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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
VymoReels in $18 Million for its Intelligent Sales Assistant.
Around the web
Deal sealed: Fiservcompletes acquisition of First Data.
Visaannounces strategic partnership with SME banking service Open.
eToroenables retail customers to invest in drone technology via its latest portfolio.
iGTB to enhance trade finance operations for two Raiffeisen banks, Niederosterreich-Wien and Landesbank Steiermark.
CREALOGIX to power new consumer digital investment platform from MeDirect Group.
JP Morgan Chase ends loan origination partnership with OnDeck.
ThetaRaybrings on Idan Keret as Chief Customer Success Officer.
GreenDotoffers customers 3% cash back on online and in-app purchases and a savings account paying 3% APY.
Fintech Finance interviews Olga Feldmeier, Smart Valor CEO.
Redrock Biometricssecures a perfect score in Level 1 Presentation Attack Detection confirmation testing by iBeta.
SpyCloudexpands into Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
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’re excited to announce that Finovate is offering pitch sessions exclusively for early-stage startups! This is a brand new initiative from Finovate, and we’re seeking cutting-edge companies focusing in AI or Wealth Management for 3 minute pitches at FinovateFall’s Summit Day.
For less than the price of a single ticket, seed-stage startups will receive a three minute pitch on stage, a dedicated space at the Startup Pitch Bar, access to our powerful networking app, and a ticket to attend the full conference. In order to qualify, companies must be a pre-seed fintech with less than $100k in annual revenue and less than $1M in total funding.
Finovate has always been a powerful platform for promoting new financial technology innovations, and we want to make sure that our show remains accessible for the new companies that represent the bleeding-edge of the industry. We expect startup pitch slots to fill up fast so act now if you want to get involved! Visit our website for more information, or email [email protected].
A new partnership between Splitit and payment service GHL ePayments will make Splitit’s installment payment solution available to more than 2,000 online merchants in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The deal will allow GHL to offer Splitit’s installment payment option to its customers, and enable Splitit to grow its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, according to company CEO and co-founder Gil Don.
“We are delighted to offer GHL merchants a simple way to boost sales and improve customer satisfaction by offering interest-free installments at the checkout,” Don said. “Splitit’s payment solution is a highly effective way for merchants to ease eager travelers’ budget woes, while increasing brand loyalty for merchants.”
Splitit enables consumers to divide the cost of online purchases into no interest, no fee monthly installments. Consumers can use their existing debit or credit card to make purchases from participating online merchants, choose the Splitit option, and receive instant approvals. The company notes that merchants have seen an 11% decrease in cart abandonment, a 12% increase in sales, and an 80% increase in average order value (AOV) after deploying the technology.
Danny Leong, Group CEO of GHL Systems Berhad, praised Splitit as a unique addition to the suite of solutions GHL provides to its merchant partners. “Splitit’s non-lending offering is unlike any other payment player’s and we believe this partnership will help us continue our growth as ASEAN’s trusted payment experts,” Leong said. One of the major merchant acquirers in the ASEAN region, GHL processes more than $241 million ($350 million AUD) in total online and offline transaction value each month across its merchant network. The firm manages more than 368,000 point of sales in Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, and Australia.
Making its Finovate debut as PayItSimple in 2014 at FinovateFall, the company rebranded as Splitit a year later as part of an emphasis on serving “all members of the credit card payment ecosystem.” More recently, the company partnered with EFTPay to bring its installment payment option to merchants in Hong Kong and Macau, and teamed up with Australian retailer Kogan. Splitit also bolstered its executive ranks this summer, adding former Intuit and PayPal executive Brad Paterson to lead its North American operations.
Based in New York City, Splitit announced a post IPO equity round in May, raising $20.7 million ($30 million AUD). The funding followed the company’s successful IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange at the beginning of the year. Trading under the ticker SPT, Splitit has a market capitalization of $200 million.
