Finn AI Brings Conversational Banking to South Africa’s TymeBank

Finn AI Brings Conversational Banking to South Africa’s TymeBank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finn.ai

Conversational banking technology innovator, Finn AI, will bring the benefits of AI-powered financial assistance to South Africa’s TymeBank. The partnership, announced this week, will help South Africa’s first digital bank develop Max, a virtual assistant dedicated to improving financial literacy.

“Emerging markets are frontrunners in the digital banking race,” Finn AI CEO Jake Tyler said. “TymeBank is one example of a new challenger bank that is changing the face of banking.”

A digital, mobile-first financial institution, TymeBank has no branches and charges lower fees than its brick and mortar rivals. Customers can set up accounts with TymeBank at any one of nearly 700 automated kiosks at Pick n Pay and Boxer supermarkets. More than 100,000 South Africans have opened accounts with the bank since it opened for business in February.

Coenraad Jonker, TymeBank CEO, called the partnership with Finn AI “absolutely instrumental” to the neobank’s early success. “By partnering with Finn AI, TymeBank can offer highly personalized services to our customers,” Jonker said. “We’re working closely on integrating their technology in new ways, such as using AI to simplify account creation.”

With Max, TymeBank seeks to meet consumer expectations for more customized, self-service, digital engagement. The conversational assistant will help bank customers improve their financial lives through better understanding of their credit scores, and provides goal-based savings strategies to help users meet their financial objectives. Max will be available from within the bank’s TymeCoach app.

“We broke the banking mold because it didn’t fit our market – so we built our own,” Jonker said. “It’s customer-centric, intelligent, and it’s helping South Africans enhance their financial well-being.”

Finn demonstrated its virtual banking assistant at FinovateFall 2017, winning Best of Show honors for the second time. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with IDaaS specialist, Auth0, that will help banks more readily adopt conversational AI technology. Finn.ai also teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Fidor Bank to help the innovative digital banking group deploy its AI-powered chatbot.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Finn AI has raised $13.7 million in funding. The company’s investors include Flying Fish Partners, Yaletown Partners, and angel investor John Livingston.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Asseco, Bitbond, Equifax, Finastra, Finn.ai, InComm, NF Innova, NYMBUS, Ripple, Salt Edge, Token

On Finovate.com

  • Finn AI Brings Conversational Banking to South Africa’s TymeBank.

Around the web

  • Salt Edge unveils new version of API with a consent management system and UX enhancements.
  • MOXY bank selects NYMBUS‘ SmartCore platform.
  • InComm and WH Smith launch in-store and online hubs for game cards in the U.K.
  • STOblock interviews Bitbond Founder and CEO Radoslav Albrecht.
  • India’s Federal Bank turns to Ripple to power cross-border remittances.
  • Khaleeji Commercial Bank of Bahrain partners with Token.io.
  • Finastra hires Sharon Doherty as its new Chief People Officer.
  • Equifax collaborates with Wolters Kluwer to offer Current Expected Credit Losses (CECL) solution.
  • Raiffeisen Bank Serbia picks Asseco SEE as its strategic vendor.
  • NF Innova to power “Customer-First” experience for APS Bank.

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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Virtual Banks Launch in Hong Kong; Can Bitcoin Save Argentina?

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Temenos

Finovate Global 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

  • Nigerian payments company Amplify has been acquired by OneFinance (OneFi). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  • Tech in Africa profiles Kenyan fintech Branch.
  • Compelo features insurtechs and savings platforms in its presentation of African tech startups “looking to go global.”

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Bank 131, Russia’s first new bank in four years, to specialize in serving online businesses.
  • Estonian cryptocurrency exchange Jubiter launches debit card.
  • Business Review looks at opportunities for Romanian entrepreneurs in the fintech market in the CEE region.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Etihad Credit Insurance teams up with First Abu Dhabi Bank to help UAE companies manage trade finance.
  • Egyptian cloud-based payroll service Dopay picks up €1 million line of credit from the Massif Fund.
  • Emirates NBD and Fintech Hive announced launch of API sandbox.

