Meet the Judges: Finovate Awards Introduce 2026 Selection Committee

Meet the Judges: Finovate Awards Introduce 2026 Selection Committee
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Awards

The 2026 Finovate Awards are here! Celebrating the best and brightest in fintech and financial services, this year’s awards will crown more than 30 winners in fields such as payments, lending, alternative investing, financial inclusion, and more! Nominations are now open, so check out this year’s Finovate Awards categories and submit your nomination. Submit before April 24 and save $100 on the nomination fee.

This year’s competition will be judged by a team of experts from the banking, fintech, and financial services industries. “An award is only worth something if the people giving it know their stuff, and our amazing lineup of judges this year should be exciting for everyone involved,” Finovate VP of Strategy Greg Palmer said, “It’s great to see so much talent on the roster!”

Take a look for yourself at this year’s selection committee. Also joining this year’s judging team will be Finovate VPs Greg Palmer and Heather Stowell, along with Finovate Research Analysts Julie Muhn and David Penn.

Mary Wisniewski, Editor-at-Large, Cornerstone Advisors

Wisniewski is editor-at-large at Cornerstone Advisors where she helps shape content strategy and hosts Money Isn’t Everything, a biweekly podcast that explores early-stage fintech ideas. She also writes a monthly editor’s note, Finteching with Mary, on LinkedIn.

A frequent speaker at leading digital banking events, Wisniewski has covered fintech and digital banking for more than 12 years, with bylines in GonzoBanker, American Banker, Bankrate, the Associated Press, and more.

Kilian Thalhammer, Managing Director, Deutsche Bank AG

With more than 20 years in payments, fintech, e-commerce, and loyalty, Thalhammer is an expert in managing critical product, strategy and business development issues. After being Director Solutions for the Swiss Post, he joined RatePay (Otto Group) as CPO and was global CPO of PAYMILL (Rocket Internet) until 2014.

Kilian is now responsible for the business unit merchant solutions at Deutsche Bank. This covers Deutsche Bank’s global issuing and acceptance business and the business with fintech, platform & technology clients.

Noel Stave, Chief Technology Officer, RBC Clearing & Custody

Stave serves as Chief Technology Officer of RBC Clearing & Custody, where he has built a 25-year career spanning leadership roles across technology, finance, and operations—most recently as Chief Operating Officer before assuming his current position in 2021.

As CTO, Stave oversees technology product management, technology strategy, data management, engineering, fintech partnerships, service & support, technology training, and consulting for the firm.

Lisa Gold Schier, Advisor, Reading Cooperative Bank

Schier is a trusted C-Suite adviser specializing in fintech evaluation and go-to-market strategy within the banking and technology sectors. She brings deep expertise in assessing financial technology solutions and guiding their successful market entry and adoption by financial institutions. 

Schier is recognized for building and leading strategic partnerships from ideation through contract negotiation to financial institution adoption and ongoing business development. 

Glen Sarvady, Founder, 154 Advisors

Sarvady is a 25 year veteran of the payments and fintech industries. His firm 154 Advisors provides actionable insights, data-driven analysis and strategy formulation to help FIs navigate the rapidly evolving payments landscape.

Sarvady is a former Federal Reserve Bank examiner and part of the startup team that launched the University of Pennsylvania Student Federal Credit Union. He also managed Deluxe’s financial services check and payments programs for two years.

Carey Ransom, Managing Director, BankTech Ventures

Ransom is an SaaS entrepreneur, executive, investor, and advisor. He has started, grown, and/or led eight B2B and consumer SaaS companies during startup and growth phases.

He is currently the Managing Director of BankTech Ventures, a strategic investment fund focused on empowering disruptive technologies for community banks. Founded and funded by leaders in the community banking world and endorsed by the ICBA (Independent Community Bankers of America) and The Venture Center, the fund won Finovate’s 2020 Accelerator of the Year.

Jim Perry, Senior Strategist, Market Insights

As Senior Strategist at Market Insights, Perry helps financial institutions across the country make smarter decisions and unlock new paths to growth through custom research and data-driven strategy. A trusted advisor to banks and credit unions across the US, Perry brings clarity to complex challenges and a fresh perspective to conversations about growth, innovation, and relevance in a rapidly changing landscape.

Co-founder of the Fintech Book Club and named one of the “Top 100 Fintech Influencers” by Onalytics, Perry is a regular on the speaker circuit at industry events from local associations to global conferences.

Lohith Paripati, Product Leader, Walmart

Paripati is a seasoned product leader with over a decade of experience building and scaling fintech and commerce platforms. He currently leads AI-driven initiatives for Walmart Marketplace sellers, focusing on applying generative AI to payments and financial workflows to drive growth and efficiency at scale.

Paripati brings deep expertise in payments, monetization, and platform strategy, with a strong focus on aligning customer value with business outcomes. 

Tiffani Montez, Principal Analyst, EMARKETER

Montez is Principal Analyst leading the Analyst Access Program for Financial Services at EMARKETER formerly Insider Intelligence. She oversees the content across Banking, which provides actionable insights on advancements in how value is stored, managed, transferred, and spent, for an audience of top banks and neobanks. 

Her unique blend of experience as a practitioner, analyst, and vendor solution provider gives her the foundation to be able to provide thought leadership to clients through all lenses of the financial services ecosystem.

William Mills III, Chief Executive Officer, William Mills Agency

Mills joined the firm in 1983 and founded their public relations services in 1989 which now accounts for more than 90% of their billings. He serves as lead consultant for the agency’s clients and has personally advised more than 500 C-level executives on marketing strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions, company branding and public relations.

Mills’ other responsibilities include agency financial management, client consulting and leading business development and marketing services for the agency.

