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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
The Equifax Payment Insights solution, powered by Urjanet, empowers lenders to seamlessly integrate consumer-permissioned utility payment history into lending decisions.
Features
SOC 2 and GDPR-compliant data security
Enhanced risk assessment with historical and recurring payment data
API connections to utility and telecom accounts from across the globe
Why it’s great With Payment Insights, consumers can share information to create a more complete financial profile, enabling lenders to better reach 63 million underbanked or unbanked adults.
Presenters
Corrigan Nolan, Director of Product Management Nolan is on a mission to help people and businesses function more efficiently by automating tasks, with a background in product design and product management. LinkedIn
Michael Pecen, VP Alternative Data Product & Strategy, Equifax Pecen leads Alternative Data Product for Equifax, focusing on how consumer-permissioned and alternative data will empower consumers and improve credit lifecycle, screening, and identity processes. LinkedIn
When we think of global corporations and business in general, do we feel pride in how we do things? Beyond Good, a new book by Unconventional Ventures co-founders Theodora Lau and Bradley Leimer, is a call to arms for business leaders to recognize how they can do well by doing good.
Beyond Good showcases how fintech is changing business models and what every industry can learn from it. The leaders in financial services are fostering a thriving ecosystem of incumbents and startups, unlocking new possibilities to make broader financial inclusion a reality.
With a foreword from the Aspen Institute, exclusive interviews with leading B-Corps, policy makers, executives, and case studies from companies like Sunrise Banks, Ant Group, Village Capital, Microsoft, and PayPal, Beyond Good shows how everyone can contribute to a more common good. Finovate readers can also get 20% off their copy of the book, using code Inspire20.
Below are a few excerpts from our conversation with Theo and Brad on the new book and their upcoming appearance at FinovateSpring next month. For the full interview, check out the video above.
On the importance of financial inclusion
Theo Lau: “If we talk about the onset of the so-called fintech revolution, if you will, a lot of the new startups seemed to regurgitate old ideas that have already been around. They make it prettier, they create this bamboo credit card … But it that really changing our behavior, is it really changing how we work? In the West, are we really including more demographics and doing things better for them? I would argue a lot of the time we are not.”
Bradley Leimer: “Inclusivity goes much broader than just a credit card or just lending or just credit. And that’s a lot of what we discuss. There’s more to a financial relationship than one side of the balance sheet. There’s more to the financial services model than just profitability. There are longer term implications in everything we do every single day and every decision that we make.”
Why fintechs and financial services need to move “beyond good.”
Leimer: “We’ve seen a lot of stakeholder capitalism lately and examples of companies that have tried to mean more for their business model and their communities. That’s what we celebrate in the book, the shift that we can include more people in our communities in society. Especially in financial services and technology, companies we really need to focus how we can serve these larger groups. Everybody in society should be able to be a part of our business models. And that’s why we go “beyond good.”
Lau: “We want to reinforce that this is not a zero-sum game. Just because we are including more demographics and more considerations on how we conduct business doesn’t mean you’re losing. Case in point, one of the things lately we’ve been talking about is student loan debt, $1.7 trillion dollars of debt. Obviously the burden is shared across all demographics, but particularly in communities of color, among first generation college students, and among those in other less advantaged groups.
So our question is: how do we go about solving it? There are a lot of different moving parts. But for financial services, the role isn’t just to offer another loan on top of the pile of deb because that’s not solving the problem. We need to go back further to ask how we create a more equal society, more equal products, and create services to help people rethink their finances and get to a healthier financial situation.”
Join Theo Lau and Bradley Leimer at FinovateSpring May 10 through 13. For more information about our upcoming, all digital, spring fintech conference, visit our FinovateSpring hub today.
“Moov is transforming the way fintechs enable account verification, money movement, and ACH payments through APIs,” MX cofounder and CTO Brandon Dewitt said. “We align with their mission to help fintechs and organizations focus on building amazing new experiences. Fintechs like Moov are a big reason why a massive digital shift is happening across the banking industry.”
Moov enables platforms, marketplaces, and software companies to embed payment functionality into their solutions, providing seamless money acceptance, storage, and disbursement. The combined, turnkey solution enhances the account verification process, providing a faster, more secure, and reliable experience for customers who are adding banking or payment functionality to their offerings.
“Whether you think of yourself as a fintech or not, every modern company is seeking a way to automate its process to accept, store, and disburse money,” Moov CEO Wade Arnold said. “Developers want the best user experience possible for their application. MX’s ability to provide fast IAV makes the payment experience swift and more seamless than it would have been without the joint solution.”
A multiple time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX provides connectivity and data enhancement for more than 16,000 financial institutions and fintechs – including 85% of digital banking providers. Among the Utah-based firm’s most recent collaborations is its partnership with AbbyBank. The $616 million asset community-owned bank launched its PFM solution – an embeddable digital money management tool powered by MX and offering budgeting, subscription tracking, debt management, and more – in March.
“With MX, AbbyBank is giving its customers across Wisconsin greater clarity into their personal finances,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner said. “(It’s) exactly the kind of innovation, partnership and money experience that MX loves to enable through our powerful data platform.”
Founded in 2010, MX most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2019.
News of NYMBUS’$15 million fundraising this week – and the company’s recent appointment of three women to key leadership positions – serves as a fitting bookend to a first quarter that began with big investment and big C-suite hires, as well.
In January, the Miami, Florida-based banking technology provider expanded its leadership team with the addition of Chief Alliance Officer Sarah Howell and Chief Product Officer Larry McClanahan. A month later, Nymbus secured a Series C investment of $53 million in a round led by Insight Partners.
“As the pandemic has pushed digital to the forefront, more banks and credit unions have turned to Nymbus as their partner for growth,” Nymbus CEO and Chairman Jeffery Kendall said when the funding was announced in February. “This new and significant investment validates a confidence in Nymbus to continue transforming the financial services industry with a banking strategy that buys back decades of lost time to speed digital innovation.”
Little did we know how quickly further valuation would arrive. This week’s investment by European private equity firm Financial Services Capital doubles its investment in Nymbus to more than $31 million. The funding gives Nymbus a total capital raised of more than $98 million.
“We look forward to continue working with Nymbus as they build out a best-in-class, cloud-native offering that is well positioned to be a leader in the industry and will transform our portfolio companies,” Financial Services Capital Managing Partner Miroslav Boublik said. He and fellow Managing Partner Matthew Hansen will join the Nymbus Board of Directors as part of the investment.
Also joining “Team Nymbus” is Veeva Systems co-founder Matt Wallach, who will serve as a Strategic Advisor. Nymbus will benefit from Wallach’s experience in co-founding one of the leading cloud software companies in life sciences. Founded in 2007 and, 14 years later, the first publicly traded company to transition into a public benefit corporation, Veeva now has a market capitalization of more than $40 billion and 975+ customers in the pharmaceutical industry, as well as in emerging biotech.
As mentioned, Nymbus’ funding announcement comes on the heels of the company further bolstering its leadership ranks with a trio of new, C-suite hires. The women – Trish North as Chief Customer Officer, Michelle Prohaska as Chief Compliance Officer, and Crina Pupaza as Chief People Officer – bring years of customer success, risk management, and people-centered programming experience to a company that has seen significant growth as banks turn increasingly toward digital transformation of their outdated legacy systems.
“In order to help our partner institutions serve the unique financial needs of niche audiences, success begins with diversity in our own Nymbus leadership,” Kendall said last week when the appointments were announced. “I’m incredibly proud of the impactful effort we are making to recruit a balanced male to female representation into our C-suite, and beyond confident of the value that Trish, Michelle, and Crina will each uniquely provide to both our team and partner clients.”
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Q2 offers CorePro, a light-weight core processing platform, to power its Banking-as-a-Service and Digital Bank-in-a-Box services for fintechs and FIs.
Features
Real-time updates to the core
Low cost basis means increased account profitability
Unlimited sub-account creation
Why it’s great CorePro is proven at scale.
Presenters
Rahm McDaniel, VP Strategic Solutions McDaniel is VP of Strategic Solutions and an entrepreneur. He has been in the technology industry for 22 years. He joined Q2 in 2013. LinkedIn
Brett King, Founder, Moven King is a world-renowned futurist and speaker, bestselling author, and Founder & Executive Chairman of Moven, a start-up, with the world’s first mobile, downloadable bank account. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Secure‘s SecureSave is a purpose-built emergency savings app that makes saving for emergencies easy by providing employees the ability to save automatically and receive an employer match.
Features
Emergency savings is purpose-built within the savings app
Emergency savings is automatic through payroll deductions
Emergency savings is a new financial wellness benefit
Why it’s great The pandemic has greatly accelerated the need and demand for employer-sponsored emergency savings accounts, and SecureSave is set to be the market leading solution.
Presenters
Devin Miller, CEO & Co-Founder Miller is a 15-year fintech veteran, serving as CEO & Co-Founder and Head of Product for TaxACT, Balance Financial, Guidant, and Finsphere. LinkedIn
Bassam Saliba, CTO & Co-Founder Saliba has been building payments and health tech solutions for 30 years as CTO or Head of Engineering at WebMD, Avado, Balance Financial, and Microsoft. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
LoanPro is a SaaS based loan servicing software which empowers tech-forward lenders through automation and data visibility.
