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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Paystand is acquiring Teampay. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Following the acquisition, Paystand will serve more than one million business customers.
Teampay will continue to serve its existing customers under the same brand, and things will be business as usual “in the near term.”
Cloud-based billing and payment platform Paystandannounced this week it has agreed to acquire expense management platform Teampay. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The strategic move marks the California-based company’s second acquisition. Paystand purchased procurement platform Yaydoo in 2022. Now, the company services more than one million companies.
Teampay was founded in 2016 to offer spend management, accounts payable automation, purchasing assistant, spend approval tools, accounting automation, and more to help small-to-mid-market businesses and enterprises automate their spending without sacrificing control.
Paystand, which leverages the blockchain and cloud technology to digitize and automate businesses’ cash lifecycle, will use Teampay to scale its services. “With the fusion of Paystand and Teampay we significantly expanded our network, which now touches over one million businesses,” Paystand said in a blog post announcement.
Logistically, Teampay will continue to serve its existing customers under the same brand, and things will be business as usual “in the near term.” The companies did not specify whether Paystand planned to dissolve the Teampay brand and bring the customers under its own platform.
Paystand was founded in 2013 to help businesses digitize receivables, automate processing, reduce time-to-cash, eliminate transaction fees, and enable new revenue. In addition to its B2B payments and billing capabilities, the company also helps businesses leverage the blockchain to securely record their payment history by certifying and notarizing payments on the blockchain. Paystand has raised a total of $98 million. Jeremy Almond is Co-Founder and CEO.
BMO is bringing its Greener Future Financing program to the U.S.
Green Future Financing is BMO’s first climate financing program to help SMEs become climate-resilient.
BMO’s program offers both climate resiliency loan discounts and green business advisory.
Canada-based BMO is bringing its Greener Future Financing program to the United States.
The eighth largest bank in North America by assets, BMO announced the launch earlier this week. Greener Future Financing is the financial institution’s first climate financing program designed to help SMEs build climate-resilient operations. Specifically, the program will offer climate resiliency loan discounts and green business advisory to help businesses meet their climate sustainability goals.
BMO’s announcement means that it will commit $30 million in support of SMEs that are investing in technologies to reduce their carbon footprint and mitigate the potential impact of weather-related events.
“Business leaders and our customers are telling us that they value products, services, and incentives that will help reduce their carbon footprint – as well as insights to help them adapt and thrive in this evolving business landscape,” BMO Head of U.S. Business Banking Niamh Kristufek said.
A look at the two main components of the program reveals an emphasis on both financial and human capital. The climate resiliency loan discounts give a rate discount of 0.5% on qualifying lending products including business term loans, business flex loans, owner-occupied commercial estate mortgage loans, and investor-owned real estate mortgage loans ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000. The loans must be used for program-approved purposes; for example, purchasing renewable energy technologies such as LED lighting, smart meters, flood proofing, and more. An additional 0.25% will be available for customers that set up automatic payments via a BMO business checking account when the loan is closed.
BMO’s green business advisory will help business owners get the information and capital they need to build climate resilient operations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The advisory will help SMEs better understand emerging climate-related policies and regulations, as well as technologies and case studies to help them better manage climate risks.
The program is slated to go live in 24 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In two of these states – Michigan and Texas – businesses participating in the program must be located within 100 miles of a BMO full-service retail branch in an adjacent state.
“BMO’s commitment to sustainability is guided by our Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, and our Climate Ambition to be our clients’ lead partner in the transition to a net-zero world,” Kristufek said. “Through our Greener Future Financing program, BMO is meeting these needs to help our customers make progress, advising them of climate-related risks and plans that future-proof businesses.”
Salesforce launched two new capabilities within its Einstein 1 platform, Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions.
Transaction Dispute Management helps service agents streamline dispute management, while Einstein Copilot Banking Actions serves as a chatbot and AI assistant for bank service agents.
Salesforce launched Einstein 1 in 2023 to enable customers to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into customer experiences.
Salesforce announced today it has launched new capabilities to help banks resolve transaction disputes. The new, AI-powered tools streamline the entire dispute process to resolve customer inquiries and requests more efficiently.