Eric McCabe, Head of Embedded Finance, Citizens

McCabe serves as Head of Embedded Finance at Citizens. In this capacity he guides the bank’s effort to embed Citizens financial products in third-party platforms used by Citizens customers, and to enable platforms, brands, and fintechs to provide financial services to their customers, backed by Citizens.

Prior to joining Citizens, McCabe held roles in Embedded Payments, Fintech Strategy, Product and Operations at SVB and Citi. 

Suraj Manjunath, Executive Director, Investment Banking Technology, JP Morgan

Manjunath is a senior product leader shaping the future of investment banking through AI-driven innovation. He is experienced in leading large, cross-functional teams to drive strategic change and unlock growth, efficiency, and competitive advantage across the global investment banking ecosystem.

Manjunath specializes in applying artificial intelligence, automation, and data-led insight to reimagine how financial institutions operate, make decisions, and deliver value. 

Luther Liang, SVP, Head of Product, Grasshopper Bank

Liang leads the strategy and execution behind fintech products that empower small businesses, consumers, commercial enterprises, and fintech (Banking-as-a-Service) partners.

Grasshopper’s product roadmap to delivered the bank a premium exit at ~2.5x tangible book value $369M acquisition by Enova International in December 2025 that significantly outperformed the 1.5x industry median.

Sam Kilmer, Managing Director, Cornerstone Advisors

Kilmer leads Cornerstone Advisors’ fintech advisory practice working with industry providers, fintechs, and investors. He also leads selective strategy engagements with banks and credit unions. Sam’s prior experience includes leadership at two financial tech firms and two midsize banks including digital banking, marketing, analytics, implementations, partnerships, and strategy.

Kilmer is a nationally sought-after speaker, industry research author, host of Fintech Hustle podcast, and a contributor to GonzoBanker and the industry press.

Bruno Jivan, Head of Innovation and Research, Novobanco

Jivan is Director of Innovation & Research at novobanco. He has broad and diversified experience across the financial sector, including credit analysis, risk, project finance, M&A, product, marketing, transformation and innovation.

In his current role, he focuses on fostering innovation culture and mindset, strengthening connections with the fintech ecosystem, and leading the large‑scale adoption of AI across the organization to deliver practical, customer‑centric impact.

Nicolai Farcas, Chief Technology Officer, Consumer, Small & Business Banking Digital, Wells Fargo Bank

Farcas is a senior executive leader with over 25 years of experience driving enterprise strategy, transformation, and execution across global financial services organizations. He specializes in Consumer and Small Business Banking, including the Move Money portfolio, enterprise PMO leadership, and large-scale business and technology transformation initiatives.

During his tenure at Wells Fargo, Nicolai has held senior leadership roles including Global C-Suite Executive, Chief Technology Officer, and Head of the Project Management Office (PMO). 

Sam Das, Managing Director, TruStage Ventures

Das is Managing Director of TruStage Ventures, the venture capital arm of TruStage. Since joining, Das has focused on sourcing, investing and advising early-stage fintech and insurtech startups. He is also the Vice President of Corporate Development at TruStage, evaluating and executing a broad range of strategic transactions for the organization. Das joined TruStage in 2017.

Prior to joining TruStage, Das was the founder and CEO of a fintech startup and served as an investment banker at firms including Houlihan Lokey and Fox-Pitt, Kelton. 

Sushma Daggubati, Manager of Product Management, Mastercard

Since 2016, and over her eight years at Mastercard, Daggubati has consistently progressed to more challenging positions every two years from release management to software engineering, leading to her current position, denoting an exceptional ability to transition from pure technical roles to more commercial ones.

She has also contributed to the industry by developing several patents which have been cited by some of the world’s largest and most prestigious firms including Shopify, Walmart, and Worldpay.

Soner Canko, Founder, SC Management Advisory

Canko graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences at Istanbul University, where he also earned his Master’s and PhD degrees. He began his career in multinational corporations, holding various roles at Procter & Gamble, Citibank, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and First Data.

Recognized for his work in financial technologies, Canko currently serves as a management consultant and independent board member. He is also actively involved in the following platforms: Turkish Enterprise Institutions, FinTech Istanbul, Blockchain Türkiye.

Tanya Andreasyan, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, FinTech Futures

Andreasyan is MD and Editor-in-Chief of FinTech Futures, the definitive source of intelligence for the global fintech sector. An experienced journalist and a long-term resident of the fintech ecosystem, she has extensive understanding and knowledge of the industry and its participants.

With in-depth coverage of fintech issues on a worldwide scale, FinTech Futures is a leading resource for technology buyers, sellers, developers, integrators and other specialists across the sector.

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Bluefin Payment Systems, Fintech Rundown, NYMBUS, PayNearMe, Plaid, SuperMoney

FinovateSpring is right around the corner (May 5-7). So while we’re busily compiling and sharing the top fintech headlines and announcements of the day, please forgive us for occasionally sharing our excitement at what we believe is an incredible line-up at this year’s conference.

From the more than 40 companies that will be making their Finovate debuts to an all-star roster of insightful banking and fintech keynote speakers and panelists, FinovateSpring 2026 in sunny San Diego is an event you won’t want to miss!

Until then, we’ll keep you posted on the fintech news you need to know here at the Fintech Rundown!

Wealth management

AI-native registered investment advisor Savvy Wealth unveils its agentic AI solution for advisors, Savvy Intelligence.

Mackenzie Investments teams up OneVest to power a full digital transformation, including the launch of modern advisor and investor portals, a new mobile app, and more.

GCC-based wealth management firm, The Family Office, launches its AI-powered assistant, Wealth Mermaid, fully integrated into its Client app.

Payments

PayNearMe unveils new capabilities within its PayXM platform including Payer Re-Engagement, Dynamic Payment Options, and Invite a Payer.

