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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Customer analytics platform unitQ secured a strategic investment from Zendesk Ventures.
The amount of the investment was undisclosed. unitQ had raised $41 million in funding to date.
unitQ made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021 and returned to the Finovate stage a year later for FinovateSpring in San Francisco.
Here’s some funding news that slipped beneath our radar this summer: AI-powered customer analytics platform unitQ has secured an investment from Zendesk Ventures. The amount of the funding was not disclosed, but it turns Zendesk from a unitQ customer into a strategic investor, as well.
“We chose unitQ after evaluating and trying different solutions in the market,” Zendesk VP of Global CX Operations Shawn Slipy said. “The granularity and speed at which unitQ is able to deliver actionable customer insights is above and beyond what others could offer, and we’re grateful for our continued partnership.”
unitQ had raised $41 million in capital ahead of the June investment, according to Crunchbase. The current investment comes amid Zendesk Ventures’ determination to back companies that are leveraging AI to enhance both customer and employee experience. The venture fund will provide unitQ with access to CX and AI experts to help drive innovation and assist the company in recruiting talent, growing unitQ’s customer base, and building its brand.
“We’ve experienced the power of Zendesk’s community first-hand and are excited to explore joint go-to-market efforts with Zendesk’s ecosystem of customers, technology partners, and evangelists,” unitQ CEO and Co-Founder Christian Wiklund said. “Partnering with Zendesk means joining forces with a leader that opens doors to top-tier talent and industry networks. We’ve gained more than just funding – we’re now connected to a community and receive tailored mentorship to help our company’s growth.”
Customer service platform Zendesk leverages AI agents, workflow automation, and human agents to help businesses provide better service to customers and make workplaces more efficient for employees. The company has more than 100,000 customers in 160 countries and territories and 5,450 employees. Zendesk launched its Zendesk Ventures global venture fund in June with a mission to provide emerging companies with capital, CX and AI expertise, as well as strategic partnership opportunities – especially for AI-first companies.
“Every organization is on a path to becoming AI-driven, and we’re eager to form partnerships with companies leading this new era,” Ben Barclay, SVP of Strategy, Corporate Development, & Transformation at Zendesk, said.
unitQ made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021, and returned to the Finovate stage the following year for FinovateSpring in San Francisco. In the time since then, the company has launched a range of new solutions, including its Impact Analysis Tool and its generative AI engine for measuring product quality, unitQ GPT. This spring, unitQ added Product Analytics to its User Feedback Platform to enable institutions to view and analyze real-time user feedback along with behavioral analytics data.
In recent months, the company has also forged partnerships with Chess.com, streaming media platform Plex, and most recently with product analytics platform Amplitude.
Founded in 2018, unitQ is headquartered in Burlingame, California.
The partnership will enable Varo Bank to offer a range of new products including digital wallet tokenization via Apple and Google Wallets for its cardholders.
Headquartered in Oakland, California, Marqeta was founded in 2010.
Card issuing platform Marqetahas signed a five-year deal with Varo Bank to serve as the financial institution’s issuer processor. Marqeta’s ability to blend virtual, tokenized, and physical card-issuing technology with faster speed-to-market was among the factors cited by Varo Bank in teaming up with the fintech.
“We sought an issuer partner that complements our unique position as both a technology company and a regulated financial institution,” Varo Bank CEO Colin Walsh explained. “This partnership with Marqeta enables us to offer cutting-edge card issuing technology, giving our customers enhanced ability to view and manage their transactions efficiently. This advancement aligns perfectly with our mission of financial empowerment.”
Widely recognized as one of the first nationally-chartered consumer-based techbanks in the U.S., Varo Bank offers fee-free checking accounts, high-yield savings accounts, secured credit-building credit cards, instant payment solutions, and free ATM access at more than 40,000 locations. Varo Bank’s mobile app enables customers to review and improve their financial health, and now, courtesy of the institution’s partnership with Marqeta, the bank will enable digital wallet tokenization with Apple and Google Wallets for its cardholders.
