Lighter Capital Launches New Financing Options

Lighter Capital Launches New Financing Options
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Lighter Capital

Startup financing company Lighter Capital is broadening its horizons this week. The Seattle-based company announced it is now offering a more diverse set of financing options to fuel entrepreneurs with working capital.

Now, in addition to its flagship, revenue-based financing option that has provided $150 million to over 300 startups in more than 500 rounds of financing, Lighter Capital offers lines of credit and term loans. Similar to the revenue-based financing option, the Lighter Line of Credit and Lighter Term Loan are non-dilutive, meaning startups don’t have to give up equity, or offer board seats.

“Evaluating small startups and providing small loans requires a sophisticated technology platform and data science,” Lighter Capital CEO BJ Lackland told GeekWire. “Our fintech lending platform pulls in 6,500 data points through APIs, creates projections that are 97 percent accurate on average, and automates much of the funding process.”

The new offerings are called the Lighter Line of Credit and the Lighter Term Loan. The Lighter Line of Credit is a revolving working capital line that enables startups to draw and return capital numerous times to even out their cash needs. The Lighter Term Loan provides startups growth capital with predictable payments and offers them the right to get additional capital for a period of time.

The two new credit offerings are meant to complement revenue-based financing. Startups can combine all options for a total of $3 million.

Founded in 2010, Lighter Capital most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2013 where it showcased loan analysis and monitoring tools. Last year, the company launched a new Client Perks Program and increased its funding limit to $3 million.

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Credit Agricole Plans $17 Billion Tech Investment in Four Years

Credit Agricole Plans $17 Billion Tech Investment in Four Years
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Credit Agricole

Credit Agricole, the French bank for the agricultural sector, has allocated $16.9 billion (€15 billion) for technological transformation for “greater efficiency,” reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.

This capital will be invested over the next four years, aiming to achieve a data-centric architecture in 90% of the group by 2022, as well as $338 million (€300 million) “in increased IT efficiency.”

The group aims to have the totality of its IT staff trained in new technologies at the “new IT university.” This is part of the plan to retrain its staff to be able to handle the new technologies that the financial group aims to test and implement throughout its business lines.

A document issued by the bank says that “100% of emerging technologies” will be tested for new services. That’s right, all of them.

The bank forecasted a very slow level of profit growth for the next four years, as it faces low interest rates and a potential deterioration in its loan portfolio.

In its previous plan, Credit Agricole had targeted a 10% increase in net profit from 2016 until this year but managed to deliver that a year ahead of schedule. The bank reported a 25% profit increase over the two years to 2018.

The bank expects an annual net profit of roughly over $5.6 billion (€5 billion) in 2022, according to its report.

Founded in 1885, Credit Agricole demoed its in-house app store at FinovateEurope 2013.

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BanQu Closes Extension on Series A Round

BanQu Closes Extension on Series A Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BanQu, Funding

Blockchain-based identity startup BanQu announced it closed an extension of its Series A round today. The funds come from Anheuser-Busch InBev’s venture arm ZX Ventures. The amount of the funding was undisclosed but adds to the company’s previous funding total of $2.6 million.

“After BanQu’s outstanding pilot performance in our 100+ Accelerator, we are pleased to solidify the partnership with Ashish, Jeff, and the entire team at BanQu through an equity investment,” said Tony Milikin, Chief Sustainability and Procurement Officer at AB InBev. “Together, we are working to improve access to modern banking for thousands of farmers in underserved rural markets, driving inclusive growth and contributing to our own 2025 Sustainability Goal as well as the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.”

Minnesota-based BanQu won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2016 for its blockchain-as-a-service company that aims to lift people out of extreme poverty by connecting them with global supply chains, brands, organizations, and governments. The company connects the unbanked population to the global economy via a distributed ledger of financial and personal records using blockchain technology. Once users create a transaction history on the BanQu blockchain, they create a trackable personal history that serves as a form of identity, providing a baseline for them to participate in the global economy.

