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FinovateEurope is just 18 days away. Get ready for the cutting-edge demos and networking opportunities by taking a glimpse into the fintech products and solutions that will be showcased live on stage. With topics ranging from AI to SMB solutions, there’s lots to see for all fintech enthusiasts.
Finovate alums raised more than $800 million in the final months of 2018, taking the year’s fundraising total over the four billion mark.
This achievement represents the biggest fundraising year for Finovate alums, and serves as a testament to the enduring commitment to fintech innovation by a broadening community of investors.
Previous Annual Comparisons
The fourth quarter of 2018 was also one of the biggest fourth quarters for our alums in recent years.
Previous Quarterly Comparisons
The quarter’s top equity investments were the $300 million raised by fintech unicorn Coinbase, and the $250 million raised by Plaid, a veteran of our developers conference, FinDEVr. In sum, the top investments of Q4 2018 represented 97% of the quarter’s known total. Note that investments for three alums (and specifically the equity portion of a fourth alum’s combined debt and equity fundraising) were undisclosed.
Top 10 Equity Investments
Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q4 2018
October 2018: More than $388 million raised by seven alums
November 2018: More than $58 million raised by six alums
December 2018: More than $356 million raised by six alums
If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the fourth quarter of 2018, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.
Blockchain outfit Symbiont has closed a $20 million Series B funding round led by Nasdaq Ventures with participation from additional new investors including Galaxy Digital, Citi, Raptor Group, and others, reports Henry Vilar of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
Symbiont has developed a platform for institutional applications of blockchain technology.
The firm will use this funding round for deployments across various sectors including data management, mortgages, private equity, and syndicated loans.
“Our investment will also include the integration of Symbiont’s enterprise blockchain and smart contract platform into the Nasdaq Financial Framework,” said Gary Offner, head of Nasdaq Ventures.
Symbiont CEO and co-founder Mark Smith said: “Leveraging our financial markets and blockchain technology experience, our anchor partners like Vanguard, Lewis Ranieri, and Nasdaq will benefit from developing new distributed applications on Assembly, our enterprise blockchain and smart contract platform.”
Assembly enables financial institutions to maintain the peer-to-peer nature of their transactions with no central authority, while also getting a shared database with end-to-end privacy.
Symbiont received a big investment by Medici Ventures back in July 2017.
Founded in 2015, the company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, in 2016. At the event, Symbiont CTO and co-founder Adam Krellenstein presented Distributed Ledgers and Smart Contracts, a look at the architecture of the company’s Smart Securities system.
Bahrain-based Almoayed Technologies has teamed with banking tech platform provider Moven Enterprise for growth plans in the MENA region, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures (Finovate’s sister publication).
Under the terms of the partnership Almoayed will make Moven’s technology available to banks across the region.
“With open banking already mandated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, the Kingdom’s banks have a chance to ‘Advance to Go’ in this space and develop banking services that are the envy of the world,” said Abdulla Almoayed, CEO, Almoayed Technologies.
Brett King, executive chairman and founder, Movencorp, added that Almoayed has created a national open banking account aggregation platform in Bahrain that will enable banks to “deliver unique customer experiences”.
In terms of details, Moven will provide its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to the payment and account information flows generated by open banking. Banks can then use these insights for personalised and context-based information.
Almoayed has localised Moven’s platform in line with regulation and the requirements of banks in the region.
In mid-December 2018, Almoayed was confirmed by the central bank as the nation’s first AISP/PISP, having graduated from its regulatory sandbox providing account aggregation services.
Bahrain’s banks need an open banking action plan by the regulatory deadline of 30 January 2019. This is needed ahead of the final compliance deadline of 30 June 2019.
Founded in 2011, Moven most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateAsia 2017, presenting an expansion of its platform’s Wishlist functionality, as well as an all new credit feature. Last November, the company announced a partnership with mobile wallet company, Yandex.Money. In October, Moven Enterprise revealed plans to bring its technology to banks in Latin America, APAC, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe thanks to an investment of $10 million from SBI Group earlier in the year.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on February 12 through 14, 2019 in London, U.K. Register today and save your spot.
ITMAGINATION offers a new digital platform, based on real-time analysis of needs (Behaviolytics), that provides a complex offer or next best action, and proposes the most appropriate financing option to fulfill customers’ expectations.
Features
Why it’s great
ITMAGINATION’s new digital platform provides customers with personalized services (NBO/NBA) at the right time in one place.
Presenters
Helen Karaplios, Head of International Markets
Karaplios has worked in an international environment for almost 10 years. She has gained experience in providing IT solutions for international businesses across different industries and geographies.
LinkedIn
Adam Kepa, Head of Growth
Kepa has many years of experience in managing large and complex IT projects, as well as extensive knowledge and practice in the area of multi-business IT solutions that meet customer expectations.
LinkedIn
Mateusz Młynarczyk, Software Division Director
Młynarczyk has experience in IT project management for domestic and international clients, leading complex projects for the biggest, technical background, familiarity with IT trends and technologies.
LinkedIn
CybiWealth enables individuals to invest in an international share portfolio – starting with as little as £500 – in a simple, easily accessible and transparent way.
Features
Why it’s great
CybiWealth makes it easy for individuals to invest in an international share portfolio from just £500.
Presenters
Scott Cooper, CEO
Cooper is a former analyst in the Lloyd’s market with five year’s experience in the investment management industry. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and CEO of CybiWealth since its inception.
LinkedIn
Stewart Bates, Operations Specialist
Bates has a broad range of experience with the financial services industry covering all aspects of administration, client services, IT, and back office operations.
LinkedIn
PayKey has developed a unique Social Banking solution that enables users to instantly access key banking services from within ANY app – directly from their keyboard.
Features
Why it’s great
Engaging millennials requires tapping into social and messaging apps – where they spend hours. PayKey streamlines banking services into users’ digital life, offering truly contextual banking.
Presenters
Guy Talmi, CMO
Talmi leads PayKey’s strategy, marketing, and product management, with 20+ years of experience in global marketing, sales, and business development in telecom, financial services, and digital.
LinkedIn
May Michelson, Director of Business Development, Europe
Starting as a software developer at Intel, Michelson has a strong technical background and experience in technology integration. She is leading PayKey’s strategy in Europe.
LinkedIn
FI.SPAN will show how banks can deliver banking services directly into ERP and accounting services to their commercial clients.
Features
Why it’s great
FI.SPAN is the world’s first platform that enables banks to meet their commercial customers where they live.
Presenters
Clayton Weir, Co-Founder, Head of Strategy and Product
Weir oversees product strategy, partnerships, and marketing, and works closely with FI.SPAN’s product and business development department.
LinkedIn
Valery Novikov, Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer
Novikov leads the development team. Throughout his career, he faced multiple situations which proved that the ability to deliver fast is a key competitive advantage.
LinkedIn
Cantab PI is a R&D and consulting company focused on rapid data analytics and machine learning innovation. The company is already adding value to critical business issues for some of the leading global corporations.
Features
Why it’s great
Cantab PI offers a retail loan approval engine relying only on open banking/PSD2 data for transactions. Currently in production, it performs similarly or better than the legacy models of the bank relying on all the available info.
Presenters
Sinisa Slijepcevic, Founder and CEO
Slijepcevic is passionate about applying machine learning to business operations. He is grateful to be able to combine his scientific (PhD in Maths from University of Cambridge) and business (ex McKinsey) backgrounds.
LinkedIn
Domjan Barić, Project Manager
Barić is a wizard for both writing code and for managing teams,. He has an unbeatable positive spirit, a degree in physics, and passion for both deep learning and for scoring from the left wing.
LinkedIn
fiveºdegrees is an end-to-end digital core banking solution provider. The company will demonstrate how it can spin-up and configure on the spot a complete end-to-end bank in the cloud.
Features
Why it’s great
You are only a few steps away from starting your new bank tomorrow.
Presenters
Peter-Jan Van De Venn, Managing Director, Business Development
Van De Venn built a career as a consultant and became a specialist in IT strategy and management at various companies, including setting up a practice focused on online financial business.
LinkedIn
Fridrik Reynisson, Director, Product Development
Reynisson has 20 years experience in the IT industry. He has led the development of the Matrix platform from the start. He is currently focusing on the strategy of fiveºdegrees’ product development.
LinkedIn
On Finovate.com
Around the web
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.
Financial services software provider Zafin picked up $17.2 million in funding this week. The Series B round, led by Accenture Ventures, Beedie Capital, and Vistara Capital Partners, takes the company’s total financing to more than $47 million, and follows Zafin’s partial acquisition and strategic alliance between the company and Accenture announced in December.
In a statement, the company said the funding will help it “fully execute” its business plans, including expanding market share worldwide. Zafin founder and Group CEO Al Karim highlighted four areas – open banking, core transformation, AI, and machine learning – where he believed the company and its investment partners can deliver value.
Zafin’s technology powers strategic pricing, product, and customer strategies to help FIs increase profitability, deliver more personalized services and solutions, and compete more effectively. Alan McIntyre, head of Accenture’s global banking practice, praised Zafin’s offerings, noting how the company helped “financial institutions to improve pricing, personalization, and product make-up without having to replace their legacy systems.” McIntyre said this was especially important “for many of those not among the top ten players in the market.”
Vistara Capital Partners founder and managing partner Randy Garg was impressed by the company’s traction. “Zafin’s innovative solutions have become increasingly known amongst global banks as the sector continues to go through its technologically driven evolution,” Garg said. “Over the past several years of our involvement, it has been very satisfying to see the levels of adoption taking place with many of the world’s most discerning bank customers.”
Zafin demonstrated its miRevenue Enterprise Banking platform at FinovateFall 2017. The company was recognized by Deloitte as one of the fastest growing companies in Canada in 2016, and today has more than 40 global banking customers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia. Zafin was founded in 2002, and is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.