Analyst All Stars: Top Takes on Fintech’s Hottest Trends

Analyst All Stars: Top Takes on Fintech’s Hottest Trends
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2019

Sometimes the best way to determine the latest trends is to ask the experts.

So that’s exactly what we’ll be doing at FinovateFall next month when three of fintech’s most renowned analysts take the stage to offer their take on what they see as today’s hottest trend in fintech.

Join us for the Analyst All Star session at FinovateFall next month; September 23 through 25 in New York (you won’t want to miss out; register today). Each analyst will have seven minutes on stage to describe their thoughts on what’s driving fintech innovation today. Here’s who you can expect to see on stage:

Alyson Clarke @alysonmclarke

Clarke is a principal analyst at Forrester. With more than 19 years of financial services industry experience, she is a highly skilled expert with extensive industry experience in both wealth management and banking. Clarke has global expertise, having previously worked at Forrester in the financial services vertical in Forrester’s Sydney, London, and San Francisco offices. She is now based in New York and specializes in digital and non-digital channel strategy and innovation. In particular, Clarke focuses on the sales, service, and customer experience of financial services and advice across online channels, smartphones, tablets, and branches.

Jacob Jegher @jjegher

Jegher is an experienced fintech executive and digital banking thought leader. He advises clients on emerging technologies and business strategies related to retail, small business, and corporate digital banking. Jegher provides strategic consulting to financial institutions and solution providers on issues ranging from digital strategy to vendor selection. In addition to his client-facing responsibilities, Jegher leads Javelin’s overall strategy, marketing, and product development efforts.

Most recently, Jegher was Vice President of Global Solution Marketing and Head of Analyst Relations at FIS, where he was responsible for marketing strategy efforts across all business units and solutions. Jegher also brings extensive expertise in the banking research and consulting field, having spent over 10 years as a Research Director at Celent.

Alissa Knight @alissaknight

Knight is a senior analyst with Aite Group where she is focused on researching cybersecurity issues impacting the financial services, healthcare, and fintech industries by assessing sector trends, creating segment taxonomies, looking at market sizing, preparing forecasts, and developing industry models. She provides market research, competitive intelligence, and consulting services in the cybersecurity market through unbiased, objective and accurate research and content development. Out of her research, Knight produces reports and white papers, as well as provides advisory services and often keynotes at cybersecurity conferences, seminars, and roundtables.

Knight also sits as the Chairperson on the Board of Directors for Brier & Thorn and was previously CEO of Applied Watch and Netstream.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Akamai, Artivest, Avaloq, Bpm'online, ClickSWITCH, Expensify, Jumio, Kony, LoanScorecard, NICE Systems, Trustly

On Finovate.com

  • Analyst All Stars: Top Takes on Fintech’s Hottest Trends.
  • Artivest Inks Deal with WM Partners.

Around the web

  • Schmidt List podcast hosts ClickSWITCH CEO and Cofounder Cale Johnston.
  • LoanScorecard partners with LoanStream Mortgage to power QualONE.
  • Avaloq onboards Banque Morval onto Intesa Sanpaolo’s BPaaS solution.
  • Jumio joins NICE Actimize’s financial crime, risk management based ecosystem, X-Sight Marketplace.
  • CashFlows partners with Akamai to defend against cybercrime, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
  • Bpm’online wins Best CRM Solution for Enterprises at MarTech Breakthrough Awards.
  • Kony launches Conversational AI DevKit to enhance the customer experience.
  • Trustly appoints Louise Nylén as Chief Marketing Officer.
  • Expensify adds CPE credits to its accountant training and certification course.

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.

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Identitii’s Overlay+ to Drive Intelligent Data Exchange for HSBC Bank Australia

Identitii’s Overlay+ to Drive Intelligent Data Exchange for HSBC Bank Australia
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: identitii

A new agreement will give HSBC Bank Australia access to financial communications technology innovator Identitii’s Overlay+ platform, a peer-to-peer solution that enables the secure sharing of data and documents between authorized parties and to regulators.

