Conversational AI Fintech Clinc Raises $52 Million in Series B

Conversational AI Fintech Clinc Raises $52 Million in Series B
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Clinc, Funding

In a round featuring participation from Insight Partners, DFJ Growth, Drive Capital, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and other investors, conversational AI innovator Clinc has raised $52 million in new funding. The Series B round brings the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based fintech’s total capital to $60 million.

“We’ve had phenomenal growth and built unbelievable momentum in a very short period of time,” Clinc CEO Jason Mars said. “Now we’re adding more world-class investors to support our growing team as we work to accelerate the pace of innovation and to reshape the conversational AI landscape, one industry at a time.”

Mars, who recently participated in FinovateSpring’s AI Summit Day conversations on AI in financial services, noted that the new investment would help the company add to its team and expand to new, larger offices in Ann Arbor. He also suggested to TechCrunch that this funding, which dwarfs the company’s $6.3 million Series A round from two years ago, could be the firm’s last financing before pursuing an IPO.

Clinc’s technology leverages natural language processing, advanced machine learning, and neural networks to decipher and respond to not just the meaning, but also the context and intent of human speech. In addition to being able to comprehend unstructured speech, the technology’s ability to learn and improve itself with every interaction allows it, for example, to quickly support new languages after being introduced to as few as 500 utterances.

Clinc demonstrated its conversational AI technology at FinovateFall 2016, winning Best of Show honors. Earlier this year, the company proved its technology could be used to provide in-game assistance for gamers, enabling them to communicate with the game using natural language, including slang, without requiring the use of specific commands.

In 2018, Clinc announced that it was expanding its technology to the automotive industry to give developers the ability to add natural language-based interaction and control functionality to vehicles. Also last year, the company teamed up with Turkey’s Isbank to launch the world’s second biggest mobile banking voice assistant.

With customers including USAA, Barclays, S&P Global, OCBC Bank, and US Bank, Clinc was founded in 2015. The company has achieved 300% year-over-year revenue growth, and anticipates tripling its business in 2019. Via its partners, Clinc estimates that more than 30 million people are using its conversational AI technology.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Clinc, Kabbage, MasterCard, Plaid, Sezzle

On Finovate.com

  • Conversational AI Fintech Clinc Raises $52 Million in Series B.
  • Kabbage and Azlo Launch Mission Street Capital to Help Fund SMEs.

Around the web

  • Mastercard unveils its Mastercard Innovation Engine, an API-based platform to enable easier deployment of digital customer experiences.
  • Sezzle teams up with Bank of America Merchant Services, who will serve as the fintech’s digital card processor.
  • Plaid earns recognition as one of the Best Workplaces from Inc.com.

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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Minna Technologies Raises $6.3 Million

Minna Technologies Raises $6.3 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Minna Technologies

Subscription management tool for online banks Minna Technologies just announced it has received a $6.3 million (€5.6 million) investment, bringing its total funding to almost $9 million.

Zenith Group led the round, followed by Visa and existing investor Swedbank. Minna will use the funds to increase its presence in Europe. To support these plans, the company will bolster its team and open a new office in Europe.

“This investment round makes it possible for us to scale up and execute on our European expansion plans. As many European banks have started to embrace FinTech partnerships, we have seen a dramatic increase in the interest of our subscription management platform,” said Minna CEO and Cofounder Joakim Sjöblom. “Our current bank partnerships have proved that subscription management is well received by banking customers and that it is an essential part of digital banking.”

Founded in 2014, Minna originally began as a consumer-facing app for subscription management, then launched as a bank-integrated platform in 2016. Since then, the company has helped consumers save more than $33.5 million in unwanted subscriptions. The company is partnered with several top-tier banks across Europe, including Swedbank and Danske bank, and has a pilot agreement with OP bank.

Sjöblom demoed Minna at FinovateEurope 2019 in London. The company is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden and has 34 employees. In 2017, the company’s revenues totaled $536,000.

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Currencycloud to Power Cross Border Payments for Fellow Fintech

Currencycloud to Power Cross Border Payments for Fellow Fintech
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Currency Cloud

International payments platform Currencycloud announced this week it has teamed up with WireBarley to fuel the Seoul-based company’s international growth.

