South Korean Unicorn Raises $64m; India Tops China in Fintech Deals

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

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.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerians in the U.S. are exploring opportunities to launch a Nigerian Federal Credit United Union.
  • Kenya’s Wapi Capital partners with China-based mobile device maker Transsion to fund African fintech startups.
  • Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) admits three fintechs – Pezesha, Innova, and another remaining in stealth mode – to its new regulatory sandbox.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Latvian fintech Mintos tops €3 billion in loans financed.
  • Looking for a cryptocurrency gig in Russia? Coin Rivet examines top options.
  • Mobile operator Orange Poland partners with Ukraine’s PayUkraine to expand its money transfer business in the country.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) announces partnership with Plug and Play and Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
  • MenaFN investigates how Jordanian companies are supporting digital transformation in Iraq.
  • Central Bank of Oman finalizes plans for national payment system in effort to support local fintech industry.

Central and Southern Asia

  • CB Insights reports that the number of fintech deals in India topped those in China for the first time.
  • Female-founded Pakistani venture capital firm, i2i Ventures, announces investment in Pakistani startup Mauqa Online.
  • Indian online investment platform Scripbox acquires rival Upwardly.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Zenus, a challenger bank based in Puerto Rico, gains U.S. banking license.
  • Coindesk looks at how Mexico’s new fintech law may impact the cryptocurrency market.
  • CapitalTech acquires Konsigue, a crowdfactoring startup based in Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • Toss, a South Korean P2P money transfer service, picks up $64 million in new funding.
  • Fintech Singapore profiles alternative and micro lenders in Vietnam.
  • Singapore’s Koku, a fintech that specializes in foreign exchange technology solutions, plans expansion into Indonesia.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Currency Cloud, The ID Co.

On Finovate.com

  • CurrencyCloud’s Grant Boosts Total Funding Over $80 Million.

Around the web

  • Barclays ends partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
  • The ID Co illustrates 12-month plan to expand DirectID’s global data coverage.

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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Jack Henry Celebrates 57 New Customers in 2019

Jack Henry Celebrates 57 New Customers in 2019
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jack Henry

Jack Henry & Associates has attracted 57 banks and credit unions away from competitors in the fiscal year 2019, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

The technology solutions and payment processing services provider has seen a record number of financial institutions switch to its core banking platform, in the year to 30 June.

Jack Henry focuses on helping community and regional financial institutions to offer their customers modern banking experiences and to remain competitive in a changing market.

New clients stated reasons for switching have included the desire to provide an online retailer-style service for customers, openness and commitment to scale, and the ability to achieve tighter integrations and enhanced workflows from the open infrastructure.

Busey Bank and holding company First Busey Corporation both chose the Jack Henry Banking SilverLake System.

“Jack Henry’s advanced API network provides the open architecture and sophisticated connectivity necessary for us to chart our own course. This partnership supports our dedication to strategic process improvements and investment in integrated technology platforms,” said Howard Mooney, chief information officer of First Busey Corporation.

David Foss, president and CEO of Jack Henry, said it is an exciting time in banking.

“The industry is open to more collaboration and advanced technologies, while renewing its focus on user centricity,” he adds. “We’re committed to partnering with these regional and community financial institutions to help them compete with technology that is efficient, scalable and built to last.”

The 32 banks and 19 credit unions range from those with $64 million in assets to $9.6 billion, along with six de novo banks.

Jack Henry’s most recent appearance at Finovate was at FinovateFall 2015, when the company demonstrated technology from its recent acquisition, Banno. Founded in 1976 and headquartered in Monett, Missouri, Jack Henry is the primary technology partner for more than 1,000 community banks and multi-billion dollar mid-tier financial institutions.

With more than $1.5 million on revenues during fiscal 2018, Jack Henry is a publicly-traded on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker JKHY and has a market capitalization of $11 billion.

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Revolut and Xero Partner on New Expense Management Tool

Revolut and Xero Partner on New Expense Management Tool
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Revolut, Xero

If your company has a cumbersome expense management process, then you will welcome the news that Revolut for Business has introduced a new solution to make those issues a problem of the past. Courtesy of a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum Xero, the expense management tool provides real-time expense monitoring, and the ability to approve or reject team expenses.

“The potential for expense management to turn into one big ugly mess is high,” Revolut Marketing Manager Aaron Larsson wrote on the company’s blog. “That’s why we’re proud to introduce our new Expense Management tool to Revolut for Business.”

