FinDEVr New York Alum NYMBUS Announces $16 Million in New Funding

FinDEVr New York Alum NYMBUS Announces $16 Million in New Funding

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In a round led by Home Credit Group, core banking technology innovator NYMBUS raised $16 million in new capital. The funds build on the $12 million the FinDEVr/Finovate alum raised in the second half of last year, bringing its total capital to $28 million.

NYMBUS executive chairman Scott Killoh pointed to reliance on outmoded legacy core technology as holding back many institutions in the financial services industry. Because of this, he said “tens of thousands of banks and credit unions are not capitalizing on strategic growth opportunities.” The investment from Home Credit Group will help NYMBUS provide FIs with the modular, third-party friendly core banking technology that will enable them to keep pace with the demands of their customers. NYMBUS President David Mitchell called it “helping … implement digital-first strategies in order to drive customer growth and competitive differentiation.”

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Pictured: NYMBUS President David Mitchell during his presentation “NYMBUS: The Next Evolution in Core Processing” at FinDEVr New York.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, NYMBUS presented “The Next Evolution of Core Processing” at FinDEVr New York last year, during which Mitchell explained why the company decided to focus on core processing technology. “If I asked who in this audience has a pager or a Walkman,” Mitchell told the attendees at last year’s event, “not too many people are going to raise their hands. “But community banks right now are on 30-year old, 20-year old technology,” he said. “(It’s) the oldest technology in the world. It’s been lipstick on a pig, mainframes, green screens for 20 or 30 years.”

NYMBUS, in contrast provides an advanced, core processing platform, SmartCore, with a wide variety of APIs, customizable UI, a conversion layer, and an ecosystem of banking apps. The platform keeps all critical banking functions in a single system with a single sign-on and data set. Home Credit International Group Head of Special Projects Miroslav Boublik called NYMBUS “best positioned to stand at the core” of the disruption of the traditional banking model today. “NYMBUS’ technology is both many years ahead of traditional banking system vendors and most viable among emerging (fintech) providers,” Boublik said.

Earlier this month we shared news of the company’s partnership with California’s Kaiperm Diablo FCU to deploy its core banking technology, SmartCore. Kaiperm Diablo’s announcement comes just a few months after Pennsylvania-based CHROME Federal Credit Union reported that it would use SmartCore as part of its goal of transitioning to a digital-first credit union. NYMBUS has also been an active acquirer, buying Sharp BancSystems, KMR, and R.C. Olmstead in the summer of 2016. Also a veteran of Finovate, the company demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2016.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Switch Announces Early Access to Online Card Account Management Platform.

On FinDEVr.com

  • Excited to see Softjourn at FinDEVr New York on March 21 & 22. Check out our interview with Project Manager Yuriy Kropelnytsky.
  • NYMBUS Scores with $16 Million Investment Led by Home Credit Group.

Around the web

  • Lleida.net wins 20-year European patent for its registered email technology.
  • Payworks provides SIX Payment Services with mPOS solution, mCashier.
  • Thomson Reuters enhances data analytics platform with ultra high-speed processing of real-time and historical data functionality.
  • France’s PayPlug to deploy ACI PAY.ON Payments Gateway from ACI Worldwide.
  • Entersekt announces original equipment manufacturing agreement with transaction processing specialist, Global Kinetic.
  • Affinity CU becomes “trusted sign-in” partner in SecureKey Concierge.
  • BBVA to leverage mobile accounting opening technology from Oracle Communications.
  • GMC Software awarded the Xplor Application of the Year Award.
  • Striata named a Visionary in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Communication Software.
  • Signifyd joins Salesforce Partner Program.

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.

Lose the Layers with FinDEVr New York — Final Days to Save

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Slip off your coat. Unwind your scarf. Drop your gloves. And flip your cap.

Winter is winding down and New York is warming up. With temperatures rising above 60 degrees, what better way to celebrate spring than with FinDEVr New York this March?Screen Shot 2017-02-21 at 7.11.37 AM

If you’re working on the tech side of financial services, you’ll find both friends and influential connections in the room next month. While there are too many technologists and media attending FinDEVr New York to list them all, here’s an idea of who has already registered.

