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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Fiserv-owned point-of-sale (PoS) system CloverunveiledClover PracticePay today. The new solution is an all-in-one payments platform to support small and medium-sized healthcare providers.
To optimally tailor the tool to the healthcare field, Clover partnered with healthcare payments solutions company Rectangle Health. The new solution aims to simplify the way healthcare practices manage payments while providing them with digital tools to help enhance their practice efficiencies.
Launching in 2026, PracticePay combines Rectangle Health’s Practice Management Bridge technology with Clover’s PoS hardware and is compliant with HIPAA and PCI requirements. Designed for providers across primary care, dental, behavioral health, and other specialties, the payments solution features financing options, recurring billing, text-to-pay, QR codes, and online payment portals that can be integrated into customers’ existing practice management software.
For Clover, launching PracticePay will help it expand beyond its core verticals, which include restaurant, retail, and personal services. Adding healthcare payments will allow Clover to extend into the high-demand healthcare industry in which providers are seeking to modernize operations to meet expanding patient expectations, increasing administrative complexity, and digitization requirements. PracticePay will help Clover meet these needs while capturing a segment of the $4.5 trillion US healthcare economy.
“As we continue to evolve Clover to meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses, trusted partners like Rectangle Health play a critical role in delivering specialized solutions for key industries,” said Fiserv SVP, Head of Merchant FI Channels & Small Business Strategy Katie Whalen. “Healthcare is an important vertical for the banking industry, and with this new solution, we are enabling our financial institution partners to better serve a critical customer base within their communities. By uniting Clover’s leading technology with the strength and security of Rectangle Health’s purpose-built software, we are extending our reach into healthcare and enabling providers to operate more efficiently, improve payment flows, and enhance the patient experience.”
A pioneer in the payments space, Rectangle Health was founded in 1992 to create payment solutions for the healthcare industry. The company provides healthcare organizations with a suite of services that streamline payments, enhance patient relationships, and comply with regulatory standards.
“Together with Clover, we are proud to set a new standard for practice management and payment solutions in the healthcare space,” said Rectangle Health CEO Dominick Colabella. “This collaboration will enable providers to enhance their financial systems while remaining focused on what matters most—their patients.”
Clover was originally founded in 2010 to help small businesses accept payments. Today, the company serves as a one-stop shop for multiple payment needs. In addition to offering a range of payment acceptance terminals, Clover also has software to help businesses with online orders, accounting, loyalty programs, staff management, inventory, and more. Clover was acquired in 2012 by First Data, which was acquired by Fiserv in 2019.
Digital banking solutions provider Infinant has partnered with Vantage Bank and announced an extension of its collaboration with Customers Bank.
Vantage Bank leveraged Infinant’s platform to power its embedded banking business, Vantage Collabs. Customers Bank has worked with Infinant to automate balance mirroring with its deposit partners.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina and founded in 2020, Infinant made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024.
Six months later, we are picking up the thread with word that the company has recently inked a partnership with Vantage Bank and announced an extension of its collaboration with Customers Bank.
First, Vantage Bank has teamed up with Infinant for its Interlace Platform, which it will use to power its embedded banking business, Vantage Collabs. The bank’s new offering provides embedded banking services to fintech brands, payment infrastructure providers, and other financial institutions.
“We have seen the expansion of banks finding success in the embedded finance space to grow deposits, lending, and fee income while reducing their operating expenses driven by legacy systems,” Infinant CEO Riaz Syed said. “We are motivated about the partnership we have with Vantage Bank and our aligned strategies to advance the banking market in a responsible and sustainable manner.”
Infinant provides financial institutions with technology that enables them to launch and scale their own digital channels, embedded banking programs, and embedded payments. Infinant’s platform gives banks operational and regulatory control over their programs, enabling institutions to keep control of the ledger, operations, and compliance. The company’s APIs will facilitate fast integrations between Vantage and third-party services including Visa DPS for card issuance and processing, Sardine for KYC/KYB and AML, NICE Actimize for fraud management, and Cable for automated control testing.
“Infinant and the Interlace platform is strategic to Vantage Bank,” Vantage Bank CEO Jeff Sinnott said. “Riaz and the team at Infinant have the vision and expertise to enable Vantage to innovate to meet customer expectations.”