Central and South Asia

  • Pakistan’s first microfinance bank, Khushhali Bank, goes live with Temenos’ T24 core banking system.
  • Google Play to launch gold-backed investment plans in India.
  • Indian core banking system provider Nelito Systems inks deal with Myanmar’s Alliance for Microfinance.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexico-based lender Credijuto announces $100 million credit facility courtesy of Goldman Sachs.
  • Investor Tim Draper makes the case for Argentina to embrace bitcoin.
  • T13 considers the slow progress of fintech regulation in Chile. In Spanish.

Asia-Pacific

  • ZhongAn earns virtual banking license from Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
  • ING and Bank of Beijing invest $447 million in a new digital bank in China.
  • Standard Chartered partners with Ctrip Finance to launch virtual bank in Hong Kong.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Klarna Launches Open Banking Platform

Klarna Launches Open Banking Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Klarna

 

Klarna is the latest fintech to embrace the open banking revolution. The payments company has announced the launch of its own Open Banking Platform, which will enable access to more than 4,300 banks in 14 different markets across Europe via a single Access to Account (XS2A) API – all in accordance with PSD2 guidelines.

Klarna’s offering will feature both account information services (AIS) for consolidated data on payment accounts, and payment initiation services (PIS) to support PSD2-licensed, account-to-account direct bank transfers. In a statement, the company noted that its XS2A PIS technology transferred more than €10 billion in volume and completed more than 100 million transactions last year alone.

“Our technology allows us to offer an ecosystem of services not only to consumers but also to businesses – whether that’s in retail, financial services, or technology,” Klarna CTO Koen Koppen explained. “We look forward to seeing all (the) new solutions and products that will grow out of this, creating a consumer centric financial services industry in Europe.”

Klarna’s Open Banking Platform also gives developers the tools they need to handle the compliance and user experience of credentials management. At the same time, the platform helps them get new products – from payment initiation and credit solutions to roboadvisory and PFM – to market faster and with less cost.

“We can offer the leading technology, quality, knowledge and market presence to help other players develop even better services and products for their consumers,” Klarna Open Banking Platform Manager George Parks Davie said. “Klarna’s XS2A API opens up a range of opportunities and through developer-friendly infrastructure it also empowers innovators.”

Klarna demonstrated its flagship platform at FinovateSpring 2012. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, the company announced a partnership with Canadian e-commerce and in-store point-of-sale financing specialist PayBright earlier this month. In February, Klarna extended its Pay Later service to Gymshark customers in the U.K. and the Nordics. At the beginning of the year, the company announced collaborations with both rapper Snoop Dogg and watchmaker Daniel Wellington.

Founded in 2005, Klarna has raised more than $681 million in funding. The company includes Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, Creandum, Visa, and Permira among its investors.

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StreetShares to Launch Credit Card for Veteran-Owned Businesses

StreetShares to Launch Credit Card for Veteran-Owned Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: StreetShares

Business credit cards are big business. That’s why military veteran-focused small business lending platform StreetShares is broadening its focus with the launch of credit cards for military veteran business owners.

StreetShares will market the credit card to the 2.5 million veteran-owned small businesses in the U.S., a niche population the Virginia-based company considers to be underserved. StreetShares anticipates that adding a credit card to their suite of offerings will provide a tool for business owners to finance and pay for everyday expenses.

“Veterans will use their card to do good while doing well,” said Mark Rockefeller, CEO and Co-Founder of StreetShares and an Iraq War Veteran. “Our mission is to be the trusted financial solution for America’s heroes and their communities, and this offering will help us achieve that.”

A portion of the proceeds from every card will support training and educational programs for military veterans and military spouse entrepreneurs. The company expects to make the card available in the second quarter of this year.

Founded in 2013, StreetShares began leveraging Title IV (Regulation A+) of the JOBS act in 2017 to allow unaccredited investors to lend to small businesses. It is now one of only a handful of P2P lending platforms open to unaccredited investors.

At FinovateEurope 2015, StreetShares CEO and Co-founder Mark Rockefeller and COO and Co-founder Mickey Konson showcased the StreetShares platform. Last fall, USAA announced it would use StreetShares to pilot a small business lending program for military veterans.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: AlphaPoint, Capsilon, Enova, Gusto, Temenos, WorldPay

On Finovate.com

  • Worldpay Goes Australasia.
  • Capsilon Beta Launches Digital Underwriter.

Around the web

  • Temenos partners with Canada Life to support UK life and pension funds accounting.
  • Enova Decisions Announces Joint Venture with China Financial.
  • AlphaPoint enhances technology stack to service security token issuance and exchange customers.
  • Gusto names Kenny Wyatt as Chief Sales 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.

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Worldpay Goes Australasia

Worldpay Goes Australasia
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: WorldPay

The news that payment processing giant Worldpay is expanding to Australasia comes just days after the U.K.-based company announced its pending sale to FIS.

Worldpay is making two major moves in the Australasia region. First, it opened two sales offices in Australia, enhancing the company’s market presence. Second, Worldpay launched into the New Zealand market, after having received its local license, enabling in-country payment processing.

With the new Australia locations, Melbourne and Sydney, Worldpay is ultimately aiming to gain more clients. The company already boasts clients such as VGW, Skiddoo, Lonely Planet, and Webjet. And there’s plenty of room for growth in the region– Australia’s eCommerce sector is expected to grow almost 37% in the next three years.

Having a card processing license in New Zealand will allow Worldpay to process New Zealand-based merchants’ payments domestically. Worldpay’s Global reach will create a more seamless way for those New Zealand-based companies to trade with the rest of the world economy.

“By building a team of payments experts located in Australia, alongside the addition of a domestic card payment acquiring capability in New Zealand, Worldpay can offer a service that goes beyond the transactional. Our investment and addition of this new license will enable us to further provide unparalleled access to global markets to help eCommerce businesses deliver on their international growth ambitions,” said Worldpay’s Phil Pomford, General Manager of Global Enterprise eCommerce in APAC.

Founded in 1971, Worldpay most recently participated in FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, where the company discussed what customers are looking for in the payment journey. Earlier this month, the company agreed to be acquired by FIS for $34 billion. The deal is expected to close at the end of this year.

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Capsilon Beta Launches Digital Underwriter

Capsilon Beta Launches Digital Underwriter
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Capsilon

Mortgage technology company Capsilon announced the beta launch of Capsilon Digital Underwriter, a suite of cloud-based mortgage applications for lenders.

The launch comes in collaboration with Home Point Financial, a national mortgage origination and servicing company. The tool aims to help lenders leverage data to make more informed loan eligibility decisions faster by automating the underwriting process.

Steve Viarengo, SVP of Digital Mortgage Solutions, pointed out that compliance and regulatory guidelines have complicated the mortgage underwriting process, declining the mortgage underwriting velocity to 85% in the past 10 years.

Capsilon Digital Underwriter runs on Capsilon IQ, the company’s digital mortgage platform that gathers mortgage data by leveraging machine learning and natural language processing. Because Capsilon collects data from the original loan record, lenders have evidence of data points behind each decision. “You can’t automate underwriting without trusted data,” said Bill Shuler, Chief Information Officer of Home Point Financial. “Capsilon elegantly combines the ability to capture and perfect mortgage data with robust automation capabilities.”

Phil Shoemaker, Chief Business Officer of Home Point Financial, said “Capsilon Digital Underwriter will significantly improve our underwriting productivity and in some cases, we believe loans can be underwritten without any human intervention. This will enable us to significantly speed up the loan origination process while focusing our talented ops team on providing best-in-class customer service to our business partners, helping them originate more loans.”

