Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Capsilon, Checkbook.io, EVRY, Insuritas, NestReady, Onfido, PayPal, ProfitStars, Salt Edge, SocietyOne, Tinkoff Bank, Tyfone

On Finovate.com

  • Onfido Raises $50 Million in New Capital.
  • Salt Edge Earns Account Information Service Provider License from FCA.

Around the web

  • Tinkoff Group of Russia builds supercomputer dubbed the most powerful in financial sector.
  • PayPal joins Series A round for Cambridge Blockchain.
  • EVRY partners with ACI Worldwide to enhance its mobile payment service in the Nordics and Europe.
  • ProfitStars wins 2019 FinTech Breakthrough Award for Best Business Lending Platform
  • Capsilon expands executive team, forms new product organization to drive mortgage innovation. Check out Capsilon’s newest tech at FinovateSpring in May.
  • SocietyOne launches new investor trust.
  • Portland Business Journal: Tyfone brings credit unions the digital tools members want.
  • Insuritas partners with Nymeo FCU to launch digital insurance agency.
  • NestReady to power integrated homebuying experience for Resource Financial Services.

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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OnDeck Acquires Evolocity

OnDeck Acquires Evolocity
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, On Deck Capital

Alternative small business lending platform OnDeck finalized its purchase of Canada-based small business lender Evolocity Financial Group. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The closing of this transaction signals a new era of online lending innovation on behalf of Canada’s small businesses,” said Noah Breslow, CEO of OnDeck. “As one of Canada’s leading online lenders to the crucial small business sector, we are well-positioned to provide financing options that will benefit Canadian small business owners from coast to coast.”

Evolocity brings expertise in Canadian underwriting practices, as well as local business relationships and knowledge to the table. Combined with OnDeck’s marketing and international online lending experience, the two businesses will offer small businesses across Canada access to working capital finance solutions.

The combined companies will operate under the name and branding of OnDeck Canada, with Evolocity CEO Neil Wechsler serving as CEO of OnDeck Canada. Evolocity co-founders David Souaid and Harley Greenspoon will serve as chief revenue officer and chief operating officer, respectively.

OnDeck was founded in 2007 and has loaned more than $10 billion to small businesses in 700 different industries across the United States, Canada, and Australia since launch. The company leverages its OnDeck Score to underwrite loans and deliver funds to small businesses in as little as 24 hours.

OnDeck most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2012. The publicly traded company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ONDK and has a market capitalization of $418 million.

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Fintech’s Newest Unicorn Bill.com Raises $88 Million in New Funding

Fintech’s Newest Unicorn Bill.com Raises $88 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bill.com, Funding

In a round led by Franklin Templeton, business payments innovator Bill.com has raised $88 million in new funding. The investment, which also featured participation from Mastercard, Fidelity Canada, FLEETCOR, Tamasek, and others, takes Bill.com’s total funding to $275 million, and gives the company a valuation of more than $1 billion.

“Bill.com is changing how payments are made in the SMB market by defining an industry leading payment and software platform for SMBs,” company founder and CEO René Lacerte said. “Businesses struggle with conventional payment processes which are complex, manual, paper-based and not always secure. Our cloud payment platform is changing all that. We automate payments and back office business processes resulting in significant efficiencies and cost savings.”

In addition to the funding announcement, Bill.com revealed that it has teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard to offer its virtual cards as part of Bill.com’s automated AP solution for SMEs. The move is part of Bill.com’s effort to further digitize the payment process, leveraging virtual card technology to make funds more readily available to cardholders and to ensure accurate matches between payments and receivables.

Mastercard Small Business Lead for North America Ginger Siegel highlighted the advantages of virtual cards, and praised the collaboration with Bill.com as a way to increase adoption of the technology. “Virtual cards are more secure and provide transparency into cash in-flows and out-flows, which is critical to the growth of all small businesses,” Siegel said. “With the partnership with Bill.com, we can bring the benefits of virtual cards to hundreds of thousands of smaller enterprises in the United States.”

Bill.com demonstrated the Cashview feature of its platform at FinovateSpring 2012. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, the company made fintech headlines recently when it announced that it was ending wire transfer fees for small businesses using its International Payments technology. Earlier this year, Bill.com announced a partnership with American Express to offer a new solution to streamline vendor payments, Vendor Pay.

