Moov Lands $45 Million in Series B Funding to Modernize Money Movement

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Moov landed $45 million to refine its API that creates a modern payment stack. Commerce Ventures led the round. Additional contributors include Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Visa, and Sorenson Ventures. Moov's total funding now sits at $77.5 million.

Modern money movement innovator Moov is going places. The Iowa-based company landed $45 million in a Series B financing round, bringing its total raised to $77.5 million.

As far as the company's plans for the new funds, Moov Founder and CEO Wade Arnold said, "This new round of capital will help us refine our platform, address new payments use cases, and scale everything we’ve built so far. We’re a small and mighty team, so we’re looking forward to onboarding even more talented people..."

Moov will also use today's funding to fuel its conference that fosters collaboration in the developer community. The company's fintech_devcon event takes place once a year to share fintech building deep…

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Trulioo Unveils New Global Identity Verification Platform for Individuals and Businesses

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Trulioo

Trulioo unveiled a new global identity verification platform this week. The new offering combines both individual and business verification with no-code workflow building, low-code integrations, and more into a single platform. A Finovate alums since 2014, Trulioo won Best of Show in its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateEurope last March.

Identity verification specialist Trulioo launched a new global identity verification platform this week. The new offering combines individual and business verification solutions with no-code workflow building, low-code integrations, and more in a single platform. The platform will give companies the ability to provide a streamlined onboarding experience, as well as the kind of intuitive user experiences that help build both trust and inclusivity.

"Trulioo is the identity platform businesses turn to in order to solve the inherent complexity in onboarding customers globally," Trulioo CEO Steve Munford said. "We enable businesses to offer their goods and services in nearly every…

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3 Aspects that Make the Startup Booster Program a Must for Early Stage Fintechs

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateEurope 2023

European fintechs in search of venture capital funding are in luck this spring. The Startup Booster Program at FinovateEurope, taking place March 14 through 15, has been crafted to help early stage companies pitch their new ideas in front of investors from across the U.K. and Europe.

Fintechs that are less than five years old and haven't closed a Series A round can apply now for the opportunity to have two hours to network and pitch their innovation to an audience of VCs, angels, corporate venture studios, and accelerators. Some of the investors participating in this year's program include:

Lucile Beaume, Senior Analyst at Breega Alokik Advani, Managing Partner at Fidelity International Strategic Ventures Erik Mostenicky, VP at Fidelity International Strategic Ventures Olly Betts, Fintech Sector Director at Founders Factory Maren Bannon, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at January Ventures Olga Shikhantsova, Partner at Speedinvest Alistair…

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AKUVO Partners with Eltropy to Help Credit Unions Leverage Text to Improve Collections

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Eltropy

Digital communications platform Eltropy and collections platform provider AKUVO announced a new partnership, integrating Eltropy's texting functionality into AKUVO's Aperture solution. The integration will enhance the collections process for community financial institutions (CFIs). Eltropy made its Finovate debut in 2017 and returned to the Finovate stage last year for FinovateFall in New York.

A newly-announced partnership between digital communications platform Eltropy and cloud-based collections platform provider AKUVO will enable credit unions to leverage the texting capabilities of Eltropy's platform to enhance collections operations. Now, credit unions, community banks, and other community financial institutions (CFIs) will be able to access Eltropy's texting communications platform from AKUVO's Aperture solution.

"Integration between Eltropy and AKUVO's Aperture will provide collectors with a powerful texting platform to guide their account holders through a proactive, effective collections experience," AKUVO Chief Revenue and Operating Officer Steve Castagna said.

Headquartered in California and founded in 2014, Eltropy made…

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Marqeta Acquires Fintech Infrastructure Company Power Finance for $275 Million

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Marqeta, Mergers & Acquisitions

Marqeta is acquiring credit card program management platform Power Finance. The company will add Power Finance's credit card program management capabilities to its own card issuing platform. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Global card issuer Marqeta agreed to acquire credit card program management platform Power Finance. Terms of the deal, which is scheduled to close in the first quarter of this year, were not disclosed.

Power Finance was founded in 2021 by CEO Randy Fernando and CFO Andrew Dust to offer credit card program management services to companies seeking to create new credit card programs. The company's platform takes care of credit card management, customer experience, application decisioning, transaction processing, and more. And because Power Finance is pre-integrated with third-party data vendors, it saves companies time when setting up KYC and underwriting processes.

"Companies like ours were made possible because of the path Marqeta blazed in…

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Finovate Global Africa: Revolutionizing Payments and Promoting Inclusion with Paga’s Tayo Oviosu

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finastra, Finovate Global, Hawk:AI

This week on Finovate Global, we feature an extended conversation with Paga founder and CEO Tayo Oviosu.

Serving more than 21 million unique users in Africa, Paga is a payments and financial services ecosystem that makes it easy for people to request, send, and receive money; pay bills; get remittances and more. Founded in 2009, Paga is Nigeria's leading mobile money company.

We caught up with Tayo Oviosu to discuss the current state of fintech in Nigeria and in sub-Saharan Africa, in general. We also talked about how Paga is helping boost financial inclusion and empowerment in the region, and what we can expect from the company in 2023.

Paga was recently recognized with placement on the CB Insights 250 list – one of seven African start-ups featured. What is going right with fintech in sub-Saharan Africa these days? 