Founded in 2004, and with eight offices around the globe, Capsilon processes 15% of U.S. mortgages, and managed $400 billion in new loans in 2017 alone. At FinovateSpring 2017 the company showcased its Mortgage Velocity program that speeds up loan delivery by eliminating the need for manual tasks and human error.

Capsilon has raised $21 million and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Sanjeev Malaney is CEO. The company will demo its latest technology at FinovateSpring, held May 8 through 10 in San Francisco. Book your ticket now.

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FICO and Equifax Forge Strategic Partnership

FICO and Equifax Forge Strategic Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Equifax, FICO

A new strategic partnership between FICO and Equifax will help financial institutions better manage risk, marketing, and fraud. The two companies have introduced the Data Decisions Cloud: an end-to-end data and analytics suite that integrates Equifax Ignite, a data and analytics management solution, with FICO Cloud applications and Decision Management Suite, FICO’s digital decisioning platform.

“Our common mission is to empower financial institutions to leverage data-driven decisioning in all their customer interactions,” FICO CEO William J. Lansing said. “With this strategic partnership, FICO and Equifax will help organizations operationalize the best data with unparalleled predictive analytics and applied AI, and do so in a streamlined and cost-effective way.”

The Data Decisions Cloud will enable institutions to better navigate differentiated data to find insights and build highly-predictive models that add greater personalization and protection to the customer experience. For FIs in particular, the solution aims to accelerate the pace of innovation around data and decisioning by helping them take advantage of technologies like explainable AI and neural networks.

Via the partnership, the two companies plan to launch additional joint initiatives later in 2019. Among the upcoming products are a connected system that promotes data science collaboration by providing real-time access to raw and trended data, and an AML/KYC compliance-as-a-service solution. FICO and Equifax also plan to introduce an integrated, pre-screen marketing automation solution that creates FCRA-compliant, customer acquisition and retention campaigns.

“We are energized about this broad partnership between Equifax and FICO,” Equifax CEO Mark W. Begor said. “Two industry leaders are joining forces to help financial institutions better meet the needs of consumers and improve business agility.”

FICO (which stands for Fair Isaac Corporation) participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr NewYork in 2016, with a presentation called Rapidly Deliver Contextually-Powered Stream Processing. Members of the company’s product management and product engineering teams discussed how its Decision Management Platform transformed data “from raw to decision-ready” to help companies better manage risk, fraud, marketing, and customer service.

The company began the year with news of a partnership with electronics payments specialist Conductor to fight payment card fraud in Brazil. Also this year, FICO announced winning five new patents for fraud prevention, AI, and advanced analytics technologies. Founded in 1956 and headquartered in San Jose, California, FICO trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FICO, and has a market capitalization of $7 billion.

Atlanta, Georgia-based Equifax demonstrated its mobile app at FinovateFall 2011. More recently, the company introduced its Ignite solution in the U.K., and teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Experian to provide free credit monitoring via its TrustedID Premier service.

The global data analytics and technology company is active in 24 countries in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region, and employs 11,000 workers around the world. With a market capitalization of $14 billion, Equifax trades on the NYSE under the ticker EFX.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Equifax, FICO, Finantix, Ledger, NDGIT, Plaid

On Finovate.com

  • FICO and Equifax Forge Strategic Partnership.

Around the web

  • Motive Partners closes investment in Finantix announced in December.
  • Since launching in the region last year, Plaid expands coverage in Canada, adding support for Desjardins, National Bank of Canada, President’s Choice, and Simplii.
  • NDGIT’s API platform enables UBS to deliver PSD2 APIs for TPPs.
  • Ledger partners with Hong Kong-licensed Legacy Trust to introduce institutional-grade custody solution to accelerate the flow of institutional money into digital assets.