With $4.5 billion in assets, Vantage Bank serves businesses, families, and financial institutions in diverse communities throughout Texas. The family-owned bank is headquartered in San Antonio and maintains regional operation centers in Fort Worth and McAllen.
Second, Infinant recently reported that Customers Bank is deepening its partnership in order to automate balance mirroring with deposit partners such as Raisin US. The move will enable full, end-to-end automation, improved partner reporting, and enhanced oversight. The partnership will also help ensure that Customers Bank has technology that is flexible enough to accommodate deposit and fee income growth while also providing the necessary regulatory controls.
Founded in 2009, Pennsylvania-based Customers Bank is a self-described “super-community bank.” The institution provides banking and lending services to professionals, individuals, and families in Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas. Customers Bank has more than $22 billion in assets, making it one of the largest US bank holding companies.
Infinant made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the event, the company showed how its Interlace platform and launch-acceleration tools empower banks to distribute financial products via non-financial institution providers as well as products and services from fintechs through their banking channels.
Stripe is acquiring payment orchestration startup Orum to enhance its real-time payments capabilities, including FedNow, RTP, and AI-driven instant payouts.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The move follows Stripe’s earlier acquisitions of stablecoin platform Bridge and user data API company Privvy.
The acquisition reflects Stripe’s broader strategy to lead in modern, fast, and seamless payment infrastructure amid growing global demand for real-time payments.
Payment acceptance and financial services platform Stripe has agreed to acquire payment orchestration startup Orum for an undisclosed amount.
“Today, I’m excited to share the next step in our journey: Orum will be joining Stripe,” said Orum Founder and CEO Stephany Kirkpatrick in a blog post announcement.
Orum was founded in 2019 to serve as a single solution for accessing RTP, FedNow, Same Day ACH, ACH, and wires. The company’s payment API orchestrates instant payouts, using AI to predict the availability of funds within an account and pre-authorize transactions. In addition to its payment orchestration tools, Orum also verifies bank accounts and delivers payments 24/7 with its Direct to Fed solution that’s built on a connection to the US Federal Reserve’s payment rails as a service provider.
Since Orum was founded in 2019, the company has raised $82.2 million from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Accel, and Canapi Ventures.
“Over the past six years, our incredible team at Orum has built innovative solutions that transform payment technology for businesses—revolutionizing payment speed, certainty, and orchestration,” added Kirkpatrick. “Businesses and consumers should not have to think about how their money moves from point A to point B—they should just know that it will happen with speed and certainty.”
Kirkpatrick said that combining with Stripe offers a “rare” opportunity to help Orum accelerate its mission to power a better financial system where everyone has the opportunity to build their potential.
For Stripe, which processed more than $1.4 trillion in total payment volume in 2024, the Orum purchase is just the latest in a string of acquisitions. The San Francisco-based company has also recently picked up user data API company Privy for an undisclosed amount and stablecoin platform Bridge, which cost $1.1 billion.
Today’s announcement comes at a time when real-time payments are beginning to ramp up across the globe. Conversations have been spurred by the launch of FedNow in the US in 2023, as well as growing interest in stablecoins, which are favored for their real-time settlement. Stripe’s acquisition of Orum is an example of how the company is committed to pursuing modern payment infrastructure and enabling faster, more reliable money movement for its global user base. As the payments landscape continues to evolve, this move positions Stripe as a leader in an ecosystem where speed, certainty, and seamless orchestration are table stakes.
A new partnership between WealthAI and AI-driven investment solutions provider MDOTM will bring new portfolio construction, rebalancing, and automated reporting capabilities to financial advisors and wealth managers.
Courtesy of the partnership, MDOTM’s AI platform Sphere will be offered via the WealthAI Marketplace as a seamless integration into the WealthAI platform. This will enable wealth managers and financial advisors to access Sphere’s advanced AI tools for both portfolio construction and optimization from directly within their current WealthAI workflows.
“This partnership with WealthAI is a natural step in our mission to empower investment professionals with the most advanced technology available,” MDOTM Ltd. Chief Operating Officer Federico Invernizzi said. “By integrating Sphere into the WealthAI ecosystem, we are expanding access to our AI-driven investment platform, enabling a broader range of advisors and wealth managers to benefit from its capabilities. This collaboration reinforces our commitment to helping institutional clients make impactful, data-driven investment decisions at scale.”