International payments infrastructure company Latitude secures $8 million in seed funding.

Payment orchestration platform MoneyHash teams up with Oman-based Thawani Pay.

Agile Ticketing announces an expansion of its partnership with payment infrastructure innovator Bluefin.

Enfuce, a card issuing and payment processing provider and a Finovate Award winner, to join Mastercard Product Express to support business card issuance throughout Europe.

Stablecoins

Cross-border payments platform dLocal launches Stablecoin Full to enable merchants to collect, convert, and make payouts using stablecoins across emerging markets.

Business banking fintech Meow partners with stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK to power crypto-to-fiat business payments.

C-suite

Capital markets technology platform services provider Trading Technologies introduces new Chief Strategy Officer Nick Garrow.

Chase UK selects Monzo’s chief banking officer Kunal Malani as its new CEO.

Nymbus introduces new Chief Revenue Officer Aimee Ford.

Digital banking

Mexican neobank Plata reached a valuation of $5 billion after closing a $405 million Series C round.

Financial wellness

SuperMoney announces relaunch as an AI financial assistant.

Mortgagetech

Earl Shilton Building Society partners with One Mortgage System (OMS) to deliver its originations platform.

Regtech

Broadridge Financial Solutions announces a strategic partnership and minority investment in due diligence solutions provider CENTRL.

Fraud prevention

Alloy deepens its partnership with Plaid to help financial institutions defend themselves better against AI-powered fraud.

Early Warning Services launches Certos, a unified brand portfolio of fraud and identity risk solutions.

Photo by Carl Wang on Unsplash

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Finovate Global Central America and the Caribbean: Credit, Stablecoins, and Wallets

Finovate Global Central America and the Caribbean: Credit, Stablecoins, and Wallets
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: eToro, Finastra, Finovate Global, Nubank

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Aruba.

Credit Assessment Platform CreditYa Launched in Guatemala

Colombia-based financial services company YUMIVI S.A.S has brought its AI-powered credit assessment platform, CreditYa, to Guatemala. CreditYa is a digital microcredit platform designed to provide small, fast, accessible, and reliable financing to individuals and small business owners. Founded by Wingston Oswaldo González Reyes, CreditYa’s entry into the Guatemalan market is the company’s first expansion beyond its native Colombia. The company’s Regional Operations Lead María Gabriela noted in a statement that the launch was “the first step in (the company’s) long-term commitment” toward making financial services more accessible to “every hard-working Guatemalan with a digital footprint.”

Gabriela added: “In Guatemala, business opportunities are often fleeting. Whether it is purchasing materials in advance to meet a sudden surge in orders or repairing store equipment that fails unexpectedly, entrepreneurs need timely access to fast and flexible financial support—not an endless approval process. Our goal is to eliminate delays through technology. Users only need to download the app, complete identity verification, and authorize data access within minutes to receive a preliminary credit assessment and, in most cases, gain access to financial support within 24 hours.”

Using advanced data analytics and AI intelligence, CreditYa delivers fast and convenient digital financial services to individuals and microenterprises in Latin America. The company has established partnerships with local payment gateways and data processing providers to ensure that its operations are compliant with local regulations. CreditYa will also work with community organizations to deliver financial education and boost financial inclusion in the Guatemalan market.

“We are not just a financial app,” Gabriela said. “We aspire to be a trusted partner for users as they pursue a better life and grow their businesses.”

Tether Introduces New Stablecoin Wallet

Digital asset company and issuer of the USDT stablecoin, Tether launched tether.wallet, the People’s Wallet, this week. Tether.wallet is a self-custodial digital wallet that puts the company’s international financial infrastructure directly into the hands of its users.

“Tether has achieved, without any doubts, the widest financial inclusion success story in the history of humanity,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino boasted. “With more than 570 million people already using Tether’s technology, the next step is making that digital infrastructure even more accessible and usable by the end users. The objective is to remove the complexity that has prevented broader adoption while preserving the properties that make the digital assets technology valuable.”

Until now, Tether operated primarily as part of the underlying layer of the digital economy, enabling liquidity, settlement, and payments across more than 160 countries, with its USDT stablecoin becoming among the most popular digital representations of the US dollar. The launch of tether.wallet puts this entire infrastructure in the hands of end users, enabling them to transact in digital dollars by way of USDT and USAT, gold by way of XAUT, and via Bitcoin. The wallet is built to remove the complexity that tends to limit broader embrace of digital assets, for example, enabling users to send funds with simple, straightforward, human-readable identifiers such as “[email protected]” rather than long, error-prone wallet addresses.

The solution is 100% self-custodial. All transactions are signed locally on the user’s device before being broadcast to the network, and private keys and recovery phrases remain under exclusive control of the end user.

“Tether.wallet is ‘the People’s Wallet’ because it truly reflects the natural evolution of Tether’s role, from building the foundation of the digital asset economy to making it directly usable by anyone, ready for a future in which tens of billions of humans, machines, and trillions of AI agents will transact seamlessly at the speed of light,” Ardoino said.

Founded in 2014, Tether named El Salvador as its formal headquarters last year after securing a license under the country’s Digital Asset Issuance Law. The goal was to capitalize on El Salvador’s status as an emerging crypto currency hub and its embrace of Bitcoin. The move gave Tether its first physical headquarters. The firm was previously incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.

Aruba-based AIB Bank Partners with Finastra for Digital Banking

AIB Bank, an Aruba-based financial institution with nearly $2 billion in assets, has inked a deal with Finastra to deploy its Finastra Essence core banking solution. The deployment is part of AIB Bank’s goal of establishing the first fully digital bank in the country. Finastra Essence will deliver an enhanced core solution that blends broad and deep digital banking functionality with advanced technology to empower banks to offer customers faster transactions, greater reliability and security, and the kind of modern, personalized digital experiences that customers have come to expect.