“Marqeta is proud to announce this deal with Varo Bank, which relies on the latest payments and banking technologies to help Americans who are striving to get ahead,” Marqeta CEO Simon Khalaf said. “Varo’s mission is aligned with ours and we can’t wait to start innovating with the Varo team, enabling their customers to see transactions in real-time thanks to Marqeta’s APIs.”
Marqeta is an alumnus of our developers conference series, FinDEVr. The company presented its technology at our event in Silicon Valley in 2016. In the years since then, the Oakland, California-based fintech has grown into a major, modern card issuing platform operating in 40 countries and processing more than $160 billion in volume in 2022. The company’s partnership news with Varo Bank comes less than a month after Marqeta announced that it had become the first issuer processor in the U.S. that was certified to enableVisa Flexible Credential, a product that provides access to multiple funding sources from a single payment card.
Founders are what make the fintech world go around. Without their grit, willingness to take risks, desire to enhance the status quo, and determination to bounce back after failure, fintech wouldn’t be here.
At FinovateSpring earlier this year, we spoke with four fintech leaders– Robbie Heeger, President and CEO and Endaoment; Alexandra McLeod, CEO and Founder at Parlay Protocol; Gwyneth Borden, Founder and CEO and Remynt; and Christian Widhalm, CEO and Bloom Credit– shortly after they stepped off the Finovate demo stage. We asked each of them for advice on pitching a product through a demo approach, refining presentations, and communicating their company’s value proposition.
Lessons from Finovate – Shaping your fintech showcase approach
Evolution through Feedback – Refining Fintech Presentations for Future Success
Unlocking Demo Success – Key Strategies for Communicating Fintech Value Propositions
Digital banking solutions provider Blend has forged a partnership with instant payments-as-a-service company Astra. The partnership will integrate Astra’s Card to Account payment solution directly within Blend’s Deposit Account application flow. This will enable Blend customers to drive digital engagement beyond the initial application capture, lowering abandonment rates and helping consumers complete applications faster.
“Today consumers expect a frictionless, real-time product experience, and that starts at account opening,” Astra CEO and Co-Founder Gil Akos said. “Financial institutions and fintechs need to deliver a best-in-class onboarding flow to win new customers – instant account funding is the perfect solution, leading to improved activation rates of 30% or better on day one. We’re proud to partner with Blend to offer this experience to their customers.”
Funding by card is an increasingly popular option given the relative inconvenience of other methods, such as ACH transfers. By comparison, funding new accounts via debit cards is a faster and more seamless process (no routing or account numbers to remember). And because cards only enable transactions up to the available balance, card funding also helps avoid potential overdrafts when using ACH transfers, a risk for consumers who may have limited funds or irregular cash flow.
Further advantages include accelerated onboarding, more activated accounts, reduced abandonment, a smoother application experience, and less manual intervention.
Blend noted in a statement that card funding is also one of the more popular ways for consumers to fund new accounts. The company pointed to one of its customers, a major credit union, that reported that 82% of their new deposit accounts were funded using Astra card funding. Another credit union customer of Blend said that 66% of its consumers preferred funding via Astra card compared to other methods. Card funding for Blend Deposit Accounts is now generally available for all customers.
Astra offers a platform for instant payments that enables product teams to embed payments into their solutions. The company’s API facilitates seamless fund transfers between bank accounts and cards, providing a fast, secure, and built-for-scale alternative to traditional fund transfer methods such as ACH.
Astra launched its first, end-to-end instant payment solution with FedNow in the fall of 2023. In December, the company announced a partnership with merchant connectivity platform Knot to enable seamless card switching with instant funding. Founded in 2016, Astra is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Blend demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2016. At the conference, the company demoed its Data-Driven Mortgage solution which leverages high-fidelity data sources to drive down origination costs, maintain digital compliance, and provide a positive user experience for borrowers.
Last month, Blend announced its acquisition of applied AI company nuvu, and expanded its partnership with DataIQ. In May, Blend secured an investment of $150 million from technology-focused private equity firm Haveli Investments.
Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2012, Blend is a publicly-traded company on the NYSE. Trading under the ticker BLND, the company has a market capitalization of $678 million. Nima Ghamsari is CEO and Co-Founder.
PayPal is launching Fastlane, a one-click guest checkout experience for online merchants.
Fastlane automatically recognizes shoppers based on their phone number or email address, and autofills information forms in the checkout flow.
PayPal first unveiled Fastlane in January, and has been testing the solution with select merchants and ecommerce sites, including BigCommerce.
Fintech pioneer PayPal is launchingFastlane, its guest checkout tool, for all U.S. merchants this week. Fastlane aims to accelerate the guest checkout experience to help users complete their purchase in as little as one click.
Merchants can integrate Fastlane into their existing online checkout flow to create a simpler, faster checkout experience for the 43% of consumers who prefer a guest checkout experience. By using the customer’s email, Fastlane recognizes shoppers early in the guest checkout process and allows them to access their saved information with a one-time passcode sent via email. After entering their passcode, users can autofill the information in the checkout flow and complete their purchase in as little as one click.
When Fastlane does not recognize a shopper, it allows them to create a Fastlane profile by opting in during their purchase process, enabling faster transactions in the future.The tool does not require users to fill out forms or remember passwords.
“Fastlane by PayPal significantly reduces the time consumers spend using guest checkout – making for a more seamless checkout experience,” said PayPal President and CEO Alex Chriss. “With Fastlane, we are bringing an accelerated guest checkout to businesses of all sizes helping them to drive more sales.”
PayPal unveiled Fastlane in January and has since tested the technology with select businesses, including merchant SaaS provider BigCommerce, which is among the first ecommerce sites to test PayPal’s Fastlane. Over the past several months of trialing the technology, BigCommerce saw a 32% reduction in time it took for customers to check out. Additionally, as company CEO Brent Bellm noted, “Results from early-adopting test customers show that Fastlane users convert more than 80% of the time, which is up to a 50% improvement over guest shoppers who do not use Fastlane. For BigCommerce enterprise customers using PayPal, the Fastlane experience further improves on our checkout conversion rate of 71%.”
Fastlane is available for U.S. merchants on PayPalComplete Payments and PayPal Braintree, as well as via platforms including Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and others.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 9 and 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Eko Investments
Eko Investments‘ white-label solution allows 10,000 banks and credit unions to offer digital investing directly on their existing banking platform.
Features
Offers digital investing natively integrated into digital banking
Supplies pre-made portfolios and self-selection of stocks, bonds, or ETFs
Makes end-users feel like they are investing with their FI via 100% white-labeling
Who’s it for?
Banks and credit unions of all sizes.
Fizen Technology
Verify by Fizen Technology is an all-in-one compliance screening platform for banks. Verify consolidates essential checks like KYC and OFAC, simplifying compliance, reducing risk, and enhancing efficiency.
Features
Featured checks:
Negative news
Politically exposed person (PEP)
Secretary of State
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, and fintechs.
Further
Further connects consumers to the best credit unions for their needs, helping them achieve financial wellness and freedom.
Features
Consumers can:
Access pre-approved offers and funds easily
Monitor their credit score for free
Receive personalized financial insights and recommendations
Who’s it for?
Gen Z and Millennial consumers (21 and above).
GenRPT
GenRPT is an AI-driven insights and reporting platform that allows users to generate visual reports from databases in plain English, supporting SQL, Excel, PDF, CSV formats, and more.
Features
Connect to any database – structured or unstructured
Interact in plain English, without any prior technical knowledge
TodayPay is the world’s first instant payments network and inventor of Refunds as a Service, giving merchants an alternative payment method to issue instant refunds to customers.
Features
Offers a cheaper refund payment method to credit cards
Issues refunds instantly (average time of 26 seconds for consumers to receive refunds)
Allows consumers to choose refund payment methods, including cashback
Who’s it for?
Merchants, retailers, brands, marketplaces, insurers, card issuers, and logistics companies.
