This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
There is not much fintech to come out of the state of Wyoming (a quick search on Crunchbase yields 28 results). Today, however, one more startup is added to that mix.
That’s because Avanti Financial, headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, announced plans to launch a bank to serve the digital asset industry. The company recently applied to obtain a bank charter from the Wyoming Division of Banking under the Cowboy State’s special-purpose depository institution (SPDI) law.
If Avanti’s application is approved by the state of Wyoming, the startup will begin operations in early 2021.
Avanti seeks to fill the gap where traditional U.S. financial institutions fall short. In many cases, institutional customers that use digital assets lack a place to engage in payment, custody, securities, and commodities activities.
Founder and CEO Caitlin Long said, “A crucial step in the digital asset industry’s evolution is the formation of a new bank dedicated to bridging digital assets with the U.S. dollar payments system in a compliant manner, and the provision of custodial services that meet the strictest institutional standards.” Long added that Avanti’s launch will “unlock many new products and services around digital assets that only a regulated U.S. bank can provide directly.”
Avanti, which recently landed an undisclosed amount of seed funding, is partnering with Blockstream, a Canada-based group that creates “products and networks that make financial markets more efficient.”
Dr. Adam Back, Blockstream CEO and co-founder, said, “This partnership combines the best in Bitcoin applications with the optimal regulatory vehicle for delivering products and services to institutional customers that require regulated providers. Blockstream’s platforms fit well with Wyoming’s property-rights centric digital asset laws, which will enable Avanti to introduce products into U.S. dollar markets that do not exist today.”
For consumers with credit scores below 600, options for securing financing can be a major challenge. A new company on the scene, Self, has locked in $20 million in new funding to help make those financial hurdles a little easier for Americans with poor credit histories to overcome.
In a Series C round led by Altos Ventures and Conductive Ventures, Self has added $20 million to its total capital, which now stands at $37 million. The Austin, Texas-based company, founded in 2015, offers a Credit Builder Account in which borrowers apply for a modest loan with a Self bank partner that is held on a certificate of deposit. Borrowers make monthly payments, which are reported to the major credit agencies to help establish a credit history. Once the term is complete, the CD matures and the principal amount comes back to the customer.
“Our goal from the beginning was to create a mission-driven company that gives the power back to consumers and helps them achieve their financial goals,” company founder and CEO James Garvey said.
Since inception, Self has worked with 500,000+ customers and provided $400 million in CD-secured loan originations. The company recently launched its Self Visa Credit Card, a secured card that does not require a credit check. The card allows holders to build their security deposit in installments rather than with one large deposit upfront. The card has an annual fee of $25, average for secured cards, but features a higher than average minimum APR for secured cards at 23.74% based on a review by U.S. News.
Named one of the best fintech places to work in 2020 by Ariznet Brands – publishers of American Banker – Self rebranded itself from Self Lender last August and reincorporated as Self Financial. The fintech has partnered with firms including Atlantic Capital Bank, an Atlanta, Georgia-based bank holding company with assets of $2.9 billion, income optimization platform Steady, and nonprofit social enterprise Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners.
“Self inspires us with their dedication to helping consumers take control of their financial future,” Conductive Ventures’ Paul Yeh said. “Today, it’s imperative to be aligned with partners with a shared vision that is meaningful and delivers change for the greater good.”
How’s $7 billion for good karma? One of Finovate’s earliest alumsCredit Karma is reportedly the target of what would be Intuit’s biggest acquisition to date. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cash and stock deal could be announced as early as Monday.
Credit Karma will continue to function as an independent company with founder and CEO Kenneth Lin at the helm. The acquisition gives Intuit, maker of online tax filing service TurboTax, another contact point with the online personal finance world. Credit Karma provides its members with access to their credit scores and borrowing histories, helps them monitor their accounts for security breaches and, perhaps most relevantly, has offered a free online tax preparation service since 2017.
If the deal holds up, Intuit will be paying a significant premium for Credit Karma. The personal financial wellness company was last valued at $4 billion, based on a 2018 private market transaction.
With another Finovate conference in the books, our Finovate Best of Show ranks has a new set of members. Congratulations to Dorsum, Glia, Horizn, iProov, Sonect, and W.UP for taking home top honors earlier this month at FinovateEurope!
The victory may have been especially sweet for Sonect, whose Best of Show award-winning demo was also the company’s Finovate debut. The Switzerland-based start-up offers what it calls “the world’s first social cash network” that enables consumers to access cash without having to visit a bank branch or ATM. Sonect offers merchants the ability to grow their business via increased traffic and gives financial institutions a way to extend their ATM networks without the cost of additional hardware.
The Best of Show win was also a first for Horizn. The company, which made its Finovate debut three years ago at FinovateEurope, offers a platform that helps employees and customers maximize the opportunities of digitized financial services. Horizn uses simulator microlearning, as well as gamification and advanced analytics, to promote digital adoption across channels.
And last but not least, a special tip of the hat to Dorsum, Glia, iProov, and W.UP, all of whom won Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope for a second year in a row.
Here’s a round up of recent news from our Finovate alumni.
Larkyenters reseller agreement with Access Softek.
Bison Bank in Lisbon, Portugal selects PSD2-ready software from ndigit.
OurCrowdexpands focus on growing early stage tech companies.
Finovate Alum Features and Profiles
eToro’s Evolution – Social trading and investment platform eToro has never been one to stand still for very long. The company’s development cycle is fast enough to make even the most sprightly fintech jealous.
Lending Club Snaps Up Radius Bank for $185 Million – When Lending Club was founded in 2007, the startup aimed to serve as a place to help borrowers avoid dealing with banks. In a somewhat ironic move today, that same startup is becoming a bank itself.
The investor, whose funding is backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) will target “post-product startups” developing solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, AI, Big Data, Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and other advanced technologies. Known as the biggest venture capital fund in the CEE region, OTB Ventures said it wants companies with “unique intellectual property” and “disruptive ideas.”
“CEE is a cradle of talented engineers and IT specialists, pioneering innovative companies,” OTB managing partner and co-founder Marcin Hejka explained. We see a huge investment potential in these companies with up-and-running products and initial business traction in international markets. The purpose of our fund is to discover, develop, and realize this potential on a global scale.”
OTB Ventures includes AI and consumer analytics firm Cosmose, regtech innovator Silent Eight, and digital transformation solution provider – and Finovate alum – FintechOS – among its more recent investments. With its new fund, OTB plans to commit approximately $15 million to 16 companies, taking stakes of 10% to 15%. OTB’s largest investment in a single company to date was the $10 million in company invested in micro-satellite company Iceye in 2018.
Report Season for Indian Fintech: A number of analyst organizations have picked the second half of February to release their latest insights on fintech in India. In addition to the report from IBS Intelligence noted below, content marketing platform SEMrush released its Top Insights into Fintech Industry of India report this week.
Among the interesting top level takeaways from both reports is the importance of making sure that security and financial education keep pace with the growth of financial inclusion. As more people in frontier and periphery markets become comfortable with sharing their personal details and newly-forged financial identities online, the dangers of criminal exploitation and even simple misuse (poor password management habits, for example) grows, as well.
Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Aafaq Islamic Finance to deploy core banking, Islamic banking, and payments solutions from Infosys.
Bahrain-based GFH Financial Group acquires 70% stake in pan-MENA payments technology company, Marshal.
National Bank of Yemen goes live with the ICS Banks Universal Banking Platform from ICSFS.
Central and Southern Asia
Pakistan-based mobile wallet Sadapay readies for launch.
Entrepreneur features fintechs apps that are helping SMEs in India go digital.
IBS Intelligence unveils its India fintech report.
The Central Bank of Brazil to enter the payments business with the launch of its new app, PIX, later this year. PIX will provide immediate settlement for all transactions.
TechCrunch profiles fintech startup Belvo and its aspiration to become the Plaid of Latin America.
Bank Innovation features Mexico City, Mexico-based digital bank Stori.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based, installment payment startup Hoolah expands to Malaysia.
Indonesian online lender UangTeman raises $10 million in new funding.
