FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley: Backbase Rebrands, Boku Booms, and SecureKey Finds Opportunity in Acquisition

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Boku, FinovateEurope 2023, SecureKey

This week we began our celebration of FinovateEurope's earliest alums. In honor of FinovateEurope's Alumni Alley Showcase - a new feature designed to highlight the innovations of FinovateEurope alums - we're highlighting the companies that introduced their innovations to Finovate's European audience more than a decade ago - and are still among the top innovators in fintech today.

Visit our FinovateEurope Alumni Alley Showcase hub to learn more about this special opportunity for FinovateEurope alums.

Don't Call It A Comeback: Backbase's Big Rebrand

Founded in 2003, Backbase has been demonstrating its fintech innovations on the Finovate stage for more than a decade. Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2011, the company made its most recent on-stage appearance at FinovateFall in 2021, demoing the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. In that ten years, the Amsterdam-based company was awarded Best of Show on four occasions, including three from the company's demos…

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X1 Card Raises $15 Million, Adds In-App Stock Purchasing

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

Challenger credit card X1 has raised $15 million, bringing its total funding to more than $60 million. Along with today's announcement, X1 is also unveiling a new in-app stock investing tool that will enable cardholders to purchase stocks using points. X1 will use the funds to fuel growth and roll out new services for its members.

Challenger credit card X1 has raised $15 million this week. The funds bring the company's Series B round to $40 million and elevate its total funds to more than $60 million. The investment was led by Soma Capital and included contributions from Brian Kelly (The Points Guy) and Kyle Vogt.

While the self-described smart credit card did not provide an exact valuation, the company said that today's round increases X1's total valuation by more than 50% over where it stood four months ago, when the company raised $25 million in Series B funding.

X1…

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Canadian Cross Border Payments Innovator Buckzy Raises Series A Funding

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Buckzy Payments, Daily news, Funding

Canadian real-time cross border payments company Buckzy has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding. The investment was led by Mistral Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures, and featured participation from new investors Luge Capital and Blue 9 Capital, as well as existing investor Revel Partners. Buckzy made its Finovate debut in 2019 at FinovateFall.

In a round led by Mistral Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures, Canada-based real-time, cross border payments company Buckzy has secured $14.5 million in Series A funding. Valuation information was not immediately available. This week's investment takes the company's total equity funding to more than $23 million, according to Crunchbase.

"This round of financing is a validation of Buckzy's vision to create an intelligent and automated international payment system," Buckzy CEO Abdul Naushad said. "We're on a mission to build the plumbing for real-time money movement globally, the same way high-speed internet fundamentally shifted the…

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Finastra Integrates Clinc’s Conversational AI into its Digital Banking Platform

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Clinc, Daily news, Finastra

Finastra and Clinc have partnered to integrate Clinc's conversational AI technology into Finastra's Fusion Digital Banking platform. Finastra will offer its 8,600 financial instiution clients access to Clinc's AI virtual assistants to help mitigate the load on call centers while providing quality answers to end users. Finastra was founded in 2017 as a merger between Misys and D+H.

Financial software company Finastra has tapped conversational AI fintech Clinc this week. The two have partnered to integrate Clinc's Virtual Banking Assistant technology into Finastra's Fusion Digital Banking platform. 

The added capabilities will enable Finastra's 8,600 financial institution clients to increase digital engagement with their customers. Clinc's Virtual Banking Assistant helps banks manage common banking requests through different channels, which ultimately helps reduce the volume of calls into the call center.

Clinc was founded in 2015 to build what it calls a "human-in-the-room" level of virtual assistant powered by AI technology and machine…

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5 Tales From the Crypto: Fidelity’s New Offering, Ledger’s Card, Kriptomat’s Exchange, and More!

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

Fidelity Brings the Bitcoin

If you've been crying over your crypto wallet due to all the negative headlines about digital currencies, then now is the time to dry your eyes and thank Fidelity for giving crypto enthusiasts the greatest sign of approval since BTC and ETH peaked last year.

Fidelity announced this week that it has enabled cryptocurrency trading in retail accounts. Fidelity Crypto, as the offering is called, enables retail accountholders to buy and sell both Bitcoin and ethereum with as little as $1. The new functionality will be available in 35 U.S. states initially - California, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas are among them. Fidelity plans to bring the technology to other states; the company is offering an early-access sign-up to let interested customers know when Fidelity Crypto is approved in their state. Similarly, the company is examining other cryptocurrencies with the potential to "expand…

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Greenwood Raises $45 Million to Bring Digital Banking to Black and Latino Communities

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Diversity in Fintech, Funding

Greenwood, a digital banking platform catering to black and Latino communities, raised $45 million in new funding this week. The funding round was led by Pendulum, an investing and advisory platform for founders of color. Atlanta, Georgia-based Greenwood was named after the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was known as "Black Wall Street" in the early 20th century due to its high concentration of black-owned businesses.

