This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Take a look back on the latest FinTech Futures and Finovate webinar, Digital, Data and Disinformation: Modern Banking with Jon Deutsch, from Information Builders; and Dave Birch, Global Ambassador at Consult Hyperion.
Technology and increasing competition have rendered the financial services sector very much under pressure. Banking is not what it used to be, and it’s becoming clear that new players are appearing by the minute, who will take a seemingly marginal share.
However, these changes are not as bad as they seem. If we focus on the potential of fintech disintermediation, digital transformation, and data proliferation, it’s easy to see that the industry is ripe for disruption.
Future growth and success belong to those institutions who align on strategy to marshal these forces to build and retain market share through superior products, service, and customer outcomes.
Banking and financial services industry leaders must now look to push the boundaries of innovation even further and question exactly how the implementation of emerging technology enablers can help them to truly redefine the customer experience.I
This week marks the official launch of SparkPost Signals, the data-powered predictive email intelligence solution from Columbia, Maryland-based Finovate newcomer, SparkPost. The company announced earlier this week that its platform, which helps users gain 4x higher engagement while sending 70% less email, is now available via the SparkPost Cloud, as well as to customers using SparkPost’s Momentum and PowerMTA on-premises email delivery platforms.
“Current email analytics products sit outside the delivery process and don’t have access to ISP behavior and industry-wide sending data, two factors that are essential for finding delivery problems before they occur,” SparkPost CEO Rich Harris explained. In contrast, SparkPost’s technology is designed to predict email delivery problems and offer actionable remedies before the damage is done.
Signals leverages its massive email data footprint (the company sends 37% of the world’s business email) and machine learning to monitor dozens of key email engagement and delivery metrics and provide users with an email Health Score. The technology uses the Health Score to predict potential issues and problems with email engagement or delivery, and also provides peer analysis against other senders who match the user’s profile. Users can set up alerts to have the platform notify them in the event of changes to their Health Score.
In a blog post, the company teased “Health Score V2 (Coming Soon)” which they referred to as having “a wider set of features … for 50% greater accuracy.” The update is expected “over the next two months.”
Other platform features include Spam Tram Reporting, which uses visibility into the largest commercial and non-commercial spam trap networks to help senders identify and fix any issues before they cause major problems. Signals also includes Engagement Insights. This feature helps senders leverage data to better understand how different subgroups within a recipient pool are responding to specific email campaigns.
Founded in 2008, SparkPost made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019 earlier this month. Video of the company’s live demonstration at the event will be available soon.
SparkPost began the year with an announcement that it had forged a strategic partnership with cloud communications platform, MessageBird. With more than $93 million in funding, the company includes Hercules Capital, LLR Partners, and NewSpring Capital among its investors.
Digital transformation expert Fintech OSlanded $1.2 million (€1.1 million) in a post-seed investment round this week. The round, which brings the company’s total funding to $3 million (€2.7 million), was led by GapMinder VC. LAUNCHub Ventures, Gecad Ventures, and private investors also contributed.
Fintech OS will use the funds to expand its international presence. “This new investment round allows us to quickly deploy commercial teams in three strategic territories: U.K., Benelux and DACH,” said Teodor Blidăruş, FintechOS CEO. “Meanwhile, we’re going ahead full-throttle to further integrate AI technology within the FintechOS platform, because intelligent processing of massive amounts of data and quick customization of financial instruments are critical components for the whole financial industry.”
Founded in 2014, Fintech OS helps banks launch new technologies by offering them low-code solutions that facilitate fast and inexpensive deployment of new products and services. At FinovateEurope 2018, Blidăruş demoed how the company uses AI to facilitate financial services companies’ digital transformation.
By the end of this year, the company plans to have secured $9 million to $11.2 million (€8 million to €10 million) in Series A funding. Also in 2019, the company anticipates expanding its workforce to 70 employees and plans to see over 4X year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue from licenses. Additionally, Blidăruş said, Fintech OS will be “announcing a technological revolution” in the third quarter of 2019.
Data services company Neustar has joined forces with TELUS this week to fight caller ID spoofing. The Canadian telecommunications company recently finalized a test of Neustar’s Certified Caller software suite.
The trial was done per the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) mandate that telecommunications service providers deploy caller ID authentication and verification for voice over internet (VoIP) calls to reduce illegal caller ID spoofing. TELUS tested Neustar’s Certified Caller in its NFV lab environment using the STIR/SHAKEN protocol.
