Alumni News

ACI Worldwide Unveils Centralized Payment Hub, ACI Connetic

ACI Worldwide Unveils Centralized Payment Hub, ACI Connetic
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Alumni News
  • ACI Worldwide introduced its new, centralized payment hub, ACI Connetic.
  • The new offering integrates the capabilities of major global payment networks including Swift cross-border and RTGS payments into a single, cloud-based platform.
  • Headquartered in Florida, ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011.

ACI Connetic, ACI Worldwide’s new centralized payment hub, was unveiled this week. The solution integrates major global networks’ payment capabilities—including Swift cross-border payments, RTGS payments including Target2, SEPA Instant RT1, and TIPS payments, with more capabilities to be integrated later. This brings account-to-account (A2A) payments, card payments, and AI-powered fraud prevention into a unified, cloud-native platform that gives banks an easier, faster, and more cost-effective way to modernize their payment infrastructures.

“ACI Connetic is not just a new product, it is a new standard for how banks must operate in the digital economy and approach payments transformation,” ACI Worldwide CEO and President Thomas Warsop said. “Against the backdrop of increasing payments complexity, the rise of new technologies and a shifting regulatory environment, ACI Connetic empowers financial institutions to unlock new revenue opportunities and navigate compliance in order to drive growth and financial inclusion.”

Already gaining traction with financial institutions in both the US and Europe, ACI Connetic enables these businesses to consolidate siloed systems and benefit from a centralized approach to processing all payment types. The offering comes as Datos Insights recently championed the benefits of centralized payment processing. In its report, Datos contended that centralized payment processing streamlines operations, enhances efficiency, and helps support growth. ACI noted that it is already working with the world’s leading clearing and settlement systems including the Bank of England, Pay.UK, ECB, EBA Clearing, and Stet, as well as Swift, the US Federal Reserve, and The Clearing House to integrate their payment functionalities into ACI Connetic.

“We built ACI Connetic to give banks a future-proof foundation to meet the ever-increasing demand for faster, smarter, and secure payments,” ACI Worldwide head of product for banking and intermediaries, Scotty Perkins, said. “Built for scalability, intelligence, and resilience, ACI Connetic empowers banks to reduce complexity, accelerate product innovation, and deliver new solutions to their customers in an unprecedented way and at unprecedented speed.”

ACI Worldwide has been a Finovate alum since 2011, when the company joined MShift on stage at FinovateFall in New York. ACI Worldwide is also an alum of our developers conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016. Today, the company serves the top 10 banks in the world, enables 80,000+ merchants directly and through PSPs, and provides services such as billpay and payments intelligence. ACI Worldwide has more than 6,000 customers around the world, and annually processes 25 billion cloud transactions and 225+ billion consumer transactions.

ACI Worldwide’s new product news comes just days after the company announced that CIMB Bank had selected its technology to combine all its account-to-account transactions—real-time, ACH, RTGS, and cross-border—in a single payments platform. CIMB Bank is the second largest financial services provider in Malaysia and one of the leading banking groups in the ASEAN region.

Photo by DΛVΞ GΛRCIΛ

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Worldpay Partners with BVNK to Enable Stablecoin Payouts

Worldpay Partners with BVNK to Enable Stablecoin Payouts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, WorldPay
  • Worldpay is partnering with BVNK to enable stablecoin payouts for businesses across 180+ markets.
  • The integration simplifies stablecoin adoption for traditional companies by embedding BVNK’s wallet infrastructure into Worldpay’s existing payouts platform.
  • The move reflects broader momentum in stablecoin adoption, following similar initiatives from R3, Solana, Circle, Mastercard, and MoonPay, as demand for faster, borderless, and more efficient payment solutions increases.

Payments and banking services company Worldpay and multi-rail payments infrastructure platform BVNK are teaming up this week to help businesses across the globe use stablecoins for payouts.

Worldpay is leveraging BVNK’s embedded wallet infrastructure to allow its commercial clients across more than 180 markets to pay customers, contractors, creators, sellers, and other third parties using stablecoins in near-real-time.

By integrating with BVNK, Worldpay is making stablecoin payments accessible to organizations that lack expertise in decentralized finance. Under the new partnership, businesses will not need to hold or handle any digital assets themselves in order to pay with them.

Worldpay business clients can access the new stablecoin payout service through their existing integration with Worldpay’s payouts platform. The company plans to pilot stablecoins on the platform in the second half of this year.

