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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
This week’s Fintech Rundown features partnership and expansion news from a handful of Finovate alums, as well as some interesting fundings in the cryptocurrency and charitable giving space.
To kick off Finovate’s commemoration of Black/African-American History Month this year, we’re highlighting some of the Black and African-American fintech professionals who represented their companies and their fintech innovations at our Finovate conferences in 2023.
Andre Llewellyn – Marketing Consultant/Advisory Board Member with AI Squared
Along with company CTO Michelle Bonat, Andre Llewellyn helped demonstrated the new Generative AI-based features on AI Squared’s platform at FinovateFall last year.
The company’s technology enables financial services companies to leverage Generative AI – and their own data – to maximize their enterprise assets.
A marketing consultant and AI Squared Advisory Board member, Llewellyn is a marketing veteran whose insights helped fuel new product and brand launches for Procter & Gamble, Instagram, Hashflow, and Candy Digital. He is a graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business.
Michael Duncan’s Bankjoy made its first Finovate appearance in 2016.
The company, which returned to the Finovate stage in 2022 and 2023 for FinovateFall, helps community banks and credit unions access modern banking technology. Bankjoy’s solutions help FIs better target specific market niches and deliver superior digital banking experiences.
Duncan (CEO) co-founded Bankjoy in 2015. Headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan, Bankjoy has more than 60 clients, more than 120 integrations, and serves more than 1 million customers and members of banks and credit unions. This week, the company announced a new partner – Oregon State Credit Union – that will deploy Bankjoy’s online account opening and loan application.
Mountain View, California-based DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2023.
Solutions Engineer Ryan Nichols (shown) joined company CRO Kevin McWey on stage as they demoed DataVisor’s Fraud & Risk Platform. The company’s solution supports the entire fraud workflow in a self-service solution that is single and flexible.
A software developer and solutions architect with experience at firms like CenturyLink and Internet publisher Giant Oak, Nichols joined DataVisor in 2021. As of the spring of 2023, he is both a Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner (CTCE) and a Certified Cryptocurrency Risk Specialist (CCRS).
Nate Gibbons – Chief Experience Officer with QuickFi
Nate Gibbons, QuickFi’s Chief Experience Officer, is no stranger to Finovate audience – nor to the Finovate Best of Show awards.
The company, an innovator in embedded financing for business equipment, has won Best of Show on two occasions: FinovateSpring 2022 and 2023. And Gibbons was part of the winning team both times (along with colleague Jillian Munson, VP of Process & Automation with QuickFi).
An alum of the University of Rochester Simon Business School, Gibbons is also a Certified Lease and Finance Professional (CLFP). Previous to his tenure at QuickFi, he was Project Manager and subsequently Vice President at First American Equipment Finance.
The company is an Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion firm that consists of The Urban Labs (services) and Lexicon (products). The Lazu Group made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring, demoing its CULTURL Heritage Calendar that offers “content, ideas, and resources for creating timely communication to promote empathy and curiosity and encourage cross-cultural dialogue.”
Lazu is a speaker, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an author. Her book, From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, was published this year. Lazu is also a former banking professional, having worked as EVP and Chief Experience and Culture Officer for Berkshire Bank in Boston.
ModernTax founder and CEO Matthew Parker introduced his company to Finovate audiences last year at FinovateSpring. ModernTax is a data company that makes tax and financial data on non-public entities more accessible. The company has created a verification platform that includes more than seven million businesses, and ModernTax has validated tax records for “hundreds of thousands” of them.
Before launching ModernTax, Parker was co-founder and CEO of Rapidly.co, a SaaS platform that connects accountants, enrolled agents, and tax professionals to their clients online. We caught up with him last fall to talk about the founding of ModernTax and what it means to have a more transparent financial ecosystem.
FinGoal first introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinovateFall in 2021. But it was the company’s return to the Finovate stage the following spring that earned the Colorado-based fintech its first Best of Show award.
Led by Ariam Sium, VP of Product (shown) and Jenn Underwood, Product Analyst, FinGoal’s demo of its Aggregator Switch Kit showed how developers can readily transition from their current data aggregator to access the most enriched and reliable data available.