Features
Fully built on our own full-featured API
Configurable process wizards
Ability to create multiple user accounts with customizable restrictions
Why it’s great LoanPro is the pioneer software on the market giving customers direct database access. LoanPro is also uniquely built on its own modern REST API.
Presenters
Lloyd Roberts, CRO Roberts is LoanPro’s CRO & Co-Founder and has extensive experience with enterprise lending software and sales. Lloyd has a passion for family, self-improvement, and Hawaii. LinkedIn
Mason Gerrard, Sales Manager Gerrard has 6+ years of experience in lending software and is currently LoanPro’s Sales Manager. If he’s not at work, you can find him outdoors! LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Signal Intent creates financial calculators for the digital age – purpose built for digital growth.
Features
Win more customers with modern calculators built for digital growth
Improve the digital customer journey with the calculator widget on any web page
Personalize experiences and capture more data
Why it’s great Signal Intent is reimagining the financial calculator. Their solution is purpose built to win you more customers, capture better customer data, and help you move fast in the era of digital transformation.
Presenter
Matthew Covi, CEO & Co-Founder As CEO of Signal Intent, Covi is responsible for executing the product vision. After 10+ years in marketing, technology, and fintech, he’s passionate about building best-in-class technology. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
DigiShares provides a white-label platform for tokenization of real estate, supplying automation and liquidity for the real estate markets.
Features
Digitizes and automates processes related to financing and ownership structure
Enables investors to trade on the bulletin board marketplace
Enables fractionalization to reach new investors
Why it’s great The real estate developer can get their own platform for investment and trading in their projects using tokenization technology.
Presenters
Adam Blazsek, Product Manager Blazsek has a BSc in computer science and is currently studying for his masters. He is Product Manager for DigiShares and has been with the company for two years. LinkedIn
Claus Skaaning, CEO Skaaning has a PhD in computer science and has been granted seven patents. He’s founded several companies in the AI and blockchain space and is CEO and Co-Founder of DigiShares. LinkedIn
We’re four and a half months into 2021, and we’re already starting to see the fintech and banking industries shake off the 2020 mindset.
That’s not to say that companies have left behind their digital agendas that took precedence last year. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Banks and fintechs have transitioned to apply the lessons they learned amid the massive growth period last year into new initiatives.
So what new frontiers does the industry have its eye on? I took an early look at some of the trends beginning to emerge at our upcoming FinovateSpring conference, taking place digitally May 10 through 13.
Here are the top three themes from the discussion sessions:
Embedded finance and banking-as-a-service These two intertwined trends have exploded in the past year. Embedded finance and the concept’s predecessor, banking-as-a-service, are helping non-banking companies leverage fintech to offer financial services to their clients. Food delivery, ridesharing, and big tech companies have all benefitted from offering their customers a form of banking services.
Increased customer awareness and demand are tipping the scales on these tandem trends this spring, rising them to the top. Thanks to the pandemic driving much of our everyday lives into the online realm, customers have realized the convenience that comes from being able to combine banking tasks with everyday activities.
The ESG initiative Technologies and products that tackle environmental, social, and governance (or ESG) issues are nothing new. However, over the course of the first half of this year we’ve seen more fintech and banking players getting in on the action.
Both new and incumbent players have heard consumers’ cries for a more sustainable approach to managing their financial lives. To meet this demand, companies are doing everything from making carbon neutral pledges, to offering wooden payment cards, to using customer deposits to fund sustainable initiatives and donating profits to reforestation efforts.
CBDCs and digital currencies While central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, should have been on banks’ radars last year, the global pandemic took precedence. Today, while the industry is still working on reimagining the digital experience, there has been more space to think about operating in a future where CBDCs and other digital currencies are commonplace.
There are currently six countries piloting CBDCs, while many others have made key developments in implementing a formal release of CBDCs. The U.S. has stated that it will not race other countries to the finish line of launching its own CBDC. The country has still signaled some progress toward its own digital currency, however, which has turned the attention of many in the fintech space.
In addition to these, experts will be discussing themes from previous years, including customer experience, AI, digital transformation, and faster payments – as well as fringe topics such as quantum computing.
Taking a look at content from the developer-focused track, FinDEVr, we’ll see an in-depth look at the technology behind open banking, customer onboarding, lending-as-a-service, and customer experience and design. FinDEVr will take place on May 13.
Check out more information on how you can save on tickets to both FinovateSpring and FinDEVr, held May 10 through 13 in Central Standard Time.
“The shift to a more digital world requires real solutions to secure every transaction and instill trust in every interaction,” Mastercard president of cyber and intelligence solutions Ajay Bhalla said. “With the addition of Ekata, we will advance our identity capabilities and create a safer, seamless way for consumers to prove who they say they are in the new digital economy.”
Seattle, Washington-based Ekata offers global identity verification to enable businesses around the world to link digital transactions to the people who make them. Via APIs and a SaaS tool, Ekata leverages data science and machine learning to help businesses detect fake accounts, cross-verify consumer data, reduce payment risk, and fight transaction fraud. With more than 2,000 corporate partners ranging from global merchants and financial institutions to marketplaces and digital currency platforms, Ekata enables its businesses to gain unique and valuable insights that allow them to make better risk decisions about their customers.
“The acceleration of online transactions has thrust global digital identity verification to the forefront as one of the biggest opportunities to build digital trust and combat global fraud,” Ekata CEO Rob Eleveld said. “The right identity verification solutions enable inclusive and frictionless experiences while, at the same time, ensuring customer privacy, control and security. Becoming part of the Mastercard Identity family ensures a broader, collective approach to meeting the growing demands of the digital economy.”
Founded in 2019, Ekata unveiled its merchant onboarding solution earlier this month. Designed to meet the needs of PSPs, B2B lenders, and marketplaces working with smaller, micro-merchants and sole proprietors, Ekata’s new platform automates the onboarding process via API and provides for more efficient manual review with a SaaS solution.
“Merchants today have plenty of options and will quickly turn to another payment service provider if an organization adds too much friction at onboarding or takes too long on approvals,” Ekata VP of Global Marketing Beth Shulkin said in a statement. “This is much more than a customer experience issue for PSPs and lenders; losing the lifetime value of a merchant has real bottom-line impact.”
A new partnership between AbbyBank and FinovateFall Best of Show winner Sensibill will enable the Wisconsin-based community bank to give its customers the ability to de-clutter and digitize their financial lives.
“In today’s online world, customers expect more convenience to bank how they want,” AbbyBank AVP of Marketing Natalyn Jannene said. “Our partnership with Sensibill will help our customers and employees with digitizing the shoebox of receipts or overstuffed purses and wallets, making it easier for them to track receipts, exchanges, and warranties in one place.”
Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Sensibill offers a receipt management solution that makes it easier to organize and track everything from Health Savings Account receipts to expenses from government relief programs like the Paycheck Protection Program. Sensibill’s everyday financial tools give financial institutions the ability to tap into – and act upon – SKU-level transaction data in order to provide their customers with the kind of personalized financial insights that can help them build better financial habits. More than 60 million individuals across North America and the U.K. use Sensibill’s AI-powered technology.
The company’s newest solution – Sensibill Platform – features a pair of new tools – Spend Manager and Spend Insights – that provide financial institutions with more ways to drive digital engagement with their customers and members. Spend Manager leverages predictive analytics to help customers track and manage their everyday spending, while providing personalized tips and custom advice based on their transactions. Spend Insights enables financial institutions to draw upon more than 150 unique points of data from purchases, and pair them with transaction data to anticipate customer needs and preferences in real-time.
“Sensibill is empowering institutions of all sizes to harness SKU-level data to offer personalized experiences and recommendations that help make customers’ hard-earned money go further,” Sensibill co-founder and CEO Corey Gross explained when the platform was unveiled in January. “The time to act is now – by better contextualizing the transaction-level data they already have with SKU-level insights, institutions can help their customers make smarter financial decisions. Those that do will retain loyalty and expand market share while making financial wellness more attainable for all.”
In addition to its newly-announced partnership with AbbyBank, Sensibill in recent months has also teamed up with Leaders Credit Union of Jacksonville, Tennessee ($520 million in assets) and Progress Bank, a $1.4 billion asset bank that serves customers in Alabama and in the Florida panhandle. Last month, Sensibill earned recognition as the winner of the “Personal Finance Innovation” category of the FinTech Breakthrough Awards.
A Finovate alum since 2017, Sensibill has raised more than $55 million in funding. The company’s investors include First Ascent Ventures, Information Ventures Partners, Impression Ventures, Mistral Venture Partners, and Radical Ventures. Sensibill also secured $5 million in debt financing from CIBC Innovation Banking a year ago.
This week’s partnership with Sensibill is only the latest instance of AbbyBank working with innovative fintechs in order to add to its own offerings. Last month, the Wisconsin-based community bank – with more than $616 million in assets – teamed up with another Best of Show-winning Finovate alum, MX, to power its new PFM solution.
“The goal is to help our customers improve their financial awareness,” Jannene said when the collaboration with MX was announced in March. “Knowing where money is spent allows you to manage your money more effectively. When our customers succeed, we succeed and that is truly what AbbyBank is here for.”
