CuneXus Inks Pact with Origence to Streamline Digital Lending

CuneXus Inks Pact with Origence to Streamline Digital Lending
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CUneXus, CUneXus Solutions, Daily news

A strategic partnership between digital lending solution provider CuneXus and lending technology company Origence will give more than 1,100 credit unions the ability to offer their members access to personalized, pre-approved financing offers.

“We are focused on changing the way credit unions interact with their members, and this means tearing down old, and painful banking experiences” CuneXus co-founder and President Dave Buerger said. “We’re empowering people with unrivaled transparency and convenience, and this partnership with Origence makes that easily accessible to many more credit unions and consumers. Together we can provide the modern seamless lending experience that members deserve, one that equips them for financial excellence.”

The partnership allows credit unions to access CuneXus’ digital storefront, which leverages a proactive, “Perpetual Approval” approach that continuously analyzes hundreds of internal and external data points to ensure that qualified borrowers can get personalized loan offers, while simultaneously helping keep the credit union “top of mind” whenever one of its members has expressed an interest in securing financing. The methodology exchanges the typical credit application process for an ongoing automated credit approval that make the financing process less complicated for credit union members.

VP of Strategic Alliances at Origence, Aleks Bogoeski, said that the partnership with CuneXus comes at an opportune moment as consumer behavior and spending begins to rebound in the wake of COVID-19. “Our partnership with CuneXus provides a timely opportunity for credit unions to implement a dynamic digital experience that further simplifies the lending process, as member spending returns to a normal, post-pandemic pace,” Bogoeski said. “We are happy to have partnered with CuneXus to bring this service to our credit unions.”

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Santa Rosa, California, CuneXus made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2014. In the years since, the company has grown to serve more than 145 of the biggest lenders in the U.S. with its digital storefront, helping these institutions increase wallet share, generate branch revenue, and grow non-interest income. CuneXus clients represent more than $400 billion in combined assets and serve 20 million customers and members.

CuneXus was acquired by CUNA Mutual Group in the fall of last year. Announcing the move, CUNA Mutual president and CEO Robert N. Trunzo highlighted CuneXus’ “growth trajectory” – as well as its expertise and products – as features that would enhance CUNA Mutual Group’s opportunity for growth. “We are continuing our journey into a more diverse, digital-first world,” Trunzo said. “Our company is committed to using technology to enhance consumers’ access to financial solutions that work for them and create a more equitable financial system and society. This is a top priority for all of our core businesses.”

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Chilean Fintechs Secure Millions; EBANX and Amazon Forge Payments Partnership

Chilean Fintechs Secure Millions; EBANX and Amazon Forge Payments Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Compass Plus, Finastra

Fintech companies from Chile made headlines this week, taking their rightful place alongside the innovators in neighboring countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, which have tended to dominate conversations about the surge in financial technology in Latin America in recent years.

Xepelin, a Chilean company that offers a financial services platform designed especially for small businesses, raised $30 million in equity along with another $200 million in debt facilities. The equity financing was led by Kaszek Ventures, a Latin American VC fund, and featured participation from DST Global and a number of angel investors. The company’s debt facility were provided by asset managers and hedge funds based in Latin America as well as the U.S.

Xepelin focuses on enabling small businesses to secure organize their financial data in real time, as well as apply for – and receive – short-term financing easily and quickly. The company says that SMEs can apply for working capital loans “with three clicks” and receive their funding “in a matter of hours.”

With a monthly growth rate of 30%, Xepelin said it has more than 4,000 clients in Mexico and Chile, and has loaned more than $400 million to small businesses in those countries. The company said that the new capital will help it ensure that all small businesses in Latin America will have access to both financial services and financial capital. Xepelin also noted that it is looking to expand beyond the B2B space to provide a broader range of services to small businesses and companies in the region.

Helping employers improve the financial health of workers is the mission of Quansa, another Chilean fintech that raised $3.6 million in new capital this week. Quansa combines financial education with financial management tools to give companies in Chile the ability to offer their employees a more holistic benefits package. Quansa’s platform provides personalized financial guidance, access to flexible salaries, and debt management resources to more than 2,000 workers currently.