This Friday is the final early-bird ticket deadline before the event, so get your ticket here.

  • VP Information Technology — Alliant Credit Union
  • Software Solutions Architect — Alliant Credit Union
  • Ops Manager — AlphaPoint
  • SVP Product & Strategy — AlphaPoint
  • IP App Developer Engineer — Amazon
  • Software Developer Manager — Amazon
  • Global Head of Architecture & Technical Solutions — Arvato Financial Solutions/Bertelsmann
  • VP Software Development — Billtrust
  • Sr. Director, Software Engineering — Capital One
  • VP Product Development — Deluxe
  • Director, UX Design Engineering — Deluxe
  • Executive Director, Engineering — Deluxe
  • VP Development — DHI Computing Service
  • Sr. Programmer — Edward Jones
  • Solutions Engineer — Envestnet Yodlee
  • CTO — Fintech Solutions
  • Head of Architecture — Kanetix
  • Head of Emerging Technology — Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services
  • Developer — Mantigma
  • CTO — Matrix Applications
  • Sr. Technology Manager — Mizuho Bank
  • Managing IT Director — Mizuho Securities
  • Director of Software Engineering — Paragon Technology Solutions
  • Software Developer — Pied Piper
  • VP Product Innovation — PNC Bank
  • CTO — Prodigy Finance
  • Development Lead — Prudential
  • IT Director — Prudential
  • IT Consultant — PwC
  • Head of Product Development — QIWI Bank
  • Product Development — Regalii
  • Director of Application Development — Swift Capital
  • Technology Team Lead — Swift Capital
  • Management Board, IT — TeamBank
  • Sr. Technology Advisor — Tendor Armor
  • CTO — Thinking Capital
  • CTO — Third Party Trade Group
  • Sr. Software Engineer — Thomson Reuters
  • CTO — Trade IT
  • Product Manager — USAA
  • Director of Emerging Tech — Zions Bancorporation

Join us this spring and save 10% with the promo code “FinDEVrBlog” at newyork2017.findevr.com. And save an additional $100 when you register before this Friday, February 24.


FinDEVr New York 2017 is partnered with American Banker, BayPay Forum,BiometricUpdate.com, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, CIOReview, Cointelegraph, Colloquy, CooperPress, Distributed, Economic Journal, Empire Startups,Femtech Leaders, Finmaps, Fintech Finance, Harrington Starr, Level39, Mercator Advisory Group, The Paypers, SecuritySolutionsWatch.com, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, and Women Who Code.

FinDEVr Feature — Softjourn

See Softjourn and the rest of the FinDEVr New York speaker lineup on March 21 & 22. Register and save 10% with the promo code FinDEVrBlog.

Interview with Yuriy Kropelnytsky, Softjourn‘s Project Manager:

Where did you start your career and how did you gain the experience needed to run the tech side of your company?
I started my career in telecoms, setting up and adjusting billing systems: first as a developer, then as a manager. Ten years ago, I switched to IT. Now I’m a project manager at Softjourn, working in financial services, card-processing and blockchain cryptocurrency. I learned how to run the tech side of Softjourn by developing different complex software systems and focusing on the cutting edge of fintech. That’s why we decided to test Blockchain to see how DLT and smart contracts work. As a result, we set up an in-house employee loyalty system based on cryptocurrency using smart contracts.

From a technologist’s perspective, what’s unique and game-changing about your technology?

Softjourn’s combination of hardware, blockchain cryptocurrency and smart contracts as an approach to crowdfunding local social projects.

Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution/technology.

My favorite implementation of this technology was going from a simple in-house loyalty program for employees to funding local community projects. The same SJ coins employees can use to get coffee from a vending machine can be used to support orphanages and animal shelters or to raise funds for families of sick children or those who have lost a breadwinner at the front. Through our blockchain-based voting system, employees can vote on which projects they want the company to support through the Softjourn Foundation, which was set up to support community causes. We have also developed different currencies and different colors to identify different projects.


