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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Savana unifies and orchestrates banks’ processes between the core, back-office, and digital channels to enable frictionless interactions between banks and their customers.
Features
Provides one experience for servicing customers across bank-assisted channels and products
Includes core-to-customer centralization and automation of processes
Digital channels leverage centralized processes via APIs
Why it’s great
Savana enables banks to own business processes and channel experiences holistically, eliminate process silos on the back-end and the front-end, and launch or modernize quickly without risk.
Presenters
David Williams, CPO Williams leads the development and execution of Savana’s product strategy to bring value to banks and their customers. LinkedIn
Larry Edgar-Smith, SVP, Sales Engineering Edgar-Smith combines market intel with industry experience to help shape the strategic direction of Savana’s solutions. LinkedIn
Banking technology provider Plumery raised $4.5 million in seed funding.
Tomorrow Ventures, Headline, Seedcamp, and Cocoa Ventures led the investment.
Former Mambu CTO and CPO Ben Goldin founded Plumery in 2020.
Component-based banking technology company Plumery has raised $4.5 million in funding. Better Tomorrow Ventures, Headline, Seedcamp, and Cocoa Ventures led the investment. Also participating in the funding were business angels Didier Valet, Ricky Knox, and Alan Morgan. Valet is former deputy CEO of Société Générale. Knox is the founder of Tandem Bank. Morgan is a former senior partner at McKinsey. Ben Goldin, former CTO and CPO of Finovate alum Mambu, founded the company in 2022. Plumery will use the capital to fuel product development.
“The banking industry has changed and continues to evolve every day,” Goldin said. “Today, consumers are looking for a seamless digital onboarding and customer experience, continuous product improvements that are personalized, and reliability when it comes to their bank. However, many traditional banks aren’t able to make these changes as easily as one would think which is why it’s essential that we build a next-generation platform.”
Plumery offers a software overlay that enables banks to develop and launch mobile and web apps faster. Financial institutions can use Plumery’s technology without having to overhaul their existing banking infrastructure. The company expects to launch a publicly accessible version of its solution via a subscription-based model later this year.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Plumery was founded in December 2022. Goldin, who serves as the company’s CEO, brings more than 20 years of experience to the new venture. He spent more than five years at Mambu as CTO, CPO, and Strategic Advisor. Previously to his tenure at Mambu, Goldin spent more than four years at Backbase – another Finovate alum.
In a LinkedIn post, Headline General Partner Jonathan Userovici explained the role he believed Plumery would play in helping banks innovate better.
“Something we all noticed,” Userovici wrote, “successful tech companies, including some challenger banks, improve their mobile applications up to 5x more frequently than traditional banks. With Plumery, everyone will be able to implement mobile and web apps blazingly fast and at a fraction of current costs.”
The European Payments Initiative (EPI) acquired two payments companies– Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq.
EPI will leverage the new acquisitions to build a unified payment solution for Europe.
The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany.
Payments solutions initiative European Payments Initiative (EPI)announced it has acquired two payments companies and has simultaneously unveiled plans to launch an instant payments solution for Europe.
EPI is purchasing Currence-owned payment solution iDEAL and payment solutions provider Payconiq International (PQI) for undisclosed amounts. The three companies are joining forces to organize EPI’s unified payment solution for Europe.
“EPI will leverage the strong operational experience, know-how and local market knowledge of these companies,” said EPI CEO Martina Weimert. “We are developing a new, scalable platform to address the modern and evolving payment needs of European consumers and merchants in the best possible way, with efficient, state-of-the-art technology.”
Based in the Netherlands, iDEAL is the region’s major payment scheme. In fact, iDEAL’s payment scheme operator, Currence, counts all major Dutch banks as members. In the Netherlands, 55% of online transactions use iDEAL to facilitate payments. iDEAL was first launched in 2005 and was revamped 15 years later in 2020 to accommodate for the growth of ecommerce transactions and updated consumer expectations.
Founded in 2014, PQI offers a mobile payment platform that can be used in-store, online, and for peer-to-peer money transfers. With headquarters in Amsterdam, the company operates in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg.
Both iDEAL and PQI will help build the EPI digital wallet solution that will offer instant, account-to-account payments under a single brand for users in all European countries. The unified payment scheme will begin by offering P2P payments by the end of 2023 across France and Germany. In the future, EPI will also offer person-to-professional (P2Pro) payments followed by ecommerce and point-of-sale payments. The scheme will support one-off payments, subscriptions, installments, payments upon delivery, and reservations. Over time, EPI will add in more services such as buy now, pay later, digital identity features, and merchant loyalty and rewards.
The scheme has a diverse set of shareholders, including BFCM, BNP Paribas, BPCE, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, DSGV, ING, KBC, La Banque Postale, Nexi, Société Générale, and Worldline. Also worth noting are the newest members. Belfius and DZ Bank joined in 2022, and today, ABN Amro and Rabobank are joining as well.
Gen Z-focused personal finance app Buddy has teamed up with open finance specialist Plaid. The partnership will enable Buddy users to manage their finances and track their spending more easily thanks to Plaid’s open finance APIs. Plaid’s APIs ensure secure connections between users’ financial accounts and financials apps. The integration will allow users to easily monitor accounts and expenses in a single location, as well automate their savings.
“By using apps like Buddy, younger generations can gain better control over their finances and make more informed decisions, helping them to develop healthy habits that will serve them well in the future,” Buddy founder and CEO Olle Lind said. “By teaming up with Plaid, we are making this process quicker and more painless than ever before, helping millions across the world budget and plan for the future they want and deserve.”
Buddy is among the top personal finance apps in the U.S. and Canada. The app has three million users and operates in 175 countries. The Stockholm, Sweden-based company was founded in 2017.
Plaid’s partnership announcement with Buddy came just days after Plaid reported that it was working with fellow Finovate alum Finastra. The two companies announced that Plaid had integrated with Finastra’s Fusion Digital Banking platform. The integration will provide account verification tools to make it easier and more secure for customers to link their financial accounts to financial apps.
“As the world continues to embrace open finance, it is critical that we deliver the services community banks, credit unions, and all financial institutions need to make it simpler and easier for their customers to connect the various pieces of their financial picture,” Finastra Chief Product Officer of Universal Banking Narenda Mistry said.
April has been a busy time for Plaid. The company launched its Instant Payouts feature earlier in the month. The new offering is a real-time payment tool to send funds instantly via Plaid’s Transfer solution. In April, the company also announced a partnership with mobile banking app Monzo.
Plaid has been a Finovate alum since 2014. The company’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Europe. Plaid has raised more than $734 million in funding from investors including American Express Ventures and Bedrock Capital. The company achieved a valuation of $13.4 billion in the spring of 2021. Founded in 2013 by Zach Perret and William Hockey, Plaid is based in San Francisco, California.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Deserve’s configurable credit card platform helps FIs reduce fraud with card controls, deploy launches and feature releases quickly, and drive top-of-wallet with superior cardholder experiences.
Why it’s great
Deserve provides financial institutions with a fully-configurable credit card platform including cutting-edge card issuing, processing, and superior mobile cardholder experiences.
Presenters
Rajan Annadurai, CTO Annadurai leads the vision, strategy, and execution of the Deserve credit card platform. LinkedIn
Shiv Bhatt, Head of Product Bhatt leads Product at Deserve and delivers on a roadmap to provide partners with an integrated full-stack platform that is configurable with fast deployment. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Finturf provides a complete point-of-sale financing solution for contractors, medical offices, retailers, and other businesses, connecting customers to multiple lenders.
Features
Includes multiple lenders all in one place and automated lender matching
Provides control over lenders and offers presented to customers
Delivers detailed application status, as well as user and company performance
Why it’s great
Finturf’s multi-lender platform boosts sales by increasing approval rates, with flexible financing options.
Presenter
Narek Khachatryan, Head of Product Narek Khachatryan is an accomplished fintech product executive who excels in product strategy, scaling startups, and point-of-sale financing, with strong problem-solving and collaboration skills. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
FINTEQ is a technology startup from Poland building the next-gen risk-free payment accelerator and striving to change how companies improve their cashflows in a healthy and sustainable way.
Features
Lowers purchasing costs in the supply chain
Provides debt free trade finance alternatives for suppliers
Generates extra profits for the business
Why it’s great
FINTEQ has created a mobile payments accelerator in a supply chain.
Presenters
Rafal Chrabol, CEO Chrabol is an executive in IT and finance with more than 15 years of experience. He is the Founder and CEO of FINTEQ and the Board Advisor for financial technology at the Polish Corporate Treasurers Association. LinkedIn
Aleksandra Chrabol, Media Editor As a highly creative and open-minded media editor, Chrabol is responsible for delivering the most relevant and eye-catching content across all digital networks.
With new challenges come new opportunities, and fintech has always been at the forefront of creating tools to help consumers, businesses, and traditional financial institutions overcome their obstacles. And given all of the changes taking place in financial services, there’s never been a better time for fintechs to shine. That’s why at FinovateSpring next month, we’ll showcase 50+ fintechs as they demo their newest developments from the Finovate stage.
So far this year, we have 25 new demoing companies. We wanted to highlight them because we figured they might be new to you, as well. Here’s a rundown of the new-to-Finovate demo companies currently on the roster:
1kosmos 1Kosmos automates user onboarding for workers and customers, protecting against stolen and synthetic identities while eliminating ATO and fraud.
9Spokes 9Spokes unlocks the potential of open data, giving financial institutions a powerful set of tools to engage business customers.
AI Squared AI Squared simplifies and accelerates AI integration to provide increased adoption of AI to impact organizations and lives.
AutoCloud AutoCloud offers risk management for multi-cloud infrastructure as code.
Bankable Fintech Bankable Fintech offers an unbiased source for financial technology partnerships, vendors, and service providers.
bluCongnition bluCognition provides machine learning, deep learning, artificial intelligence, and big data services.
Cloverly Cloverly provides tools for businesses and organizations to become carbon neutral by connecting online buyers to local renewable energy through its Sustainability-as-a-Service platform.
Curinos Curinos’ machine-learning, AI-driven engine, Amplero, allows financial institutions to break free from rules-based marketing and achieve true personalization.
Deception and Data Truth Analysis D.A.T.A. provides lightning fast and highly accurate analysis of due-diligence documents for their level of deceptiveness and truthfulness.
Deserve Deserve’s mobile-first credit card platform is fully-configurable and offers cutting-edge card issuing, processing, and underwriting technologies.
FINTEQ & Smart Faktor Smart Faktor’s FINTEQ is an Early Payments Platform that factors in sustainability. The company’s supply chain financing turns a business’ working capital into profits.
Finturf Finturf brings point-of-sale financing to brick-and-mortar retailers and service providers like home improvement contractors and medical offices.
Front Financial Front Financial offers users real-time, aggregated data from their third party accounts. The company authenticates into over 300 banks, brokerages, CeFi exchanges, or DeFi wallets without screen scraping.
Hyperswitch Hyperswitch is a payment facilitator-as-a-service that helps merchants connect to any number of and a wide variety of payment processors.
IDMERIT IDMERIT is the one-stop shop for customer and business verification, helping companies fight fraud and meet KYC and AML regulations.
Kani Payments Kani Payments offers transaction reporting and reconciliation as well as business intelligence that helps businesses make informed decisions.
ModernTax ModernTax is API platform that democratizes access to tax records for business services companies.
Pangea Technologies Pangea’s FX hedging platform powered by AI addresses FX risk and global currency volatility for companies that have global costs, revenue, or employees.
pave.dev Pave helps credit risk teams to identify healthy borrowers, optimize credit limits, and improve collections outcomes.
PayTic PayTic offers software-as-a-service that helps card issuers and fintech businesses control risk and compliance through digitizing the payments back-office functions.
Savana Savana is a core-agnostic digital delivery platform that enables truly frictionless interactions between banks and their customers across channels.
Setuply Setuply offers a client onboarding automation platform that delivers innovation and experiences for clients and vendors.
The Lazu Group The Lazu Group is an equity, diversity, and inclusion firm that helps organizations move from intention to impact and future-proof their business model.
Total CollectR Total CollectR is a white-label solution that leverages AI to help customers resolve delinquent accounts using the communication channels they prefer.
Wink Wink enables any institution to offer identity and payments experiences through biometrics.
Be sure to keep an eye out for demo updates leading up to the event, which takes place May 23 through 25 at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. Don’t miss your chance to register!
Super.com raised $85 million in a Series C funding round led by Inovia Capital.
Super.com did not disclose its current valuation but said that it has “increased significantly” since 2021.
Super.com rebranded from Snapcommerce in October of last year.
Super.com is bringing in an $85 million investment today in a Series C fundraising round that boosts the company’s total funding to $186 million. While there is no update on Super.com’s current valuation, the company noted that it has “increased significantly” since it closed its Series B round in March of 2021.
The round was led by Inovia Capital with contributions from new investors Harley Finkelstein, Deb Liu, Allen Shim, Josh Proctor, Chris Best, Neha Narkhede, and Mike Lee. Existing investors Telstra Ventures, Acrew, Lion Capital, Full In Partners, NBA star Steph Curry, and others also contributed.
“Raising our Series C is proof of investor confidence in our ability to scale the business responsibly. This will allow us to both continue investing in growth while driving improving margins,” said company CFO Daniel Weisenfeld.
Super.com rebranded from Snapcommerce in October of last year and offers a savings app to help users save money, access credit, and find travel experiences. In 2022, the company launched SuperCash, a secured credit card product that offers cashback while helping users build their credit.
In addition to helping consumers track their SuperCash transactions, the Super.com app also offers deals and savings opportunities when purchasing travel experiences and shopping major brands. Since the company was founded in 2016, it has helped its five million customers save more than $150 million.
“Super.com’s diversified business model now drives savings across all facets of our customers’ lives, from travel to fintech. It’s great to see market excitement match our own as we rapidly build the first savings super app focused on everyday Americans,” said Super.com CEO Hussein Fazal.
Financial enablement platform Array has launched its Debt Manager solution.
Debt Manager provides consumers with real-time information about their debts.
Array won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021. The company won a second Best of Show award on its return to the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2022.
Financial enablement platform Array has launched its Debt Manager solution. The new offering is an embedded solution that gives consumers real-time information about their debts. Debt Manager is especially helpful during lead qualification, debt management, and similar processes. The technology helps reduce borrower risk and enhance loan marketing by ensuring that the prospective borrower’s most current credit data is accessible.
“At Array, our vision is to empower every individual to own their financial future by providing access to the right data and tools at the right time,” Array founder and CEO Martin Toha said. “Today’s introduction of Debt Manager is another key step to delivering on that vision by ensuring consumers can secure a loan faster or pay down debt quicker without having to jump through unnecessary hoops to make that possible.”
Debt Manager helps financial services companies negotiate two specific challenges. The first issue is the cumbersome task of gathering and collecting data from a range of financial accounts. These accounts often include credit cards, mortgages, student and auto loans, and more. The second issue is that, without this data, financial institutions can often make “suboptimal decisions” and court “significant risk” in the words of Array VP and GM of Digital Financial Management Products Deepak Sharma.
Debt Manager is the latest addition to Array’s suite of solutions for financial services companies and their customers. The new offering joins Array’s credit and financial management tools like its BuildCredit Loan, HelloPrivacy, and Identity Protect. The company is also moving toward the launch of its Subscription Manager product. This technology gives consumers better insight into their recurring payments. Array reported that 47% of banking customers in the U.S. would find subscription management tools “useful” on mobile banking apps.
The launch of Debt Manager comes one month after the company announced its partnership with FICO. The collaboration will bring FICO scores and credit data to consumers on Array’s platform. “Our partnership with FICO delivers on our promise to provide valuable data with the experience that people want, and it provides banks, credit unions, and fintechs with an embeddable solution to enable them to offer FICO Scores to meet the growing demand for credit score data.”
Founded in 2020, Array is headquartered in New York. The company has raised $67 million in funding from investors including General Catalyst, Battery Ventures, and Nyca Partners. Array won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2021. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following year, securing a second Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2022.
When we dig into the mechanisms behind how customer engagement leads to revenue, we start with how customers progress through sales stages. There are various models and stage labels, but they all have one thing in common: the customer has some sort of informational or emotional need that must be fulfilled before they advance to the next stage. The customer may be able to fulfill this need on their own through means such as independent research. However, brand engagement fills those needs faster, more accurately, and more completely. This is why engagement drives larger transactions and decreases time to transaction.
Let’s explore 5 recommendations for driving revenue through quality customer engagements:
1. Target Your Engagement and Provide Options.
The fundamentals of delivering the right message, to the right person, at the right time is an important aspect of a customer engagement strategy focused on revenue growth. The focus should be on what constitutes the ‘right’ target and the variables to reach those targets. The ‘right’ engagement is the one most likely to advance a customer along the buying journey. Early in the process, engagements focused on product demonstrations or interactive group events provide customers the information they need to feel confident in their research. Later in the funnel, engagements become more personalized as your customers’ needs become more refined. In this phase, 1:1 instructional lessons, personal appointments with product specialists or focus product tests (e.g. test driving a car), could be leveraged for customers with increased enthusiasm.
2. Treat human-to-human interaction as a high value conversion event.
“Always be closing” is a common motivational phrase in sales, but that doesn’t mean high-pressure tactics are always appropriate. Rather, the goal should be to move the customer toward a decision, even if that entails multiple interactions along the way. A one-to-many event or one-to-one appointment has higher value both to the customer and the brand because it provides more personalized and relevant insights that a customer needs in order to advance along the sales cycle.
3. Think of staff as both a revenue generating resource and a customer service resource.
A well-trained, motivated staff combine product knowledge and enthusiasm; they are your best option for advancing customers along a sales path. When you acknowledge how powerful a connection with your staff can be, you will want to set up as many engagements for them as possible while at the same time reducing their administrative burden. Real-time calendar updates, schedule visualization, intuitive data entry, and automated confirmation and reminder messages increase staff engagement capacity. Reminders for staff are just as important as reminders for customers; be sure that reminders are part of existing workflows and they contain the necessary information for appointment prep.
4. Provide staff with directional intelligence before, during, and after engagement.
Customer engagement for revenue necessitates that the staff:
Has information on the people they speak to
Understands what information needs to be provided to move them to the next step in the sales cycle
Has the ablity to easily collect information over the course of the engagement.
Information such as demographic data, sales history, engagement history, and customer service inquiries can all help staff paint a holistic picture of the customer. Often this information exists in disparate systems. When these systems can communicate into a centralized hub, the better prepared a staff member can be.
For example, when opening an account with a new customer, a bank representative can make observations and ask a few basic questions that determine customer needs. Young customers who are new to the area and have recently bought a home are more likely to have a family or be planning to start one than seniors. They are good candidates for auto and home equity loans and college savings plans. Older customers, on the other hand, are more likely to be interested in managing retirement funds or estate planning. Representatives should be trained to guide the conversation in the most appropriate direction based on observed and expressed needs.
5. Use engagements as intelligence for personalization.
Each engagement is an opportunity to further target the customer experience. Engagement can be used to ‘bucket’ customers according to appropriate next steps. That next step often includes a call to action for a sale but should also include additional calls to engagement. Customer engagement for revenue improves sales velocity not simply because engaged customers are more likely to purchase, but also because it recognizes that customers must be given the option to engage with the brand when it is most convenient for them, and as many times as they need, in order to convert to a sale.
One of my biggest takeaways from my conversations about digital assets with delegates at FinovateEurope last month was the idea that new use cases will be among the first signs that the industry has emerged from so-called “crypto winter.”
That bar is likely years away from being cleared. In the meanwhile, crypto exchanges continue to expand access to digital assets for traders and investors. Today’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent developments in the cryptocurrency and digital asset industries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
Austria-based Bitpanda announced this week that it now offers CFDs – contracts for difference – for trading cryptocurrencies. CFDs are available for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana on Bitpanda’s platform. These products enable cryptocurrency traders and investors to speculate on both rising and falling prices. The new offering, on the platform under the appropriate name “Bitpanda Leverage,” also gives cryptocurrency traders the ability to leverage their trades 2x.
According to coverage in The Paypers, Bitpanda is well aware of both the risk of “complex financial instruments” like CFDs and the “high risk of losing money” they often bring to traders’ portfolios. Bitpanda also acknowledges that the new products are more suited to short-term trading than longer-term investing. The CFDs have been available to a limited number of Bitpanda customers since late 2022. This week, the company is announcing that the products are being made available to all traders on the Bitpanda app.
CFD trading is not as regulated as trading in other financial products like stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). As such, CFD trading is illegal in the U.S. and U.S. residents are forbidden from opening CFD accounts. The derivatives are traded in markets in the Euro Zone, however, as well as in the U.K., Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand, among others.
There are many ways in which Ukraine, which continues to defend itself from Russia’s invasion more than a year ago, is seeking greater integration with its neighbors to the West. This week we can add cryptocurrency regulatory policy to that list.
Ukrainian regulatory authorities announced this week that they would adopt the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation just passed by the European Parliament. Heralded as a major advancement for the cryptocurrency industry in Europe, MiCA seeks to provide uniform regulations and standardized rules for digital assets in the E.U. At present, companies in the cryptocurrency space in the region must negotiate 27 different regulatory frameworks – crippling efficiency and limiting innovation.
“We, along with colleagues from the NKCPFR (National Commission for Securities and the Stock Market) and other regulators, are already working on implementing some provisions of MiCA to make crypto assets legal in Ukraine,” Yaroslav Zheleznyak said. Zheleznyak is the Deputy Chairman of the Tax Committee of Ukraine.
Cryptocurrencies have played an interesting role in Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression. An article at the World Economic Forum last month noted that more than $21 million in cryptocurrency has been donated to pro-Ukrainian war efforts. According to blockchain analytics company Elliptic, $80 million of that amount went directly to support the Ukrainian government.
Cryptocurrency investors and traders in Lithuania have a new exchange to do business with. Crypto exchange Bitget, which is based in the Seychelles, announced this week that it has secured its registration in Lithuania. This will enable Bitget to offer its service in or from the central European nation.
Analysts consider Lithuania to be among the leading countries in the European Union when it comes to legislation helping develop the cryptocurrencyindustry. The country has been praised for the clarity and transparency of its regulations regarding cryptocurrency licensing – as well as a shorter licensing process compared to other countries in the E.U.
“The global regulation of digital assets is advancing on a daily basis, and we actively observe the regulatory changes around the globe,” Managing Director of the Bitget exchange Gracy Chen said. “We have a whole dedicated compliance team in place to focus on various regulatory compliance matters.” In its statement, the company noted that its compliance team has grown by 50% in the last 12 months. Bitget also recently launched a $300 million user protection fund.
Founded in 2018, Bitget serves more than eight million users in more than 100 countries and regions.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