The seed funding round was led by Valor Capital Group and featured participation from Pear VC, Norte, Magma Partners, Sequoia Scouts, as well as a number of angel investors.

Quansa co-founder Mafalda Barros pointed to the challenge of debt that many Chilean workers struggle with, and noted that 70% of workers say that they feel as if they have little control over their finances. “It’s just as important to understand how to manage your money as it is to have access to these services,” Barrros said. “We teach users how to organize and manage their bills, use financial tools, start saving and, of course, to spend better.”

Not all big fintech headlines out of Latin America were related to funding and venture capital. EBANX, a payments solution provider based in Brazil, and Amazon have teamed up to enable Amazon Prime Video customers in Peru to subscribe to the service and make payments in local currency rather than in U.S. dollars.

“Localized solutions deeply improve the online purchasing experience for Peruvians and all Latin Americans, helping them to access the best services around the world – in addition to broadening the total addressable market of companies in the LatAm region,” EBANX co-founder and CEO João Del Valle said. “And this two-way street of access is precisely what we work for everyday at EBANX. That is why we are very excited about this collaboration with Amazon Prime Video in Peru.”

Founded in 2012, EBANX is among the leading payment platforms in Latin America. The company offers more than 100 local payment methods and brought access to financial products and services to more than 70 million Latin Americans. Last month, the company secured $430 million in funding from Advent International. This spring, EBANX launched operations in Central America, expanding its total reach to 15 countries. The company has said it plans to offer shares to the public via IPO “in the coming months.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

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How Fintech Teams Grow Engagement and Enhance Digital Outcomes

How Fintech Teams Grow Engagement and Enhance Digital Outcomes
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar, Webinars

How do companies keep pace with rising consumer expectations in a post-COVID, digitally transformed world? What role do flexibility and adaptability play in explaining why some companies succeed in engaging their customers while other companies struggle to do so?

Our latest Finovate webinar tackled these issues and more in an hour-long conversation with a quartet of fintech and financial services professionals. Check out our panel discussion – Keep Your Friends Close and Your Data Closer – now available for free On Demand and learn how fintechs are successfully leveraging “people, process, and culture” to achieve their goals.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation:

“What’s interesting is that 60% of the marketing decision-makers say that their budgets will increase in the next six months, and this was during a time when many companies were still struggling with the previous wave of the pandemic. What’s even more interesting is that the top three areas that brands are intending to invest in are customer engagement, customer satisfaction measurement, and mobile optimization and apps.” Chye Yien, Senior Strategic Business Consultant, Braze

“We saw a major shift from people talking about things to actually doing things. And there have definitely been some very clear trends that we saw towards not only just getting an app out there – which a lot of people have done – but actually making sure that app works well. So when you talk about that dichotomy between the smaller players, the startups that are coming in, and the legacy players in fintech, what we really saw was the people that came from a digitally native position really had strong applications with greater users experiences.” Julio Bermudez, VP APAC and LATAM with Amplitude

“Brands and companies really need to kind of focus on trust and be forward-looking when it comes to permissions, which are only going to get stricter. Customers are only going to want to manage their data more and more. Personalization has been around forever, but I think it’s only getting more and more important; even if it’s in a soft advertising context like an in-app message or something like that, if it’s not relevant to you then why would you care?” Alex Bird, Product Manager, Openpay

“I think it’s very important for you to be able to marry everything together, everything sing(ing) in the same language, and that’s when the first part of collecting data gets done, that’s when you are able to get data in a clean, organized manner. The next part, which I feel is the challenging part, is taking that data into insights, that’s where the goldmine is, that’s where business or your product will be able to make or create an impact for your customers.” Alka Gupta, Director of Data & People, BukuWarung.

Listen to the full discussion for free On Demand today!

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Behalf Raises $100 Million Debt Facility for B2B BNPL Offering

Behalf Raises $100 Million Debt Facility for B2B BNPL Offering
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blend, Daily news, Funding

Now more small businesses can get in on the Buy Now Pay Later game just like retail consumers.