FinDEVr New York 2017 is partnered with American Banker, BayPay Forum, BiometricUpdate.com, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, CIOReview, Cointelegraph, Colloquy, Distributed, Economic Journal, Empire Startups, Femtech Leaders, Finmaps, Fintech Finance, Harrington Starr, Level39, Mercator Advisory Group, The Paypers, SecuritySolutionsWatch.com, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, and Women Who Code.

Finie Gets Funding: AI Innovator Clinc Closes $6 Million Series A

Finie Gets Funding: AI Innovator Clinc Closes $6 Million Series A

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Clinc, developers of the voice-based intelligent assistant app, Finie, closed a $6.3 million Series A round this week. The round was led by Drive Capital and featured participation from Cahoots Holdings, Hyde Park Venture Partners, and individual investor Stuart Porter. Clinc’s total capital now stands at $7.75 million.

Calling the opportunities for his company’s technology “truly endless,” and pointing to “overwhelming interest in Finie from financial institutions,” Clinc CEO Jason Mars sees a major role for artificial intelligence in a number of financial use cases. “We’re going to eliminate the complexity and barriers that consumers typically face when understanding their finances,” Mars said. “And we’re going to help more consumers connect with their financial data in personalized, impactful ways with minimal effort.”

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Pictured: Clinc CEO and President Jason Mars demonstrating the intelligent virtual assistant banking app, Finie, at FinovateFall 2016.

The additional capital will fuel further product innovation and help expand the Clinc team, currently at 21 “and growing,” the company said in a statement. Drive Capital co-founder and partner Mark Kvamme will join Clinc’s board of directors.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Clinc demonstrated its voice-based intelligence assistant app, Finie, at FinovateFall 2016, earning a Best of Show award. Finie uses advanced natural language processing and artificial intelligence to understand and respond to unstructured, conversational speech. The technology is nuanced enough to “interpret not only semantics and intent, but the underlying meaning of user queries,” as well. Designed for financial services, Finie provides personalized advice as part of its ability to handle a variety of banking tasks, giving customized answers to user questions about balances, spending patterns, and more. Clinc includes Notion AI and fellow Finovate alum, Bankjoy among its customers.

VATBox Brings in $20 Million

VATBox Brings in $20 Million

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Automated VAT recovery solution VATBox landed $20 million in funding today. The round was led by Target Global Fund. Existing investor Viola Private Capital, as well as other private investors, also participated.

Combined with the company’s first round, this brings VATBox’s total funding to $50 million since it was founded in 2012. Today’s round will accelerate the company’s international expansion and facilitate product development. VATBox’s SaaS offering is an automated, global VAT recovery service for businesses. Shmuel Chafets, Target Global partner, highlighted VATBox’s potential when he said, “We believe that within a few years VATBox’s services will become an integral part of the financial infrastructure for every international company.”

At FinovateEurope 2015, the company launched VATBox2, an automated version that leverages qualified and validated data to deliver full visibility and compliance. The company’s clients include Fortune 500 companies such as Amazon, Eli Lilly, Dell, and 3M. In May of last year, VATBox was listed among the top promising startups in Israel and one month earlier was selected as a finalist for Red Herring’s Top 100 Europe award.

February seems to be making up for the recent slump in fintech funding. This is the seventh alum funding we’ve seen this month— the 5th this week alone (and it’s only Wednesday!). Including today’s rounds, ten alums have closed on more than $100 million in funding so far this year.

FinDEVr APIntelligence

FDNY17-Logo-RevTickets for upcoming FinDEVr London and FinDEVr New York are at their lowest prices now. Register for FinDEVr New York now and save!

On FinDEVr.com

  • Payoneer Launches Cross-Border, Mass Payment APIs.

