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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Faraday is the end-to-end machine learning platform for the B2C tech stack. Data, integrations, algorithms – it’s all built in and ready to power your systems in six to eight weeks.
Features
End-to-end AI, everything built in
Actionable insights and predictions
Supported by Faraday data scientists
Why it’s great Operationalize real, actionable AI in six to eight weeks, at less than the cost of hiring a data scientist.
Presenters
Cory Albert, Account Executive Albert has a strong background in strategic software and marketing technologies. At Faraday, he helps clients implement custom AI capabilities to exceed their goals. LinkedIn
Riley Dickie, Account Executive Dickie has worked with Faraday’s consumer finance clients for the past three years, helping them take full advantage of their customer data with AI. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Fortress Identity’sMulti-Factor Authentication enables you to wrap entry, access, assets, and transactions in flexible layers of active and passive biometric security.
Features
Specify whatever biometric factors you wish to deploy
Implement with minimal code
Give users a frictionless experience
Why it’s great The Fortress Identity Multi-factor Authentication SDK provides facial, fingerprint, voice, and behavior biometric protection all in one package to quickly step up security as your needs evolve.
Presenter
Alessandro Chiarini, Founder and CEO For 11 years, Chiarini has advised financial institutions in North and South America on securing themselves against cybercrime. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
ID R&D’sSafeChat delivers the world’s first zero-effort authentication for mobile and web banking apps, providing the best possible user experience with higher security.
Features
No effort for users to authenticate; simply use the app normally
Multi-modal biometrics provide strong confirmation of identity
Authentication occurs on each transaction, increasing security
Why it’s great Low effort, biometric-based authentication will become the standard for all banking apps.
Presenters
Alexey Khitrov, President Khitrov’s recognition of user frustration and weak security in current authentication processes led him to use his deep experience in biometrics to found ID R&D. LinkedIn
John Amein, VP of Sales Amein has many years of experience in biometrics, contact centers, and telecommunications. He has helped several tech companies grow rapidly. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateAsia Digital on June 22, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
ClickSWITCH is an account acquisition technology for financial institutions and fintechs that automates the process of switching direct deposits and automatic payments.
Features
Automated switch solution for direct deposits and automatic payments
Ability to drive deposits and increase primary account holders
API capability enables you to build and design your own user interface
Why it’s great There’s a war for deposits in financial services. FIs are fighting to be the primary financial provider for their customers. ClickSWITCH can solve these problems by driving deposits and increasing efficiency.
Presenters
Cale Johnston, Founder & CEO Johnston is an entrepreneur who believes banking should be easy. He oversees global business strategy with a focus on innovation, growth, and investor and customer relations. LinkedIn
Adam Pearl, Regional Vice President of Sales Pearl is an experienced, results-driven sales leader specializing in bank technology. He is working out of Chicago with a focus on relationship management and national customer growth. LinkedIn
ACI Worldwide to help Indonesia interbank network ALTO to expand its payment capabilities.
Jack Henry & Associatesunveils its digital account opening solution, JHA OpenAnywhere.
Worldpay to releaseFraudSight machine learning-powered fraud solution.
PAUL UK selectsYoyo to introduce a combined mobile payments and personalized loyalty app to its customers.
Mintrolls out a new app experience for Android users
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.
SME online financier BlueVine is collaborating with GovQuote to help small businesses that serve state, local, and education (SLED) government agencies get the working capital they need.
“Our mission is to bring liquidity to the entire government procurement ecosystem, making it efficient and transparent, through the use of technology,” founder and CEO of GovQuote Jeff Rubenstein said. “It’s that simple.”
GovQuote is a free public procurement marketplace that helps connect the 90l000 state, local, and education government agencies that comprise the U.S. SLED market with small business vendors. The company’s platform provides an easy virtual environment where SLED agencies can get quotes from a database of thousands of SMEs competing for their business. Agencies can take advantage of GovQuote’s technology to get quotes in less than 60 seconds and a complete digital record for compliance.
The market for SLED agencies is sizable, but it is often a challenging one for SMEs. The procurement process can be long – with businesses waiting more than 90 days for payment on government-ordered goods and services. By providing funding for inventory, to hire additional staff, or to cover potential cash flow issues, BlueVine’s line of credit and invoice factoring offerings give SMEs options that allow them to compete confidently for SLED clients.
GovQuote’s partnership with BlueVine will be especially helpful for SMEs that have traditionally struggled to secure financing, Rubenstein said. Together, BlueVine and GovQuote will give these entrepreneurs what he called “the power to level the playing field in the government market and quickly get access to tailored funding solutions.”
BlueVine enables small business owners to get up to 95% of their invoice payment immediately, with weekly financing rates as low as 0.25%. Eligible borrowers can get advances of up to $5 million, with no funding minimums, and no cancellation or sign-up fees.