Courtesy of a new $100 million debt facility, small business financing company Behalf will be able to make its In-Purchase Financing offering available to a broader range of B2B merchants and their small business customers. In-Purchase Financing gives B2B merchants the same sort of Buy Now Pay Later benefits that retail consumers enjoy, and includes a range of features designed especially to meet the needs of B2B commerce. The facility was provided by funds managed by Ares Management Corporation.

Behalf also announced $19 million in new venture financing led by MissionOG, Viola Growth, Viola Credit, and Vintage Investment Partners. Migdal Insurance and La Maison Partners also participated in the round. Behalf’s total funding now stands at more than $250 million.

Describing the B2B e-commerce market as more than ready for transformation, Behalf CEO Rob Rosenblatt said that in-purchase financing gives merchants the opportunity to source new revenues. The offering also gives small and medium-sized businesses access to an affordable financing alternative.

“Even as the U.S. economy is improving, SMBs continue to seek financial assistance to purchase critical supplies, inventory and equipment,” Rosenblatt explained. “Oftentimes they lack the requisite spend capacity on their personal or business credit cards. By offering In-Purchase Financing with flexible terms, B2B merchants can increase average order size by as much as 50-80 percent while reducing their risk, improving cash flow and driving operational efficiencies,” he said.

Among the features included in Behalf’s In-Purchase Financing solution are:

  • Seamless checkout to improve CX and customer loyalty
  • Easy integration with existing point-of-sale systems
  • Advanced underwriting and scoring models to handle the complexity and risk of SME lending

The solution scales to enable merchants to serve a range of business customers, from small to large, and supports financing for transactions of “significantly greater” average order value relative to consumer financing options.

“We think there is a great market opportunity for a B2B offering targeting the more complex, real-time financing needs of SMBs,” Ares Credit Group Partner Jeffrey Kramer said. “We are excited to provide a debt facility that will help support the company to achieve its growth objectives.”

Founded in 2011, Behalf made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall three years later. Since then, the company has enabled its B2B merchant partners to achieve an 83% increase in Average Order Value (AOV), an 80% gain in purchase frequency, and 44% growth in sales revenue.

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StackSource Brings Innovation to Commercial Real Estate Lending

StackSource Brings Innovation to Commercial Real Estate Lending
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CEO Interview, Daily news

Fintech’s innovations in the real estate market for homebuyers have prompted the emergence of an entire new kind of fintech company, the mortgagetech, that specializes in leveraging technology to improve the homebuying experience for all parties involved.

Less discussed are the ways that technology is helping those involved in the commercial end of the real estate market do their jobs better and more efficiently. To this end, we caught up with Tim Milazzo, co-founder and CEO of StackSource, a company that connects borrowers and lenders seeking commercial real estate financing.

Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2015, StackSource recently made fintech headlines with the appointment of commercial real estate industry veteran Richard Caldwell as EVP – Head of Originations. We talked with Milazzo via email about his company, how it serves the CRE industry, and the importance of blending technical innovation with human experience and talent.

What problem does your technology solve and who does it solve it for? 

Tim Milazzo: StackSource simplifies the process of finding the best commercial mortgage for a given property investment by tracking the loan programs of hundreds of active lenders and offering borrowers a transparent experience.

Commercial mortgage brokerage has traditionally been a local, relationship-driven game. If you’re buying a home in 2021, you can know your rate and get pre-approved for a mortgage in minutes. But in commercial real estate, finding the right financing is only unlocked by developing relationships with the right set of lenders based on dozens of variables from the property’s asset type, location, income, and physical characteristics, as well as the borrower’s track record, financial strength, and business plan. We’ve streamlined that process of finding and connecting with suitable lenders to boost the investors’ financial returns with the right debt.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge? 

Milazzo: My first exposure to commercial real estate was through family ties. My father was a successful commercial real estate broker in New York City, so I’d hear stories about office building negotiations at the dinner table growing up. While I went to college to study Finance, I interned at a large real estate firm, where I was known as the smart spreadsheet kid that sat in the corner. Honestly, I didn’t come away with a big interest in the industry at that time; my eye was on big tech companies. I went on to work in advertising technology, first with Google and later with Facebook. I came back to commercial real estate because I found an area where online technology could deliver a superior value proposition: helping investors find the best financing for a commercial property investment without the need to track hundreds of lenders’ programs themselves.

