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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Voca.ai has created a smart, human and empathetic virtual call-center agent for financial institutions that helps banks, lenders and insurers increase revenue while reducing operational costs.
Features
Human-like speech
AI and Machine Learning-based optimization
Emotional and intent detection that is instantly scalable
Why it’s great
Voca is the call-center agent you’ve always dreamed of. Voca can handle over 80% of all call and contact center interactions so your agents can focus on what’s really important to your business.
Presenters
Einav Itamar, Co-founder and CEO Itamar is a serial tech entrepreneur with vast experience in AI and Big Data. He is founder of Corrigon, which was acquired by eBay. LinkedIn
Danny Ruchman, VP of R&D Ruchman has 20 years of experience in R&D. He is a former director at eXelate, which was acquired by Nielsen. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
RESPONSIVE helps wealth managers work faster and smarter with advisor Next Best Actions. Private managers and banks use our human-centric AI to grow client wealth and loyalty.
Features
Aggregate client data to provide holistic wealth view
Detect client financial events based on behavioral analytics
Give advisors Next Best Actions to capture revenue and mitigate risk
Why it’s great
Responsive evolves enterprise wealth team performance with proven innovation roadmaps and human-centric AI.
Presenters
Davyde Wachell, CEO and Co-founder
Wachell earned a Symbolic Systems Bsc in AI from Stanford University. He has 15+ years in fintech. LinkedIn
Logan Grosenick, VP of Research
Grosenick has a MSc in Statistics, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Stanford University. With 40+ scientific publications with 5000+ citations, he has 12+ years in machine learning and animal behavior prediction. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
MSTS is a B2B payments and credit leader. Banks can use MSTS’ Credit as a Service to offer direct billing (terms) to their merchants’ buyers.
Features
Provides a solution for banks to offer direct billing options for its merchants
Enables banks to capture nearly all B2B spend
Creates new lending activity
Why it’s great
Credit as a Service is a valuable tool for FIs to offer additional merchant services and alternative lending options to strengthen relationships with SMB clients.
Presenters
Brandon Spear, President
With experience leading entrepreneurial startup companies in the SaaS and Internet space, Spear helps companies navigate through the early years to become scalable businesses. LinkedIn
Dan Zimmerman, Chief Product and Information Officer
Zimmerman has over 20 years of experience leading technology, product, and software engineering teams concentrated in the card and payment processing industry. LinkedIn
Michelle Faul, Senior Director of Global Marketing
Faul leads marketing strategies and initiatives to increase global thought leadership eminence and brand awareness to drive business results. LinkedIn
Identity assurance provider Signicat has been acquired by private equity investor Nordic Capital, which hopes to accelerate the company’s international expansion. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Fredrik Näslund, Partner at the Advisor to the Nordic Capital Funds, said Signicat “has shown consistent high growth since inception, driven both by a rapidly increasing number of customers and strong volume growth among existing customers.” He added that the company’s “highly experienced management team is well positioned to capitalize on enormous growth opportunities across geographies, customer verticals and products, as the digital transformation of the economy continues.”
Nordic Capital acquired Signicat from Secure Identity Holding, Viking Venture III, and other shareholders. Viking will re-invest proceeds from the deal, making it a minority owner.
Signicat’s digital identity solutions make customer onboarding faster, more secure, and compliant with privacy and data protection regulations by replacing paper-based processes. At FinovateEurope 2017, the company showcasedSignicat Assure, a digital identity verification product; and Signicat Sign, an e-signature offering.
Gunnar Nordseth, CEO and Co-Founder of Signicat, referred to Nordic Capital as “the most prominent and experienced investors” in fintech and said that the company is the “perfect partner” to support Signicat’s international expansion strategy.
Founded in 2007, Signicat’s 115 employees across offices in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, and Portugal serve 500 clients including Klarna, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale and Western Union, BMW, and Konica Minolta. Prior to today’s announcement, Signicat had raised almost $9 million.
Alternative payments specialist Sezzle has raised $5.6 million in funding in advance of its debut on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) later this year. The financing was led by Continental Investors of Chicago, and featured participation from a total of 10 investors. Sezzle plans to raise $6 million in the current round, which was described as a “pre-IPO” round by the Australian Financial Review.
Sezzle hopes to raise between $20 million and $30 million via initial public offering on the ASX. The company admits that it has no plans to begin operations in Australia, and that the listing on the ASX was to take advantage of the investment interest that Afterpay, a Sezzle rival based in Melbourne, has enjoyed since its own arrival on the ASX. Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim noted that investors in Australia have been quicker than investors in the U.S. to embrace what he called “the potential of the payment method.”