The new tools include Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions. These capabilities are available within one of Salesforce’s tool suites, Einstein 1, which the company launched in 2023 to enable customers to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into customer experiences. The two transaction dispute resolution tools help banks combine consumer transaction data with customer data from Salesforce to automate manual tasks, reduce errors, resolve issues, and improve customer communications.
The Transaction Dispute Management tool is an AI-powered solution that helps service agents at banks streamline dispute management. Like many dispute management tools on the market, Salesforce’s offering works for the entire dispute process– from the time a dispute is submitted until it is resolved. The tool helps banks maintain communication channels with customers, card networks, merchants, and issuing banks. One of Salesforce’s differentiating factors with the tool, however, is that it allows bank agents to use prebuilt email prompt templates and generative AI to draft personalized customer emails related to dispute activity within their workflow. Transaction Dispute Management also integrates with card networks to provide connected workflows, simplifying coordination with merchants.
The second capability Salesforce launched within Einstein 1 today, Einstein Copilot Banking Actions, is a chatbot and AI assistant for bank service agents. The tool helps agents ask questions and receive relevant responses based in metadata, then automate tasks within their workflow. For example, an agent can ask Einstein Copilot to trigger a fee reversal request for a disputed transaction, issue a provisional credit, or pull a list of recent customer transactions. Because all actions run within the Einstein Trust Layer, they do not compromise data security or privacy standards.
“The current process for managing transaction disputes is complex and cumbersome, leading to decreased productivity for bank service agents,” said Salesforce SVP & GM for Financial Services Eran Agrios. “These new capabilities simplify and streamline the entire transaction dispute cycle, enabling banks to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive innovation across their business.”
Salesforce was founded in 1999, and in the company’s 25 years of operations, it has expanded well beyond a simple CRM solution. The California-based company currently provides a host of sales and marketing tools, digital storefronts and commerce solutions, data analytics and visualization offerings, collaboration software, and more.
A part of Landings Credit Union for nearly a decade, Lee has spent the last four years as CEO. He started as CFO of the Arizona-based financial institution and, before that, worked as both a regulator and in public accounting. Founded in 1953 as “Tempe Schools Credit Union,” Landings Credit Union today has more than 15,000 members and assets of more than $238 million.
Last year Landings CU received the Dementia Friendly business designation, which ensures members that credit union staff are trained to both recognize and support individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. “In Arizona we are the fastest growing state for new cases for Alzheimers,” Lee explained, “so it’s a big deal here for us.”
This year, the financial institution garnered national recognition for its commitment to financial inclusion, earning the Juntos Avanzamos designation. The designation recognizes the work done by credit unions to serve and empower Hispanic, Latino, and immigrant communities. A national network launched in 2015, the Juntos Avanzamos program has a presence in 29 states, serving more than 12 million consumers at 141+ credit unions in the U.S.
In their Finovate podcast conversation, Palmer and Lee talk about using technology to bring new projects to life in the context of these recent successful outreach efforts. “How can we comb through our data and find these new data points that we’re looking for, aggregate (them), and say ‘Let’s be the ones who are going out and reaching out to people’,” Lee explained. “Whether from our own data or community data that’s out there: how do we use that to be able to serve more people?”
Check out Episode 213 of the Finovate Podcast and the rest of Greg Palmer’s conversation with Landings Credit Union CEO Brian Lee.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 21 and 22. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Atomic
Atomic’s PayLink simplifies subscription management by allowing consumers to efficiently manage, modify, and optimize recurring payments and subscriptions within their financial institutions.
Features
Update payment methods and change payment dates
Pause or cancel subscriptions and resubscribe without the hassle
Upgrade, downgrade or switch plans
Who’s it for?
Banks, fintechs, card networks, credit unions, etc.
ScribeUp
ScribeUp is the best-in-class subscription management solution directly behind a consumer’s card and banking products.
Finovate is best known for showcasing seven-minute fintech demos, and for this year’s FinovateSpring event (taking place May 21 through 23 in San Francisco), we have a lineup of fresh faces. Of the 40+ companies that will showcase their new technology during the conference, 33 companies have never set foot on the demo stage before.
