Blog - Page 235 of 1289

Aiia Launches New Payment Feature, Pay By Link

By David Penn Posted on June 6, 2022
Categories: Aiia, Alumni News, Daily news

Finovate newcomer Aiia launched its new payment technology, Pay by Link. The new offering empowers businesses to make payments using a wide variety of common communication channels including email, PDF, SMS, and chat. Aiia was acquired by Mastercard in the fall of 2021.

Leading Northern European open banking platform Aiia unveiled its new payment feature, Pay by Link. The new offering enables seamless payments for both businesses and consumers, using whatever channel they choose. These options include email, PDF, SMS, social media chat, and more.

"We're in the process of transforming the entire way of paying bills," Aiia CEO and co-founder Rune Mai said. "With a simple link, we make it effortlessly easy and secure to pay a bill on the go with a bank account without having to enter or remember payment details."

Using the solution is straightforward: businesses provide Aiia with the necessary invoice information for…

Ant Group Unveils ANEXT Bank, a Digital Bank for SMEs

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 6, 2022
Categories: Daily news

Ant Group unveiled a digital bank called ANEXT Bank focused on serving SMEs. ANEXT Bank is soft launching today and will be widely available in the third quarter of this year. ANEXT Bank is collaborating with Proxtera, a Singapore company that broadens access to global trade.

China tech giant Ant Group announced the launch of its own digital bank, ANEXT Bank, in Singapore.

ANEXT Bank is a digital wholesale bank focused on serving micro businesses and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, ANEXT will focus on facilitating cross-border operations for growth and global expansion.

The ANEXT business account, which will be available to SMEs in the third quarter of this year, will offer a dual-currency deposit account with remote onboarding, daily interest, and other features. The bank is soliciting ideas for other features from the public. "We believe in building solutions around your needs," the company said on its…

German Neobroker Trade Republic Earns $5 Billion Valuation; Binance Labs Secures $500 Million to Fund Web3

By David Penn Posted on June 3, 2022
Categories: Buckzy Payments, Efigence, Finovate Global, Nubank, Temenos

European investment and savings platform Trade Republic has topped up its 2021 Series C round with an investment of €250 million led by the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan. The funding gives Trade Republic a valuation of more than $5 billion (€5 billion), and will enable the company to "double down" on its product.

"We are amid a transformation of pension systems in Europe," Trade Republic co-founder Christian Hecker said. "The financing will help us to invest strongly into product innovation to empower millions of Europeans to put their money to work. Improving our valuation in the light of the current market environment is the true testament to our progress in the last twelve months and the large potential ahead."

Trade Republic enables its more than one million European customers to invest in equities, cryptocurrencies, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as well as fractional savings plans. With more than six billion euros in…

Sila Founder and CEO Shamir Karkal on DeFi, TradFi, and Everything in Between

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 2, 2022
Categories: Interview, Speaker series

The fintech industry talks a lot about bank-fintech and fintech-bank relationships. Everyone in this industry will proudly declare how essential these partnerships are for everyone in the value chain. However, the recent introduction of crypto and decentralized finance (DeFi) is complicating things. How can a traditional financial (TradFi*) institution like a bank align itself with a DeFi startup or get involved in crypto?

For insight, we spoke with Sila CEO and Founder Shamir Karkal. Karkal co-founded Simple, one of the first digital banks, in 2009 and sold the company to BBVA in 2017. The following year, Karkal founded Sila, a company that offers banking, digital wallet, and ACH payments APIs to help companies integrate with the U.S. banking system and blockchain quickly, securely, and in compliance.

In our conversation, Karkal highlights the intersection between TradFi and DeFi and examines ways the two can work together while still regarding necessary compliance…

Klarna Partners with Marqeta to Launch its New Card

By David Penn Posted on June 2, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna, Marqeta

Marqeta announced a collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Klarna to power the company's new payment card. The new card will enable Klarna customers to use the company's Pay in 4 payment option in physical stores. This week's partnership builds upon a relationship the two companies have enjoyed since 2018.

A pair of Finovate alums have teamed up to offer a new transparent alternative to traditional credit cards.

Modern card issuing platform Marqeta reported this week that it is working with banking, payments, and ecommerce platform Klarna to power Klarna's new payment card. The card will bring Klarna's Pay in 4 service to a physical Visa card, and builds on a payment card partnership between the two companies that extends back to 2018. Marqeta currently enables the creation of one-time cards on Klarna's app. The new Klarna Card will give customers the same control, convenience, and flexibility when shopping in…

Sowing the Seeds: Tales from Crypto’s Course Correction

By David Penn Posted on June 1, 2022
Categories: Daily news

Bruised but not broken, the cryptocurrency market has taken more than a few blows as the prices of leading digital assets - from Bitcoin to Ethereum - have declined significantly in recent months. This may have taken some of the steam out of many cryptocurrency ventures. But there is no sign that interest in cryptocurrencies has been lost in any critical way. Here are three headlines from this week's news that remind us that, despite its recent fortunes, crypto remains a key part of innovation in fintech.

