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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
DocFoxis the leading provider of automated business account opening software and is used by over 250 financial institutions worldwide including banks, fintechs, and credit unions.
Features
Omnichannel account opening – digital or in-branch
Customized, configurable workflows
Open API architecture, allowing for integration with other systems including core, LOS, CRM, and treasury
Why it’s great
DocFox is a cloud-based SaaS application that automates the process for opening any business account, no matter how complex, across any channel.
Presenters
Dean Benjamin, Account Executive Benjamin is in sales leadership at DocFox. Prior to DocFox, Dean was a banker at Investec for over 4 years in London, Johannesburg, and Sydney and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
VGS is a one-stop shop for data security infrastructure, compliance acceleration, and payment optimization.
Features
Own data without liability and cost
Get to market faster
Reduce PCI cost by 75%
Why it’s great
Companies can maximize the value of sensitive data without the cost and liability of securing it themselves.
Presenter
Nithin Bose, VP of Customer Success Bose is the VP of Customer Success at VGS, responsible for sales engineering, onboarding, success management, and renewals of VGS customers. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Cion Digital has developed the world’s first blockchain orchestration platform that helps businesses transact in cryptocurrency both through payments and lending.
Features
Standalone or integrated payments and lending platform
First crypto loan marketplace
Tools to extend traditional lenders into crypto lenders
Why it’s great
Cion Digital has developed the world’s first crypto lending marketplace.
Presenters
Abir Bandy, Senior Director of Product Marketing Prior to joining Cion Digital, Bandy led the financial services marketing team at Talkdesk. He also has had a 10+ year career in financial services with Cappello Capital, Disney, Salesforce, and more. LinkedIn
Fred Brothers, President & Co-Founder Prior to starting Cion Digital, Brothers served as the EVP and Chief Innovation Officer at FIS. He also has had a 30+ year career in financial services with eCom, Checkfree, and more. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Highnote is the world’s most modern card platform, providing all-in-one card issuer processor and program management services to help companies easily issue/process payment cards that accelerate growth.
Features
Full-stack card issuer-processer and program manager
Flexible and modular capabilities with Graph QL-based API
Purpose-built ledger for money movement visibility
Why it’s great
Highnote’s GraphQL API allows tailored, client-centric access to the platform and offers full-flexibility to build great brand experiences for customers that work with companies’ systems.
Presenter
Jody Soldo, Product Management Leader With 10+ years of product management experience, Soldo is passionate about working with customers to help build innovative business solutions. She geeks out at payment processing and money movement. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Altro helps consumers build credit and financial power through the recurring payments and subscriptions they use every day. Build credit and financial power with the free Altro app.
Features
Boost existing credit
Increase financial literacy
Stabilize credit history
Why it’s great
One thing the audience should remember about the product: Altro doesn’t believe in barriers. Altro is in the business of empowering great people to do great things by helping them get their money right.
Presenter
Michael Broughton, Founder Broughton is the co-founder and CEO of Altro, a free-to-use app that allows anyone to build credit using nontraditional forms of payments, including rent and monthly subscriptions like Netflix. LinkedIn
Last week for Earth Day we talked about the different ways that the fintech industry is responding to the climate challenge. Since then, there’s been even more news on that front – in this case from a pair of banks that are giving their customers the ability to contribute personally to climate sustainability.
BMO Harris Bank’s policy will enable cardholders in the U.S. to donate up to 500 of their accumulated points to Conservation International. Donating points is easy; cardholders can sign up for the program via BMO Digital Banking on their mobile app or online, then select the credit card account from which the points will be donated.
“Being part of Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition is just one of many actions BMO is taking to support a sustainable future,” BMO Financial Group Head of North American Personal and Business Banking Ernie Johannson said. “What we do today will determine how our world looks tomorrow. In addition to BMO’s own bold actions to grow the good, we are proud to invite customers to join us and to make action as easy as redeeming their card points. Together, our efforts can make a big impact toward sustaining a healthy environment.”
Carbon tracking, as we mentioned last week, is among the more popular ways that fintechs and financial services companies have empowered consumers to better understand the impact of their spending habits on the environment. Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, just announced that it will enable 1,000 of its Rabo payments accountholders to see the impact of their consumption on the climate – courtesy of a Carbon Insights feature on their Rabo app.
“With Carbon Insights, we make consumers part of the solution, just like we do with sustainable farmers who can earn carbon credits through carbon storage in their farmland,” Rabo Carbon Bank CEO Barbara Baarsma said. “Together our eight million private customers can make a difference and combat climate change by changing their spending patterns towards a smaller carbon footprint. For example, by buying different, less carbon intensive food they also stimulate supermarkets to offer more sustainable products.”