Get, a digital commerce platform based in Myanmar, acquires local lender Daung Capital.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigeria’s LAPO Microfinance Bank, the largest microfinance institution in the country, to deploy core banking, payments, and digital experience solutions from Oracle Financial.
African Banker examines the balance between financial inclusion and consumer protection as Kenya’s fintech boom expands.
Nigerian consumer lending platform Carbon announces $100,000 fund to support startups in insurance, health, and education.
Central and Eastern Europe
Poland-based OTB Ventures raises $100 million to back tech startups in the CEE region.
Wirecard partners with Raiffeisen Bank International to bring digital payments solutions to markets in 13 Eastern European countries.
Germany’s Opel Bank choosesFIS’ cloud-native, Modern Banking Platform. This marks the solution’s first deployment in Europe.
Banking giant BBVA and VC firm Anthemis have backed U.K.-based Wollit in a $1.3 million (£1 million) Seed round.
Founded last year, Wollit aims to support the 43% of U.K. residents who lack a stable income by helping gig economy workers and independent contractors smooth out their cashflow.
Wollit will use the funds to fuel its flagship product, the Wollit Income Promise. According to Wollit CEO Liad Shababo, the new tool “offers a financial safety net for the 14 million U.K. workers whose income fluctuates from month to month.”
The Wollit Income Promise is different from credit cards and loans because it personalizes financing to each user’s individual financial situation. When workers earn less than usual, Wollit provides interest-free top-ups that the user repays once they start earning more.
“With this, we set to end [gig workers’] monthly gamble of feast or famine and provide a safer, more sustainable option than the short-term, risky alternatives,” said Shababo. “Wollit is here to establish a new status quo in financial services. We want to make sure everyone has access to financial wellbeing.”
The investment is one of the first from the BBVA & Anthemis Venture Creation Partnership, which was formed in 2018. “The BBVA & Anthemis Venture Creation Partnership identifies early-stage fintech companies who are looking for both financial and strategic support to accelerate the growth of their business,” said Farhan Lalji, Principal at Anthemis. “This means Wollit now has access to mentors and resources inside the Anthemis and BBVA ecosystems beyond pure capital – including product development, data science, business development, and talent resources – as they grow their business.”
Startups such as Wollit underscore society’s need for financial services geared toward the gig economy. Banks have historically failed to serve consumers with unpredictable income. As Ron Shevlin points out in his piece Gig Economy Banking Is Booming (And Banks Are Missing The Boat), fintechs and challenger banks have been the first to take a chance on this growing consumer segment by serving them with unique products and services that cater to their fluctuating income.
Grab, the Singapore-based ride-hailing company well en route to becoming a full-fledged fintech, as well, will get $700 million in new funding from MUFG Bank according to the Nikkei. The investment will be part of a collaboration designed to bring services like lending and insurance to markets in Southeast Asia via smartphone apps. MUFG Bank is a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.
The Nikkei report has not been confirmed by MUFG or Grab, but Bloomberg notes in its coverage that the firms “intend to announce their alliance soon.” The partnership allegedly will consist of MUFG Bank overseeing lending and insurance operations, while Grab will leverage its AI and data analysis technology to analyze customer data to help MUFG match the right insurance and financing offerings with the right customers.
Grab is one of the top examples of a company leveraging its analytics and networking technology to expand beyond its original offering. Founded as a ride-hailing service in 2012, Grab is now developing a regional super app that combines a variety of services – including payments and financial services – along with rides. With a reported 166 million downloads in the region, the company operates in eight Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia and Thailand. Grab has an estimated valuation of $14 billion, and includes SoftBank Group among its investors.
Ratna Sita Handayani, Senior Research Manager with Euromonitor International discussed the rise of the super app during her presentation at FinovateEurope earlier this month. Other examples of super apps in Asia include Tencent’s WeChat and Alibaba’s Alipay. Like Grab, Indonesia super app Gojek leverages its role in the everyday transportation lives of its consumers to expand its offerings – in Gojek’s case, for food delivery, hiring cleaning help, and billpay.