Sphere enhances the investment process for wealth managers and financial advisors with three primary solutions. First, the platform delivers unbiased, AI-driven investment insights that transform complex market inputs into actionable ideas for portfolio and risk alignment. Second, Sphere’s Portfolio Studio offers mass customization and scalable portfolio rebalancing. Based on the manager’s or advisor’s strategies and objectives, Portfolio Studio enables users to scale the creation, personalization, and rebalancing of thousands of portfolios with controlled tracking error. Third, the platform’s StoryFolio capability allows managers and advisors to generate automated, portfolio-specific commentaries and reports that leverage Gen AI in order to turn complex information into customized investment narratives.
“We are thrilled to partner with MDOTM Ltd to bring Sphere’s powerful AI capabilities to our clients,” WealthAI Chief Executive Officer Jason Nabi said. “This partnership reinforces our commitment to providing wealth managers with the most advanced AI tools to deliver personalized, compliant, and efficient investment solutions.”
WealthAI offers an AI operating system for wealth managers, family offices, private banks, and asset managers. The company’s WealthAI Assistant is an agentic front-end that works like an intelligent co-pilot, using reasoning skills and the ability to adapt and take initiative to help relationship managers, portfolio managers, operations managers, and compliance officers become more productive and perform better. Founded in 2023, WealthAI is headquartered in London.
Based in London and maintaining offices in both New York and Milan, Italy, MDOTM made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025. At the conference, the company demonstrated how Sphere enables users to access AI-driven insights and build and manage portfolios at scale. Sphere also provides personalized, easy-to-understand portfolio commentaries and reports featuring both macro and market analysis on the current financial environment.
Speaking of reports, this spring MDOTM teamed up with EY to produce a report that examined the impact and value of AI in the wealth and asset management sector. The report Artificial Intelligence: The Value is in Scale, reviews the primary use cases for AI in wealth management and highlights deployment of the technology for document analysis, back-office automation, advanced search, personalized advisory, and market forecasting.
The report notes that wealth managers and financial advisors have been slow to embrace AI. A 2024 survey by EY European Financial Services indicated that more than 40% of investment managers believed they were “lagging behind” when it came to using AI, with only 5% referring to themselves as “at the forefront” in terms of AI use in their daily operations. In response to this, the report encourages firms to move from an “experimental” approach to AI and instead embrace a “continuous learning mindset.”
“Operators must build the infrastructural foundations, AI governance, and recognition of the value generated to base their transformation journey,” EY Wealth & Asset Management Leader, Italy, Giovanni Andrea Incarnato said. “Furthermore, it is of fundamental importance to recognize the value of external partners in creating these foundations in an ecosystem logic in order to accelerate adoption and leverage the economies of scale and experience already gained, proceeding with progressive internalization.”
Interestingly, the report reinforces findings from other European experts in AI implementation in financial services. This includes the “experimentation to execution” transition many see as key to successful and evolving use of AI in wealth management specifically and in financial services in general.
Last week, fintech woke up from its summer slumber with the news that JPMorgan plans to increase the fees it charges aggregators. The news spurred conversations from banks, fintechs, and analysts, and discussions have been heated. What will this week bring? We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Payments
PhotonPaylaunches physical Mastercard commercial credit card to empower global business payments.
Payment processing and orchestration platform Solidgate turns to Finovate Best of Show winner Tuum to power its global money movement solution Solidgate Treasury.
Incent rebrands as Nuuvia, reflecting the company’s expanded mission to provide a full lifecycle engagement platform for community financial institutions.
Paddle raised $25 million in debt financing to support global expansion, product development, and executive growth.
The funds, which come from CIBC Innovation Banking, bring Paddle’s total funding to $318 million.
Along with the investment announcement, Paddle also unveiled new hires and plans to open an office in Austin.
Payments infrastructure company Paddleannounced this week it has raised $25 million in debt financing from CIBC Innovation Banking and others. The investment, which follows a $293 million round in 2022 from FTV Capital, KKR, 83North, and Notion Capital, brings Paddle’s total funding to more than $318 million.
