Alumni News

Heritage Hub Federal Credit Union Partners with Kiro Money to Launch AI Money Coach

Heritage Hub Federal Credit Union Partners with Kiro Money to Launch AI Money Coach
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Kiro Money
  • Agentic financial intelligence platform Kiro Money has teamed up with Houston, Texas-based Heritage Hub Federal Credit Union.
  • Heritage Hub FCU, founded in 2025, will leverage Kiro Money’s technology to power its new Heritage Hub AI Money Coach, which provides members with personalized, expert-informed financial guidance.
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, Kiro Money made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego.

Kiro Money, an embedded agentic financial intelligence layer for digital platforms, has announced a partnership with Heritage Hub Federal Credit Union. The Houston, Texas-based financial institution has teamed up with Kiro to deploy its new branded AI financial tool, the Heritage Hub AI Money Coach. Accessible directly from the Financial Literacy page of the credit union’s website and powered by Kiro’s AI, the new offering gives Heritage Hub FCU members access to personalized, expert-informed financial guidance—without requiring additional staff or scheduled appointments.

“144.7 million Americans are credit union members, not customers, served by institutions built on ‘people helping people,’ not quarterly earnings,” Kiro Money CEO Alisha Chowdhury wrote on the company’s LinkedIn page. “They show up for the communities big banks overlook. But even the most mission-driven credit union can’t sit a coach next to every member, 24/7. That’s the gap Kiro Money closes.”

The new offering is scheduled to launch on August 1 as a free resource for members. The AI money coach tracks member finances in real time, aggregating data across linked accounts to monitor multiple categories simultaneously. The solution tracks real-time bank account balances, integration data across institutions, historical spending patterns, cash flow, tax records, and investment portfolio information, including total asset holdings and performance returns. The AI money coach also tracks the user’s progress toward financial goals, such as buying a home, saving for retirement, and building an emergency fund. This enables the solution to provide accurate, contextual responses to a range of both common and complex financial queries.

In a post on the Heritage Hub FCU’s LinkedIn page, the institution’s President and CEO Bolaji Ajimotokan discussed the current affordability challenges faced by many households and explained how this context helped convince him of the value of partnering with Kiro Money. “For many households … housing costs and insurance premiums, in particular, remain well above pre-pandemic levels, even as the rate of increase slows. That distinction matters. A slower rate of increase is not the same as relief, and for a lot of our members, the everyday questions haven’t gone away: How do I build a buffer for rising insurance costs? Is this the right time to lock in savings at a fixed rate? How do I budget when my fixed costs keep shifting? This is part of why we partnered with Kiro Money to launch the Heritage Hub AI Money Coach … to help members work through exactly these kinds of questions, grounded in our own products and expertise, whenever they come up.”

Launched in October 2025 to serve underbanked African-American and Latino communities in the Houston area, Heritage Hub FCU offers free checking, competitive auto loans, high-interest money market accounts, and tax preparation services. Deposits are protected up to $250,000 by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) and the financial institution is Kiro’s first credit union partner.

Founded in 2024 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Kiro Money made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. At the conference, the company demonstrated its financial intelligence technology that routes financial queries from individuals to specialized agents capable of providing answers to complex financial questions, offering product recommendations, enabling account opening and portfolio adjustment, and more. Kiro’s AI chat agents also leverage real-time user context to identify “moments of intent” when customers need guidance. The white-label offering can be deployed securely via API or embedded code and features enterprise-grade security.

Interested in companies developing solutions for credit unions? Our Credit Union Spotlight at FinovateFall is a unique opportunity for credit union executives to connect and network with a curated selection of fintechs with targeted solutions for credit unions. Find out more about this invite-only event.

Photo by Dennis Lamberth on Unsplash

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Goodfin Launches QSBS Venture Fund, Matching Private Market Returns with Tax Savings

Goodfin Launches QSBS Venture Fund, Matching Private Market Returns with Tax Savings
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Goodfin
  • Agentic wealth platform Goodfin has introduced its Goodfin QSBS Venture Fund. The new offering gives accredited investors access to high-growth startups while taking advantage of Qualified Small Business Stock tax benefits.
  • Expanded as part of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), QSBS enables eligible holders to exclude up to 100% of federal capital gains on qualifying startup equity.
  • Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2022, Goodfin made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. Anna Joo Fee is Founder and CEO.

Agentic wealth platform Goodfin has announced the launch of its Goodfin QSBS Venture Fund. The new fund is designed to help accredited investors access high-growth startups while optimizing for Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) tax benefits. The fund gives investors exposure to venture and Y Combinator-backed companies that have been vetted for IRC Section 1202 / QSBS eligibility, and the opportunity to take advantage of major federal capital gains tax savings.

“QSBS is one of the most under-used advantages in venture investing, but also one of the most complex to get right,” Goodfin Founder and CEO Anna Joo Fee said. “Goodfin built this fund to remove that friction.”

Intended to encourage investment in small businesses and startups, QSBS are shares in eligible small businesses that qualify for significant federal tax advantages under Section 1202 of the Internal Revenue Code. These benefits include a capital gains tax exclusion of up to 100% when investors sell QSBS. This is a substantial potential savings insofar as long-term capital gains are typically taxed at up to 20%. Factor in the net investment income tax of nearly 4% and the QSBS exclusion can save investors nearly 24% in federal taxes.

The QSBS tax incentive has been available to founders, early employees, and investors since 1993. The policy was given a major upgrade last year as part of the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). This added a new, more flexible tiered exclusion schedule, a higher exclusion cap, and an expansion in the universe of eligible companies to cover more growth-stage startups. These new rules only apply to QSBS issued or acquired after July 4, 2025.

The Goodfin QSBS Venture Fund offers a curated portfolio of early-stage startups backed by Tier 1 investors and Y Combinator. Typically at Seed through Series C level, these firms are chosen based on investment merit and are evaluated and verified for Section 1202 eligibility before investment and monitored throughout the duration of the holding. Investors can invest directly through the Goodfin QSBS Venture Fund or roll over current gains from a previous investment, taking advantage of built-in optimization from day one.

“The idea behind the fund is simple: the best tax advantage in venture shouldn’t be the one investors and founders discover too late,” Goodfin Head of Memberships and Partnerships Mika Arai wrote on the company blog. “QSBS allows eligible holders to exclude up to 100% of federal capital gains on qualifying startup equity—potentially millions of dollars per investment. Yet it remains one of the most underused benefits in the market, largely because it’s one of the hardest to get right.”

What makes it difficult to bring this opportunity to investors? One major factor is that QSBS eligibility has to be both established and maintained during the entire holding period and companies can inadvertently compromise their QSBS status by making otherwise innocuous structuring decisions. Goodfin has teamed up with CapGains, a tax optimization platform, to ensure that every company in the fund is analyzed and vetted for Section 1202 and then monitored throughout its holding period.

The new fund is an opportunity for accredited investors to pursue private market returns and secure a targeted tax outcome in a single, professionally-managed investment vehicle. It can also give founders a competitive edge when it comes to fundraising and attracting talent. Investors are becoming increasingly interested in QSBS-eligible companies and because QSBS offers such significant tax advantages at exit, QSBS-eligible companies give investors a tangible reason to invest early.

“Whether you’re investing in the next great startup or building one, QSBS can transform your financial outcome—and the post-OBBBA rules make the opportunity larger than it has ever been,” Arai wrote. “The Goodfin QSBS Venture Fund is designed to help you capture the full benefit you can earn, with eligibility verified and monitored from day one.”

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Goodfin made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2026 in San Diego. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Goodfin Go solution, which provides sophisticated investors in pre-IPO companies with guided, hyper-personalized, end-to-end investing capabilities. Goodfin Go conducts deep research, portfolio analysis, and real-time investment execution, leveraging a purpose-built agentic orchestration system that uses vetted data sources, multiple AI models, and proprietary insights from the Goodfin platform. Advisor-vetted, Goodfin Go meets the standards of the CFA Level III exam.

If you’re interested in pre-IPO companies and promising startups, Finovate’s IMPACT Funders & Founders event is for you. Co-located with FinovateFall, IMPACT serves as a dedicated funding marketplace where breakthrough fintechs meet active investors across the investment spectrum.

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ANNA Money Acquires Business Data Group, UK Business Forums

ANNA Money Acquires Business Data Group, UK Business Forums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ANNA, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • ANNA Money has acquired Business Data Group (BDG) and UK Business Forums (UKBF) as part of its goal of building an AI-powered operating system for small business founders and owners.
  • BDG is a leading, UK-based independent company formation platform. UKBF is a 160,000-member, online community of small business owners, freelancers, and other professionals.
  • Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin.

AI-powered, all-in-one business account ANNA Money has acquired Business Data Group (BDG) and UK Business Forums (UKBF). The move represents the latest effort by ANNA to build an AI-powered operating system to help founders start, manage, and scale their businesses. By acquiring BDG, ANNA will be able to leverage the firm’s formation agents to support startups from formation to the day-to-day tasks of successfully running a business. The acquisition of UKBF will allow ANNA to continue to invest in the UKBF community and bring its business management tools to more small business owners to help them run their businesses more efficiently.

“ANNA isn’t going to compete with formation agents,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page. “We’re here to help them win. ANNA’s success is tied to the success of the businesses we help get started. So instead of competing with the independent agents who rely on BDG’s eFiling platform, we’re investing in the technology, automation, and tools that strengthen their positions.”

BDG is an independent company formation platform based in the UK. The firm offers eFiling and the Partner Program used by thousands of formation agents and their clients every year. Formation agents are professional service providers that help founders and businesses register and incorporate new companies with the appropriate government entities. UKBF is a 160,000-member, online business community and discussion forum where small business owners, founders, freelancers, and other professionals share insights and concerns about running their businesses.

ANNA’s goal is to help small businesses take advantage of current agentic AI capabilities to raise invoices, follow up on overdue payments, calculate and file taxes, and more now, with the aim of expanding capabilities to help small business owners communicate better with their customers, manage suppliers, and conduct a growing volume of the day-to-day tasks involved in running a business “over time” in what the company called “ANNA 3.0.”

“Bringing BDG and UKBF into ANNA is an important step towards that future,” ANNA Money Co-founder and Co-CEO Eduard Panteleev said. “Company formation is where every business journey begins, and BDG’s network means we can now support many more entrepreneurs from day one, with technology that grows alongside them.”

ANNA made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the UK-based company showed how its tax and VAT accounting solution manages self-assessment and VAT returns by automatically categorizing and reconciling expenses, and calculating VAT and tax in real time at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated accountant. ANNA completes and submits both tax and VAT returns to HMRC with the support of a certified accountant.

ANNA began 2026 with a fresh capital infusion of £10 million in growth debt from Flashpoint Ventures. The funding helped the firm accelerate the scaling of its Auto Accountant solution designed to help small businesses in the UK meet the new regulatory requirements of the country’s Making Tax Digital mandate. “This funding gives us the firepower to scale at exactly the right moment,” Panteleev said. “As Making Tax Digital for self-assessment comes into force for around 850,000 self-employed people and landlords next year, demand for smart, automated accounting is accelerating fast.”

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Marqeta and zerohash Enable Stablecoin Spending on International Card Networks

Marqeta and zerohash Enable Stablecoin Spending on International Card Networks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Marqeta
  • Card issuing platform Marqeta has announced a partnership with digital asset infrastructure provider zerohash.
  • The collaboration will integrate zerohash’s stablecoin infrastructure into Marqeta’s card issuing capabilities to enable companies to offer stablecoin payments to their customers without having to rebuild their core systems.
  • A Finovate alum since 2016, Marqeta is headquartered in Oakland, California.

Card issuing platform Marqeta and digital asset infrastructure provider zerohash have teamed up to enable Marqeta customers to embed stablecoin payments directly into both new and existing financial products. The integration of zerohash’s stablecoin infrastructure into Marqeta’s card issuing capabilities means organizations will benefit from the ability to offer stablecoin payments to customers without having to rebuild core systems or accept additional regulatory burdens.

“Our customers are building the next generation of financial products, and that requires new ways to manage and move money,” Marqeta Interim Chief Product Officer Anthony Peculic said. “By integrating with zerohash, we will be able to give our customers a full solution to deliver multinational and stablecoin-backed card programs that meet the needs of their users, while also being compliant and ready for global scale.”

Courtesy of the collaboration, Marqeta customers will be able to spend their digital dollars at tens of millions of merchants around the world using a standard payment card, with merchants paid in fiat currency. Marqeta will manage card issuance, acceptance, and bank and network relationships. zerohash will provide the underlying infrastructure that supports custody, compliance, and liquidity for on-chain money custody and movement.

The partnership between the two companies comes at a time when stablecoin adoption is accelerating throughout financial services. In February of this year, for example, stablecoin monthly transaction volumes reached $7.2 trillion, topping the ACH network’s $6.8 trillion for the first time. zerohash saw its own transaction volume grow 6.9x year-over-year in 2025, with transaction frequency up more than 2x. Having partnered with crypto companies to power debit card offerings in the US and Europe that enable spending in fiat currency based on crypto holdings, Marqeta will now be able to expand its capabilities to enable crypto and non-crypto companies to make stablecoin-based payments a part of their offering.

“Compatibility between stablecoins and traditional payment networks is a critical unlock for users’ onchain money, while also opening new opportunities for traditional businesses through stablecoin-backed cards,” zerohash CEO and Founder Edward Woodford said. “zerohash’s role is to abstract the complexity behind the scenes so stablecoins can be leveraged as a seamless part of everyday payments and money movement.”

A cryptocurrency, stablecoin, and tokenized asset infrastructure provider, zerohash offers an API and an embeddable dev kit that enables innovators to launch solutions for cross-border payments, commerce, trading, payroll, remittance, tokenization, and on/off-ramps. Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and founded in 2017, zerohash serves fintechs, marketplaces, banks, brokerages, trading platforms, and more with regulated crypto trading and staking, real-time stablecoin payments, and tokenized financial products. The company supports more than 100 different assets, has more than seven million end customers, and a global regulatory footprint across the European Union, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, and the US. The firm also operates regulated entities in 51 US jurisdictions.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Marqeta debuted at our developer conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. The Oakland, California-based fintech offers card issuing, including virtual cards and tokenization, as well as processing and settlement services with Just-in-Time (JIT) funding and dynamic spend controls. Marqeta’s solutions enable businesses to transform real-time data into personalized, optimized solutions to enhance consumer loyalty, capital efficiency, and more. Processing nearly $400 billion in annual payment volume in 2025, Marqeta operates in more than 40 countries around the world.

Marqeta’s partnership announcement with zerohash comes as the firm reports that it has expanded its collaboration with fellow Finovate alum Expensify. The spend management software platform is leveraging Marqeta’s card issuing platform to bring its solution to customers in the UK and EU.

“Businesses across Europe are seeking expense management tools that are simple, automated, and designed to save them time and money,” Expensify Chief Strategy Officer Daniel Vidal said. “Through our expanded partnership with Marqeta, we’re able to bring our proven corporate card capabilities to Europe, delivering the same high-quality spend management solutions our US customers rely on to businesses of any size across the region.”

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INETCO Unveils Fraud Investigation Solution BullzAI

INETCO Unveils Fraud Investigation Solution BullzAI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, INETCO Systems
  • Transaction monitoring and fraud prevention company INETCO unveiled its fraud investigation tool, BullzAI Investigate.
  • A module within INETCO’s BullzAI fraud prevention platform, BullzAI Investigate uses agentic AI to scale fraud prevention operations, reduce false positives, and help prioritize high-risk cases.
  • INETCO made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015. The Vancouver, Canada-based company was founded in 1984.

Real-time transaction monitoring and payment fraud prevention solutions provider INETCO has launched its new fraud investigation tool, BullzAI Investigate. The new, AI-assisted solution leverages specialized agents to compile transaction data, analyze behavioral patterns, and triage incoming alerts. BullzAI Investigate then steers analysts toward the highest-risk cases and produces explainable, auditable risk scores for each recommendation.

Running on a proprietary small language model that is deployed inside the client’s own system, BullzAI Investigate keeps sensitive data on premises. The solution also uses analyst feedback to refine and improve system performance via a supervised machine-learning cycle. The company noted that the new module is designed to reduce false positives and the amount of manual effort required to analyze large volumes of fragmented transaction data. This enables fraud teams to focus on higher-priority threats.

“INETCO BullzAI Investigate gives banks and payment service providers an intelligent way to scale the productivity of their fraud operations, reduce false positives, and prioritize high-risk cases,” INETCO Chief Technology Officer Ugan Naidoo said. “Agentic AI automates the heavy lifting by collating transactions, triaging alerts, and delivering explainable risk scores that support faster, more transparent decisions. Rather than replacing analysts, INETCO BullzAI Investigate serves as an intelligent partner that works continuously behind the scenes, allowing fraud teams to investigate more effectively while human oversight remains firmly in control.”

INETCO BullzAI Investigate has shortened fraud investigation times from as much as 30 minutes to as little as 20 seconds in early deployments. The company also reported a 97% to 99% reduction in investigation time, reviews that were up to 90 times faster, and recommendation precision of approximately 95%.

The new offering adds to INETCO BullzAI, the company’s cyber fraud prevention platform launched in September 2021. When initially unveiled, the platform was notable for its ability to detect and block fraudulent payment transactions in milliseconds before they complete and without interrupting legitimate payments. The platform was most recently deployed by Saudi Arabian fintech solutions provider Alhamrani Universal in December via INETCO’s global partner, Stanchion Payments.

“INETCO BullzAI gives us real-time visibility across thousands of self-service and digital payment transactions—revealing which financial institutions and merchants are active, how transactions are performing and where suspicious behaviors or anomalies occur,” Alhamrani Universal Chief Operations Officer Mario Rouhana said. “By understanding the behavioral patterns of every user, terminal, and device, we can scale our business with confidence, respond instantly to emerging threats and reinforce the trust our customers, partners, and regulators place in Alhamrani Universal as a leader in secure digital transformation.”

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and founded in 1984, INETCO made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2015. Today, the firm monitors more than 100 billion transactions a year, serving financial institutions and payment service providers around the world with end-to-end, secure payment visibility, adaptive modeling, and real-time fraud prevention.

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Buckzy Payments and FinXP Enable Cross-Border Payments for Businesses

Buckzy Payments and FinXP Enable Cross-Border Payments for Businesses
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Buckzy Payments
  • Cross-border payments and embedded finance platform Buckzy Payments announced a strategic partnership with European payment infrastructure provider FinXP.
  • The partnership will enable Buckzy clients to access direct SEPA payment capabilities from FinXP. FinXP customers will benefit from Buckzy’s global banking network and stablecoin infrastructure.
  • Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Buckzy Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 in New York.

Real-time cross-border payment network Buckzy Payments has forged a strategic partnership with European payments and banking service provider FinXP. The partnership is designed to enable businesses operating internationally to access European and international payment capabilities by combining FinXP’s regulated European infrastructure—including euro accounts and SEPA payment capabilities—with Buckzy’s real-time international payment network and stablecoin infrastructure.

The partnership will enable eligible Buckzy clients to access FinXP’s direct SEPA payment capabilities, while FinXP’s clients will benefit from Buckzy’s international banking network and stablecoin infrastructure. This bolsters FinXP’s existing cross-border payment capabilities and extends its reach across additional markets and currencies.

“Europe is a critical market for our clients and an important part of any global payments proposition,” Buckzy Payments CEO Abdul Naushad said. “FinXP brings direct SEPA access, regulatory expertise, and a strong understanding of complex payment requirements. This partnership enhances Buckzy’s ability to provide clients with an integrated route into European accounts and SEPA Instant Payments, while extending the international reach available to FinXP clients.”

The partnership will help customers of both companies manage European accounts, collections, and payouts; extend their reach to new international markets and currencies; reduce reliance on disconnected providers; and enhance payment visibility, reconciliation, and operational efficiency. The two fintechs will initially connect European account and SEPA capabilities with Buckzy’s international cross-border payments infrastructure. Buckzy and FinXP also announced plans to explore potential opportunities in automated account provisioning, embedded payment services, multi-currency payment flows, and API-led financial infrastructure.

“Buckzy and FinXP share a common objective: to make international payments simpler, faster, and more accessible for businesses,” FinXP Co-founder and CEO Jens Podewski said. “Buckzy brings strong global payment connectivity and modern API infrastructure, while FinXP contributes regulated European account and payment capabilities. By combining these strengths, we can offer clients a more complete solution across Europe and international markets.”

FinXP offers IBAN accounts, card issuing, SEPA Direct Debit, clearing services, payout solutions, and an omnichannel payment gateway to enable its customers to make and receive payments in whatever form they prefer. A licensed Electronic Money Institution authorized by the Malta Financial Services Authority and a specialist in the B2B payments space, the company began 2026 with news of its partnership with B2B financial services platform ONE.io. FinXP helped the London-based firm build a new Euro account solution as well as launch its USD payment platform. Founded in 2014, FinXP processes €4 billion annually.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Buckzy Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019. At the conference, the company demonstrated its money transfer ecosystem that enables users to send and receive money in real time. The solution supports bank-to-bank transfers, international bill payments, digital wallet transfers, top-ups, and more. Serving financial institutions, fintechs, e-commerce marketplaces, and multinational companies, Buckzy is a registered money services business with FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada). The company was founded in 2018.

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Spreedly Unbundles Its Payment Vault

Spreedly Unbundles Its Payment Vault
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Spreedly
  • Spreedly is launching a standalone payment vault, enabling merchants to securely store and manage payment credentials without adopting the company’s full payments orchestration platform.
  • The portable vault supports more than 100 payment providers, giving merchants greater flexibility to switch processors, build their own routing logic, and expand payment capabilities without migrating stored credentials.
  • By unbundling its vault, Spreedly is challenging the traditional processor lock-in model and increasing pressure on payment providers to offer more open, interoperable payments infrastructure.

Payments orchestration platform Spreedly launched a standalone payment vault that gives merchants the ability to securely store and control their own payment credentials without using Spreedly’s payments orchestration platform.

Unbundling the payment vault means a merchant can now use Spreedly’s vault separately from its other products to securely store payment credentials; continue using its existing payment processor, even if it is with Stripe, Adyen, or Worldpay; keep their existing payment routing logic; and have the option to decide whether to adopt Spreedly’s orchestration platform or build its own.

“The vault has become the control point in modern payments,” said Spreedly CEO Justin Benson. “More of what determines payment performance now lives in the credential itself, and providers are finally opening up to let merchants own it. Merchants want that control—the ability to run the providers they have today and change course tomorrow. An independent vault lets them start now and decide the rest as they grow. They shouldn’t have to commit to everything on day one.”

The standalone vault offers merchants a direct path to additional payment capabilities on the Spreedly platform without migrating payment credentials, PCI DSS Level 1 tokenization that keeps raw payment data out of merchant systems, and portable payment credentials that work across more than 100 payment providers with no processor lock-in. Additionally, Spreedly’s built-in network tokenization and account updater services help keep payment credentials current and improve authorization rates.

Spreedly’s stored credential transactions now account for 40% of its transaction volume. That figure, which is up from 34% in 2022, reflects merchants’ increasing demand for payment strategies built around portable credentials rather than a single payment processor.

Spreedly said that it is unbundling the payment vault because the value of where the payment sits has changed in five major ways:

  1. The vault is no longer passive storage because the payment credential and who controls it have become a competitive advantage as network tokenization, account updater services, and stored-credential optimization increasingly determine authorization rates and payment performance.
  2. Payment providers that used to control credentials are increasingly supporting merchant-controlled vaults and credential portability. This removes a long-standing barrier to adding or switching providers.
  3. A growing number of merchants want to own the routing and decisioning layer that sits outside of their providers.
  4. As AI agents begin initiating purchases, merchants in control of portable payment credentials will be best positioned to support them.
  5. Keeping their payment vault independent helps merchants preserve optionality without being locked into a commitment.

“A vault shouldn’t lock you into anyone’s roadmap, including ours,” said Spreedly CTO Mike Rivers. “When credentials stay portable, a merchant can run a single provider per region today and add routing, orchestration, or new payment methods whenever they’re ready. Portability is what keeps the future open.”

The launch will likely intensify competition across the payments ecosystem. Traditionally, processors and gateways have strengthened customer retention by controlling merchants’ stored payment credentials, making it costly to switch providers. By offering a standalone, portable vault, Spreedly is challenging that model and encouraging merchants to treat payment credentials as infrastructure they own rather than an asset managed by a single payments provider. If the strategy gains traction, it could put pressure on processors, gateways, and orchestration platforms alike to make their own ecosystems more open and interoperable.

Spreedly was founded in 2007 to help merchants build their payments stack on a single platform. The North Carolina-based company’s payment orchestration stack processes over $50 billion in annual transaction volume on behalf of more than 400 customers across 100+ countries. Spreedly also offers fraud prevention, payment optimization tools, and more. Among the company’s clients are BMW, CLEAR, HBO Max, Hopper, Lemonade, Getty, Warner, The New York Times, and others.

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Socure Launches Remote Verifier, Wins Multi- Million Identity Proofing Contract

Socure Launches Remote Verifier, Wins Multi- Million Identity Proofing Contract
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Socure
  • Identity verification and risk intelligence firm Socure launched its Remote Verifier solution this week.
  • Available within the company’s RiskOS platform, Remote Verifier supports human agents when verifying identities for the small percentage of the population that cannot be accurately verified using traditional methods.
  • Socure most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.

Trust infrastructure provider for global identity and risk intelligence, Socure, has unveiled its Remote Verifier. The new offering, available in Socure’s RiskOS platform, is designed for individuals who do not initially pass Socure’s verification process, do not want to use automated systems, or require a manual option to verify their identity. While Socure notes that this is a relatively small population—the company believes fewer than 1% of all individuals will require Remote Verifier—the solution nevertheless helps organizations accurately and efficiently verify every identity presented. Remote Verifier provides human agents with uploaded identity documents, explanations for why the initial check failed, real-time Socure fraud intelligence signals and risk indicators, relevant attributes, and other verification insights to make efficient, evidence-based decisions that reduce friction and ensure compliance.

“Socure’s new Remote Verifier gives human reviewers the data and insights needed to make high-confidence identity decisions while limiting the friction felt by individuals accessing critical government services,” Socure Head of Public Sector Jordan Burris said. “This new integration ensures that live agents are not reviewing documents in isolation or using basic video conference software but are operating with the full context of Socure’s AI-driven fraud detection and identity intelligence. Ultimately, Socure is enabling public sector organizations to make smarter decisions that safeguard program integrity and prevent fraud, all while delivering an improved customer experience.”

RiskOS (Risk Operating System) is Socure’s AI-native decisioning and orchestration platform for identity verification, fraud prevention, risk management, and compliance. The platform integrates multiple data sources, enables real-time identity verification, fraud detection, and risk assessment workflows, and covers the full spectrum from identity verification to transaction monitoring, credit underwriting, and KYB solutions. Within RiskOS, Remote Verifier will enable teams to add remote identity document verification capabilities alongside the platform’s existing identity verification, fraud detection, and risk assessment tools.

“Socure has been a trusted partner for many years and a critical part of our ecosystem as we modernize loan and grant programs across the federal government,” Allocore CEO Bill Webner said. “Together, we’ve helped transform critical federal systems—blocking hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent activity each month while improving access for legitimate applicants. As we expand this partnership to support efforts to unify and modernize lending and grant programs, integrating Socure’s Remote Verifier into our turnkey IAL2 solution, including closing and notary capabilities, will deliver even greater value to our federal customers.”

Allocore is a leading provider of modern technology solutions for government lending, grants, investment management, and fraud prevention. The company’s platform helps federal agencies streamline operations, meet regulatory compliance obligations, and leverage automation, data intelligence, and AI-driven innovation to deliver better outcomes for customers.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, Socure most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2017. The company specializes in digital identity verification, compliance, and fraud prevention, leveraging AI and machine learning to achieve high accuracy, automation, and capture rates. With more than 3,000 customers, Socure works with 19 of the 20 top US banks, 13 of the 15 top US credit card issuers, 4 of the top 5 social networks, and 600 leading fintechs. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.

Socure’s new product announcement comes just days after the company reported securing a five-year, $163 million contract with Login.gov. Login.gov acts as a single, secure account to facilitate access to a variety of government services. Serving as subcontractor for Xcelerate Solutions, a defense and national security company, Socure will help deliver an identity verification solution that provides a continuous view of identity, including real-time identity resolution, attribute validation, fraud detection, behavioral analytics, and digital intelligence. The partnership will be especially helpful in enhancing the government’s remote identity verification capabilities.

“Organized networks and nation-state actors are deploying advanced techniques to exploit identity infrastructure at a speed that legacy systems cannot match, and an adaptive data-driven approach is the only credible way to stay ahead,” Socure Head of Public Sector Jordan Burris said. “The good news is we can do that without creating new barriers for the Americans who depend on these services, and that is exactly what we set out to achieve with Xcelerate.”

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Glia and Alloy Labs Unveil Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit

Glia and Alloy Labs Unveil Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, Glia
  • Banking AI platform Glia and financial services consortium Alloy Labs have jointly released their 2026-2027 Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit.
  • The planning kit is a cross-functional blueprint that gives leaders at banks and credit unions guidance on deploying banking-specific AI solutions.
  • Glia is a multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Alloy Labs most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2022.

Banking AI platform Glia and financial services consortium Alloy Labs have teamed up to jointly release their 2026-2027 Banking AI Strategic Annual Planning Kit. The new resource is a cross-functional blueprint that provides leadership teams with clear governance templates, an enterprise-wide roadmap, and strategies to deploy banking-specific AI. The goal is to help organizations avoid the kind of security and compliance risks that many institutions face when using industry-agnostic AI solutions.

“This is the first planning cycle where AI strategy and bank strategy are in the same conversation,” Alloy Labs CEO Jason Henrichs said. “Boards are approving budgets for technology that moves faster than any planning process built to contain it—and institutions treating that as a line item rather than a set of strategic choices will spend 2027 explaining why the spend never reached the bottom line.”

The planning kit comes as a sizable number of regional and community financial institutions are reporting challenges when it comes to realizing some of the benefits of AI-enabled technology. Glia’s statement on the partnership noted that 80% of institutions have said that early adoption of AI has “failed to improve their bottom line.” The blueprint provided by Glia and Alloy Labs is designed to help leaders transform their investments in AI—increasingly the top technology budget item for banks and credit unions—into lower operating costs, higher loan and deposit growth, and greater account holder retention.

“We’ve sat in rooms full of bank technology leaders and asked how many have a single AI agent in production,” Henrichs added. “Silence. These aren’t laggards. They have board mandates and completed pilots. What’s missing is the bridge from experiment to strategy, and that’s a planning problem, not a technology one. We built this kit with Glia to close that gap. Glia was the right partner because they’ve done the production-scale work in banking that most AI vendors only put in slide decks.”

Designed as a practical workbook, the kit covers a variety of core topics including how to leverage conversational, automated, outbound voice and SMS outreach to boost loan and deposit volumes, and key parameters for evaluating cybersecurity architectures and regulatory compliance factors to defend against hallucinations, data leaks, and vendor sprawl. The kit also articulates a Centralized Product Ownership Model for C-suite leadership, a Three-Phase Roadmap to facilitate smooth scaling that does not interfere with existing workflows, and a practical framework for launching a Universal Banker model that supports and elevates the entire workforce.

“As the 2027 planning cycle begins, banks and credit unions are facing a perfect storm,” Glia CEO and Co-Founder Dan Michaeli said. “Financial institutions are trying to protect their core deposits, keep the next generation from moving their inheritance away, and somehow find growth in a flat market. Throw in talent shortages, compliance headaches, and rising fraud, and the old strategic planning playbook just won’t cut it. We built this resource because executives don’t need more AI hype. They need a practical blueprint to prioritize their efforts to handle all these pressures at once.”

A consortium of more than 90 community and midsize banks, Alloy Labs spans 46 states and nearly $500 billion in combined assets. The alliance works with banks and credit unions, collaborating to share insights, explore emerging trends, and unlock new opportunities for growth. Viewed as a single entity, Alloy Labs is a top 10 bank, which gives it the scale to work with larger providers and provide a scaling path to startup partners. Jason Henrichs is CEO.

A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Glia most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2021. The company’s Banking AI Operating System serves as a central intelligence layer that sits on top of existing tech stacks, activating an AI workforce of specialized agents that draw from banking data, interaction history, and integrated systems of record. These AI agents automate workflows across voice and digital channels to lower operational costs, boost efficiency, and streamline the customer experience. More than 700 banks and credit unions rely on Glia’s technology.

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

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BIL Suisse Renews Strategic Partnership with Avaloq

BIL Suisse Renews Strategic Partnership with Avaloq
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Avaloq
  • Wealthtech platform Avaloq and Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL Suisse) renewed their strategic partnership this week. The two entities have worked together for more than ten years.
  • Avaloq and BIL Suisse noted that the next phase of the collaboration will emphasize joint innovation and enhanced client-based services for customers in the Swiss market.
  • Founded in 1985, Avaloq won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2018 in Hong Kong.

Wealth management technology platform Avaloq and Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL Suisse) renewed their strategic partnership this week. BIL Suisse has leveraged Avaloq’s platform and banking operations service for more than ten years and noted in a statement that the “next phase of collaboration” with the Zurich-based fintech will focus on joint innovation and enhanced client-focused services for the Swiss market.

Going forward, BIL Suisse will continue to rely on Avaloq for its core banking system, which is delivered in a SaaS model. Avaloq manages both the system and infrastructure, including regulatory updates, enabling the bank to scale efficiently while maintaining operational stability and compliance. BIL Suisse and Avaloq will also work together on joint innovations to facilitate BIL Suisse’s secure integration with third-party services. This will involve fortifying both the financial institution’s KYC processes and data connectivity to ensure effective risk management and seamless data integration.

BIL Suisse will also continue to use Avaloq’s Banking Operations service for its high levels of straight-through-processing (STP), enhancing back-office efficiency, reducing manual intervention, and providing embedded risk and compliance controls.

“For more than 40 years, BIL Suisse has served the Swiss market with a deep commitment to tailored service and a boutique approach inspired by the entrepreneurial spirit of our people,” BIL Suisse Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel Tobias Kamber said. “Avaloq has been a key partner on this journey, providing the technology that streamlines and enhances our front-, middle-, and back-office operations. We value this long-standing collaboration and the important role it plays in our digital transformation, helping us deliver the seamless, high-quality experience our clients expect.”

A boutique private bank, BIL Suisse provides bespoke wealth management, advisory, investment, and lending services. The institution serves high-net-worth individuals, entrepreneurs, family businesses, and professional intermediaries around the world. Founded in 1985, the institution is a subsidiary of Banque Internationale à Luxembourg SA, the oldest private bank in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

“This renewal builds on a partnership that has enhanced BIL Suisse’s operations over many years,” Avaloq Managing Director for Switzerland and Liechtenstein Christian Haux said. “Looking ahead, we will work closely with BIL Suisse to advance the bank’s digital transformation, delivering higher levels of automation and supporting a high-quality client experience. We thank BIL Suisse for its continued trust and look forward to continuing to serve as their partner for core banking and back-office operations.”

Founded in 1985, Avaloq won Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2018. The company provides wealth management technology and services for financial institutions worldwide. This includes private banks, wealth managers, investment managers, and retail and neobanks. Avaloq’s platform covers the entire value chain from the front to the back office, helping clients achieve straight-through processing rates of up to 99%, increase revenue per adviser by as much as 10%, and enable firms to expand into new markets in as little as six months. Acquired by Japan’s NEC Corporation in 2020, Avaloq today has more than 175 clients around the world on its platform, including Deutsche Bank, Barclays, and HSBC.

Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash

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CSI Acquires Qolo for Undisclosed Amount

CSI Acquires Qolo for Undisclosed Amount
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Mergers & Acquisitions, Qolo

Fintech solutions provider CSI has acquired payments infrastructure and treasury solutions provider Qolo for an undisclosed amount.

CSI anticipates that the acquisition will strengthen its commercial banking solutions by offering its community financial institution clients more flexible deposit structures and expanded commercial card programs. Adding Qolo’s existing clients to its own roster will also extend CSI’s geographical reach.

More specifically, CSI will use Qolo’s technology to serve as the orchestration layer across payments, accounts, and workflows. The Kentucky-based company will integrate with CSI’s core banking platform, digital banking solution, and broader API capabilities to bring community financial institutions prepackaged, pre-integrated commercial banking solutions, including:

  • A real-time account ledger that gives banks and businesses instant visibility into balances, transactions, and authorizations.
  • Multi-rail payment orchestration that offers a unified payment engine to orchestrate domestic and international money movement across multiple payment rails and business workflows.
  • Enhanced card capabilities that expand integrated issuing and processing across debit, prepaid, virtual, and secured corporate credit card programs.

Qolo, which demoed at FinovateFall 2022, was founded in 2018 with the aim of simplifying payments through a unified infrastructure layer. Its platform combines an embedded ledger, card issuing, money movement, real-time reconciliation, and cross-rail connectivity into a single API. Rather than requiring banks to replace legacy cores, Qolo overlays its technology on top of existing systems, enabling institutions to deploy new payment capabilities in months, not years.

CSI said that the combined company will remain focused on serving community financial institutions with new ways to attract, retain, and grow customer relationships by offering modern commercial banking capabilities typically found at large banks. Keeping up with current, constantly changing technology can help small community banks compete more effectively with banks that have large R&D budgets.

“Community financial institutions are built on trusted relationships, local expertise, and deep knowledge of their markets,” said CSI President and CEO Nancy Langer. “But businesses in their communities also need sophisticated banking capabilities that simplify and fit more naturally into their day-to-day financial operations. With Qolo, CSI is helping community banks bring those capabilities to market in ways that help them grow commercial relationships and become more central to how businesses operate. At the same time, it expands our ability to support fintechs and B2B payments providers as demand grows for financial services embedded directly into everyday business workflows.”

For community banks, the acquisition is less about adding another payments tool and more about simplifying how commercial banking services are delivered. As businesses increasingly expect real-time payments and integrated treasury capabilities, banks are looking for unified platforms that reduce technology complexity while enabling them to embed financial services more naturally into their customers’ day-to-day operations.

“The line between traditional banking and embedded finance is becoming increasingly blurred,” said Qolo Co-founder and CEO Patricia Montesi. “Whether you’re a community bank modernizing your commercial offering or a fintech building embedded finance products, you’re often running into the same challenges: fragmented vendors, disconnected payment rails, and manual workarounds that limit growth. By joining CSI, we can invest more deeply in the infrastructure that powers modern financial experiences and help our customers become a more seamless part of how businesses manage and move money every day.”

In an interview at FinovateFall last year, I sat down with Montesi to discuss how the company helps modernize payments infrastructure. “We set out to build an entire, comprehensive payments stack that includes ledger, card, payments, virtual account management—everything all available through a single API served up to you so that you can then focus on your customers,” said Montesi.

Rather than replacing legacy cores outright, banks are increasingly layering modern payments, ledger, and treasury capabilities on top of existing infrastructure. Qolo built its platform around that philosophy, making it a natural fit for CSI’s strategy of helping community financial institutions modernize without undertaking large-scale core replacements.

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Entrust Launches Agentic AI Trust Accelerator

Entrust Launches Agentic AI Trust Accelerator
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Entrust Datacard
  • Entrust launched its Agentic AI Trust Accelerator to help enterprises build the identity, authorization, and governance infrastructure needed to deploy autonomous AI agents in production.
  • The program focuses on identity, authorization, cryptographic assurance, and accountability to ensure AI agents can be authenticated, governed, and audited.
  • As banks increasingly explore agentic AI for sensitive tasks and transactions, trust infrastructure is becoming a critical requirement for enterprise adoption.

Identity solutions company Entrust unveiled its Agentic AI Trust Accelerator, a program that will help firms build the identity and trust infrastructure needed to move autonomous AI projects from pilot to production.

Entrust’s new tool helps bridge the gap between the utility of AI agents and the lack of formal governance around them. AI agents notoriously lack the necessary infrastructure to ensure AI agents are who they say they are, to verify that the person behind the agent is who they say they are, and to authenticate the relationship between the person and the bot. Additionally, organizations need to know who authorized the agent, what it is allowed to do, and how its actions can be proven after the fact.

“AI agents are advancing faster than the trust infrastructure needed to govern them,” said Entrust COO Anudeep Parhar. “Enterprises need to be able to trust autonomous actions across business processes, partners, and systems. Whether organizations are experimenting with AI agents, deploying initial use cases, or preparing for broader adoption, they need a trust foundation that can scale with them. The Agentic AI Trust Accelerator brings together customers and partners to develop practical approaches for identity, authorization, cryptographic trust, and accountability that work with their existing platforms. We call this the trust plane for autonomous AI.”

Founded in 1994 as Entrust Datacard, the Texas-based company offers fraud solutions built around identity to help its customers in over 150 countries proactively verify customer identity, secure connections, and fight fraud and stay compliant by using ongoing monitoring. The new Accelerator program leverages Entrust’s identity and cryptographic security capabilities to help enterprises confidently use AI agents to enhance their operations. The tools help organizations verify identity and proof of action across systems, partners, and workflows.

The Agentic AI Trust Accelerator program centers on four core pillars: identity, authorization, cryptographic assurance, and accountability. The identity component verifies both human users and AI agents while ensuring every agent action can be traced back to a responsible individual. Authorization limits agents to approved roles, policies, and permissions, with human oversight built in when needed. Cryptographic assurance secures agent operations through capabilities such as digital signing, while accountability provides verifiable records of agent actions to support compliance, audits, and regulatory requirements.

Entrust’s Accelerator program addresses a growing need for agent authentication. As organizations move beyond AI assistants to autonomous agents capable of initiating transactions, accessing sensitive data, and making decisions with limited human intervention, identity and authorization are becoming necessary infrastructure. For banks in particular, the ability to verify who is taking an action and to produce an auditable record of that activity will likely become a prerequisite for deploying agentic AI at scale.

“Agentic AI will reshape how enterprises operate, but trust will determine how quickly organizations can move from experimentation to production,” said Entrust CEO Tony Ball. “Entrust is helping customers build the identity, authorization, and cryptographic foundations required for autonomous systems operating in real-world environments.”

At launch, Entrust is opening the Accelerator program to a limited number of customers, banks, and partners.

Photo by Joshua Hoehne on Unsplash

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