Blog - Page 229 of 1288

Zeta Appoints FIS Veteran Karla Booe as Chief Compliance Officer

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 12, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Zeta

Modern core processing provider Zeta appointed FIS Veteran Karla Booe as Chief Compliance Officer. Booe has spent more than 27 years working at FIS, where she served as Deputy Chief Compliance Officer. Zeta was voted Best of Show at FinovateWest Digital 2020.

Modern core processing provider Zeta is introducing a fresh face this week. The California-based company recently brought on FIS Veteran Karla Booe as Chief Compliance Officer.

Booe will drive regulatory compliance programs for Zeta’s U.S. based clients from her office in Little Rock, Arkansas. She has spent the past 27+ years working at FIS, where she most recently served as the company's Deputy Chief Compliance Officer.

Commenting on Booe’s appointment, Zeta CEO and Cofounder Bhavin Turakhia said, "She will further our already strong commitment to regulatory risk and compliance."

"There has been little-to-no tech innovation with regard to the management of regulatory risk compliance for credit cards in…

Berlin Insurtech Wefox Closes $400 Million Funding Round

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 12, 2022
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Digital insurance agency Wefox raised $400 million in a combined debt and equity round. The funds boost Wefox's valuation from $3 billion to $4.5 billion. Wefox relies on technology to take a "prediction and prevention" approach, rather than relying on a "repair and replace" mindset.

Digital insurance agency Wefox just raised $400 million in a combined debt and equity round led by Mubadala Investment Company. EDBI, Eurazeo, LGT, Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures, and Target Global also participated. The investment brings Wefox's total funding to $1.3 billion.

The round boosted Wefox's valuation from $3 billion to $4.5 billion in 12 months. This increase comes at a time when other fintechs are closing funding in down-rounds, meaning their valuation has decreased.

"This new valuation of $4.5 billion is a clear validation of our business model, which focuses on indirect distribution via agents rather than direct," said Wefox CEO and Founder Julian Teicke.…

Black-Owned Fintech Kinly Partners with Data Aggregation and Enhancement Platform MX

By David Penn Posted on July 12, 2022
Categories: Daily news, Diversity in Fintech, Funding

Black-founded and run fintech Kinly announced a partnership with open finance company MX. The partnership will bring MX's financial data aggregation and enhancement solutions to Kinly via the Lehi, Utah-based company's open finance APIs. MX is a multiple-time, Finovate Best of Show winner. Founded in 2020, Atlanta, Georgia-based Kinly has raised $20 million in funding.

Kinly, a digitally-oriented financial services company dedicated to helping African Americans build generational wealth, has teamed up with financial data aggregation and enhancement solutions platform MX to power its custom-built financial tools.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and founded in 2020 by CEO Donald Hawkins, Kinly leverages financial education, savings and wealth building, and other strategies to help improve financial outcomes. The company offers a deposit account, a Visa debit card, early wage access, overdraft protection up to $100, and cash back rewards for purchases made at participating Black-owned businesses as well as thousands of…

First Demo Wave for FinovateFall 2022 Announced!

By Heather Stowell Posted on July 12, 2022
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateFall 2022

Every summer there's that one song playing across radio stations, at the beach, from your kids' earphones, and in the club. This year, it's likely "Jiggle Jiggle" by Duke & Jones and Louis Theroux.

As we announce the first wave of demoers at FinovateFall, the chorus comes to mind: "My money don't jiggle jiggle, it folds." This September, see 60+ innovative solutions that will make sure your money continues to fold.

Curated to reflect fintech's state of play, this year's demo lineup hits all the high notes:

Embedded finance and payments Expanded AI and machine learning Financial inclusion and literacy Employee benefits ESG-focused initiatives Consumer debt and financial literacy Fintechs as data organizations Blockchain, crypto, and Web3

All of these serve to improve bottom lines, bring in new customers, help retain existing customers, lower operating costs, and make sure your money doesn't jiggle jiggle.

Here's a first…

My Test Drive of the Curve Card in the U.S.

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 11, 2022
Categories: Julie's Column

I've had my eye on Curve since it launched in the U.K. in 2015. Curve consolidates users' payment cards into a single physical card and digital wallet, meaning that users only need to carry one card.

After Curve announced its U.S. launch earlier this year, I signed up for the waitlist and onboarded last week. I've only had the card for about a week so far, but overall I'm fairly impressed.

Better than predecessors

The company's card consolidation technology seems to be winning where other players have failed. Remember COIN, the digital smart card that promised to replace all of the cards in your wallet? The company had a slow and rocky start after its 2013 launch-- it didn't even begin shipping cards until 2015-- and then shut its doors in 2017 after being acquired by FitBit in 2016. At that point, some of the company's backers had not…

Kids Finance App GoHenry Acquires Pixpay

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 11, 2022
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

U.K.-based GoHenry has acquired France-based Pixpay for an undisclosed sum. The deal will help GoHenry expand further into Europe. GoHenry and Pixpay will operate under their own brands with no change in staffing or headquarters.

Kids money management app GoHenry has acquired France-based Pixpay for an undisclosed amount.

The move will help U.K.-based GoHenry expand further into Europe, taking advantage of Pixpay's teen mobile banking operations in France, Spain, and eventually Germany and Italy.

"Pixpay is the most developed player in Europe," said GoHenry CEO Alex Zivoder, "and we’re excited to combine our expertise in financial education to accelerate not only GoHenry’s growth but to accelerate the financial fitness of even more kids and teens globally."

Founded in 2019, Pixpay's mobile banking app targets a slightly older user base then GoHenry. Pixpay is aimed at pre-teens and teenagers, while GoHenry caters to kids as young as six years old. Both…

Arcadia Acquires Data Aggregator Urjanet to Help Promote a “Zero-Carbon” Future

By David Penn Posted on July 11, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Urjanet

Utility data aggregator Urjanet has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia. Urjanet made its Finovate debut last fall at FinovateSpring 2021. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atlanta, Georgia-based Urjanet facilitates access to data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers around the world.

Here's some big news from a Finovate newcomer that slipped beneath our radar in the wake of FinovateSpring this year. Urjanet, a leading utility data aggregator that made its Finovate debut last May, has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will integrate Urjanet's global data access with Arcadia's data and API platform, Arc. This will enable Arc to serve as a universal software layer for the "zero-carbon economy."

"Without data access, it will be impossible to meet the urgency and size of the climate crisis," Arcadia CEO Kiran Bhatraju…

India Cracks Down on Consumer Lending; Razorpay and Pine Labs Score Payment Licenses

By David Penn Posted on July 8, 2022
Categories: Finovate Global

This week's edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent developments in the fintech industry in India.

Has a "fintech reckoning" come to India? That's the take shared by the Wall Street Journal recently, which suggested that many of the country's fintech startups are facing new regulatory scrutiny. TechCrunch joined the alarm, looking specifically at the decision by the Reserve Bank of India to ban the practice of using credit cards to load and top up non-bank prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) such as prepaid cards.

The potential impact of the ruling is broad, with companies that specifically leverage PPI licenses to issue cards and then offer cardholders lines of credit, as well as Buy Now, Pay Later firms, that also use a similar approach to offer loans to consumers, being affected. The former group includes major Indian fintechs such as Slice, OneCard, Jupiter, Uni, and KreditBee.

The decision has…

Experian CIO on Digital Identity, Personalization, and Building Trust with Consumer Data

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 7, 2022
Categories: Experian, Interview, Speaker series

In a digital world, there's no way around digital identity. The topic touches all corners of fintech and ecommerce, and while it can create a stumbling block, leveraging consumer identity data can also hold great opportunity.

We recently spoke with Experian's Kathleen Peters for her thoughts on digital identity and how financial services companies can use consumer data to their advantage.

Peters started her career as an engineer at Motorola and later moved into voice and messaging encryption technology. Eventually, she began working in Experian's global fraud and identity business and now serves as the company's Chief Innovation Officer.

The fintech industry has always struggled with digital identity. Why is digital identity so difficult to get right?

Kathleen Peters: A consumer’s identity is personal; every interaction and transaction requires their identity. Consumers expect a seamless and frictionless experience, but also rely on organizations to protect their information. The balance…

Envestnet to Acquire Redi2 Technologies to Boost Billing & Accounting

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on July 7, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, Mergers & Acquisitions

Envestnet acquired revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies. Envestnet will use the buy to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Financial wellness technology firm Envestnet announced its 16th acquisition today. The Chicago-based company announced it has purchased revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Redi2 offers a revenue management platform tailored to financial services companies. The tool offers fee calculation, invoice creation, payouts and accounting, and billing compliance. Among Redi2's products are Revenue Manager, which provides client revenue accounting and billing services for asset managers; Wealth Manager, which delivers multi-party billing and payouts for broker-dealers and asset managers; and BillFin, which offers advisory billing and invoicing for financial advisors.

Envestnet will use Redi2's technology to modernize its billing, accounting, and…

GoCardless to Acquire Latvian Open Banking Data Platform Nordigen

By David Penn Posted on July 7, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Nordigen

Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire open banking platform Nordigen. The Latvia-based fintech, a Finovate alum since 2018, connects to 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API. Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close later this summer, were not disclosed.

Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire Nordigen, an open banking platform based in Latvia. GoCardless will integrate Nordigen's open banking connectivity into its account-to-account network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this summer.

"The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level," GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said. "By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner, or fintech." Takeuchi added that the acquisition will "lead to experimentation ... that will…