What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of investing in commercial real estate? 

Milazzo: Many old-school brokers are quick to point out that commercial real estate is a “relationship business.” And that’s true. But what’s missed is the fact that it’s also an information business. If you can leverage the correct information, you can scale beyond your local relationships in the capital markets, which is a significant advantage.

You recently launched a new Chrome browser extension to make the discovery process easier. Can you tell us more about this feature?

Milazzo: We’ve been delivering competitive financing quotes to real estate investor clients for a couple of years now. Still, we wanted to go the extra mile in the name of transparency and efficiency. We came up with a tool that draws on our pool of loan quote data to allow real estate investors to apply financing quotes to any commercial property listing across the web and analyze potential investment opportunities. Sourcing acquisition opportunities is a competitive process, and this tool can add speed and accuracy to acquisition analysis. It’s completely free and open, with no obligation to use our financing service.

One interesting aspect of StackSource is how you combine a technology platform with a fleet of experienced industry veterans. How do you see the balance between enabling technologies and “the human touch”? 

Milazzo: The commercial mortgage space is not nearly as commoditized as residential mortgages. Even in the most “simple” commercial mortgage lending scenarios, where we can go as far as automating an instant soft quote, these are major financial investments, and borrowers want the guidance of an experienced Capital Advisor from submission to close.

How did COVID-19 impact your business and customers?

Milazzo: We doubled our market share in 2020 as many investors were looking for answers on how to secure the best financing for their real estate investment properties. People were staying home, and our online process is easy to access from anywhere, which was especially attractive. At the same time, funding from many local banks was pulled back in response to the pandemic. We even saw many traditional financing sources get distracted by things like issuing PPP loans, while we kept our focus on the long-term and stayed exclusively focused on commercial real estate.

What can we expect from StackSource over the balance of 2021? 

Milazzo: We just raised our first proper fundraising round for the company in Q2, allowing us to push the limits of how efficient the commercial mortgage origination process can become. Think automated quotes on specific qualified properties and integrating additional data sources seamlessly into the investment and financing process.

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MX Integrates with Dwolla; Bambu and Moven Launch Strategic Partnership

MX Integrates with Dwolla; Bambu and Moven Launch Strategic Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Bambu, Dwolla, Moven, MX

From the partnership between Best of Show winners MX and Dwolla that will enhance and automate account verification to the news of a strategic partnership between roboadvisor Bambu and Moven, collaborations between Finovate alums are filling the fintech headlines to start the week.

With MX and Dwolla, the partnership extends instant account verification coverage to 4,000+ institutions, making it easier for MX customers to connect securely to any deposit account. The integration also enables account verification through micro-deposits, which makes it possible for MX to offer verification for “nearly 100 percent” of deposit accounts in the U.S.

Enabling better access to micro-deposits by improving the verification experience is a key component of the integration. MX co-founder and CTO Brandon Dewitt underscored the importance of these deposits and the role they play in financial inclusion and serving the underbanked. “Micro-deposits have gotten a bad reputation in the industry, but the truth is for some of the population who bank with community credit unions or mid-sized institutions, it comes down to either using a micro-deposit or not having the ability to connect them to their accounts,” Dewitt said.

MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage two years ago at FinovateFall. The Lehi, Utah-based company won Best of Show for a live demo of its MX Enabled platform that helps financial institutions add to their offerings via connections with fintechs through MX’s API ecosystem. Earlier this month, MX launched a new suite of financial insights APIs and embeddable user interfaces to enable companies to pursue opportunities in open finance.

Dwolla won Best of Show in its Finovate debut in 2011 at FinovateSpring. The company announced just last week that it had raised $21 million in funding in a round led by Foundry Group that will help it continue to innovate in the B2B payments space.

“Partnering with MX will automate the verification experience and make it that much easier to verify a bank account,” Dwolla President and COO Dave Glaser said. “Together with Dwolla, MX has configured a new solution to ensure that millions of payments occur smoothly and easily each day. We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership and the impact it will have on millions of Americans.”