Finovate VP and host of the Finovate podcast Greg Palmer sat down with Sium in the wake of FinGoal’s Best of Show win last year. Check out their conversation from last summer.
AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. The company, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., specializes in helping companies integrate AI and machine learning functionality into any web-based application. Leading the company’s demo was founder and CEO Benjamin Harvey.
With a Master’s degree and a Doctor of Science in Computer Science – as well as years spent as both a Research and Assistant Professor – Harvey brings a wealth of academic experience to the challenge of entrepreneurship and innovation in the fintech space.
We discussed this, and other aspects of his background and goals, in a Finovate blog interview back in August of last year.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 27. Register today using this link and save 20%.
Centi
Centiintroduces a revolutionary digital finance platform, enabling seamless cash-to-digital-currency conversion and micropayments for unbanked people.
Features
Delivers efficient, low-value micropayment processing for everyone
Offers simple sign up for easy access, including unbanked individuals
Provides advanced, scalable infrastructure that supports global transactions
Who’s it for?
Financial institutions, merchants, and both unbanked and banked individuals.
DashDevs
Fintech Core by DashDevs is a white label, modular banking software solution for the creation and quick launch of digital banking and payment products as apps or on the web.
Features
Offers source code based modular fintech solution
Accelerates time to launch for digital banks
Includes ready to use modules
Who’s it for?
Banks, startups, and small-and-medium-sized businesses.
Delega
Delega makes treasury easy by fully digitizing delegation of authority between corporates and their banks.
Features
Offers improved efficiency
Improves customer experience
Lowers operational risk and hassle of collaboration
Who’s it for?
Mid-and-large-sized corporations and banks.
Kern AI
Kern AI is a German innovation-focused startup crafting specialized generative AI applications for the financial sector.
Features
Deploy reliable and secure GenAI applications within days
Streamline knowledge-intensive tasks
Test safely and rapidly with LLMs
Who’s it for?
Banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies.
NF Innova
NF Innova helps banks, lenders, and microfinance institutions provide state-of-the-art digital banking services to their end-customers, decrease their costs, and increase their level of innovation.
Delivers Right User experience (UX) according to dynamic profiling
Provides opportunity for micro-segmentation
Who’s it for?
Banks of all sizes, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), and lenders across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
Torus
Torus is a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and payment providers that improves their profits on card transactions by 15-40% by analyzing and predicting Visa and Mastercard fees.
Features
Delivers transaction-level scheme fee prediction
Offers merchant-level profitability calculation
Highlights real IC++ pricing
Who’s it for?
Issuers and acquirers that are principal members of Visa and/or Mastercard (banks, EMIs, PIs).
Tradelite Solutions
Tradelite Solutions’ web3 financial education world, Mogaland, is shaping the future of personal finance with game-based learning, a token economy, and unprecedented data-driven financial personals.
Features
Makes finance accessible and fun through game-based learning
Empowers everyone to boost financial literacy with web3 incentives
Creates a next gen DeFi marketplace with a token and data powered economy
Who’s it for?
Millennials and GenZ individuals who want to improve their personal finance skills and crypto-related product and service providers.
Embedded finance platform Liberis announced a partnership with identity risk management innovator Alloy.
The partnership will enable Liberis to leverage Alloy’s platform to add automated compliance verifications to the funding application process.
Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSilicon Valley 2016.
Embedded finance platform Liberis has teamed up with identity risk management innovator Alloy. Courtesy of the newly announced partnership, Liberis will leverage Alloy’s technology to integrate automated compliance verifications directly into the funding application process. The integration enables Liberis to accelerate its international growth and simplify the merchant experience.
“Alloy is designed to help businesses take control of fraud, credit, and compliance risk, while growing with the clearest picture of their customers,” Alloy CEO Tommy Nicholas said. “We’re confident that our partnership will help Liberis achieve its goal and provide its merchants with a seamless onboarding experience.”
LIberis will gain access and integrations to a global network of more than 190 data sources to streamline KYC, KYB, and AML operations and stop financial crime. The platform will also support the creation of custom, white-label onboarding experiences for partners.