Overlay+ leverages blockchain technology and tokenization to make financial communications easier and more secure. A private blockchain ensures an auditable, time-stamped, tamper-proof record of all activity, and uses permissioned communications to allow trusted parties to securely share intelligent information in real-time. The platform uses unique identifiers, known as Identitii Tokens, which serve as cryptographic keys to permission access to the blockchain.

Importantly, the technology, dubbed a “platform for intelligent information exchange” by the company, can be added to a bank’s or corporation’s existing technology infrastructure via API to support both internal and external document and information exchange.

“This is our second technology license with HSBC and it delivers on a key part of our growth strategy, which is deepening relationships with existing customers,” Identitii CEO Nick Armstrong said. “It also represents the commercialization of a new use case for Overlay+, which seamlessly integrates with existing systems to ensure compliance with regulatory reporting requirements.”

The five-year pact has a minimum contract value of $511,600. Identitii’s revenues will come from both professional service fees incurred during technology implementation (slated to be finished in Q2 2020), as well as ongoing monthly license fees.

Identitii’s HSBC/Overlay+ announcement comes just a few months after the company announced that HSBC had launched its digital accounts receivable tool, DART, leveraging tokenization technology from Identitii. The company teamed up with Trace Financial Limited in April to help companies migrate to new messaging standards for financial business transactions. Identitii began the year with a new membership in the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BAIN), ensuring its Overlay+ platform is compatible with open banking standards.

Identitii demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2017. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in New South Wales, Australia, Identitii won an award for Best Workplace Diversity at The Finnies 2019 earlier this year. The company went public last fall, and currently trades under the ticker ID8 on the Australian Stock Exchange. Identitii has a market capitalization of $10 million.

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Prosper Launches Mobile App for Investors

Prosper Launches Mobile App for Investors
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Prosper

U.S. peer-to-peer lending company Prosper launched a mobile app for investors on its platform this week called Prosper Invest.

The new app, which allows investors to manage their portfolios, offers a visually-rich view of their investments, allows them to transfer to and from their bank account, and shows a clean breakdown of their portfolio and annualized returns.

Unique to the app is an impact map that details how many borrowers the investor has funded. This feel-good feature also shows a high-level geographical view of investments and breaks down the total by each borrower’s stated loan purpose. Adding a more personal touch, the app shares individuals’ stories from Prosper’s #MyProsperStory contests. Held from 2014 to 2017, the annual contest encouraged users to share how the loan has impacted their lives.

In my opinion, the most useful feature of the app details return on investment. The tool shows how much the investor has received in payments over the lifetime of their account and breaks it down by their principal and interest received. It even shows the default/chargeoff amount and net gain.

The native app, available on both Android and iOS, is quite a step up from the web-based app the company launched in 2012. Until this week, the web-based version of the site served as the only way for investors to manage their investments on-the-go.

Today’s app launch comes well after the brief existence of Prosper Daily, a borrower-focused mobile app that was born out of Prosper’s purchase of BillGuard for $30 million in 2015. Launched in 2016, the app was only available for a year before it shuttered in 2017. The launch of an investor-focused mobile app in the absence of a borrower-facing one may indicate Prosper currently has a higher balance of borrowers than investors. Peer-to-peer lending sites have often wrestled with the chicken and egg issue– they can’t get borrowers without enough lenders and they can’t attract lenders without enough borrowers.

Today’s launch isn’t the only release from Prosper we expect to see this year. In November of last year the company disclosed plans to unveil a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) product that will streamline the application process and offer rates competitive to banks’ offerings.

Prosper presented at FinovateSpring 2009 as well as the inaugural Finovate in 2007. The company has raised a total of $410 million and is valued at $550 million.

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BeSmartee Integrates with BytePro

BeSmartee Integrates with BytePro
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BeSmartee

A collaboration between loan technology innovator BeSmartee and Byte Software’s BytePro platform will improve the digital mortgage experience for customers by enabling lenders and originators to process applicants faster and better manage heavy demand cycles.

“We’re pleased to have fulfilled this bi-directional integration to the BytePro LOS platform,” BeSmartee co-founder Arvin Sahakian said, calling Byte “a truly great company.” He added, “(This) gives BeSmartee the opportunity to enhance the origination process and user experience for more than 1,000 Byte LOS customers.”

Among other features, the integration will enable lenders to create a loan file in Byte using Fannie Mae 3.2 file data, and will support the pushing and pulling of documents and conditions to meet all the requirements of the loan origination and financing process. Borrowers will benefit from a multi-channel, interactive borrowing experience that leverages chat, text, messaging, email, and co-browsing to enhance the customer journey through an automated workflow.

Kirkland, Washington-based Byte Software was founded in 1985. With clients in all 50 states of the U.S., the company works with both multi-state lenders as well as community banks and mortgage brokerage firms. Its BytePro platform streamlines the mortgage process by using document imaging, an accessible web portal, task tracking and metrics, customizable pipeline views, and multiple user editing of loan files to improve efficiency. A business partner of CBCInnovis, a mortgage lending support solutions provider, Byte Software released the latest version of its technology this spring, introducing a new VA Cash Out Refinance Certification document in addition to other enhancements.

BeSmartee demonstrated its Smart Mortgage technology at FinovateSpring 2017. The company leverages artificial intelligence to enable lenders to move borrowers from initial engagement to underwriting in 20 minutes with completed loan application, credit report, income and asset documentation, eSigned and eDelivered disclosures, and paid appraisal.

In just the past few months BeSmartee has forged partnerships with a variety of players in the mortgagetech industry. In July, the company announced an integration with real estate document collaboration and recording technology company Simplifile. Also in July, BeSmartee and private mortgage insurance provider Arch Mortgage Insurance Company (Arch MI) collaborated on a direct integration that will provide quick and accurate risk-based pricing to accelerate the application process.

In June, BeSmartee announced another partnership, integrating with income calculation and verification technology provider LoanBeam. The same month, the company introduced its new mortgage platform for wholesale lenders and third-party originators.

Founded in 2008, BeSmartee is headquartered in Huntington Beach, California.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BeSmartee, identitii, Insuritas, Lighter Capital, Prosper, Quadient, Strands, Tuition.io

On Finovate.com

  • Prosper Launches Mobile App for Investors.
  • Identitii’s Overlay+ to Drive Intelligent Data Exchange for HSBC Bank Australia.

Around the web

  • TechCrunch highlights Lighter Capital’s revenue financing-based approach.
  • Strands celebrates 15th birthday with 700 banks in 30 countries.
  • PyraMax Bank selects Insuritas to launch a bank-owned insurance service.
  • Identitii signs new license agreement with HSBC Bank Australia Limited for its Overlay+ platform.
  • PYMNTS considers how Tuition.io helps employees pay down debt faster.
  • Norima Consulting joins the Quadient Partner Advantage Program to provide financial services companies customer journey mapping and communication management.

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.

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Finovate Webinar: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks – Modernizing Print Management in the Age of Privacy

Finovate Webinar: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks – Modernizing Print Management in the Age of Privacy
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: Uncategorized

September 12, 2019 | 2pm Eastern Daylight Time | Register now

Each year billions of documents are produced by the banking industry in the US and Europe. These documents include statements, notices, correspondence, and bills that are essential to managing relationships with customers. However, many banks still rely on legacy print management solutions that cost millions of dollars in maintenance every year, haven’t been updated in over 2 decades, don’t support modern digital access methods like mobile, and most importantly, they don’t conform to modern privacy and security regulations.

Join this #FinovateWebinar with Nuxeo to learn how your peers are modernizing print management in today’s age of privacy. We will cover how to: 

  • Replace expensive printing and posting with digital delivery and a “mobile first” strategy
  • Modernize antiquated and expensive legacy print management solutions
  • Manage and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements, such as GDPR and the California Privacy Act
  • Delivers consistent customer service for the print impaired ensuring compliance with Section 508, AMA, AODA, the UK Equality Act

Featuring

  • Chris McLaughlin, Chief Marketing Officer, Nuxeo
  • Tim Nelms, Vice President International, Crawford Technologies

Register now >>

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WattzOn’s SNAP Delivers AI-Enabled Data Extraction For Cleantech Sales Teams

WattzOn’s SNAP Delivers AI-Enabled Data Extraction For Cleantech Sales Teams
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: WattzOn

Utility bill data solution provider WattzOn has unveiled SNAP, a new product for energy and cleantech firms that leverages AI to capture data from utility bills. SNAP will enable sales teams to provide prospects with faster, customized quotes and pricing, as well as make it easier for them to onboard new customers.

WattzOn CEO Martha Amram said SNAP was part of her company’s effort to give sales professionals in the industry the digital tools they need. “Leading solar and energy companies are out in the field, meeting potential customers where they are at,” Amram said. “Mobile data capture solutions are critically important for converting leads into customers, and for instantly offering customized plans that meet customer needs and secure profitable operations.”

A streaming data service, SNAP works by leveraging a set of pre-trained, machine learning models to automatically extract utility bill information from PDF files and images displayed on supported devices. Extracted data is sent to customers via API in seconds, and can be readily integrated into CRM, ERP, and custom software solutions. New utilities can be added to SNAP’s library to ensure broad coverage across states. And while the solution is pre-set for residential utility bills, SNAP can be configured for both commercial and industrial utility bills, as well.

“Our years of market experience have shown that adding the option of data capture from a single utility bill in paper or PDF form increases consumer engagement and sales conversion rates,” Director of Product Management for WattzOn David Nelson said. “I’m delighted that our powerful machine learning system can be applied to this important use case, opening up new sales opportunities for our customers.”

WattzOn demonstrated its Personal Energy Management Platform at FinovateSpring 2012. The company currently offers two solutions for the energy and cleantech industry in addition to SNAP: LINK, which extracts data and bills from utility accounts directly; and GLYNT, WattzOn’s automated, instant data extraction system for utility bills and other documents.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, WattzOn was founded in 2008.

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Alterna Bank Partners with nCino

Alterna Bank Partners with nCino
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: nCino

A new partnership between Alterna Bank and nCino will enable small businesses in Canada to take advantage of a new digital banking solution that features a seamless, anytime, anywhere, account opening experience, as well as automated decisioning, digital document management, and portfolio management.

The agreement marks nCino’s first Canadian credit union customer. nCino CEO Pierre Naudé called Alterna – which consists of Alterna Savings and its subsidiary Alterna Bank – “one of the most innovative financial institutions in Canada.” With a combined $8 billion in assets under management, Alterna was also the first bank in Canada to offer its customers an end-to-end digital mortgage experience.

In addition to its plan to enhance its onboarding processes, Alterna is also working on other initiatives to further improve the customer journey. These efforts include new loan referral and merchant services, and a partnership with Canada’s largest acquirer, Global Payments. The firm said that it plans to deploy its new nCino-powered, digital small business banking solution by the end of this year.

“At Alterna Bank, we’re dedicated to finding the best solutions for our valued small business customers,” Alterna President and CEO Rob Paterson said. “We know that small business owners are extremely busy and we took on the challenge to create a faster and easier banking experience for them.”

Winner of RateHub’s Best Personal Banking, Best eChequing, Best TFSA eSavings, and Best RRSP eSavings account awards, and named Canada’s Best Bank for Millennials, Alterna Bank was founded in 2000 as a subsidiary of 110-year old Alterna Savings. Alterna Savings was the first credit union established in Canada outside of Quebec, and has been awarded Canadian Top Employer honors three consecutive times.

nCino’s partnership with Alterna Bank is the latest in a string of big fintech headlines for the Wilmington, North Carolina-based fintech. Last month, nCino announced that Columbia Bank, a New Jersey-based bank with $7 billion in assets, had gone live with nCino’s Bank Operating System. Also in July, nCino announced its acquisition of analytics and insights specialist Visible Equity for an undisclosed sum. Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Visible Equity has more than 850 bank and credit union customers who use the firm’s technology to better manage risk and improve credit decisioning.

Other partnerships for nCino this year include deals with Westfield Bank and South State Bank in June, with S&T Bancorp in May, and with Navy Federal Credit Union in April. Navy FCU is the largest credit union in the world, with more than eight million members and 329 branches.

Founded in 2012, nCino has raised more than $133 million in funding, and counts Insight Partners and Salesforce Ventures among its investors. More than 1,100 financial institutions around the world are partnered with nCino, including 12 of the top 25 FIs in North America. nCino demonstrated its Bank Operating System at FinovateEurope 2017.

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U.K. Neobank Gravity Chooses Core Banking Tech from Finastra

U.K. Neobank Gravity Chooses Core Banking Tech from Finastra
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finastra

U.K.-based neobank Gravity has chosen the third largest fintech in the world, Finastra, to provide its end-to-end core banking capabilities, reports Ruby Hinchliffe of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The Fusion Essence cloud-based solution, built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, will enable the challenger to deliver “an agile, customer-oriented service that will make business banking fairer and simpler,” said Gravity chairman, Tim Brooke.

“Small businesses in the U.K. continue to struggle when it comes to choosing a bank that can support their needs. Traditional banks are failing to keep up with the agility these firms require and instead restrict their access to capital, stifle them with bureaucracy, and provide little or no support.”

Gravity is still seeking authorization to serve SMEs with lending, credit card and deposit services, but looking forward with Fusion Essence the bank hopes to scale, offer a range of products, benefit from evergreen software updates and access a collaborative platform.

Finastra’s retail banking general manager, Anand Subbaraman, called Gravity “an aspiring new entrant in the U.K. business banking sector” who will be able to “differentiate its services from traditional banks” by focusing more on strategic growth and resulting timely return on investment.

This agreement follows closely behind Finastra’s deal with Manchester-based new bank, Revverbank, who also selected Fusion Essence for its end-to-end core banking capabilities.

Currently 90 of the world’s top 100 banks use Finastra technology.

Finastra (as Misys) demonstrated its FusionFabric.cloud technology at FinovateEurope 2017. Simon Paris is CEO.


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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bento for Business, Finastra, Lending Club, Lendio, nCino, WattzOn

On Finovate.com

  • U.K. Neobank Gravity Chooses Core Banking Tech from Finastra.
  • WattzOn’s SNAP Delivers AI-Enabled Data Extraction for Cleantech Sales Teams.

Around the web

  • Dwolla to power Bento Pay, email-based payments for Bento for Business’ clients.
  • Lendio ranks 28 of 50 on a list of Utah’s fastest growing companies.

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.

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CurrencyCloud’s Grant Boosts Total Funding Over $80 Million

CurrencyCloud’s Grant Boosts Total Funding Over $80 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Currency Cloud, Funding

Just over a month after announcing a $40 million Series E funding round, international payments platform Currencycloud received another windfall. The company landed a $12.2 million (£10 million) grant as a part of the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) program. This week’s funds bring Currencycloud’s total investment to more than $80 million.

Part of the BCR’s Capability and Innovation Fund Pool C, the award aims to include lending, international payments, and local payments services to SMEs in the U.K. The goal fits well with Currencycloud’s API offerings that help businesses accept, pay, and convert foreign currencies. The company’s tools also help businesses manage balances, send notifications, set permissions, and compile reports.

Currencycloud CEO Mike Laven said that the company plans to use the funds to “accelerate product development for SME’s, particularly in the area of collections.” He added, “We will also work on distribution partnerships that enhance our ability to deliver to SMEs. Our current U.K. eco-system of over 150 FX brokers, money transfer firms, payment service firms and banks service 1,000’s of U.K. SMEs with payment services today. Our intent is to widen access to affordable FX and international payments for U.K. SMEs, targeting 40,000 SMEs using our platform by 2024.”

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, Currencycloud counts fellow Finovate alums Azimo, Klarna, Revolut, and Fidor as clients. The company can make domestic and international payments in 38 currencies to 180+ countries. Currencycloud most recently appeared at FinovateFall 2016 where it debuted its Payment Engine. 

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