Giving average retail banking customers the kind of support typically available only to high net worth individuals is part of the motive behind the strategic partnership announced early this week between roboadvisor technology solution company Bambu and financial wellness technology platform Moven.

“Adding Bambu’s capabilities to Moven’s mobile-centric experience is well in-line with the needs of banks and fintechs to provide consumers with personalized, automatic investing to their product offerings,” Moven Chief Revenue Officer Bryan Clagett said. He noted that traditional banks still have a major impact and influence on their customers and, as such, they can and should do more – beyond banking – to enable their customers to better manage the entirety of their financial lives.

The new offering is designed to empower bank customers by allowing them to manage and plan their finances and investments more holistically. The goal is to provide customers with the equivalent of a digital CFO to help them better understand their spending patterns in order to increase savings and better manage their investments. This is a critical aspect of the new solution, which moves beyond simple robo-investing to give customers a more comprehensive view – and greater control – over their finances.

“We look forward to working closely with Moven as wealth and digital banking become more seamlessly connected,” Bambu co-founder and CEO Ned Phillips said. “Moven’s long history in digital banking and Bambu’s intelligent wealth APIs will provide a perfect platform for any financial institution focused on digital banking and wealth.”

Singapore-based Bambu made its most recent Finovate appearance last year at FinovateEurope in Berlin where the company demonstrated its BambuGo white label financial roboadvisor platform. Earlier this month, Bambu announced that it had acquired investment management technology company Tradesocio.

Making its Finovate debut more than eight years ago, Moven famously pivoted from a direct-to-consumer/neobank model to a focus on “smart banking and financial wellness” a little over a year ago. The company has teamed up since with fellow Finovate alums Q2 and Digital Onboarding, as well as with intelligent billpay company Blip Labs and digital asset manager NYDIG, to help them better engage their customers with actionable insights to enhance financial health.

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CreditRich Founder Angel Rich to Take Financial Literacy to the Next Level

CreditRich Founder Angel Rich to Take Financial Literacy to the Next Level
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Diversity in Fintech, Partnership Outlook

Not all partnerships in fintech involve companies. In fact, one of the most interesting partnerships in fintech in recent days might be a union between people – not an alliance among corporations.

Angel Rich, who made history this spring as the first African-American woman to secure an institutional partnership with one of the Big Three major credit bureaus, announced her engagement to Karl Jones, Director of Corporate Partnerships at ansrsource, this week. “What’s better than one future Black billionaire?” Rich asked on her LinkedIn page by way of sharing the engagement news. “Two. Thanks for all of your love and support on our engagement. Karl Jones and I are very excited to make an impact with our union.”

Rich’s company, WealthyLife, launched its AI-powered fintech app, CreditRich in April, collaborating with Finovate/FinDEVr alum Experian. The app enables individuals to use their spare change or “round ups” to pay for bills and other expenses. CreditRich promotes financial wellness by allowing users to prioritize debt payments – or to use the app’s algorithm to find and pay first those bills that have the most impact on the user’s credit score. Users can make one-time deposits to accelerate any debt repayment, as well as make contributions to a family member’s account to enable them to pay down debt and improve their credit score. The CreditRich app is currently available on the Android operating system, with an iOS expected soon.

“It makes sense to put financial literacy, intelligent billpay, and credit management together on a smartphone to help people increase their credit scores faster and easier,” Rich said late last year on the news that actor, singer, and songwriter Naturi Naughton had joined WealthyLife as Chief Branding Officer. “I don’t want people to experience the same hurdles I did after graduating from college with $180,000 of debt.”

Also the founder of Black Tech Matters, an organization dedicated to promoting ethnic diversity in STEM, Rich said she is looking forward to collaborating with Jones to advance financial education technology solutions. ansrsource, where Jones is Director of Corporate Partnerships, specializes in helping companies leverage digital technology to enhance their training and development strategies. The Dallas, Texas-based company’s clients range from 42,000-student Arizona State University to construction manufacturing firm Hilti.

