ Funds feature to top off their digital wallet.
“Tempo represents an easy, fast, and secure way to transfer money cross-border,” FTFT Labs CEO Sean Liu said. “Working with Currencycloud and using the breadth of services it allows us to offer our customers a seamless process from start to finish. We are confident we will be able to continue to make remittance a seamless process for our end users.”
Tempo users pay a fee of $2.99 pre-transaction – although the company is currently offering customers fee-free transactions when they sign up. Transfers via Tempo take place instantly rather than over the three business days typical of other money transfer apps, and users can send as little as $20 or as much as $1,500. Tempo sees its transfer amount limit as an advantage compared to other money transfer apps that do not have a limit, seeing the limit as a way to help ensure “a high level of security, by design, for users.” The Tempo app is available for both Android and iOs devices.
Making its Finovate debut in 2012, Currencycloud most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2018. The London-based company serves banks, fintechs, and foreign exchange brokerages, helping them and their customers make seamless and secure cross-border transactions in multiple currencies. Since inception, Currencycloud has processed more than $100 billion transferred between more than 180 countries. Acquired by Visa in 2021, the company includes fellow Finovate alums Dwolla and Mambu among its partners. Currencycloud maintains offices in New York, Amsterdam, Cardiff, and Singapore.
“Migrants in the U.S. should be able to send money cross-border without friction and without prohibitive costs,” Currencycloud VP of Sales Lewis Nurcombe said. “A fintech like Future FinTech Labs understands the needs of working people wanting to send money to family and friends, and as such is successfully reimagining how money flows for this huge market.”
Future FinTech Labs is a subsidiary and research and development center for FTFT Group. FTFT Labs is dedicated to designing, developing, and providing operational support for FTFT’s digital banking and payment services offerings.
Active in 15 countries in Latin America, payments infrastructure provider Geopagos has secured an investment of $35 million. The equity funding round was led by Riverwood Capital and featured participation from Endeavor Catalyst. The sum represents the company’s first institutional financing and will be used to fuel the development of new embedded payments solutions and help the firm expand throughout Latin America.
Geopagos provides financial institutions, fintechs, retailers, software companies and other organizations with end-to-end digital solutions to help them launch or grow their payment acceptance businesses in the area. These solutions include terminals that enable mobile phones to operate as point of sale devices as well as technology that turns websites into e-commerce platforms.
With clients including Santander, BBVA, Banco Estado de Chile, and Finovate alum Fiserv, Geopagos processes more than 150 million transactions and more than $5 billion in volume a year. The Buenos Aires-based company was founded in 2013 by Sebastián Núñez Castro, Julián Lisenberg, Fernando Tauscher, Raúl Oyarzun and Damián Harburguer.
“Latin America is a market with very low card penetration and Geopagos is well positioned as a software enabler and infrastructure provider to boost card acceptance and digital payments across the region,” Riverwood Capital co-founder and managing partner Francisco Álvarez-Demalde said.
Speaking of payments in Latin America, blockchain-enabled accounts receivable and B2B payments company PayStand has acquired Yaydoo, an accounts payable, cash flow management, and liquidity solution provider based in Mexico. Yaydoo is one of the fastest-growing startups in Mexico, with more than 150 employees working in more than six different countries. Founded in 2017 and operating throughout Latin America Yaydoo raised $20.4 million in Series A funding last year and this year was named a “Súper Empresa 2022” and a “Súper Empresas para Mujeres 2022” by Expansión Top Companies México.
“Together, PayStand and Yaydoo will redefine the boundaries of B2B fintech across the continent,” PayStand CEO Jeremy Almond said. “The combined company will be one of the first global B2B blockchain platforms at a significant scale. The resulting company will have processed over $5 billion in payments, added 300 additional employees, and built a network of over 500,000 connected businesses, the largest of any commercial B2B blockchain in the world.”
Founded in 2013, PayStand made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, one year later in 2014. The company leverages blockchain and cloud technology to digitize receivables, automate processing, lower time-to-cash, remove transaction fees, and drive new revenue. A member of the 2021 CB Insights Fintech 250 and named to the Inc. 5000 for a second year in a row in 2021, PayStand has secured $86 million in funding, most recently raising $50 million in a Series C investment led by NewView Capital and featuring participation from SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund and King River Capital.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
This week, we take a look at more of the fintech entrepreneurs, analysts, and experts who will share their knowledge and insights into the fintech industry at FinovateFall next month.
Day One will feature Joe Lichtenberg, Global Head of Product and Industry Marketing for Intersystems, with his Mastermind Keynote address: How Next Generation Architectures Empower Financial Services Firms with Trusted Business Insights. Lichtenberg’s morning presentation will introduce a new architectural approach that is providing business decision makers with a consolidated, accurate, and real-time view of their business.
Personetics President of the Americas Jody Bhagat will deliver a Mastermind Keynote: How Mid-Market Banks Can Find Their Sweet Spot with Digital Plus Human Interactions in the afternoon of Day One. Bhagat will discuss how mid-market banks can evolve their relationship models to do more of what they do best: supporting customers with advanced money management capabilities and Digital Plus Human interactions.
VantageScore EVP and Chief Product Officer Rikard Bandebo will deliver a Mastermind Keynote in the afternoon of Day Two of FinovateFall. In a presentation titled Leveraging Data Analytics to Drive Financial Inclusion, Bandebo will talk about new tools and analytic strategies to discover not just newly scoreable consumers, but newly lendable consumers, as well.
Day Three of FinovateFall will feature a Mastermind Keynote during the Payments Stream. Tom Ward, Partner with Sidley Austin LLP and recent CFPB Enforcement Director, will deliver an address titled The CFPB in the Biden Administration – Enforcement and Regulatory Priorities for Fintechs in 2022 and Beyond. Ward’s presentation will explain the CFPB’s enforcement priorities as they relate to fintech and the organization’s current focus within the industry.
Co-founder and Chief Impact Officer for Symend Tiffany Kaminsky will deliver a Mastermind Keynote during the Customer Experience Stream on Day Three. Kaminsky’s presentation – Upping the Ante: Using the Science of Decision-Making for Effective Customer Engagement – will help businesses leverage behavioral science to better engage with customers and hyper-personalize customer outreach efforts.
Our Artificial Intelligence Stream on Day Three will feature a Mastermind Keynote from Kore.ai SVP of Marketing Michael Kropidlowski. In his address – Creating Extraordinary Customer and Employee Experiences for the Banking World – Kropidlowski will show how conversational AI is revolutionizing the customer experience in banking.
Visit our FinovateFall 2022 hub today and reserve your seat. Register by September 2nd and take advantage of early-bird savings!
