Tradeshift Partners with Infosys to Help Clients Digitize Supply Chain Management

Tradeshift Partners with Infosys to Help Clients Digitize Supply Chain Management
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Infosys, Tradeshift

Software giant Infosys BPO teamed up with Tradeshift last month. The India-based company’s Business Process Outsourcing subsidiary will leverage Tradeshift’s cloud-based platform to enable clients to digitize their supply chain processes.

John Sibley, Vice President of Global Alliances and Channels at Tradeshift, said that he looks forward to “combining Infosys’ deep domain and process expertise” with Tradeshift’s B2B commerce platform. He added that the partnership “will provide greater transparency and agility, along with a compelling value proposition to suppliers and buyers alike, on various touch points in the source to pay lifecycle.”

Anantha Radhakrishnan, CEO and Managing Director of Infosys BPO said that the partnership “will help augment our experience and expertise in transformative Business Process Management and enable us to further deliver tremendous business outcome benefits to our clients.”

According to the press release, the partnership will enable customers to take advantage of early payment discounts, remove manual paper-based processes, and build custom applications. This will not only reduce costs but also increase efficiency. Infosys plans to pilot these capabilities for clients in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and China.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, Tradeshift’s business commerce platform connects buyers and sellers. The company links up more than 1.5 million companies across 190 countries and is currently on track to process over half a trillion U.S. dollars in transaction value. At FinovateEurope 2012, the company’s co-founder and CEO Christian Lanng debuted Tradeshift Instant Payments, a solution that enables businesses to receive payments in real time for invoices. The company has raised a total of $182 million and was recently featured in CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list.

Infosys recently made headlines when it unveiled Finacle Trade Connect, a blockchain-based trade finance solution. Last month, the company appointed Salil Parekh as CEO and Managing Director. Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a subsidiary of Infosys, showcased EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework for Financial Services at FinovateEurope 2017.

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Passport Raises $43 Million from Bain Capital

Passport Raises $43 Million from Bain Capital
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Funding, Passport

Transportation mobile payments company Passport is starting 2018 with an extra $43 million in the bank. The North Carolina-based company closed the Series C round– an investment that brings Passport’s total capital to $60 million–  just before the holidays.

Today’s investment comes from Bain Capital, which joins previous investors Grotech Ventures, MK Capital and Relevance Capital. Bob Youakim, Passport’s founder and CEO, said that he sees the Bain Capital team as partners who “align really well with both our vision and our culture.”

In the press release, the company notes it will use the funding to evaluate strategic acquisition opportunities and bolster sales and marketing efforts. Youakim also said the investment, “gives us additional resources to expand quickly and strategically into new markets, innovate rapidly, and support our clients around the world.”

Proving its readiness for expansion, the company has already achieved notable growth. In the past three years, Passport has experienced 3.5x revenue growth and has expanded its staff to 100 employees in the past year with plans to add 50 more employees in 2018.

Founded in 2010, Passport offers mobile payment solutions for parking, transit, and tolling. To date, the company’s solutions have been adopted by more than 450 agencies in over 5,000 locations worldwide, including Chicago, London, Toronto, Boston, Vancouver, Portland, Montreal, and Miami. At FinovateEurope 2016, the company demoed its Mobile Ticketing for Transit solution. Last month, the company partnered with TransLink to develop and launch Park&Go, a free mobile payment app for Park & Ride users in Metro Vancouver.

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Union Mobile Financial Technology Partners with Transaction Controls Specialist Tranwall

Union Mobile Financial Technology Partners with Transaction Controls Specialist Tranwall
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Tranwall

Courtesy of a new partnership between Australia’s Tranwall and Union Mobile Financial Technology, transaction control technology is headed to card and account holders in China. With Tranwall’s platform, customers will be able to manage both card and account transactions in real time, using a variety of channels including their smartphones. Customers can manage transactions by merchant type or switch off certain transaction types (tap-to-pay, ATM) entirely. Available as both an integrated solution to an FI’s mobile banking app or as a standalone solution, the new platform helps increase customer engagement while simultaneously reducing fraud and fraud-related costs.