New Zealand bank TSB has gone live with TemenosInfinity for online account opening and onboarding in just nine weeks, reports Sharon Kimathi of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
Included in the short implementation period was an API-based connectivity for workflow integration directly with TSB’s existing Microsoft Dynamics’ client relationship management (CRM) system.
It now provides applicants with the option to “save and resume,” returning to an application later, on any channel, without the need to start over.
Hamish Archer, TSB general manager – technology said: “We want more Kiwis to experience our world-class service, so we’re excited to use technologies like this which work seamlessly alongside our people, who genuinely care about doing the best for our customers.”
Martin Frick, managing director – APAC, Temenos, said: “We are delighted that TSB has chosen Temenos to power its growth, and that they are already starting to see results from the implementation.”
Since going live, Temenos Infinity has shortened the time needed to complete customer applications and insert the completed digital application directly into the TSB back office process.
Temenos was founded 1993, and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The company demonstrated its Connect Mobile Banking solution at FinovateEurope 2015. Later that year, the company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, presenting its B2B Financial Apps Marketplace.
Nvstrearns a spot in the Financial Venture Studio’s incoming cohort.
CREALOGIXintroduces new Chief Financial Officer Daniel Bader.
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.
Cross-border remittance startup Paysend has received a money transfer of its own this week. The London-based company landed $10.6 million (£8.5 million) in Series B funding, bringing its total raised to $30.7 million.
There’s no word on an updated valuation but before today’s round, the company was valued at $155 million.
The investment comes courtesy of GVA, which contributed almost $5 million (£3.95 million), as well as a Seedrs crowdfunding campaign that brought in $5.6 million (£4.6 million). Launched last month, the Seedrs campaign garnered contributions from investors, including Plug and Play and Digital Space Ventures, which co-led the round.
Regarding company’s decision to crowdfund the round, Paysend CEO Ronald Millar said, “This funding round has been the next step in our journey to create money for the future, and we’ve been delighted that we’ve been about to open it up to our customers in order to give them the opportunity to join us on the exciting next phase of the Paysend journey.”
Paysend, which demonstrated its Global Account at FinovateSpring 2018, competes with the likes of Transferwise and CurrencyFair to help users request money from 50 countries and send money across 70 countries. On a monthly basis, the company facilitates more than 2 million transactions totaling $55 million for its 900,000 users.
The company recently releasedPays XDR, its own digital currency. Pays XDR is a stable coin backed by cash reserves, matched to the proportion of the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights.
Adding to its already busy year, in May Paysend launchedPaysend Link, an app that allows users to send money to anyone with just their phone number. Fund recipients can immediately transfer payments they receive to their Mastercard, Visa, or UnionPay card. The money is immediately available to use or to withdraw.
Unveiled this week, the latest version of ID R&D’s voice solution, IDVoice, leverages AI and voice technology to give users a major boost in biometric matching speed and an enhanced, multi-channel onboarding and authentication process.
“As enterprises migrate to conversational interfaces through mobile, web, and call center applications, a strong cross-channel voice authentication capability is essential,” ID R&D Chief Science Officer Konstantin Simonchik said. “With IDVoice v2.7, we are making it much easier and more efficient for enterprises to deploy voice biometrics consistently on all channels using the programming tools they prefer.”
IDVoice enables enterprises to execute on their omni-channel voice biometric strategy, while avoiding the drawbacks common to many other voice biometric solutions. With IDVoice, for example, developers can account for different channels without requiring separate enrollments for each channel (i.e., mobile, web app, call center, etc.). This is made possible by the platform’s biometric engine architecture which is channel, language, and age variance agnostic, as well as being resistant to environmental noise.
Other enhancements to the technology improve its ability to detect voice activity and add a 10x speed improvement to a critical platform algorithm. Together these improvements ensure that IDVoice provides higher quality and faster onboarding and verification, saving time and improving the user experience. Opus Research founder and lead analyst Dan Miller referred to the technology as offering a “zero-effort authentication process (that is) fast becoming a necessity for businesses with customers who reach out across multiple devices and channels.”
