Hyperwallet Now Supports Payouts from Amazon’s Australia Marketplace

Hyperwallet Now Supports Payouts from Amazon’s Australia Marketplace
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Hyperwallet

‘Tis the season for online shopping (and selling). Today, just weeks after the Texas-based company opened its Asia Pacific office in Sydney, Australia, mass payout platform Hyperwallet began supporting disbursements from Amazon’s Australia marketplace.

Starting today, Amazon sellers across the globe can leverage Hyperwallet’s multi-currency payout solution to accept disbursements from sales made on Amazon’s new Australia-based marketplace. Simon Banks, Hyperwallet’s Asia Pacific Managing Director, said that the company aims to extrapolate Amazon’s usability into “the supply side of marketplace transactions, streamlining the onboarding and disbursement process for independent sellers.” To register, sellers use the Login with Amazon option on Hyperwallet’s page. Once registered, users benefit from Hyperwallet’s network of banking relationships across the globe.

After noting that the new development adds to the ways Hyperwallet is supporting the international freelance community, company CEO Brent Warrington said, “Faster, more affordable cross-border disbursements is something we’re very passionate about, and we’re happy to offer that experience to sellers on the Amazon Marketplace.”

Hyperwallet most recently presented at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, where Bill Crowley, Chief Product Officer, and Blair Olynyk, Software Architect, gave a presentation titled, Pay the Planet: Implementing Frictionless Global Payout Distribution. Since it was founded in 2000, Hyperwallet has distributed billions of dollars in payouts to more than 8 million individuals worldwide. Earlier this year the company bolstered its loyalty program through an integration with Dosh. In January, Hyperwallet expanded to London to support the region’s burgeoning population of gig economy workers.

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NetGuardians Teams Up with Masaref Business & Systems Consulting

NetGuardians Teams Up with Masaref Business & Systems Consulting
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: NetGuardians

The new partnership between NetGuardians and Masaref Business & Systems Consulting (Masaref-BSC) will bring the Swiss fintech’s anti-fraud solutions to even more FIs in the Middle East, according to Director and Board member Oliver Trancart. “Fraud is a growing concern worldwide and the Middle East is no exception,” Trancart said. “So we think NetGuardians’ expertise can really make a positive impact.”

NetGuardians Middle East Business Development Manager Abdallah Djedid credited Masaref’s knowledge and experience in both Temenos’ technology and Islamic core banking systems, calling the firm “an obvious choice for a local partner.” Masaref is a major Temenos T24 implementation partner, and was awarded Best Core Banking Implementer in Egypt in 2015 by Global Banking and Finance. The firm, based in Cairo, Egypt with offices in Riyadh and Beirut, was founded in 2014 after the merger of Masaref Consulting and Business & Systems Consultancy.

Expressing his confidence in the partnership, Masaref Chariman Dr. Mohamed Goneid said, “More banks and financial institutions using T24 will finally have the peace of mind of top fraud protection. Together with NetGuardians, we will help financial institutions in the Middle East to cater for their most challenging requirements.”

NetGuardians’ technology automates compliance and enables financial institutions to more effectively combat fraud. The company’s platform leverages Big Data, dynamic profiling, pattern-based intelligence, and predictive analytics to analyze not just transaction level activity, but real-time behaviors across the entire bank system. This is key, NetGuardians believes, because out of the $67 billion in estimated banking fraud costs every year, 70% of that fraud is internal and remains undetected. During the company’s 2016 FinovateAsia demonstration of FraudGuardian, NetGuardians Digital Marketing Manager Mine Fornerod showed how the solution is able to correlate user behavior to identify even complex fraudulent behavior in real-time with 100% accuracy.

Founded in 2007, NetGuardians is headquartered in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland and has offices in Singapore, Kenya, and Poland. The company began 2017 with news that Nigeria’s Keystone Bank would deploy its real-time fraud protection platform. More recently, NetGuardians raised more than $8 million in Series C funding, taking its total capital to more than $14 million. The company was named a Gartner Cool Vendor in 2015 and was added to Planet Compliance’s RegTech 100 earlier this year. Joel Winteregg is CEO and co-founder.

Interested in fintech in the MENA region? Visit our FinovateMiddleEast page to find out more about our upcoming fintech conference in Dubai.

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Multiple-Time Best of Show Winner Avoka Raises $12 Million in New Funding

Multiple-Time Best of Show Winner Avoka Raises $12 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Funding

Digital customer acquisition technology innovator Avoka has raised $12 million (16 million AUD) in equity funding in a round managed by Moelis Australia. Investors included both existing and professional backers, and the company says the funds will be used to support growth plans already underway in Australia, North America, and Europe. “Our planned pace of growth continues across all three of our target geographies,” Avoka founder and CEO Phil Copeland said, “and this financing allows us to maintain an aggressive expansion in our technology, sales, partner and customer success organizations.”