“Choosing Finastra Essence allows us to position ourselves at the forefront of full-service digital banking innovation in Aruba and across the Caribbean,” AIB Managing Director Frendsel Giel said. “This transformation of our recently acquired commercial bank will not only enhance the way we serve our customers but also establish a solid foundation for accelerated growth and long-term success in Aruba and the region.”

Founded in 1987, AIB Bank is a privately owned financial institution based in Oranjestad, Aruba. The company specializes in loan syndication, agency services, corporate lending, program and project management, as well as advisory services, and has structured large and complex financing through Aruba and the region.

Formed via a merger between D+H Corporation and Finovate alum Misys in 2017, Finastra works with banks and other financial institutions to help them deliver secure and trusted mission-critical financial services technology. Headquartered in the UK, Finastra has more than 7,000 customers around the world using its financial services software, including 80% of the top 50 global banks, and moves $7 trillion in transactions every day. Chris Walters is Finastra’s CEO.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • PitchBook looked at the current state of venture capital funding for fintechs in Africa.
  • South African bank Capitec partnered with Wise Platform, Wise’s international payments infrastructure for banks and enterprises.
  • Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator reached 100 startups since inception with its fifth cohort.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Germany’s Deutsche Börse purchased a 1.%% fully diluted stake in crypto platform Kraken.
  • Polish fintech PragmaGO, which provides financial services for small and medium-sized businesses, expanded to Croatia.
  • Cryptonews examined how the recent election in Hungary could rekindle debate on crypto policy and regulation.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Nu Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of Brazil’s Nubank, topped the 15 million customer milestone, establishing itself as one of Mexico’s three largest financial institutions by customer base.
  • Uruguay-based cross-border payment platform dLocal partnered with Italy’s NEC to power international remittance payouts.
  • Aruba’s AIB Bank teamed up with Finastra and will deploy the fintech’s core banking solution Finastra Essence.

Asia-Pacific

  • Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, expanded its partnership with Finastra to support ACH payments in the US.
  • Indonesian bank CIMB Niaga, Google Cloud, and Artefact unveiled enterprise AI agents to bring greater personalization to the banking experience for customers.
  • Australian Trade and Investment Commission sent a delegation to Vietnam to support deepening fintech ties with the country.

Photo by Rodrigo Escalante on Unsplash

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Oracle Brings Agentic AI Platform to Corporate Banking

Oracle Brings Agentic AI Platform to Corporate Banking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Oracle is embedding agentic AI directly into corporate banking workflows, launching pre-built agents across credit, trade finance, treasury, and lending.
  • The tools target some of banking’s most manual, document-heavy processes, enabling faster decisions and allowing teams to scale output without adding headcount.
  • With a human-in-the-loop approach and hundreds more agents coming, Oracle is positioning AI as operational infrastructure.

Enterprise technology company Oracle is deepening its agentic AI prowess this week. The Texas-based company announced it is adding new embedded AI capabilities and agents for its corporate bank clients.

Oracle’s new agentic AI tools will offer clients a suite of AI-infused applications and pre-built AI agents for treasury, trade finance, credit, and lending. As a result, firms can automate once-manual processes and speed decision-making, ultimately unlocking new opportunities for growth.

“Corporate banking runs on precision, resiliency, and trust,” said Oracle Financial Services Senior Vice President Sovan Shatpathy. “Our AI-powered platform embeds intelligence directly into mission-critical processes, accelerating decisions and strengthening governance so banks can serve clients with greater speed and confidence.”

The two main pillars of the new launch include corporate credit and trade and supply chain finance. The corporate credit arm has five main agents that help with data extraction from loans, financial statements, and documents, and generate credit memo reports. The trade and supply chain finance has an application validator agent that ingests bank guarantee application packages and supporting documents and delivers a risk recommendation, as well as an agent that analyzes sales contracts and designs an appropriate supply chain finance program.

Because Oracle’s agentic AI takes a human-in-the-loop approach, all decisions are supported by human expertise, maintaining oversight and ethical governance. Oracle said that these agents are among “hundreds” of other corporate and retail banking agents that will launch in the next 12 months.

Much of the AI development we’ve seen in banking over the past two years has been customer-facing, taking the form of chatbots and personalization tools. Oracle’s new push into agents removes the strain from some of the most manual, document-heavy parts of corporate banking. Instead of just offering faster memo writing, Oracle’s tools allow credit teams to handle more deals without increasing headcount, offer a standardized approach to trade finance, and provide banks a way to offer faster response time to their clients.

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Five Fintechs Helping Banks Build and Launch Better Financial Products

Five Fintechs Helping Banks Build and Launch Better Financial Products
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2026, FinovateSpring 2026 Demo Companies

Launching and scaling new products isn’t as simple as developing a new tool and making it live. There are plenty of tasks that need to be considered alongside the actual product release, including governance and compliance, marketing and social campaigns, consumer testing and surveying, finding and fixing vulnerabilities, and consumer follow-up.

At FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego, we’re hosting five fintechs that are making this next phase of product launches possible. Check out the variety of capabilities and learn more about the companies behind them below.

PentEdge

PentEdge AIMS gives community banks and credit unions an examiner-ready AI governance platform that’s purpose-built for the $500 million to $100 billion institutions navigating federal AI risk guidance. Founded in 2025, the North Creek, New York-based company delivers a real-time scoring dashboard with a view of AI exposure across a portfolio, offers pre-built vendor AI risk profiles, and provides audit-ready PDFs for examiners.

Intention.ly

Intention.ly’s Advisor Brand Builder (ABB) helps firms build a differentiated brand, website, and content engine in a matter of days to enable advisors to attract ideal clients and outpace competitors. Among the company’s engagement options are a diagnostic assessment, a fractional CMO and COO, an outsourced marketing team, and more. Headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Intention.ly was founded in 2021.