Union Credit
Union Credit is the pioneering marketplace for credit unions, enabling them to offer one-click loan options to new members within their daily activities, thereby boosting new member acquisition efforts.
Features
Allows credit unions to set product specific funding limits, marketing spend limits, lender underwriting criteria, rates, and more
Supports all consumer loan products
Captures census tract data on consumers for CDFI tracking
Ready to level up your networking game at FinovateFall? We’re here to help! At FinovateFall 2024, which is taking place September 9 through 11 in New York, we’re launching a new, personalized meeting platform called LevelUp.
Introducing LevelUp
LevelUp, Finovate’s new meeting program, is designed to help banks and financial institutions participate in tailored, valuable meetings. The goal of the meetings is to help our financial institution attendees efficiently find providers offering solutions that suit their requirements and ultimately meet critical business needs.
Seamlessly Integrated
LevelUp will be embedded into the FinovateFall agenda. We will offer time slots throughout the event to allow you to meet six solutions providers in an efficient, quickfire meeting format. To ensure you are meeting with companies offering real solutions to your challenges, we have hand-selected the best fintechs to optimize your time.
How It Works
Personalized Matches: Upon registering for FinovateFall, you’ll have the opportunity to detail your specific business challenges and needs. Our platform will then match you with the most relevant fintech providers.
Efficient Scheduling: LevelUp slots are strategically placed within the event agenda, ensuring that you have ample time to participate without missing other key sessions and presentations.
Focused Interactions: Each meeting slot is designed to be quick and focused, allowing you to get straight to the point and determine if the provider’s solution is right for your institution.
Why LevelUp?
Targeted Networking: Meet only with providers who are pre-vetted and matched to your specific needs, saving you time and effort.
Optimized Agenda: The seamless integration of LevelUp within the event schedule ensures that you maximize your time at FinovateFall.
Enhanced Collaboration: By focusing on relevant matches, you can build meaningful partnerships that drive real business results.
Join Us at FinovateFall 2024
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to revolutionize your networking experience. Whether you’re looking to explore new fintech innovations, solve specific business challenges, or simply expand your professional network, LevelUp is here to make it happen.
Register now for FinovateFall 2024 and take the first step towards leveling up your networking game. We can’t wait to see you there!
In partnership with financial literacy platform Doshi, Yorkshire Building Society is offering online financial education to first-time prospective homebuyers.
The new free tool, available on the YBS website to customers and non-customers alike, walks new homebuyers through the entire home-buying process.
Doshi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope in London.
Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has teamed up with gamified financial literacy platform Doshi to launch an online educational program for first-time prospective homeowners. The new tool is available in the mortgage section of Yorkshire Building Society’s website, and guides borrowers through the process of applying for a mortgage and buying their first home.
The program walks prospective homeowners through the entire home-buying journey, including how to prepare for buying a home, how to secure financing, understanding the various steps of the home-buying process, and the importance of maintaining their home once they’ve made their purchase. The program explains important concepts and potentially unfamiliar terms, and provides a timeline of the overall process. The tool is available free of charge to both YBS customers and non-customers.
“Partnering with Yorkshire Building Society to empower aspiring homeowners is a significant step toward making homeownership more accessible,” Doshi CEO Daniel Rose said. “Our program demystifies the mortgage process, providing engaging, bite-sized guidance every step of the way. We are excited to see the positive impact on first-time buyers.”
The new offering comes in the wake of research conducted by YBS that indicated that a lack of knowledge about the home-buying process was a major barrier for would-be homeowners. YBS noted that only 18% of those surveyed felt knowledgeable about the mortgage process, with even fewer respondents – 14% – saying that they knew what financial factors were key when applying for a mortgage. The survey further indicated that only 45% of respondents believed that a good credit score was an important factor in securing a mortgage. Only 34% stated that the ability to repay debts was important when it comes to obtaining the financing necessary to buy a home.