Revolut’s new tool makes the expense management process easier for team members, finance teams, and accountants. Available within the Revolut for Business app, the tool enables users to record expenses with a simple push notification and a photograph of the receipt, and helps finance teams track expenses more accurately.

Revolut customers that are not Xero users can also take advantage of the expense management tool by creating their own categories and exporting expenses as a CSV file. Revolut noted that it plans to feature additional integrations to offer more accounting resources.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2015, Revolut has grown into an alternative digital bank offering a mobile current account that can be used to hold, exchange, and transfer funds in 29 different currencies. without fees. The account includes a variety of financial management tools including budgeting, instant spending notifications, and a spare change “stash-away” feature to support incidental saving. More recently, Revolut has added stock trading functionality to its app.

The company launched Revolut for Business in 2017 to extend the benefits of digital, API-powered banking services and streamlined, affordable international payments to small businesses and freelancers. The initiative signed up 16,000 business accounts in three months and, in its first year, helped companies save more than $14 million in fees. Last month, the company announced that Revolut for Business would add two new business account plans with no monthly subscription fees. Revolut also made price structure changes to include a customizable model that gives businesses more control and a better value.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, U.K., Revolut has raised more than $336 million in funding from investors including DST Global, Future Fifty, and Lakestar. Nikolay Storonsky is founder and CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Artivest, BLUERUSH, Experian, Finastra, Ignite Sales, Jack Henry, Lendio, Overbond, Revolut, Salt Edge, Strands, TransferWise, Vymo

On Finovate.com

  • Revolut and Xero Partner on Expense Management Tool.

Around the web

  • Transferwise goes live with new debit cad for customers in Australia and New Zealand.
  • Finastra inks cloud banking deal with U.K. neo bank Gravity.
  • Argentina’s largest national private bank Banco Galicia integrates PFM technology from Strands.
  • Overbond to open three AI analytics labs in Montreal, Quebec, Canada to support R&D in bond pricing.
  • Vymo hires Rajesh Sabhlok as its new Chief Customer Officer, with an emphasis on Japan and APAC.
  • BlueRush announces strategic partnership with InfoSlips.
  • Artivest names Martin Bealieu, formerly executive chairman, as new CEO.
  • Lendio’s marketplace lending franchise program tops $50 million in loans facilitated via its platform.
  • Ignite Sales unveils the latest version of its customer engagement platform, Ignite Neuro 2.0.
  • Salt Edge increases the total number of connected banks in the E.U. to more than 300.
  • Experian unveils new configurations of its Ascend Analytical Sandbox.

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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MX Teams Up with Personal Financial Wellness App Dave

MX Teams Up with Personal Financial Wellness App Dave
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: MX

Fresh from being showcased by Forbes in its Next Billion Dollar Startups 2019 feature last month, PFM app Dave has partnered with leading financial services data platform MX, and will leverage the company’s technology to help users better analyze their expenses and manage their finances. The app, which has more than 3.5 million users, helps with budgeting and building credit, and improves cash flow by helping users access short-term financing between paydays. And rather than charge fees, Dave users pay for the service on a “tip-based model.”

“The deliberate approach Dave has taken to empower greater financial strength and solve the pervasive financial pain point of overdraft fees is inspiring and exactly the kind of innovation MX loves to enable through its highly available and augmented data platform,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner explained.

Described as the finance version of David taking on the Goliath of the big banks, Dave was launched in 2016 by Paras Chitrakar, John Wolanin, and current CEO Jason Wilk. The app was named App of the Day at the Apple Store in the spring of 2017, and has been downloaded nearly 10 million times. In Forbes’ profile of the company last month, the authors noted that Dave had raised $13 million in funding, and estimated the company’s 2018 revenues at $19 million. Mark Cuban is among the company’s investors.

MX demonstrated its latest innovations at FinovateFall 2017, where it presented Discovered Accounts, a solution that helps financial institutions maximize the personalization opportunities that exist within transaction data. The company is a multiple time, Finovate Best of Show winner, having been honored by Finovate attendees six times since their Finovate debut in 2014 (as Money Desktop).

In June, MX announced a major funding, picking up $100 million in a round led by Battery Ventures. The additional capital took MX’s total financing to $175 million, and will help fuel product development and the hiring of what MX founder and CEO Ryan Caldwell called “the best talent in the industry.” He added, “We could have raised several times this amount, but we simply didn’t need the capital. We are disciplined in our spending and building for the long term.”

