SecuredTouch Receives $8 Million Strategic Investment from Arvato Financial Solutions

SecuredTouch Receives $8 Million Strategic Investment from Arvato Financial Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, SecuredTouch

Israeli behavioral biometrics startup SecuredTouch gained backing from Arvato Financial Solutions this week. The $8 million investment was strategic, and brings the company’s total funding to $11.5 million.

Robert Holm, Senior Vice President of Fraud Management at Arvato said, “Investing in SecuredTouch allows us to partner with a global leader in behavioral biometrics for mobile devices, and to reinforce our online security and fraud prevention services in the best possible manner.” The firm’s President of Risk Management Frank Schlein said that protection against cybercrime is “essential,” and added, “I am really pleased that our involvement with SecuredTouch will enable us to enhance and expand this platform further.”

On the strategic side, SecuredTouch will benefit from Aravato’s established relationships with international players across various industries. Yair Finzi, CEO and founder of SecuredTouch, said, “We see a clear synergy between the offerings and strategies of Arvato Financial Solutions and SecuredTouch. We have created a partnership that will enable SecuredTouch to expand its international presence and enhance its positioning in the areas of fraud and authentication. Arvato Financial Solutions with its international expertise in risk and fraud management is an ideal investor and partner for this purpose.”

SecuredTouch was founded in 2015 and specializes in behavioral biometrics for mobile transactions. As Finzi explained, the company ensures that “legitimate transactions are recognized quickly as such and can be conducted smoothly. The aim is to ensure a secure, fast, and convenient customer experience in mobile transactions, on a sustained basis.” The company maintains a foothold in the security space by leveraging more than 100 parameters to continuously authenticate users in a session without friction. SecuredTouch’s technology is able to differentiate between human and non-human behavior to catch and block would-be fraudsters.

SecuredTouch demoed U-nique, a behavioral biometrics technology that leverages machine learning, at FinovateEurope last month in London. The company also offers U-manobot, malware detection technology; and Continew-ID, a device takeover prevention technology. SecuredTouch’s other investors include Rafael Development Corporation, Eshbol Ventures, and Wellborn Ventures.

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Meet the Keynotes

Meet the Keynotes
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2018

We’re just two weeks away from what is shaping up to be spring’s blockbuster fintech event. FinovateSpring is coming to Santa Clara, California on May 8 through 11.

On the blog, we started off our coverage of the upcoming event with our Sneak Peek series and took an in-depth look at some of the topics that will be considered as a part of the discussion days. Today, we’re unveiling the keynotes. Here are the speakers that will take the stage on days three and four of the event to offer up insight on the blockchain and voice technology:

Bettina Warburg

How Blockchain will revolutionise the industry

Warburg is a thought-leader in the emerging blockchain space and leads the blockchain practice at Animal Ventures, including research, development, and commercialization across the ecosystem of blockchain innovation.

Warburg is passionate about the convergence of technology and politics and the impact it will have on our future. She is the Executive Producer of a new tech show called Tech on Politics, interviewing some of the greatest minds in technology, media, venture capital, and government about the convergence of technology and politics. As a Public Foresight Strategist at the Institute for the Future, a Silicon Valley think tank, Warburg brought a futures lens to a variety of strategic initiatives with top corporations, foundations, education institutions, and city governments.

In 2016, Warburg was invited by TED to be one the first speakers ever to unpack the topic of blockchain to a global audience. She has given talks and curated conferences such as Skoll World Forum, Salzburg Global Seminar, City Innovate Summit, Personal Democracy Forum, and at numerous universities. Warburg’s work has been cited in publications such as The Atlantic, Center for Public Impact, ICMA.org, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Adam Cheyer

The rise of Natural Language Processing (NLP), smart speakers (Alexa), and a future with far less screen time

Cheyer is co-founder and VP of Engineering of Viv Labs, a startup whose goal is to simplify the world by providing an intelligent interface to everything. In October 2016, Viv was acquired by Samsung. Previously, Cheyer was co-founder and VP of Engineering at Siri, Inc. When Siri was acquired by Apple in 2010, he became a Director of Engineering in the iPhone/iOS group.

Cheyer is also a Founding Member and Advisor to Change.org (180 million people taking action, victories every day), and a co-founder of Sentient.ai (solving the world’s hardest problems through massively-scaled machine learning). As a researcher, Cheyer authored 60 publications and 25 issued patents. At SRI International, he was Chief Architect of CALO, one of DARPA’s largest AI and machine learning projects. Cheyer graduated with highest honors from Brandeis University and received the “Outstanding Masters Student” from UCLA’s School of Engineering.

We’ll see you on May 8 through 11 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, California. If you haven’t saved your spot, register today. And don’t hesitate to contact us with any enquiries or customer service needs.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Backbase, Finastra, IdentityMind Global, Insuritas, On Deck Capital, PayPal, Persado, Q2, SecuredTouch, Unison

On Finovate.com

  • SecuredTouch Receives $8 Million Strategic Investment from Arvato Financial Solutions.
  • Unison Sees 1,000% YoY Growth in Originations.

Around the web

  • IdentityMind Global partners with Etherparty Smart Contracts to provide KYC and AML compliance support. See IdentityMind Global at FinovateSpring next month.
  • Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking Suisse to deploy Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) solution from Avaloq.
  • Finastra goes live with its blockchain-based syndicated lending market solution, Fusion LenderComm.
  • Forbes interviews Andrea Gellert, CMO of OnDeck.
  • Ebay And PayPal finalize new payments agreement.
  • Listrak and Persado announce strategic integration.
  • Q2 and StoneCastle partner with MoneyLion to offer deposit accounts and debit cards.
  • EverTrust Bank hires Insuritas to launch digitally powered insurance agency.
  • Backbase powering SSF Bank’s new mobile banking application.

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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Meniga Receives $3.7 Million to Fuel International Rollout

Meniga Receives $3.7 Million to Fuel International Rollout
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Meniga

Digital banking and marketing startup Meniga announced it received a $3.7 million (€3 million) investment from Nordic bank Swedbank. This brings the company’s total funding to $27.1 million since it was founded in 2009.

Swedbank’s investment comes after the bank agreed to launch Meniga’s digital banking solutions for its customers in Sweden and in the Baltic countries. Swedbank has more than 7 million retail customers and 625,000 corporate customers. The bank has 218 branches in Sweden and 133 branches across Baltic countries.

Lotta Lovén, head of digital banking at Swedbank, said that the banks’ customers not only prefer a digital experience, but also want relevant offers and services to make life easier. “We see Meniga as an innovation partner to give our customers a digital experience that includes a better overview and insights of all their finances both from Swedbank and external parties. We are very pleased with the agreed partnership,”Lovén added.

Headquartered in London and with offices also in Reykjavik, Stockholm, and Warsaw, Meniga offers white-label digital banking solutions for 50 million digital banking users in 23 countries for banks such as Santander, Intesa, ING Direct, Commerzbank and mBank. At FinovateEurope earlier this year, the company won Best of Show for Richest Transactions, a solution that helps banks leverage data associated with transactions.

This month, the company’s CEO Georg Ludviksson was selected as one of top 200 Fintech leaders in Europe. In February, the company announced a partnership with France’s second largest banking group, BPCE.

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HooYu Brings KYC, Enhanced Customer Onboarding to Gold-as-Currency Enabler Glint

HooYu Brings KYC, Enhanced Customer Onboarding to Gold-as-Currency Enabler Glint
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: HooYu

Even in an age of cryptocurrencies, the appeal of of gold as an investment remains strong. This makes it all the more interesting to learn today that a fintech company has partnered with identity confirmation specialist HooYu to make it easier and safer for investors to buy and sell the yellow metal.

Specifically, HooYu has partnered with U.K.-based fintech Glint to provide customer identity verification during the account opening process. Glint offers a mobile app that enables users to load money into their account and convert it to gold. Users can then use their Glint Mastercard to make purchases using gold as their currency. Glint will use HooYu’s technology during the account opening process to meet AML and KYC requirements and ensure customers are who they say they are.

“It was important to us to design the account opening process to make it as easy as possible to open,” Glint co-founder Ben Davies explained, “we also needed a solution that would enable us to approve the customers who had pre-registered in a simple way.” HooYu has helped us get to launch and create a great digital journey that makes for easy and convenient account opening, whilst also complying with Anti Money Laundering regulations and preventing fraud.”

HooYu’s identity verification process is straightforward to use. The company sends the person to be verified an email or text message requesting identity information. The person uploads their information – online credentials, an official identity document, a selfie – and the HooYu Identity Engine analyzes the information submitted, cross-checking hundreds of data points to confirm the person’s identity. The platform is unique in the way it combines both modern identity technologies like digital footprint analysis and facial biometrics with more traditional protocols like database checks and PEPS and sanctions screening.

HooYu’s verification process takes only a few minutes. The company sends an email as soon as the verification is complete, and provides an ID report that can be reviewed on the HooYu dashboard. HooYu only shares or stores information that the user authorizes to provide to the requester. And once the verification process is finished, HooYu deletes all document images and social data from its platform.

Founded in 2016, HooYu demonstrated its verification technology at FinovateEurope 2018. Earlier this month, the company announced that it was working with Atos to improve its customer onboarding and due diligence for financial services clients. Atos also added the company to its global fintech partner program as a provider of global identity verification technology. Last month, HooYu teamed up with HouseSitMatch to verify the identity of house- and petsitters. And in December, the company partnered with Countingup to enhance the challenger bank’s account opening process.

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Modo Payments Wins Top Prize at ETA TRANSACT Payments Pitch-Off

Modo Payments Wins Top Prize at ETA TRANSACT Payments Pitch-Off
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Modo Payments

Payments interoperability innovator Modo took home top honors at the Payments Pitch-Off sponsored by fellow Finovate alum Worldpay. The Texas-based company, which demonstrated its Digital Payments Hub at FinovateFall 2016, made their winning case before a judging panel of venture capitalist and payments industry executives, besting nine other participants.

“We couldn’t smile big enough to truly express our excitement,” Modo tweeted, announcing the news. “But trust us we are so excited to win the #ETATRANSACT PitchOff.”

At the event, Modo showed how a merchant could use Modo’s technology to add and remove PSPs into their systems with the “simple click of a button.” Modo provides a cloud-based payments utility that enables interoperability between banks, networks, payments processors, and their partners. Its one-to-many interface takes the friction out of payments by delivering any source of value (traditional or non-traditional) to any destination and back again without requiring any changes to the client’s infrastructure. Modo’s partners include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Alliance Data, and Verifone, as well as fellow Finovate alums FIS and Klarna.

“The Payments Pitch-Off at TRANSACT gives innovative startups the keynote stage to show off their products and services to the industry’s preeminent leaders at the world’s largest payments industry event,” ETA CEO Jason Oxman said. The Payments Pitch-off is part of the TRANSACT conference held by the Electronic Transactions Association (ETA). As the pitch-off winner, Modo picked up a $30,000 cash prize. A $5,000 cash prize for the “audience favorite” was awarded to Menusifu’s Restaurant Go app, a contactless payment solution for diners.

Fellow Finovate alum Sezzle also participated in the competition. Additionally, the event featured its 2018 Star Awards which honored individuals who had “made a significant difference in the payments industry through innovation, business practices, or contributions to the association.” These included representatives from Finovate alums including TSYS, Mastercard, and FIS.

PYMNTS.com interviewed company CEO Bruce Parker about payments in the cloud last month. Modo ended 2017 by adding former CEO of Klarna North America Brian Billingsley as Chief Revenue Officer. The company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr New York, in 2016, discussing how its Digital Payments Hub can be used to design and manage the complete digital payment transaction lifecycle. Later that year, Modo demonstrated the four components of its technology: Payments System Connectors, Payments Transactions, Credentials Vault, and Digital Experiences at FinovateFall 2016.

Founded in 2010, Modo has raised more than $11 million in funding. The company’s investors include Tim Keith, CEO of Central Texas Partners; John Beletic, partner at Oak Investment Partners; and Jay Kassing, owner of fintech company Marquis.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: eToro, HooYu, Luxoft, Modo Payments, Symphony Software Foundation

On Finovate.com

  • HooYu Brings KYC, Enhanced Customer Onboarding to Gold-as-Currency Enabler Glint.
  • Modo Payments Wins Top Prize at ETA TRANSACT Payments Pitch-Off.

Around the web

  • FBI Director Wray highlights Symphony as a model of “responsible encryption” that solves the problem of “going dark.”
  • Luxoft builds blockchain adapter for Appian’s low-code Rapid Application Development (RAD) platform.
  • eToro adds trading support for EOS, expands list to 10 cryptocurrencies.

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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First to Faster: TransferWise Joins U.K. Payment Scheme

First to Faster: TransferWise Joins U.K. Payment Scheme
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: TransferWise

In gaining direct access to the U.K.’s Faster Payment scheme, Transferwise is the first non-bank to take advantage of a settlement directive from the Bank of England. The new policy, designed to add both competition and innovation to the country’s payment system, will give non-bank payment service providers (PSPs) direct access to the payment systems that settle in central bank money.

Accessible systems will include Faster Payments, Bacs, Chaps, Link, and Visa. The BoE’s new digital cheque imaging system, once activated, will also be available to non-bank PSPs. In addition to reducing processing costs, the move by TransferWise will enable it to leverage its new borderless accounts further by offering instant transfers to GBP. TransferWise customers paying with debit and credit cards will also benefit from TransferWise’s direct connection to RTGS (Real-Time Gross Settlement) and the Faster Payments scheme.

“Today is game changing for TransferWise and millions of our customers around the world. The Bank of England is giving tech companies the same rights to process payments as the retail banks – enabling us to cut out the middlemen and offer people a faster, cheaper service,” TransferWise CEO and co-founder Kristo Käärmann said. “I truly believe that money should move around the world as quickly and as cheaply as email, and this is a vital step on that journey.”

The company said the initiative will help provide a level playing field with banks and encouraged central banks around the world to pursue similar policies. Previous to gaining a settlement account in RTGS, TransferWise was relegated to using the traditional banking rails to access the fastest available system. Käärman told Reuters that his company has been seeking this kind of access for five years.

Ranked by The Financial Times on its FT 1,000 list of Europe’s fastest growing companies earlier this month, TransferWise demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2013. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Wirecard to launch a debit card to accompany its new digital borderless account offering, and teamed up with Seedrs to power payroll for the crowdfunding platform.

TransferWise has raised more than $396 million in funding, and includes Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Seedcamp, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), IA Ventures, Valar Ventures, Bailie Gifford, and Old Mutual Global Investors among its equity holders. The company facilitates the transfer of more than $2 billion worldwide every month and claims savings of $80 million a month for consumers compared to transfers made using traditional banks.

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Nubank Adds Facial Biometrics to Fight Fraud

Nubank Adds Facial Biometrics to Fight Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Nubank

Less than a month after picking up an investment of $150 million, Brazilian fintech Nubank is leveraging facial biometrics to help combat credit card fraud.

The company provides a mobile-centric credit card and offers other payment services via its app. Nubank will enhance the security of its app using technology from fellow Brazilian innovator Acesso Digital to compare facial images of card applicant images with those available from a shared database used by Brazil’s biggest banks, retailers, and fintechs. The solution, AcessoBio, will be added to the data analytics technology already used by Nubank. The company said that the addition of a facial biometrics layer to the card application process will reduce both false rejections and identity fraud.

“From the customer’s point of view, the process of requesting the card remains simple, fast and transparent,”Nubank fraud prevention lead Guilhereme Wunsch said.

AcessoBio is the largest privately-run biometric database in Brazil, recording the biometrics of a million Brazilians a month. The company’s goal is to record the biometric data of the country’s entire financially-active population within the next three years. With customers in retail, healthcare, e-commerce, and telephony, as well as financial services, Acesso Digital was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Sao Paulo.

“AcessoBio optimizes the security and experience of customers in a simple and efficient way, while protecting the names of Brazilians at the same time,” Acesso Digital CEO and founder Diego Martins said.

Founded in 2013, Nubank is one of Brazil’s most well-funded fintechs, with support from DST Global Investment Partners, Founders Fund, QED, Goldman Sachs, and others. More than 13 million Brazilians have applied for Nubank’s credit cards and digital accounts. Recognized as a member of KPMG/H2 Ventures Fintech 100 in 2017, the company announced the upcoming launch of NuConta last fall. NuConta is a digital account it will offer in addition to its credit card business in a bid to reach the nation’s sizable underbanked population, estimated at as many as 60 million Brazilians.

As part of our FinDEVr New York 2016 developers conference, Nubank co-founder and CTO Edward Wible and Lead Software Engineer Lucas Cavalcanti presented Our Money, Our Rulebook. The presentation detailed how the company leveraged data science modeling to build an in-house accounting system with real-time customer visibility, guaranteed conservation of money, and customer account histories.

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Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Revolut

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.

LATAM

  • Startupbootcamp FinTech Mexico City scouts for promising fintech startups in Latin America for next incoming cohort.
  • HID Global to support biometrics adoption throughout Latin America.
  • Partnership with Itaú Unibanco brings Apple Pay to consumers in Brazil.

CEE

  • Digital gaming marketplace Kinguin and mobile operator Play launch direct carrier billing in Poland via Fortumo.
  • Revolut announces plans to expand its services to Romania in May.
  • Kyiv Post celebrates diversity and achievement in fintech with its 8 Ukranian Women in Fintech: The Stories of Success feature.

Asia

  • Singapore-based peer to peer lending marketplace Funding Societies scores $25 million in Series C, the largest amount raised by a P2P lender from Southeast Asia.
  • South Korea’s third-largest cryptocurrency exchange slated to go live in Indonesia in June.
  • Singapore startup Silot raises $2.8 million in Pre-Series A funding.

MENA

  • Is the decline in correspondent banking activity hurting Islamic financial institutions? A report from the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions says “yes.”
  • BBVA-backed Garanti Bank sponsors the first blockchain workshop in Turkey.
  • ADGM and Plug and Play open for business with new office in Abu Dhabi.
  • Checkout becomes the first PSP to accept payments via Saudi Arabia’s billion-transactions per year domestic network, mada.

Africa

  • Fintech Futures profiles Nigeria’s first loan marketplace, Fint.
  • German fintech MyBucks partners with Finsbury Investments to open fully-operational bank branch in Malawaian refugee camp, Dzaleka.
  • Africa Outlook examines factors accelerating banking transformation in Africa.

Top image designed by Freepik

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TransUnion to Acquire Callcredit for $1.4 Billion

TransUnion to Acquire Callcredit for $1.4 Billion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mergers & Acquisitions, TransUnion

Credit reporting agency and risk information provider TransUnion announced this week it agreed to acquire Callcredit, the second-largest consumer credit bureau in the U.K. The deal is expected to close in the second or third quarter of this year for $1 billion.

With today’s acquisition, TransUnion aims to boost its international presence. The U.S.-based company already does business in 33 countries and offers consumer products in India, Hong Kong, South Africa, and Canada. TransUnion also markets regional-specific products, as well as a global suite of solutions, including:

  • CreditVision, which leverages credit performance trends, behaviors, and analytics to help banks gain a better understanding of consumers and make more informed lending decisions.
  • IDVision, a suite of solutions that offers a more accurate picture of consumer identities to help mitigate and manage risk during the consumer verification and authentication process.
  • DecisionEdge, a suite of decisioning solutions that help businesses turn data into actionable decisions.
  • Prama, which TransUnion showcased at FinovateFall 2016, is a suite of analytics tools that help lenders gain market intelligence and act on insights to drive growth and build a risk policy.

Jim Peck, TransUnion’s president and CEO, noted that the companies have “strong synergies” across their business models and solutions and that they both “share a commitment to using information to benefit consumers and global economies.” He added, “Callcredit is an outstanding acquisition for TransUnion, and together, we’ll be a powerful force to deliver value to shareholders, customers, and consumers across all the markets we serve.”

David Neenan, president of TransUnion’s International business commented on the company’s international strategy, highlighting Callcredit’s role as a major player in the world’s second-largest credit market. “And, with the growing trend of multi-bureau usage in the U.K., we believe this is the right time to introduce TransUnion into the market,” Neenan said.

Callcredit was founded in 2000 and was acquired by private equity firm GTCR in 2014. The company has 1,200 employees and offices across the U.K. as well as in Lithuania, Japan, Dubai, and Denmark.

TransUnion was founded in 1968 and has corporate headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. The company has regional headquarters in Hong Kong, Mumbai, Toronto, Johannesburg, Colombia, and Brazil. Last December, Fiserv leveraged TransUnion’s CreditVision to create better risk models for its Automotive Loan Origination System.

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Mortgagetech Company Mr. Cooper Appoints Tony Ebers as COO

Mortgagetech Company Mr. Cooper Appoints Tony Ebers as COO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Mr. Cooper

Mortgagetech company Mr. Cooper, which last year rebranded from Nationstar Mortgage, announced the appointment of a new Chief Operating Officer.

Previously EVP of originations, Tony Ebers will fill the newly-created role of Mr. Cooper’s COO. Ebers, who has been with Mr. Cooper since 2015, has 25 years of experience in the mortgage industry and has held positions at ServiceLink, OneWest Bank, and IndyMac Bank.

In his new position, Ebers will be responsible for servicing, originations, and operations at Xome, the settlement services and real estate business branch of Mr. Cooper.

Jay Bray, Nationstar’s chairman and CEO, referred to Ebers as “seasoned” and “trusted,” adding, “He is uniquely qualified to drive strategic prioritization and accountability within Nationstar, with a laser-focus on operational excellence.”

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Dallas, Mr. Cooper is slated to demo at FinovateSpring next month in Santa Clara. Check out a sneak peek of the company’s upcoming demo and, to be among the first to watch the company’s live demo, be sure to register today to save your seat.

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