That’s 33 companies that are new to us– and may very likely be new to you, too. Here’s an overview of the new-to-Finovate demo companies currently on the roster:
APIMatic APIMatic helps banks and fintechs generate ROI from their API investments via automation and AI solutions. The company is headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand and was founded in 2014.
Ascent Platform Ascent streamlines multiple new product experiences with less cost, less disruption, and less risk. The company simplifies and speeds integration of new point-of-sale experiences into a financial institution’s infrastructure, future-proofs the organization to launch new products and adopt the latest and greatest approach, collects and reuses customer data across all product lines in real-time, reduces due diligence and vendor management overhead, and provides greater control and security over point-of-sale data.
BaaSFlow With BaaSFlow, users can achieve higher growth and better consumer experiences at a fraction of the cost of a legacy core, which is often not performant, flexible, or modern enough to scale in the digital age.
Blee Blee helps organizations move to market quicker while increasing revenue and minimizing compliance risk. The company is headquartered in New York and was founded in 2022.
Bloom Credit Bloom Credit helps banks and credit unions offer a deposit retention and credit building tool to their client base. The company is headquartered in New York, NY and was founded in 2016.
Borealis Global Analytics Borealis Global Analytics’ virtual portfolio manager platform, powered by generative AI, aims to boost global equity portfolio returns by cutting costs associated with global equity data and research and increasing the efficiency of portfolio managers.
Candour Oy Candour Oy provides secure, quick identity verification that improves reliability and consumer convenience for financial institutions. The company is headquartered in Oulu, Finland and was founded in 2020.
Cardlay Payment Systems Cardlay Payment Solutions helps organizations with the growth and retention of their existing portfolios. The company is headquartered in Odense, Denmark and was founded in 2020.
Deeployalty Deeployalty assists banks in creating new value for customers and acquiring new data that will help create offers to increase transaction activity. Merchants gain the ability to stop printing paper receipts and receive a tool to attract new customers through bank partners already connected to Deeployalty.
DYNATREK DYNATREK looks to improve the timing and pricing of proposals, such as loans for customers, and enhance the administrative workflows centered on spreadsheets. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and was founded in 1999.
Endaoment Endaoment enables nonprofit organizations to facilitate crypto and stock donations without having to accept the asset directly. The company’s platform modernizes donation practices, connecting organizations with new funding sources and a new, diverse donor base.
Eqvista Eqvista’s cap table management tools enable companies, large and small, to optimize equity management and share values.
Foresight Foresight helps organizations find the right private company to do business with, research everything about them, and learn how they can impact a portfolio once they are involved with it.
Hapax Hapax uses technology to bridge the information access gaps between big banks and smaller banks. The company offers smaller FIs ubiquitous and immediate access to accurate and validated information to help them mitigate risk and stay compliant.
Instarails With Instarails, organizations and banks can offer instant, inexpensive, and inclusive payments that will increase revenue, generate growth, and provide entry into new markets.
LiquidTrust LiquidTrust helps banks and credit unions offer their business customers an improved customer experience (digital, self-serve), and helps them reduce the risk for buyers and sellers, grow their SMB customer-base, grow non-interest bearing deposits, and generate additional revenue (e.g. transaction and lending).
Lloyd Tevis Investments Lloyd Tevis Investments offers a smarter way to invest and a more intuitive, higher value-add way to engage with clients. The company is headquartered in Lafayette, CA and was founded in 2015.
Method Financial Method Financial’s platform helps financial institutions, fintechs, and lending institutions access liabilities held at over 15,000 institutions in the U.S., through real-time data and payment access for consumer liabilities by simply using a consumer’s PII, with no authentication required.
Modernbanc Modernbanc’s reconciliation software allows finance teams to leverage the power of AI and no-code automation to build complex reconciliation without the need for developers. This allows companies to increase leverage per employee, scale their finance and payments function, and increase profitability, without increasing their total headcount.