“This is a significant agreement for the growth of our business and provides the opportunity for Tranwall to market the technology to UMFs existing Chinese client base, and new clients,” Tranwall co-CEO Greg Haynes said. Hayes pointed out that UMF is partnered with more than 110 FIs, more than 3,000 large corporations, 700,000 SMEs, and more than 450 million individual consumers. “We are very proud to have an organization of this standing in our camp, providing local credibility to the technology and services we provide,” he said.

The APAC market is an area of emphasis for Tranwall, Hayes said, and the company plans to invest “significant resources” in China’s banking market. China has an enormous card market, the largest in the world,in fact. This, coupled with its leadership in mobile banking technology and mobile payments adoption (more than $5 trillion in mobile payment volume last year), make the region a priority for firms like Tranwall that give consumers more control over their card accounts. “(We) expect that the Chinese adoption of Tranwall technology will lead to market acceptance throughout the wider Asia market,” Hayes said.

Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Perth, Australia, Tranwall demonstrated its Transaction Control for Business solution at FinovateFall 2015.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Ethoca, Finastra, Fiserv, Infosys, Kinetica, Passport, Ripple, Tradeshift

On Finovate.com

  • Passport Raises $43 Million from Bain Capital.
  • Tradeshift Partners with Infosys to Help Clients Digitize Supply Chain Management

Around the web

  • Finastra CMO Martin Häring discusses mobile payments with Tearsheet.
  • Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Exchange to deploy AML Risk Manager from Fiserv.
  • Ripple’s XRP now available on 50 exchanges worldwide.
  • Kinetica listed among ProgrammableWeb’s Most Interesting APIs in 2017.

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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ACI Worldwide Partners with HyperPay to Help Fight Fraud in the MENA

ACI Worldwide Partners with HyperPay to Help Fight Fraud in the MENA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide

Cyberfraud fighters in the MENA regions gained new allies this week. ACI Worldwide has announced that it will collaborate with HyperPay to offer integrated, real-time fraud prevention solutions for e-commerce payments for merchants in the Middle East and North Africa.

The need for ever-more capable fraud fighting technology is a key factor in ensuring the growth of  – and trust in – e-commerce. And the MENA region is no exception. “While the growth opportunity is considerable, we also know that merchants need to protect their revenues and secure their transactions, as well as be responsive to the evolving threat of fraud,” HyperPay CEO Muhannad Ebwini said. He added that ACI’s Universal Payments solutions – including UP Payments Risk Management – “perfectly complement our local knowledge and experience” and that he “fully trust(s) ACI to deliver a sophisticated, real-time fraud detection and prevention solution that protects our customers.”

Left to right: Wolfgang Berner (Director, Product Global eCommerce), Christian Schonhuth (Solution Consultant), and Grit Ruehling (Sr. Product Manager) during their presentation Simple, Global, and Secure eCommerce Payments with ACI Worldwide’s Next Generation API.

Echoing Ebwini’s sentiments, Manish Patel, ACI Worldwide GM for the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, also underscored the importance of trust. “eCommerce in the MENA region is growing rapidly, as consumers move from cash-based transactions to using cards and other online payment methods,” Patel explained. “As this shift – with mobile acting as an additional catalyst – gathers pace, retailers need to gain the trust of consumers and protect themselves against the risk of fraud across multiple channels.”

A major MENA area payments service provider HyperPay uses ACI’s UP eCommerce Payments solutions to provide cross-border payments services. This week’s news means HyperPay will open access to ACI’s UP Payments Risk Management solution, as well. The Risk Management technology leverages adaptive machine learning and a “shared intelligence approach” that also takes advantage of the insights gained from global risk analysts to refine fraud-fighting strategies for e-commerce merchants and PSPs.