STIR, which stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited, is a set of technical standards to certify the identity of originating calls. SHAKEN, which stands for Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs, is a framework that focuses on implementing STIR within IP-based service provider networks. The industry sees STIR/SHAKEN as the most feasible measure of trust in the phone number and name displayed during an incoming call.
“We fully support the adoption of STIR/SHAKEN as a means to restore trust in calls,” said Neustar General Manager and Vice President of Caller ID Solutions James Garvert. “Neustar’s Certified Caller is a full STIR/SHAKEN solution that enables service providers to meet the standards to authenticate and verify the caller telephone identity between originating and terminating carriers and detect and warn subscribers of spoofing.”
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Virginia, Neustar combines identity and data to offer businesses a range of marketing, risk, communications, security, and registry services. Among the company’s clients are Google, Tesco, Ticketmaster, Allstate, and Pinterest.
Neustar demoed its marketing solution at FinovateSpring 2016. Earlier this year, the company acquired fraud solutions provider TrustID. Neustar is a public company, listed on the NYSE under the ticker “NSR.” The company has a market capitalization of $1.87 billion. Charles Gottdiener is president and CEO.
Personetics is leveraging its success in developing AI-enabled consumer banking solutions to help small businesses better manage their day-to-day banking affairs. The tool is geared toward the small business owners who cite a “lack of tools that fit their needs” as the primary challenge to banking digitally. Personetics’ integrates the solution into the bank’s online and mobile channels to give SMEs deeper insight into cash flow and liquidity.
“The small business solution is a result of our work with banks around the globe to address the shifting expectations of business customers as they become more digital-savvy,” Personetics co-founder and CEO David Sosna explained. “Banks that act on these emerging needs have an opportunity to turn online and mobile banking into the go-to places for businesses to manage their day-to-day finances and stay ahead of the rapidly evolving needs of their small business customers.”
Personetics’ new solution proactively identifies potential issues in payments and receivables, anticipates future cashflow, and offers relevant financing options to help users reach liquidity and growth objectives. Additionally, the technology leverages bank and accounting information to give users a comprehensive overview of both financial planning and actual activity.
The company’s announcement is the latest sign of Personetics’ determination to bring AI-enabled personalization solutions to more financial institutions. In March, Personetics teamed up with fellow Finovate alum MX in a technology partnership designed to help FIs translate data into actionable insights.
Also this spring, Personetics partner BGL BNP Paribas, one of the largest banks in Luxembourg, launched its personalized, intelligent digital assistant, Genius. The AI-powered solution, which the bank said was “developed in close collaboration with the fintech Personetics,” encourages financial wellness by providing information on user spending, analyzing cash flow for unusual transactions or other issues, and offering tips on better banking.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Personetics demonstrated its Personetics Anywhere chatbot solution at FinovateFall 2016. The company works with six of the top 12 banks in North America and Europe, and serves more than 60 million customers around the world.
Personetics has raised more than $18 million in funding from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital Israel, and Viola Ventures. The company announced an investment of an undisclosed amount from United Overseas Bank last summer.
Hot on the heels of its Finovate debut earlier this month, blockchain-based data security platform ALTR has teamed up with digital banking solutions provider Q2 to unveil a new solution to improve data security.
The new technology, Q2 TrustView, powered by ALTR, adds to Q2’s approach to data management and protection by mitigating security breaches in real time. The solution protects critical data by fragmenting personally identifiable information (PII) across a private, low-latency blockchain, and makes data-at-rest unusable to unauthorized parties. Q2 TrustView powered by ALTR also gives authorized users a comprehensive insight into who accesses sensitive information, as well as data on when and how frequently that data is accessed.
“Great financial experiences are built on a foundational confidence and trust that an account holder’s data will be protected,” Q2 CTO Adam Blue said. “With Q2 TrustView, we are strengthening our data management approach to ensure that protections are in place for our customers and their users at every step of the data journey.”
ALTR CEO Dave Sikora praised Q2’s leadership in a “highly-regulated industry,” and said it was a “powerful validation of the confidence (that) banking and lending institutions” have in his company’s technology. He added, “Data is critical to these institutions, and the integration of ALTR’s smart driver and blockchain technologies into Q2 TrustView reinforces Q2’s approach to data security, privacy, and governance by implementing a critical human error countermeasure.”