With 135 fiat currencies currently available on its platform, Worldpay began offering stablecoin settlement in 2022, allowing merchants in a limited number of geographical regions to receive payments in USDC. In 2023, the company piloted a project with Visa to receive funds more quickly from the network. 

“We’re delighted to work with BVNK to bring this enterprise-grade stablecoin payout solution to market,” said Worldpay SVP, Head of Payouts John McNaught. “With a history of delivering innovative payout solutions, we are excited to meet the rising interest from clients seeking faster, more efficient global payment methods.”

The partnership, which BVNK calls “an important milestone,” will help BVNK bridge traditional and digital payment systems, ultimately creating a more accessible, efficient financial ecosystem.

The move reflects growing demand for faster, borderless payments, especially for global payout platforms paying gig workers, creators, or remote teams. Stablecoins offer the speed of crypto with the stability of fiat, reducing delays and costs in cross-border transactions.

As demand for stable DeFi increases, so have the solutions facilitating mainstream adoption. Recently, we’ve seen a partnership between R3 and Solana, Circle’s launch of the Circle Payments Network, and a collaboration between Mastercard and Moonpay, all of which exemplify the trend of traditional finance converging with blockchain-based solutions to make stablecoin payments more accessible, secure, and scalable for everyday business use.

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R3 and Solana Team Up, Merging TradFi and DeFi 

R3 and Solana Team Up, Merging TradFi and DeFi 
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, R3
  • R3 and Solana have partnered to bring regulated financial institutions and real-world assets (RWAs) onto Solana’s public blockchain, aiming to bridge TradFi and DeFi ecosystems.
  • The integration enables native interoperability between R3’s Corda platform, private networks, and Solana, supporting tokenized assets, stablecoin settlement, and compliance.
  • R3 announced that Solana Foundation President Lily Liu is joining its board.

Traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) are slowly beginning to merge. Today’s partnership between distributed ledger technology company R3 and Web3 infrastructure player Solana is a step in this direction. The two have teamed up to bring financial institutions and their real-world assets onto Solana’s public blockchain.

R3 was founded in 2014 to offer real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and interoperability solutions. Today, R3 is helping digitize markets by bridging its on-chain RWA ecosystem with DeFi. Today, the company has over $10 billion in regulated assets on-chain across its platforms.

“After years of laying the groundwork, R3 is ready to bring our experience and our network of regulated financial institutions towards a new public future with one of the best and most trusted public ecosystems—Solana,” said R3 CEO David E. Rutter. “This is more than a milestone; it’s a strategic realignment for the entire industry. We know DeFi isn’t coming to TradFi, so it’s up to us to build the connective infrastructure that links these two ecosystems. This is about adapting to deliver real-world utility, institutional-grade readiness, and shaping the long-term future of regulated markets.”

As one of the most used public blockchains, Solana boasts low transaction fees, speed, scalability, and a global ecosystem. With favorable regulation and increased investor confidence, the companies have seen financial institutions become increasingly comfortable leveraging public networks.

Integrating with Solana’s blockchain will enable R3’s on-chain assets to meet the growing demand on public networks and unlock new settlement options like stablecoins. Unlike traditional approaches, R3’s tokenized RWAs can be confirmed directly on Solana Mainnet.

Additionally, Solana and R3 will enable native interoperability between its existing Corda platform, other private networks, and Solana. This will help bridge the gap between permissioned and public blockchain ecosystems, ultimately enabling regulated financial institutions to benefit from the openness and efficiency of Solana while maintaining compliance, security, and control of their assets.  

As part of today’s announcement, Solana Foundation President Lily Liu will join R3’s Board of Directors.

“This is a major step forward for the institutional adoption of public blockchain,” said Liu. “R3’s decision to bring its regulated financial network onto Solana is powerful validation that public blockchains have reached institutional readiness. With Solana’s unmatched performance, enterprise-grade permissioning, and growing roster of regulated assets, we’re not just witnessing convergence between TradFi and DeFi—we’re enabling it. This collaboration signifies that the future of capital markets will be built on public infrastructure. We’re thrilled that the Solana ecosystem is leading the way.”

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Stratyfy Teams Up with Parlay to Help SMEs Access Capital

Stratyfy Teams Up with Parlay to Help SMEs Access Capital
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Stratyfy
  • New York-based credit decisioning company Stratyfy forged a strategic partnership with loan intelligence system Parlay Finance.
  • Together the two companies will help banks and other financial institutions provide a more seamless onboarding and underwriting experience for their small business borrowers.
  • Stratyfy won Best of Show in its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2022. Parlay demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2024.