Alumni updates

  • FinDEVr veteran Hyperwallet adds former SecureNet Payments EVP, Mark Engels, as Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Best of Show winner AutoGravity forges new partnership with Westlake Financial Services to expand financing options for car shoppers.
  • The Paypers interviews Nicole Mantow, General Manager of EVO Payments, parent company of FinDEVr veteran, EVO Snap.
  • PayPal Acquires TIO Networks in $230 Million Deal.
  • Thomson Reuters Labs’ latest data science lab opens in Singapore.
  • Bluefin Payment Systems powers payment processing solution for ticketing and ecommerce platform, AudienceView.
  • Mitek to provide AML and KYC compliance technology for European blockchain firm, Nocks.
  • AutoGravity Earns Multi-Million Euro Investment from Daimler.
  • Northern California’s Kaiperm Diablo FCU to deploy core banking technology from NYMBUS.
  • Arxan launches Arxan Application Protection for JavaScript to protect JavaScript-based applications.

Stay current on daily news from the fintech developer community! Follow FinDEVr on Twitter.

Alexa, Tell Me About D3 Banking’s New Voice Banking Skill

Alexa, Tell Me About D3 Banking’s New Voice Banking Skill

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Data driven digital banking services company D3 Banking launched a voice banking skill, an Amazon Alexa-specific app, to enable end users to communicate with their bank or credit union.

Using the intelligent, voice banking solution, members can check account balances, move money, listen to messages, and set financial goals. D3 Banking collects and analyzes consumer interactions and uses AI to personalize Alexa’s responses with marketing and specific calls to action. Javelin Strategy & Research found that voice banking is not just for tech-savvy consumers. In fact, the firm reported “more than half of all mobile bankers express interest in using voice commands” and that it is “not just for millennials; a majority of seniors reported that they would find it faster than navigating multiple menus in a mobile banking app.”

The Alexa voice banking fits in with the rest of D3 Banking’s offerings, which include an open and flexible API-driven infrastructure. The company intends to add voice recognition for fraud prevention and customer service calling capability. Additionally, D3 Banking has plans in place to expand the services to other virtual assistants, such as Google Home.

Founded in 1997, D3 Banking debuted its small business banking capabilities at FinovateFall 2015. In June of last year, the Nebraska-based company landed $10 million from West Partners, which brought its total funding to $27 million. Mark Vipond is CEO.

Bitbond Closes on $1.2 Million in Funding

Bitbond Closes on $1.2 Million in Funding

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If peer-to-peer lending isn’t hip enough to pique your interest, how does bitcoin lending sound? That’s exactly what Germany-based Bitbond is doing that earned them $1.2 million in investor funding today. This boosted the online SME lender’s total funding to $2.3 million.

The round was led by mobilike founder Şekip Can Gökalp. Other contributors include Fyber founders Janis Zech and Andreas Bodczek as well as Kreditech co-founder & CEO Alexander Graubner-Müller. Founder & CEO of Bitbond Radoslav Albrecht said, “We are happy to have such experienced investors supporting us on this exciting journey.” According to Albrecht, the funds will help Bitbond to “make lending and borrowing globally accessible” by furthering product development and growing its user base in underserved markets. Currently, the company has 76,000 registered users from 120 countries.

Since launching in 2013, Bitbond has extended 1,600+ loans worth $1.2 million. The company matches investors with SME borrowers from across the globe by leveraging the blockchain for cross-border payment processing. In October of 2016, Bitbond received a regulatory license from German regulator BaFin, making it one of the first regulated blockchain-based financial services providers.

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Bitbond’s Radko Albrecht (CEO & Founder) and Jarek Nowotka (CTO) on stage at FinovateFall 2016 in New York

At FinovateFall in September, the company launched automated, universal scoring for SME lending. As Albrecht said in his demo, “The main challenge about creating an international platform is credit scoring, because data is different from one country to another.” The new offering solves this with its scalable, automated scoring mechanism that offers applicants an instant loan decision.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Check out this week’s FinDEVr APIntelligence.
  • Alexa, Tell Me About D3 Banking’s New Voice Banking Skill.
  • Finie Gets Funding: AI Innovator Clinc Closes $6 Million Series A.