“We know from customer research that people feel more confident in their decision making when they are informed and know what to expect, which is why we are trialing this new learning tool, aimed at helping first-time buyers understand more about the home-buying process,” YBS senior manager for digital mortgage and enabling services Geddy Meguyer said.
The third-largest building society in the U.K., Yorkshire Building Society is a financial services mutual organization that offers savings, investing, insurance, and mortgage products. Headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, YBS had total assets of more than £60 billion as of December 2023. Along with its assets – the Chelsea Building Society, the Norwich and Peterborough Building Society, Accord Mortgages, and savings business Egg – known as the Yorkshire Building Society Group, the group employs more than 3,000 and serves a membership of three million.
YBS’s partnership with Doshi is the latest effort by the building society to support first-time homeowners. This spring, YBS launched its £5k Deposit Mortgage product, which enabled first-time homebuyers to buy a property worth up to £500,000 with a deposit of only £5k, rather than the typical 5% down payment. The idea behind the £5k Deposit Mortgage was to deal with the biggest obstacle prospective homebuyers tend to face – raising the funds for a down payment.
Doshi made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in February. At the conference, the company demoed its white-label app, which leverages personalized learning journeys and community rewards to turn complex topics into engaging experiences. Doshi’s AI-powered financial assistant technology is built for banks, credit unions, and fintechs, and is available as an app, a plug-and-play web module, as well as via API.
Doshi was founded in 2021. The company is headquartered in London.
Bilt Rewards received $150 million in a funding round led by Teachers’ Venture Growth.
The new round brings the company’s total funding to $710 million.
The funding comes six months after Bilt Rewards’ January investment round, which valued the company at $3.1 billion.
Bilt Rewards, a rewards program that allows renters to earn points for paying rent on time, announced it has received $150 million in funding this week. The venture round was led by Teachers’ Venture Growth, while existing and new investors, such as Vanderbilt University Endowment and the University of Illinois Foundation, also participated.
Bilt Rewards was founded in 2021 to help landlords collect on-time rent payments by incentivizing residents with tailored benefits. In addition to rewarding on-time rent payments, Bilt’s platform also offers rewards when residents spend at partner merchants, enabling merchants to drive more business from local customers and acquire new customers as new residents move to the area. The company will use today’s investment to further expand its neighborhood loyalty program with merchants across the U.S.
“Bilt Rewards has created a unique loyalty program to empower renters,” said Teachers’ Venture Growth Senior Managing Director Rick Prostko. “We’ve seen the positive reaction from both customers and all those involved as part of their ecosystem. We are excited about the opportunity to work with Ankur and the full management team and find ways to support them as a value-add partner.”
Today’s investment, which boosts Bilt’s total funding to $710 million, comes about six months after Bilt’s last investment round led by General Catalyst and Eldridge. The $200 million raise, which closed in January, valued the company at $3.1 billion. As part of the January round, Bilt appointed Ken Chenault, former American Express CEO, as company chairman.
“In January, we recognized Bilt’s unique capture of loyalty in the previously untapped rental payments space,” said Chenault. “Today, Bilt is rapidly becoming the leading platform for driving neighborhood commerce. By connecting residents, property owners, and local businesses, we’re creating a powerful ecosystem that benefits all parties involved.”
Bilt Rewards is currently partnered with seven of the 10 largest multifamily housing owners in the country. The fintech, which is expanding to single-family homes and condominiums, plans to scale its resident loyalty program to include mortgage payments later this year.
“This funding accelerates our vision of rewarding Americans for how they live and spend in their communities,” said Ankur Jain, CEO of Bilt Rewards. “We’re rapidly growing our neighborhood loyalty program, expanding into essential categories like healthcare, gas, and groceries. With members in all 50 states, we’re building a comprehensive platform that benefits residents, property owners, and local businesses across the country.”
A major sell-off in the stock market is giving investors jitters as August begins in earnest. Funding news for companies in lending and wealth management leads the fintech news this week. Be sure to check back over the next few days for the latest updates and announcements.
Lending
U.K.-based SME lender Shawbrook partners with nCino to automate loan origination.