Rabobank developed its Carbon Insights capability in partnership with green fintech Ecolytiq, which has partnered with a number of financial services companies to help them develop climate sustainability-based solutions. Ecolytiq, leveraging the European Union’s Open Payment Standard, provides Rabobank with Dutch CO2 values per euro and spending category (food, transportation, clothing, etc.). Rabobank manages the secure environment in which accountholder payment data is processed, ensuring that customer data remains with Rabobank and that data is not used for any other purpose.
Underscoring the emphasis on privacy, Rabo Carbon Bank Product Manager for Carbon Bank Retail Fadoua Ajjaji explained, “Of course we don’t know the exact products somebody buys in the supermarket, so the CO2 emissions remain an estimation. For the calculation we look at the payment itself, not the actual receipt. Customers can provide additional information, if they eat meat or own a car, which allows us to make the calculations more accurate.” Ajjaji called carbon tracking “a missed opportunity” when it comes to meeting the climate challenge “as gaining insights is the first step in making more sustainable choices.”
The new offering, MemberPass Express, will be made available via MemberPass, the first KYC-compliant, member-controlled digital identity issued by credit union cooperatives. MemberPass Express will enable credit union members to authenticate their identity during e-commerce, online, or mobile banking transactions, as well as while visiting a branch or contacting a call center. The new seamless authentication process, which provides multi-channel authentication in less than 10 seconds, is currently being piloted with a pair of credit unions.
“The joint new solution leverages artificial intelligence to protect members from fraud by analyzing the context (such as identity, behavior, location, device, and channel) of each user journey in real-time,” Entersekt CEO Schalk Nolte said. “This informs the most appropriate member authentication method that will be used, and means that members will now benefit from industry-leading authentication, while enjoying a fast and smooth user experience.”
South Africa-based Entersekt ended 2021 with a major investment from technology-based private equity firm Accel-KKR. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Joe Porten, Principal at Accel-KKR, praised the company for its “deep vertical expertise” and its record of success in the financial services industry. “As a partner, Accel-KKR is committed to helping the Entersekt team accelerate growth and continually deliver innovation in their category.”
This week on Finovate Global we’re highlighting some of the fintech news from Germany.
Scalable Capital, a digital investment platform based in Germany, announced the launch of its neo-broker and new cryptocurrency offering Scalable Crypto in the Italian market. The new solution, introduced in December, will enable Italian investors to buy stock, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), popular cryptocurrencies, as well as set up savings plans for free. The company’s Scalable Broker offering will give investors access to more than 6,000 international stocks, with all trades routed through regulated European exchanges to avoid FX fees. Scalable Broker also provides access to more than 1,500 ETFs and more than 1,700 mutual funds. Additionally, Scalable Broker is available in different price configurations: a free version with commission-free savings plans and trading for stocks and ETFs that charges a fee of EUR 0.99 for transactions in other instruments, and a “Prime” version with an additional trading flat rate enabling unlimited trades for a monthly fee of EUR 2.99.
Scalable Crypto enables investors to buy and sell common cryptocurrencies, which are held as securities in the client’s brokerage account. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and XRP are among the cryptocurrencies available for trading, each of which is based on exchange-traded crypto products (ETPs) for easy and secure transactions on regulated exchanges.
“The online broker with savings plans and crypto is just the beginning,” Scalable Capital founder and co-CEO Erik Podzuweit said. “Our goal is to introduce our complete investment platform to the Italian market. We will make even more services available to our Italian clients, such as our leading robo-advisor.”
Scalable Capital made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016 in London.
Moojo, a new startup that helps freelancers, creators, and gig economy workers improve their invoicing process and get paid faster, announced $2 million in seed funding this week. The round included participation from APX, Helvetia Venture Fund, MS&AD, neoteq Ventures, and Red Swan Ventures
In addition to its instant payments and invoicing solutions, Moojo plans to introduce insurance and lending products in the future. The company has partnered with Hiscox to facilitate the development of insurance products.
“The team and their approach to embed insurance into their offering has convinced us,” Markus Niederreiner, CEO of Hiscox Germany, said. “We are delighted to be Moojo’s insurance partner and co-create the next-gen of solutions for the creator and the freelancer economy. We strongly believe in the way Moojo tailors and builds solutions for the community: integrated into their customers’ lives.”
Moojo was founded in 2021 by Amir Djouadi, Christian Engnath, and Utena Treves. The company is headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
Germany’s second largest listed bank Commerzbank announced late this week that it is looking to enter the cryptocurrency space. The company is the country’s first major financial institution to seek a license that would enable it to offer cryptocurrency safekeeping services, as well as create its own cryptocurrency custody solution.
Germany’s new licensing policy for cryptocurrency services went into effect in 2020 and is designed to encourage more regulated financial firms to enter the cryptocurrency market. Commerzbank’s license application appears a year after the institution formed a partnership with Deutsche Börse and Fintech 360X to develop a digital asset trading platform.
Acknowledging the role of the partnership, Commerzbank spokesperson Bernd Reh added that the bank is “pursuing our own digital asset strategy and are also planning our own offerings for our customers in the coming years.” Reh noted that the planned offering is geared initially toward institutional customers.
BaFin, the Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, has so far approved four of the 25 applications it has received from institutions seeking crypto custodian status.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Zogo Finance announced a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions to help promote financial literacy.
Clients of the two companies will be able to access more than 450 financial literacy-related educational modules.
Zogo Finance won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2019 in New York for its Teen Financial Literacy App.
Zogo Finance, which won Best of Show in its 2019 FinovateFall debut, announced a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions that will help investors educate themselves on the fundamentals of sound money management. The collaboration will enable clients of both companies to access more than 450 learning modules on investing and financial literacy.
“Millennials and Gen Z are reinventing investing, which requires companies to adapt to their evolving interests, financial aspirations, and educational needs,” Zogo founder and CEO Bolun Li explained. “Apex shares our vision of harnessing technology to create customized, flexible, and accessible learning opportunities to support investors of all types.”
With more than 500,000 users and 180+ financial institution partners, Zogo leverages behavioral economic research – much of it developed at Duke University – to help improve youth financial literacy. The company’s app uses easy-to-comprehend lessons to educate users on complicated financial concepts, and offers rewards and incentives to encourage users to complete the coursework. Users can also earn rewards by taking positive financial actions such as logging into their mobile banking app, visiting a bank branch, or even using their debit or credit cards. Since inception, users of the Austin, Texas-based company’s technology have completed more than 16 million lessons, with the average Zogo users finishing 38 financial literacy courses.
“Our mission is all about democratizing finance through access – and education is a vital part of that,” Apex Fintech Solutions CEO Bill Capuzzi said. “Partnering with Zogo helps us empower our clients and their millions of customers.”
Founded in 2018, Zogo Finance forged 31 new partnerships with financial institutions in the first quarter of 2022. The company has raised $295,000 in funding from investors including MassChallenge and TechStars.
Great digital experiences can showcase the unique differentiation in your banking products and services. But such great digital experiences can’t be bought – they have to be built. And customers need this great digital experience to choose you to do business with.
However organizations often struggle to assemble the needed development and deployment tools to create these great experiences, and to scale them successfully.
While you may not be able to buy a great digital experience, you can buy the platform on which to build one. This platform is known as a Digital Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), running in the cloud. The Digital PaaS provides everything you need to reduce the innovation time for cloud-based digital applications, resulting in the ability to iterate quickly and continuously improve the experience.
Watch this webinar, in collaboration with WSO2, to explore:
Better techniques to speed up innovation and meet client demands
How to simplify the complexity of modern innovation platforms
The benefits of the cloud or digital applications, and how to implement a PaaS solution into your strategy
Q&A with the speakers, addressing your burning questions and thoughts
Featuring Eric Newcomer, CTO at WSO2 and David Penn, Finovate Research Analyst.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Mastercard takes the uncertainty out of digital payments with Smart Payment Decisioning Tools. Advanced data analytics and ML make payments faster, more convenient, and safe.
Features
Better onboarding experience
Reduce ACH returns, failure & fraud
NACHA Verification for WEB debit rule
Why it’s great
Mastercard’s Smart Payment Decisioning Tools reduce risk in ACH payments and optimize cost and speed through open banking.
Presenter
Serenie Gagon, VP Product Management Gagon is an experienced product evangelist with deep expertise in the payments space. Gagon is responsible for strategic vision and payment enablement roadmap through open banking. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Illuma Shield voice authentication is integrated with Posh Technologies’ Conversational AI IVR for deployment in the contact center.
Features
Frictionless account access without PINs, passcodes, or passphrases
24/7 customer service with a user friendly, conversational IVR
Better security with biometric voice authentication
Why it’s great
The Illuma Shield voice authentication + Posh Conversational IVR integration improves operational efficiency, security, and customer experience for community banks and credit unions.
Presenters
Milind Borkar, CEO & Founder, Illuma Borkar brings a background in R&D and more than 50 successful product launches to his role as founder and CEO of Illuma Labs. LinkedIn
Scott Stinocher, Web App Developer, TruWest Credit Union Stinocher is a Web App Developer with 10 years of experience in IT and five years of experience in the financial sector. LinkedIn
Karan Kashyap, CEO & Co-Founder, Posh Technologies In 2013, Kashyap began his journey at MIT, which included undergraduate and graduate degrees focused on AI, where he was named a Siebel Scholar for his research work.
While he was completing his graduate degree, he began AI and software consulting with enterprises across multiple industries, building a business foundation, and establishing a pathway to the beginning of Posh. Posh now has more than 50 clients across the banking and credit union space with an ever-growing client base and employee roster. LinkedIn