Sezzle empowers consumers by enabling them to make purchases and pay for them in four, interest-free installments, payable every two weeks. The company’s merchant partners have recorded higher average order value and higher conversion rates since adding Sezzle to their checkout systems. More than 3,500 stores currently offer Sezzle as an option.
Sezzle’s funding comes just a few months after the company announced that its Shop Now Pay Later option would be available on the 3dcart ecommerce platform. Founded in 1997, the Florida-based, Inc. 5,000 company has more than 22,000 merchants using its technology to build and manage online stores and shopping carts, and engage in content marketing.
“By providing our merchants with an easy way to allow customers to finance their purchases, we open up possibilities for both retailers and customers,” 3dcart founder and CEO Gonzalo Gil said.
Sezzle demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2018. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the company was named to American Inno’s Top Minnesota Startup Fundings of 2018 in December, the same month the company announced the hiring of new Chief Risk Officer Jamie Kirkpatrick.
Also late last year, Sezzle picked up a $100 million line of credit from Connecticut-based investment firm, Bastion. The financing helped Sezzle promote its pay-in-2019 initiative with online retailer Tobi during last year’s holiday season. Sezzle also partnered with Priority Payment Systems last fall, which began offering Sezzle’s alternative payment option to the 174,000+ merchants on its network.
Personal finance app Fintonicearned $21.4 million (€19 million) in a Series C funding round this week. The new investment values the Spain-based company at $180 million (€160 million).
The deal, which brings Fintonic’s total funding to $51 million (€45.2 million), was led by ING Ventures, which holds a 22% stake in the company. The round also saw participation from additional shareholders including the PSN group.
The funding comes at a time of major growth for Fintonic, which has increased its active users by 74% in the last 14 months, bringing its total number of active users to 700,000. In the past year, the company has seen a 45% quarter-over-quarter increase in revenue and expects to break even in the next six months. Since it was founded in 2012, Fintonic has expanded to Mexico and Chile; an expansion that boosted its app downloads to 2.8 million.
Part of this growth is owed to the success of Fintonic’s lending offering, which allows customers to take out loans of up to $45,000 (€40,000). The company expects to lend over $1.1 billion (€1 billion) in less than three years. Helping to make this possible, Fintonic has extended its own financing for the lending platform, issuing a $79 million (€70 million) bond listed on the MARF (Alternative Fixed-Income Market) and approved by the Spanish CNMV (National Securities Market Commission).
In addition to its lending product, Fintonic offers insurance, having obtained an insurance broker license from the General Directorate of Insurance. The company said the offering is part of its goal to help users save money without having to compromise on service.
At FinovateSpring 2016, the company debuted its alerts and inbox system to help users act in a timely manner on their financial needs and recommendations. Last year, Fintonic teamed up with BBVA to boost its in-app lending capabilities, allowing users to borrow up to $39,400. Most recently, the company bolstered its lending offering via a partnership with Unicaja Banco to offer the bank’s consumer loans through its mobile app.
After two days of live fintech demonstrations, FinovateSpring turns to the experts. Our Content Day on Friday, May 10, will give attendees the opportunity to hear industry professionals share their insights into how the technologies of today are building the fintech of tomorrow.
To whet your appetite, here’s a quick survey of the presentations we’ll feature on the main stage on the final day of the show. Be sure to check out the afternoon sessions in our Digital Banking, Digital Payments, Community Banking, and Digital Lending content streams, as well.
For tickets, visit our FinovateSpring registration page.
The Rise of the Machines – The Artificial Intelligence Revolution and the Road to Superintelligence. What Will AI Mean for the Future of Financial Services – And the Future of Work? – read more
Which Artificial Intelligence Technologies Will Really Change Financial Services? – read more
Turning the Tide on Credit Visibility through Data and Innovation – read more
How Can Financial Institutions Capture the Fintech Opportunity and Collaborate with New Players to Transform Customer Experience –read more
Simplifying and Securing Digital Commerce through Tokenization – read more
How Are Regulators Approaching Cryptocurrencies – read more
The Evolving Role of Cybersecurity – Are Banking Treating Technology Risk as Extensions of their Businesses? – read more
Investors Debate: Where is the Smart VC Money Investing in Fintech? – read more
Finovate Finale! The Accelerators Showcase – read more
Here’s a look at our four content streams – Digital Banking, Digital Payments, Community Banking, and Digital Lending – which will run concurrently from 1:25pm through 2:40pm on Friday afternoon.