WireBarley, an AsiaPac remittance services company, has expanded its services from Asia to Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. Today, with the support of Currencycloud, WireBarley will provide cross-border remittance services to the U.S. market.

Currencycloud offers APIs to help businesses accept, pay, and convert foreign currencies while managing balances, notifications, permissions, and reporting. The company’s clients, which include fellow Finovate alums Azimo, Klarna, Revolut, and Fidor, can make domestic and international payments in 35 currencies to 180+ countries.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in London, Currencycloud has raised just over $68 million in eight rounds of funding. The company most recently appeard at FinovateFall 2016 where it debuted its Payment Engine. 

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Jumio Teams Up to Fight Financial Crime with TruNarrative

Jumio Teams Up to Fight Financial Crime with TruNarrative
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jumio

Financial crime specialist TruNarrative is partnering with identity verification innovator Jumio to bolster its fraud detection and customer onboarding platform. The integration will enable TruNarrative’s existing customers and prospects to verify the authenticity of more than 3,300 ID document types from more than 200 countries and territories.

“We are very pleased to welcome Jumio as a partner within our Appstore,” TruNarrative CEO John Lord said. “The service helps our customers comply with their obligation to verify that their customers are who they say they are, enhancing the use of traditional evidence databases and document verification.”


Jumio’s identity verification and authentication solution combines AI, OCR, and biometrics to help organizations fight fraud, onboard customers faster, and remain compliant. The company’s AI-powered, Trusted-Identity-as-a-Service technology provides ID, identity, and document verification and authentication. Jumio also offers a new screening service – unveiled this spring – that combines ID verification and complete AML screening and monitoring.

Jumio head of worldwide partnerships Stephen Kearney explained the partnership as a way for businesses to provide a comprehensive anti-fraud solution without relying on multiple “disparate” solutions. “With TruNarrative, Jumio’s identity proofing, fraud detection, and eKYC solutions can be easily integrated into a single platform that enables these organizations to better defend themselves against financial crime,” he said.

Jumio demonstrated its Netverify identity verification solution at FinovateAsia 2018 in Hong Kong. The technology helps establish that the individual behind a transaction is physically present and is who they say they are by using a combination of ID and identity verification, as well as liveness detection.

More recently, Jumio reported that challenger bank Monzo would use Netverify for customer identity authentication. We highlighted Jumio this spring in our look at companies that can help banks compete against the new credit card from Apple.

Founded in 2010 and based in Palo Alto, California, Jumio has raised more than $55 million in funding from investors including Millennium Technology Value Partners and Centana Growth Partners, which acquired Jumio in 2016.

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Revolut Seeks Banking License in Russia; Mastercard Pledges Partnerships with Indian Fintechs

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Uncategorized

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

  • DisruptAfrica profiles TeamApt and its role as the “go to” fintech startup for Nigeria banks.
  • Nairobi, Kenya-based CarePay International raises $44.7 million (€40 million) for expansion into new markets.
  • expressPay goes live with Visa on mobile in Ghana.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Austrian fintech Bitpanda launches gold and silver trading on its platform.
  • Revolut announces plans to pursue banking license in Russia.
  • Nayax introduces its new cashless payment integration, the Bluecode payments solution, in Austria and Germany.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Visa teams up with Bahrain FinTech Bay to drive fintech innovation in the country.
  • Saudi Payments inks memorandum of understanding to introduce QR code-based national payment system in Saudi Arabia.
  • National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) says it is the first MENA-based bank to launch an open banking offering.

Central and Southern Asia

  • PayPal India unveils its OneTouch feature which, integrated with Google Smart Lock, enables users to register their Android device with PayPal and remain logged in for all subsequent PayPall purchases on that device.
  • Mastercard pledges partnerships with Indian fintechs via its India Investment Fund.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Descendants of the Medici banking family launch a digital bank, Medici Bank, in Puerto Rico.
  • Japan’s SoftBank invests $20 million in Mexican payments innovator Clip.
  • Scotiabank’s fintech accelerator, FactoryA, introduces its incoming cohort of startups from Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based YouTrip raises $25.5 million for its multi-currency payments app.
  • Hong Kong Monetary Authority issues another four virtual bank licenses.
  • South Korea unveils new regulations to empower robo-advisory services.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Akamai, Currency Cloud, Dwolla, Jumio, Kabbage, Lighter Capital, Minna Technologies

On Finovate.com

  • Jumio Teams Up with TruNarrative to Fight Financial Crime.
  • Currencycloud to Power Cross Border Payments for Fellow Fintech.
  • Minna Technologies Raises $6.3 Million.