This is a sponsored post by Accusoft. For more information on sponsored contributions please email sponsor@finovate.com.
Accounts payable (AP) processes remain a sticking point for many organizations. Caught between the efficiency issues of paper-based solutions and the potential complexity of adopting technology-driven services, stagnation often results. Accusoft exploresits top five tips to smooth out your system and reap the rewards.
Businesses now recognize the necessity of change, but many aren’t sure where to start. When it comes to new permutations of payable processes, a roadmap is invaluable. Here’s a look at five key forms completion and invoice processing improvements to help companies account for evolving AP expectations.
Identifying errors
Staff remain the biggest source of AP errors. There’s no malice here; humans simply aren’t the ideal candidates for repetitive data entry. In this case, effective implementation of new processes depends on customizable software tools capable of accurately capturing forms data and learning over time to better identify and avoid common errors. The benefit? Staff are free to work on time-sensitive AP approval and reviews rather than double-checking basic forms data.
2. Improving invoice routes
Invoice routing is time-consuming and often confusing for AP staff. To avoid potential oversights, most companies use two to three approvers per invoice, creating multiple approval workflows. While the process reduces total error rates, it also introduces new complexity. What happens if invoice versions don’t match or approvers don’t agree on their figures? In the best-case scenario, your company needs extra time to process every invoice. Worst case? Double payment of AP invoices or payments result in missed critical deadlines. Here, a single-application approach to invoice processing helps improve invoice routes and reduce redundant approval steps.
3. Integrating data location
Where is your accounts payable data located? For many companies, there’s no easy answer; some invoices are paper, others are digitally stored on secure servers, and there are still more trapped in emails and messages across your organization. Instead of chasing down AP data, implement an invoice rehoming process. Solutions like Accusoft’sFormSuite for Invoicessupport thousands of invoice formats and keep them all in the same place.
4. Innovating at speed and scale
Complexity holds back many accounts payable programs. If new technologies complicate existing processes, employee error rates will go up and there’s a chance they’ll avoid digital deployments altogether in favor of familiar paper alternatives. In this case, automation is the key to implementation; speedy solutions capable of scanning paper forms, identifying key data, and then digitally converting this information at scale.
5. Increasing visibility
You
can’t fix what you can’t see. Paper-based invoice processing naturally
frustrates visibility by making it difficult to find key documents and assess
total financial liabilities. Integrated APIs that work with your existing
accounts payable applications can help improve inherent visibility by creating
a single source of AP data under the secure umbrella of your corporate IT
infrastructure.
Want to learn more about the potential pathways available for companies to improve their AP processes and reduce total complexity? Check out Volume 1 of our Accounts Payable eGuide series, No Pain, No Gain?
E*TRADE, the digital brokerage behind the stock trading baby commercials in the early 2000s (remember those?) has agreed to be acquired by investment banking giant Morgan Stanley. The all-stock transaction is valued at $13 billion.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.
Since it was founded in 1982, E*TRADE has built up 5.2 million client accounts and $3.6 billion in assets under management. This will bolster Morgan Stanley’s 3 million client relationships and $2.7 trillion in assets under management. Adding E*TRADE’s digital capabilities to Morgan Stanley’s more traditional offerings will grant Morgan Stanley a more well-rounded approach that ranges from high tech to high touch.
“E*TRADE represents an extraordinary growth opportunity for our Wealth Management business and a leap forward in our Wealth Management strategy. The combination adds an iconic brand in the direct-to-consumer channel to our leading advisor-driven model, while also creating a premier Workplace Wealth provider for corporations and their employees,” said Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman. “In addition, this continues the decade-long transition of our firm to a more balance sheet light business mix, emphasizing more durable sources of revenue.”
Logistically, E*TRADE CEO Mike Pizzi will lead Morgan Stanley’s E*TRADE business and be charged with overseeing the integration. “By joining Morgan Stanley, we will be able to take our combined offering to the next level and deliver an even more comprehensive suite of wealth management capabilities,” said Pizzi. “Bringing E*TRADE’s brand and offerings under the Morgan Stanley umbrella creates a truly exciting wealth management value proposition and enables our collective team to serve a far wider spectrum of clients.”