Tayo Oviosu: It was an honor to be ranked by…

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OneSpan to Acquire Document Storage Company ProvenDB

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, OneSpan

OneSpan is acquiring blockchain-based document storage company ProvenDB. The purchase will help OneSpan add document storage to its existing product offerings. Terms of the agreement, which is expected to close this quarter, were not disclosed.

Digital agreements security company OneSpan agreed to acquire blockchain-based document storage company ProvenDB. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Australia, ProvenDB was founded in 2018. The company provides a blockchain-based database that enables users to store data, cryptographic signatures, documents, and more. The company also offers a product that adds proof, trust, and integrity to clients' existing databases.

Under the agreement, ProvenDB will enhance OneSpan’s Transaction Cloud Platform to public and private blockchains. Integrating ProvenDB's technology into OneSpan's existing offerings will also add a new product offering that provides customers with secure vaulting capabilities and helps OneSpan secure digital agreements.

"Digital artifacts are simply too easy to fabricate, tamper, or…

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CX at the Core of Digital Transformation in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance Services Market

By Lili Nguyen Posted on
Categories: Sponsored

Frost & Sullivan is a growth-focused research and consulting company that offers a wealth of expertise across more than 10 industries. Frost & Sullivan’s Information & Communications Technologies Research Team conducts an annual voice-of-customer survey that contains inputs from key decision makers across industries.

What follows is an excerpt from 2022’s survey findings and research study, Customer Experience at the Core of Digital Transformation in the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance Services Market: Transformational Growth through Digitally Enhanced Banking Customer Experience. The excerpt spotlights what respondents consider the highest customer experience (CX) priorities right now, and where their investment in CX is trending.

Definitions and Research Overview

The banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) industry includes commercial banks, insurance companies, non-banking financial companies, and other entities. This study uses an integrated 360-degree research methodology to provide insights from end-user organizations, IT decision-makers, and influencers within the BFSI sector. An…

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Better Launches One Day Mortgage

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Digital mortgage lending company Better launched a new product, One Day Mortgage, that offers borrowers a mortgage commitment letter within 24 hours of applying for a loan. During a period of beta testing, Better reported that it processed over $50 million in commitments, offering commitment letters in an average of 12 hours. To qualify for the One Day Mortgage, borrowers must be salaried, make a down payment of at least 3%, and upload required documents within four hours.

Digital mortgage lending company Better launched One Day Mortgage, a new tool that does what it says-- it enables borrowers to get a mortgage in a single day.

Using One Day Mortgage, home loan borrowers can get pre-approved, lock-in their rate, and receive a mortgage commitment letter, all within 24 hours. This timeframe is weeks faster than the industry average of more than 30 days.

Today's announcement comes a couple of…

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PayNearMe’s Jill Bohlken on the Unpredictable Lending Environment

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Speaker series

Lenders have always faced some level of uncertainty, but the past few years have truly put the industry to the test. While many have enhanced their systems with new enabling technologies, there are still a number of uncertainties-- including inflated income due to Covid relief funds and increased spending power thanks to a student loan repayment pause-- that create confusion in the underwriting process.

We spoke with PayNearMe's Senior Director of Sales Jill Bohlken for some insight into how today's lending environment has changed and what we can expect to see going forward into this year.

Describe the current lending environment and how it has changed over the past few years.

Jill Bohlken: In one word, the current lending environment is unpredictable. A number of converging market forces are causing some uncertainty among lenders, merchants, and borrowers alike.

We have consumer prices continuing to rise, leading to less disposable income…

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Hawk AI Scores $17 Million to Help Banks Fight Money Laundering and Fraud

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Hawk:AI

Germany-based fraud prevention and AML solution provider Hawk AI has raised $17 million in Series B funding this week. The round was led by Sands Capital and featured participation from DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital, and adds to the $10 million Hawk AI raised in 2021. Hawk AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

In a round led by Sands Capital and featuring participation from DN Capital, Coalition, BlackFin Capital Partners, and Picus Capital, Germany-based fraud prevention and anti-money laundering solution provider Hawk AI has raised $17 million in Series B financing. The capital adds to the $10 million in Series A funding the company raised in June of 2021, and will be used to help fuel both product development and global expansion.

"My co-founder Wolfgang Berner and I started this business based on the strong belief that only leading edge, real-time surveillance technology…

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Finovate Alums Raised More Than $380 Million in Q4; $2.7 Billion in 2022

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

Finovate alums raised more than $2.7 billion in equity funding in 2022. The sum makes the $8.4 billion raised in 2021 seem all the more an outlier as our alumni funding levels return to those common in 2020 and before.

Previous Annual Comparisons

2021: $8.4 billion 2020: $3.9 billion 2019: $3.0 billion 2018: $4.0 billion 2017: $2.7 billion

The fourth quarter of 2022 saw Finovate alums secure more than $380 million in funding. This amount recalls the relatively modest fundraising haul from Q4 2020, with a comparable number of alums raising capital.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

Q4 2021: More than $1.2 billion raised by seven alums Q4 2020: More than $472 million raised by 17 alums Q4 2019: More than $876 million raised by 21 alums Q4 2018: More than $800 million raised by 19 alums Q4 2017: More than $730…

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