In a round led by Pendulum, a strategic growth investing and advisory platform for founders of color, digital banking platform Greenwood has secured $45 million in new funding. A digital banking platform designed to meet the needs of members of the African-American and Latino/Hispanic communities, Greenwood will use the funding to advance its goal of closing the wealth gap between ethnic minority and majority populations and enable African-Americans and Latinos to more readily build generational wealth.

"Our vision is to make Greenwood…

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Fintech Apps Need These 5 Mobile Features to Attract Gen Z Users

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Guest Post

The following is written by Lance Boyer, a recent college graduate and a Gen Z journalist.

Generation Z made up about 40% of active U.S. consumers in 2020, according to Fast Company. It also has more buying power than any of the Generation X, Boomer, or Silent generations. And it’s growing rapidly.

Generation Z is better off than the Millennial generation too. “Core” Millennials graduated high school and college into one of the worst economies in living memory. Despite the pandemic recession, Generation Z’s job and earning prospects have improved.

Financial technology providers can’t ignore Gen Z any longer. If you’re in the business of making budgeting, banking, and investing accessible to mobile users in the United States, you need to tailor your offerings to Gen Z — and now, not in 10 years.

That means designing your mobile app with younger users in mind. Here’s where to start.

…

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FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley: Pioneering PFM, French Fintech, and an Investor Social Network

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: eToro, FinovateEurope 2023, linxo, Meniga

FinovateEurope's Alumni Alley is a great way for our pioneering alums to show that, more than a decade later, they are still driving fintech innovation. Check out our Finovate Alumni Alley hub for more information on how to get involved.

To celebrate the launch of this new opportunity, we're going to highlight alums that demoed their technologies at some of the earliest FinovateEurope events. From Best of Show winners to late blooming breakouts, FinovateEurope has spent the past dozen years showcasing the companies that have become many of fintech's favorites. Over the next few weeks heading into the winter holidays, we will share their stories here.

A Best of Show Winner - Meniga

One of four companies to win Best of Show in our inaugural FinovateEurope in 2011, Meniga introduced itself as a mobile PFM solution provider for retail banks in Europe. Hailing from Reykjavik, Iceland, and founded in 2009,…

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Small Business Banking Provider Tide Acquires Funding Options

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

Small business banking platform Tide has agreed to acquire lending marketplace Funding Options. Tide will integrate Funding Options' loan matching technology into its own business loan comparison site. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A rising tide lifts all boats. Or in today's case, a rising Tide lifts Funding Options. That's because small business banking provider Tide has agreed to acquire lending marketplace Funding Options. Financial terms of the deal, which was first reported by AltFi News, were not disclosed.

U.K.-based Tide was founded in 2015 to help small businesses save time and money on banking and administrative tasks. The business bank accounts offer accounting tools, expense cards, invoicing, payment collection capabilities, business loan comparisons, and cashflow insights. Tide currently counts more than 450,000 sole traders, freelancers, and limited companies as clients.

By integrating Funding Options' business lending comparison technology into its own, Tide will be able to offer…

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Cion Digital and upSWOT Team Up to Bring Embedded Finance Solutions to Commercial Loan Brokers

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cion Digital, Daily news, UpSwot

Cion Digital and upSWOT have teamed up to bring embedded finance and embedded business management solutions to commercial loan brokers. Courtesy of the partnership, the two companies will enable wealth managers and commercial loan officers the ability to identify ideal financing solutions, as well as broaden their offering with new embedded financial and business management tools. Cion Digital made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring. Making its Finovate debut in 2000, upSWOT returned to the Finovate stage in September for FinovateFall.

Cion Digital, which offers technology to help businesses find the right loan products that suit their needs, has partnered with fintech platform upSWOT. Together, the two Finovate alums will provide wealth managers and commercial loan brokers with embedded finance and embedded business management solutions. These tools will empower these businesses to offer their customers access to a wide variety of tools - including accounting, ERP,…

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U.S.-based Neobank Novo Secures $125 Million in Series B Funding

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Miami, Florida-based neobank Novo raised $35 million in funding, taking its Series B funding round to $125 million. The Series B raises Novo's total equity funding to more than $170 million. The latest capital infusion comes from GGV Capital, which manages more than $9 billion in investments across North America, China, Southeast Asia, India, Latin America, and Israel.

An additional $35 million investment brings the total raised by Miami, Florida-based fintech Novo to $125 million. The latest infusion comes courtesy of strategic investor GGV Capital, and brings Novo's total equity funding to more than $170 million.

In a statement, Novo CEO and co-founder Michael Rangel highlighted the new functionality of the Novo Platform and the "tens of thousand" of small business customers the company has onboarded. Rangel also praised GGV as "instrumental" in helping other technology companies ("from Airbnb to Square") scale their businesses, and said he believed the support…

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