Leading digital asset exchange Binance announced the closure of a $500 million venture fund for investing in Web3 and blockchain-based technologies this week. The fund will be led by the company's venture capital arm Binance and features the support of a number of global investors including DST Global Partners and Breyer Capital.

"In a Web3 environment, the connection between values, people, and economies,…

TrueLayer and Thunes Team Up for Open Banking

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on June 1, 2022
Categories: Daily news, Thunes, TransferTo

Open banking platform TrueLayer is partnering with cross-border payments company Thunes. Thunes will integrate TrueLayer’s open banking technology into its platform, making open banking available as a payment method. TrueLayer helps 100,000 merchants across the U.K., Europe, and Australia power open banking payments experiences that connect payments, data, and identity.

In the U.K., open banking is the rule, rather than the exception. So today's partnership between open banking platform TrueLayer and cross-border payments company Thunes is targeting the right geography. Through today's partnership, the two firms aim to streamline and improve the payment experience of consumers in the U.K. and Europe.

"Open banking payments are gaining momentum not only in the U.K. but also in the rest of Europe, and we really believe that this strong partnership with TrueLayer, a leader in the field, will help to move forward and make this new definition of smart payment a reality for all," said…

PwC and Microsoft Tap FintechOS for Digital Banking

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 31, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FintechOS, Microsoft, PwC

Financial services firm PwC and tech giant Microsoft are leveraging digital banking solutions provider FintechOS to create a digital banking solution. The group aims to help banks adapt and modernize their operations to fit into the digital-first era. "This will drive a massive improvement in time-to-value, and the extensibility of digital banking growth and expansion," said PwC Partner Akhilesh Khera.

In the fintech industry, third party partnerships are king. So it's not surprising to see the news that financial services firm PwC and tech giant Microsoft are tapping into the expertise of digital banking solutions provider FintechOS.

The trio announced their partnership, which will leverage FintechOS' expertise, PwC's digital banking prowess, and Microsoft's Cloud for Financial Services technology to create a digital banking solution aimed at helping financial institutions adapt and modernize their operations to fit into the digital-first era.

For its part, FintechOS will be crucial in providing…

Trustly to Acquire Ecospend

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on May 31, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Trustly

Sweden-based account-to-account payments specialist Trustly will acquire U.K.-based open banking payments platform Ecospend. Trustly anticipates the deal will help accelerate its move into the U.K. market. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Global payments fintech Trustly announced plans to acquire U.K.-based open banking payments platform Ecospend this week. Trustly anticipates that the deal, which will close for an undisclosed amount, will complement the company's account-to-account (A2A) payments platform and accelerate its rollout in the U.K.

The U.K. is a key geographical market for Sweden-based Trustly. The company set a goal to be the market leader in the U.K., and today's acquisition accelerates Trustly's journey towards that target. "I am delighted to welcome Ecospend to Trustly," said Trustly CEO Johan Tjärnberg. "This is a perfect strategic fit and I am convinced that it will enable us to deliver a market-leading product in the U.K., allowing us to capture opportunities and…

Plaid Teams Up with Truework to Launch Income Verification Solution

By David Penn Posted on May 31, 2022
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Plaid

Plaid teamed up with Truework to launch a new income verification solution, Plaid Income. The new offering will make it easier for loan applicants to share income and employment information with lenders. The Truework partnership comes just days after Plaid introduced its Identity Verification and Monitoring solution, as well as its partnership with financial wellness company Current.

Income and employment verification company Truework has partnered with Plaid to help the firm launch its new Plaid Income product. Plaid Income will bring greater accuracy, security, and speed to the loan application process. Prospective borrowers will be able to share income and employment data digitally and instantly with their approved lenders. Plaid Income will provide faster approvals for loan applicants while giving lenders greater confidence that they are lending the right amounts, to the right people, at the most appropriate interest rate.

"We built Plaid Income to provide a more inclusive credit…

Trendspotting: What’s Driving Fintech Innovation Today?

By David Penn Posted on May 31, 2022
Categories: David's column, FinovateSpring 2022

This year at FinovateSpring, we asked a handful of Finovate attendees, presenters, and demoing companies what ONE trend they think we should all be paying attention to in fintech over the next 12 months.

Will it be the return of cryptocurrencies or the ability to deliver better financial advice at scale? Embedded finance or the continued rise of personalization and niche banking? And what about macro-economic trends, and their impact on the ability of fintech startups to raise capital and fuel growth?

This is what they told us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOjHbopLEw

Be sure to check out the videos from our FinovateSpring demoing companies - including Best of Show winners Array, Horizn, Keep Financial, FinGoal, QuickFi, and Spave - coming soon to our Finovate video archives.

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