“We are delighted to fund Paddle as it continues on an impressive growth trajectory,” said CIBC Innovation Banking UK & Europe Managing Director Sean Duffy.
Paddle plans to use the funding to support global expansion, accelerate growth, and promote product development.
Paddle was founded in 2012 as a Merchant of Record (MoR) to handle payments, sales tax, refunds, fraud, and compliance for its clients. The UK-based company’s payment infrastructure replaces SaaS companies’ complex payment stacks by managing global payments, currencies, refunds, and sales tax compliance for 6,000 SaaS, AI, and app companies.
Along with today’s funding, Paddle also announced key executive hires. The company is adding to its 300+ employees with the appointments of Rich Mason as CRO International, Stephen Wilcock as CTO, and Ben Aronsten as CMO. Paddle is also opening a new office in Austin, adding to the company’s existing offices in London, Lisbon, Toronto, and New York City.
“In an ever-connected world, it’s important that digital product companies can receive payment from customers in any location without the hassle of navigating multiple payment processes in different geographies. We are excited to support Paddle as it continues expanding its global footprint,” Duffy added.
Paddle has seen rapid growth in 2025, which it attributes to growth in new AI products and Apple opening its app ecosystem to web payments. The company has also recently unveiled new capabilities through a partnership with Vercel and integration with RevenueCat. Previously, the company has experienced 40% year-over-year growth and these factors will build on that.
“We are incredibly excited about the momentum Paddle has experienced so far in 2025,” said Paddle CEO Jimmy Fitzgerald. “We only win when those we serve win, and the growth we’re seeing across the market reflects that shared success. We are seeing a huge increase in the number of consumer app businesses choosing Paddle to manage their web monetization, and will continue to invest in this space with the new financing and strengthened leadership. We look forward to building on these achievements through the rest of the year and beyond as we continue to serve thousands of digital product companies worldwide.”
Paddle’s growth and fresh funding is an indication that SaaS and digital product companies are taking a new approach to global payments. As Gen AI and mobile-first implementation accelerate, companies need flexible infrastructure that handles compliance, tax, and localization without adding complexity. Paddle’s MoR approach is emerging as an alternative to fragmented payment stacks, especially as regulations tighten. Ultimately, today’s funding round and executive expansion show how Paddle is positioning itself not just as a payment provider, but as a strategic player in SaaS payments.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from France.
Spiko secured $22 million in Series A funding
French fintech platform Spiko has raised €18.9 million ($22 million) in Series A funding. The round was led by Index Ventures and featured participation from White Star Capital, Frst, Rerail, Bpifrance, and Blockwall. Spiko will use the funds to power its go-to-market strategy and to make investments in sales, marketing, product development, and new partnerships.
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Paris, Spiko offers a cash management platform designed to democratize access to money market funds and treasury yields. Spiko leverages tokenization technology to enable individuals and businesses to earn interest on their cash by investing in Treasury bills.
“In Europe, there’s a mistaken belief that your money won’t earn interest unless you lock it away or take on risk,” Spiko Co-founder Paul-Adrien Hyppolite said. “But as long as central bank rates are above zero, sitting on idle cash means European businesses are missing out on returns that US competitors routinely receive. With Spiko, we’re changing the game by making it easy for anyone to put their cash to work.”
Spiko’s business is based on what the company says is €21.5 trillion in European bank deposits that are “missing out” on higher yields. These funds also lack essential capital protection and contribute to capital inefficiency. This is unlike in the US where systems for managing liquidity are more sophisticated, enabling both small companies and large enterprises to earn interest on their cash holdings without fear of losing liquidity. Meanwhile in Europe, more and more companies have been seeking better cash optimization strategies, as well as ways to diversify their cash deposits. As a former economist at the French Treasury, Hyppolite—and his co-founder Antoine Michon, who was a technology advisor to France’s Minister of Public Sector Transformation—have had a front-row seat to this challenge.
After a year in operation, Spiko has more than €344 million ($401 million) in AUM and has processed more than €775 million ($902 million) in working capital from 1,000+ businesses. Spiko anticipates achieving €862 million ($1 billion) in AUM by the end of the year.
