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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
ti&m and aixigoPartner to Digitize Wealth Management.
TransferWiseInks International Payments Deal with EQ Bank.
Coinbase’s New Partnership Helps Give Back with Crypto.
Around the web
ThetaRayNames Edward Sander as Chief Product Officer.
Frontier Communications deploysNeustarCertified Caller STIR/SHAKEN technology across its IP network to digitally certify phone calls.
Citi and PayPalexpand partnership for institutional clients.
Worldline and CashSentinelpartner to provide a payment solution to comply with Swiss and European online marketplaces.
Alaska USA Federal Credit Union selectsMX to power mobile banking platform.
Minna Technologiesdeepens partnership with OP Financial Group.
Chetucontinues European expansion, opens new UK office.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Updated 12/20/2019: Finovate alums raised more than $876 million in the fourth quarter of 2019. The amount takes the total raised by Finovate alums this year to more than three billion. It is both the second year in a row our alums have topped this milestone, and the biggest Q4 fundraising for Finovate alums to date.
The fourth quarter of 2019 is also the fourth Q4 in a row in which alum funding has climbed above the $500 million mark.
Previous Quarterly Comparisons
Q4 2018: More than $800 million raised by 19 alums
Q4 2017: More than $730 million raised by 23 alums
Q4 2016: More than $700 million raised by 26 alums
Q4 2015: More than $302 million raised by 28 alums
The top equity investment of the quarter was the $200 million raised by Ripple, followed by the $182 million raised by Zopa and the $102.5 million raised by BlueVine the previous month. Given the relatively small number of fundings this quarter, it is little surprise to find that our top ten equity investments for Q4 make up the vast majority of the reported spending total (note that the sums involved in two of our fourteen fourth quarter investments were undisclosed).
Top Equity Investments
Ripple: $200 million
Zopa: $182 million
BlueVine: $102.5 million
nCino: $80 million
Spreedly: $75 million
Passport: $65 million
SheerID: $64 million
Eigen Technologies: $37 million
Aerospike: $32 million
Kreditech: $24 million
Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q4 2019.
October 2019: More than $104 million raised by four alums
If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the fourth quarter of 2019, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.
Digitization and innovation company ti&m and wealth management technology provider aixigo have come together in a partnership this week that will help improve and digitize the wealth management experience.
The partnership will combine ti&m’s channel suite with aixigo’s Wealth Management & Investment Advisory platform’s digital suite. The press release highlighted how the flexibility of ti&m’s services are well-suited to enhance aixigo’s platform, noting that “any solution can be designed and integrated “out of the box” into core banking systems.”
“You meet customer expectations in digital competition and at the same time reduce costs per customer. This in turn means that customers are more willing to pay despite regulatory requirements and cost transparency,” said Christian Friedrich, CBO of aixigo. “And in the end, the goal is for the bank to become an integral part of daily digital habits. And it is precisely these added values that we want to bring out into the banking world together with ti&m.”
aixigo most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2018 in New York where it showcased Digital Portfolio Management Backoffice, a tool to manage portfolios flexibly and with a limited workforce. The Germany-based company raised an undisclosed amount of funds in a single private equity round earlier this year.
ti&m demoed its digital onboarding suite module at FinovateEurope 2017. Thomas Wüst is founder and CEO.
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UK-based Metro Bank has partnered with Canadian technology firm Sensibill to launch a receipt management beta for SMEs, reports Alex Hamilton of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.
The new feature, available via the Metro Bank app in 2020, will allow users to capture receipts using a smartphone camera and have them be automatically added to their transaction history.
According to the bank, the new pilot is the first in a “long list of innovations” that it is set to test out in the 2020. Metro states that it plans to “take the essential daily tasks of invoicing, receipt management, bookkeeping and VAT returns, and embed them intuitively into the Metro Bank mobile app.”
Paul Riseborough, chief commercial officer at Metro Bank, said of the new pilot: “Accounting tasks, along with chasing invoices and staying on top of receipts, are major pain points for SMEs.”
“By partnering with Sensibill we’re offering an innovative, digital solution that solves real problems for our customers, saving them time spent on admin and allowing them to focus on running and growing their business. And this is just the first piece in the puzzle as we set about developing a major new digital ecosystem of services to help SMEs,” Riseborough said.
Co-founder and CEO of Sensibill, Corey Gross, added: “Metro Bank is building a suite of compelling tools that will help transform the small business banking experience in the UK.”
“Our partnership with Metro Bank demonstrates our shared focus to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve the financial well-being of banking customers. We’re excited to support Metro Bank’s commitment to strengthening its relationship with their customers through digital innovation,” Gross said.
In October Metro Bank announced that it would be partnering with a number of fintech firms following the £120 million funding it secured from the Capability and Innovation Fund in February.
Sensibill demonstrated its Receipts for Microbusinesses solution at FinovateEurope 2018 in partnership with NatWest. The Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based company was founded in 2013, and has raised more than $50 million in funding. Sensibill includes Radical Ventures, First Ascent Ventures and National Bank of Canada among its investors.
Splititforges new strategic partnerships with Malaysian payment solution provider iPay88 and global payments company BlueSnap.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Mobile payments for parking company Passport just landed $65 million in funding, bringing its total raised to over $125 million.
The Series D round saw participation from Rho Capital Partners, H.I.G. Growth Partners, and ThornTree Capital Partners. Habib Kairouz from Rho Capital Partners and Scott Hilleboe from H.I.G. will join Passport’s board of directors.
The funding will be used enhance Passport’s software platform and expand its digital parking ecosystem.
Founded in 2010, Passport offers mobile payment solutions for parking, transit, permits, and tolling. The company’s solutions serve more than 1,000 clients and have been adopted by more than 450 agencies in over 5,000 locations worldwide, including Chicago, London, Toronto, Boston, Vancouver, Portland, Montreal, and Miami. To date, Passport has processed more than $1.5 billion, processing 100+ million transactions each year.
“We envision a world where mobility is seamless,” said Bob Youakim, Passport co-founder and CEO. “To bring this vision to life, we are creating an open ecosystem where any entity – a connected or autonomous vehicle, a mapping app, or a parking app – can leverage our transactional infrastructure to facilitate digital parking payments.”
At FinovateEurope 2016, Passport demoed its Mobile Ticketing for Transit solution.
This year, Passport launched a pilot for micro-mobility companies, including scooter fleet company Spin. In August, the company moved on to phase two of the project to enable cities to charge scooter companies for parking. The city of Charlotte will move forward with its pilot and the company anticipates that other cities will follow.
Ixaris forms agreement with Sabre to tap into new European markets.
OcrolusintroducesOcrolus+, a turnkey solution for ingesting documents and digital data streams through a single API.
Bitbondpartners with KlickOwn to expand into real estate.
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
Bill.com marked a win this week as it finalized its debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BILL. The business payments platform priced its shares at $22, which is higher than the previously anticipated $16 to $18 per share amount.
The raise equates to about a $216 million raise, which is more than double the $100 million figure we reported last month, when pricing terms had not yet been shared publicly. Bill.com’s market capitalization now sits at $1.56 billion.
There has been plenty of positivity about Bill.com’s public debut, including the Wall Street Journal’s article about the IPO being “worth the tab” and Forbes’ discussion about Bill.com’s stock “taking off on IPO day.”
Before today’s public debut, the California-based company had raised $347 million in 11 rounds of funding from investors including Franklin Templeton, JPMorgan Chase, Union Square Ventures, CapitalG (Google Capital), Microsoft, Baidu, Qualcomm, Fidelity, Silicon Valley Bank, American Express, and more.
With 500 employees in offices across Palo Alto, California and Houston, Texas, Bill.com helps businesses manage accounts payables and receivables with online billpay, custom invoicing, document storage, collaboration tools, and more. The company’s platform moves $70 billion and 45 million documents on an annual basis and facilitates 8,000+ customer messages per day.
At the time of publication, Bill.com’s stock price is up over 60% at $35.33 per share.
Clutch’s top 1000 list namesChetu among best B2B service providers in 2019.
CustomerXPswins the IBS Intelligence Global FinTech Innovation Award for ‘Most Innovative Use of AI and Machine Learning.’
This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.
We close out 2019 with a deep dive into fraud prevention, cybersecurity, and regtech, as well as unique insights from FinovateAsia and Middle East. This quarter’s eMagazine includes insights into the micro-trends set to emerge in 2020, and interviews with some of the Finovate Awards winners about their innovations.
Cloud banking platform provider Mambu and lending-as-a-service platform TradeLedger joined together recently to create an offering for online commercial lenders.
This client group, which the companies cite as an underserved $1.6 trillion (£1.2 trillion) opportunity, will offer commercial lenders a cloud-based solution to design, configure, and implement new lending products.
“Mambu’s composable banking approach blends perfectly with our vision for a brand-new mid-market transactional banking and trade infrastructure,” said Roger Vincent, Chief Innovation Officer at Trade Ledger. “Through an API-driven architecture, the Trade Ledger and Mambu platforms come together with Mambu Process Orchestrator allowing our customers to significantly reduce the cost of loan origination and servicing, improve customer experiences (internal and external), and rapidly increase the volume of their loan book – all without significant investment in more staff or resources.”
Mambu launched its composable banking concept to help financial services companies “compose the bank they want to be.” This approach enables banks to choose the best third party vendor for each process by facilitating as many integrations as the bank wants. And because technology is continuously evolving, Mambu allows banks to swap out integrations independently when they want to switch providers.
Mambu has raised almost $47 million in funding (€42 million) from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Acton Capital Partners, and CommerzVentures. The Berlin-based companymade its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2013 in Singapore. Last month, Mambu signed UK-based SME challenger bank Recognise.
