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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.
DeepTarget‘s 3DStoryteller will create a radically new marketing experience inside your current digital banking platform.
Features
Rich, relevant content delivery
Rapid deployment in weeks
Deep consumer engagement to drive conversions
Why it’s great Revolutionize your digital marketing experience in weeks, driving dramatically higher sales.
Presenters
Jill Homan, President Homan uses her deep experience in technology, digital marketing, and leadership to drive success for DeepTarget and their customers. LinkedIn
Jacob Shaefer, Implementation & Support Engineer Shaefer speeds implementations for DeepTarget customers and ensures their success. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
txtsmarter will introduce an effective compliance solution specifically designed for the new age of text and social media messaging. The company archives iMessage, Android SMS/MMS, and WhatsApp messages in accordance with FINRA, SEC, FDIC, MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, & FCA regulations.
Why it’s great txtsmarter creates a better user experience for employees and clients by allowing the use of native apps such as iMessage and WhatsApp, while creating data completeness and a high level of control.
Presenter
Nuri Otus, CEO & Founder Otus has 20+ years of experience in strategic planning, sales, services, marketing, business and organizational development, product leadership, operations, and market-making in early stage companies. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Breach Clarity identifies and diagnoses every consumer’s unique breach history to prescribe personalized protective actions that improve the financial health of both the financial provider and consumer.
Features
Higher levels of digital engagement
Lower fraud costs and attrition
Reduced contact center costs
Why it’s great Breach Clarity’s technology is based on the process used in the largest data breach cases (Anthem, Equifax, Yahoo!, etc.) to establish the harms created for affected consumers.
Presenters
Al Pascual, COO & Co-founder Pascual is the COO and co-founder of Breach Clarity. He formerly led Javelin Strategy & Research and is a recognized expert on identity theft and fraud. LinkedIn
Jim Van Dyke, CEO & Founder Van Dyke is the CEO and inventor of Breach Clarity. He previously founded Javelin Strategy & Research and has a deep fintech product management background. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
WealthConductor’s flagship platform, IncomeConductor, is an intuitive software and strategy that allows advisors and clients to truly collaborate to achieve a successful retirement performance.
Features
Dynamic visual income plan editor
Data aggregation to link client assets into their plan
Daily tracking analytics and insights to manage retirement income plans in a scalable way
Why it’s great Advisors and their firms are bringing in millions in new AUM due to IncomeConductor’s unique and compelling approach to retirement income plan design, presentation, and management.
Presenter
Sheryl O’Connor, CEO O’Connor has spent over 25 years in the financial services industry at insurance and investment management firms, leading strategic business growth and technology innovation. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
JUDI.AI provides SMB lenders with an AI driven analytics platform to support loan origination with instant cash flow analysis, automated underwriting, and continuous financial monitoring.
Features
Increased operational efficiencies
Improved customer experience
Reduced risk
Why it’s great The JUDI AI-drive platform provides instant cash flow analytics of bank statements to glean insights of the financial health of small businesses.
Presenter
Su Ning Strube, Chief Product Officer Strube is a digital strategist who has spent 20 years at the intersection between technology and business, having held various senior management roles driving innovation in growth stage companies. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Loyalty Group‘s GoPoints is a provider of a new format of B2B2C loyalty and reward solutions and white-label consumer products for financial institutions, merchants, and their customers.
Features
Allows consumers to easily tailor financial products to their needs and preferences
Increases engagement
Increases transactional activity
Why it’s great GoPoints makes financial products adjustable to consumer needs and expectations through choice of partners, reward programs and schemes, and flexible product settings capabilities.
Presenter
Tarek Al-Oveyd, CEO Al-Oveyd is the founder with 15 years of experience in designing, launching, and managing frequent flyer and loyalty programs for the largest Russian airlines and retailers. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
With Q2 dynamic personalization, your institution can quickly and easily tailor your user’s experiences based on the intersection between known data points and your institution’s objectives.
Features
Dynamically composed experiences
Fluid audience grouping
Targeted UI presentation
Why it’s great Digital is today, personalization is tomorrow. Through dynamic personalization you can improve your relationship with accountholders and understand their needs.
Presenters
Adam Blue, CTO As CTO, Blue is responsible for creating and coordinating the company’s technology strategy, while supporting the teams at Q2 responsible for customer satisfaction and technology innovation. LinkedIn
H.O. Maycotte, CEO, Molecula Maycotte is the CEO of Molecula, an enterprise future store that centralizes data for machine-scale analytics and AI. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
VRAY‘s recurring payment solution leveraging the EMVCo tokenization standard that will provide merchants the dual benefit of increasing conversion and decreasing fraud cost (including chargebacks).
Features
No need for subscribers to provide card information
No need for subscribers to create an account (no password needed)
Subscribers authorize payment via biometrics at each recurring event
Why it’s great VRAY’s solution has the dual benefit of increasing conversion and decreasing fraud cost (including chargebacks).
Presenter
Jack Shauh, CEO & Co-Founder Shauh has an extensive background in wireless communication and mobile security. He had worked for Qualcomm for over 20 years prior to founding VRAY. Shauh has over 30 granted US patents. LinkedIn
Apple launched its newest iPhone, iPhone 12, earlier this month. While many of the new features were expected, such as 5G and a refreshed design, there was one aspect on the iPhone 12 Pro that caught my eye– LiDAR.
LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging and has been around since 1961. So while the technology in and of itself isn’t new, many of the applications it’s used for are cutting edge. Take self-driving cars, for example. Self-driving cars rely on LiDAR to map the surrounding area by measuring distances of nearby objects using light rays.
So with such a powerful technology now placed into the hands of everyday consumers, how can fintechs put their developers to work to leverage the technology? Here are a handful of applications the fintech sector might be able to use iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR for.
Mortgagetech
With COVID keeping us socially distant, many lenders are waiving home appraisals for real estate transactions. While this may benefit the homeowner by saving them $500 or more on the appraisal, the lender, which must rely on third party data from Zillow or Trulia, may be at a disadvantage when it comes to estimating collateral values.
The LiDAR on the iPhone 12 Pro may be able to bridge the gap with its room-mapping technology. Combined with AI and machine learning technologies, computers may be able to estimate a home value more efficiently based on a home’s 3D mock-up created by LiDAR.
San Francisco-based Cape Analytics already offers a service like this. The company provides intelligence on the risk of a property for remote buyers and lenders. However, the service is limited to property exteriors.
Insurtech
When it comes to underwriting home insurance policies, the process relies heavily on input from the homeowner. This honor system offers plenty of room for error. Not only may the homeowner incorrectly enter the square footage, they also may not know the difference between flooring types and other important details.
Once again, this is an opportunity for iPhone 12 Pro’s LiDAR room-scanning capabilities. The map may not only help insurers underwrite the home itself, but may also be able to help renters determine the appropriate amount of insurance on their belongings.
Canvas app by Occipital already offers this technology for LiDAR-enabled iPads (11-inch iPad Pro 2nd Generation and 12.9-inch iPad Pro 4th Generation). The company plans to launch room-scanning for iPhone 12 Pro soon.
Security
Using facial recognition for authentication is so commonplace these days that most consumers– even those of older generations– are familiar with how it works. Unfortunately, some consumers who have tried to use facial recognition to log into their account may also be familiar with the technology’s shortcomings. For example, I was originally excited to enroll in my bank’s facial recognition login process when it came out a few years ago, but became frustrated when the technology stopped recognizing my face just weeks later.
With the LiDAR in iPhone 12 Pro promising enhanced photos, false negative issues like this could be less common. This is especially true in low-light photos, where the LiDAR captures more detail. Per Apple’s website, “Night mode comes to both the wide and ultra wide cameras, and it’s better than ever at capturing incredible low-light shots. LiDAR makes night mode portraits possible. And the wide camera lets in 27 percent more light, for greater detail and sharper focus day or night.”
The enhanced facial detail in selfie photos can not only reduce consumer frustration with false negatives, but also has the potential to augment security by reducing false positives, as well.
Across sectors
One of the most versatile capabilities the addition of LiDAR brings is upgraded augmented reality (AR). LiDAR technology allows for better object occlusion, meaning that virtual objects can now appear more real by disappearing behind real objects.
While versatile, however, AR brings little value to banks and fintechs beyond entertainment and novelty. The best use cases for AR seem to be for gaming and interior design. While the fintech sector showed a bit of hype around AR and mixed reality in 2015, there still hasn’t been much value-added development in the area.
However, augmented reality is still worth keeping on the fintech radar. This is especially true as social distancing measures remain in place and people try to find entertainment online and in the virtual realm.
ESG investing index funds topped $1,258 billion at the end of September, cementing ESG stock selection into more than just a passing fad.
Taking note, digital banking and wealth management Avaloqlaunched a new offering today to help banks build ESG portfolios for their clients. The tool also facilitates compliance with the EU’s upcoming MiFID II amendment.
Avaloq’s ESG investment solution includes third party data streams and extra functionality to help wealth managers build portfolios tailored to their individual clients. Some of the tools integrated into the new solution include standardized scorecards, green benchmarks, exclusions, norms-based screening such as the UN Global Compact or the OECD Guidelines, and thematic investments.
The ESG market is expected to grow even more rapidly as investors begin to focus on addressing climate change, environmental damage, social inequality, and discrimination. Also promoting growth is the update to MiFID II which will require wealth managers to account for a client’s ESG preferences when deciding suitable investments.
While Avaloq’s tool will help with MiFID II compliance, it will also assist banks and wealth managers in addressing the lack of standards when it comes to ESG preferences. “One challenge for providers is that there are no rules defined by regulators or standard setters for how the ESG preferences should be collected – it is considered an area of competition between investment companies,” explained Martin Greweldinger, Avaloq Group Chief Product Officer. “As such, we believe that banks and wealth managers that can offer the most comprehensive ESG service will be the ones that see stronger market growth.”
Today’s launch is the latest aspect of Avaloq’s green agenda, which also includes sourcing 100% of its energy from renewable sources, reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 9% in 2019 compared to 2018, and receiving a Climate Neutral Company label.
The new ESG investment solution will be available “starting next year.”
Founded in 1991, Switzerland-based Avaloq agreed to be acquired by NEC Corporation last month. The transaction, which is valued at more than $2.2 billion, is anticipated to close in April of 2021.
Embedded finance and payments platform Hydrogen announced a strategic investment today. FINLAB, a new incubator launched by EML Payments, completed what Hydrogen called an “initial investment” that will include a cross-platform integration that will make it easier for firms to offer smart apps linked to both physical and virtual payment cards.
“We are thrilled to be working with EML and have it as a strategic investor in Hydrogen,” company co-founder and CEO Mike Kane said. “Together, we’ll be able to bring innovative card offerings to the masses, making it easy for any organization to offer card capabilities. It’s embedded card services made easy.”
The terms of the investment were not disclosed. Hydrogen currently includes both SixThirty and Route 66 Ventures among its investors.
Hydrogen’s no-code platform enables financial and non-financial companies to offer fintech products and modules without needing to have any development experience. Those organizations with development teams can take advantage of Hydrogen’s low-code API option, which enables developers to build custom apps on top of REST-based APIs. Featuring orchestration, business logic, and data cleansing, the platform enables businesses to leverage a standardized data model that can help keep costs of integration low and the development time short.
“We love cementing deals and investing in payments trailblazers,” EML Managing Director and Group CEO Tom Cregan said. “Hydrogen, with the intensity of energy it has already infused into the industry, is no different. Our commitment is to assist this fast-growing entity in soaring within fintech via EML’s capabilities and FINLAB. It’s heartening to know Hydrogen feel in safe and trusted hands with the might of EML’s global reach.
Making its debut at FinovateEurope two years ago, Hydrogen announced in September that it was one of 20 companies selected to participate in Plug and Play’s 2020 Winter Fintech batch. Also that month, the company unveiled a partnership with fellow Finovate alum Dwolla and teamed up with market data and technology service provider Barchart.
Among its accolades, Hydrogen has been named FinTech Startup of the Year by KPMG Luxembourg and as a World Changing Technology by Fast Company. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in New York City.
PayPal, one of the fintech originals, has had its fair share of news headlines in the past year. The fintech has been busy with its acquisition of rewards platform Honey, bringing QR code payment technology back into style, launching a buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) offering, and helping its users embrace cryptocurrency.
So where will PayPal run with these in 2021?
The company recently made its intentions a bit more clear during its third quarter earnings call this week, and TechCrunch tuned in to dig up some analysis about the company’s plans for next year. Here are some of the takeaways.
Digital wallet redesign
PayPal has always been an alternative banking solution, but has lacked some of the tools to help it effectively compete with its traditional FI counterparts. The company plans to redesign its digital wallet by enhancing the direct deposit experience, offering billpay tools, providing check cashing capabilities, and integrating budgeting tools.
Combined, these elements will help PayPal offer a challenger banking experience. All the while, PayPal will benefit from having an established user base. As of the second quarter of this year, the company counted 346 million active accounts. Chime, one of the most popular challenger banks in the U.S., blanches in comparison with eight million active accounts.
The digital wallet redesign is expected to roll out in the first quarter of next year.
Honey integration
Last November, PayPal purchased online shopping rewards platform Honey for $4 billion. Since then, PayPal has left Honey relatively untouched.
This week, however, PayPal has made it clear it plans to integrate Honey into its existing apps to create a more holistic shopping experience. Users can use Honey’s Wish List tool to create a shopping list, sign up for price tracking notifications, and receive deals and rewards that are built into the PayPal checkout experience.
Merchants will receive shopper data based on their interaction with Honey and its tools. The data, which can help merchants drive sales, will be anonymized.
Cryptocurrency plans
PayPal teased its plans to offer support for cryptocurrencies earlier this year and announced a partnership late last month that will help users buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
Starting in the first half of next year, PayPal users in the U.S. will be able to transact using Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum at PayPal’s 28 million merchant clients. The company also plans to roll out the capabilities within its Venmo app and to international markets in that same time frame.
BNPL
In August, PayPal announced its own BNPL competitive service. Dubbed Pay in 4, the short-term payments installment product allows U.S. customers to pay for their purchase over the course of a six week period. The company has also launched a similar offering in the U.K. and France.
Starting next year, PayPal plans to integrate Pay in 4 into its apps.
Venmo expansion
PayPal-owned Venmo is expanding in a variety of areas. As mentioned above, the P2P payments app is adding support for cryptocurrencies next year.
Additionally, the company is building its business profiles, which it originally launched in July of this year; adding more financial tools; providing better shopping capabilities; and overhauling its checkout experience.