BanQu originally launched its partnership with AB InBev in August of last year after piloting its identity technology with 2,000+ cassava farmers in Zambia. Since then, the company has rolled out programs in Uganda and India, and is planning efforts in Brazil.

“ABInBev has been an incredible partner to BanQu over the past year, and together we have innovated and scaled the BanQu platform across multiple countries and thousands of farmers. Farmers at the world’s “last mile,” traditionally excluded from the global economy and lacking a verifiable economic identity, are now visible, financially empowered, and connected in the global supply chain of AB InBev,” said BanQu Co-Founder and CEO Ashish Gadnis. “The ZX investment takes this partnership to a whole new level of commitment on both sides. It cements our core shared vision of making the world a better place while being good business stewards.”

BanQu currently has operations across 12 countries including Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Malawi, Somalia, South Africa, Syria, Uganda, United States, and Zambia. The company has plans for additional rollouts in China and Mexico later this year.

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$468 Million Raised by 20 Alums in Q1 of 2019

$468 Million Raised by 20 Alums in Q1 of 2019
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

One of the big questions about first quarter funding for Finovate alums over the past few years asked: which is the truer barometer of the fintech funding environment: the post-election parsimony of Q1 2017 or the billion+ investment rebound of Q1 2018?

We now have our answer: Alums in the first quarter of 2019 racked in more than $468 million in funding. This figure more than doubles the Q1 2017 total, and represents financings from 20 companies that have demoed at our conferences in the past (both Finovate and FinDEVr). Q1 2019 totals are less than that of the previous two first quarters in 2016 and 2015, but on a “per alum funded” basis this year’s first quarter is comparable to all but 2018’s historic start.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q1 2018: $1.32 billion raised by 26 alums
  • Q1 2017: $230 million raised by 20 alums
  • Q1 2016: $656 million raised by 32 alums
  • Q1 2015: $680 million raised by 29 alums

Unlike some quarters in which overall totals are boosted by a single outsized investment (Credit Karma’s $500 million fundraising in Q1 of last year comes to mind), the first quarter investments for alums this year were in the moderate range. That said, adding up to $428 million, this quarter’s top 10 equity investments make up a sizable 91.5% of the quarter’s total funding.

Top 10 Equity Investments

  1. Stash: $65 million
  2. Tink: $63 million
  3. Coverhound: $58 million
  4. Nutmeg: $58 million
  5. Personal Capital: $50 million
  6. Mambu: $34 million
  7. Featurespace: $32.2 million
  8. Socure: $30 million
  9. SpyCloud: $21 million
  10. Zafin: $17.2 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q1 2019.

January: More than $111 million raised by five alums

February: More than $276 million raised by nine alums

March: More than $81 million raised by six alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the first quarter of 2019 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BanQu, BlueVine, Coinbase, Credit Agricole, Lighter Capital, Ping Identity, Plaid

On Finovate.com

  • $468 Million Raised by 20 Alums in Q1 of 2019
  • BanQu Closes Extension on Series A Round
  • Credit Agricole Plans $17 Billion Tech Investment in Four Years
  • Lighter Capital Launches New Financing Options

Around the web

  • Growjo names Coinbase, Plaid, and BlueVine fastest growing startups in California.
  • Ping Identity launches capabilities framework to help clients adopt a Zero Trust security strategy.
  • Sifted looks at Credit Karma’s entry into Europe.

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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OneSpan Unveils its Secure Agreement Automation Solution

OneSpan Unveils its Secure Agreement Automation Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: OneSpan, VASCO

The new Secure Agreement Automation cloud solution from OneSpan offers fully-digital account opening while fighting application fraud. Launched this week, the technology leverages open APIs to deliver identity verification, eSignature, workflow, and an end-to-end audit trail in a single account opening solution.

“The battle for banking consumers is being waged based on the quality of the digital experience, which demands both ease of use to reduce abandonment rates and strong security to lessen account fraud,” OneSpan CEO Scott Clements explained. “Secure Agreement Automation represents the fulfillment of OneSpan’s promise to help financial institutions reduce costs and increase growth by establishing trusted identities, devices, and transactions throughout the customer journey.”