Paris-based Qonto seeks banking license
Financial management solution provider Qonto is looking to grow its lending, savings, and investment capabilities and has applied for a banking license from France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) in an effort to make it happen. The company, which is headquartered in Paris, currently holds a payment institution license. But securing full bank authorization would enable the firm to expand its offerings to its customers across Europe.
“SMEs need comprehensive financing solutions, and while we already serve many customers through partnerships and our Pay Later service, a banking license will enable us to expand these capabilities with complete independence,” Qonto CEO and Co-Founder Alexandre Prot said. “This application builds on our proven financial performance, having achieved profitability ahead of schedule in 2023, and supports our mission to create financial freedom for two million SMEs and freelancers across Europe by 2030.”
Qonto offers a B2B account for finance management that provides businesses with automated tools to help them manage their finances, adhere to regulations, and make better financial decisions. Businesses can use Qonto to make and receive payments, send invoices, manage expenses, seek financing, and monitor cash flow. Currently operating in eight European markets including France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, Qonto could also be positioning itself before new payment regulations in the EU—specifically Payment Services Directive 3 (PSD3) and Payment Services Regulation (PSR)—become fully implemented.
Founded in 2017 by Prot and Steve Anavi, Qonto has raised more than €600 million in funding.
Skarlett raises €8 million to bring financial services to seniors
In a funding round led by 115K, the venture capital arm of La Banque Postale, French fintech Skarletthas raised €8 million ($9.3 million) in seed funding. The Parisian-based company offers a financial services platform designed for adults over the age of 60. Nearly a third of the French population meets this qualification, yet Skarlett founders Townley Le Guénédal, Benjamin Gaignault, and Aurélien Gouttefarde have wagered that these seniors are being underserved by conventional financial institutions.
“We want to bring simplicity, transparency, and negotiation power back into the hands of this generation,” CEO Le Guénédal said. “Retirement doesn’t make you invisible. People want to live fully, invest, and protect their loved ones. Skarlett is here to help them do that.”
To this end, Skarlett offers a number of products—such as personalized health insurance, mortgage, and credit options—that are designed for the unique circumstances of older borrowers and savers. The company also offers senior-focused life insurance through a partnership with Generali.
The round also featured participation from Raise Seed for Good and Alven, which led Skarlett’s pre-seed funding round in 2023, the year the company was founded. Skarlett will leverage the proceeds of its latest capital infusion to launch its own tailor-made financial solutions for adults over the age of 60 and to invest in AI to enhance the customer experience with more personalized recommendations.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Singaporean fintech Chocolate Finance integrated transaction enrichment technology from Snowdrop Solutions into its mobile app.
Mobile payments platform QwikPay launched in Australia.
Philippine National Bank (PNB) partnered with Japan’s Digital Wallet Corporation to enhance its money transfer services.
Sub-Saharan Africa
MoneyBadger, a bitcoin payments startup based in South Africa, raised $400,000 in pre-seed funding.
South African fintech Stitch has acquired digital payments company Efficacy Payments.
Network International teamed up with Ghanian fintech and mobile money aggregator Blu Penguin.
Central and Eastern Europe
Lithuanian Electronic Money Institution Genome teamed up with Huch for real-time payment alerts.
French fintech Silvr announced plans to enter the German market.
Walletto, a payments platform based in Lithuania, announced a partnership with financial consultancy Fintech Poland.
Paytech Global Payments renewed its partnership with Banamex to enhance payment solutions for the Mexican acquiring and banking services market.
The Trump Administration has called for an investigation into Brazil’s digital trade practices, including its instant payment system Pix, over alleged unfair treatment to US companies.
Paychex is partnering with SoFi to offer employees access to personal finance tools like loan refinancing and debt management through its digital benefits marketplace.
Employees cover the cost of the tools via payroll deduction, which means the employer gets to offer the tools at no cost.
This move helps even small businesses stay competitive in a tight labor market by delivering enterprise-grade perks that support employee financial well-being and retention.
Human capital management (HCM) company Paychexannounced this week that it is teaming up with financial platform SoFi to bring end users access to SoFi’s personal finance tools.