Credit decisioning specialist Stratyfy and loan intelligence system Parlay Finance announced a strategic partnership this week. The alliance will offer frictionless onboarding and underwriting experiences that enable more banks to serve a larger number of qualified small business borrowers. The combination of Stratyfy and Parlay’s technology will also give small businesses actionable insights they need in order to more easily secure funding.

“Our technology is designed to help lenders make better credit decisions by uncovering signals often overlooked by traditional approaches,” Stratyfy CEO Laura Kornhauser said. “Combining that with Parlay’s strength in surfacing opportunities and accelerating small businesses through the loan application process is a powerful match.”

Stratyfy provides AI-powered solutions for credit, compliance, and fraud teams to help them modernize lending. A specialist in decision optimization for financial institutions, Stratyfy helps lenders access new markets, reduce costs, and encourage growth with less risk. Parlay’s AI-powered platform streamlines digital onboarding, verification, and qualification to enable lenders to more efficiently provide Small Business Administration (SBA) and small business loans. The company’s technology integrates with loan origination systems to increase both volume and profitability.

Combined, the two solutions provide an underwriting solution that automates workflows, boosts performance, and enhances risk-adjusted returns. The partnership has already yielded results with teams from Stratyfy and Parlay collaborating on a joint client engagement: a community lender seeking to increase success rates for entrepreneurs who have been historically underbanked.

“Parlay empowers lenders to digitally onboard and verify small business information while providing applicants with personalized financial insights,” Parlay Finance CEO Alex McLeod said. “Teaming up with Stratyfy extends that value through the full credit lifecycle, helping lenders match with and support the businesses they’re best suited to serve.”

Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, Parlay Finance demonstrated its technology at FinovateSpring 2024 in San Francisco. The company showed how its embedded fintech software, Parlay Protocol, helps financial institutions generate more high-quality loans and provides technical assistance to small business applicants. Lenders working with Parlay have benefited from a 64% boost in approved loans and an 87% reduction in manual, underwriting workloads. Most recently, Parlay announced a partnership with Mastercard and JAM FINTOP to expand its services nationwide.

New York-based Stratyfy won Best of Show in its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its UnBias technology that enables financial institutions and fintechs to discover and undo bias in complex financial decisions including during the underwriting process.

Photo by Chevanon Photography

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Quadient and Nuvei Forge Strategic Technology Partnership

Quadient and Nuvei Forge Strategic Technology Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Quadient
  • Business automation platform Quadient has inked a strategic partnership with payments company Nuvei.
  • The partnership will integrate Nuvei’s advanced payment processing technology into Quadient’s cloud-based Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) automation solutions.
  • Headquartered in France, Quadient most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2018.

France-based business automation platform Quadient has announced a strategic partnership with payments company Nuvei. The collaboration is designed to enhance cloud payment capabilities for businesses around the world, and will integrate Nuvei’s advanced payment processing technology into Quadient’s cloud-based Accounts Receivable (AR) and Accounts Payable (AP) automation solutions.

“We’re empowering businesses to modernize and take control of their financial processes,” Quadient Chief Solution Officer, Digital, Chris Hartigan said. “With our cloud platform, we’re helping businesses streamline workflows, gain deeper financial insights, and build stronger relationships with customers and suppliers, driving efficiency and sustainable growth to succeed in an increasingly digital and regulated marketplace.”

Integrating advanced global payment capabilities with customer onboarding, pay-ins and payouts, and risk management, Quadient helps businesses better manage cash flow, align payment terms, and move away from manual and siloed processes to streamlined, more efficient workflows. This is a challenge for more than half of small- and medium-sized businesses that rely on fragmented processes to handle their finances. To address this, Quadient offers a unified, scalable, cloud-based platform that automates accounts receivable and accounts payable over multiple currencies, payment options, and geographic regions.

“By integrating our advanced payment processing technology into Quadient’s cloud platform, we’re enabling businesses to seamlessly manage transactions across multiple currencies and payment methods through a single, unified solution,” Nuvei Chair and CEO Philip Fayer said. “We look forward to supporting Quadient as it empowers its customers with customized solutions to accelerate their growth.”