Founded in 1975 and headquartered in Elkhorn, Nebraska, ACI Worldwide demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2011 in partnership with MShift. More recently, the company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVR Silicon Valley 2016, showcasing its COPYandPay, SAQ-A compliant JavaScript payment form solution. The presentation, led by ACI Worldwide’s Wolfgang Berner (Director, Product Global eCommerce), Grit Ruehling (Sr. Product Manager), and Christian Schonhuth (Solution Consultant), was titled Simple, Global, and Secure eCommerce Payments with ACI Worldwide’s Next Generation API. The presentation also included a live demonstration of the omni-channel capabilities of the company’s UP eCommerce Payments solution, as well as how to configure and integrate ACI’s ReD Shield real-time fraud prevention.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Avoka, Currency Cloud, Insuritas, Ripple

On Finovate.com

  • ACI Worldwide Partners with HyperPay to Help Fight Fraud in the MENA.

Around the web

  • FST Media talks with Avoka Chief Experience Officer Derek Corcoran.
  • Ripple reports that XRP is now available on 50 exchanges around the world.
  • Indiana-based Owen County State Bank ($201 million in assets) partners with Insuritas.
  • PYMNTS.com interviews Currencycloud head of U.S. product, Arshi Singh.

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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Meed Leverages ID Verification Solutions from Jumio to Serve the Underbanked

Meed Leverages ID Verification Solutions from Jumio to Serve the Underbanked
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Jumio

Identity verification innovator Jumio is teaming up with Santa Monica, California-based fintech Meed. The Finovate Best of Show winner will provide the Meed with ID verification, identity verification, and document verification services to accompany Meed’s suite of financial services.

“Our innovative business model puts a premium on global coverage, KYC/AML compliance and a seamless customer experience,” Meed Chief Operating and Technology Officer Stephen Landry said. “We looked at many providers, but found the Jumio solution to be superior based (on) the quality of their global footprint and the sophistication and accuracy of their biometric-based identity verification.”

Jumio leverages biometric facial recognition, machine learning, and human review to provide ID verification, KYC and AML services to companies in the financial services, higher education, retail, and sharing economy industries. To date, the company has verified almost 100 million identities issued by more than 200 countries from real time online and mobile transactions.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of GlobeOne, Meed is a socially-responsible financial health firm that partners with banks and other FIs to deliver financial services to the underbanked. The company will deploy Jumio’s Netverify solutions to verify the authenticity of government-issued ID, as well as the digital identities of new users. Successfully authenticated users are then routed swiftly and directly to regional member banks. The company is active in Vietnam and plans to expand to the United States and Latin America in 2018. Les Riedl is CEO.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Jumio demonstrated its Netverify Document Verification solution at FinovateSpring 2017. The technology enables users to scan a wide variety of documents even when those documents are folded, crumbled, or wrinkled. Jumio teamed up with Plynk in August, providing identity verification for the European money messaging app and partnered with Branddocs TrustCloud, bringing its technology to Spain and Latin America. Named to the European Fintech 100 this fall, Jumio unveiled eyeball tracking as a new aspect of Netverify’s “liveness” check in July and announced a collaboration with Monzo in June. Jumio was acquired by Centana Growth Partners in May 2016 for $850,000.

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Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking

Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Tinkoff Credit Systems

It is a truism that consumers increasingly expect all of their digital interactions to have the same top quality user experience they have come to expect from the likes of Uber, Amazon, and Netflix. So it is little surprise to see Russian fintech innovator, Tinkoff Bank take a page from the world of social media to make it easier to educate and market to its customers.

Tinkoff Stories provides “fascinating themed collections and practical tips for any occasion,” according to the company. Similar to the Stories feature on Instagram and Snapchat, Tinkoff’s solution gives the bank yet another way to reach not just the one million people who regularly use the company’s mobile app, but also the company’s entire six million customer base. Tinkoff Stories is one of the major upgrades to the company’s mobile app, which is available for download at the iTunes App Store. Tinkoff also added an Invite Your Friend section, enabling users to recommend the app to friends and earn bonuses.

