Temenos: New Partnership, New CTO, and Helping Banks Launch New Products Faster with Gen AI

Temenos: New Partnership, New CTO, and Helping Banks Launch New Products Faster with Gen AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Temenos

Temenos has been all over the fintech headlines in recent days. Here’s a look at what’s put them—and kept them—above the fold.

First up, the company announced that UK-based international payments provider Moneycorp has chosen Temenos SaaS to boost operational efficiency and launch new offerings faster—a theme in this roundup of news from the Swiss fintech. Moneycorp will leverage Temenos SaaS for core banking and payments and is specifically looking to take advantage of the technology’s advanced wallet and payments capabilities as it focuses on expanding its products and services globally. Moneycorp currently operates in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

“Best-in-class technology is key to delivering the seamless client experience and personalized service that Moneycorp is known for, so we’re delighted to partner with Temenos, an established global leader in banking technology,” Moneycorp Group Chief Technology Officer Srini Kasturi said. Kasturi praised the company’s multi-geographic support and localization, as well as the SaaS nature of the platform, which he said would help Moneycorp quickly go to market globally and better serve its international customers.

Moneycorp handled £71 billion in trading volume in 2023, serving 11,000 B2B clients, 250 financial institutions, and 23,000+ individual customers. The firm processes more than one million payments a year, reaching 190 countries.

In addition to the new partnership, Temenos also announced new personnel in its C-suite. The company introduced Rohit Chauhan as its new Chief Technology Officer earlier this month. Chauhan will lead development of the company’s overall technology strategy, innovation, research, and development. In this role, he will be tasked with boosting the flexibility of the Temenos platform to advance the company’s core banking and modular solutions for financial institutions large and small. Chauhan was most recently Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Channels Technology at JPMorgan, where he held various leadership positions for more than 12 years.

Accompanying Chauhan’s announcement was the appointment of Eugene Khmelevsky in the newly created role of Temenos Global Head of Architecture and Data. Formerly Chief Mobile Architect at JCPenney, Khmelevsky in his new role will ensure Temenos’ architecture and data foundation support a product strategy that is modular and flexible.

Both Chauhan and Khmelevsky will be based out of the US and report to Temenos’ Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) Barb Morgan.

Lastly, Temenos launched its Temenos Product Manager Copilot this week. The new offering empowers banks to use Generative AI to design, launch, test, and optimize financial products faster. The solution is a Gen AI assistant that is integrated into Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and embedded within the Temenos retail core banking solution. The Copilot provides a straightforward, conversational interface for product, IT, and customer service managers, who can use the technology to review the range of Temenos’ core banking capabilities and insights.

The new offering announcement was accompanied by a report from a recent Temenos study that indicated that 75% of banks are investigating Gen AI deployment. Of those surveyed, 36% had already deployed the technology or were in the process of deploying it. The study also revealed that 73% of those surveyed believed that Agentic AI will be “transformative for the banking industry.”

“Temenos Product Manager Copilot unlocks the full innovation potential of Temenos core banking using Generative AI to help banks deliver better products faster to their customers,” Temenos CPTO Barb Morgan said. “We are excited to bring this game-changing technology to financial institutions globally. In an area where fintechs and neobanks can launch new offerings within weeks, it is critical for banks to accelerate innovation or risk losing relevance in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos has been a Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope 2013. The company is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2015. Temenos offers core banking, digital banking, payments, and wealth management services, as well as financial crime mitigation solutions. Temenos has more than 950 core banking and 600 digital banking clients around the world, and is among the largest software companies in Europe. Jean-Pierre Brulard is CEO.

Photo by Anokhi De Silva on Unsplash

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Klarna’s Growth and Losses Send Mixed Signals

Klarna’s Growth and Losses Send Mixed Signals
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna
  • Klarna hit a major milestone with 100 million active users and 724,000 merchants in the first quarter of this year.
  • Despite the fresh momentum, Klarna reported a $99 million pretax loss, which is more than double that of the previous year.
  • Amid its customer wins and financial losses, Klarna continues to postpone its IPO.

Buy now pay later (BNPL) and global commerce platform Klarna has both good and bad to report this week. The Sweden-based company recently unveiled its Q1 2025 results, which revealed customer growth and revenue loss.

The good

Klarna announced that it reached 100 million active consumers in April 2025. The company reports that this is the fastest growth rate it has seen in two years, thanks in part to the integration of users from Stocard, a payments company Klarna acquired in 2021. In addition to customer growth, the company also experienced merchant growth, which was boosted by 27%, as Klarna reached 724,000 merchants and welcomed 150,000 new retail partners in the first quarter, which was more than double the previous period.