Nav.it Nav.it aids organizations in transforming and growing their businesses by enhancing employee financial wellness, leading to increased productivity and engagement. Its data-driven insights inform strategic decision-making, while its focus on financial health contributes to a positive organizational reputation and a culture of financial mindfulness. By integrating seamlessly with existing HR systems, Nav.it offers a scalable solution to improve overall workplace efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Parlay Protocol Parlay Protocol’s product can increase the chances that a loan applicant will gain access to small business funding while helping banks convert new customers and attract new borrowers.
PayToMe.co PayToMe.co automates and optimizes financial tasks like invoicing, payments, and compliance, allowing businesses to focus on strategic initiatives and growth. The company’s platform can be tailored to meet the specific needs of businesses at various stages of growth, ensuring they can scale effectively and efficiently. PayToMe.co ensures that businesses can offer seamless financial interactions, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Remynt Remynt can help creditors achieve higher recoveries and recapture defaulted consumers as customers when their financial position improves. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA and was founded in 2022.
Revelata Revelata helps analysts at investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, PE firms and beyond, become bionic at research and analysis by using AI to automate away the grunt work of surfacing structured data from unstructured sources.
Safari SOP Safari’s built-in risk and compliance tools provide a single, auditable process to monitor served documents throughout their lifecycle. The company is headquartered in Bellevue, WA and was founded in 2019.
ScribeUp ScribeUp is a subscription management solution directly behind consumer cards and banking products that offers streamlined controls over recurring bills for users and strategic and financial value for financial institutions.
Sherpas Sherpas brings AI to the core of financial services processes to deliver efficiency and improve the quality of advice that advisors give their clients, which makes it a stickier relationship and allows advisors to charge for expanded scope of advice. Sherpas helps advisors keep clients informed and engaged in a way that still feels like a high-touch relationship, reducing the need for 1-1 meetings.
Stock Unlock Stock Unlock offers an investment software platform helps retail investors make more informed decisions in the stock market. The company is headquartered in New York, NY and was founded in 2021.
Streetbeat Streetbeat aims to deliver more information, more clarity, and more confidence to investors by leveraging AI and offering personalized investment strategies designed to align with each investor’s unique goals and risk tolerance.
Tennis Finance Tennis Finance augments the work of compliance analysts and teams. The company helps banks understand issues in their products to increase customer satisfaction, which leads to higher deposits and new customers.
Tradery Labs Tradery Labs empowers organizations to transform and grow their businesses by offering a scalable, no-code, AI-driven trading platform that democratizes advanced algorithmic trading tools.
Trice The Trice platform offers off-core infrastructure and payments orchestration for real-time account to account (A2A) transfers, powered by Real-Time Payments (RTP). The technology enables direct connectivity for banks, fintechs, digital wallets, investing apps, lenders, credit unions, and payment providers to quickly deploy money movement experiences.
Winnow Winnow is an automated compliance change management platform that empowers organizations to build accurate state and federal law surveys. The company is headquartered in Anaheim, CA and is founded in 2018.
We’re still placing the final touches on the FinovateSpring agenda, but this year’s show is shaping up to be full of the most relevant and impactful conversations you’ll have all year. If you don’t have your ticket yet, there’ still time to register.
Impact asset manager Finance in Motion has teamed up with financial crime compliance specialist Napier AI.
Finance in Motion will deploy Napier AI Continuum as its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) platform.
London-based Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018.
Financial crime compliance company Napier AIannounced a partnership with impact asset manager Finance in Motion this week. The partnership calls for Finance in Motion to deploy Napier AI Continuum as its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) platform.
Additionally, Napier AI will include its Client Screening solution and Client Risk Assessment module as part of the Napier AI Continuum platform deployment. The objective is to provide Finance in Motion with the tools it needs to continue driving public and private capital toward impact investments in emerging markets – while ensuring that capital does not end up financing illicit or criminal activity.
Finance in Motion Managing Director Sylvia Wisniwski explained: “Like any institution, we have a duty to ensure that the public and private capital raised is used exclusively for the intended objectives, in our case impact investments in emerging markets. Accordingly, regulation requires effective measures to prevent funds from being used to finance criminal activities. The collaboration with Napier AI allows us to efficiently query data through automated processes and integrated systems.”
Napier AI Continuum will provide Finance in Motion with API-enabled, cloud native, automated client screening, and supports transliteration of 22 languages. The platform also offers AI fuzzy matching and secondary scoring capabilities. Finance in Motion will benefit from customizable workflows, a sandbox environment for optimizing screening configurations, and configurable dashboards with no-code rule binding and AI insights to drive efficient decisioning.
“The key to dismantling criminal networks lies in cutting off their sources of revenue entirely by correctly identifying accounts, transactions, and behavioural patterns associated with financial crime,” Napier AI CEO Greg Watson said. “Napier AI’s cutting edge compliance solutions supercharge Finance in Motion’s mission to generate positive change in emerging markets with automated client screening.”
Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and founded in 2009, Finance in Motion specializes in development finance. An impact asset manager, the company structures, advises, and manage both private debt and equity investments in emerging markets. The company supports financing of projects ranging from sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and biodiversity, to micro-finance, natural capital, and affordable housing.
Finance in Motion has $2.8 billion (€3.6 billion) in assets under management or advisory, and has active investments in 39 countries. Last month, the company was featured in the ImpactAssets 50 roster of the top 50 impact managers in the world. The recognition was the eighth consecutive listing for Finance in Motion, which was named “Emeritus Impact Manager.”
Founded in 2015, Napier made its Finovate debut three years later at FinovateEurope 2018. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its Customer Screening and Transaction Monitoring Enhancement tools help improve AML oversight. The technology reduces false positives by up to 80%, and can be used to supplement or replace existing customer screening systems.
Napier began 2024 announcing a partnership with Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) digital banking provider Satchel. The following month, Napier unveiled its Napier Continuum Live and Napier Continuum Flow services to facilitate the deployment of its AML platform. Napier Continuum Live is a plug-and-play hosted offering. Napier Continuum Flow is a headless API service.
Also in February Napier secured $56 million (£45 million) in funding from private equity firm Crestline Investors. The company said that the investment will help power business expansion over the coming years. The funds will also support Napier AI’s development of new NextGen screening and monitoring solutions powered by Explainable AI.
ComplyAdvantage announced plans to acquire knowledge engine builder Golden Recursion for an undisclosed amount.
ComplyAdvantage will implement Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation methods to help financial institutions minimize their risk of financial crime.
The deal will also increase ComplyAdvantage’s footprint in the U.S. and will make Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) a top shareholder of ComplyAdvantage.
Fraud and AML risk detection platform ComplyAdvantageannounced it has agreed to acquire knowledge engine builder Golden Recursion. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2017, Golden is developing a self-constructing knowledge database used to accelerate discovery and education. The San Francisco-based company combines human effort and machine intelligence to simplify the process of gathering and communicating knowledge. As a result, Golden has created one of the world’s largest knowledge graphs, a diagram that facilitates information analysis by displaying interconnected data points and their relationships.
“By combining our experienced team of AI and large language model (LLM) specialists with ComplyAdvantage’s industry-leading data science team, we are creating a global team of data experts,” said Golden Founder and CEO Jude Gomila. “Together, I’m confident we will transform financial crime risk management for businesses worldwide.” Gomila will join ComplyAdvantage as a board observer and special advisor.
Golden has raised almost $60 million, having Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as one of its top contributors. As part of today’s deal, a16z will become a top ComplyAdvantage shareholder, joining Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, and Balderton Capital.
“We are excited to welcome their talented team to the ComplyAdvantage family, alongside a16z, who bring powerful expertise as we embark on the next phase of our growth journey,” said ComplyAdvantage CEO Vatsa Narasimha.
U.K.-based ComplyAdvantage offers financial institutions a wide view of their vulnerability to financial crime. The company leverages AI and machine learning to sort through ComplyAdvantage’s database of entities, which is updated continuously to ensure accuracy. The company plans to implement Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation methods that use natural language processing to bring supplementary, disparate data sources into what ComplyAdvantage calls its “data ingestion layer.” These additional data points will offer ComplyAdvantage clients more comprehensive, real-time financial crime risk insights.
“Delivering AI-enriched financial crime insights to our customers through a best-in-class user experience built on the most interconnected data has been our north star at ComplyAdvantage since day one. The acquisition of Golden is a critical milestone on that journey,” saidNarasimha.
The acquisition will also help ComplyAdvantage expand its footprint in North America, specifically in the U.S. With its five offices based in New York, London, Singapore, Cluj-Napoca, and Lisbon, the company currently serves more than 1,000 organizations in 75 countries.
All three financial institutions announced this month that they are teaming up with small business lending platform JUDI.AI.
In a series of blog posts at the company’s website, JUDI.AI’s Director of Marketing Kyle Thom welcomed the three credit unions to what he called “our growing group of 35+ forward-thinking community lenders who are on a mission to reinvent small business lending.”
JUDI.AI offers credit unions and community banks an alternative approach to helping small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need. The company enables financial institutions to digitally transform their credit decisioning and underwriting operations to assess the financial health of their small business customers and members on a continuous basis.
In addition to instant cash flow analysis, automated underwriting, continuous monitoring, and real-time portfolio reporting, JUDI.AI adds automated analysis of current banking data to supplement traditional financial data sources such as credit scores and financial statements.
Here’s a look at JUDI’s new partners:
Apple Federal Credit Union. $4.3 billion in assets. 240,000+ members, Twenty-one locations across northern Virginia.
Carter Credit Union. $722 million in assets. 55,000+ members. Eleven locations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Fort Worth, Texas.
SCU Credit Union. $1.1 billion in assets. 67,000+ members. Eight locations in southern California and southern Nevada.
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, JUDI.AI made its Finovate debut at our all-digital fintech conference, FinovateWest 2020. Most recently, the company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022. At the event, Thom and JUDI.AI Chief Product Officer Su Ning Strube, demonstrated how the platform enables lenders to process 50% more SME loan applications without committing any additional resources, and approve 20% more loans with no added risk.
“What makes JUDI.AI unique in that we identify cash flow metrics that are predictive and correlated to future defaults, and we combine that information in our proprietary small business model with traditional credit scores to calculate the creditworthiness of any borrower,” Su Ning Strube explained from the Finovate stage.
In addition to the credit unions signed in April, JUDI.AI this year has also welcomed Canadian alternative lender Glasslake Funding and Hawaii’s Kauai Federal Credit Union to its client roster. Kauai FCU is the first and only certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) on the island of Kauai.
Betterment has agreed to acquire Goldman Sachs’ Marcus Invest.
The deal does not apply to Marcus Deposits and does not cover any of Marcus’ technology, employees, or operations.
Financial terms of the deal, as well as the number and value of Marcus Invest accounts, were undisclosed.
Automated investing service Betterment signed a deal with Goldman Sachs to acquire the digital investing accounts at Marcus Invest. Marcus Invest, which offers digitally customized investment portfolios to consumers, will transfer these accounts to Betterment in the coming months. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
The acquisition does not apply to Marcus Deposits, Goldman Sachs’ neobank that currently serves over three million customers globally and has more than $100 billion in consumer deposits. Goldman Sachs plans to maintain possession of and continue to focus on growing Marcus Deposits. The deal also does not cover any of Marcus’ technology, employees, or operations. Betterment will only acquire Marcus Invest accounts and assets under management.
“As we increase our focus on our growing Marcus Deposits platform, we made the decision to transition away from our digital investment advisor offering and wanted to find a great home for those customers,” said Goldman Sachs Marcus Global Head Marcos Rosenberg. “Betterment was the obvious choice for those accounts as we share a deep commitment to customer satisfaction. We look forward to continuing to serve our Marcus Deposits customers with great products and a great experience.”
The number of Marcus Invest accounts, as well as the funds under management that will be added to Betterment are undisclosed. The clients will join Betterment’s more than 850,000 customers who hold more than $45 billion in assets in the Betterment platform.
Betterment was founded in 2008 to combine technology with personalized support to create a roboadvisor that suits a range of customer preferences. The company provides diversified portfolios, tax-smart tools, a range of account types, planning tools, educational resources, and human advisors. Betterment also offers services that compete with Marcus Deposits, including a high yield cash account, checking account, and debit card.
Under the deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, Marcus Invest customer accounts will be transitioned to Betterment “on or about” June 29, 2024 unless they opt out of the transfer.