Today’s deal comes at a time when brokerages across the U.S. are in a race to zero, lowering trading fees as much as possible to compete with consumer attention. Last year Charles Schwab eliminated fees for stock trades and a month later bought TD Ameritrade for $26 billion.
Social trading and investment platform eToro has never been one to stand still for very long. The company’s development cycle is fast enough to make even the most sprightly fintech jealous.
Roots
eToro was founded by David Ring, Ronen Assia, and Yoni Assia in 2007 with a mission to make trading accessible to anyone, anywhere, and reduce dependency on traditional financial institutions. The company has come a long way since its first iteration, which was, by today’s standards, simple.
Starting up
eToro started as an easy-to-understand online trading platform that made investing more digestible with the use of graphics. Three years after its initial launch in July of 2010, the company unveiled CopyTrader, its social trading platform that enables users to copy the trades of successful investors. The model proved popular among investors and gave eToro notoriety within the fintech industry. After CopyTrader the company launched a mobile app, introduced stocks, unveiled a new interface, and launched CopyPortfolio.
This screenshot from eToro’s FinovateEurope 2011 demo gives off major retro fintech vibes.
Move into cryptocurrencies
In 2013, eToro took a chance on cryptocurrencies, adding Bitcoin trading via CFDs. From there, the company continued to advance its cryptocurrency offerings. Here’s what the past seven years of innovation have looked like for eToro:
2017: enabled users to trade and invest in Ethereum, XRP, Litecoin, and others
2018: launched its cryptocurrency investment offering to users in the U.S.
2019: partnered with TIE to deliver sentiment-driven investment strategies
2019: launched the eToro Club, a personalized trading experience
Best of Show accolades
eToro’s most recent Finovate appearance was FinovateEurope 2017, where CEO and Founder Yoni Assia, along with VP of Product Tal Ben-Simon, took the stage to demoCopyFunds for Partners. The duo won Best of Show bragging rights for the presentation, marking eToro’s fourth Best of Show award since its first Finovate demo in 2011.
To see eToro’s evolution yourself, watch the company’s most recent 2017 demo in contrast with its 2011 demo.
Digital financial services company Ally Financial announced this week that it will acquire non-prime credit card and consumer financing company CardWorks. The deal, which has been approved by both companies’ boards, is valued at $2.65 billion ($1.35 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in Ally stock).
The acquisition adds a top-20 U.S. credit card platform and a top-15 merchant acquiring business to Ally Financial’s direct bank deposit, auto financing, insurance, and commercial product lines. The combined entity will serve 11+ million customers in 50 states when the transaction is closed in Q3 of this year.
CardWorks founder, chairman, and CEO Don Berman praised Ally Financial as an “ideal partner” for the “people-centric, compliance-focused” and technology-enabled organization he built in 1987. “In leveraging Ally’s commitment to innovation and adaptiveness, the combined company will be well positioned to meet the financial needs of our ever-growing customer base and deliver sustainable growth and performance,” he said. After the deal is closed, Berman will join both Ally Financial’s Board of Directors as well as the company’s executive management team.
Detroit, Michigan-based Ally Financial was founded 101 years ago as the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) and retained that name until 2010. The company is one of the largest auto financing firms in the U.S. by volume, and is a top-20 U.S. bank by assets ($180+ billion). Ally Financial trades on the NYSE under the ticker ALLY, and has a market capitalization of $10 billion.
Ally Financial also has an online bank, Ally Bank, which is headquartered in Sandy, Utah, and offers mortgage financing as well as deposit and other banking services. As part of the acquisition, CardWorks subsidiary Merrick Bank will merge into Ally Bank.
When Lending Club was founded in 2007, the startup aimed to serve as a place to help borrowers avoid dealing with banks. In a somewhat ironic move today, that same startup is becoming a bank itself.
The move is made possible through Lending Club’s acquisition of Radius Bank, an online-only community bank founded in 1987 with more than $1.4 billion in assets.
It’s a logical purchase. Both Lending Club and its U.S. competitor Prosper have struggled with the classic chicken and egg conundrum– they can’t lend money to borrowers without investors ready and willing to lend, and they can’t find people willing to lend without enough qualifying borrowers. By becoming a bank, Lending Club has now adopted a pool of borrowers while having access to customer deposits to lend to those borrowers.
The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close in 12 to 15 months.
Radius President and CEO Mike Butler called the acquisition “a perfect marriage.” He added that, “with LendingClub bringing the leading digital asset generation platform, and Radius contributing a leading online deposit gathering platform,” they are set up for “long-term success.”
“This is a transformational transaction that allows us to reimagine banking in a way that is free from legacy practices and systems and where the success of LendingClub is aligned with the success of our customers,” said Scott Sanborn, CEO of LendingClub.
Lending Club isn’t the only alternative lender with aspirations to become a bank. U.K.-based P2P lender Zopa is currently working on launching a bank of its own and small business lender On Deck Capital plans to seek out a bank charter this year.
From the rise of the superapp to financial inclusion 3.0, the insights of our Fintech What’s Hot/What’s Not analysts at FinovateEurope last week continue to artfully disrupt our signature demo-only format.
Mixed in with live demonstrations of the latest innovations in payments and customer engagement (see our Best of Show coverage), our main stage analysts reminded us of the critical differences between machine learning and AI, the opportunities of 5G connectivity, and how open innovation helps companies maximize technological change.
Ratna Sita Handayani of Euromonitor International highlights the rapid growth of mobile payments in Asia.
Does the rise of the super app in Asia anticipate the future of apps in the West? Ratna Sita Handayani, Senior Research Manager with Euromonitor International, looked at the rapid growth in mobile payments in Asia, and the way that companies outside of traditional financial services such as ridesharing firm Grab have moved effectively into the payment space. Highlighting similar accomplishments from Japanese social media giant LINE and the continued rise of AliPay, Handayani considered how hyperlocalization and other strategies are helping these new offerings gain ground.
Promoting a “more autonomous, more distributed, and more ethical” fintech industry, Forrester VP and Research Director Oliwia Berdak encouraged innovators to move from thinking about the “next best product” to a value-for-value exchange in which interests align. Berdak compared many of the more limited fintech offerings of today with solutions such as smart contracts and even autonomous debt management that more fully take advantage of the latest technologies like advanced machine learning.
Berdak urges a move “from myopic and disoriented” to “more autonomous and more ethical” in fintech.
This is necessary in large part, Berdak suggested, to help manage the cognitive load of all the information that technology delivers in the first place. In other words, we need technology to “take the human” out of the technological equation we’ve created.
Tosin Agbabiaka, an Early Stage Investor with Octopus Ventures, leveraged his own experience – from frontier through the periphery to an increasingly divided developed world – to paint a vivid portrait of Financial Inclusion 3.0. Agbabiaka provided a deep, nuanced understanding of the challenges of developing countries like Nigeria in the 1990s where basic financial access was a principal obstacle to progress (Financial Inclusion 1.0). He then explained the difficulty periphery nations have when boom times stall and a lack of liquidity threatens to turn financial crises into catastrophe – like Greece in the late 2010s (Financial Inclusion 2.0).
A look at the challenges and opportunities on the periphery during Financial Inclusion 2.0
If the first stage of financial inclusion is about optimizing for basic access, and the second stage is about optimizing for quality and efficiency, as Agbabiaka indicated, the third stage of financial inclusion is about optimizing for affordability. This is the world we see in North America and Europe where the benefits of a digital, interconnected economy exist in abundance, but are harder for a growing number to obtain. These are places characterized by gig economics and alternative financing in response to low wages, funding challenges for micro- and small businesses, and the debt burden of higher education.
This is a critical challenge for fintech, Agbabiaka suggested, but it is not a challenge that needs to be pursued out of a sense of social good alone. Financial inclusion 3.0 represents the union of access, quality, affordability and, to coin a phrase used by another analyst above, aligns the interests of the frontier, the periphery, and the center when it comes to technological innovation. In this world, as Agbabiaka explained, “those served benefit as much as the newly-served.”