“The momentum is undeniable—and this is just Q1,” said Klarna CoFounder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Klarna has reached 100 million consumers and secured exclusive partnerships with major retailers like Walmart through OnePay, teamed up with DoorDash, and expanded our partnership with eBay to the US after multiple successful European launches. Our AI-first strategy is driving exceptional returns, we’re outpacing competitors, our merchant network is scaling rapidly, and our next-gen products are reshaping money management for millions.”

Klarna is known for its momentum in leveraging AI. In fact, 87% of its staff uses its Generative AI engine, Kiki in their daily work activities. Additionally, beginning in 2022, the company notoriously cut its workforce by 40% to replace human employees with AI efficiency.

The bad

On the negative side, Klarna also reported $99 million in pretax losses in the first quarter. This loss is up from $47 million a year ago. The company attributes the loss to one-off costs, including depreciation, share-based payments, and restructuring. However, the losses may also be a result of customers defaulting on their BNPL agreements. The company recorded $136 million in customer credit losses, reflecting a 17% increase year-on-year. Despite this, the credit loss rate as a percentage of Klarna’s total payment volumes sits relatively low at 0.54%, which is up from 0.51% a year ago.

Interestingly, Klarna appears to be walking back the workforce reduction it initiated a few years back. Seeing the need for human-in-the-loop when it comes to leveraging AI for customer service, the company plans to use an Uber-like approach to hiring customer service workers, allowing them to log on and off as spikes in demand for customer service rises and falls.

IPO or no?

Despite Klarna’s impressive customer and merchant growth in the first quarter of 2025, its financial challenges, combined with an uncertain economic environment, have cast a shadow over its IPO plans. Originally eyeing a public debut in 2025, Klarna has postponed its IPO amid continued losses, ongoing restructuring efforts, market uncertainty in the US, and increased regulatory scrutiny in the UK. As the company navigates rising credit losses and reevaluates its balance between AI-driven efficiency and human customer service, the delay signals a cautious approach to market timing.

Photo by Annamaria Kupo on Unsplash

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Entersekt Inks Payments Partnership with Stanchion

Entersekt Inks Payments Partnership with Stanchion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Entersekt

Atlanta, Georgia-based Entersekt announced a new strategic partnership with paytech solutions provider Stanchion. The partnership will combine Entersekt’s 3-D Secure payment authentication solution with Stanchion’s Payment Fabric Technology. Stanchion’s technology provides advanced integration capabilities that enable issuers to offer new functionalities to help them modernize, transform, and accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiency.

“We are excited to partner with innovative fintech leaders like Stanchion,” Entersekt Chief Revenue Officer Marty Overman said. “This collaboration aligns perfectly with Entersekt’s commitment to delivering secure, seamless payment solutions that empower financial institutions and protect consumers globally.”

Entersekt’s 3-D Secure payment authentication solution provides end-to-end transaction authentication across the merchant acquirer domain, the card issuer domain, and the interoperability domain. The company reports that its access control server (ACS) has delivered a 70% reduction in card-not-present (CNP) fraud within one month, and a 54% increase in conversion rates over six months. Additionally, Entersekt’s ACS provided a 149% growth in transaction value within the first year. The technology leverages out-of-band, biometric, and silent authentication to enhance the customer experience with reliable authentication and adaptive risk intelligence. Entersekt acquired the 3-D Secure software technology business from Modirum, a Finland-based security technology firm, in 2023. The move was designed to position Entersekt as an international leader in authentication solutions for financial services companies.

“We are delighted to partner with Entersekt, one of the world’s foremost 3-D Secure providers,” Stanchion Chief Commercial Officer Chris Pappas said. “This collaboration will enable us to offer enhanced capabilities and deliver even greater value to our clients, reinforcing our position as a leader in payment integration solutions.”

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Stanchion offers a range of solutions and services to help firms integrate, manage, optimize, and secure their payment systems. Founded in 2001 and maintaining offices in Australia, the UK, the UAE, and the US, as well as in South Africa, Stanchion’s solutions include Verto, a next-generation integration and orchestration platform for banks and payment providers; and SwitchCare, a proactive monitoring and observability solution. Stanchion also offers Professional Services in the form of platform-agnostic advice and support during the development and integration of new payment environments. Steven Kirrage is CEO.

Entersekt made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. In the decade-plus since then, Entersekt has grown into a leading fraud prevention and payment security solution provider for banks and other financial institutions. Founded in 2010, the company processes more than 2.5 billion transactions for 250+ million cardholders and 450,000+ merchants from nearly 900 banks in more than 70 countries. Entersekt’s flagship solution, its cross-channel Context Aware Authentication platform, secures digital transactions and helps optimize the user experience.