Alternative financing company for mid-sized SMEs, ThinCats, secures a £75 million mezzanine facility.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights recent fintech news from India.
A strategic partnership between financial software applications and marketplace company Finastra and Tech Mahindra, announced today, will help corporate banks accelerate their digital transformation journeys. Specifically, the partnership will make Tech Mahindra the exclusive global implementation partner for Finastra’s Cash Management platform. Tech Mahindra will also become the preferred partner for Finastra’s Trade Innovation and Corporate Channels solutions in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
“This is an important partnership that aligns closely with our commitment to helping our customers navigate today’s challenges and embrace much needed digitalization,” Finastra CEO Simon Paris said. “The broad portfolio of services and deep experience offered by Tech Mahindra are a valuable complement to our modern and open software. With this combination, we look forward to propelling the digital transformation of even more banks and financial institutions around the world.”
The partnership will enable the two companies to offer a variety of cross-functional solutions across digital advisory, system integration, integrated infrastructure, and cloud services. These solutions will help corporate and institutional banks streamline and digitalize their operations. Financial institutions will further benefit from faster time to value for customers courtesy of faster implementations and upgrades.
“This partnership brings together two global leaders in digital transformation and financial services applications to help corporate banks scale at speed,” said Tech Mahindra CEO and Managing Director Mohit Joshi. “We believe our joint efforts will redefine the way banks digitize to improve their profit margins.”
Founded in 1986, Tech Mahindra is an international IT services and consulting company, headquartered in Pune, India. Part of the Mahindra Group, Tech Mahindra has more than 147,000 employees in 90+ countries serving 1,100+ clients. The firm offers solutions and expertise in verticals ranging from banking, insurance, and telecommunications, to media, entertainment, and retail. The first Indian company to earn the Sustainable Markets Initiative’s Terra Carta Seal, Tech Mahindra is publicly traded on India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) and has a market capitalization of $17.8 billion (₹1.5 trillion).
The product of a union between Finovate alum Misys and D+H in 2017, Finastra offers software and solutions for financial institutions across lending, payments, treasury and capital markets, as well as retail, digital, and commercial banking. The company’s technology for banks helps them develop their direct banking relationships and to grow through new channels such as Banking-as-a-Service and embedded finance. More than 8,000 institutions – including 45 of the world’s top 50 banks – rely on Finastra’s technology.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been making fintech, financial, and economic news of late. On the fintech side, the RBI has granted cross-border payment licenses to three fintechs: BillDesk, Amazon Pay, and Adyen. These licenses will enable these companies to operate as cross-border payment aggregators and, ultimately, to offer their customers payment services for both imports and exports.
The RBI has been actively encouraging many fintechs to secure payment aggregator licenses; more than 20 companies have been granted PA licenses to date. In many of these instances, the RBI has suggested that companies interested in cross-border payments in particular apply for these licenses. Another firm that recently secured its PA license for cross-border payments for import and export from the RBI is Cashfree Payments.
In order to secure PA licenses, fintechs must register under the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) in order to become authorized to process transactions. Fintechs must also maintain a minimum net worth of Rs 15 Cr ($1.8 million) during application, a sum that will increase to Rs 25 Cr ($2.9 million) after March 2026.
Speaking of payments, the RBI is now a part of Project Nexus. The first project from the payments sector of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the project seeks to connect the Faster Payment Systems of four Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries – Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand – and India. While India’s RBI has collaborated with a number of other countries via its Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to support bilateral payments, RBI’s participation in Project Nexus is the first time the bank has officially joined a multilateral project of this scope.
Additional countries are expected to be added over time. The project will help small and medium-sized businesses in India make faster, less expensive, and more reliable cross-border payments. To this end, the project will also make it easier for Indian banks to offer cross-border payment services to a broader range of countries. Speed and greater transparency are also among the benefits highlighted by observers.