The cloud-based solution automates new customer acquisition, identifying qualified customers by running applications through its identity verification hub. This hub relies on credit checks, multifactor authentication, and biometric tools like facial recognition to limit false positives and customer abandonment. The connection to OneSpan’s Trusted Identity (TID) platform means FIs can add capabilities like risk analytics and intelligent adaptive authentication.

Aite Group Fraud and AML practice Research Director Julie Conroy called OneSpan’s Secure Agreement Automation offering part of a “win-win” set of solutions that companies are providing to banks to make customer onboarding faster and more secure. “Even as application fraud attacks continue to escalate, research shows that improving the customer experience continues to be the number one drive of business cases as financial institutions invest in new account onboarding solutions,” Conroy said.

With 10,000+ customers, including more than half of the top 100 global banks, OneSpan rebranded from VASCO back in May of last year. As VASCO, the company participated in FinovateFall 2017, demoing digital lending and document management technology from its recent acquisition eSignLive.

Last month, OneSpan picked up the 2019 Global Customer Value Leadership Award from Frost & Sullivan for its Intelligent Adaptive Authentication solution. Also in May, the company announced that the largest community bank in the Washington, D.C. metro area, EagleBank, had deployed OneSpan’s mobile authentication technology. Other 2019 partnerships for the company include collaborations with United Bulgarian Bank and cloud portal ezidox.

Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, OneSpan is a publicly-traded company on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker OSPN. The company has a market capitalization of $557 million.

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Workfusion Brings Robotic Process Automation Global with New Partnership

Workfusion Brings Robotic Process Automation Global with New Partnership
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: WorkFusion

Robotic process automation (RPA) specialist WorkFusion partnered with NEC Corporation this week to bring AI-fueled RPA to global markets.

Through the partnership, NEC will become a reseller of WorkFusion solutions around the world, starting with its home territory of Japan. The timing for the launch of WorkFusion’s RPA tools in Japan aligns with the country’s recent work reform legislation. In April, Japan implemented a reform designed to help improve employee well-being and productivity. Because of this, many firms are turning to automation and AI to minimize the amount of time workers spend doing repetitive work.

“We designed our platform with intelligence and analytics at the core, which allows businesses to overcome the challenges faced not only with manual repetitive work but with legacy RPA technologies, and deliver true business value,” said WorkFusion CEO Alex Lyashok. “We’re thrilled to work hand in hand with NEC to help businesses in Japan and throughout the world experience the transformative power of AI-driven RPA as they work to adapt to a changing workforce.”

As a part of the deal, WorkFusion worked with NEC to create cognitive bots that facilitate specific finance and accounting processes unique to Japan. The two taught WorkFusion’s Intelligent Automation Cloud software a wide range of business tasks. The software leveraged machine learning to become familiar with a wide range of tasks, and eventually began to independently carry out more tasks on its own.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in New York, WorkFusion has a mission to help firms deal with the rapid rise of AI by reducing the complexity of the technology. The company helps customers exploit the AI opportunity by leveraging products that pair people with the power of robotic software. Specifically, use cases for WorkFusion’s AI-powered RPA include creating a more efficient account opening process, increasing loan booking accuracy, and automating rule-based processes in trade finance.

At FinovateFall 2014 WorkFusion demoed Active Learning Automation in New York. In April of this year the company unveiled its new AI-powered Intelligent Automation Cloud, along with a go-live program, to help companies automate operations beyond RPA or other existing technologies.

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Trulioo Teams with Refinitiv for Financial Inclusion

Trulioo Teams with Refinitiv for Financial Inclusion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Trulioo

Identity verification company Trulioo announced this week it will be promoting financial inclusion across the globe via a new partnership with financial market data provider Refinitiv.

The two are hoping to foster financial inclusion by promoting access to digital identity solutions. By combining Trulioo’s GlobalGateway solution with Refinitiv’s risk intelligence, banks can verify billions of customers online while remaining compliant with AML and KYC regulations and ultimately reduce fraud.