Digital Banking
Next Generation Banking – What Is the Next Phase of the Digital Banking Revolution – read more
Open Banking is Coming! How Will it Change Banking Forever? – read more
How New Players, New Platforms, and New Technologies Will Transform Digital Banking. Is There a Role for the Branch in the Digital World? – read more
Digital Payments
What Are the Digital Giants Going to do to Payments? Who Will Disrupt the Disruptors? – read more
Payments Innovation – Why Experience is the New Reward – read more
How New Technologies and New Competitors Will Solve Payments Pain Points Both Online and at Point of Sale – read more
Community Banking
How Can Community Banks Collaborate to Find a Path to Change to Compete in a Digital World? – read more
Community Bank + Core Vendor + Fintech – What It Takes to Make the Partnership Work – read more
How Community Banks Can Take a Strategic Approach to Fintech. What Bumps in the Road Did We Encounter? – read more
Digital Lending
How Digital Players Can Transform Small & Medium Sized Enterprise Lending – read more
Alt Credit Scores – Enhancing Underwriting Using Big Data & AI – read more
How New Players are Harnessing New Technologies to Disrupt the Retail, Small Business, & Commercial Digital Lending Landscape – read more
RightCapitalselected to join LPL Financial’s Vendor Affinity Program.
American Banker: Envestnetto add lending option to its wealth services.
Tauliataps Google Cloud to launch AI-powered invoicing solution.
LendIt recognizesCuneXus as Top Emerging Tech Company, marking the company’s 3rd major industry recognition of 2019.
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.
Real-time financial data access and insights provider Finicity has a new partner in the mortgage space. The company announced today that it is teaming up with Pulte Mortgage to help the firm improve the home financing process for borrowers.
“Today’s consumers have come to expect simple and rapid experiences enabled by digitization,” Finicity CEO Steve Smith said. “Pulte is an innovator that is embracing digital solutions to further deliver a superior borrower experience by giving their loan consultants more time to engage with their buyers.”
Pulte Mortgage will leverage Finicity’s technology to accelerate asset verification, reducing the time-consuming, manual, and paper-intensive process “from weeks to minutes” the company said in a statement. Finicity’s platform will enable lenders to access up to 24 months of bank, brokerage, and 401k information to quickly confirm assets without requiring paper verification.
“The average loan file used to be about 300 pages, but today’s regulatory and compliance demands have pushed this figure to more than 800 pages,” President and CEO of Pulte Mortgage Debra Still explained. “The need for ever-increasing volumes of supporting data puts an incredible burden on the borrower, which is why we strategically invest in integrated technology solutions, like Finicity, to reduce the time and complexity associated with securing a mortgage.”
A subsidiary of Pulte Group, Pulte Mortgage was founded in 1972, and finances new home construction for customers of Pulte Homes, Centex, Del Webb, DiVosta, and John Wieland Homes. Pulte Group has financed 700,000+ homes in the U.S., offering home buyers more than 200 different home loan solutions. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Finicity demonstrated its credit decisioning technology – including its Verification of Income (VoI) and Verification of Assets (VoA) solutions – at FinovateFall 2017. Via API, Finicity’s data aggregation and insights platform provides clients with consumer-permissioned data in real-time to support financial management, payments, and credit assessment services and solutions.
Featured earlier this year in PaymentsSource’s roster of the Best Fintechs to Work For, Finicity partnered with Princeton Mortgage in December, integrating its Verification of Assets solution into Princeton Mortgage’s SnapApp digital mortgage platform. Last fall, the company teamed up with Experian and FICO to introduce a new solution, the UltraFICO credit score, to help bring financing to borrowers with credit scores between 550 and 650.
Integration and analytics software company TIBCO is fortifying its ranks with the appointment of a new CEO. The California-based company announced this week it has selected Dan Streetman to lead TIBCO as chief executive officer.
Streetman begins work at TIBCO next Monday and is taking the seat of Murray Rode, who held the title of CEO for five years. Rode will be transitioning to vice chairman of TIBCO. Offering accolades for Rode, John Stalder, principal at Vista Equity Partners, said, “Over the past five years as CEO, Murray has sharply focused TIBCO’s product portfolio and streamlined the organization to create an industry-leading cloud and hybrid platform for digital business to position the company for accelerated growth.” Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm based in Texas, acquired TIBCO in 2014 for $4.3 billion.
Dan Streetman
Streetman comes to the TIBCO team from BMC Software, where he served as executive vice president of sales and marketing. He has held roles at software companies including Salesforce, C3, Amdocs, and Siebel Systems. Before his entry into the tech sector, Streetman served in the military as an Airborne Ranger infantry officer in the U.S. Army after attending West Point. During his service, Streetman earned a Bronze Star and the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award.