“Stories is a great way for us to bring a range of content to our users,” VP of Mobile for Tinkoff Bank Maxim Yevdokimov explained, “both to make them aware of new products as we introduce them and functionality of the app that they might not be aware of, and to provide informative content from currency rates to tips on managing their personal finances.”

The news of Stories comes as Tinkoff launches its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Tinkoff Mobile. The MVNO will give customers more options when it selecting a mobile plan and will be initially rolled out in the greater Moscow, St. Petersburg regions before expanding to other cities in Russia. “We have strived to create the most convenient, straight-forward and simple-to-use product, and we are offering our customers only the most in-demand services,” Tinkoff Mobile CEO George Chesakov said. “We believe this is precisely what mobile was meant to be.”

Tinkoff demonstrated its Click-to-Meet solution at FinovateFall 2013. Click-to-Meet enables bank customers to apply for credit or debit cards online or by phone and have signable documents and the card delivered to the customer the next day by smart courier at their place of choice. The company was founded in 2006 by entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov. who earned the support of investors including Goldman Sachs, Vostok Nafta, Baring Vostok, and Horizon Capital.

Named Russia’s 2017 “Bank of the Year” by the Banker in November, Tinkoff introduced facial recognition ATMs in August – the same month the company’s mobile app earned top honors in four categories from Markswebb Rank & Report.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, defi Solutions, Jumio, nCino, PayPal, Ripple, Stash, Strands, SuiteBox, Thomson Reuters, Tinkoff Credit Systems

On Finovate.com

  • Tinkoff Brings Stories to Mobile Banking
  • Meed Leverages ID Verification Solutions from Jumio to Serve the Underbanked

Around the web

  • The 61-member Japan Bank Consortium launches Ripple pilot with South Korean banks Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank.
  • Thomson Reuters adds compliance training courses to help ensure MiFID II compliance.
  • PayPal makes undisclosed investment in Berlin-based deposit marketplace Raisin.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with HyperPay to bring real-time fraud prevention solutions to ecommerce merchants in the MENA region.
  • SME Finance Forum honors Strands with Best Partnership award at its First Membership Engagement Awards event.
  • nCino EVP of Product Development Trisha Price joins Jim Marous’ fintech roundtable to discuss the future of digital banking disruption.
  • Stash Invest presents its Auto-Stash feature to help investors make automatic, recurring investment contributions.
  • SuiteBox introduces its VideoSign Proof of Signature technology.
  • defi SOLUTIONS earns recognition as one of the top 100 fastest-growing privately-held businesses in Dallas, Texas area.

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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Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service

Southern Bank Leverages PicturePay from Malauzai to Offer Digital Payment Service
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Malauzai

With more than $2 billion in total assets, North Carolina’s Southern Bank will leverage its deployment of Malauzai’s Picture Pay to provide its customers with a new digital payment option: Photo Billpay.

“Providing our customers with modern, digital payment tools is a priority for the bank,” Sondra McCorquodale, SVP and alternative delivery channel manager at Southern Bank said. McCorquodale highlighted the importance of giving customers “easy to use” self-service channels, and offering a variety of payment options as “key to providing a superior customer experience and in turn … a significant competitive advantage.”

Southern Bank, which has been a Malauzai partner for years, said that it has seen a 20 percent gain in customer usage of all digital payments and an increase of 38 percent in the average value of money movement transactions. Southern Bank has deployed a variety of additional money management features including remote deposit capture (RDC) and P2P transfer.

“Mobile-based money movement features like PicturePay, RDC, A2A, and P2P are growing in demand and popularity,” Malauzai CPO Robb Gaynor said, “whatever we can do to help our customers like Southern Bank have access to the latest innovations and stay competitive, we fully support.”

Malauzai’s PicturePay technology was developed in collaboration with Allied Payment. The technology was designed to serve as a stand-alone mobile billpay solution that is mobile banking provider agnostic. PictuePay is compatible with any core banking system or mobile platform and requires no technology integration.