The launch of the latest version of IDVoice comes just days after ID R&D announced that sound recognition technology specialist Wavio would integrate ID R&D’s AI and machine learning acoustic detection functionality into its sound recognition solution, SoundAI.
“Wavio was highly impressed when we tested ID R&D’s software, and after learning more about ID R&D’s deep research and knowledge of voice, audio processing, and the very latest in artificial intelligence methods, we were convinced that ID R&D is the right partner to help us fulfill our mission,” Wavio CEO Greyson Watkins said.
ID R&D demonstratedSafeChat, its frictionless, continuous authentication for remote logins and conversational interfaces, at FinovateFall 2018. The technology provides authentication by leveraging a combination of biometric inputs that are available through the normal interactions between users and the device. This enables the solution to verify the identity of users without requiring them to do anything specific to authenticate. ID R&D noted that the technology brings a biometrically-secured, Alexa-like experience to mobile, conversational, and IoT platforms.
Founded in 2016, ID R&D is headquartered in New York City. The company has raised $5.7 million in funding from investors including GSR Ventures and Gagarin Capital Partners. Alexey Khitrov is CEO.
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.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Mexican fintech Prestanómica raises $300,000 in Series A funding.
TechCrunch profiles Dataplor, a company that indexes microbusinesses in emerging markets, as it announces a $2 million funding ahead of its planned expansion to Chile, Peru, and Colombia.
Mexican crypto exchange Bitso becomes the first Latin American fintech to earn an international cryptocurrency license.
Asia-Pacific
UnionBank successfully pilots blockchain-based cross-border remittance solution from the Philippines to Singapore.
Singapore-based fintech soCash secures $6 million in Series B funding.
The first cross-border mobile payment alliance in Asia, Singtel’s VIA, goes live in Japan.
Sub-Saharan Africa
EY reaches agreement with Open Banking Nigeria to develop a standard API for financial services companies in the country.
Kenya’s KeshoLabs launches its payments and remittances platform, Pesabase.
African telecom Africell pledges to spend “part” of $100 million line of credit from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation on expanding infrastructure and fintech services.
Central and Eastern Europe
Vienna, Austria-based Bitpanda announces it has topped one million users on its trading platform.
Fintech Futures takes a look at Lithuania’s efforts to attract more fintechs to the country.
Moscow Department of Information Technology launches initiative to ease access to billpay, internet banking, and other services via unified city ID.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Egyptian fintech XPay raises $250,000 in pre-seed funding.
M-Gurush, the first mobile money service in South Sudan, goes live.
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) signs Memorandum of Understanding with OneConnect Financial Technology.
Central and Southern Asia
In partnership with National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Indian banks, JCB International has launched its first branded card in India.
India-based, cloud banking and enterprise payments platform Zeta locks in Series C funding that boosts the company’s valuation to $300 million.
Indian B2B payments firm PayMate closes Series D round.
PassTime partners with masterQueue to help locate and contact customers for debt collection.
Five Degrees is selected to join the Kickstart innovation program.
Voleo, Neener Analytics, Gremln Social, and Digital Onboarding all successfully complete 2019 FIS Fintech Accelerator program.
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.
Betterment knows its clients are smart when it comes to saving for their futures. And with that well-established, financially savvy client base, the company launched a checking and savings platform this week.
The new platform is called Betterment Everyday (because what’s better than a user base that logs in every day?) and is aimed to help the company’s clients better manage their money today so that they can maximize earnings for the future.
Betterment Everyday offers savings and checking accounts, with customer deposits held at partner banks including Citi, Barclays, and Valley National. The savings accounts, available today, can earn up to 2.69% APY until the end of this year, after which will drop to 2.43% and be subject to change.
The checking product will be available later this year and comes with benefits typical of online-only banks. Users will receive a debit card issued by nbkc bank of Overland Park, Kansas, will be reimbursed for all ATM fees worldwide, will not be charged monthly maintenance fees, and do not need to maintain a minimum balance.
