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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
MXTeams Up with Personal Finance Wellness App Dave.
Around the web
PayPalpartners with MetLife and VC Village Capital to support innovation in healthtech.
Currencycloud among four companies to win £10 million grant from the Board of Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) to boost financial services for SMEs.
Liferayappoints Matt Poladian as Vice President of People, the company’s first global HR executive.
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.
Munich-based robo-advisor platform, Scalable Capital, has raised a further €25 million in growth capital, two years after BlackRock invested €30 million, writes Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
Handelsblatt reports that HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and Tengelmann Ventures also took part in this round.
Founded in 2016, Scalable aims to target high-earning young professionals, who invest an average of €35,000. Customers can answer a list of questions about their experiences and objectives, to receive a recommendation for a portfolio of listed index funds (ETFs).
Although the amount raised is relatively low for the industry, Scalable Capital founder Erik Podzuweit said, in the Handelsblatt Disrupt podcast: “Actually, we did not need the money, because unlike some other business models, each customer pays for the offer.”
He added: “So we took the money and can now grow a little faster and at the same time still keep something in reserve.”
BlackRock acquired just under a third of the company two years ago. Despite the capital increase, the founders still have ownership of more than a quarter of the business.
Scalable Capital demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2016. Last month, the company teamed up with Futurae to add multi-factor authentication to its investment platform. This spring, the company was named to the Wealthtech 100.
With more employers helping their employees repay their student loans these days, the launch of Finicity’sStudent Loan Verification solution means those employers will soon be getting some help of their own.
The new product unveiled this week will enable employer repayment programs to access Finicity’s ACH endpoint to confirm accounts and routing numbers when making student loan repayments on behalf of their employees. Student Loan Verification leverages Finicity’s embeddable web app, Finicity Connect, to provide an intuitive user experience for the employee and ensure an easy integration with student repayment platforms for the employer.
“Student loans have become a major concern for individuals and families, with three out of four graduates burdened by debt,” Finicity COO and President Andy Sheehan said. “We are excited to contribute to an emerging trend in employer contributions to student debt by delivering a solution that eases the process and increases efficiency.”
Among the companies to take advantage of the new offering is fellow Finovate alum Vault. The company, which demonstrated its technology as Student Loan Genius at FinovateSpring 2016, has partnered with Finicity to add Student Loan Verification to its employer-paid student loan contribution solution.
“Companies are rapidly evolving their benefit offering to meet the needs of the modern workforce,” Vault CEO Matt Beecher said. “We chose Finicity to enhance our user experience within our student loan repayment benefit because of the technology’s superior coverage and capabilities.”
This week’s product release follows news of the Finicity’s big partnership with Ellie Mae, announced two weeks ago. This integration makes Finicity’s Verification of Assets (VoA) solution available via Ellie Mae’s Encompass Digital Lending platform. Ellie Mae has more than 230,000 users and thousands of providers in its partner network. Like Vault, Ellie Mae is also a Finovate alum, having demonstrated its Encompass Consumer Connect and Encompass Developer Connect offerings at FinovateSpring 2017.
“With the integration of Finicity’s digital Verification of Assets through our Encompass Digital Lending platform, we are further enabling loan officers, processors, and other key lender participants to reduce cycle-times and offer a more complete digital mortgage experience for their customers,” SVP of Business Development for Ellie Mae Parvesh Sahi said when the integration was announced.
Founded in 1999 and based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Finicity made its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2017, where the company demonstrated its credit decisioning technology. This year, it addition to its partnership with Ellie Mae, Finicity announced it was teaming up with LendingQB who will leverage Finicity’s Verification of Assets solution to accelerate loan processing and enhance the user experience for borrowers. In April, Finicity announced an integration with Pulte Mortgage, which will also use the company’s VoA solution to speed the home financing process.
Finicity has raised $79.9 million in funding. The company includes Experian and Bridge Bank among its investors. Co-founder Steven Smith is CEO.
With many fintech fans still enjoying the last few days and weeks of summer vacation, it can be hard to believe that FinovateFall is right around the corner.
Our fall fintech showcase returns to the New York Marriott Marquis in Manhattan’s Times Square next month, September 23rd through September 25th. We will also feature a special Summit Day on September 26th, not covered by the general admission ticket, that will have a focus on artificial intelligence and wealthtech.
Find out more about our conference agenda, including how to register and save your spot. Pick up your ticket by Friday, August 16th and take advantage of early bird savings.
Get to know FinovateFall’s demoing companies in our Sneak Peek series
Over the next few weeks between now and our annual autumn event, we’ll profile the companies that will demonstrate their latest technologies live on the Finovate stage as part of our FinovateFall Sneak Peek series. Find out how some of our industry’s most ambitious startups and innovative veterans are shaping the future of fintech today.
And to help you get ready for FinovateFall beyond the demos, the Finovate blog will also feature profiles of our conference speakers, and an advance look at some of the topics that will drive our keynotes and panel discussions at the event.
More details on FinovateFall are available at our conference page. Check out the full list of demoing companies, our keynote speakers and deep dive sessions, as well as information on how to plan your visit. If you have any questions, send us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Quadientunveils new archived document and data retrieval solution.