Avoka added in a statement that the company plans also to “focus on investment and hiring to support current and projected customers.” This includes a plan to boost staff numbers by 50% by the end of the current fiscal year. This week’s funding, which echoes a similar investment from last summer, takes Avoka’s total capital to more than $24 million.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Avoka most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateEurope 2017. Hali Khan, Director of Business Development, showed how Transact Insights, a new module of Avoka’s Transact 5 platform, gives businesses the insights and analytics necessary to ensure optimization of the account opening experience. With regard to digital account opening, for example, Transact Insights reveals areas of abandonment, frequent error, as well as where users are spending the most time in order to help business analysts make specific changes and improvements.

Avoka provides solutions for a variety of industries within financial services, including retail, business, and commercial banking, wealth management, superannuation, and insurance. The company, a multiple Finovate Best of Show award-winner, includes five of the top 10 banks in Australia, four of Europe’s 10 leading banks, and eight of the top 50 banks in the United States among its customers.

In August, Avoka announced record growth for a second year in a row and in June, the company introduced its CX Design for Banking offering to help FIs decrease application abandonment and boost conversion rates. Last month, Deloitte recognized Avoka’s 1.76x revenue growth over the past three years, adding the firm to its Technology Fast 50 roster.

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Temenos to Ship WealthSuite to Latin America’s Largest Banking Group

Temenos to Ship WealthSuite to Latin America’s Largest Banking Group
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Temenos

Switzerland-based Temenos announced that it has teamed up with Latin America’s largest banking group, Itaú Unibanco Holding (Itaú).

Itaú will use Temenos’ WealthSuite as a core banking replacement of its international private banking operations. The bank will deploy WealthSuite in the cloud; a scalable approach that will enable Itaú to meet future demand and achieve a faster time-to-market for new services. Jean Michel-Hilsenkopf, Managing Director of Temenos Sales, noted that WealthSuite will not only help Itaú generate efficiencies, but also differentiate its customer proposition.

Part of Temenos’ digital banking suite, WealthSuite provides a set of holistic wealth management capabilities, including a roboadvisor service that can be packaged as a fully-automated solution, a hybrid, approach, or as a fully-advised method. With customer engagement tools and real time analytics, WealthSuite allows relationship managers to offer a compliant, personalized wealth management experience.

In a press release, Carlos Constantini, CEO of U.S. and Head of international private banking at Itaú, said he anticipates WealthSuite will “enrich the customer experience, reduce time to market for new products, generate efficiencies, and reinforce the segments’ digital strategy.” He added that the solution will help automate front, middle, and back office functions.

Itaú is one of many banks who have signed on to Temenos’ WealthSuite. Large banks such as ABN Amro, Standard Chartered, Nordea, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Montreal Asia Pacific, and others, are all leveraging the wealth management capabilities, which were formerly marketed under the brand T4.

Founded in 1993, Temenos debuted its Connect Mobile Banking application at FinovateEurope 2015 in London. The company employs 4,600+ people, operating out of 64 offices representing clients in more than 145 countries. Temenos is the fourth-largest software company in Europe, with profits of $185+ million and a market capitalization of more than $5 billion. David Arnott is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avoka, Experian, FIS, Fiserv, Five Degrees, Hyperwallet, Kinetica, NetGuardians, Overbond, Privakey

On Finovate.com

  • NetGuardians Teams Up with Masaref Business & Systems Consulting.
  • Hyperwallet Now Supports Payouts from Amazon’s Australia Marketplace.
  • Multiple-Time Best of Show Winner Avoka Raises $12 Million in New Funding.

Around the web

  • Fiserv signs agreements with Illinois Educators CU in Illinois and Members Financial FCU in Texas.
  • ABN Amro leverages Matrix from Five Degrees to launch its wealth management solution, Prospery.
  • Overbond appoints George Harrington as new Head of U.S. Business Development.
  • FIS connects Fifth Third Bank customers to The Clearing Houses’ Real-Time Payments system.
  • Kinetica appoints Paul Appleby as CEO.
  • Experian Receives Top Workplace Honor for Fifth Consecutive Year.
  • Technical.ly: Privakey locks down patent for ‘a password-free future.’

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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YoYo Wallet Appoints Michael Rolph as CEO

YoYo Wallet Appoints Michael Rolph as CEO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Yoyo

Mobile wallet company Yoyo announced this week it has appointed Michael Rolph, one of the company’s co-founders, as CEO. Meanwhile, former Yoyo CEO Alain Falys has shifted into the role of the company’s chairman.

Prior to the appointment, Rolph had been serving as the company’s Chief Product Officer since January of 2016 and before assuming those responsibilities he had headed up sales and marketing efforts for Yoyo. The company noted that Rolph had been “instrumental” in bringing on large clients such as Caffè Nero and Planet Organic to Yoyo’s payment and loyalty marketing platform.

In his new role, Rolph will implement Yoyo’s strategic operations as it launches into a new phase of growth. And this is not a small task. In addition to aspiring to be the loyalty marketing platform of choice, the company is aiming for a 10x increase in transaction volume in the next 18 months. He noted that he and Falys will “continue to build on Yoyo’s foundation of profitable growth, as we secure new partnerships on the high street and move into an open banking world, becoming natural leaders in omni-channel loyalty marketing, whilst helping retailers super-charge the power of their data.”

In a blog post, Falys offered high praise for Rolph, saying, “Over the past four years, Michael and I have taken Yoyo from an idea to the point where it is now recognised as the leading retailer loyalty platform in the UK and, increasingly, internationally. The Yoyo team has achieved a great deal during that time, and under Michael’s leadership as CEO, our success will only continue to grow.”

In 2013, Falys co-founded the business with Rolph and David Nicholson and has since raised $30.3 million in total funding, including a $15 million Series B round closed in June. The Yoyo platform powers almost 2 million mobile transactions every month, a figure that represents 2.5x increase in usage over the past year. Rolph debuted Yoyo on stage at FinovateEurope 2015. The company currently serves more than 2,000 retailers across the U.K. and Ireland. Last month, Yoyo partnered with Starling to enable Starling members to earn rewards when they use their payment card at retailers that are partnered with Yoyo.

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Accepting Demo Applications for FinovateMiddleEast 2018

Accepting Demo Applications for FinovateMiddleEast 2018
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: Finovate Marketing, FinovateMiddleEast 2018

Last week, Finovate teamed up with the UAE Ministry of Finance. The partnership aims to drive awareness and support for fintech innovation in the Middle East. As part of this collaboration, FinovateMiddleEast will join the UAE Innovation Month celebration in February 2018.

For over 10 years, Finovate has been the leading showcase of financial, banking and payments technologies. And we’ve been there from the start: New York in 2007, Bay Area in 2008, London in 2010, Singapore in 2012, Hong Kong in 2016, and now Dubai in 2018.

Finovate events focus on innovative fintech showcased via 7-minute live product demonstrations. The conferences consistently attract high-impact audiences of senior-level financial and banking executives, press and industry analysts, venture capitalists, regulators, and technology entrepreneurs. FinovateMiddleEast will be no different with fintech from across the MENA region and 300+ attendees.

Join us on February 26 & 27 if you’re looking to:

  • Drive product adoption of the latest and most innovative solutions in fintech
  • Showcase new, high-impact technology in front of an influential audience
  • Generate press recognition, find customers, network with peers, raise capital, and discover partners

For more information on applying to demo, please review the brochure for prospective demoing companies, then fill out the online application by December 31 at the latest. We’ll be in touch within a few days of receiving your application.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected]. And if you’re unfamiliar with Finovate events, take a look at videos from the past 40+ events.

FinovateMiddleEast 2018 is sponsored by Temenos, UAE Exchange, and Loxon.

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Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Fintech News from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateMiddleEast 2018

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As Finovate prepares for its first conference in the Middle East, here’s a round up of recent fintech news and need-to-knows from the MENA region. Learn more about how to join us in Dubai in February for FinovateMiddleEast.

  • Fidor opens regional headquarters in Dubai Silicon Oasis.
  • Saudi Stock Exchange selects Nasdaq in post-trade technology infrastructure overhaul.
  • Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) signs fintech innovation cooperation agreement with Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

MENA Fintech Fact Fintech investments in the MENA region in 2017 amounted to more than $24 million, a gain of more than 13% over the previous year. According to BCG, the MENA region has experienced the “most explosive growth” in recent years in terms global fintech funding compared to other areas.

  • Al-Thiqa Islamic Bank in Iraq goes live with new core banking technology from ICS Banks.
  • Axis Bank leverages Ripple to provide cross-border payments between Singapore and UAE.
  • Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) signs MOU with national health insurance company, Daman, to colloborate on insurtech solutions.

Thought Leadership Is MENA ready for FinTech? – Thomson Reuters blog post looks at how a balance between regulation and innovation could pave the way for greater financial inclusion for the region’s 86 percent of adults in the region without bank accounts.

  • ADGM named “Financial Center of the Year (MENA) for second year in a row by Global Investor/ISF.
  • Dubai International financial Center (DIFC) establishes $100 million fund for investments in early-stage, growth fintech startups.
  • Bahrain Economic Development Board partners with FinTech Consortium to launch “the largest dedicated fintech hub in the Middle East and Africa,” Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB).
  • Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) signs collaboration agreements with regulators in Hong Kong.

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FI.SPAN Partners with Beanworks to Build B2B Payments Hub

FI.SPAN Partners with Beanworks to Build B2B Payments Hub
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FI.SPAN

Financial services management platform FI.SPAN inked a new partnership this week with Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based Beanworks to build a “world-class business-to-business payments hub.” The new BeanPay platform will give Beanworks’ business customers many of the same vendor payment capabilities that banks have. FI.SPAN will provide pre-integrated third party fintech solutions into the hub, and will manage payment processing via “strategically curated API connections.”

FI.SPAN CEO and founder Lisa Shields praised the combination of Beanworks’ accounts payable automation UX and a “very modern portfolio of payment services.” She said, “Beanworks believes in our vision of sharing modern business services within the corporate customer’s primary business applications.”

Calling manual reconciliation and file transfer “no longer acceptable,” Beanworks CEO Catherine Dahl said, “Our mission is to make the life of the treasurer easier.” Beanworks is cloud-based AP software – integrated with most common accounting platforms such as Intuit Quickbooks, Microsoft Dynamics, and Xero – that automates invoice data entry and invoice-to-purchase matching. Beanworks is also the AP automation provider of choice for Sage accounting and business management solutions. “FI.SPAN’s solution enables us to immediately and profitably extend our AP workflow through to world class payment capabilities,” Dahl said.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, FI.SPAN demonstrated its platform at FinovateFall 2017. The company’s technology enables banks and other FIs to deploy new business banking services and products, leveraging RESTful API endpoints to give FIs the ability to decide specifically which and how different products and services are available over different channels. FI.SPAN also provides pre-built connectivity to leading ERP platforms, empowering banks to use ERP as a channel for corporate customers. Read our profile of FI.SPAN from this fall.

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Coinbase Caught Up in Bitcoin Blowout

Coinbase Caught Up in Bitcoin Blowout
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase

What happens when you’re facilitating the trade of a product that is experiencing extreme hockey stick growth? You expand your team and operations as quickly as possible.

This is what Coinbase, an exchange platform for bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin, is experiencing. The California-based company will have plenty of war stories to tell once this season mellows out. After bitcoin blew past $16,000 earlier today*, the company tweeted:

The New York Times, in its piece Coinbase: the Heart of Bitcoin Frenzy, explained Coinbase’s popularity over other cryptocurrency trading platforms. Author Nathaniel Popper said, “Coinbase has been the dominant place that ordinary Americans go to buy and sell virtual currency. No company had made it simpler to sign up, link a bank account or debit card, and begin buying Bitcoin.”

Because of this growth, Coinbase now has more customers than E-Trade and Charles Schwab, having increased by 7.8 million accounts since January of this year. However, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sees past the hype into a more stable future for cryptocurrency. He told the New York Times that bitcoin is “probably a little bit too focused on the price or people trying to make money.” He added, “The thing I’m passionate about with digital currency is the world having an open financial system.”

Coinbase isn’t the only one experiencing growing pains. Global banking company Revolut, which launched a cryptocurrency trading feature today, sent out this series of Tweets this morning:

Founded in 2012, Coinbase demoed Instant Exchange at FinovateSpring 2014. In August, the company became a fintech unicorn after it closed a $100 million round of Series D funding. At that point, Pitchbook estimated Coinbase’s value to be $1.6 billion.

*Note: Earlier today Bitcoin’s value spiked over $17,300 but at press time sits at $17,099.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, PayNearMe

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • PayNearMe helping New Yorkers pay traffic tickets using cash.
  • Coinbase cofounder and CEO Brian Armstrong reminds users to ‘invest responsibly.”

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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Finovate Webinar: First Impressions Matter – Understand Your Customer

Finovate Webinar: First Impressions Matter – Understand Your Customer
By finovate Posted on
Categories: Finovate Webinar

 

The way consumers shop, buy and use financial services is changing along with ever-increasing expectations. Despite shopping online, many customers still buy financial products in the branch. Finovate and Quadient invite you to listen to this webinar to learn why an inviting onboarding process for customers is no longer optional.

During this webinar, Bob Meara, Senior Analyst at Celent will discuss:

  1. Why omni-channel customer onboarding is needed
  2. Where many onboarding processes fall short
  3. What’s a bank to do: 4 recommended steps to achieving omni-channel delivery

Focusing on Financial Institutions, Andrew Stevens, Product Marketing Manager at Quadient will discuss the importance of putting the customer at the center of your onboarding journeys in face-to-face environments, and how this method will delight your customers.

 

Bob Meara
Senior Analyst
Celent

 

 

 

Andrew Stevens
Product Marketing Manager
Quadient

 

 

 

David Penn (moderator)
Research Analyst
Finovate

 

 

REGISTER NOW >>

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