Founded in 2003, Nuvei offers modular, flexible, and scalable technologies that enable companies to accept next-generation payments, provide pay-outs, and take advantage of card issuing, banking, risk, and fraud management services. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Nuvei supports 150+ currencies, more than 700 payment methods, and operates in 50+ local markets and 200+ global markets. Philip Fayer is Chair and CEO.

Quadient made its Finovate debut in 2013, as GMC Software. The company rebranded to Quadient in 2017 and returned to the Finovate stage that year and again in 2018. Quadient’s partnership news comes just days after the company reported that it was working with Stasher, a UK-based luggage storage platform. The partnership will help significantly expand Stasher’s network in the UK, giving travelers in major UK cities such as London, Birmingham, York, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, and Manchester secure and accessible luggage storage via 1,640+ Parcel Pending by Quadient smart lockers.

Quadient currently has more than 25,700 smart locker units installed in the US, Japan, and Europe. The company hopes to deploy 40,000 units by 2030.

Photo by Maël BALLAND

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Temenos: New Partnership, New CTO, and Helping Banks Launch New Products Faster with Gen AI

Temenos: New Partnership, New CTO, and Helping Banks Launch New Products Faster with Gen AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Temenos

Temenos has been all over the fintech headlines in recent days. Here’s a look at what’s put them—and kept them—above the fold.

First up, the company announced that UK-based international payments provider Moneycorp has chosen Temenos SaaS to boost operational efficiency and launch new offerings faster—a theme in this roundup of news from the Swiss fintech. Moneycorp will leverage Temenos SaaS for core banking and payments and is specifically looking to take advantage of the technology’s advanced wallet and payments capabilities as it focuses on expanding its products and services globally. Moneycorp currently operates in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

“Best-in-class technology is key to delivering the seamless client experience and personalized service that Moneycorp is known for, so we’re delighted to partner with Temenos, an established global leader in banking technology,” Moneycorp Group Chief Technology Officer Srini Kasturi said. Kasturi praised the company’s multi-geographic support and localization, as well as the SaaS nature of the platform, which he said would help Moneycorp quickly go to market globally and better serve its international customers.

Moneycorp handled £71 billion in trading volume in 2023, serving 11,000 B2B clients, 250 financial institutions, and 23,000+ individual customers. The firm processes more than one million payments a year, reaching 190 countries.

In addition to the new partnership, Temenos also announced new personnel in its C-suite. The company introduced Rohit Chauhan as its new Chief Technology Officer earlier this month. Chauhan will lead development of the company’s overall technology strategy, innovation, research, and development. In this role, he will be tasked with boosting the flexibility of the Temenos platform to advance the company’s core banking and modular solutions for financial institutions large and small. Chauhan was most recently Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Channels Technology at JPMorgan, where he held various leadership positions for more than 12 years.

Accompanying Chauhan’s announcement was the appointment of Eugene Khmelevsky in the newly created role of Temenos Global Head of Architecture and Data. Formerly Chief Mobile Architect at JCPenney, Khmelevsky in his new role will ensure Temenos’ architecture and data foundation support a product strategy that is modular and flexible.

Both Chauhan and Khmelevsky will be based out of the US and report to Temenos’ Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) Barb Morgan.

Lastly, Temenos launched its Temenos Product Manager Copilot this week. The new offering empowers banks to use Generative AI to design, launch, test, and optimize financial products faster. The solution is a Gen AI assistant that is integrated into Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and embedded within the Temenos retail core banking solution. The Copilot provides a straightforward, conversational interface for product, IT, and customer service managers, who can use the technology to review the range of Temenos’ core banking capabilities and insights.

The new offering announcement was accompanied by a report from a recent Temenos study that indicated that 75% of banks are investigating Gen AI deployment. Of those surveyed, 36% had already deployed the technology or were in the process of deploying it. The study also revealed that 73% of those surveyed believed that Agentic AI will be “transformative for the banking industry.”

“Temenos Product Manager Copilot unlocks the full innovation potential of Temenos core banking using Generative AI to help banks deliver better products faster to their customers,” Temenos CPTO Barb Morgan said. “We are excited to bring this game-changing technology to financial institutions globally. In an area where fintechs and neobanks can launch new offerings within weeks, it is critical for banks to accelerate innovation or risk losing relevance in an increasingly competitive landscape.”