On FinDEVr.com

Around the web

  • Zopa named Best Personal Loan Provider and Best Alternative Finance Provider at British Bank Awards
  • 7-Eleven names InComm Vendor of the Year.
  • ProfitStars introduces Gladiator Incident Alert for complex risk monitoring and management.
  • D3 Banking unveils Amazon Alexa-based intelligent banking service.
  • FinDEVr veteran Hyperwallet adds former SecureNet Payments EVP, Mark Engels, as Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Fiserv recognized among “world’s most admired companies” for fourth year in a row.
  • Best of Show winner AutoGravity forges new partnership with Westlake Financial Services to expand financing options for car shoppers.
  • Feedzai and Merchant Risk Council (MRC) team up to leverage AI and machine learning to fight fraud.
  • Klarna adds to payment options for omni-channel commerce technology innovator, Radial.
  • The Paypers interviews Nicole Mantow, General Manager of EVO Payments, parent company of FinDEVr veteran, EVO Snap.

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.

FinDEVr Feature — Riverbed

See Riverbed (+Teneo) and the rest of the FinDEVr New York speaker lineup on March 21 & 22. Register and save 10% with the promo code FinDEVrBlog.

Interview with George Karamanoglou, Riverbed‘s Director of Advanced Business Solutions:

Where did you start your career and how did you gain the experience needed to run the tech side of your company?
I have over twenty years’ experience with leading suppliers and consumers of advanced application operations technology. I’ve held various strategic technical and management roles with a focus on application infrastructure performance and developed a keen understanding of market needs, with substantial experience introducing and discussing emerging disruptive technology to large complex organizations.

From a technologist’s perspective, what’s unique and game-changing about your technology?

Riverbed solutions are focused on identifying and managing application performance constraints across infrastructure domains. By delivering better visibility, performance, and control of critical application infrastructure Riverbed can help you bring the promise of digital transformation to life.

Tell us about your favorite implementation of your solution/technology.

Implementing Riverbed solutions for the best application performance management and monitoring to gain real-time visibility into the end-user experience, infrastructure and applications. As a result, we enable the ability to diagnose application performance problems down to the offending code, service function, network, or system resource in development and production environments.


FinDEVr New York 2017 is partnered with American Banker, BayPay Forum, BiometricUpdate.com, Breaking Banks, Byte Academy, Canadian Trade Commissioner Service, Celent, CIOReview, Cointelegraph, Colloquy, Distributed, Economic Journal, Empire Startups, Femtech Leaders, Finmaps, Fintech Finance, Harrington Starr, Level39, Mercator Advisory Group, The Paypers, SecuritySolutionsWatch.com, Swiss Finance + Technology Association, and Women Who Code.

Speak to 400+ Fintech Developers this June — Apply for FinDEVr London

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The second deadline to apply to speak at FinDEVr London is this Friday, February 24. If you’re interested, there are a few things to consider: Is FinDEVr the right fit for your company? What should you show on stage? Is the timing right?

FinDEVr events focus on the tech side of financial, banking and payments technology. Companies showcase the latest in enabling tools — APIs, SDKs, cloud services and platforms, explore use cases, and walk through tutorials of best practices, implementation, etc.

FinDEVr is a good fit if you’re developing enabling technology and want to reach a technical audience (CTOs, software architects and engineers, developers, etc.) to do the following:

  • Drive product adoption of APIs/platforms/SDKs (like Stratumn and Streamdata.io)
  • Showcase new and trending technology and the inspiration behind it (like DigiByte)
  • Establish technical leadership of the industry while educating the market (like Braintree and Google)
  • Garner press recognition and gather feedback on innovations

With 15 minutes on stage, speakers balance live coding, slides, video and demos. Check out DriveWealth’s presentation from our most recent FinDEVr event to see what this looks like:

And then apply ASAP. The second deadline to apply to speak is this Friday, February 24. Submissions are reviewed and presenters selected on an ongoing basis. Even though the final application deadline is not until March, applying early is advantageous (early-bird discounts on the speaker fee are available).

For more information on speaking, please review the brochure for prospective presenting companies here: london2017.findevr.com/presenterpdf. And then fill out the online application here: london2017.findevr.com/application.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected].