Blog - Page 226 of 1287

MX Names Former PayPal Exec as New CEO

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 28, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MX

MX has appointed Jim Magats as CEO, replacing Interim CEO Shane Evans. Magats comes to MX after spending 18 years as a senior executive at PayPal, where he specialized in open finance. Evans will continue to serve as a senior advisor.

Open finance fintech MX named Jim Magats CEO this week.

The news comes after company Founder and former CEO Ryan Caldwell stepped down at the beginning of the year, appointing Shane Evans as Interim CEO. After the transition, Caldwell stepped into a new role as Executive Chair to spend more time with family and focus on his daughter's health recovery.

"Jim Magats brings a wealth of experience and knowledge about how to deliver high-impact financial solutions and products for consumers, merchants, and financial organizations, along with a vast network of partners and customers at the world's leading financial institutions and fintechs," said Caldwell. "We have tremendous confidence in Jim's ability to…

Collaborative Banking Innovator Asa Partners with Pyramid Federal Credit Union

By David Penn Posted on July 27, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, ASA, Daily news

Provo, Utah-based fintech Asa announced a partnership with Pyramid Federal Credit Union. Asa will use its collaborative banking approach to enable Pyramid FCU to expand its offerings via connections with customer-facing fintechs. Asa made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall 2021.

Pyramid Federal Credit Union, a Tucson, Arizona-based financial institution with $168 million in assets, has selected Asa to enhance the customer experience for its more than 17,000 members. Asa specializes in connecting financial institutions with customer-facing fintechs via a secure, compliant, and easy-to-implement marketplace. The company helps credit unions, as well as community and regional banks, leverage what it calls "collaborative banking" to innovate faster and provide the most modern customer experience possible.

Pyramid FCU CEO Ray Lancaster underscored the challenge that smaller financial institutions face when it comes to providing their customers and members with the kind of up-to-date digital experience they are accustomed to in…

Socure and Middesk Forge Industry-First Integrated KYB/KYC Verification Solution

By David Penn Posted on July 26, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Socure

Identity verification and fraud solution provider Socure is teaming up with business verification and identity platform Middesk. The partnership is the first instance in which two Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC0 innovators have created an integrated, end-to-end business verification solution. Socure, a Finovate alum since 2013, has raised more than $646 million in funding.

Digital identity verification and fraud solutions provider Socure announced an industry-first partnership this week with business verification and identity platform Middesk. The integration combines Socure's real-time, predictive analytics identity verification and fraud prevention solution with Middesk's business entity verification technology to enhance the ability of B2B companies to accurately verify their customers. The collaboration marks the first time that two innovators in the Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC) space have created an integrated solution for end-to-end business verification.

"With our partnership, B2B companies will achieve an incremental lift…

Eight Alums Raised More Than $984 Million in Q2 2022

By David Penn Posted on July 25, 2022
Categories: Allied Payment Network, Altro, Autobooks, Backbase, Chekk, Crowdz, David's column, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding, SumUp, Thought Machine

We may have missed an alum or two. But with the second quarter of 2022 in the books, here's a look at our Finovate alumni funding for April, May, and June of this year.

As of our current count, eight Finovate alums have raised more than $984 million in Q2 of 2022. Of the eight alums that received funding in the quarter just ended, two - Allied Payment Network and Chekk - did not disclose the total amount of their investments.

Two of the quarter's biggest investments were received in June, giving that month the lion's share of capital raised by Finovate alums in the second quarter of the year.

Previous quarterly comparisons

Q2 2021: More than $2.8 billion raised by 14 alums Q2 2020: More than $975 million raised by 15 alums Q2 2019: More than $1.8 billion raised by 29 alums Q2 2018: More than $1.5 billion raised…

Arkose Labs Integrates with Ping Identity to Better Defend Against Bot and Human-Led Fraud Attacks

By David Penn Posted on July 25, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Arkose Labs, Daily news, Ping Identity

Finovate Best of Show winner Arkose Labs announced an integration with Ping Identity. The partnership will combine Arkose's Fraud Deterrence Platform with Ping Identity's PingOne DaVinci no-code identity orchestration service. Arkose Labs made its Finovate debut in 2019. Ping Identity has been a Finovate alum since its appearance at FinovateEurope in 2012.

Fraud deterrence and account security specialist Arkose Labs announced an integration with fellow Finovate alum Ping Identity. Arkose Labs will leverage Ping Identity's no-code identity orchestration service, PingOne DaVinci, to create an additional level of protection against both bot and human-led fraud attacks.

The integration blends Ping Identity's identity and access management (IAM) technology with the Arkose Fraud Deterrence Platform. The combined offering will enable enterprise clients to better identify authorized users sooner, reducing friction during account registration and log in. The technology also reduces emphasis on multi-factor authentication, creating an even more seamless experience for…

Business Finance Solutions Qonto and Penta to Join Forces

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 22, 2022
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

European business finance solution company Qonto is seeking to acquire its competitor Penta. Together, the two will serve more than 300,000 small business customers across Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Two European business finance solution companies have agreed to join forces. In the deal, which is expected to close in the next few weeks, Paris-based Qonto is seeking to purchase Berlin-based Penta. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

"When Steve Anavi and I founded Qonto in 2016, we had the ambitious goal of simplifying everyday banking for SMEs and freelancers across Europe," said Qonto CEO Alexandre Prot. "Today, we’re already present in four European markets and, while I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved so far, we want to go even further: the natural next step was to join forces with Penta. We are thrilled to welcome the Penta team onboard.…

Finovate Global U.K. Edition: Dynamic Planner Secures Investment from FPE Capital; Starling Bank Reaches Profitability

By David Penn Posted on July 22, 2022
Categories: Dynamic Planner, Feedzai, FICO, Finovate Global

Dynamic Planner, a risk-based financial planning firn based in the U.K., has secured what the company is calling a "significant investment" from private equity growth firm FPE Capital. Terms of the investment were not disclosed, but the additional funding is designed to help accelerate Dynamic Planner's expansion plans in the U.K. and Europe.

Dynamic Planner CEO Ben Goss praised FPE Capital for not only for backing successful software companies in the past and helping them scale their businesses, but also for sharing values that Dynamic Planner holds dear. "They also share our vision for solving our industry's major challenges through technology such as process digitization, customer experience, investing sustainably for future generations, and omni-channel financial planning in a post-pandemic world," Goss said.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London earlier this year, Dynamic Planner offers a single platform that enables financial advisory firms to match clients with investment…

Open-Finance.ai Taps FICO’s Blaze Advisor for Real Time Credit Assessment

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 22, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fair Isaac FICO, FICO

Open-Finance.ai partnered with FICO to leverage the company's Blaze Advisor decision rules management system. Israel-based Open-Finance.ai will integrate Blaze Advisor into its open banking platform to offer real-time credit assessments. This news comes as "Israel is on the cusp of major banking reform with the introduction of open banking," said FICO VP of Partner Management in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa Mark Farmer.

Analytic decisioning platform FICO and risk, finance, and compliance software company Open-Finance.ai have teamed up this week.

Under the agreement, Open-Finance.ai will integrate the FICO's Blaze Advisor decision rules management system into its open banking platform. Using FICO's technology, Open-Finance.ai will assist its financial services clients to save time on consumer credit assessments by leveraging real-time, analytically driven appraisals.

For Israel-based Open-Finance.ai, this comes just as open banking legislation is gaining traction. "Israel is on the cusp of major banking reform with the introduction of open banking," said FICO VP…

DeepTarget Helps Banks and Credit Unions Personalize Customer Communications

By David Penn Posted on July 21, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, DeepTarget

Financial services digital marketing innovator DeepTarget has launched its 3D Story on the Go product extension to its Digital Experience Platform (DXP). The new solution enables banks and credit unions to add immersive and adaptive user experiences to email, SMS, and social media marketing campaigns. Alabama-based DeepTarget made its Finovate debut at FinovateWest 2020.

DeepTarget has unveiled the new 3D Story On the Go product extension to its Digital Experience Platform (DXP). The new addition leverages consumer and business intelligence, as well as AI, to help banks and credit unions personalize customer communications and launch more effective marketing campaigns via email, SMS, and social media.

"Today's consumers are digital users first and expect their financial institutions to deliver seamless, personalized, relevant experiences," DeepTarget CEO Preetha Pulusani said. "As much as personalization is a growing expectation for consumers, achieving it is a growing challenge for many financial institutions, especially in understanding…

Embracing Change and Innovation: A Conversation with Starling Bank Founder and CEO Anne Boden

By David Penn Posted on July 21, 2022
Categories: CEO Interview, Interview, Speaker series

If there were a Challenger Bank Hall of Fame, then rest assured that Anne Boden, who founded U.K.-based Starling Bank in 2014 and is the challenger bank's CEO, would be prominently featured therein. As we learned in our conversation with Ms. Boden, her inspiration for founding the U.K.'s first digital bank was driven by both the opportunities presented by new technologies as well as a banking industry that was still significantly shell-shocked from the Great Financial Crisis of 2007 and 2008.

Headquartered in London, Starling Bank now has more than three million accounts and four different account types. Voted Britain's "Best Current Account" five years in a row, Starling Bank maintains offices in Cardiff and Southampton, as well as London, and still has zero brick-and-mortar branches. Starling Bank secured its banking license from the Bank of England in 2016, launched its first mobile personal current account in 2017, and introduced…