PwC

Customer Link by PwC offers banks a set of “synthetic customers” through which they can test products, pricing, and experiences. Firms can use results to quickly generate quant data and turn survey crosstabs into clear, segment-specific growth actions.

Founded in 1998, PwC provides clients with a wide range of capabilities, including consulting, cybersecurity, AI, audit, and more. The company is headquartered in New York.

Rezliant

Rezliant’s Maestro Pulse helps fintechs, payment providers, and small financial institutions automatically fix security vulnerabilities in their codebases, PII (Personally Identifiable Information) data flows, and API integrations. The company provides contextualized triage of fintech vulnerabilities, automates remediation of multiple critical flaws simultaneously, and delivers effortless two-click fixes directly from email notifications.

Headquartered in Mesa, Arizona, Rezliant was founded in 2023.

Kato

Founded in 2024, Kato helps lenders scale with compliance-first automation. The San Francisco-based company’s technology helps firms reduce servicing costs up to 80%, increasing recoveries by 1%, and freeing agents to focus on high-value work.

Why banks should care

While it seems like the hard work of a new product launch is the planning and development phase, the reality is that execution is where most initiatives succeed or fail. Banks are expected to move faster, create and develop more frequently, and deliver better customer experiences. Doing so, however, requires navigating compliance requirements, validating product-market fit, securing systems, and effectively bringing products to market.

Platforms that support these adjacent functions help reduce the friction that often slows product launches. They enable banks to move from idea to execution more efficiently, while minimizing risk and ensuring alignment with regulatory expectations. In an environment where speed and precision both matter, having the right infrastructure around product launches can be the saving grace that changes a product from a failure into a success.

Want to attend? Now is the time to lock it in. Get 40% off this week only with code FKV2794ART (ends April 17): https://informaconnect.com/finovatespring/purchase/select-package/?vip_code=FKV2794ART

Photo by Monstera Production

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Airwallex Launches Physical Point of Sale Device

Airwallex Launches Physical Point of Sale Device
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Airwallex launched Airwallex POS Payments, a physical point-of-sale device.
  • The device will enable physical, in-store payments that integrate with Airwallex’s broader commerce stack.
  • The new launch helps Airwallex compete with Square and Stripe, but Airwallex has an advantage in regions where it holds banking licenses.

While the rest of the payments world is racing toward agentic payments, Airwallex is bringing its focus back to the physical world. The Singapore-based company announced this week that it has launched Airwallex POS Payments, a physical point-of-sale (POS) device.

The new, physical device integrates with the company’s commerce stack to unify online and in-store payments. Bringing everything together will help merchants offer consistent payment flows, reporting, and customer experiences across multiple channels. Enterprise retailers will gain more visibility and control across channels, while SaaS platforms will gain the ability to embed in-store payments directly into their products.

“By extending our global financial platform to the physical countertop, we’re bringing online and in-store payments together, reducing the fragmentation that has long held in-store payments back, and giving enterprises a truly global foundation for growth,” the company said in its announcement.

Adding physical POS devices places Airwallex directly in competition with Square, a pioneer in the mobile POS hardware space, and Stripe, which offered to acquire Airwallex in 2019 for $1.2 billion. Airwallex has an advantage over these two legacy players in certain regions, however. In Japan, for instance, where the company holds a banking license, the fintech owns both the backend banking infrastructure, as well as the front-facing software. So when a merchant is paid, Airwallex can hold the funds instead of having to transfer them to the merchant’s primary bank account.

Founded in 2015, Airwallex holds nearly 90 regulatory licenses and permits across 50 markets that enable customers to operate in 200+ countries and regions and support multi-currency checkout at scale. In 2025 alone, the company extended its regulated and local capabilities across 12 new markets, securing licenses and launching products in France, the Netherlands, Israel, Canada, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Mexico, and the UAE.

The new POS payments device is now available across the UK, Europe, Hong Kong, and Singapore, with plans to launch in Australia and the US, where it currently serves 46,000 businesses.

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Backbase and Ninth Wave Team Up to Bring Open Finance to Commercial Banking

Backbase and Ninth Wave Team Up to Bring Open Finance to Commercial Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Ninth Wave
  • Backbase and Ninth Wave have announced a strategic partnership to enable banks to connect their business clients ERP and accounting systems to their banking data.
  • The partnership follows research from Ninth Wave that indicated that an overwhelming number of Chief Financial Officers and their teams would consider switching banks in order to access open finance capabilities.
  • Amsterdam-based Backbase was founded in 2003 and is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Ninth Wave, headquartered in New York and launched in 2018, most recently demoed its technology at FinovateWest 2020.

Banking technology provider Backbase has announced a strategic partnership with open finance connectivity specialist Ninth Wave. The two companies will work together to enable banks to offer a seamless connection between their business customers’ ERP and accounting systems and their banking data. This will enhance the customer experience by providing better cash flow visibility, improved reconciliation, faster payment execution, and more efficient banking operations.

Courtesy of the partnership, Backbase’s bank customers can offer their corporate clients direct, permissioned access to banking data used by their financial systems, while Ninth Wave’s connectivity layer serves as a bridge between the bank and the corporate client’s ERP or accounting software. Managing consent, activity logs, and API governance within a single platform, the solution provides accurate, real-time data transfer with comprehensive audit trails and integrated compliance controls. The technology also eliminates the need for manual workarounds, batch uploads, and unreliable data scraping.

“Commercial clients prefer not to log into a portal and re-enter data that their ERP system already has,” Backbase Global VP for Marketplace Mayank Somaiya said. “By partnering with Ninth Wave, we give banks a direct integration path into how their corporate clients actually operate. That’s what keeps relationships sticky and opens the door to real value-added services.”

The partnership between Backbase and Ninth Wave comes in the wake of research conducted by Ninth Wave that pointed to growing interest in Open Finance functionality among Chief Financial Officers and their finance teams. In 2025, Ninth Wave research noted that 86% of those surveyed would consider changing banks in order to access open finance features. Those surveyed who were connected reported saving more than five hours a week due to the greater efficiency of direct bank access.

Going forward, Backbase and Ninth Wave will expand ERP connectivity features, support multi-country corporate payments, and develop real-time cash management dashboards for international businesses.

“Backbase offers a robust, modern foundation for commercial banking, and Ninth Wave simplifies connectivity by managing API connections, ensuring strong security, and providing a management hub to oversee their open finance operations,” Ninth Wave VP of Strategic Partnerships Joe Fiorillo said. “Together, we are delivering the modern banking services that business clients require.”

A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Headquartered in Amsterdam and founded in 2003, the company offers an AI-native banking operating system that transforms fragmented banking operations into a unified front line. This enables customers, employees, and AI agents to work as one across digital channels, front office, and operations. More than 120 banks around the world use Backbase’s technology across retail, small business, commercial, and private banking, as well as wealth management.

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Ninth Wave most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at our all-digital event, FinovateWest 2020. The company provides secure data connectivity between financial institutions and third-party applications such as aggregators, fintechs, accounting and ERP systems, and other business tools. Ninth Wave works with financial institutions throughout North America, offering an open finance Hub that links more than 120 bank accounts via secure, reliable, and scalable connections to the open finance ecosystem.

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

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Revolutionizing Fintech: How AI is Transforming Investing

Revolutionizing Fintech: How AI is Transforming Investing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2026, Speaker series

AI is making a major impact on all aspects of banking, fintech, and financial services, and the world of investing is no exception. From helping investors better understand the volumes of financial, economic, and market data available to them to creating more personalized investment strategies, AI is empowering average retail investors to make smarter decisions and take greater control over their financial futures.

At FinovateEurope 2026 in London this year, I sat down with Nitzan Nachum, Chief Revenue Officer at BridgeWise to talk about the company’s mission to make investing more accessible to a greater range of investors. We also discussed the key role AI is currently playing in helping investors find the information they need and ensure it is accurate and from trusted sources.

“When BridgeWise was founded, it was about filling the gap of financial information asymmetry in the market. For years, for decades, information has been owned only by professionals or by people that are really early adopters of technology and know how to find the right information. But for many, and for most retail investors, most of them couldn’t find information about their portfolios except through the news or through a professional such as their relationship manager or wealth advisor …

We wanted to make this (information) accessible to everyone, so that everyone would have the same information when they are in the process of decision-making about whether they want to invest in a certain stock, fund, or any financial asset.”

Chief Revenue Officer at BridgeWise, Nitzan Nachum has more than eight years of experience leading fintech growth and revenue operations. With degrees from Tel Aviv University, Nachum has demonstrated expertise in global sales, international expansion, and go-to-market strategy across multiple markets.

BridgeWise is a technological research company that leverages AI-based analysis and large language models (LLMs) to offer comprehensive insights into global stocks. The company’s solutions are designed to bridge the knowledge gap in the investment world to empower investors of all types to become “super investors.” Integrated into brokerage platforms and the infrastructures of other financial institutions, BridgeWise provides instant fundamental analysis of stocks around the world, as well as bespoke investment strategies, to enable millions of investors to make informed investment decisions.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2019. BridgeWise recently published its inaugural State of AI for Wealth report. The report is a comprehensive review of international sentiment towards using AI for investment information and surveyed 2,100 individuals across 19 countries.

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eToro Acquires Crypto Wallet Zengo

eToro Acquires Crypto Wallet Zengo
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, eToro, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • eToro has acquired self-custodial wallet provider Zengo to deepen its digital asset capabilities and expand into on-chain finance.
  • The deal brings keyless wallet infrastructure in-house, positioning eToro to move beyond trading into custody, authentication, and transaction control.
  • As crypto evolves into infrastructure, owning the wallet layer could determine who controls the customer relationship.

Social trading and investment network eToro announced it has acquired self-custodial crypto wallet provider Zengo for an undisclosed amount. eToro plans to leverage the acquisition to deepen its digital asset capabilities and bridge traditional finance with on-chain infrastructure.

Zengo was founded in 2018 and offers a crypto wallet with buy, sell, and swap capabilities to both individual and commercial users. The Israel-based company positions itself as a secure crypto wallet, offering Bitcoin vaults, theft protection, a Web3 firewall, and enterprise-grade compliance and controls for commercial users. Notably, Zengo is a pioneer in multi-party computation cryptography and is known for its keyless wallet architecture.

“We believe the future of finance will be increasingly digital, decentralized, and user-controlled, with self-custody playing an important role in that evolution,” said eToro Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia. “Zengo has built an innovative and secure wallet experience, and this acquisition will enable us to accelerate its growth while continuing to provide users with choice in how they access digital assets.”

eToro will combine its multi-asset platform with Zengo’s non-custodial wallet technology to expand on its own digital asset capabilities while growing Zengo’s platform. “From day one, Zengo has focused on making self-custody simple and secure for everyday users,” said Zengo Co-founder and CEO Ouriel Ohayon. “Joining eToro allows us to accelerate that mission at a global scale. Together, we can expand access to self-custody and on-chain finance while connecting it to a broader investing ecosystem that bridges traditional and on-chain finance.”

Founded in 2007, eToro launched Bitcoin trading capabilities in 2013, but didn’t launch a dedicated crypto trading platform in the US until 2019. Today’s acquisition will help eToro expand into tokenized assets and emerging decentralized trading models such as prediction markets and perpetuals.

As the banking world increasingly normalizes decentralized finance, it may no longer be enough for fintechs and investment firms to simply offer traditional finance investing tools, especially as crypto evolves from an asset class into infrastructure.

By acquiring Zengo, eToro is positioning itself to participate more directly in on-chain activity, rather than simply offering access to facilitate trades. The deal is another example of fintechs pushing deeper into infrastructure. Self-custody wallets are emerging as the interface layer for on-chain finance. By bringing that capability in-house, eToro is positioning itself to control digital assets, storage, authentication, and transactions.

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Acumatica Acquires CoreChain Technologies to Offer Embedded Supply Chain Financing

Acumatica Acquires CoreChain Technologies to Offer Embedded Supply Chain Financing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CoreChain Technologies, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Embedded payments innovator CoreChain Technologies has agreed to be acquired by business management solution provider Acumatica. Terms of the deal were not immediately available.
  • The acquisition will enable Acumatica to offer embedded supply chain financing to its customers directly from its platform instead of relying on outside partners.
  • CoreChain Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2024. The company is headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut.

Here’s Finovate alum acquisition news from earlier this year that slipped beneath our radar. CoreChain Technologies, which made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2024, has agreed to be acquired by business management solution provider Acumatica. The announcement was made in January and builds on a relationship between the two companies that extends back to 2023, when CoreChain introduced a direct, integrated solution for Acumatica users with the launch of CoreChain Pay.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“I am tremendously excited to announce that Acumatica has acquired CoreChain Technologies,” CoreChain Technologies CEO Chris Aguas wrote on his LinkedIn page earlier this year. “CoreChain has focused on modernizing B2B payments for the past 7+ years, and embedding AP payments capabilities directly into ERP workflows has been a key focus since the very beginning of our journey.”

Since inception, CoreChain Technologies has processed more than $1 billion in B2B payments. CoreChain’s network of networks streamlines the financial supply chain by offering simple and secure digital B2B payments between buyers and suppliers—including digital payment options such as virtual cards and ACH. The acquisition will enable Acumatica to offer embedded supply chain financing directly while continuing to provide customer choice via an open marketplace.

The acquisition further transforms Acumatica’s business software into an actual fintech platform. Offering CoreChain’s blockchain-based payment system as a core part of its solution will enable Acumatica to leverage embedded finance to offer key financial tools such as supply chain finance directly instead of relying on third parties.

“We’re living in an incredibly exciting age of AI, with endless possibilities and impact that organizations are experiencing today,” Acumatica CEO John Case said. “We see it with customers who are combining new AI capabilities with human ingenuity to enhance performance and empower people to do their best work.”

Based in Bellevue, Washington, Acumatica offers a comprehensive business management solution designed to assist small and mid-market companies with connected, collaborative work environments. The company’s flagship offering, Acumatica Cloud ERP, was recently updated to include expanded AI capabilities, enhanced reporting tools, and new collaboration features. The enhancements are designed to better connect field teams with their back offices and to introduce early access to Acumatica’s AI Assistant, which facilitates a more intuitive, conversational way to access insights from their data.

Founded in 2019, CoreChain Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2024. At the conference, the New Haven, Connecticut-based company demonstrated its CoreChain Pay solution. Billed as “Venmo for Business,” CoreChain Pay enables businesses to seamlessly and securely pay vendors digitally directly from their accounting systems. The technology makes accounts payable easier and allows companies to consolidate their vendor payments in a single solution, avoiding back office expenses, payment fees, and fraud risk.

Interested in learning more about exciting new fintechs like CoreChain Technologies? Join us next month in San Diego for FinovateSpring 2026, May 5-7, featuring more than 40 demoing companies making their Finovate debuts!

Photo by Krishnan Srinivasan on Unsplash

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Heritage Family CU Partners with Quinte Financial Technologies to Enhance Operational Oversight

Heritage Family CU Partners with Quinte Financial Technologies to Enhance Operational Oversight
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Quinte Financial Technologies
  • Heritage Family Credit Union (HFCU) has announced a new partnership with Quinte Financial Technologies.
  • The Vermont-based financial institution will deploy Quinte’s ServiceDESK solution to enhance its operational risk and case management capabilities.
  • Founded in 2019, Quinte Financial Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego.

A new partnership with Quinte Financial Technologies will enable Vermont-based Heritage Family Credit Union (HFCU) to boost its policy-driven oversight and reinforce operational consistency throughout the credit union. The community financial institution has selected Quinte’s ServiceDESK model, which combines review and refinement with structured workflows designed to integrate with HFCU’s current systems and operational environment.

“As our operations continue to grow and evolve, it is critical that our risk oversight processes remain structured, consistent, and well-coordinated,” HFCU EVP and Chief Financial Officer Christine Messer said. “Quinte’s model strengthens our operational framework while giving our teams the clarity and support needed to manage risk effectively. By streamlining workflows and improving coordination across our case management activities, we are ensuring our processes remain aligned with how we intend to operate, strengthening our ability to protect our members and maintain their trust.”

Quinte’s ServiceDESK provides experienced operations teams, policy expertise, and structured workflows designed to orchestrate and streamline credit union operations. ServiceDESK helps community financial institutions like HFCU bridge the gap between policy design on the one hand, and day-to-day execution on the other. This ensures that governance, risk, and compliance frameworks are consistently implemented and able to scale. ServiceDESK integrates seamlessly with Quinte’s flagship CaseHUB platform, an intelligent dispute and fraud case management solution that helps financial institutions manage regulated case activity within a single policy-controlled system, embedding regulatory timelines, compliance controls, and workflow automation directly into operational execution.

“HFCU’s approach to risk oversight reflects its commitment to strong operational controls and disciplined decision making,” Quinte President Sriram Natarajan said. “Implementing structured case management workflows enables the credit union to improve oversight across case activities and evolve with regulatory expectations.”