Founded in 2004, Q2 demonstrated its Biller Direct solution at FinovateSpring 2018. Biller Direct enables consumers to aggregate their bills and pay them via credit or debit card. The solution both improves the billpay experience for consumers and gives financial institutions the opportunity to earn interchange revenue in the process.
We highlighted Q2 earlier this year in our look at how banks can compete with the new credit card from Apple. The company closed out 2018 with the acquisition of fellow Finovate alum, Gro Solutions.
Making its Finovate debut less than a month ago at FinovateSpring, Austin, Texas-based ALTR was founded in 2014 to help businesses leverage blockchain technology to change the way data is monitored, accessed, and stored. The company announced in April that its technology had earned Level 1 Service Provider accreditation for the latest version of the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard). In February, ALTR partnered with IT solutions integrator Sirius Computer Solutions to provide its blockchain-based data security as a managed service.
Named one of Built in Austin’s 50 Startups to Watch in 2019, ALTR has raised $15 million in funding.
If you had to draw fintech, what would it look like? For our audience at FinovateSpring last week, it might look similar to the illustrations below.
Check out sketches that cover the highlights from 10 sessions at last week’s show (there’s a lot to unpack, so click on the image to open it in a new tab).
A huge thanks to Giselle Chow Consulting (gisellechow.com) for the composition and use of the images!
Coinbaseextends support for USD Coin (USDC) trading in 85 countries.
Finastrahires Mark Miller as new Chief Financial Officer.
Fenergoannounces API integration with global financial markets data provider Refinitiv.
Hastings Direct extends deal with Equifax by signing a multi-year deal.
SDC and Tinkpartner to give 120 Nordic banks access to account aggregation and payment initiation services.
Kony Quantumpowers Qualifacts’ new CareLogic mobile app.
WireBarley partners with Currencycloud to boost its operations in the U.S.
Lendionamed to Fortune’s Best Workplaces in Financial Services & Insurance.
BlueVinetaps Herman Man as new Chief Product Officer.
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.
Minnesota-based ClickSWITCH is having a big month. A week after making its first-ever appearance on the Finovate stage, the account acquisition solution provider has announced raising $13 million in new funding.
The Series B was led by Commerce Ventures and Points72 Ventures, and will help the company accelerate its product roadmap, add to its executive leadership ranks – as well as to its sales and development teams – and contribute toward the firm’s overall growth.
ClickSWITCH CEO Cale Johnston underscored the momentum the company has experienced with clients and prospects since closing its previous, Series A round. “We remain focused on providing the best automated account switching solution available in the market for financial institutions and fintechs,” Johnston said. “We are eager to continue working with Commerce Ventures, Points72 Ventures, and our other tremendous investors to further growth of our customer base and expand our service offerings.”
Founded in 2014, ClickSwitch offers financial institutions a white-label technology that enables customers to easily and quickly switch their direct deposits and recurring payments when opening new accounts. In addition to improving the process for banking customers, the solution makes it easier for FIs to onboard new customers by making new account funding a faster process.
Commerce Ventures Partner Dan Rosen referred to the landscape as a “battle for banking deposits” between banks and fintechs. “ClickSWITCH is a critical utility for onboarding and activating valuable new customers,” he said. Point72 Venture’s Tripp Shriner added that changing direct deposits was one of the “biggest pain points” for banking consumers when it comes to opening a new account. ClickSWITCH, per Shriner, “dramatically reduce(s) friction … increasing choice for customers.”
This latest round of funding puts ClickSWITCH’s total capital at $17.1 million. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership that would bring its account switching solution to Virginia’s Old Point National Bank. ClickSWITCH demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring in May. Video of the company’s live demonstration will be available soon.
Debt collection solutions company Intellaegis, which does business under the name masterQueue, is marking its first round of funding today. The amount of the investment is undisclosed.
“To this point, we’d been self-funded by the founders and two strategic Angel investors,” said Co-Founder and CFO Perla Lewis. “This allowed us to double staff and increase our year over year Q1 revenue from 2018 to 2019 by eighty percent.”