“Alloy’s platform will allow us to enter new markets quickly, optimize our merchants’ fully digitized application for funding and scale to meet our partners’ demand, while also maintaining our high standards for compliance,” Liberis’ Chief Legal & Compliance Officer Alexis Alexander said. Alexander added that one main challenge with compliance checks is that they can increase friction during the onboarding process. To this end, Alloy’s identity risk solution automates and manages onboarding, fraud monitoring, and credit underwriting processes, reducing the amount of paperwork. For those businesses that need more extensive documentation, Liberis will provide a custom, white-label experience tailored to the needs of merchants and partners alike.
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley 2016. Today, more than 500 banks and fintechs have partnered with Alloy to manage identity risk at origination as well as throughout the customer lifecycle. Alloy processes millions of identity decisions daily for the world’s top banks and fintechs in 40 countries across North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. The company has raised more than $207 million in funding from investors including Avid Ventures and Felicis.
Just a few days ago, Alloy issued its 2024 State of Fraud Benchmark Report. The report featured some good news on the fight against fraud. According to the 450+ financial industry fraud decision makers who responded to the firm’s survey, the number of reported fraud attacks has begun to “even out – and for some organizations, to decelerate.” Nevertheless, there were devils in the details, including the number of companies reporting an increase in attempted fraud attacks via consumer accounts (61% of companies) and as well as through business accounts (54% of companies).
“It’s encouraging to see companies getting fraud volume under control using the wide array of identity data and technology available on the market,” Nicholas said when the report was release in late January. “But fraud remains a critical problem because bad actors are always finding new tools – such as generative AI – to steal increasingly large amounts of money.” Indeed, Alloy’s report noted that 56% of respondents lost more than EUR 500,000 ($537,000) to fraud in the last 12 months. Over the same time period, a quarter of respondents had lost more than EUR 1 million ($1.7 million).
Authentication platform Privakey has launched its Single Sign-On (SSO) solution, Privakey SSO.
The new offering enables enterprises to leverage passwordless authentication and authorization.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Privakey made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York.
Passwordless authentication solution provider Privakeylaunched its Single Sign-On (SSO) solution last week. Designed for enterprises, Privakey SSO responds to the demand for passwordless authentication as cybercriminals leverage social engineering to take advantage of traditional password-based systems.
“Privakey SSO is designed for speed and simplicity in both implementation and user experience,” company CEO Charles Durkin explained. “Small and medium-sized businesses can have Privakey SSO up and running within hours. Large enterprises benefit from a single, highly secure passwordless gateway to authorized applications and services.”
The new offering leverages a strong cryptographic authenticator to incorporate biometric data, PIN, and passkey for both authentication and authorization. Users supply the biometric or PIN, and a device-based secure passkey provides an additional layer of security by verifying the user’s identity as initially registered. Privakey SSO removes the inconvenience of passwords and out-of-band codes. Businesses can deploy the technology as a standalone, company identity platform, or integrate it to enable passwordless login to enterprise identity solutions from companies ranging from Microsoft to Google to Okta.
“We’ve engineered our solution to be fast, easy to use, scalable, and robust, ready to help you eliminate passwords – the primary target of cybercriminals,” Durkin said. He added that the solution was “ideal” for a variety of verticals including financial services, ecommerce, and IT.
Privakey is currently inviting companies interested in its technology to participate in its Privakey SSO Free Beta Test. The beta testing period runs from January 30, 2024 to May 31, 2024.
Headquartered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and founded in 2016, Privakey made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York. At the conference, the company demoed its cloud-based, password-free alternative to identity authentication that is consistent, convenient, and secure.
BILL has selected Adyen to offer advanced acquiring and issuing experiences for its accounts payable and accounts receivable solutions.
The company has integrated Adyen’s card issuing tools into its virtual card offering.
Formerly known as Bill.com, the company rebranded to BILL in 2022.
Small business financial automation solutions provider BILL unveiled this week it has selected payments technology platform Adyen to offer advanced acquiring and issuing experiences for its accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) solutions.
BILL has integrated Adyen’s card issuing services into its virtual card offering as part of its AP and AR solutions. The California-based company expects Adyen’s technology to drive more opportunities for SMBs and help them deliver more seamless payment experiences.
“We are proud to be a part of BILL’s focus on helping SMBs thrive as we scale our relationship into card issuing with a category leader in financial operations,” said Adyen SVP of Platforms and Financial Products Blake Breathitt. “With our licensing framework and embedded financial products both integrated together, we look forward to being a part of BILL’s robust ecosystem of card products and services.”
Sweden-based Adyen was founded in 2006 and offers payment acceptance, embedded payments, virtual card capabilities, authentication, risk management, insights, and more. Among the company’s corporate clients are Meta, Uber, H&M, eBay, and Microsoft.
BILL was founded as Bill.com in 2006, went public in 2019, and rebranded to its current name in 2022. The company has a current market capitalization of $8.19 billion. Regarding today’s move with Adyen, company Chief Commercial Officer Loren Padelford said, “Helping our SMB customers manage their cash flow means making their payments easy and secure. Because of their trust in BILL, our customers can easily make their payments and get back to running their business.”
This week in Finovate Global we take a look at some recent fintech developments in Mexico.
First up is news that Grupo Financiero Banorte has launched Mexico’s first fully digital bank, bineo. The company noted that it hopes to add 2.8 million new customers in the next five years.
“The launch of bineo is a great milestone in the history of Grupo Financiero Banorte that will allow us to meet all needs: those who prefer a human-digital combination and those who seek 100% digital banking, with the financial security that has always characterized the institution,” Grupo Financiero Banorte chairman Carlos Hank Gonzalez said.
Bimeo offers a pair of accounts for customers. The bimeo Total Account allows for unlimited deposits. The Light Account has a monthly cap of 3,000 UDIS (investment units), which equals approximately 24,000 Mexican pesos.
Account holders will have access to both a digital and a physical debit card that includes a feature that enables them to allocate their savings toward specific goals. Card holders can use their physical card at more than 10,000 Banorte ATMs. Additionally, in a nod to sustainability, the physical card consists of biodegradable materials.
The new digital bank also offers financing products for bineo account holders. Customers will be able to apply for digital loans in amounts ranging from 5,000 to 200,000 MXN. Repayment terms range from six to 24 months. The bank also pledges competitive rates and instant access to funds once loans are approved.
“We imagine a bank that puts people at the centre, and we created it!” bineo CEO Victor Moya said. “We think in a different way of managing finances, where personalization is the heart of what we do. Bineo will offer new products and services based on customer needs so as not to confine them to a product designed by us.”
Pago en Quincenas with Kueski Pay is the name of the new payment option. It enables payment for purchases in biweekly installments, helping make shopping on Amazon more affordable to many Mexican consumers. The option also helps deal with the fact that less than a third of the adult population in Mexico has a credit card. By leveraging Kueski Pay, one of Mexico’s most popular buy now, pay later platforms, Amazon Mexico helps expand purchase financing beyond both credit as well as debit cards.
“Our agreement with Amazon demonstrates the need Mexicans have for more flexible , secure, and inclusive payment alternatives,” Kueski Pay SVP of Sales Lisset May said. “Kueski Pay enables merchants to deliver more innovative shopping experiences and help Mexican consumers live their personal finances with more excitement.”
Kueski Pay has provided nearly 15 million loans to date. The company notes that 1 in 4 of Mexico’s most relevant merchants offer the payment option. Customers who opt for Pago en Quincenas with Kueski Pay can choose from plans of up to four interest-free biweekly payments as part of an introductory offer, or as many as 12 biweekly payments. Payments can be made by linked bank account, debit card, or cash at participating networks. A one-time application must be completed during the Amazon checkout process the first time a customer chooses the Kueski Pay option.
Finovate has been happy to host a handful of fintechs from Mexico over the years. Some of our Mexico-based alums include:
Nufi
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, Nufi made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021 in New York. The company demoed its Fintech Legos offering, a set of modular building blocks that enable firms to build their own financial solutions. At the conference, Nufi showed how its Fintech Legos could be used to build a modular, adaptable KYC process that could be deployed by any company.
Sr. Pago
Mexico City-based fintech Sr. Pago was founded in 2010 and made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2014. At the conference, the company’s CEO and co-founder Pablo Gonzalez Vargas demoed the Sr. Pago Card + Reader, which help small businesses and individuals accept card payments for services and have those payments loaded onto the recipient’s Mastercard. The company was acquired by Mexico-based online lending platform Konfío in 2021.
Prestadero
Also headquartered in Mexico City, Prestadero made its Finovate debut in 2013 at FinovateSpring. Founded in 2011, Prestadero was the first fully legally compliant and operational P2P lending platform in Mexico. At FinovateSpring, the company demonstrated how its proprietary management software enabled Prestadero to parse out declined loans in seconds and offer rates for approved loans in less than a minute.
Kuspit
Founded in 2010 and based in Mexico City, Kuspit is a regulated broker/dealer in Mexico. The company targets retail investors with little investing experience and offers an investing community in which learning, sharing, and investing “dynamically integrate with one another.” Making its Finovate debut in 2012 at FinovateSpring, the company showed how it uses visualization to help investors understand the relationship between risk and return.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
Regulators in India ordered digital payments provider Paytm to cease much of its business operations due to non-compliance issues.
Mastercard and SadaPay extended their partnership to support the financial needs of SMEs and freelancers in Pakistan.
Indian private sector bank Karnataka Bank teamed up with financial services platform Northern Arc Capital.
Quavo Fraud & Disputes introduced new automated ACH capabilities to its dispute management platform.
Among the new features is a verbal attestation capability that eliminates the requirement of a digital or manual signature.
Quavo founder and CEO Joseph McLean will lead a conversation on modernizing fraud and dispute management on February 6th as part of the Finovate Webinar series.
Quavounveiled new automated ACH capabilities to its dispute management platform, QFD (Quavo Fraud & Disputes) this week. The enhancements make additions to the intake questionnaire, and add a new verbal attestation functionality for WSUD compliance.
Quavo Chief Technology Officer and co-founder David Chmielewski said that the enhancements will reduce friction. “For ACH, the process is cumbersome for consumers,” he explained, “with banks requiring physical or digital signage signatures.” Quavo’s solution to this challenge was innovative. “We poured over Nacha regulations and developed a verbal attestation solution where accountholders aren’t bothered by manual signature requirements,” Chmielewski said. “Quavo reimagined ACH requirements for the automated back-office operations needed to support account holders today and in the future. And this is only the beginning.”
This new release includes enhanced intake questionnaires as well as additional claim reasons to support back-office ACH investigations. The enhanced functionality also includes automated return capability which streamlines back office operations via straight-through processing on ACH disputes. The platform also now offers a new signer disclosure that allows verbal attestation during claim intake. To enable this capability, the platform prompts an agent to read a disclosure to the account holder, which satisfies Nacha’s WSUD requirement with a physical or digital signature.
Quavo’s first customer to go live with the enhanced ACH functionality has completed more than 12,000 automated returns and recovered $7.69 million in funds. This top 25 bank accomplished all of this without human intervention.
Quavo has raised $11 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company includes FINTOP Capital and JAM FINTOP among its investors. Founded in 2025, Quavo is headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware.
Join me February 6th for my conversation with Quavo Fraud & Disputes founder and CEO Joseph McLean on 4 Game-Changing Benefits of Modernizing Your Fraud and Dispute Management.
This week, U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) finedCity National $65 million in a civil money penalty. The OCC said the California-based bank “engaged in unsafe or unsound practices,” stating that it failed to establish effective risk management and internal controls. The bank also allegedly violated the bank secrecy act.
Additionally, the agency sent City National a cease-and-desist order that stipulates the bank must correct its actions to improve its strategic plan and operational risk management. Specifically, the OCC wants to see the bank improve its internal controls, compliance risk management, anti-money laundering and fair lending practices, and investment management operations.
This is not only bad news for City National, but also for banks across the U.S. That’s because, given last year’s banking crisis, regulators have had their ears a bit closer to the ground than usual and are more willing to strike fines on both banks and fintechs.
So what’s a bank to do in the midst of increased scrutiny? Here are eight actions to take to avoid a similar fate.
Strengthen third-party risk management
In the era of banking-as-a-service (BaaS), multiple aspects of banking leverage third parties, and for good reason. Using a third party fintech to boost security or a lending-as-a-service provider to offer a much-needed service for customers helps bankers focus on what they do best. However, banks must establish auditable processes for managing third-party risks and implement controls to mitigate risks associated with third-party relationships, especially those related to operational, compliance, and fraud risks. And this is not a set-it-and-forget-it action. Once the process is in place, banks need to routinely monitor third party relationships.
Enhance internal controls
Once you take a look at your processes with third parties, examine your own, in-house operations. Modernize and strengthen your internal controls to detect and prevent risk management and compliance issues. And don’t slip on conducting regular compliance audits to identify and correct any weaknesses.
Improve operational risk event reporting
After surveying both your internal and external processes, establish a risk reporting system that can quickly flag any irregularities. The reporting system should be transparent and efficient in order to allow for a quick response from the right party or parties involved. A fast turnaround will help mitigate risk.
Enhance fraud risk management
While internal slip-ups pose their own threat, fraudsters are an even bigger danger, as they can be difficult to predict and control. Make sure you have robust fraud risk management practices in place, including continuous monitoring and proactive measures to prevent fraud. Because fraudsters will strike wherever they find a vulnerability, you need to ensure your entire team is on board. Stay vigilant by conducting regular training exercises for all employees to help them recognize and respond to fraud.
Address discrimination concerns
Even if your organization hasn’t been accused of redlining, proactively create a structure around your fair lending practices. Having a well-documented process in-place will serve you well if you are ever flagged for potential unfair practices. And don’t get complacent. Review your lending practices on a regular basis to ensure fairness and compliance with anti-discrimination laws.
Strengthen your bank’s financial position
Save your reputation by establishing a process that continuously monitors and assesses your bank’s financial position. Quickly address any issues that may impact your banks’ stability. Have a plan in place in the event things go wrong. Establish a strategy to address losses, such as rising costs from lower deposits. The strategy should include proactive measures that will help maintain financial health.
Create a compliance-driven culture
Regulatory action is on the rise, not only in the U.S., but across the globe. Adhering to regulations requires compliance from all levels of the organization, so permeating your culture with compliance will help ensure everyone plays by the rules. And because compliance is dynamic, be sure to regularly review and update your policies to ensure they meet current standards.
Cooperate with regulators
Let’s face it, systems fail and everyone makes mistakes. In the event the regulators come knocking at your bank’s door, be cooperative. Fostering a positive relationship with regulatory bodies and keeping communication open can go a long way. Be proactive in remediating the issues and making the necessary corrections to avoid further enforcement.
It’s the first of February, which means that FinovateEurope is taking place this month on the 27th through the 28th at the O2 in London. If you haven’t registered yet, now is the time! The agenda is packed with fintech’s most relevant topics and features 36 companies that will demo their new technology on stage in Finovate’s signature 7-minute demo format.
In addition to the demos, there will be 86 speakers (and counting) at the event. We can’t wait to feature insights and discussions from the top European fintech thought leaders. Take a look at what to expect.
Nina Schick, Author, Generative AI Expert, Founder at Tamang Ventures
Schick is an author, advisor, and keynote speaker, specializing in how technology is transforming politics and society in the 21st century. She is an expert in synthetic media, deepfakes, disinformation, cybersecurity, and the geopolitics of technology. Schick helps organizations and businesses understand and navigate the geopolitical risks and opportunities posed by the exponential technological changes of our age.
Her keynote address, Will AI Be More Profound Than The Invention Of The Internet? What Do Financial Institutions Really Need To Understand About Generative AI?, will take a look at the use cases for generative AI in banking, the growth and future of conversational AI, potential use cases for augmented reality and virtual reality, the metaverse in banking, and new threats posed by deep fakes.
Jillian Godsil, Author and Broadcaster at Coin Telegraph
Godsil is an award winning journalist, author, and broadcaster in Web3. She changed the law in Ireland in 2014, allowing bankrupt candidates to run for public office, before running as an independent candidate in the European Parliamentary Elections in 2014, earning 13,500 votes – not enough to get elected but enough to make a difference.