As BlackNews.com noted, the union between financial literacy and digital education represented by Rich and Jones also represents a union of rivals. Rich is an alum of the famous HBCU (historically black college/university) Hampton University in Virginia. Jones is a graduate of the equally-legendary HBCU Howard University in Washington, D.C.

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B2B Payments Innovator Paystand Secures $50 Million in Series C Funding

B2B Payments Innovator Paystand Secures $50 Million in Series C Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, PayStand

In a round led by new investor NewView Capital, blockchain-based commercial payments innovator Paystand has raised $50 million in funding. The company leverages the cloud and the Ethereum blockchain to power its Paystand Bank Network, a no-fee, digital B2B payment system used by more than 250,000 companies to make payments.

“With this new funding, Paystand is uniquely positioned to bring the benefits of blockchain to commercial payments so businesses can be more agile and competitive in the post-pandemic landscape,” Paystand CEO Jeremy Almond said. “Our vision is to create an open financial infrastructure that delivers a self-driving money experience for businesses and provides radically better economics for the industry itself.”

The investment takes Paystand’s total capital to more than $78 million. Also participating in this week’s financing were SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund, King River Capital, Industrious Ventures, and Transform Capital. As part of the investment, NewView Capital’s Jazmin Medina will join Paystand’s board of directors.

Paystand’s innovation is to automate the entire cash lifecycle to enable businesses to enhance the overall customer experience with seamless, B2B payment options. The company’s technology helps businesses accelerate time-to-cash, lower DSO (daily sales outstanding) by 60% or more, as well as reduce fraud and chargebacks thanks to real-time fund verification. And instead of charging businesses a percentage on each transaction, Paystand’s business model relies on subscriptions which the company says allows businesses to scale their payments operations without having to worry about dramatically increased fee-per-transaction expenses.

An alum of our developers conference, FinDEVr, Paystand was among the many fintechs who was able to turn the crisis of the global pandemic into an opportunity to support businesses that suddenly found themselves sprinting toward digital transformation. In a blog post discussing the challenges facing businesses during this time, Almond noted that while many companies had already migrated to the cloud for their “systems of record” (i.e., CRM, ERP, etc.), the “critical component” and “last mile” of digital transformation – revenue – was left underaddressed.

“Finance teams found themselves forced to return to the office at the height of COVID-19 outbreaks just to pick up checks and deal with cash flow,” Almond wrote, “something that clearly exposed the backwards nature of the legacy payment system.”

In May, Paystand inked a partnership with cloud business management solution provider Sage to enable a “Venmo for Businesses” like service via Paystand’s B2B payment network. The following month, the Scotts Valley, California-based fintech launched its Smart Lockbox, a digital-first alternative to traditional lockbox services. Smart Lockbox enhances the ability of businesses to transition away from paper-based payments to faster, less expensive, digital options, and makes migration easy with a seamless, one-click process.

“Smart Lockbox is the key tool that helps companies seamlessly bring their mission-critical revenue into the digital age,” Almond said when the solution was announced. “In a post-pandemic world, everything looks very different. COVID supercharged the push for digital transformation across the board for businesses, and there’s no question that this shift is here to stay. Now, with Smart Lockbox, finance teams can turn their biggest headaches into a newfound source of power.”

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AuthenticID Scores $100 Million in New Funding

AuthenticID Scores $100 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, authenticID, Daily news, Funding

AuthenticID, an identity proofing solution provider for the enterprise, has raised $100 million in funding from Long Ridge Partners. The investment will help the company continue to bring innovative identity proofing solutions to its customers in financial services, telecommunications, government, and other sectors.

“Our platform is relied upon by a majority of the U.S. wireless carriers and various identity platform to securely establish identity,” AuthenticID CEO Jeff S. Jani said. “Our differentiator is the significant ROI we deliver to customers, from stopping more fraud to converting more sales than our digital identity competitors. Our mission is to improve the security for all of our collective identities.”

Union Square Advisors, a boutique technology-focused investment bank, served as AuthenticID’s financial advisor in the transaction.