Based in Vermont and serving members in New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts, HFCU is a member-owned, member-first, not-for-profit cooperative. With more than 54,000 members, HFCU offers a range of comprehensive financial services such as personal and business accounts, loans, and credit cards, as well as investment services through Heritage Way Financial Services. Established in 1956, HFCU has total assets of more than $832 million.

Founded in 2019, Quinte Financial Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego. At the conference, the New York-based fintech demonstrated its Advanced Dispute Manager (ADM) solution that automates dispute management across ACH, POS, ATM, checks, wire transfers, and Zelle. ADM provides full Reg E compliance courtesy of seamless case documentation and communications, reducing risk, controlling losses, and supporting regulatory adherence.

Quinte’s partnership news comes just a few weeks after the company announced the launch of its compliance controls platform, QiDesk. Featuring AI automation and built-in compliance controls, QiDesk embeds intelligent automation leveraging large language models directly into workflows that demand strong governance and oversight. Enabling financial institutions to deliver faster, more consistent responses across email, chat, and voice while also facilitating easier customer document management, QiDesk is designed to enhance compliant customer support and ease document discovery for financial institutions.

“QiDesk represents the next phase of our platform strategy,” Quinte SVP of Strategic Growth Ankit Maharaj Singh said. “CaseHUB created a strong foundation for governed case management. With QiDesk, we are extending that foundation to help institutions coordinate execution across systems and channels, so they can move faster while maintaining the control and auditability required in regulated environments.”

Photo by Paulita Fysh on Unsplash

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Five Fintechs Helping Banks Manage Risk, Compliance, and Governance

Five Fintechs Helping Banks Manage Risk, Compliance, and Governance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2026 Demo Companies

Financial services are growing more complex, which means that risk, compliance, and governance are no longer simply back-office functions. These services, which were once considered “boring” aspects of fintech, are now core to how banks and fintechs operate, compete, and scale. From evolving regulatory expectations to increasingly sophisticated fraud and operational risks, financial institutions are under constant pressure to maintain control while continuing to innovate.

At FinovateSpring 2026, a new group of companies is demonstrating how banks can modernize governance, streamline compliance, and better manage risk across the organization. Below are five companies helping banks move toward a more proactive, automated, and scalable approach to risk, compliance, and governance.

CRIF

CRIF delivers a broad suite of credit bureau services, analytics, and decisioning platforms that help financial institutions make smarter, faster, and more transparent lending decisions. Its technology enables banks and lenders to design, test, and deploy credit strategies with greater speed and control, combining data, analytics, and governance into a single framework.

The platform offers no-code strategy design for business users, real-time simulations with KPI validation, and embedded AI agents that support compliant and explainable decisioning. Headquartered in Italy and founded in 1988, CRIF serves banks, credit unions, fintechs, and lenders globally, helping them modernize credit risk management while maintaining regulatory confidence.

Rulebase

Rulebase helps financial institutions scale compliance by automating testing and quality assurance across customer interactions and internal workflows. Its platform continuously monitors activity, detects potential violations, and generates audit-ready evidence, enabling teams to move beyond manual reviews and point-in-time checks.

By improving speed and accuracy while reducing regulatory risk, Rulebase allows organizations to focus on high value activity while maintaining compliance. Founded in 2025 and headquartered in New York, the company offers a modern approach to embedding compliance directly into day-to-day operations.

Winnow

Winnow helps financial institutions simplify and streamline compliance by replacing manual research and fragmented processes with a centralized, easy-to-use platform. Its solution delivers tailored, attorney-reviewed regulatory guidance, enabling organizations to quickly understand and meet their compliance obligations without the time and cost of traditional methods.

By reducing complexity and improving accuracy, Winnow allows teams to spend less time interpreting regulations and more time executing against them. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Anaheim, California, Winnow provides a more efficient path to staying compliant in a complex regulatory environment.

The Electronic Guardian

The Electronic Guardian offers a secure digital repository designed to help individuals organize, protect, and transfer critical financial and personal information. Its platform, The Coop, consolidates important documents and assets into a centralized system that evolves into a comprehensive estate inventory, supporting legacy planning and asset continuity.

Built with private encryption and “at rest” recoverability, The Coop ensures sensitive information remains both secure and accessible when it matters most. Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, The Electronic Guardian enables banks, credit unions, and insurance providers to offer added value through estate organization and long-term asset protection solutions.

Model IQ by Kevin D. Oden & Associates

Model IQ, developed by Kevin D. Oden and Associates, is an automated platform designed to help financial institutions manage model risk and meet stringent regulatory requirements. Built by quants, the solution streamlines compliance with SR 11-7, FDIC, and NCUA guidelines by bringing structure, speed, and consistency to the model risk management process.

The platform automates the entire model lifecycle to accelerate review timelines while improving accuracy and audit readiness. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, Model IQ serves financial institutions ranging from community credit unions to regional banks and fintechs, offering a scalable approach to governance in an increasingly model-driven industry.

Why banks should care

Risk, compliance, and governance are central to a bank’s operations, directly impacting an organization’s ability to scale. As banks adopt AI, expand digital channels, and operate across increasingly complex regulatory environments, the volume and velocity of risk has increased to a point where manual processes and siloed systems can’t keep up.

Platforms that automate compliance testing, improve decision transparency, and streamline model risk management offer banks a way to stay ahead of regulators while operating more efficiently. Just as importantly, they reduce the operational burden on internal teams.

For end users, having a place to store and manage their key documents can be crucial for both security and organization. Financial institutions that offer tools like this as a benefit will not only add a revenue stream, but will also give clients another reason to associate them with safety and security.

Photo by Ilkauri Scheer

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