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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Nutmeg Says No to IPO, Opts for Crowdfunding Instead

Nutmeg Says No to IPO, Opts for Crowdfunding Instead
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Nutmeg

Two months after closing a $58 million investment, U.K. wealth management company Nutmeg announced it will crowdfund its next bout of funding.

Nutmeg is opting to sell shares to its clients, rather than list the company on a public exchange, which would subject it to the volatility of the market. The company will be using Crowdcube as its crowdfunding platform.

“We’re pleased that we will soon be giving eligible Nutmeg customers the chance to become shareholders alongside our existing investors like Convoy, Goldman Sachs and Balderton Capital, among others,” the company announced on its website. Customers who hold a Nutmeg account on May 15 will get early access to participate in the crowdfunding round and those who sign up on Crowdcube will receive updates as soon as it goes live (the timing of the launch is currently undisclosed). The company plans to use the funds to fuel international expansion.

On its website announcing the offer, Nutmeg reminds potential participants that purchasing the shares is “high-risk” and “isn’t for the short term.” The company reinforced the non-traditional nature of the investment, saying that it “isn’t listed on any stock exchange, and you won’t be able to sell your shares until the business achieves an ‘exit’, such as being sold to another company or floating on a stock exchange.”

Since it was founded in 2011, Nutmeg has raised $148 million from 13 investors, including Convoy, Goldman Sachs, and Balderton Capital. The company currently manages $2 billion (£1.5 billion) in funds for its 65,000 clients in the U.K.

Nutmeg showcased its digital investment management at FinovateEurope 2012 in London. Last year, the company was featured on Fidor Bank’s digital marketplace as an inaugural partner. Co-founded by Nick Hungerford and William Todd, Nutmeg appointed Martin Stead as CEO in 2015.

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YellowDog Raises $3.3 Million in Series A

YellowDog Raises $3.3 Million in Series A
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Funding, YellowDog

In a round led by Bloc Ventures, cloud computing scheduling and orchestration management platform YellowDog announced securing an additional $3.3 million (£2.5 million) in Series A funding. The investment brings the total raised for the company’s Series A to more than $5.5 million (the company raised $2.2 million – £1.7 million – in March of last year.)

The financing also featured participation from Vodafone and ARM Holdings. YellowDog said that it will use the additional capital to scale its business and continue its successful expansion into financial services.

The company also announced that Reid Downey, an executive with 10 years’ experience leading software and cloud enterprise sales of Microsoft Azure and Office365 to Fortune 500 firms, will join YellowDog’s board of directors.

Left to right: CEO and founder Gareth Williams and CTO Simon Ponsford demonstrating YellowDog for Financial Services at FinovateEurope 2019.

“We are excited to welcome Reid to the Board and to secure this further funding given our tremendous year of growth ahead,” YellowDog CEO Gareth Williams said. “With our recent wins in the financial services market and more in the pipeline this year, we are only at the tip of the iceberg in this market.”

“The funding will enable us to support our global customer base and extend our technology into new markets such as aerospace,” he added.

YellowDog demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2019. With more than 1,500 customers in 42 countries around the world, YellowDog leverages high performance cloud compute orchestration technology to enable businesses to accurately anticipate the computing resources required to complete complex computational workloads.

With customers in a wide variety of verticals – from entertainment studios to financial services, YellowDog helps companies not only use computing resources more efficiently, they also save significantly on the cost of connectivity – which can be significant when it comes to cloud-based high performance computing.

And in addition to providing intelligent, optimized orchestration, YellowDog’s technology also functions across multi-vendor cloud fabric, providing the high level of compute resilience that some firms, especially those in financial services, require.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Bristol, U.K., the company was shortlisted for the Tech Company of the Year award at the U.K. Business Tech Awards in 2018. Also last year, YellowDog won the Business Innovation Award at the inaugural Best New Business Awards. U.K.-based Business Leader magazine identified the company among its 32 South West Tech Businesses That Are Shaping the Future profile.

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