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, Temenos has been a Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope 2013. The company is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, participating in FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2015. Temenos offers core banking, digital banking, payments, and wealth management services, as well as financial crime mitigation solutions. Temenos has more than 950 core banking and 600 digital banking clients around the world, and is among the largest software companies in Europe. Jean-Pierre Brulard is CEO.

Photo by Anokhi De Silva on Unsplash

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Klarna’s Growth and Losses Send Mixed Signals

Klarna’s Growth and Losses Send Mixed Signals
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna
  • Klarna hit a major milestone with 100 million active users and 724,000 merchants in the first quarter of this year.
  • Despite the fresh momentum, Klarna reported a $99 million pretax loss, which is more than double that of the previous year.
  • Amid its customer wins and financial losses, Klarna continues to postpone its IPO.

Buy now pay later (BNPL) and global commerce platform Klarna has both good and bad to report this week. The Sweden-based company recently unveiled its Q1 2025 results, which revealed customer growth and revenue loss.

The good

Klarna announced that it reached 100 million active consumers in April 2025. The company reports that this is the fastest growth rate it has seen in two years, thanks in part to the integration of users from Stocard, a payments company Klarna acquired in 2021. In addition to customer growth, the company also experienced merchant growth, which was boosted by 27%, as Klarna reached 724,000 merchants and welcomed 150,000 new retail partners in the first quarter, which was more than double the previous period.

“The momentum is undeniable—and this is just Q1,” said Klarna CoFounder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Klarna has reached 100 million consumers and secured exclusive partnerships with major retailers like Walmart through OnePay, teamed up with DoorDash, and expanded our partnership with eBay to the US after multiple successful European launches. Our AI-first strategy is driving exceptional returns, we’re outpacing competitors, our merchant network is scaling rapidly, and our next-gen products are reshaping money management for millions.”

Klarna is known for its momentum in leveraging AI. In fact, 87% of its staff uses its Generative AI engine, Kiki in their daily work activities. Additionally, beginning in 2022, the company notoriously cut its workforce by 40% to replace human employees with AI efficiency.

The bad

On the negative side, Klarna also reported $99 million in pretax losses in the first quarter. This loss is up from $47 million a year ago. The company attributes the loss to one-off costs, including depreciation, share-based payments, and restructuring. However, the losses may also be a result of customers defaulting on their BNPL agreements. The company recorded $136 million in customer credit losses, reflecting a 17% increase year-on-year. Despite this, the credit loss rate as a percentage of Klarna’s total payment volumes sits relatively low at 0.54%, which is up from 0.51% a year ago.

Interestingly, Klarna appears to be walking back the workforce reduction it initiated a few years back. Seeing the need for human-in-the-loop when it comes to leveraging AI for customer service, the company plans to use an Uber-like approach to hiring customer service workers, allowing them to log on and off as spikes in demand for customer service rises and falls.

IPO or no?

Despite Klarna’s impressive customer and merchant growth in the first quarter of 2025, its financial challenges, combined with an uncertain economic environment, have cast a shadow over its IPO plans. Originally eyeing a public debut in 2025, Klarna has postponed its IPO amid continued losses, ongoing restructuring efforts, market uncertainty in the US, and increased regulatory scrutiny in the UK. As the company navigates rising credit losses and reevaluates its balance between AI-driven efficiency and human customer service, the delay signals a cautious approach to market timing.

Photo by Annamaria Kupo on Unsplash

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Entersekt Inks Payments Partnership with Stanchion

Entersekt Inks Payments Partnership with Stanchion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Entersekt

Atlanta, Georgia-based Entersekt announced a new strategic partnership with paytech solutions provider Stanchion. The partnership will combine Entersekt’s 3-D Secure payment authentication solution with Stanchion’s Payment Fabric Technology. Stanchion’s technology provides advanced integration capabilities that enable issuers to offer new functionalities to help them modernize, transform, and accelerate innovation and improve operational efficiency.

“We are excited to partner with innovative fintech leaders like Stanchion,” Entersekt Chief Revenue Officer Marty Overman said. “This collaboration aligns perfectly with Entersekt’s commitment to delivering secure, seamless payment solutions that empower financial institutions and protect consumers globally.”

Entersekt’s 3-D Secure payment authentication solution provides end-to-end transaction authentication across the merchant acquirer domain, the card issuer domain, and the interoperability domain. The company reports that its access control server (ACS) has delivered a 70% reduction in card-not-present (CNP) fraud within one month, and a 54% increase in conversion rates over six months. Additionally, Entersekt’s ACS provided a 149% growth in transaction value within the first year. The technology leverages out-of-band, biometric, and silent authentication to enhance the customer experience with reliable authentication and adaptive risk intelligence. Entersekt acquired the 3-D Secure software technology business from Modirum, a Finland-based security technology firm, in 2023. The move was designed to position Entersekt as an international leader in authentication solutions for financial services companies.

“We are delighted to partner with Entersekt, one of the world’s foremost 3-D Secure providers,” Stanchion Chief Commercial Officer Chris Pappas said. “This collaboration will enable us to offer enhanced capabilities and deliver even greater value to our clients, reinforcing our position as a leader in payment integration solutions.”

Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Stanchion offers a range of solutions and services to help firms integrate, manage, optimize, and secure their payment systems. Founded in 2001 and maintaining offices in Australia, the UK, the UAE, and the US, as well as in South Africa, Stanchion’s solutions include Verto, a next-generation integration and orchestration platform for banks and payment providers; and SwitchCare, a proactive monitoring and observability solution. Stanchion also offers Professional Services in the form of platform-agnostic advice and support during the development and integration of new payment environments. Steven Kirrage is CEO.

Entersekt made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. In the decade-plus since then, Entersekt has grown into a leading fraud prevention and payment security solution provider for banks and other financial institutions. Founded in 2010, the company processes more than 2.5 billion transactions for 250+ million cardholders and 450,000+ merchants from nearly 900 banks in more than 70 countries. Entersekt’s flagship solution, its cross-channel Context Aware Authentication platform, secures digital transactions and helps optimize the user experience.

Earlier this year, Entersekt announced that Clare Conway had joined the company as Chief Integration Officer. Conway comes to Entersekt after serving as Chief Operating Officer for partnership automation platform, Partnerize. Also this year, Entersekt announced a new collaboration with Africa-based payment services provider enza. The paytech will leverage Entersekt’s 3-D Secure authentication to bring stronger security, fewer false declines, and seamless payment experiences to banking customers in Africa. Banks in the region will benefit from greater competitiveness, and the ability to expand to new markets and pursue new revenue sources. Schalk Nolte is Entersekt CEO.

Photo by Joey Kyber on Unsplash

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Finastra Sells Off Treasury and Capital Markets Division

Finastra Sells Off Treasury and Capital Markets Division
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finastra, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Finastra is selling its Treasury and Capital Markets (TCM) division to an affiliate of private equity firm Apax Partners.
  • TCM will become a standalone company under Apax ownership and will receive investment to accelerate product innovation, enhance cloud capabilities, and improve the customer experience.
  • The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2026.

UK-based financial services software provider Finastra announced that it is selling its Treasury and Capital Markets (TCM) business unit to an affiliate of private equity firm Apax Partners. Once the transaction closes in the first half of 2026, Apax will rebrand TCM and operate it as a standalone business.

The deal gives Finastra room to double down on its core banking software, while TCM gains the backing to modernize and grow under independent ownership.

Finastra’s TCM facilitates risk management, regulatory compliance, and capital markets operations with its suite of software products, which include Kondor, Summit, and Opics. The business unit has more than 340 financial institution clients.

Under the ownership of Apax, TCM will be able to invest further in new product development, marketing, and technology infrastructure. Additionally, Apax will help TCM sharpen its strategic and operational focus, enhance its customer experience, and accelerate its cloud technology offering.

“We’re excited to partner with the TCM team as the business begins a new chapter as an independent organization,” said Apax Partner Gabriele Cipparrone. “With the backing of the Apax Funds, we expect TCM to benefit from accelerated innovation and enhanced operations, delivering even greater value to its clients.”

In addition to TCM, Apax has invested in other companies in the application software industry. Some of the firm’s more notable investments include Paycor HCM, Zellis Group, ECi Software, OCS / Finwave, Azentio, EcoOnline, and IBS Software.

Finastra anticipates that selling TCM will streamline its product portfolio and free up cash to reinvest in the business.

“This sale marks an important milestone for Finastra that will help further launch our next phase of growth with a focused suite of mission-critical financial services software,” said Finastra CEO Chris Walters. “It will provide capital to accelerate our strategy and reinvest in our core business, while providing our award-winning TCM platform with the backing of an experienced, long-term technology investor to support its continued success moving forward.”

With customers in 135 countries, Finastra serves 8,100 financial institutions with its software applications across lending, payments, and retail banking. The company was founded in 2017 as a combination of Misys and D+H. Earlier this year, Finastra appointed Chris Walters as CEO.

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eToro to Offer Insurance in France Courtesy of Generali Partnership

eToro to Offer Insurance in France Courtesy of Generali Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, eToro
  • Trading and investing platform eToro has partnered with French life insurance leader Generali to offer life insurance and a French retirement savings plan called a PER to customers in France.
  • The partnership comes days after eToro went public in the US on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
  • Founded in 2007, eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances.

Stocks, bonds, and … life insurance?

That’s the deal that trading and investing platform eToro has struck with French life insurance provider Generali this week. The partnership between eToro and Generali will enable the platform to offer its users in France life insurance and a PER (Plan d’Épargne Retraite), a tax-advantaged French retirement savings plan.

The PER and life insurance contracts available through the alliance with eToro Patrimonie, eToro’s local subsidiary, provide both managed and self-directed options to serve a range of retail investor preferences and risk tolerances. Investors can also build their own investment allocations by choosing from among 500 different mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), stocks, and dated bond funds.

“Introducing savings solutions for eToro’s users in France and opening a local subsidiary underscore our commitment to strengthen our footprint in a key market for the business,” said Julien Nebenzahl, President of eToro Patrimoine. “With these new products, we want to empower retail investors to build a robust savings portfolio that allows them to grow their wealth for the long-term.”

Among France’s leading insurers and asset managers, Generali France offers a range of insurance solutions including life, property, health, liability, and assistance coverage. The firm also provides wealth and asset management services to its eight million retail, professional, and corporate clients. Founded in 1832, the institution reported a revenue of €19.2 billion in 2024.

“We are delighted to support eToro, a globally recognized investment player, in the launch of its subsidiary in France and its savings offering,” Corentin Favennec, Partnerships Director at Generali Patrimoine, said. “Our 100% digital PER and life insurance products, which complement each other, perfectly fit into eToro’s value proposition to serve the wealth management needs of the French people.”

The launch of eToro’s new insurance offering comes in the wake of a number of product releases announced for the company’s customers in France. Last year, eToro enabled trading in local currency for eToro Money EUR accounts. The company also expanded the number of French-listed stocks from Euronext Paris that could be traded on the eToro platform. The insurance news in France also comes as eToro makes its debut as a public company on the Nasdaq. eToro raised nearly $310 million in its IPO last week, giving the platform a market capitalization north of $5.4 billion. The company’s successful offering was hoped by many to be a sign of resurgent strength for the IPO market.

Founded in 2007, eToro is a trading and investing platform with 40 million registered users in 75 countries. eToro’s customers can use the platform to buy and sell assets from 20 global stock exchanges, as well as trade and invest in more than 70 cryptocurrencies. A pioneer in collaborative investing, eToro offers a CopyTrader feature that enables users to automatically copy the buying and selling of other, more experienced, investors in real time.

eToro has won Best of Show in all six of its Finovate appearances beginning in 2011. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2017.

Photo by Martijn Adegeest

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Lloyds Bank Taps Moneyhub for Data Categorization

Lloyds Bank Taps Moneyhub for Data Categorization
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moneyhub
  • Lloyds Banking Group has partnered with Moneyhub to enhance transaction categorization and personalization across its brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland.
  • Moneyhub’s AI-driven platform uses consumer-permissioned data and a decade of user training to deliver highly accurate transaction insights, supporting Lloyds Banking Group’s digital strategy.
  • While open banking accelerates in the UK and Europe, the US faces regulatory uncertainty, with recent legal challenges casting doubt on the future of the CFPB’s Section 1033 rule.

UK-based Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) announced this week that it has selected open data platform Moneyhub to help categorize and enrich transaction data across its brands, including Lloyds, Halifax, Scottish Widows, and Bank of Scotland.

LBG expects that partnering with Moneyhub will enhance the personalization of its digital banking services and help customers gain deeper insights into their spending. Moneyhub categorizes customer transactions such as card payments, direct debits, standing orders, and transfers. The company uses both direct API integrations and indirect methods like screen scraping to gather the consumer-permissioned data, then uses its AI-driven categorization engine that has been refined over more than a decade with user input, resulting in highly accurate transaction insights.

“Partnering with Moneyhub will allow us to rapidly deliver far richer and more valuable insights for our customers,” said LBG Group Chief Data and Analytics Officer Ranil Boteju. “By combining Moneyhub’s advanced categorization technology with our in-house GenAI expertise, we’ll improve the time and accuracy of transaction classifications, unlocking new products and services for our customers and providing real-time insights so they can make more informed financial decisions.”

Moneyhub was founded in 2014 and offers personal finance technology tools, open data APIs, decisioning solutions, and payments capabilities. Its platform is designed to empower financial institutions, employers, and technology providers to deliver more tailored financial experiences through real-time data access and intelligent analysis. Regulated by the FCA, Moneyhub’s infrastructure supports a wide range of use cases, including budgeting tools, affordability assessments, wealth insights, and financial wellness programs.

“We are delighted to be chosen by Lloyds Banking Group as their categorization partner,” said Moneyhub CCO Dan Scholey. “Our extensive experience in transaction categorization has enabled us to develop a highly accurate engine that will benefit LBG and its customers. We look forward to enabling the many use cases this partnership offers, helping LBG become more efficient, profitable, compliant, and customer-centric.”

This move comes amid growing adoption of open banking frameworks across the UK and Europe, where regulatory support and consumer demand for data portability are facilitating innovation among fintechs and banks. At the same time, in the US, the open banking movement is still waiting to take off. The CFPB’s Section 1033 rule was put into place last October to grant consumers the right to access and share their financial data with third parties. However, the rule has faced legal challenges and potential revisions. Earlier this month, the CFPB indicated plans to ask a court to vacate the rule, citing procedural concerns and industry pushback over provisions such as the prohibition on data access fees and the lack of clear liability standards for third-party data handlers. This uncertainty has left the future of open banking in the US in flux, even as other markets continue to advance.

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Best of Show Winner Solda.AI Raises $4 Million

Best of Show Winner Solda.AI Raises $4 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Solda.ai
  • AI-powered sales technology provider Solda.AI has raised $4 million in seed funding.
  • The round was led by Accel and included participation from AltaIR Capital.
  • Solda.AI won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, California.

Solda.AI, an innovator in AI sales for fintech that won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last week, has announced $4 million in new funding. The seed round was led by Accel and featured participation from AltaIR Capital. The company will use the capital to further develop its fleet of AI agents, forge partnerships with more businesses around the world, and continue to transform international sales processes.

“At Solda.AI, we believe that the future of telesales is AI,” Solda.AI CEO and Co-Founder Sergey Shalaev said. “Our vision is for voice agent-powered sales that generate revenue and provide real ROI, and we believe that we’re the first and only company to deliver this. We have already seamlessly integrated our agents into 20 partners’ sales channels, and are delighted to announce this seed funding led by Accel to help us collaborate with more businesses and take phone sales into the age of AI.”

Solda.AI offers fully autonomous, AI-powered voice agents that can operate a business’s entire telesales cycle at scale, processing 10,000 leads a day to make sales calls, follow-up calls, return calls, and close deals. The agents can engage leads after two weeks of sales call and script training, which compares favorably with human call center agents, only 10% of whom achieve proficiency in less than two months.

Solda.AI’s agents have a 1% AI detection rate and, at peak hours, can manage 100 phone lines simultaneously. The agents are multilingual, and can currently conduct sales-based conversations in both US and UK English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The agents can even distinguish between European and Latin American versions of Spanish (as spoken in Mexico, for example) and Portuguese (as spoken in Brazil). Companies deploying Solda.AI’s technology have benefited from a 30% cost efficiency gain compared to call centers. Solda.AI reports that its agents generated $7 million in incremental revenue for clients last year and are on target to deliver $30 million in 2025.

“When we first met Sergey and the Solda.AI team, we were blown away by the AI voice agents’ human-like attributes and ability to not only handle complex conversations, but also close deals on the spot,” Accel partner Zhenya Loginov said. “Solda.AI’s technology has the potential to completely revolutionize the telesales market, with the team using AI to redefine sales automation from scratch.”

Headquartered in Middletown, Delaware, Solda.AI demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2025 in May, winning Best of Show. At the conference, the company showed how its AI sales agents automate the sales process while delivering human-like, personalized, on-brand interactions that produce conversion rates up to twice those of traditional methods. Solda.AI’s technology helps fintechs and banks automate onboarding, upsell, KYC, and retention calls with less than 1% AI detection at 60% of the cost.

Photo by Petr Macháček on Unsplash

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