Euromoney featuresBioCatch in its look at the fintech scene in Israel.
SuperMoneytops $2 billion in loan requests via its online lending marketplace platform.
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.
A “significant capital investment” will make BizEquity a part of the country’s biggest publisher of news and information on local businesses. American City Business Journals (ACBJ) announced today that it has acquired a majority stake in the business valuation specialist that will help fuel the company’s growth, as well as add to ACBJ’s own suite of business information services.
ACBJ CEO Whitney Shaw highlighted both points in explaining the reasons for the company’s investment in the businesstech firm. Noting that American City Business Journal’s primary service is delivering business news to people in the communities where those businesses operate, Shaw underscored BizEquity’s contribution to ACBJ’s product line-up. “Through BizEquity, we can enhance our core offering by giving additional, valuable information and insights to businesses of all sizes and to the professionals who serve them,” Shaw said.
BizEquity founder and CEO Michael Carter anticipates leveraging ACBJ’s “coast-to-coast footprint” and presence in 43 American cities to help broaden the market for BizEquity’s technology. “Democratizing business valuation knowledge to the more than 31 million private businesses in North America has been our mission from day one,” Carter said. “No information is more critical to a business owner’s future than knowing what his or her business is worth. BizEquity unlocks that information.”
Post acquisition, Carter will serve as the head of a newly-formed information services group at American City Business Journals, according to reporting in the Philadelphia Business Journal.
BizEquity’s cloud-based technology examines 143 different data points to enable owners and managers to monitor business valuation over time and see what forces make the most impact on value. BizEquity’s valuation service is available via a network of more than 650 financial institutions and 2,500+ advisors, bankers, accountants, and other financial professionals. The company’s partners include firms like Experian, TD Bank, and Mass Mutual Financial Group.
The acquisition news comes just days after the company disclosed a new partnership with UBS. The agreement will enable UBS financial advisors operating in the U.S. to access BizEquity’s database of businesses and valuation information. “Our advisors are constantly looking for new ways to grow their business and expand their reach, particularly in middle-market businesses,” explained James Jack, director of the business owner strategic client segment at UBS Financial Services. “Access to the BizEquity platform will help us to deliver highly tailored advice to our clients.”
BizEquity demonstrated the latest features of its BizEquity One UK platform at FinovateEurope 2015. These enhancements included real-time dynamic valuations updated daily, a powerful new search feature for pre-valued businesses in the U.K., real time advice and alerts, and an updated dashboard that provides an easy-to-understand, infographic-like view of business valuation and KPIs.
Digital lending-as-a-service solution provider ezbob is making its smart onboarding module available to banks. The solution will enable banks to meet their KYC, AML, and sanctions challenges, as well as provide a better, more seamless experience for customers.
“When it comes to KYC, banks have made large investments, growing their compliance teams in order to deal with the new stringent regulatory requirements,” ezbob CEO Tomer Guriel said. “Clearing a customer now requires more back and forth with the client and at the end of the day it is the customer journey that suffers.”
The Smart Onboarding Engine enables banks to design, build, and manage onboarding journeys for current accounts, lending products, wealth services and other solutions – leveraging APIs to control the customer experience. The engine also offers smart, real-time monitoring analytics to help banks improve and optimize the onboarding process. And by using single sign on (SSO), customers can easily move from one product to another without having to provide credentials each time.
“With ezbob’s solution, once the customer clicks submit, that’s where our system instantly starts making API calls to databases, such as LexisNexis, in order to verify the customer,” Guriel said. “By cross-checking multiple data sources through out own KYC risk engine, we’re able to deliver a true ‘Pass/Fail’ along with whatever additional information may be required.”
ezbob has already won plaudits for its onboarding solution. Earlier this month, the company announced that its Smart Onboarding Engine helped it winBest Fintech Partnership honors at The Banker’s Tech Project Awards. The onboarding engine is part of ezbob’s Catalyst+ omni-channel, omni-product, modular LaaS solution, featured earlier this year.
Founded in 2011 and based in London, U.K., ezbob demonstrated its lending technology at FinovateEurope 2014. Among the first online, fully-automated lending platforms for small businesses, ezbob pivoted in 2017 to focus on providing lending-as-a-service (LaaS) solutions to banks. Since then, the company has forged partnerships with companies like American Express, NatWest, and Yorkshire Bank to help power SME lending products.
ezbob has raised more than $124 million (£103 million) from investors including Honeycomb Investment Trust, Leumi Partners, and Oaktree Capital Management.
BizEquityAcquired by American City Business Journals.
Around the web
Spreedly – in partnership with Webio – wins 2019 Innovation Lab Award at Payments Ed Forum.
Australian FinTech looks at the possibility of iSignthis becoming the next big neobank.
Infosecurity Magazine featuresVeridium Chief Revenue Officer Jason Tooley on the challenges law enforcement faces when using biometrics.
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.
Mortgage Cadence’s new integration with DataVerify, announced this week, will enable the Denver, Colorado-based mortgage tech company to enhance its loan origination system, boost data verification and fraud prevention, and provide compliance assistance.