“The government and education market is growing, presenting many growth opportunities to small businesses,” BlueVine CEO and founder Eyal Lifshitz said. Underscoring the cash flow challenges that are a major obstacle for many SMEs that could otherwise compete in this market, he explained how BlueVine’s line of credit and invoice factoring offerings can make a difference.
“By combining the power and simplicity of GovQuote’s platform with on-demand financing options provided by BlueVine, we’re leveling the playing field for small business owners that serve state, local, and education agencies,” Lifshitz said.
BlueVine demonstrated its small business financing platform at FinovateFall 2014. The company made fintech headlines at the beginning of the year with news of its partnership with Bullhorn to help finance staffing companies. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, BlueVine has raised $590 million in funding, and includes Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83 North, Credit Suisse, and M12 among its investors.
Enhanced customization and better data processing are among the major enhancements business process automation company bpm’online has just added to its platform. The latest version of the firm’s intelligent low code development technology is designed to make it easier for businesses to build new solutions faster by automating and accelerating day-to-day operations.
Bpm’online CEO and Managing Partner Katherine Kostereva credited client feedback for many of the changes added to the platform. “At bpm’online we believe you can’t build lasting customer relationships without powerful business processes and coherent strategy in place,” Kostereva said. “Striving to deliver immense value to our customers, we launched the update that remarkably enriches their experience with our software.”
The enhancements include the greater customization options in bpm’online’s self-service portal, as well as new administrative tools and the ability to automate more functions. Enhanced CRM functionality enables companies to accelerate and grow sales and marketing campaigns with technologies like extended dynamic content for email marketing. The update also includes connectors to enable users to readily integrate with solutions like Zoom and GoToWebinar.
Development and data management tools are also a big part of the update. With regard to data management, the company focused on data cleanliness by offering automation and new tools to help find and remove or merge duplicate data. Developers will benefit from more system customization options, as well as more control over user access during the development process. Bpm’online also highlighted efficiency updates to its mobile app, and the addition of Spanish localization.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and founded in 2002, bpm’online demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2018. Forrester recognized the company, with its partner network of more than 400, as a “strong performer” in digital process automation earlier this month. In February the global business software provider announced that it was teaming up with Meritus Business Partners, and had forged an agreement with intelligent green energy systems firm, KTC.
Bpm’online’s Kostereva was named one of the Top Women in Cloud Innovation by CloudNOW at the beginning of the year.
Sberbank Croatia has selected turnkey open banking platform provider, Token.io, to deliver PSD2 compliance and open banking capabilities, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
Sberbank Croatia, subsidiary of Sberbank, is integrating TokenOS into its banking infrastructure to establish PSD2 compliance and enable the system flexibility required for it to develop new services, such as bank direct payments and account aggregation.
The news extends Token’s relationship with Sberbank, which began in 2018 when Token announced a partnership with Sberbank Slovenia, as Token sees increasing interest from the region.
Csaba Soos, CEO of Sberbank Croatia, said: “The development of digital technology is one of Sberbank’s key strategic objectives and our partnership with Token demonstrates that progress is well underway at Sberbank Croatia. By cooperating with Token, we can offer an improved user experience and a larger portfolio of value-added services for both our corporate and retail customers.”
Steve Kirsch, founder and CEO, Token added: “Our turnkey, cost-effective open banking solution is enabling Sberbank Croatia to comply with the PSD2 regulation while remaining focused on achieving its strategic goals and growth through innovative new services.”
Token said that being cloud-based gives Sberbank both flexibility and scalability when initiating and managing transactions. Now, Sberbank Croatia can be accessed by any regulated TPP in Europe.
The bank gains crypto-based security and programmable money technology together with operational support, consent management, monitoring and reporting.
The partnership with Sberbank Croatia comes on the heels of Token’s recent announcement that it was teaming up with Omnio Group to help the digital banking platform provider deliver open banking opportunities and PSD2 compliance for its clients.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Token.oi demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2017. The company has raised $18.5 million in funding, and includes Octopus Ventures, Plug and Play, EQT Ventures, and OP Financial Group among its investors.
Lendio franchise opens in Erie to expand access to capital for local businesses
InComm’sAlder APIwins award from the Innovative Payments Association.
BioCatch’s behavioral biometrics-based digital identity solution now available on the ForgeRock Marketplace.
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.
Payments optimization specialist Ixaris is working with financial service infrastructure company Banking Circle, and will leverage the company’s Virtual IBAN (International Bank Account Number) technology in order to support and streamline cross-border payments for the travel industry.
“Our partnership with Banking Circle allows Ixaris to offer an even more competitive edge to our travel customers, not only by optimizing payments but by creating a seamless cross border transaction process across more than 25 currencies in 60 countries in a way that banks would simply would not allow,” Ixaris CEO Aran Brown explained.