Earlier this year, Entersekt announced that Clare Conway had joined the company as Chief Integration Officer. Conway comes to Entersekt after serving as Chief Operating Officer for partnership automation platform, Partnerize. Also this year, Entersekt announced a new collaboration with Africa-based payment services provider enza. The paytech will leverage Entersekt’s 3-D Secure authentication to bring stronger security, fewer false declines, and seamless payment experiences to banking customers in Africa. Banks in the region will benefit from greater competitiveness, and the ability to expand to new markets and pursue new revenue sources. Schalk Nolte is Entersekt CEO.

Photo by Joey Kyber on Unsplash

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Finastra Sells Off Treasury and Capital Markets Division

Finastra Sells Off Treasury and Capital Markets Division
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finastra, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Finastra is selling its Treasury and Capital Markets (TCM) division to an affiliate of private equity firm Apax Partners.
  • TCM will become a standalone company under Apax ownership and will receive investment to accelerate product innovation, enhance cloud capabilities, and improve the customer experience.
  • The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

UK-based financial services software provider Finastra announced that it is selling its Treasury and Capital Markets (TCM) business unit to an affiliate of private equity firm Apax Partners. Once the transaction closes in the first half of 2026, Apax will rebrand TCM and operate it as a standalone business.

The deal gives Finastra room to double down on its core banking software, while TCM gains the backing to modernize and grow under independent ownership.

Finastra’s TCM facilitates risk management, regulatory compliance, and capital markets operations with its suite of software products, which include Kondor, Summit, and Opics. The business unit has more than 340 financial institution clients.

Under the ownership of Apax, TCM will be able to invest further in new product development, marketing, and technology infrastructure. Additionally, Apax will help TCM sharpen its strategic and operational focus, enhance its customer experience, and accelerate its cloud technology offering.

“We’re excited to partner with the TCM team as the business begins a new chapter as an independent organization,” said Apax Partner Gabriele Cipparrone. “With the backing of the Apax Funds, we expect TCM to benefit from accelerated innovation and enhanced operations, delivering even greater value to its clients.”

In addition to TCM, Apax has invested in other companies in the application software industry. Some of the firm’s more notable investments include Paycor HCM, Zellis Group, ECi Software, OCS / Finwave, Azentio, EcoOnline, and IBS Software.

Finastra anticipates that selling TCM will streamline its product portfolio and free up cash to reinvest in the business.

“This sale marks an important milestone for Finastra that will help further launch our next phase of growth with a focused suite of mission-critical financial services software,” said Finastra CEO Chris Walters. “It will provide capital to accelerate our strategy and reinvest in our core business, while providing our award-winning TCM platform with the backing of an experienced, long-term technology investor to support its continued success moving forward.”

With customers in 135 countries, Finastra serves 8,100 financial institutions with its software applications across lending, payments, and retail banking. The company was founded in 2017 as a combination of Misys and D+H. Earlier this year, Finastra appointed Chris Walters as CEO.

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Pinpointing Regulation Amid Uncertainty

Pinpointing Regulation Amid Uncertainty
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column, Thought Leadership

FinovateSpring wrapped up earlier this month, and one of the main discussion topics I heard repeatedly was how to proceed during an era of economic uncertainty combined with regulatory freedom. The US is taking a vastly different approach to regulation than Europe, which seems to be tightening its grip on compliance.

In the US, there are four major moves that have indicated the new administration’s stance toward regulation in banking and finance. Among the regulations that are shifting are:

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

The key rulemaking activity of the CFPB has been paused. Employees have been instructed to stop work on regulations involving overdraft fees and open banking.

Crypto enforcement actions

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have pulled back on enforcement actions in crypto, giving more clarity on stablecoin classification and providing more room for decentralized finance projects to operate.

Capital requirement rollbacks

Capital requirement rollbacks have reduced regulatory pressure on traditional banks. Key elements, like the supplementary leverage ratio and stress testing thresholds, have been softened or delayed, especially for regional banks. These rollbacks are designed to free up capital for lending and investment, but critics argue they increase risk by removing safeguards that were put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.

Basel III changes

Discussions of finalizing Basel III, which aims to require banks to maintain sufficient capital buffers and improve liquidity management, are still ongoing. However, lobbying has delayed its final implementation and resulted in a watered down version of some of its core provisions. A return to Basel II-style flexibility would prioritize bank competitiveness and profitability over strict capital adequacy.

While the current regulatory environment may give companies more room to innovate, most of the fintechs and banks I spoke with at FinovateSpring emphasized that they are still operating well within traditional regulatory boundaries, many of which are more stringent than today’s US standards. In fact, with AI now playing a major role across financial services, one compliance specialist noted that it’s increasingly common for firms to involve data scientists early in the compliance process to ensure new technologies meet regulatory expectations from the start.

Another focal point was third-party risk management, especially in today’s BaaS-driven banking environment. During my conversation with Christina Tetreault, Deputy Commissioner, Officer of Financial Technology Innovation at the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, she made it clear that bank-fintech partnerships are more than just IT projects. If the fintech’s technology fails, the bank will be held responsible for the issue.

As fintechs and financial institutions navigate this evolving landscape, the message from regulators and industry leaders is clear: regulatory freedom does not equal regulatory absence. Even as rules shift or stall, expectations remain high, especially when it comes to emerging technologies and third-party partnerships. In today’s environment, staying ahead means embedding compliance into innovation from the start of the project, proactively managing risks, and recognizing that regulatory clarity is still a moving target.

Photo by Gül Işık

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eToro to Offer Insurance in France Courtesy of Generali Partnership

eToro to Offer Insurance in France Courtesy of Generali Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, eToro
  • Trading and investing platform eToro has partnered with French life insurance leader Generali to offer life insurance and a French retirement savings plan called a PER to customers in France.
  • The partnership comes days after eToro went public in the US on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
  • Founded in 2007, eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances.

Stocks, bonds, and … life insurance?

That’s the deal that trading and investing platform eToro has struck with French life insurance provider Generali this week. The partnership between eToro and Generali will enable the platform to offer its users in France life insurance and a PER (Plan d’Épargne Retraite), a tax-advantaged French retirement savings plan.

The PER and life insurance contracts available through the alliance with eToro Patrimonie, eToro’s local subsidiary, provide both managed and self-directed options to serve a range of retail investor preferences and risk tolerances. Investors can also build their own investment allocations by choosing from among 500 different mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, and dated bond funds.

“Introducing savings solutions for eToro’s users in France and opening a local subsidiary underscore our commitment to strengthen our footprint in a key market for the business,” said Julien Nebenzahl, President of eToro Patrimoine. “With these new products, we want to empower retail investors to build a robust savings portfolio that allows them to grow their wealth for the long-term.”

Among France’s leading insurers and asset managers, Generali France offers a range of insurance solutions including life, property, health, liability, and assistance coverage. The firm also provides wealth and asset management services to its eight million retail, professional, and corporate clients. Founded in 1832, the institution reported a revenue of €19.2 billion in 2024.

“We are delighted to support eToro, a globally recognized investment player, in the launch of its subsidiary in France and its savings offering,” Corentin Favennec, Partnerships Director at Generali Patrimoine, said. “Our 100% digital PER and life insurance products, which complement each other, perfectly fit into eToro’s value proposition to serve the wealth management needs of the French people.”

The launch of eToro’s new insurance offering comes in the wake of a number of product releases announced for the company’s customers in France. Last year, eToro enabled trading in local currency for eToro Money EUR accounts. The company also expanded the number of French-listed stocks from Euronext Paris that could be traded on the eToro platform. The insurance news in France also comes as eToro makes its debut as a public company on the Nasdaq. eToro raised nearly $310 million in its IPO last week, giving the platform a market capitalization north of $5.4 billion. The company’s successful offering was hoped by many to be a sign of resurgent strength for the IPO market.

Founded in 2007, eToro is a trading and investing platform with 40 million registered users in 75 countries. eToro’s customers can use the platform to buy and sell assets from 20 global stock exchanges, as well as trade and invest in more than 70 cryptocurrencies. A pioneer in collaborative investing, eToro offers a CopyTrader feature that enables users to automatically copy the buying and selling of other, more experienced, investors in real time.

eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances beginning in 2011. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2017.

Photo by Martijn Adegeest

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fenergo, Fintech Rundown, PayPal, Ripple, TreviPay, Tuum

The UK is looking to regulate Buy Now, Pay Later lenders. Meanwhile in the US, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reducing fines on previous enforcement actions. It’s a tale of two very different regulatory trends depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on.

We’ve got the latest regtech news along with the rest of the top headlines in fintech right here in this week’s edition of the Fintech Rundown!

Payments

Ripple reports that Zand Bank and fintech platform Mamo have deployed its blockchain-enabled payments solution, the first UAE-based financial institutions to do so.

French fintech Next Generation chooses enterprise platform Fireblocks to power its payment ecosystem.

Global Payments unveils new POS command center for business operations, Genius.

PayPal launches its Complete Payments service in Singapore.

Albertsons Companies offers invoice-based payment for its business customers courtesy of its partnership with TreviPay.

AAA Life Insurance partners with payments network One Inc. to support digital payment processing.

Digital banking

Finovate Best of Show winner Tuum launches suite of Islamic Banking solutions to enable financial institutions to offer more Sharia-compliant banking products.

Fraud prevention

Money and safety app for families, Greenlight, introduces Family Shield to help caregivers protect seniors from financial fraud.

Identity verification and fraud prevention services provider AU10TIX launches continuous AML risk monitoring.

MRI Software integrates Nova Credit’s Income Navigator into its fraud prevention and application qualification solution.

DeFi / crypto

Non-custodial stablecoin wallet MiniPay is now available as a standalone application on iOS devices.

Investment / wealth management

U.S. Bank Global Fund Services turns to Fenergo to digitize and streamline its investor onboarding and service experience.

Regtech

Risk management company EverC launches its AI-powered risk assessment solution for marketplaces, Smart Scan.

Photo by Martin Damboldt

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Lloyds Bank Taps Moneyhub for Data Categorization

Lloyds Bank Taps Moneyhub for Data Categorization
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moneyhub
  • Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with Moneyhub to enhance transaction categorization and personalization across its brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland.
  • Moneyhub’s AI-driven platform uses consumer-permissioned data and a decade of user training to deliver highly accurate transaction insights, supporting Lloyds Banking Group’s digital strategy.
  • While open banking accelerates in the UK and Europe, the US faces regulatory uncertainty, with recent legal challenges casting doubt on the future of the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule.

UK-based Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) announced this week that it has selected open data platform Moneyhub to help categorize and enrich transaction data across its brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, Scottish Widows, and Bank of Scotland.

LBG expects that partnering with Moneyhub will enhance the personalization of its digital banking services and help customers gain deeper insights into their spending. Moneyhub categorizes customer transactions such as card payments, direct debits, standing orders, and transfers. The company uses both direct API integrations and indirect methods like screen scraping to gather the consumer-permissioned data, then uses its AI-driven categorization engine that has been refined over more than a decade with user input, resulting in highly accurate transaction insights.

“Partnering with Moneyhub will allow us to rapidly deliver far richer and more valuable insights for our customers,” said LBG Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer Ranil Boteju. “By combining Moneyhub’s advanced categorization technology with our in-house GenAI expertise, we’ll improve the time and accuracy of transaction classifications, unlocking new products and services for our customers and providing real-time insights so they can make more informed financial decisions.”

Moneyhub was founded in 2014 and offers personal finance technology tools, open data APIs, decisioning solutions, and payments capabilities. Its platform is designed to empower financial institutions, employers, and technology providers to deliver more tailored financial experiences through real-time data access and intelligent analysis. Regulated by the FCA, Moneyhub’s infrastructure supports a wide range of use cases, including budgeting tools, affordability assessments, wealth insights, and financial wellness programs.

“We are delighted to be chosen by Lloyds Banking Group as their categorization partner,” said Moneyhub CCO Dan Scholey. “Our extensive experience in transaction categorization has enabled us to develop a highly accurate engine that will benefit LBG and its customers. We look forward to enabling the many use cases this partnership offers, helping LBG become more efficient, profitable, compliant, and customer-centric.”

This move comes amid growing adoption of open banking frameworks across the UK and Europe, where regulatory support and consumer demand for data portability are facilitating innovation among fintechs and banks. At the same time, in the US, the open banking movement is still waiting to take off. The CFPB’s Section 1033 rule was put into place last October to grant consumers the right to access and share their financial data with third parties. However, the rule has faced legal challenges and potential revisions. Earlier this month, the CFPB indicated plans to ask a court to vacate the rule, citing procedural concerns and industry pushback over provisions such as the prohibition on data access fees and the lack of clear liability standards for third-party data handlers. This uncertainty has left the future of open banking in the US in flux, even as other markets continue to advance.

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Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus

Finovate Global Lithuania: Making Card Payments More Profitable with Torus
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Finovate Global, Nubank, Torus, Wise

This week, Finovate Global travels to Lithuania to talk about payment card optimization with Torus’ Kirill Lisitsyn.

The payment card business is among the most competitive areas of financial services. But are some of the greatest opportunities for companies to profit being overlooked? A growing number of fintechs have developed strategies and technologies to help card issuers and acquirers access millions of dollars in cost savings and missed revenue by better controlling card network fees and enhancing transactional profitability.

Lithuania-based Torus is one such fintech. Founded in 2021 and making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Torus offers a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and acquirers that enhances profits on card transactions by up to 50%. The company enables card issuers and merchant acquirers to optimize card scheme fees and boost transactional earnings via pricing optimization and profitability analysis at the card and merchant level.

To discuss this field, and the opportunities it presents for card issuers and merchant acquirers, we caught up with Torus Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Lisitsyn (pictured). Lisitsyn brings to bear more than 15 years of experience leading payments consulting projects at firms such as Accenture and Mastercard.

Torus most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope in February.

What problem does Torus solve and who does it solve it for?

Kirill Lisitsyn: Torus is a SaaS platform for in-depth analysis and optimization of scheme fees (Visa, Mastercard) for issuers, merchant acquirers, and now large merchants. We automate the collection, forecasting, and reconciliation of both transaction flows and invoice data, so that our clients can see accurate cost and profit metrics at the level of transaction, product, merchant, region—and beyond.

How does Torus solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?

Lisitsyn: We provide nearly 98% fee prediction accuracy, and our plug-and-play setup enables end-to-end analytics with minimum resources needed from the customer side. Torus goes beyond pretty dashboards to deliver optimization recommendations backed by industry benchmarks and detailed “what-if” simulations.

Who are Torus’ primary customers. How do you reach them?

Lisitsyn: Our clients include banks, fintechs, BaaS providers, PSPs, and large merchants across Europe, the UK, Central Asia, and Japan. We reach them through targeted outreach, industry conferences, high-visibility publications, and strategic partnerships with top-tier industry players.

We’re also building a community around card economics. I run a LinkedIn page where I share insights on scheme fee mechanics, analysis pitfalls, and market updates.

Many clients come to us after seeing just one number: $1M+ in annual losses that could be avoided with better visibility.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?

Lisitsyn: One EU-based e-commerce acquirer used to assess profitability by portfolio averages—and was losing up to 10% on hidden merchant-level losses. With Torus, they switched to granular analysis, identified low-margin segments, updated pricing, and increased overall portfolio margin by 30%. These are real, realized gains—not slideware.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Lisitsyn: We have productized over a hundred years of joint team expertise in the card payments industry—coming from different segments of the industry, players like Mastercard, Global Payments, Societe Generale, Worldline, and various other banks. This is our unfair advantage which gives us a deep understanding of where the pain points are. When your team includes former scheme insiders, “scheme fees” stop being scary and start becoming manageable.

What is the fintech ecosystem in Lithuania like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in Lithuania?

Lisitsyn: Lithuania is a magnet for fintech startups: a responsive regulator, fast-track licensing, and tech-forward infrastructure. Banks here are increasingly open to partnerships, and startups are learning to scale responsibly and operate under real-world pressures. 

Torus is a great example of how legacy banking know-how and fintech velocity can combine into something powerful. We are proud to both actively contribute to the Lithuanian ecosystem and represent it internationally.

You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?

Lisitsyn: This year we demoed our product for BaaS providers. We showcased how Torus enables these players to accurately calculate scheme fees and interchange per transaction, allocate costs, and build margin-based pricing for their fintech partners.

We demonstrated that BaaS can move beyond volume games and become a margin game.

Finovate is built for showing working products to real decision-makers—and our demo generated several highly relevant inbound requests for our BaaS module.

What are your goals for Torus? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?

Lisitsyn: We’re scaling fast. This year includes multiple product launches and major feature updates. Just a month ago, we released our new product, Merchant Cost Indicator—a tool that estimates transaction costs without needing real data. It predicts interchange and scheme fees based on country, MCC, and channel, giving acquirers and BIN sponsors instant, reliable margin calculations.

Coming next is a dynamic profit-based pricing module, embedded analytics for BaaS, and AI agents to support profitability control, pricing and decision workflows.

We’re shaping a new standard of transparency and profitability controls in card economics. Our strength lies in combining deep industry expertise with true product velocity. We know where the market is heading—and we’re already moving to clear the path.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • The Stock Exchange of Thailand announced deployment of risk and surveillance platforms courtesy of its expanded strategic technology partnership with the Nasdaq.
  • Adyen selected Fiskil as its data-sharing partner to enhance onboarding and account verification for merchants in Australia.
  • Vietnam-based securities company Kafi went live with Horizon Trading Solutions.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based BioCatch and The Knoble co-launched an anti-scam guide and cost calculator.
  • MENA-based virtual assets trading platform BitOasis expanded to Bahrain.
  • The government of Dubai partnered with Crypto.com to enable crypto payments for government fees.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Forbes profiled Razorpay co-founder Harshil Mathur.
  • Pakistani fintech ABHI partnered with UAE-based LuLuFin to enhance financial inclusion and remittance solutions.
  • Indian fintech unicorn Moneyview readies for an initial public offering.

Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash

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Best of Show Winner Solda.AI Raises $4 Million

Best of Show Winner Solda.AI Raises $4 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Solda.ai
  • AI-powered sales technology provider Solda.AI has raised $4 million in seed funding.
  • The round was led by Accel and included participation from AltaIR Capital.
  • Solda.AI won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California.

Solda.AI, an innovator in AI sales for fintech that won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last week, has announced $4 million in new funding. The seed round was led by Accel and featured participation from AltaIR Capital. The company will use the capital to further develop its fleet of AI agents, forge partnerships with more businesses around the world, and continue to transform international sales processes.

“At Solda.AI, we believe that the future of telesales is AI,” Solda.AI CEO and Co-Founder Sergey Shalaev said. “Our vision is for voice agent-powered sales that generate revenue and provide real ROI, and we believe that we’re the first and only company to deliver this. We have already seamlessly integrated our agents into 20 partners’ sales channels, and are delighted to announce this seed funding led by Accel to help us collaborate with more businesses and take phone sales into the age of AI.”

Solda.AI offers fully autonomous, AI-powered voice agents that can operate a business’s entire telesales cycle at scale, processing 10,000 leads a day to make sales calls, follow-up calls, return calls, and close deals. The agents can engage leads after two weeks of sales call and script training, which compares favorably with human call center agents, only 10% of whom achieve proficiency in less than two months.

Solda.AI’s agents have a 1% AI detection rate and, at peak hours, can manage 100 phone lines simultaneously. The agents are multilingual, and can currently conduct sales-based conversations in both US and UK English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The agents can even distinguish between European and Latin American versions of Spanish (as spoken in Mexico, for example) and Portuguese (as spoken in Brazil). Companies deploying Solda.AI’s technology have benefited from a 30% cost efficiency gain compared to call centers. Solda.AI reports that its agents generated $7 million in incremental revenue for clients last year and are on target to deliver $30 million in 2025.

“When we first met Sergey and the Solda.AI team, we were blown away by the AI voice agents’ human-like attributes and ability to not only handle complex conversations, but also close deals on the spot,” Accel partner Zhenya Loginov said. “Solda.AI’s technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the telesales market, with the team using AI to redefine sales automation from scratch.”

Headquartered in Middletown, Delaware, Solda.AI demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2025 in May, winning Best of Show. At the conference, the company showed how its AI sales agents automate the sales process while delivering human-like, personalized, on-brand interactions that produce conversion rates up to twice those of traditional methods. Solda.AI’s technology helps fintechs and banks automate onboarding, upsell, KYC, and retention calls with less than 1% AI detection at 60% of the cost.

Photo by Petr Macháček on Unsplash

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Mastercard Taps MoonPay to Bring Stablecoin Payments Mainstream

Mastercard Taps MoonPay to Bring Stablecoin Payments Mainstream
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard
  • Mastercard and MoonPay are partnering to launch stablecoin-powered cards, enabling users to spend crypto at over 150 million merchants worldwide.
  • MoonPay is leveraging its acquisition of Iron to provide API infrastructure that lets businesses manage stablecoin payouts, disbursements, and cross-border transactions.
  • This move signals growing mainstream adoption of stablecoins, with Mastercard aiming to make crypto wallets function like traditional bank accounts.

Mastercard announced today that it has teamed up with stablecoin infrastructure provider MoonPay to enable people and businesses to pay using stablecoins.

Under the partnership, businesses will leverage Mastercard-branded cards linked to users’ stablecoin balances. Mastercard will allow cardholders to spend their stablecoins, which MoonPay will convert to fiat currency, at the 150+ million locations where Mastercard is accepted.  

MoonPay is using API-driven stablecoin infrastructure from Iron, which it acquired in March of this year. Iron will facilitate stablecoin-powered payments for businesses, which will turn crypto wallets into digital bank accounts for global transactions. The API will allow businesses, neobanks, and payment players to manage payouts, facilitate disbursements, improve cross-border money transfers, and offer stablecoin-based payouts to gig workers, contractors, and creators. 

 “By providing solutions that unlock stablecoin utility and ubiquity, we are redefining how money moves globally and driving a shift in payments as we know it,” said Mastercard EVP of Global Partnerships at Mastercard Scott Abrahams. “Together with MoonPay, we’re building innovative and secure connectivity between crypto and mainstream finance ecosystems, grounded by trust and driven by scale.”

Founded in 2019, MoonPay provides the infrastructure needed to buy cryptocurrencies using traditional payment methods like credit cards, Apple Pay, and bank transfers. It enables individuals around the world to easily convert fiat currency into digital assets without needing to navigate complex exchanges. MoonPay primarily serves consumers new to crypto, as well as fintechs offering wallets, NFT platforms, and decentralized apps seeking to simplify the crypto purchasing experience for their users.

“MoonPay serves the largest crypto wallets in the industry, and with Mastercard, we’re bringing convenient, trusted stablecoin-enabled cards to crypto users around the world,” said MoonPay CEO and Founder Ivan Soto-Wright. “Our acquisition of Iron and long-standing relationship with Mastercard allow us to power a new era of payments made with stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.”

The partnership comes as stablecoins are growing at an incredible rate across the globe. According to the World Economic Forum, global stablecoin transaction volume surpassed $27.6 trillion in 2024, partially because they have emerged as a viable use case to bridge the speed of crypto and the trust of traditional finance. Mastercard’s move into stablecoin spending, backed by MoonPay’s infrastructure, could accelerate mainstream adoption by turning crypto wallets into practical spending tools for real-world purchases.

While Mastercard is leading the charge in stablecoin payments, it is not alone. Visa has been piloting USDC settlement on Solana, and PayPal recently launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD. Mastercard, however, has placed its focus on spendability via legacy rails, which may give it a unique head start in usability.

What remains to be seen, however, is how regulatory bodies will respond. With looser regulatory pressures in the US, now is an ideal time to launch a stablecoin-focused payments tool. However, if and when the regulatory pendulum swings in the other direction, fintechs may find themselves scrambling to sort out the compliance aspects of stablecoins.

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Credit Risk Analytics Provider Carrington Labs Partners with Decisioning Platform Oscilar

Credit Risk Analytics Provider Carrington Labs Partners with Decisioning Platform Oscilar
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Carrington Labs
  • Credit risk analytics provider Carrington Labs teamed up with real-time decisioning infrastructure company Oscilar.
  • The partnership will make Carrington Labs’ explainable AI-powered, advanced credit risk and cash flow underwriting models available via Oscilar’s decisioning platform.
  • Headquartered in Sydney, NSW, Australia, Carrington Labs made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York.

Credit risk analytics provider Carrington Labs has announced a new partnership with real-time decisioning infrastructure company Oscilar. The partnership will shorten integration times for lenders and enhance credit risk workflows for banks, credit unions, and fintechs alike.

“Lenders want to improve how they assess credit risk, but many are limited by legacy systems and long implementation cycles,” Carrington Labs CEO Jamie Twiss said. “Partnering with Oscilar makes it significantly easier for lenders to access and act on better credit risk insights and improve their underwriting using infrastructure they already have.”

Courtesy of the partnership, Carrington Labs’ advanced credit risk and cash flow underwriting models will be accessible via Oscilar’s real-time decisioning platform. Carrington Labs’ models leverage a combination of transaction level data, credit bureau data, and behavioral insights to provide smarter credit risk insights. Combined with Oscilar’s no-code platform, the models promote broader inclusivity in lending by more accurately assessing the creditworthiness of thin-file borrowers and borrowers with non-traditional incomes.

“Carrington Labs brings a strong capability in credit risk analytics and alternative data,” Oscilar CEO and Co-Founder Neha Narkhede said. “Together, we’re helping lenders build a more complete picture of creditworthiness, without adding complexity.”

Founded in 2021, Oscilar emerged from stealth two years ago with its AI-powered technology to help businesses better defend online transactions from fraud. The Palo Alto, California-based company uses real-time data, AI, and decisioning to create an advanced credit and fraud detection platform that enables firms to assess the risk of every online transaction in a matter of minutes. The company values the market for risk protection at more than $200 billion and noted that credit and fraud risk currently cost businesses more than $48 billion a year. For their part, consumers are on the hook for $8 billion a year due to credit and fraud risk.

“During my time leading engineering teams at Meta, I found that data and AI played a huge role for making risk decisions—but this technology was hard to build and not easily accessible to our business teams,” Oscilar Co-Founder and CTO Sachin Kulkarni said. “We built Oscilar so that companies could have a thorough risk decisioning solution but wouldn’t have to use their engineering teams’ valuable time to achieve that.”

Carrington Labs empowers lenders to be more inclusive while at the same time boosting revenues, lowering default rates, and improving margins. Founded in 2024, Carrington Labs made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the conference, the Sydney, Australia-based company demoed its technology that leverages explainable AI to provide alternative credit risk assessments and loan limit recommendations based on the lender’s unique loan products. Carrington Labs’ credit risk models have been trained on more than one billion data points to provide precise insights; the company boasts that it can pilot a tailored risk model for a lender in days and onboard a new lender in weeks.

The company’s partnership announcement comes as it unveiled new research that underscored the importance of identifying behavioral changes in loan applications. The study showed how behavioral changes can predict loan risk and supported Carrington Labs’ decision to adjust the behavioral factor weighting in its risk model to 36%, a record weighting for the firm’s model.

“While we’ve always looked at a range of behavioral factors, this latest generation of cash flow underwriting models tests a wider range of attributes than ever before, and we were surprised to see how many behavioral elements ended up in this particular model,” Twiss said. “This finding underlines the value of behavioral data in assessing a loan applicant’s risk levels.”

Photo by Road Trip with Raj on Unsplash

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