The combination of DataVerify’s functionality and Mortgage Cadence’s Enterprise Lending Center (ELC) will improve the customer experience by streamlining authentication and automating the data verification process for borrowers. Lenders benefit, as well. The integration will enable them to avoid the cumbersome process of extracting data from institutions like the IRS, and instead request and access the necessary information without leaving the ELC platform.
“Optimized workflows and increased automation are essential to reducing time and cost to close,” EVP and MD of Product Management at Mortgage Cadence Paul Wetzel said. “This latest integration between our Enterprise Lending Center and Data Verify is yet another example of how we help lenders improve operating performance.”
DataVerify leverages advanced analytics to provide risk mitigation, data validation, and workflow management solutions for the mortgage industry. The company’s platform helps lenders make better decisions by recognizing data integrity errors and misrepresentations, as well as identity theft, and property and application risk. DataVerify was named to the 2018 Ellie Mae Hall of Fame after winning the Lenders’ Choice for Best Service Provider award that year. The Chesterfield, Missouri-based company was founded in 1948.
“(O)ur mission is to deliver flexible solutions tailored to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers,” DataVerify president Brad Bogel said. “Our integration with Mortgage Cadence furthers this mission by providing convenient access to secure verification processes that address industry compliance regulations all within the lender’s origination platform, Enterprise Lending Center.”
Founded in 1999, Mortgage Cadence demonstrated its Collaboration Center at FinovateFall 2017. The solution offers financial institutions a secure, multi-channel communication portal that brings all the participants, workflow, and data for a loan into a single location for greater efficiency and security.
Last month, Bank of the West announced that it had teamed up with Mortgage Cadence to improve its loan origination operations. The bank also deployed Mortgage Cadence’s Borrower Center to enhance the experience for both borrowers and loan officers. Named to the 2019 HousingWire Tech 100 this spring, Mortgage Cadence includes partnerships with Radian Mortgage Insurance and MGIC among its more recent integrations, both of which enabled the companies to streamline the mortgage insurance process during loan origination.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Accenture, Mortgage Cadence has processed more than 17 million loans from point-of-sale through post-closing. Trevor Gauthier is President and COO.
As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Asia-Pacific
CompareAsiaGroup picks up $20 million in Series B1 funding in round led by Experian.
Standard Chartered Bank’s eXcelerator innovation lab goes live in Shanghai.
Finish fintech PearlPay announces partnership with the Philippines’ Rural Bank.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ghana’s Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia declares his country to be “the undisputed leader in Africa” in terms of innovation in payment services.
Oromia International Bank of Ethiopia goes live with core banking software from ICS Financial Systems.
Fintech Futures examines the challenger bank scene in South Africa.
Central and Eastern Europe
Piotr Jan Pietrzak of ING Bank Slaski looks at the fintech scene in Poland.
Romania open banking solution provider Finqware raises €180,000 in seed funding.
Poland introduces $737 million co-investment plan to attract private equity firms.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Bahrain-based cryptocurrency exchange Rain earns its license from the nation’s central bank, and announces a fundraising of $2.5 million.
Egypt’s MoneyFellows raises more than $1 million in pre Series A funding.
African payment gateway Innovate 1 Pay opens office in Dubai.
Central and Southern Asia
Indian SME lender Indifi raises $21 million in Series C funding.
Mashreq Global Services, a subsidiary of Mashreq Bank, teams up with Indian fintechs.
India’s biggest mobile payments company Paytm now boasts 10 million customers in Japan.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazil’s Nubank raises $400 million in funding in round led by TCV.
Argentina’s largest national private bank Banco Galicia integrates PFM technology from Strands.
Biometrics startup ID R&D released IDLive Face this week. The new solution adds liveness detection to facial recognition technology in an entirely passive manner.
Facial recognition technology has been used in fintech and other verticals to authenticate users for years. And in order to prove that the user wasn’t spoofing their identity using a static photo, many technologies use liveness detection, which requires the user to perform a handful of actions such as blinking, smiling, and turning their head.
With IDLive Face, however, the liveness detection is invisible to the user since it runs in the background of the application. This not only makes a frictionless user experience, it also prevents fraudsters from learning how to spoof the technology.
“IDLive Face requires absolutely no actions from the end user,” said ID R&D CEO Alexey Khitrov. “Eliminating complexity in the user experience is one of the primary focus areas of our research… Armed with excellent real-world results, we are thrilled to offer businesses fully frictionless authentication that aligns with rigorous compliance requirements for onboarding and data management.”
The new technology leverages AI-based algorithms that process images in near real-time. IDLive Face doesn’t require the end user to have any special capture software and is available as an SDK and Docker container on Linux and Windows.
At FinovateFall 2018, Khitrov demoedSafeChat2.0, an application that passively verifies a user’s identity throughout the conversation (typing or speaking) without asking them to do anything special to authenticate themselves.
ID R&D offers authentication technologies that span the biometric spectrum. The company’s IDVoice is a standalone version of its core voice biometric capability,IDSquared is a tool that validates the user by capturing their face as they type their login credentials, and IDBehave is a behavioral biometrics solution that creates a unique biometric template for each user.
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.