“Dan brings a high level of energy and commitment to TIBCO that will ensure we continue to expand the reach and scale of TIBCO’s Connected Intelligence Cloud to deliver game-changing innovation to the market,” said Rode.
“We’re excited about the opportunities in front of TIBCO and are confident that Dan’s experience and expertise will ensure an even greater impact on its customers around the globe,” Stalder added.
This news comes just over a year after TIBCO appointed a new CTO and COO.
TIBCO demoed at FinovateAsia 2013, showcasing how banks can leverage their clients’ transactional data to gain insight into customer behavior. The company has completed a total of 25 acquisitions since it was founded in 1997; most recently buying up SnappyData for its high-performance in-memory data platform.
The identity verification specialist formerly known as miiCard has launched its new income verification solution. The ID Co.has leveraged bank data, its own unique algorithms, and a comprehensive data-set to build a solution that enables lenders to get a better accounting of a loan applicant’s income.
“Once again, the capabilities of bank data have allowed us to build a new tool that is unrivaled and unparalleled anywhere in the market,” The ID Co. CEO James Varga said. “We know the challenges that banks and lenders have in accurately establishing applicant income, and now, using our experience in bank data, we have a solution that will present this information in mere seconds.”
To use the new tool, participating banks run application data through The ID Co.’s Income Verification API. The solution provides a calculated salary amount, with the option to factor in benefits, and a confidence score. The technology is especially helpful for lenders working with thin file customers and other borrowers without a significant credit history. The ID Co.’s Income Verification solution also provides information such as material supplemental income and changes to an applicant’s salary or wages over time.
“We’ve known for some time that this would be of value to banks and lenders and have worked tirelessly to ensure that this product fits their requirements,” The ID Co. Product Owner Helen Stewart said. “The solution has already been highly commended by banks and lenders that have trialled using it.”
The ID Co. (as miicard) demonstrated its Identity-as-a-Service technology at FinovateFall 2013. More recently, the company unveiled its DirectID Decisioning Platform and DirectID Insights, an online decisioning solution for underwriters, fraud analysts, and credit risk officers. The tool requires no integration, and provides prepackaged reports for lenders and underwriters to help them make better lending decisions faster while reducing operational costs.
Last fall, The ID Co. launched its consumer app, NoMo. The mobile app leverages Open Banking to enable users to conduct basic financial cashflow tracking. This includes cash-flow averaging, spending recommendations, personalized updates, as well as a financial performance overview.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, The ID Co. has raised $9.1 million in funding. The company includes New Wave Ventures, Par Equity, and angel investor Rob Dobson among its investors.
Cloud accounting platform FreeAgentteamed up with Starling Bank this week. The partnership aims to make business banking easier for Starling’s business and freelancer clients.
As Roan Lavery, FreeAgent co-founder and CPO said in the announcement, “This integration allows Starling customers to link their bank account with FreeAgent, pulling in transactions on a daily basis. From there, these transactions can be reconciled as normal.”
Starling said the impetous of the partnership was the increased demand for business banking services the bank experienced after a successful integration with FreeAgent competitor Xero in November of last year. Starling said it hopes the new integration will reduce stress levels for small businesses, which can sync their Starling business bank accounts with FreeAgent as of this week.
Here’s how it works– once businesses give FreeAgent consent, data associated with the business’ Starling account, including transaction time, spending category, and transaction name, is pulled over to the FreeAgent platform. By syncing both historic and current transaction data automatically, businesses can spend less time on manual data entry and benefit from more accurate reports.
Founded in 2007, FreeAgent offers cloud accounting services to help small businesses and freelancers manage their accounts. The U.K.-based company provides an API for easy integration, and works with existing startups such as Basecamp, Stripe, PayPal, and Xpenditure. The company also has an offering for accountants, a sales tax reporting tool, a fully-integrated payroll system, and freelancer tools such as time tracking and a project profitability estimator.
FreeAgent CEO Ed Molyneux debuted FreeAgent’s Financial Health Insights at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. In 2016, the company went public and, last year, was acquired by RBS in an offer valued at $75 million (£53 million).
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 10, 2019 in San Francisco, California. Register today and save your spot.
Einav Itamar, Co-founder and CEO
Ruchman has 20 years of experience in R&D. He is a former director at eXelate, which was acquired by Nielsen.
Brandon Spear, President
Dan Zimmerman, Chief Product and Information Officer
Michelle Faul, Senior Director of Global Marketing