AuthenticID gives businesses the ability to conduct document-centric identity verification with a high degree of accuracy and fast processing times. The 100% automated solution helps companies increase conversion rates and eliminate fraud at a time when businesses are seeing a surge in the volume of customers who need to be digitally onboarded in order to use their services. AuthenticID leverages machine learning algorithms, AI-powered neural networks, and state-of-the-art computer vision to determine when photos and faces do not match, whether identification documents are fraudulent, and if either the name or face being analyzed has been associated with suspicious activity in the past.

Founded in 2001 by Blair Cohen, AuthenticID made its Finovate debut two years later at FinovateSpring. In the years since, AuthenticID has brought its technology to ten companies in the Fortune 100, three of the top U.S. banks, two of the top three credit reporting agencies, and three of the top five telecommunications companies in the U.S., as well as several international banks and companies around the world. Earlier this month, the company announced that it had reached a new milestone with the launch of its new enterprise-grade SaaS system that can process nearly 35 million identity proofing transactions in a day and more than one billion in a single month.

“AuthenticID has built a market-leading computer vision system to meet the ever-growing requirements of this market,” AuthenticID Chief Technology Officer Richard Huber Jr. said when the milestone was announced. “Our system sets a new standard for reliably and accurately verifying anyone’s identity from anywhere in the world.”

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India and Nigeria Consider CBDCs as Study Shows Strong Consumer Enthusiasm and Trust

India and Nigeria Consider CBDCs as Study Shows Strong Consumer Enthusiasm and Trust
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

Two of their respective regions’ most powerful economies are moving closer to the issuance of Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs. In India, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Shri T. Rabi Sanker said that the bank is working toward a “phased implementation strategy” that would further the country’s multi-year effort to transition its citizens away from cash. India’s efforts to remove cash from the economy, including innovations like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the RuPay network have become increasingly accepted by Indian citizens. But both, as far as Sanker are concerned, face challenges from the persistence of cash and the promise of CBDCs.

With regard to the latter, Sanker has encouraged observers to envision a UPI system based on CBDCs rather than bank balances. In such a framework, there would be no need for interbank settlement and payment systems worldwide could benefit from greater cost efficiencies and faster, even real-time, transaction settlement. As far as the persistence of cash is concerned, small value transactions still make up most cash purchases in the country. But even here Sanker believes that with certain guarantees like transaction anonymity, CBDCs could be efficiently used for these transactions, as well.

Meanwhile in Africa, Rakiya Mohammed, Formation Technology Director for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told an audience recently that the country will launch its CBDC pilot on the first of October. The project, called Giant, has been in development since 2017 and runs on the open source blockchain Hyperledger fabric. The bank hopes that a CBDC will help support macro and growth management – as well as cross-border trade – and facilitate financial inclusion. Mohammed reportedly cited FOMO – fear of missing out – as one reason why the CBN could not risk sitting on the sidelines while other central banks around the world launched CBDC-related projects and initiatives.

The demand for CBDCs remains an open question to some degree. But proponents of the technology can take heart in a recent study conducted by European deep tech company Guardtime. The firm took a look at opinions toward CBDCs in ten countries including countries in Europe and Asia, as well as in the United States and the UAE. The study revealed that a majority of adults (64%) said that they would be likely to use a digital currency offered by their country’s central bank, with 33% saying they would be “very likely” to use a CBDC. Only 10% of respondents said they would “never” use a CBDC. The CBDC favorable position maintained a healthy lead over CBDC rejection both when it came to converting savings to CBDCs (59% support versus 11% “never”) and being paid in CBDCs (57% support versus 12% “never”).

Summing up the positive results for CBDCs suggested by the study, Guardtime Head of Strategy Luukas Ilves observed, “it is fascinating to see that 64% of people would be willing to use CBDCs – even though they have not been launched yet – and are happy to support and trust Central Banks to ensure digital currencies are delivered.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

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Currencycloud Valued at $963 Million On News of Visa Acquisition

Currencycloud Valued at $963 Million On News of Visa Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Acquisition, Alumni News, Currency Cloud, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, VISA

Global payments platform Currencycloud is the latest fintech to catch the eye of Visa, which announced this week that it has agreed to acquire the London-based fintech in a deal that values the company at $963 million (GBP 700 million). The acquisition announcement noted that the pact builds on a partnership that extends back to 2019 and bolsters Visa’s foreign exchange capabilities, enabling them to better serve FIs, fintechs, and other partners, as well as help them explore new use cases and payment flows.