The company has also brought on Lance Suder, a former entrepreneur and Stanford grad, as its Director of Operations. “As masterQueue makes contacting customers easy, efficient and compliant, I’m proud to join their seasoned team, and we’re excited to have found an investor that shares our vision and passion,” said Suder.
masterQueue’s debt collections tools help recapture delinquent loans by gathering, organizing, and tracking big data from dozens of data aggregators to find customer assets. The resulting workflow facilitates compliant debt collection, skip tracing, and repossession efforts.
Debt collection technology is one of the lesser-heralded sub-sectors of fintech. Perhaps startups are hesitant to enter the space because of its associations with loan sharks. We have, however, seen a handful of successful entrants in the space, including TrueAccord, collectAI, and Global Debt Registry.
Headquartered in California, Intellaegis demonstrated masterQueue’s debt collection workflow at FinovateSpring 2011. John Lewis is president and CEO.
Finastra has signed three global banks on its Fusion LenderComm platform: BNP Paribas, Natixis and Societe Generale, following a recent sign-up by NatWest, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
“All of these banks were part of our Fusion LenderComm pilot and the momentum that the platform has seen since then is nothing short of extraordinary,” said Grant Jones, VP, Fusion LenderComm, Finastra. “This brings global banks together on the platform in the live Fusion LenderComm environment, for seamless and secure information exchange.”
Fusion LenderComm is based on Corda Enterprise, R3’s commercial version of its open source blockchain platform, Corda. The firm says it is enabling banks to expose real-time credit agreement, accrual balances and position information data to lenders, directly from agent bank loan servicing platforms, such as Finastra’s Fusion Loan IQ.
Philippe Boulas, Global Head of Corporate Banking Operations at BNP Paribas, said: “With the creation of this community and a collaborative mindset we have a unique opportunity to tackle the operational pain points we have all been experiencing for years and that constrain syndicated loan market expansion.”
Finastra said that Fusion LenderComm integrates directly into the overall technology stack at the banks.
Cécile Bartenieff, COO of global banking and investor solutions at Societe Generale, said: “The Fusion LenderComm initiative will help provide greater transparency and operational efficiency to the syndicated loan market for the benefit of all participants, including the pool of banking lenders and our borrower clients. This is an illustration of how blockchain can help banks optimize the entire flow of financial operations in a standardized and secured framework.”
The product of a merger between Misys – which demonstrated its FusionFabric.cloud technology at FinovateEurope 2017 – and D+H two years ago, Finastra recently announced the appointment of Chief People Office Sharon Doherty. Named a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide End-to-End Corporate Banking Solution Providers 2019 Vendor Assessment report in March, Finastra has forged a variety of partnerships in the first half of the year, including deals with Al Taif Islamic Bank in Iraq and Silvergate Bank of San Diego, California.
Bank data expert The ID Co. boosted its funding total to $11 million this week after closing on $2 million (£1.5 million). Headline investors in today’s round are Amadeus Capital Partners and SixThirty.
The company, which already has clients in 30 countries, said the funding will fuel further global growth. CEO James Varga said, “We are hiring fast and entering new markets and geographies across the globe. The recent launch of DirectID Insights and Income Verification means that we are in an excellent place to capitalise on the need for greater efficiency in lending practices to reflect borrowers’ expectations.”
The ID Co. has two main branches, DirectID, its B2B offering, and NoMo, its B2C product launched last fall. DirectID’s product lineup includes Insights, a dashboard that displays data to assist underwriters in lending decisions, and Income Verification, a tool that combines real time data with six algorithms to offer a clear picture of clients’ income. In addition, the company offers an onboarding solution, a categories and classifications engine, and a bank account validation tool.
James Varga, CEO (right), and Lazaro Campos, Chairman
The ID Co. was prepared for the onset of the U.K.’s Open Banking mandate well before it came into play last January. Atul Kamra, Managing Partner of SixThirty said, “James and The ID Co. team have gotten a real nice head start here, and are well positioned to take advantage from the regulatory tail winds afforded by Open Banking.”
Varga added, “The financial world is being fundamentally changed through Open Banking. It improves our understanding of each individual, allowing us to move away from traditional credit reference agencies.” Varga last demonstrated miiCard’s identity as a service capabilities at FinovateFall 2013.
Launched as miiCard in 2011, the company pivoted to The ID Co. in 2016. Within the last year, the company has launched its Open Banking API, released its NoMo consumer cashflow tracking app, and unveiled its Income Verification solution.