Around the web

  • Dwolla introduces Labels to help application owners customize how funds are allocated.
  • Akamai launches Enterprise Defender to help customers secure all enterprise applications and users.
  • Kabbage to power loans for Azlo small business clients.
  • Lighter Capital has financed more than $150 million in 500+ rounds of revenue-based financing to over 300 startups.

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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Yseop Pairs Up with Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Yseop Pairs Up with Larsen & Toubro Infotech
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Yseop

Natural language generation (NLG) expert Yseop teamed up with technology consulting and digital solutions company Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI).

Yseop CEO Emmanuel Walckenaer said that the deal “significantly advances” the company’s NLG efforts while expanding its global reach.

Founded in 1997 as a subsidiary of India-based Larsen & Toubro Limited, LTI has operations in more than 30 countries. Through today’s partnership, LTI will provide Yseop’s NLG technology as part of its global project delivery services, offering the intelligent automation solution to more than 300 clients.

Harsh Naidu, Chief Business Officer of Banking and Financial Services at LTI said, “We are excited to partner with YSEOP to foster NLG adoption across a wide spectrum of use cases in banking, financial services, and other sectors. Our customers demand unprecedented experience of intelligent automation which we will be able to deliver by leveraging YSEOP’s unique NLG approach.”

Paris, France-based Yseop offers an AI platform that powers human-like interactions in customer support, sales, and reporting applications. The company demoed its Augmented Analyst last week at FinovateSpring. The demo video will be available soon.

Previously, Yseop demonstrated its business intelligence solution that turns data into written reports at FinovateFall 2015. The company has raised $3.4 million since it was founded 2007. Last month, Yseop announced that the solution it created for Société Générale won the award for most innovative initiative of the year at the 2019 Digital Finance Awards.

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TransUnion Acquires TruSignal

TransUnion Acquires TruSignal
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, TransUnion

Risk management and credit reporting agency TransUnion is boosting its marketing expertise this week with the acquisition of TruSignal. Financial terms of the deal, which marks TransUnion’s 15th acquisition, were undisclosed.

TruSignal is a target marketing specialist that offers businesses optimization, monetization, and targeting solutions that leverage AI-powered predictive scoring. TransUnion said that combining TruSignal’s capabilities with its in-house technology will help it operate at scale while still allowing people to have personalized interactions with companies in real-time.

TransUnion President and CEO Chris Cartwright said that TruSignal’s marketing solutions will allow the firm to “rapidly and flexibly serve the evolving digital marketing ecosystem.” Matt Spiegel, EVP of digital marketing solutions and head of media at TransUnion added, “Our history of leveraging data to develop rich insights and products, combined with TruSignal’s industry-leading rapid modeling and technology platform, has the potential to be a critical part of shaping the future of the industry and how consumers will experience the brands they engage with.”

Having access to TruSignal’s technology will help TransUnion enhance its marketing products, building on the partnership the company formed last month with Tru Optik. TransUnion’s marketing offerings currently include audience segmentation for digital marketing, customer acquisition, and customer engagement tools.

Founded in 1968, TransUnion has office locations at its headquarters in Chicago, as well as in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Toronto, Johannesburg, Colombia, and Brazil. At FinovateFall 2016, TransUnion showcased Prama, a suite of analytics tools that helps lenders gain market intelligence and act on insights to drive growth and build a risk policy. TransUnion is a public company with a market capitalization of $12.3 billion, trading on the NYSE under the ticker “TRU.”

Last month the company led a $24 million funding round for digital identity authentication provider Payfone. A few days prior to that announcement, TransUnion completed the sale of U.K. credit reporting service Noddle to fellow Finovate alum Credit Karma.

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BioCatch Brings on New Chief Revenue Officer

BioCatch Brings on New Chief Revenue Officer
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BioCatch

Behavioral biometrics expert BioCatch brought on a new team member today. The company appointed Bill Sytsma as Chief Revenue Officer.

Bill Sytsma

Sytsma is a 20-year veteran of the software and security industry. Most recently, he served as a vice president of sales at ThreatMetrix. In addition to that role, Sytsma has worked at Emulex, iPass, Aveksa, Lumigent Technologies, and EMC.