“At Currencycloud, we’ve always strived to deliver a better tomorrow for all, from the smallest start-up to the global multi-nationals,” Currencycloud CEO Mike Laven said. “Re-imagining how money flows around the global economy just got more exciting as we join Visa.” Laven added that bringing Currencycloud’s expertise in fintech to Visa’s network will “enable us to deliver greater customer value to the businesses moving money across borders.”

Currencycloud will continue to operate out of its London, U.K. headquarters and its current management team will remain intact.

The acquisition news comes just a few weeks after the Currencycloud announced a partnership with Global Processing Services (GPS) to expand access to cross-border payments. The collaboration will give fintechs the ability to enhance their current product offerings with products like multi-currency digital wallets and services like point-of-sale foreign exchange.

“For Fintechs, building a multi-currency solution requires a huge effort across multiple functional and regulatory domains,” Currencycloud co-founder and VP of Partnerships & Enterprise Stephen Lemon explained when the collaboration was announced in June. “By working with Currencycloud and GPS, fintechs can reduce the complexity involved and get to market much more quickly for a fraction of the cost of self-building, while vastly reducing ongoing operational risk and overhead.”

A Finovate alum for more than six years, Currencycloud most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage in 2018, where the company presented its Global Collections product. Since then, Currencycloud has grown into a platform whose APIs have enabled processing of more than $100 billion in transactions for companies ranging from neobanks to financial services corporations. Currencycloud currently supports nearly 500 bank and fintech customers, reaching more than 180 countries.

Photo by Brixiv from Pexels

 

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Dwolla Secures $21 Million in Funding to Innovate B2B Payments

Dwolla Secures $21 Million in Funding to Innovate B2B Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Dwolla, Funding

In a venture round led by Foundry Group, modern payments platform Dwolla has raised $21 million in new funding. The capital takes the company’s total funding to more than $70 million according to Crunchbase, and will help fuel the Des Moines, Iowa-based fintech’s growth initiatives, enhance its partner relationships, and drive the company’s product roadmap.

Also participating in the funding were Park West Asset Management LLC, Union Square Ventures, Detroit Venture Partners, Firebrand Ventures, and Next Level Ventures. Individual investor Jeremy Andrus, CEO of Traeger, also participated in the round.

The investment in Dwolla comes in the wake of a surge in transaction volume over the past year – due largely to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. With an increase of 80% in transaction volume since the beginning of the crisis, Dwolla sees itself on track for more than $30 billion in transaction volume this year. The company noted that this week that it has onboarded approximately three million end users on its payments platform in the first six months of 2021.

“We continue to be excited at the speed of innovation and demands from the marketplace,” Dwolla CEO Brady Harris said in a statement announcing the investment. “We continue to see significant client and payment volume growth due in part to our new products like Real-Time Payments, Push-to-Debit, and our low-code solutions. This funding will allow us to fully capitalize on the momentum we’re experiencing, as we continue to scale our tech stack with innovative solutions and invest in go-to-market capabilities with international expansion and technical integrations with exciting fintech partners.”

This spring, Dwolla added real-time payment options to its platform. Powered by Cross River Bank, the Real-Time Payments solution uses the RTP Network to send money directly to bank accounts in seconds. The partnership enabled new businesses integrate Dwolla’s payment API to connect with RTP-enabled FIs and send money, while Dwolla’s current customers were able to begin using the technology simply by changing a single line of code.

“Today is game-changing,” Harris said when the new offering was announced in April. “Not just for adding real-time payments to Dwolla’s payments technology. But because of how we collaborated with a forward-thinking financial institution to make real-time payments easily accessible to businesses of all sizes. The immediacy of real-time payments will fundamentally change how businesses operate.”

Check out our profile of Dwolla from earlier this year. The company was founded by Ben Milne in 2008. Milne served as CEO of the company through March of 2020.

Photo by Todd Trapani from Pexels

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