Are you a fan of CBDCs? This week, the RBI reported that its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot has five million users and 420,000 participating merchants as of June 30. According to Reuters, transactions in the digital rupee are running at a pace of 100,000 a day, significantly below lofty expectations and hopes of one million transactions a day by 2023. It has also been pointed out that the digital rupee may suffer from competition with the country’s popular faster payments system, UPI.
Nevertheless, the digital rupee may be getting a bit of a boost courtesy of cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, which launched digital rupee payments on its platform this week. According to Cointelegraph, the digital rupee will be available as a wallet-based payment option, along with the exchange’s payment options in rupees via bank transfer, third-parties such as Paytm, and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
“By incorporating the eRupee payment, Bybit aims to elevate the payment experience for INR (Indian rupee) users, fostering trust and reliability in every transaction,” said Bybit sales and marketing director Joan Han. “Furthermore, this initiative is expected to attract a wider pool of merchants to the platform, driving business growth and expanding the reach of Bybit’s services within the market.”
Founded in 2018, Bybit is the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume in the world, with more than 37 million users.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Faye, an insurtech startup based in Israel, raised $31 million in Series B funding.
Egyptian B2B platform Cartona secured $8.1 million in a Series A extension round led by Algebra Ventures.
Israel-based financial crime detection company ThetaRayacquired screening company Screena.
Central and Southern Asia
Bangladesh-based fintech Nagad teamed up with Huawei Technologies.
The Reserve Bank of India approved cross-border payment licenses for BillDesk, Amazon Pay, and Adyen.
Texas-based migration fintech Vesti announced an expansion to Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Caribbean-based PROVEN Bank partnered with Ireland’s Fenergo to enhance its transaction monitoring and AML operations.
Mexican fintech platform for the underbanked and microbusinesses Aviva raised $5.5 million in funding.
Rippleteamed up with the National Federation of Associations of Central Bank Servers (Fenasbac) to promote fintech innovation in Brazil.
Asia-Pacific
ADVANCE.AI launched its KYB business intelligence service to enhance its operations in Singapore and Malaysia.
Polish IT solutions provider Comarch announced a strategic partnership with DSK Bank.
The partnership will help accelerate a strategic digitization program the bank launched in 2021.
Comarch has been a Finovate alum for more than a decade, making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.
Comarch, an IT solutions provider and systems integrator based in Poland, has forged a strategic partnership with DSK Bank. The partnership will accelerate the Bulgaria-based financial institution’s ongoing strategic digitalization efforts, which began in earnest in 2021.
“We are delighted to support DSK Bank in achieving its digitalization goals with our cutting-edge IT solutions,” Comarch Group CEE Director Piotr Kusek said. “This partnership underscores our mutual commitment to introducing innovative strategies that will transform the banking landscape and elevate financial services to a new level.”
An international IT business solution provider, Comarch employs 6,400 engineers, business consultants, marketing specialists, and other professionals who help optimize operations and business processes for companies in a wide variety of verticals including telecommunications and financial services. Comarch’s clients include BP Global, Telefónica Global, and Vodafone Germany.
Part of the OTP Banking Group, DSK Bank is Bulgaria’s largest bank. The institution was founded in 1951, and has total assets of more than $15.8 million (€14.74 million). In the spring of 2022, DSK Bank teamed up with another Finovate alum, Backbase, to support its digital transformation efforts.
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Kraków, Poland, Comarch made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. Within a few years, the company reported revenues in excess of PLN 1 billion, hired its 5,000th employee, and opened its 90th worldwide office. Comarch launched its modern financial platform for business, Apfino, in 2021, and unveiled Poland’s first commission-free shopping platform, Wszystko.pl, in 2023.
This year, the IT solutions provider has extended its partnership with Dutch telecommunications operator KPN, teamed up with insurance company P&V Group – which will adopt Comarch’s Employee Benefits solution – and announced a collaboration with UAE-based telecommunications company and ICT player du. Last month, Comarch joined the European Loyalty Association, partnered with charitable organization The Blind Loyalty Trust, and secured accreditation as a Peppol Service Provider in Malaysia.