Specifically, users of Paychex Flex Perks can connect to SoFi’s solutions via Paychex’s digital employee benefits marketplace. With this access, employees of Paychex customers can use SoFi’s solutions to support their journey to financial independence, including personal loans, student loans, loan refinancing, and more.
“Employees today expect their employer to help support their financial well-being—it’s no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ benefit,” said Paychex Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Business Development, and Investor Relations Cory Mau. “Businesses that provide access to financial wellness benefits often increase employee productivity, recruit and retain talent more effectively, and ultimately drive positive business outcomes.”
Paychex FlexPerks is available in Paychex Flex, a cloud-based HCM SaaS platform that makes it easy for employees to enroll in benefits. Paychex Flex Perks allows even small businesses to offer enterprise-level benefits to entice and retain employees. Launched in 2024, the marketplace has helped more than 230,000 employees purchase at least one benefit from the marketplace.
Employees can use Paychex’s benefits marketplace to select additional benefits based on their own needs. The employees pay for the additional benefits via payroll deduction, meaning they do not pose additional cost to the employer.
The benefits are made possible by SoFi at Work. Launched in 2016, SoFi at Work aims to help employers offer their workforce student loan refinancing, repayment options, a debt navigator tool, financial education resources, and more.
“Our partnership with Paychex marks a major milestone in SoFi at Work’s mission to help more Americans achieve financial independence,” said SoFi EVP for Spend, Invest, Protect, and Save Kelli Keough. “Financial tools and top-tier benefits should be available to everyone, not just employees of large companies. That’s why we’re partnering with Paychex, to make it easier for companies of all sizes, to support their workforce with meaningful and actionable benefits. Embedding SoFi’s financial well-being tools directly into Paychex will help millions of users nationwide take more control of their financial futures.”
As more employers recognize that financial stress impacts productivity and retention, embedding financial wellness tools directly into HR platforms is nearly becoming table stakes rather than a differentiator. The integration between Paychex and SoFi allows small and medium-sized businesses to offer the kind of high-quality financial tools and benefits that were previously only accessible at enterprise scale. In a tight labor market, that is a big deal where benefits can make or break acquiring quality talent.
Financial crime prevention innovator BioCatch has launched its behavior-based scam-fighting solution, BioCatch Scams360.
The new offering helps financial institutions deal with social engineering-based scams such as authorized push payment (APP) fraud.
Founded in 2011, BioCatch made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014 in New York.
Financial crime prevention company BioCatch recently unveiled the latest edition of its behavior-based scam-fighting solution: BioCatch Scams360. Designed especially to deal with the challenge of authorized push payment (APP) fraud, BioCatch Scams360 enables financial institutions to spot and stop most APP fraud in real time.
APP fraud leverages psychological manipulation to entice victims into transferring their funds to accounts owned by fraudsters. These sophisticated social engineering-based scams can range in tactics from romantic overtures and investment pitches to business email compromise and impersonation of friends or loved ones. To fight this, BioCatch Scams360 uses behavioral and device intelligence to give financial institutions the contextual knowledge they need to distinguish legitimate user behavior from indications that the user may be under some form of manipulation by a nefarious party.
Examples of this can include the rate of the user’s typing, the speed with which they respond to prompts, prolonged periods of in-session inactivity, and/or making a phone call during an online banking session. BioCatch is able to track up to 3,000 different behavioral and device-based datapoints to help distinguish behavior that is genuine from behavior that may be criminally manipulated.
“Already we’re seeing a 50% improvement in our ability to detect non-impersonation scams,” BioCatch Chief Product Officer Ayelet Eliezer said. “Scams360’s current alert rate—the percentage of total transactions requiring banks to intervene—is also best-in-class, helping banks deploying Scams360 to keep their operational costs low while stopping more scams in real time, before any money leaves the would-be victim’s account.”
The new offering builds on the company’s previous success in combatting impersonation-based scams; BioCatch noted that it had helped a regional bank stop $100 million in impersonation scam payments in 2024 alone. BioCatch recently teamed up with The Knoble, a Tennessee-based alliance of financial service professionals, law enforcement, and regulators dedicated to fighting crimes such as human trafficking, financial scams, child sexual exploitation, and elder exploitation. Together, the two organizations launched an anti-scam guide and cost calculator that underscores the fact that the cost of fraud often exceeds direct financial losses to include customer churn, reputational risk, compliance exposure, and more.
“We are excited to see more innovation out of BioCatch to combat the global increase in scams,” The Knoble Founder and Board Chair Ian Mitchell said. “BioCatch is leading a growing list of solution providers working to protect banking customers and communities from the increased complexity of scams.”
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in New York, BioCatch made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014. Today, the company counts more than 250 financial institutions—including 34 of the world’s largest banks—among its customers. BioCatch’s technology analyzes 15+ billion user sessions every month, helping more than 525 million people worldwide defend themselves against fraud and cybercrime.
BioCatch’s product news comes at the same time that the firm reported topping $160 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in Q2 of this year, the best second quarter in the company’s history. In May, BioCatch announced that it was partnering with identity and fraud prevention platform provider Alloy to integrate its account opening solution into Alloy’s platform. Alloy is an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016.
What does it take for financial institutions interested in AI technology to move from the point of experimentation to actual execution?
In this Streamly Snapshot interview, conducted at FinovateSpring in San Diego, California earlier this year, Global Director of VASS Financial Services Javier Pérez García talks about what financial institutions need to know in order to make the most of their investments in AI and how VASS is leveraging AI to transform and enhance financial services. García also talks about the value of execution relative to experimentation and shares his thoughts on real-world AI technology deployment in fields such as fraud prevention and compliance.
“You only get to that space where you are jumping from experimentation to execution if you align three major skills: one, deep knowledge of the technology … the second is knowledge of financial services, something the financial entities already have covered. But they don’t have enough experience, this is the third skill, of deploying AI. Why is this important? You might decide the right use case, but maybe you don’t have enough data, maybe the expectations that have been generated inside the organization are too high … You need the experience of someone else to help you … to define and identify if that investment is going to come in the first weeks of the project.”
VASS is an international digital transformation company that helps people, organizations, and businesses around the world provide best-in-class digital solutions to customers in banking, insurance, telecommunications, retail, media, public administration, and more. Founded in 1999, the company is based in Madrid, Spain.
Javier Pérez García is Global Director at VASS Financial Services, a team of experienced professionals with track records in helping fintechs, banks, and insurers modernize and reach their technological transformation goals. García has deep expertise in financial services IT architecture, AI deployment, and compliance-driven digital transformation strategies. He leads global modernization programs for banks and fintechs, aligning complex tech initiatives with regulatory requirements and helping institutions scale AI from pilot to production.
Anthropic launched a Financial Analysis Solution for its LLM Claude.
The Financial Analysis Solution will enable finance professionals to analyze markets, automate workflows, and make investment decisions using integrated data from platforms like Databricks and Snowflake while keeping user data secure and private.
With strategic partnerships spanning data providers and consulting firms, Claude is positioning itself alongside industry-specific LLMs like BloombergGPT to become an indispensable enterprise tool in financial services.
Anthropic announced this week that it is bolstering the resume of its LLM Claude. The California-based AI research company launched a solution for financial analysis that helps finance professionals analyze markets, conduct research, and make investment decisions.
Rather than require users to manually type details in to Claude, the Financial Analysis Solution creates a portal that unifies users’ financial data such as market feeds and internal data stored on third party platforms like Databricks and Snowflake. Analysts can use the new solution to modernize trading systems, develop proprietary models, automate compliance, and run complex analyses. Teams can monitor portfolios and compare performance and do not need to worry about inputting data into the platform, as users’ financial data is kept secure and is not used to train generative AI models.
The move into financial services tools lowers the barrier for mid-sized banks, asset managers, and even fintechs to build sophisticated tools without needing to hire large internal data science teams.
“Our strategic partnership with Anthropic is foundational to our success and our strategy to become a global leader in AI innovation in banking,” said Commonwealth Bank of Australia Chief Technology Officer Rodrigo Castillo. “Claude’s advanced capabilities, combined with Anthropic’s commitment to safety, are central to our purpose of harnessing AI responsibly, as we drive for transformation in critical areas like fraud prevention & customer service enhancement.”
With this launch, Claude is differentiating itself by forming partnerships with data providers that offer users access to the latest financial information via Box, Daloopa, Databricks, FactSet, Morningstar, Palantir, PitchBook, S&P Global, and Snowflake. Additionally, the new tool offers data access and implementation expertise through consultancy partners that provide tailored solutions across compliance, research, and enterprise AI adoption. These partners include Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, Slalom, TribeAI, and Turing.
Claude said that Financial Analysis Solution gives users a leg up on both speed and quality. The partnerships help analysts identify opportunities faster than traditional methods. And, when its client FundamentalLabs deployed it to build an Excel agent, Claude passed five out of seven levels of the Financial Modeling World Cup competition and scored 83% accuracy on complex Excel tasks.
“Claude has fundamentally transformed the way we work at NBIM. With Claude, we estimate that we have achieved ~20% productivity gains, equivalent to 213,000 hours,” said Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (NBIM) CEO Nicolai Tangen. “Our portfolio managers and risk department can now seamlessly query our Snowflake data warehouse and analyze earnings calls with unprecedented efficiency. From automating monitoring of newsflow for 9,000 companies to enabling more efficient voting, Claude has become indispensable.”
Anthropic isn’t the first LLM-owner to create an industry-specific solution. Others have launched AI specialization tools for industry verticals, including OpenAI’s GPTs, Google’s Gemini 1.5 for code and finance, and domain-specific LLMs like BloombergGPT. With its Financial Analysis Solution, Anthropic is making the move to compete more directly with its enterprise use cases.
With the first half of 2025 behind us, it’s a good time to look forward to what the second half of the year will bring. The first two quarters were packed with change: from the stablecoin frenzy and cuts to the CFPB in the US, to new regulatory crackdowns across Europe and the reversal of Section 1033, reshaping the future of open banking. Meanwhile, banks and fintechs are ramping up their use of AI, navigating new regulatory requirements, and adapting to global momentum around real-time payments and digital identity.
With all of this change, it’s hard to imagine the surprises that the next two quarters will bring. And while I can’t predict all of the surprises, there are five trends that banks and fintechs should not ignore as we move into the second half of the year.
The open banking conversation evolves
In the EU, PSD3 and the Financial Data Access (FIDA) framework are being finalized and the UK is moving forward with Open Banking 2.0 under the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee (JROC). In contrast, the US is in a period of regulatory uncertainty. The CFPB is pulling back from Section 1033 and JPMorgan revealed to data aggregators that it plans to increase the cost for them to pull consumer data. Banks need to keep a close eye on the evolving conversations around open banking as ripple effects take place across the globe.
AI becomes an arms race in financial services
AI is quickly becoming table stakes for financial services organizations. AI-native fintechs are setting new expectations around service, automation, and personalization. And firms are no longer stopping at chatbots and GenAI technologies. Instead, banks across Europe, the US, and Asia are increasingly integrating agentic AI, and even hiring AI agents for tasks like underwriting, compliance, and customer service. Expect the second half of the year to bring a continued rise in AI literacy programs and internal tooling as firms upskill teams and reduce reliance on third-party vendors by turning instead to agentic AI.
Tokenization takes over
In the first half of 2025, we saw major pilots for tokenized deposits, treasuries, and real-world assets (RWAs). In the latter half of the year, we can expect to see real world implementations, particularly in wholesale payments, interbank settlement, and liquidity management. Regulatory clarity is also beginning to transpire. Jurisdictions like the EU, Hong Kong, and Singapore are starting to define legal frameworks for tokenized financial products. This may prompt US regulators to clarify the treatment of tokenized deposits and securities.
Identity verification becomes a battleground
With rising fraud, easy-to-create deepfakes, and an increase in embedded finance, financial institutions are shifting from one-time identity checks to continuous, context-aware identity verification. The second half of this year will bring increased adoption of reusable digital IDs, decentralized identity frameworks (DID), and advanced biometrics tied to behavioral signals. As always, the challenge will be balancing a low-friction user experience with high security.
Real-time payments reshape expectations
FedNow is gaining traction in the US, ISO 20022 began rolling out earlier this week, and stablecoin-powered cross-border projects are on the rise. All of these aspects, plus an increase in stablecoin adoption are making real-time payments the norm and are raising customer expectations. Banks that can’t meet those expectations risk losing ground to more nimble players.