“As we accelerate our plans for growth, Bill is the ideal person to lead the effort,” said BioCatch CEO Howard Edelstein. “He has vast experience as well as a proven ability to scale global sales efforts, secure new client relationships and drive revenue, exactly what is needed to enhance the results generated by our seasoned and talented team to date.”

The appointment of Sytsma is the latest in a recent string of C-level appointments for Israel-based BioCatch. Last year, the company named Gadi Mazor COO and Paul Mattison CFO.

BioCatch’s technology works by embedding what the company calls Invisible Challenges into online and mobile user experiences. The challenges are a set of subtle tests that the user subconsciously responds to. The user’s responses help to distinguish themselves over a fraudulent person or bot without interrupting the user experience.

BioCatch has raised $41.6 million since it was founded in 2011. At FinovateFall 2014, the company’s cofounder Uri Rivner demoed how some of the Invisible Challenges work.

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Artivest Inks Deal with Institutional Investment Manager LaSalle

Artivest Inks Deal with Institutional Investment Manager LaSalle
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Artivest

Curated online platform for alternative investments Artivest announced a major new partnership today. The firm has been selected by institutional investment manager LaSalle to help it enter the retail market for privately-held value-added real estate investment programs via a closed end fund.

“We are delighted to find a compelling platform to seamlessly connect financial advisors and qualified high net worth investors to our flagship, U.S. value-add investment strategy,” Jason Kern, CEO of the Americas at LaSalle Investment Management, said.

One of the largest real estate investment managers in the world with $65 billion in assets under management, LaSalle will leverage Artivest’s Open Network to make its offerings available for investment by advisors and qualified purchasers. In an investment environment increasingly characterized by passive management and low-fee ETFs, LaSalle sees Artivest as a partner to help it meet investor demand for alternative solutions that can provide outperformance.

Artivest combines expert insights, extensive due diligence, and a streamlined investor experience to improve the process of finding, evaluating, and investing in leading private funds for advisors and fund managers. The solution reduces the complexity of private fund investing, helping clients save time and more readily identify opportunities that are most compatible with their investment goals.

“Our platform brings together data-driven insights, proprietary technology, and robust diligence expertise to deliver a simplified, efficient experience and remove the barriers that have traditionally stood in the way of advisors and investors seeking access to alternatives,” Artivest founder and CEO James Waldinger said.

Artivest demonstrated its curated investment platform at FinovateSpring 2014. Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2012, the company completed a merger with alternative investment manager Altegris last summer that made the company one of the biggest independent alternative investment solution providers in the world.

Earlier this year, Artivest announced that was expanding its services to include both product structuring and fund distribution solutions for asset and wealth managers. Back in December, Chicago-based Northern Trust added private market capabilities to its ArcLine Alternatives platform for its wealth management customers courtesy of a partnership with Artivest.

With more than $17 million in funding, Artivest includes 500 Startups, RRE Ventures, Founders Fund, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Signatures Capital among its investors.

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Holvi Expands to Five New European Markets

Holvi Expands to Five New European Markets
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Holvi

BBVA-backed start-up Holvi will expand its offering to micro businesses in Ireland, Italy, Belgium, France and the Netherlands after reaching a 150,000-customer milestone, reports Jane Connolly of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).

Claiming to provide small business banking services for “everyday entrepreneurs”, the Finnish firm has experienced significant growth, particularly since its acquisition by global bank BBVA in 2016.

Holvi has been providing business banking in Germany, Austria and Finland for over three years and has seen year-on-year growth of 60% from 2017 to 2018.

CEO Antti-Jussi Suominen said: “2019 is set to be an exciting year for Holvi. Having become the leading business banking service for micro-entrepreneurs in our home market of Finland, and rapidly growing in Austria and Germany, we are setting our sights on the rest of Europe.”

Holvi caters for customers such as freelancers, small family-run businesses and gig economy workers, through a combination of banking, a Mastercard and smart digital business tools.

The firm is authorized to operate across the European Economic Area (EEA) under the Payment Services Directive by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA).

Holvi was founded in 2011. The Helsinki, Finland-based company demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013, and was acquired by fellow Finovate alum BBVA in 2016.

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