“This acquisition further cements our leadership in the digital investing space,” said Betterment CEO Sarah Levy. “We are excited to welcome these customers to Betterment where our scalable technology platform will continue to support them on their investing journeys.”
Data privacy vault Skyflow has raised $30 million in an extension Series B round led by Khosla Ventures.
The investment comes amid growth in the market for sensitive data protection for Large Language Models (LLMs).
Founded in 2019, Skyflow made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.
Data privacy vault Skyflow raised $30 million in an extension of its Series B funding round. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, and featured participation from existing investors Mouro Capital, Foundation Capital, and Canvas Ventures. The investment takes the company’s total equity capital to $100 million, according to Crunchbase. Valuation information was not immediately available.
The investment in Skyflow arrives as the proliferation of Large Language Models (LLMs) raises the stakes when it comes to protecting sensitive data. Skyflow’s global network of data privacy vaults enables businesses to isolate, protect, and manage sensitive customer data across any app, data cloud, or LLM. Skyflow supports nearly a billion records of user data for its customers and processes more than two billion API calls a quarter.
“We see an urgent need for companies to make privacy a core part of their technology stack as LLMs and AI hurdle forward, ingesting more and more personal data,” Skyflow Co-founder and CEO Anshu Sharma said. “Skyflow is the only solution that allows companies to build privacy by design into their technological infrastructure without overhauling anything – anywhere in the world.”
Skyflow credits a proprietary technology – polymorphic encryption – for its ability to protect data without inhibiting its usability for critical business tasks. Skyflow’s technology serves as a “privacy trust layer,” blocking sensitive information from entering AI models, and making adoption of AI technology safer. Companies can personalize their own definition of “sensitive data” as needed, providing additional protection beyond PII, intellectual property, or other categories of critical information.
“With the advent of enterprise applications powered by AI, the need for trust and privacy infrastructure is key to protecting sensitive data,” Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said. “Skyflow is rethinking how data can be managed and protected across any app, cloud, or LLM, making it a company that will be vital for every enterprise business.”
Founded in 2019, Skyflow made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helps financial services companies securely orchestrate sensitive data and exchange it with third party providers without having to directly handle the data itself.
Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 21 and 22. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Modernbanc
Modernbanc helps companies effortlessly manage, secure, and reconcile their payment data. Their new AI-powered reconciliations product helps companies automate financial processes.
Features
Automates the most complex reconciliation or financial ETL in minutes
Leverages the power of AI and no-code to give finance teams the superpower of developers
Provides native support for live payments data
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions, fintechs, platforms, and marketplaces.
Parlay Protocol
Parlay Protocol’s embedded fintech software empowers lenders to approve more small business loans, enhancing efficiency, loyalty, and revenue for financial institutions.
Features
Improves small business loan packet quality and conversions
Maximizes eligible applicant pools
Improves underwriting efficiencies
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, small businesses, and CDFIs.
PayToMe.co
PayToMe.co, an award-winning fintech, offers secure, streamlined financial transactions globally with patented text-to-pay, advanced KYC, and partnerships with Plaid, Stripe, and Elavon.
Features
Manages mass transactions and marketplaces via Stripe Connect and onboarding with Elavon
Utilizes Plaid’s KYC, AI, and Apptech’s patents
Offers global digital invoicing (AR) and checkbook AP automation
Who’s it for?
SMBs, larger enterprises, and cross-border entities, particularly those engaged in the travel and global e-commerce sectors.
Safari SOP
Safari SOP transforms how financial institutions manage governmental, civil, and sensitive data requests, providing control, automation, and enhanced security from intake through response.
Features
Enables process control and automation
Saves time, recovers actual costs, and reduces risk
Digitizes and secures the process from intake to resolution
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, and the world’s largest employers.
Tennis Finance
Tennis Finance is an AI platform that automates financial compliance and gets product insights from customer conversations.
Features
Automatically scans 100,000 communications for compliance violations and issues
Provides trend analyses on issues and categorizations
Delivers AI-generated plans to fix issues and increase customer satisfaction
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions, banks, partner banks, fintechs, and non-bank lenders.