“As we launch Betterment Everyday, we’re starting to bring our role as your financial advisor into your everyday life, turning your daily choices and transactions into saving for the future,” said Betterment CEO Jon Stein in a blog post. “We’re building the framework for where we believe the industry can (and should) move. We believe the future is smart money management, and we’re leading the way.”
In addition to attracting new clients and refocusing existing users, the new account offerings also serve to compete with fintechs that have launched similar products in recent months. Wealthfront, SoFi, which offer high interest savings accounts boasting yields of 2.57% and 2.25%, respectively, and Acorns, which offers a debit card for a fee of $3 per month.
Last year Robinhood launched a checking account that boasted a 3% interest rate, but quietly rescinded the product after regulators from the SEC and SIPC cited lack of regulatory oversight. The startup had not consulted regulators before the proposed launch and is now working on a new version of the checking account. Today, Betterment may be in a similar situation. The company did consult regulators before this week’s launch, but, according to CNBC, has been asked to provide more information on the new offering.
Betterment CEO Jon Stein debuted the company’s MultipleGoals feature at FinovateFall 2011. Since it was founded in 2008, the company has raised a total of $275 million. Last fall, Betterment unveiled a Trust Account Opening feature that allows advisors to manage the entire process. And this year, the company was honored on the Forbes Fintech 50 list for the 4th year in a row.
Personalized software-as-a-service innovator BlueRushunveiled a new distribution partnership designed to drive further market penetration of its Best of Show winning IndiVideo platform. BlueRush’s partner, Nikia Dx, will promote the company’s solution over its client network of insurers, financial service providers, and utility companies.
“We are delighted to partner with Nikia Dx to access their strong pipeline of market opportunities,” BlueRush CEO Steve Taylor said. He highlighted personalized video bills and financial statements as technologies that many companies are exploring, and noted that BlueRush’s platform was well-positioned to enable these initiatives. “Since these documents are sent in such high volumes, and IndiVideo is highly scalable,” Taylor said, “there is significant opportunity to add personalized videos to increase loyalty, engagement, retention, and investment in products or services, while capturing valuable data-driven insights.”
IndiVideo integrates readily into existing marketing infrastructure to accelerate and enhance the customer journey. The platform leverages predictive analytics and customer data to produce intelligent, personalized videos that are rendered locally on the viewer’s device. This boosts the technology’s scalability and avoids per render fees. The solution also captures customer interactions with the videos to enable it to better analyze data and understand customer preferences over time.
“We are focused on realizing the promise of customer engagement for our clients through disruptive digital solutions,” Nikia DX CEO Phil Santoni said. “Our team has been effectively delivering strategic transformation solutions in every business sector, unlocking assets and creating business value for our clients, for more than 30 years. We see exciting market opportunities for BlueRush’s IndiVideo platform.”
Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based BlueRush demonstrated IndiVideo at FinovateSpring earlier this year, winning a Best of Show award. Last month, the company announced that its platform had surpassed $100,000 in committed monthly recurring revenue. In April, BlueRush and its Chilean partner Kunder wonBest Financial Services Online Video at the 2019 Internet Advertising Competition awards. Also this spring, the company partnered with Bee Concept to help a large Colombian bank deploy the IndiVideo platform to boost the rate of mortgage sign-ups.
A handful of Finovate alums were among those earning top honors at the second annual PayTech Awards earlier this month. In categories ranging from e-commerce to real-time payments, four Finovate alums won commendations for their contributions to “excellence and innovation in the payments industry.” Another trio of alums took home “Highly Commended” runner’s up recognition.
We’ve listed those honored alums below along with the categories they competed in and a link to their most recent Finovate/FinDEVr conference demo video.
The PayTech Awards consists of three categories: Judged Awards, Leadership Awards, and Ovum Payments Innovation Awards. In addition to those alums that won their categories – or earned Highly Commended honors – a few Finovate/FinDEVr alums were also short-listed ahead of the final votes. These companies – along with their category and most recent Finovate/FinDEVr video – are below:
