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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Open Banking selectsPing Identity to provide the identity and access management to underpin the UK’s open banking framework
Banco Interamericano de Finanzas leveragesInfocorp’s marketing orchestrator tool, Prisma Campaigns
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.
Singapore-based B2B roboadvisor Bambu has completed a funding round that featured a strategic investment from Franklin Templeton Investments and venture capital funding from Wavemaker Partners, part of the Draper Venture Network. Also participating in the round was fintech and global robo advisor investor and advocate, Robby Hilkowitz.
“Bambu is now a growth stage company in the rapidly changing world of digital wealth,” Bambu CEO and co-founder Ned Phillips said. “To gain support from leading industry players brings great momentum towards our goal of becoming the market leader in the space.” He added that the company would use the new capital to speed business development and sales efforts, as well as bolster research and development.
Although the amount of this week’s investment was not made public, TechinAsia reports that the company’s total funding is more than $1 million, including a $400,000 seed round in the spring of 2016.
Pictured (left to right): Bambu CEO Ned Phillips and COO Aki Ranin demonstrating the Robo and Intelligent Digital Advisory platform at FinovateAsia 2016.
Bambu’s strategy as a robo advisory platform is to de-commoditize the industry by offering solutions that are tailored to specific markets. The company offers an Intelligent Advisor solution that is geared toward private banks and wealth managers working with high net worth clients. Bambu also has a white-label, robo advisory platform for affluent and retail investors that enables banks and asset managers to offer clients the ability to build personalized, goal-based portfolios.
Wavemaker Partners managing partner Paul Santos credited the experience of Bambu co-founders Ned Phillips and Aki Ranin in support of the firm’s investment. Praising the pair’s “deep domain expertise building scalable, sustainable businesses,” Santos added, “Ned and Aki have gone from strength to strength to find customers that love their product and have built up a promising pipeline.”
Bambu demonstrated its Robo and Intelligent Digital Advisory platform at its Finovate debut in Hong Kong in November 2016. In January, Bambu wonBest Early Startup at the Next Money Fintech Finals in Hong Kong. Finovate research analyst Julie Muhn highlighted the company in her look at “Top Business-to-Business Wealth Tech Players” earlier this year. Bambu is a veteran of Hong Kong’s SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0, sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Fidelity International. The company was founded in 2016.
Interested in fintech in Asia? FinovateAsia returns to Hong Kong this November. Visit our FinovateAsia 2017 page for more information. Reserve your ticket by September 29th to take advantage of early-registration savings.
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 11 through 14 in New York. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.
Privakey is solving the challenge of making consumer authentication consistent and simple across the entire customer experience.
Features
Consumers can “Say Goodbye to Passwords”
Consistency is the key to customer experience
Never requires a second device for authentication
Why it’s great
Privakey improves the experience for your customers when online, in-person, or on the phone (and increases security, too!)
Presenters
Charles Durkin, CEO and Co-founder
Durkin co-founded Privakey in 2015, and is responsible for the company’s strategy, its communications, and its execution. LinkedIn
Brian Ross, Vice President of Product
Ross currently serves as Vice President of Product and Services. He ensures that the promise of simple and secure authentication becomes a reality for consumers and businesses. LinkedIn
AI Foundry’sAgile Mortgage solution with virtual assistant technology helps streamline and automate the mortgage process while transforming the customer experience.
Features
Classify and extract data from documents
Obtain real-time status of mortgage applications
Create the individualized customer experience customers demand
Why it’s great Leverage new technologies and the value in previously-untapped data to digitally transform how banks and mortgage companies use technology to create truly meaningful customer experiences.
Presenters
Sid Probstein, CTO and VP of Professional Services
Probstein is a technology executive and product development leader with 20+ years of experience in delivering innovative enterprise content, search, big data and analytics software and solutions. LinkedIn
Chris Folmar, Solution Lead Engineer
Folmar designs, implements and delivers solutions for clients including solution architecture, installation and configuration of hardware and software, data and system integration, solution customization and operation. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateFall on September 11 through 14 in New York. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.
Jscrambler, a leader in JavaScript application security, is trusted by more than 30,000 companies and individuals to give unparalleled visibility on the client-side of web applications to prevent fraud.
Features
Protect your website against fraudsters and malicious injections
Prevent loss of credentials, private data, credit card information
Detect defacing and tampering of your users’ experience
Why it’s great
Jscrambler presents an innovative solution tailored to financial services allowing organizations to spot fraud in websites. No more stolen data, tampered transactions, or hijacked content.
Presenters
Pedro Fortuna, Co-Founder and CTO
Fortuna is Co-Founder and CTO of Jscrambler, leading the technical vision for the product and R&D activities. He has more than a decade of experience and knowledge working in the cybersecurity field. LinkedIn
Rui Ribeiro, Co-Founder and CEO
Ribeiro is Co-Founder and CEO of Jscrambler, co-leading business development. He has extensive experience in banking and financial services in the areas of auditing, finance, and project management. LinkedIn
Asseco Poland, the largest Polish IT company with 25 years of experience in developing technologically advanced software, is introducing the Asseco Advisory Banking Platform.
Features
Branch onboarding automation using an intelligent queueing system
Insight into customer data prior to their branch visit
Paperless service in an omni-channel architecture
Why it’s great
Asseco Advisory Banking Platform – adapting branches for mobile and internet reality.
Presenter
Marcin Kwilosz, Product Manager
Kwilosz has worked in the banking sector for 10 years. During this time, he implemented digital transformation projects. At Asseco, Kwilosz is responsible for strategy and development of the Advisory Banking Platform. LinkedIn
ING Bank Slaski provides a full range of services to business clients. They aim to make banking easier by offering products and services that clients can use without leaving the office.
Features
A fully online process – available any time, any place
Time saving – all you need is 5 minutes to apply
Immediate access to the business bank account
Why its great
A fully online account opening process for SMEs, available in a few quick steps, without leaving the office. Safe, simple and convenient.
Presenters
Oscar Swan, VP ING Lease
Izabela Gawron, Director – Cash Management Department, ING Bank Slaski
Wave helps small business owners get paid and manage their money. Now Wave also helps financial institutions engage and understand their small business customers better, with elegantly and deeply integrated online tools.
Features
Offers unprecedented 360° insights into small business finances
Boosts loyalty and engagement
Provides easy and fast integration
Why its great
Embedding Wave in online banking or similar services makes those services the daily, must-visit touchpoint for small business owners, and provides essential data for product recommendations.
Presenter
Kirk Simpson, CEO and Co-founder
An engaging speaker, Simpson co-founded Wave and has led the company to 2.7 million registered business customers. LinkedIn
Endor is the first predictive software platform that lets business users ask any question and get high-quality results in minutes instead of months.
Features
Designed to overcome traditional machine learning challenges
Helps organizations become predictive in minutes, not months
Requires no coding, no data cleaning, nor a team of PhDs
Why it’s great
Endor is based on Social Physics: a new science, originating at MIT, that uses big data to build a predictive, computational theory of human behavior.
Presenters
Doron Alter, Co-Founder and CEO
Alter’s background of identifying emerging technology trends and working with innovative startups forms the perfect backdrop for his passion in helping banks and financial institutes become predictive. LinkedIn
Inbal Tirosh, VP Product Management
Tirosh’s vast experience working in senior product and strategy roles in innovative startups fuels her drive to perfect a product that helps finance organizations use their data and become predictive. LinkedIn
NBKC TapsGro Solutions for Consumer Account Opening; Partners In Development of Business Account Opening Solution.
Pymnts: ShopKeepEnters Small Business Lending Market.
CSI globalVCardPartners with Mutual of Omaha Bank.
Mastercardpartners with Garmin to offer customers a contactless payment watch.
American Banker looks at the partnership between D3 Banking and First Tennessee Bank.
Ping Identity to provide hub for UK Open Banking framework.
Braintreeintroduces support for Apple Pay and Android Pay in Australia.
MyChoiceTech reviewsEversafe, an anti-fraud solution geared toward seniors.
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.
Banking software provider Temenosannounced this week that Baxter Credit Union implemented Temenos’ Lifecycle Management Suite in Microsoft Azure. This makes the $2.8 billion credit union the first financial institution to take the Lifecycle Management Suite into the cloud.
This week’s launch includes the Collection, Service, and Loan Origination modules and comes after nine months of testing to ensure the functionality and security of the new technology. Because the implementation has reduced Baxter CU’s IT overhead, the credit union “will be able to focus their time and effort on optimizing and providing the best products and services.”
Jeff Johnson, the credit union’s CIO, said that because Baxter CU uses the Lifecycle Management Suite on a daily basis, they wanted to begin hosting it on Microsoft Azure. Johnson added that this will offer the credit union “the ability to scale more efficiently, reduce system response time, enhance disaster recovery abilities and run on optimally-sized hardware.” The move also aligns with Baxter CU’s “strategic initiative” to move all of its technology into the cloud. You can check out the detailed case study for further information on the implementation.
At FinovateEurope 2015, Temenos demoed its Connect Mobile Banking suite. The platform focuses on user experience and uses native and web technologies to optimize the performance of hybrid mobile apps. Temenos has recently signed Federacion Nacional de Cooperativas de Ahorro y Credito, Al Masraf, and Aktia as clients. The company added open banking, PSD2-based services to its MarketPlace initiative to its platform in May.
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos employs 4,300+ people in 63 offices to serve clients in 145+ countries. David Arnott is CEO.
Capital One was the first U.S. bank to integrate with Amazon’s Alexa platform.
I am as excited about Alexa/Cortana/Siri/Google as the next geek (except maybe for this guy) and look forward to seeing many examples at Finovate in 2 weeks. We already own a pair of Amazon Echos and we’ll probably get more. Our biggest uses: music, the grocery shopping list (which still requires a visual to use when shopping), and as a kitchen timer. We love it. But is it a great interface for financial services? I’m not sure.
1987 AT&T advertisement
Roll back the clock three decades. Voice banking was the newest thing. It offered 24/7 access to bank balances and transactions. No more waiting for a paper statement, queuing up at an ATM or even going to a branch.
However, when the Internet arrived in the late 1990s, routine automated queries began migrating from the phone, where it was tedious and time consuming to “listen” to data, to the wonderful new visual medium. Users could comprehend a series of numbers much, much faster visually than orally.
So when I see the hype around voice banking, it’s hard not to think that we’ve just gone backwards in UX by two decades. I don’t think the current crop of voice products are all that compelling for day-to-day banking. Sure, “Alexa, what’s my balance?” is easier and faster than calling a toll-free number or even logging in to mobile banking. But most customers looking for their balance also need to understand the transactions that created it. And for that a visual aid is much better than a recital of a bunch of figures.
To add value, voice interfaces must handle requests AND deliver results that are not better served with visuals. (Note: We are not talking about voice commands for mobile or desktop banking which do add value for almost any task.) What might those use cases be?
Annotating transactions:
Trigger: “Alexa ask me what my recent purchases were for?”
Alexa: “$12.77 at Pizza Press yesterday?”
User: “Lunch with Charlie at school”
Alexa: “$64.12 at Office Depot on Monday?”
User: “Business expense for office supplies”
Second factor for online/mobile banking
Alerts (assuming Alex could proactively start a conversation with you)
Routine customer service questions (such as Capital One example above)
Bottom line: For marketing and convenience reasons, financial institutions will Alexa-enable a wide variety of tasks such as transaction queries, transferring funds, authorizing payments, and so on. But few of those tasks are handled more effectively by two-way voice communications. Sometimes, it may prove more convenient (e.g., think of a busy parent trying to avoid an overdraft while making dinner for their 3-year old). But even if they can use Alexa, I think most people will pull out their mobile phone for the majority of banking tasks, very likely using voice commands to simplify the input process.
Author: Jim Bruene (@netbanker) is Founder & Senior Advisor to Finovate as well as Principal of BUX Advisors, a financial services user-experience consultancy.
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