Banking Circle’s virtual IBAN technology enables companies to send and receive low-cost, real-time payments anywhere in the world. This technology alleviates the need for businesses looking to send money across borders to have a physical location – and a physical bank account – in the areas they wanted to operate it. The combination of Ixaris’ payment optimization with virtual IBAN technology improves cross border payment efficiency, leading to greater revenues and, potentially, greater profits.
“Banking Circle Virtual IBAN plays an invaluable role in delivering faster, cheaper payments to merchants transacting around the globe,” Banking Circle CEO Anders la Cour said. “Unlike traditional business to business cross border payments, which can incur high bank charges and payment delays, our innovative and multi-award winning solution enables Ixaris to give customers their own virtual IBANs.”
Headquartered in Hellerup, Denmark, Banking Circle unveiled its Virtual IBAN technology in 2017. Soon afterwards, the company won the Best Corporate Payments Initiative in the Banking Technology awards.
Banking Circle was acquired by investment and private equity firm EQT last summer in a deal valued at $300 million. Also in 2018, Banking Circle announced a major new partnership with Alibaba, who will use the company’s technology and global network for digital payments.
Ixaris demonstrated the UI editor of its cloud-based open payments platform at FinovateEurope 2015. The company is also an alum of our developers conference, presenting2017 – The Year of Open Payments: Exploiting Disruption in the Payments Industry with the Open Payments Cloud at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2017.
More recently, Ixaris announced a new Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Georg von Brevern, and a new Commercial Director, Sean Ashton, earlier this month. The company has raised $8.8 million in funding and includes Future Fifty and EASME – EU Executive Agency for SMEs among its investors.
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.
Central and South Asia
India’s ZestMoney raises $20 million in new funding.
Fiserv to streamline and automate cash management processes for Eurasian Bank of Kazakhstan.
Indian digital investment advisor Kuvera raises $4.5 million in Series A financing.
Telecom operator Tcell and Wallet Factory launch mobile financial app, TezSum, in Tajikistan.
Cashfree, an Indian payments company, raised $5.5 million in a round led by Smilegate Investment.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazilian credit marketplace FinanZero raises $11 million in Series B funding.
Tencent Holdings invests in Argentine mobile payments app Uala.
Euromoney considers the battle for dominance in Brazil’s emergent fintech space.
Asia-Pacific
Expense management specialist Expensifyintegrates with Southeast Asia-based ride share company Grab.
WorldRemit initiates international transfers to UnionPay debit cards in China.
Singapore machine learning data analytics firm AIDA picks up investment from Mastercard.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ghanan fintech KudiGO raises $450,000 in seed funding.
The Financial Times looks at the rise of mobile money in Kenya.
South African accelerator and incubator Founders Factory Africa (FFA) and Standard Bank welcome five fintech startups to their incoming class.
Central and Eastern Europe
Sberbank partners with Digital Horizon and Gazprombank to support biometric technology company Speech Technology Centre.
Billon Solutions wins approval from Polish Financial Supervision Authority to operate as a registered e-money institution.
N26 announces plans to open a technology and innovation center in Vienna, Austria.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Vocalink brings real-time payments to Saudi Arabia courtesy of new partnership with Saudi Payments, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.
Investors from the Qatar Investment Authority believed to participate in SoFi’s $500 million funding round.
Financial Times looks at financial inclusion and “homegrown fintech” in Iraq.
Real estate investment platform Realty Mogulannounced this week that investors have funded more than 300 properties via its platform. The value of the 300 properties adds up to more than $2 billion.
“We are incredibly proud to share that we have now used crowdfunding to finance over 300 properties,” Jilliene Helman, RealtyMogul CEO told GlobeSt.com, which broke the news. “When I started RealtyMogul six years ago, there was a lot of questioning in the general real estate market about the potential impact of crowdfunding. I think this milestone proves that crowdfunding has become a viable source of funding transactions and also that digital investing is here to stay.”
Having 300 projects funded would be a notable achievement for a private equity firm, and is all the more impressive for a fintech. As Helman pointed out, “There are very few private equity firms in real estate that have financed 300 assets.”
Part of Realty Mogul’s strategy focuses on diversification. Sixty percent of the total properties were multi-family properties, many of which have 100 units or more. In fact, Realty Mogul has 17,383 units across its 300 properties, totaling almost 6 million commercial square feet.
Outlining the company’s plans for the future, Helman said, “Our goal is to continue to grow assets under management by investing in high quality commercial real estate where we like the risk-reward calculation.”
Founded in 2013, Realty Mogul has paid out $100 million to its 175,000 investors. The California-based company most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2014.