Founded in 2006, Bill.com manages $60+ billion in annual payment volume in its three million member network, and includes more than 70 of the top 100 accounting firms in the U.S. among its clients. Bill.com is also partnered with major accounting software providers like QuickBooks and Xero, and is the preferred digital payment solutions provider for CPA.com.

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TradeIt To Be Acquired by TradingView

TradeIt To Be Acquired by TradingView
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, TradeIt

Trading API and app developer TradeIt has agreed to be acquired by long-time partner TradingView. The company will leverage TradeIt’s technology to bring mobile trading to the more than 10 million monthly active retail users in 150+ countries who use its social trading platform. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition is the latest evolution in a relationship that extends back “several years,” according to TradeIt CEO and founder Nathan Richardson. “TradingView’s vision aligns strongly with our view of the distributed financial networks of the future,” he said. “(We’ve) always felt our complimentary products and shared retail investing users makes us stronger together.”

TradeIt’s API infrastructure connects to more than $70 billion in actively traded assets at top U.S. brokerages. Its technology enables financial publishers and app developers to link users’ brokerage and investment accounts, and provides support for transactions in most asset classes, including stocks, ETFs, options, and currencies. TradeIt’s solutions include Trading Ticket,  an order management tool; PortfolioView, which links and provides access to account balances and positions; and Account Opening, which enables customers to open new brokerage accounts in less than two minutes.

TradeIt noted in its statement that brokers have seen a 10x increase in activity among active traders and a 5x gain in account funding when linked to TradeIt’s platform. The company’s partners include Bloomberg, Business Insider, as well as fellow Finovate alums TipRanks and Divy.

In the announcement, TradeIt and TradingView quoted Insight Venture Partners’ Paul Szurek who express optimism about the new, combined entity. “The product pipeline of account opening and messaging services being delivered by TradeIt makes TradingView an essential retail investors service,” he said. Insight Venture Partners led a Series B round for TradingView last year.

TradingView CEO and founder Denis Globa added the combination will help make his company “part of the backbone of the investing ecosystem.” He said that TradingView also will add to TradeIt’s ecosystem with new account opening and messaging solutions. TradeIt users will gain access to TradingView’s charting and quoting functionality.

TradeIt demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2015. Founded in 2014, the company is headquartered in New York City.

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A Primer for Fintech’s Biggest Event this Spring

A Primer for Fintech’s Biggest Event this Spring
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2019

In just over a month we’ll be on the ground in San Francisco making last minute preparations for one of the year’s biggest events in the fintech sector, FinovateSpring. The main event will take place May 8 through 10 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square. This year, there is an option to add to your ticket an exclusive Summit Day, which takes place on May 7. Book now to take part.

Your sneak peek into the demos

Between our full (and growing!) roster of demo companies and our content day where top-name analysts discuss the hottest industry trends, there’s a lot to prepare for. That’s why, starting next week, we’ll launch our Sneak Peek blog series so that you can get ahead with an insider’s look into what each demoing company will debut on stage.

But wait, there’s more

After the demos are complete and the Best of Show honors have been awarded, the third day of FinovateSpring will bring an entire day of discussions and keynotes to explore. So stay tuned on the blog for exclusive interviews with presenters, an analysis of the fintech trends we can expect to see during the show, and a look at the star-studded speaker lineup that’s loaded with fintech celebrities.

For more details on FinovateSpring, view the list of demoing companies, take a look at the agenda, check out the full speaker lineup, and plan your visit. Have questions? Send us your inquiry and we’ll respond as soon as possible.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: BehavioSec, Bill.com, CoverHound, D3 Banking, Jack Henry, On Deck Capital, TradeIt

On Finovate.com

  • TradeIt To Be Acquired by TradingView.
  • Fintech’s Newest Unicorn Bill.com Raises $88 Million in New Funding.

Around the web

  • BehavioSec listed among Enterprise Management Associates’ Top 3 Report Ten Priorities for Enabling Identity Management in 2019.
  • Zions Bancorporation selects D3 Banking’s Digital Banking Platform.
  • Commonwealth Bank & Trust selects Jack Henry to improve efficiency, attract business with modern services.
  • CoverHound to open an East Coast office in Charlotte.

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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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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