Digital Bank Zand and Business Banking Platform Yuze Announce Strategic Alliance

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
Two UAE-based companies—digital bank Zand and business banking platform Yuze—have teamed up to help small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs secure digital business accounts. The strategic alliance between the two firms is designed to make financial services available to eligible, underserved companies via fast onboarding, an IBAN account, digital banking solutions, and advanced business tools. Both companies are headquartered in Dubai. Zand was founded in 2018. Yuze launched in 2022. Blockchain-powered digital bank Zand and digital business banking platform Yuze have teamed up to help small businesses, startups, and entrepreneurs secure digital business accounts. The strategic alliance will enable eligible, underserved businesses in the UAE to access financial services via Yuze's platform. "The SME sector is a key growth engine driving the UAE economy," Zand CEO Michael Chan said. "We are excited to partner with Yuze to support the business banking needs of SMEs and startups across the UAE, with our…

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Citi Taps CredAble for Trade Finance Controls

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Citi, Daily news
Citi has selected CredAble as a fintech partner to modernize trade finance controls by adding invoice and shipping data verification to its digital trade loan tools. By integrating CredAble’s white-labelled technology, Citi aims to reduce fraud, manual reconciliation, and post-disbursement risk while improving transparency and speed for corporate clients and their suppliers. The partnership reflects a broader trend of banks embedding fintech infrastructure into core trade finance workflows, as institutions look to add automation, intelligence, and trust to increasingly complex global supply chains. Citi has selected India-based CredAble, a company that provides working capital infrastructure for banks and other businesses, to modernize trade finance controls and better verify invoices after payments are made across global markets.  Through its network of more than 20 ecosystem partners, CredAble provides liquidity programs for enterprise ecosystems, offers API-based working capital solutions and embedded credit solutions for banks, and provides an all-in-one credit, trade, and…

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Cobalt Credit Union Teams Up with Eltropy to Deploy AI Voice

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Eltropy
Eltropy, an AI-powered conversations platform for community financial institutions (CFIs), announced this week that Nebraska-based Cobalt Credit Union has deployed its Eltropy AI Voice solution. This has enabled the credit union to secure an 83% session containment rate while maintaining high member satisfaction. Session containment rates refer to the percentage of customer interactions that are successfully resolved by the AI without the participation of a human agent. Typically, these rates range between 60% and 80%, and are lower than those for text-based systems due to the greater complexity of voice-based AI systems and the nuances of natural language processing (NLP) in spoken conversations. For Cobalt to achieve session containment rates exceeding 80% with its voice-based system is a significant achievement. "From day one, our AI-powered contact center assistant, Coby, has delivered measurable results and positive feedback from both members and staff," Cobalt Credit Union VP of Digital Banking Chasmine McIntosh…

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Welcome to 2026! First Look at Europe Demos

By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateEurope 2026
FinovateEurope 2026 takes place in London on February 10 and 11. Register to attend and save up to £400. FinovateEurope is returning to London in February, spotlighting the latest in fintech innovation. The exceptional lineup of 30+ cutting-edge demos and 1,000+ senior-level attendees—including an impressive 600+ from banks and other financial institutions—makes FinovateEurope a must-attend event. This year’s demo lineup showcases the key trends driving change across the financial services sector and the innovative technologies bringing them to life. Here’s an early look at the first wave of companies taking the stage: Stay tuned for more announcements as we reveal the next wave of innovators in the coming weeks! Interested in demoing? Applications are still open! FinovateEurope is the perfect platform for organizations driving innovation in financial services—whether you’re a startup, bank, public entity, or established leader. Demoing offers unparalleled exposure, including: 7-minute demo slot on the main stage A plug-and-play exhibit hall stand Speaker passes and lead generation…

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Cross-Border Payments Fintech Flutterwave Acquires Open Banking Firm Mono

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
Flutterwave has agreed to acquire Mono, bringing open banking capabilities fully in-house as it pushes toward a more interoperable financial infrastructure across Africa. The deal allows Flutterwave to natively integrate financial data access, identity verification, and account-to-account payments. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cross-border payments company Flutterwave revealed it has agreed to acquire Mono, a fellow Africa-based fintech focused on providing open banking tools. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. For Flutterwave, investing in open banking technologies shows that it is committed to building an interoperable financial system for Africa. While Flutterwave originally partnered with Mono in 2022, the acquisition will allow the company to fully integrate Mono's API-driven open banking elements. The native integration will offer users secure access to financial data, identity verification, and account-to-account payments. It will also create a clear path for expanding into richer alternative payment methods, authenticated payment flows, and open…

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Returning to the Office? Here’s the Top Fintech News You Missed

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column
If you stepped away from your desk over the holidays, you are probably realizing that fintech didn't slow down while you were gone. Even if your email inbox is finally back to zero at this point, we're here to help you filter out the noise and catch up on the important fintech news you missed. Below, we’ve rounded up the most important fintech developments that broke during the holiday lull. December 19 Mercury applies for OCC national bank charter to become the bank for builders. Business banking fintech Mercury submitted an application to the OCC for a national bank charter and applied for federal deposit insurance with the FDIC. Receiving approval from these agencies would allow Mercury to operate as an FDIC-insured national bank. The move would grant Mercury independence from its partner banks, Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., giving the fintech full control of its customers. European Central Bank (ECB) completes…

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Experian Integrates Corporate Commercial Data to its Ascend Platform

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Experian
Global data, technology, and analytics company Experian announced that its commercial data is now available on its Ascend platform. The news means that companies using Ascend will be able to access and analyze Experian's full commercial data suite within a single platform. Founded in 2006, Experian has been a Finovate alum since 2011. The company's corporate headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland. Data, technology, and analytics company Experian reported today that its commercial data is now available on its Ascend platform. The company's cloud-based analytics and decisioning solution, Ascend, combines Experian's data assets and advanced analytics tools. The newly announced integration will enable companies to access and analyze Experian's full commercial data suite within a single platform. This alleviates the need for separate integrations as well as manual data pulls. Experian UK&I Chief Product Officer, Business Information, David Gallihawk said that the enhanced offering will help customers using the Ascend platform…

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Experian, Fintech Rundown, Fiserv, MasterCard
2026 begins in earnest today as the first full working week of the year gets underway. Be sure to check in with Finovate's Fintech Rundown over the next few days to get you up and running with the latest in fintech news and announcements! Open banking Flutterwave acquires African open banking infrastructure company Mono. Credit and analytics Experian announces availability of its commercial data via its Ascend platform. Investing and wealth management Universal Exchange (UEX) Bitget opens its TradFi trading suite to all users. TradeStation unveils the upcoming launch of TITAN X, its next generation of its flagship trading platform designed for active traders. Crypto and DeFi Telcoin, a digital asset bank that just won final charter approval from the Nebraska Department of Banking and Finance, launches its eUSD stablecoin. Kast, a financial platform built on stablecoin rails, expands global payouts to 11 new local currencies including GBP, EUR, and…

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Finovate Global: A Salute to Our 2025 International Alums

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global
Before heading out for the holidays, Finovate Global shared a look back at the entrepreneurs and innovators we interviewed in 2025. Today, as the new year begins in earnest for many, we are officially saluting those companies hailing from outside the US that made the journey to our fintech conferences in London, San Diego, and New York in 2025. As you can see, Finovate continues to attract innovative fintech talent from around the world to be a part of our unique events. Want to join the roster? FinovateEurope is currently accepting applications for the upcoming February conference in London, February 10 and 11. Wherever you and your team call home, we are happy to learn more about you and your ready-to-demo innovation. Check out our FinovateEurope Apply to Demo page to learn more! APIMatic Founded in 2014, APIMatic is a developer experience platform for APIs that enables organizations to drive…

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Where Are They Now? Highlights from FinovateEurope 2025 Best of Show Winners

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2026
Last year’s FinovateEurope conference brought together fintech creators from around the world. At the event, our audience voted for three standout companies that took home Best of Show honors for their demos. Almost a year out from FinovateEurope 2025, and with FinovateEurope 2026 coming up on February 10 and 11, we’re taking a look at how last year's three Best of Show winners in innovation have continued to grow, influence their markets, and shape the future of financial services technology. Keyless At FinovateEurope 2025, Keyless showcased its privacy-preserving biometric authentication solution that replaces traditional, multi-factor authentication with fast, passwordless identity verification using zero-knowledge biometrics. Nine months later, the company agreed to be acquired by identity and access management company Ping Identity. Keyless’s biometric authentication technology will be integrated into Ping Identity’s platform to expand adoption of secure, privacy-first login experiences across enterprise environments. This acquisition not only validates Keyless’s technology…

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11 Finovate Alums Raised More than $1.4 Billion in Q4; More Than $3.3 Billion in 2025

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: abacus, Avalara, Basis Theory, Feedzai, Funding, Kaaj AI, Kobalt Labs, MoEngage, Offset Labs, Qolo, Quarterly Funding, Ripple
Finovate alums raised more than $1.4 billion in the final three months of 2025. The funding total in the fourth quarter of the year is the best Q4 for alum funding in more than a decade. The historic Q4 also takes the annual total capital raised by Finovate alums to levels not seen since 2021. As we learn more about the overall level of fintech funding in the fourth quarter and for the full year, it will be interesting to see if this impressive performance by Finovate alums reflects broader investment trends in the industry. Previous Annual Comparisons 2024: $553 million 2023: $1.2 billion 2022: $2.7 billion 2021: $8.4 billion A total of 46 Finovate alums reported funding in 2025, totaling more than $3.3 billion. This figure represents the largest fundraising year for Finovate alums since the blow-out year of 2021 in which more than $8 billion was raised. Previous…

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Finovate Global: Our Top Interviews of 2025

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Boku, Cinareo Solutions, Dimply, EverC, Finovate Global, List series, Torus
Our Finovate Global interview series provides deep dives and extended conversations about fintech innovation around the world—especially in countries outside of the US. This year, we have featured seven different discussions on fintech topics ranging from payments and regtech to Islamic finance and workforce management solutions. Click the headlines below to access the interviews. If you are a Finovate alum headquartered outside the US and would like to share your story with our readers, then consider being a part of our Finovate Global interview series in 2026. Reach out to me at [email protected]—we'd love to have you join us! With that, we hope you enjoy these conversations and maybe even find one that you might have missed. And thanks to Jac, Karen, Kirill, Stav, Stuart, Maya, and Dilshod for being a part of our Finovate Global interviews of 2025. Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world. Central…

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