“The simplicity of Picture Pay makes it ideal as a stand-alone application that runs separately from a bank or credit union’s current mobile banking app,” Allied Payment Network president Ralph Marcuccilli said. “We have received a tremendous response to the Picture Pay product offering and wanted to accommodate these institutions quickly without waiting for other mobile vendors to develop their own product.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Malauzai Software demonstrated its Conversational Banking for Businesses solution at FinovateFall 2017. Also this fall, the company announced that Somerset Trust would extend its deployment of the MalauzaiOne digital banking platform to retail customers. Colorado’s Public Service Credit Union (PSCU), with more than $2.3 billion in assets, completed its rollout of MalauzaiOne in August. And earlier this year, the company collaborated with payment processing giant Vantiv to introduce a youth spending solution called Family Manager: SmartKid Control.

With more than $24 million in funding, Malauzai includes Wellington Management and Live Oak Banking Company among its investors. The company was founded by Danny Piangerelli (CTO) and Tom Shen (CEO and Chairman of the Board).

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Quovo Launches Modular PFM Widgets

Quovo Launches Modular PFM Widgets
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Quovo

Financial data provider Quovo is getting into the PFM game by launching account aggregation modules built on its API layer. The new modules will enable end users to track spending and saving, view their net worth, improve budgeting, and make progress toward their financial goals.

Because of the modular configuration, financial institutions can completely customize how they design their PFM offerings. Banks can opt to implement the full package or individual widgets to achieve the optimal mix of build vs. buy. The modules are designed for mobile use and can easily be white-labeled to fit a bank’s branding.

Niko Karvounis, Chief Product Officer and co-founder of Quovo said that account aggregation is a “must-have centerpiece for any digital strategy in fintech,” but that firms often struggle between building on Quovo’s API or buying a front-end, turnkey solution. Karvounis added, “With the launch of Quovo PFM, we now support the full spectrum of configuration options for deploying world-class account aggregation, including directly via our API, through embeddable modules, within a full dashboard — or even a combination of our approaches.

Founded in 2010, Quovo has presented at FinDEVr New York 2016 and FinDEVr New York 2017, where it was awarded Favorite FinDEVr Alum. Earlier this year, the company was listed on CB Insights’ Fintech 250 list. This fall, the company unveiled a new account authentication solution, Autoverified Micro-deposits. Quovo serves hundreds of institutions, thousands of advisors, and millions of end-users. Lowell Putnam is co-founder and CEO.

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Ripple Establishes Infrastructure Innovation Initiative

Ripple Establishes Infrastructure Innovation Initiative
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Ripple

Blockchain solutions company Ripple announced yesterday it is establishing an Infrastructure Innovation Initiative in an effort to take “the next logical step to help build the Internet of Value.”

The goal of the initiative is to help central banks, regulators, and market infrastructures pilot real-world blockchain solutions by leveraging the Ripple team’s expertise in payment systems and distributed ledger technology (DLT). Potential blockchain solutions include creating regional networks, reducing the cost of payments, and opening up networks to new participants while managing risks.

Dilip Rao, who has led the business development in the APAC/MENA region and worked closely with banks and market infrastructures, will lead the initiative. Rao has worked for Ripple since 2014 and brings more than 30 years of experience working with banking technology. “My first priority will be piloting interoperability between payment systems, the use of DLT for domestic clearing and settlement and novel applications of xCurrent as well as our digital asset XRP,” said Rao. “I look forward to exciting new initiatives in building the Internet of Value in 2018!”

Company co-founder Chris Larsen debuted Ripple (originally known as OpenCoin) at FinovateSpring 2013. Brad Garlinghouse took the reins as Ripple CEO last fall. Last month, Ripple teamed with AmEx and Santander to support blockchain-powered international B2B payments. Earlier this month, the company’s XRP digital currency overtook Bitcoin Cash as the third largest cryptocurrency.

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