“The combination of Refinitiv’s trusted data and compliance expertise and Trulioo’s identity verification capabilities and global coverage, will bring modernized KYC processes to thousands of financial institutions around the world, and in turn, help millions of underbanked gain access to the financial services they deserve,” said Stephen Ufford, CEO of Trulioo. “Both organizations share a common mission of supporting financial inclusion through the power of world-class data and technology.”

Trulioo’s GlobalGateway maintains information on more than 5 billion people. Combined with Trulioo’s Digital Identity Network, the GlobalGateway database enables organizations to run identity verification checks on a wide range of the global population.

Founded in 2011, Trulioo leverages 400 data sources to offer verification of 4.5 billion personal identities and 250 businesses in 80+ countries. The Canada-based company also offers a data exchange platform that allows data partners to provide access to consumer data for electronic identity verification purposes, allowing them to set bid prices for electronic ID verification on a region-by-region basis.

At FinovateSpring 2019, Trulioo’s Head of Growth, Anatoly Kvitnitsky, demonstrated GlobalGateway’s instant onboarding with EmbedID. EmbedID enables businesses to query Trulioo’s GlobalGateway API to instantly verify customers in multiple markets by embedding a snippet of code to their website.

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Mastercard’s Mobile Payments Service Pay by Bank Teams up with Yoyo

Mastercard’s Mobile Payments Service Pay by Bank Teams up with Yoyo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: MasterCard, Yoyo

A new partnership between U.K.-based payment and loyalty marketing platform Yoyo and Mastercard’s mobile payment service, Pay by Bank (PbBa), will bring a new, secure and fast payment option – and merchant-specific, personalized rewards – to high street retail.

The new offering is expected for later in the year for both retail and bank customers. It will enable users to make transactions using Pay by Bank in physical stores, and earn retail specific loyalty, rewards, and other personalized offers.

“We are delighted to be working with Mastercard and Pay by Bank app,” Yoyo CEO Michael Rolph said. “We’ve always believed that adding both security and value to the payments process is crucial for the future of bricks and mortar retail, and this partnership is going to significantly enhance the customer experience for PbBa users.”

Pay by Bank was developed by Mastercard’s Vocalink division and enables consumers to make payments from their bank account via their mobile banking app without requiring additional password verification. Launched in 2016, the app offers bank grade security which, combined with Yoyo’s double tokenization technology, keeps payment data and user identity protected.

“The combined Yoyo and Pay by Bank app proposition will provide both customers and retailers with added speed and security at the point of sale,” Rolph said, “as well as an omnichannel payment and loyalty experience that is unrivaled in the market.”

With more than 1.5 million users – including 750,000+ active monthly users – and processing three million transactions a month, Yoyo demonstrated its retailer-specific bank card loyalty offering at FinovateEurope earlier this year. Just a few weeks ago the company announced that former Mastercard executive David Yates would join Yoyo as chairman.

In April, the company partnered with PAUL UK to help the French bakery launch its first mobile payments and loyalty app. Yoyo began 2019 teaming up with SOHO Coffee to build a payments and loyalty solution for the artisan coffee chain.

Founded in 2013, Yoyo has raised $60.3 million in funding. SOSV and Hard Yaka are among the company’s investors.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bpm'online, Digital Onboarding, Featurespace, Gremln, INSIDE Secure, iProov, Jumio, MasterCard, Neener Analytics, OneSpan, SplitIt, Trulioo, Voleo, wipro, WorkFusion, Yoyo

On Finovate.com

  • Mastercard’s Mobile Payment Service Pay by Bank Teams Up with Yoyo.
  • Trulioo Teams with Refinitiv for Financial Inclusion.
  • Workfusion Brings Robotic Process Automation Global with New Partnership.
  • OneSpan Unveils its Secure Agreement Automation Solution.

Around the web

  • Splitit (formerly PayItSimple) announces partnership with Hong Kong-based EFTPay.
  • bpm’online launches its new tool for collaborative process design, bpm’online Studio Free.
  • Wipro to acquire digital engineering and manufacturing solutions firm, International TechneGroup Inc. (ITI).
  • Business Cloud UK interviews Andrew Bud, CEO and founder of Best of Show winner, iProov.
  • Four Finovate alums – Digital Onboarding, Gremlin Social, Voleo, and Neener Analytics – earn spots in the fourth Venture Center FinTech Accelerator program sponsored by Fidelity Information Services.
  • Inside Secure ships Whitebox Designer, a new software security tool.
  • Featurespace to power transaction monitoring for Permanent TSB.
  • Jumio wins the 2019 Fortress Cyber Security Award for Authentication and Identity from the Business Intelligence Group.

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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Linxo Launches Real-Time Payment Card

Linxo Launches Real-Time Payment Card
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: linxo

Personal finance startup Linxo is launching its first payment card. The new, Visa-branded card will be available starting next year.

Linxo is positioning the card as a “real-time” payment card. This means that consumers will see instant notifications after they make a payment. Users will be able to manage their budget in real-time, since the expense will be immediately visible in the app.

“We are seeing users’ practices evolving quickly in two strong directions: firstly, the requirement for a very good user experience, and, secondly, the introduction of real-time as a new payment standard,” said Bruno Van Haetsdaele, Linxo cofounder. “So, we thought to ourselves: how can we offer the best money management experience and the best payment experience?”

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in France, Linxo offers its 2.8 million users a personal financial management app that aggregates all of their spending information across accounts. The app not only allows users to view and analyze their spending, it also helps them manage their finances by enabling them to transfer funds without logging into their bank account.

Linxo’s app will work in tandem with the new payment card by categorizing and monitoring expenses, offering a view of all the user’s accounts, and providing a budget forecast that predicts the user’s future balance based on their current spending. Some features, such as the budget forecast, are only available with Linxo Premium, a service available for $34 (€29.99) or $5 (€4.49) per month.

In addition to teaming up with Visa, Linxo is partnering with Natixis Payments, which will help the company build out the payment management system. Linxo selected Natixis Payments because it can help the company move the new payment card to market quickly. “We were attracted by the state-of-the-art offer and rapidity provided by the Xpollens solution which allows for the creation of a first card and payment account in just 100 days,” explained Van Haetsdaele. “On this basis, we can then co-build the best money and payment management mobile solution directly with our users. Our aim is to focus on our expertise: creating the best user experience.”

Van Haetsdaele demoed Linxo at the first FinovateEurope conference, which was held in 2011. The company has received a total of $26.2 million in funding, most recently in a 2017 venture round.

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The Newest Trends in Middle Eastern Fintech

The Newest Trends in Middle Eastern Fintech
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: accelerator

There are two great ways to get a sense of the newest regional trends in Middle Eastern fintech: 1) attend industry conferences 2) talk to accelerators. We’re 100% up-to-date on the first piece (FinovateMiddleEast is taking place November 20 and 21 in Dubai). And as far as accelerators go, we recently caught up with one of the newest fintech accelerators in the region, the DIFC FinTech Hive, to get a sense of the local fintech trends.

The Fintech Hive recently clued us in on what trends its mentorship partners in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia are currently interested in. The following are the top categories:

  • Credit scoring
  • Customer acquisition
  • Onboarding
  • Security
  • Data analytics

Additionally, the mentorship partners want to focus on insurtech-specific trends, including:

  • Data aggregation
  • Connectivity
  • Customer journey

This list comes from the accelerator’s 21 mentorship partners, which include financial institutions, insurance firms, and strategic partners. Specifically, the group’s partners include Finablr, Standard Chartered, Visa, AXA Gulf, AIG, Cigna Insurance Middle East S.A.L., and MetLife.

If you’re a startup interested in participating in the DIFC Fintech Hive accelerator, be sure to submit your application by June 10 for the next three-month program, which begins this September.

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