Dave is not the only partnership MX has forged this year. The company announced in May that it was teaming up with Meridian to make its Pulse personal financial wellness solution available to the credit union’s customers. Meridian is the largest credit union in Ontario, Canada, and the third largest in the country.

Also in May, MX partnered with fellow Finovate alum Kony, who will leverage MX’s PFM expertise to enhance its own digital banking experience product, Kony DBX.

Earning a 2019 Utah Genius award in April, Lehi, Utah-based MX has more than 2,000 financial institutions and 43 of the top 50 digital banking providers as partners. The company was founded in 2010.

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Agreement Express Partners with F1 Payments

Agreement Express Partners with F1 Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Agreement Express

Austin, Texas-based F1 Payments will leverage technology from Agreement Express to enhance its merchant underwriting and onboarding processes. Agreement Express’ client onboarding software platform, which the company demonstrated at FinovateFall 2016, will enable F1 Payments to automatically underwrite merchants in under 15 minutes, and offer them a seamless, digital alternative to the traditional onboarding experience. F1 will also benefit from Agreement Express’ enterprise-level APIs and integrations for secure connections to acquirers and proprietary systems.

F1 Payments President Chad Anselmo connected his company’s mission to accelerate the process for all participants in the business payments ecosystem with the decision to partner with Agreement Express. “Adding Agreement Express to our tech stack allows us to provide a unique, seamless and secure underwriting and onboarding experience for our clients and partners,” he said, “all of which results in increased levels of merchant acquisition and brand loyalty.”

“It was evident from our first conversations that F1 was hyper-focused on providing partners and customers a seamless, secure and efficient experience during the underwriting and onboarding process,” Agreement Express Senior Account Executive Brandon Yttri said. He praised the company’s “customer-centric approach to partnership” and called F1’s decision to select Agreement Express’ platform as “a concrete demonstration of (F1’s) dedication to providing relevant and innovative resources that fuel growth for clients and partners.”

A registered ISO of Fifth Third Bank in Cincinnati, Ohio, F1 Payments offers merchant processing, chargeback management, consulting, and other financial services. Founded in 2017, the firm leverages a diverse payments technology ecosystem to increase business velocity and provide frictionless connections for its clients and partners.

Headquartered in British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, Agreement Express’ partnership news comes just a month after the company reported that it was working with payments-as-a-service provider Zift to improve merchant underwriting and onboarding at the Spanish Fork, Utah-based firm. This spring, Agreement Express announced a collaboration with Paya Services that made the company’s check and ACH offerings available via the Agreement Express Unified Application.

Agreement Express began the year with a major C-suite onboarding of its own, appointing former Zywave CEO and founder Dave O’Brien as its new Chief Executive Officer. Mike Gardner, who founded the company in 2001 and had served as CEO, will transition into the role of Chief Strategy Officer, as well as continue to serve on the company’s board of directors.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Agreement Express, Currency Cloud, Liferay, MX, PayPal

On Finovate.com

  • Agreement Express Partners with F1 Payments.
  • MX Teams Up with Personal Finance Wellness App Dave.

Around the web

  • PayPal partners 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.
  • Liferay appoints 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.

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Scalable Capital Raises $28M

Scalable Capital Raises $28M
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Scalable Capital

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.

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Finicity Launches Student Loan Account Verification

Finicity Launches Student Loan Account Verification
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finicity

With more employers helping their employees repay their student loans these days, the launch of Finicity’s Student 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.

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Meet the Future of Fintech at FinovateFall Next Month in New York City

Meet the Future of Fintech at FinovateFall Next Month in New York City
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2019

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.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Finicity, Jack Henry, NICE Systems, Quadient, Scalable Capital, SplitIt, SuperMoney, Venmo

On Finovate.com

  • Scalable Capital Raises $28 Million.
  • Finicity Launches Student Loan Account Verification.

Around the web

  • Splitit announces partnership with music software provider Ableton.
  • Jack Henry reports partnerships with 57 community financial institutions in fiscal 2019.
  • Western Union deploys customer journey optimization solution, Nexidia, from Nice Systems.
  • Venmo launches instant transfers to bank accounts.
  • Quadient unveils new archived document and data retrieval solution.
  • Euromoney features BioCatch in its look at the fintech scene in Israel.
  • SuperMoney tops $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.

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