In her keynote address, From Crypto Ice Age To Crypto Winter To Crypto Spring?, Godsil will examine the risks and opportunities of decentralized finance and a new crypto universe geared towards building a new internet native financial system. She’ll also offer her take on how regulators across the globe are currently viewing crypto.
Manas Chawla, CEO at London Politica
Chawla is a political risk expert and the Founder and CEO of London Politica, the world’s largest political risk advisory for social impact. He has specialist expertise in consulting on “technopolitics,” corporate diplomacy, and crisis management, and has advised the United Nations, Red Cross, and a range of C-suite executives at Fortune 500 companies, and tech unicorns.
Chawla will be giving a keynote titled, The Global Economic & Geo-Political Outlook – What Are The Five Things You Need To Know. His discussion will inform the audience on how the high interest rate environment will continue to impact banks, investors, and fintechs; offer his predictions on the potential of future bank failures; and share how geo-political issues will shape the future.
Analyst All Stars
Also worth showcasing are the analysts participating in our Analyst All Stars Session:
Philip Benton, Principal Analyst, Financial Services at Omdia
Suraya Randawa, Head of Omnichannel Experience at Curinos
Maria Adele Di Comite, Research Director at IDC Financial Insights
Investor All Stars
And don’t forget to stick around for our Investor All Stars panel, moderated by Claire Mongeau, Investor at Founders Factory, to find out where the smart money is investing in fintech:
Robin Scher, Head of Fintech Investment at Lloyds Banking Group
Sophie Winwood, Operator Partner at Foxe Capital
Asaf Horesh, Managing Partner at Vintage Investment Partners
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 27. Register today using this link and save 20%.
ATMO Technologies
ATMO Technologies allows corporations to fast track their net zero progress by achieving reductions within the supply chain. Financial institutions can extend their loan book and track their ESG progress with ATMO.
Features
Extends lending portfolios
Measures ESG progress
Brings organizations closer to their net zero targets
Who’s it for?
Banks, retailers, brands, and SME suppliers.
EasyLodge
EasyLodge offers a mortgage application and instant credit decisioning software.
Features
Utilizes automation to complete finance applications
Delivers 20 second credit decisioning and instant finance contracting
Uses a machine-learning-enabled credit engine for instant credit decisioning
Who’s it for?
Lenders of any type and size.
Realmonitor
Realmonitor offers banks a mobile platform for acquiring large volumes of engaged mortgage and personal loan customers.
Features
Provides a stream of engaged mortgage and personal loan clients
Features a scalable solution to match the bank’s operational capacity
Offers an ideal entry point for a comprehensive housing ecosystem strategy
Who’s it for?
Banks, credit unions, and mortgage institutions.
Visualizy
The Visualizy embedded banking and payment solution aims to solve the chaos in banking by helping companies eliminate manual processes and enhance security in their payment and financial operations.
Features
Enables companies to integrate with several banks and FIs in a modern way
Automates payment operations and cash management
Complies with ISO-20022 – all through one secure integration
Who’s it for?
Banks, payment providers, credit unions, EMIs, and financial institutions.
WELREX
WELREX’s game-changing digital investment management platform empowers Independent Relationship Managers (IRMs) to exceed clients’ expectations and enables high net worth individuals to make the most of their wealth.
Features
Delivers tailored investment solutions to IRMs and their ultra high net worth and high net worth clients
Offers a proprietary user experience on top of an established SaaS platform
Maximizes results reflecting clients’ best interests
Who’s it for?
Wealth managers, IRMs, and ultra high net worth and high net worth individuals.
This week in Tales from the Crypto we look at some traditional and alternative ways that investors are backing their favorite cryptocurrency companies, examine a new report explaining why the U.S. lags behind its peers when it comes to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and learn about U.S. Department of Justice charges – and a guilty plea- in a $1.9 billion dollar crypto pyramid scheme.
Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum scores new funding
Has crypto winter yielded to the year’s first crypto unicorn? Swiss crypto banking group Sygnumhas raised $40 million in strategic funding in a round led by Azimut Holdings. The round gives the firm a valuation of $900 million, not quite enough for a unicorn horn, but more than enough to raise not just eyebrows but new expectations at what might be in store for cryptocurrency businesses and the funds that invest in them.
The company will use the capital to fuel its expansion into new markets in both Europe and Asia. The investment will also accelerate development of Sygnum solutions such as its bank-to-bank platform, currently supporting crypto offerings from more than 15 banks and FIs around the world.
“Our core thesis has always been that Future has Heritage, and our strategy to build trust via regulation and good governance has guided us throughout all market cycles,” Sygnum co-founder and Group CEO Mathias Imbach said. He underscored the challenge of “closing a successful funding round” in the current financial environment, which fellow co-founder and CEO of the company’s Singapore office Gerald Goh called “a testament to Sygnum’s strong and unique position as a leading regulated financial institution in the global digital asset industry.”
Report: U.S. progress on CBDCs lagging other nations
But according to a new report, the future of any U.S.-created CBDC has plenty of issues – even without the antipathy of the once (and maybe future) U.S. president. According to a report from think tank Atlantic Council, the U.S. is falling behind other countries that are exploring or developing CBDCs. The Council claimed that the U.S. Federal Reserve has deployed “less than 20” people to work on research and development on CBDCs. By contrast, the Council said that the People’s Bank of China has more than 300 people working on their CBDC project. The effort in the U.K. was also praised compared to the U.S., with the Council favorably noting that the Bank of England had deployed a joint task force including both the Treasury and Parliament.
The Atlantic Council says that there is an innovation gap between the U.S. and other developed nations when it comes to CBDCs. The Council also criticized the relatively slow rollout of the U.S. interbank settlement system compared to similar systems in Europe that were deployed sooner. And while the Council accepts that there’s no reason to “disrupt the currency that underpins the global economy,” it still believes that the U.S. dollar needs to “innovate.”
PayPal invests $5 million stablecoin in Mesh
The Fed may not have much faith in crypto. But PayPal is putting $5 million worth of its own crypto to work in support of embedded crypto payments startup Mesh. PayPal announced that it has invested $5 million worth of its own U.S. dollar denominated stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), in the company, which facilitates digital asset transfers and account aggregation.
This investment, announced this week, marks the first time PYUSD has been used as the funding instrument for an investment by PayPal Ventures. “The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar,” PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman said last year when PYUSD was introduced. “Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.”
Founded in 2020, Mesh enables companies to integrate crypto payments and transfers directly into their existing platforms. The firm has more than 300 integrations with exchanges, digital wallets, and brokerages. This week’s funding follows a $22 million Series A funding round Mesh closed in September. Bam Azizi is co-founder and CEO.
DOJ announces charges, guilty plea in cryptocurrency fraud scheme
On the “Law & Order: Crypto Edition” front, the U.S. Department of Justice has levied criminal charges against two individuals – and accepted the guilty plea of a third – for their involvement in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme called HyperFund. The SEC charged two of the three individuals civilly for their role in what they allege to be a $1.89 billion cryptocurrency pyramid scheme.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, Erek L. Barron, called the amount of fraud “staggering.” Barron added “whether it’s cryptocurrency fraud, or any other financial frauds, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
The scheme ran from June 2020 through November 2022, alleges the Department of Justice. The scheme’s conspirators are alleged to have told investors that they would earn daily returns of between 0.5% and 1% until their initial investment doubled or tripled thanks in part to revenues from crypto mining operations. The DOJ alleges that HyperFund began blocking investors from withdrawing their money in July of 2021 and the scheme collapsed the following year.
According to the SEC, one of the conspirators who agreed to settle civil charges of violating securities laws against fraud, had received more than $3.7 million from the HyperFund platform and its investors. This individual is also the one who has already pled guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud. The maximum sentence for all three conspirators is five years in prison if convicted.
Odds and Ends
Former U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne joinedCoinbase’s advisory council.
Cryptocurrency platform Kraken introduced new Chief Operating and Product Officer Gilles BianRosa.
Reuters reported that FTX has abandoned the idea of relaunching its exchange and will instead pursue a liquidation with a goal of repaying customers in full.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin shared his thoughts on the present and future of cryptocurrencies in a blog post this week.
