Alumni News

Six Alums Raised More Than $16 Million in Q3 2024

Six Alums Raised More Than $16 Million in Q3 2024
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 3forge, Alumni News, Dotfile, Funding, Illuma Labs, NYMBUS, Quarterly Funding, ReceiptHero, Scamnetic

According to market intelligence platform Tracxn, funding for U.S.-based tech companies in Q3 of this year fell, both in comparison to the previous quarter as well as when compared to Q3 2023. Tracxn also reported that the number of tech unicorns actually increased this year compared to last year, with 13 new unicorns acknowledged in Q3 2024 compared to just five in Q3 2023. And while the report took this as a positive sign that “investor sentiment is stable,” there are other indications that the much-anticipated return to more robust funding trends for tech companies in general, and fintechs in particular, has yet to arrive.

Laura Bock, partner at QED Investors, was quoted in The Financial Brand back in January saying that “53% of fintechs will be cash out by Q3 2024 if they do not raise or exit.” We have a few more days before some of the research firms begin producing their Q3 reports on fintech funding, but clearly expectations are low.

Looking at our own Finovate alum funding for Q3 2024, we see plenty of evidence of the funding drought. In terms of the number of alums that reported receiving funding, as well as the amounts invested, Q3 alum funding for this year is as low as it has been in quite some time.

Previous quarterly comparisons

  • Q3 2023: More than $293 million raised by eight alums
  • Q3 2022: More than $1 billion raised by eight alums
  • Q3 2021: More than $1.1 billion raised by 14 alums
  • Q3 2020: More than $1.2 billion raised by 21 alums

Top equity investments

The top equity investment for Finovate alums in Q3 2024 was the $9 million raised by Illuma Labs. Headquartered in Plano, Texas, and founded in 2016, Illuma Labs debuted at FinovateSpring 2019 and has been a staple of our Spring and Fall conferences ever since. The company won Best of Show at FinovateFall in September for a demo of its Illuma Shield real-time voice authentication solution, now equipped with the latest deepfake detection technology to help prevent account takeover fraud.

Also noteworthy were the fundraisings from two brand-new alums: Dotfile, a regtech based in Paris, France, which debuted at FinovateEurope in February; and Scamnetic, an AI-powered anti-fraud solution provider that first appeared on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in New York last month.

Here is our detailed alumni funding report for Q3 2024.

July 2024: An undisclosed amount raised by one alum

August: More than $1.3 million raised by two alums

September: More than $15 million raised by three alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the third quarter of 2024 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

Photo by Kindel Media

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PayPal to Facilitate Cross-Border Trade in China

PayPal to Facilitate Cross-Border Trade in China
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, PayPal
  • PayPal is launching its PayPal Complete Payments platform in China, offering seamless cross-border payment solutions.
  • The platform, which initially launched in the U.K., Canada, and Europe, helps merchants settle funds quickly and manage international payments.
  • PayPal estimates the new tool will help Chinese merchants to reach over 400 million PayPal users globally.

PayPal, which just released its stackable in-store and online rewards system PayPal Everywhere earlier this month, has a new take on what it means to be “everywhere.” The California-based company is launching PayPal Complete Payments in China this week.

Originally debuted in the spring of this year, the PayPal Complete Payments platform integrates customized products and solutions to help merchants sell globally, streamlining payments and receivables. Upon launch, the platform was available to small and mid-sized enterprises in the U.K., Canada, and more than 20 European markets.

“We are excited to bring PayPal’s Complete Payments solution to China, empowering businesses with secure, seamless cross-border transactions and helping them tap into global markets,” said PayPal President, Global Markets Suzan Kereere. “This launch marks a significant milestone in PayPal’s mission to revolutionize commerce globally, bridging Chinese businesses with consumers around the world in a more efficient and transparent way.”

Over time, PayPal plans to add multiple capabilities to PayPal Complete Payments in China. The company will:

  • Use its network to enable Chinese merchants to reach over 400 million active PayPal users and billions of international consumers who use card and APM payments.
  • Settle funds quickly to allow merchants to get quick and easy access to their funds.
  • Offer tailored products– including RMB Transfer and Vendor Payouts– for Chinese merchants to enable fast and secure global fund management and facilitate settlements from PayPal accounts to domestic bank accounts.
  • Help merchants analyze risk and protect against fraud with AI-powered tools that can reduce time spent managing disputes.

“As one of the first e-commerce platforms to bring PayPal Complete Payments to China’s merchants, we are thrilled to support their expansion into global markets,” WooCommerce Chief Marketing Officer said Tamara Niesen. “This partnership delivers a tailored user experience for WooCommerce merchants, enabling cross-border businesses to confidently scale with PayPal’s advanced solutions.”

PayPal has offered its payments capabilities in China for almost two decades. By partnering with China UnionPay, along with other key players in the region, PayPal is currently engaged with over 700 merchants from across the country. Despite help from partners, PayPal is also able to hold its own in the region. In 2020, the company acquired a 100% stake in Chinese payments firm GoPay, becoming the first foreign company to fully own a Chinese payments platform.

Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric

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Visa to Acquire Featurespace

Visa to Acquire Featurespace
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Featurespace, Mergers & Acquisitions, VISA
  • Visa is acquiring fraud prevention company Featurespace to enhance its own fraud detection and risk-scoring solutions.
  • Terms of the agreement were undisclosed and the deal is expected to close in 2025 pending regulatory approvals.
  • The acquisition comes as Visa faces legal challenges from the U.S. DOJ over alleged monopolization in debit card markets.

Visa signed an agreement to acquire fraud prevention company Featurespace today. Financial terms of the deal, which is subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals, were not disclosed. The deal is expected to close in 2025.

Featurespace was founded in 2008 as a project in Cambridge University’s engineering department. The U.K.-based company offers AI-based tools that analyze transaction data to detect fraud. The company’s ARIC Risk Hub assesses behavioral analytics in real-time to identify abnormal user behavior, and leverages machine learning to adapt to changing behaviors and new scams, while improving accuracy over time.

“Providing our clients with solutions that can adapt to and anticipate the changing threat landscape is of the utmost importance,” said Visa Global Head of Value-added Services Antony Cahill. “Featurespace’s strong foundation in AI will enhance our existing product portfolio and enable us to address our clients’ most complex and pressing challenges. We look forward to welcoming the Featurespace team to Visa.”

Visa expects that Featurespace will complement and strengthen its existing portfolio of fraud detection and risk-scoring solutions. By leveraging Featurespace’s expertise, Visa will empower its clients to manage payments fraud in real-time while minimizing false positives and ultimately cutting costs.

“Over the past 12 years we have served the financial services industry, building a company that has gone from strength to strength, and we are thrilled to become a part of Visa,” said Featurespace Founder Dave Excell. “With Visa, we can bring the innovation, integrity and purpose of our platform and our team to more payment service providers and ultimately, stop more people from becoming victims of financial crime.”

Shadowing today’s deal is Visa’s previous failed purchase of Plaid. In 2021, Visa was forced to terminate its planned $5.3 billion acquisition of financial data access company Plaid. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil antitrust lawsuit that ended the merger about a year after discussions were initiated. The lawsuit argued that Visa wanted to acquire Plaid to protect its U.S. debit business against the threat of the fintech. Visa argued that the DOJ did not understand its business and the competitive landscape, saying that Plaid would complement its existing capabilities.

Visa’s planned acquisition of Featurespace is quite different than that of Plaid, however. That’s because the fintech will likely be seen as enhancing Visa’s existing fraud management capabilities and does not pose the same competitive risks as the Plaid deal did.

Even still, the Featurespace deal comes at an interesting time for Visa. The payments giant is re-living some of its 2021 woes with the DOJ. The department sued Visa earlier this week, alleging that it is monopolizing debit card markets. “We allege that Visa has unlawfully amassed the power to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “Merchants and banks pass along those costs to consumers, either by raising prices or reducing quality or service. As a result, Visa’s unlawful conduct affects not just the price of one thing – but the price of nearly everything.”

As some experts have pointed out, however, banks and merchants have multiple payment rails to choose from, and that Visa’s global market share is simply a result of capitalism.

Photo by Florenz Mendoza

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QuantConnect Collaborates with TradeStation

QuantConnect Collaborates with TradeStation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, QuantConnect
  • Online brokerage firm TradeStation has partnered with open source algorithmic trading platform QuantConnect.
  • The collaboration will enable mutual customers to build and automate strategies with QuantConnect, and then execute their trades via their TradeStation brokerage accounts.
  • QuantConnect made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. The company was founded in 2011.

Multi-asset online brokerage service TradeStation has announced a partnership with open source algorithmic trading platform QuantConnect. The two companies have integrated their solutions to enable mutual customers to create and automate their trading strategies on the QuantConnect platform, and then execute their trades via API through their TradeStation brokerage account.

“By integrating our personalized brokerage service with QuantConnect’s algorithmic trading platform, we’re providing sophisticated traders with powerful tools to develop, backtest, and automate their strategies, enhancing their ability to identify and execute new trading opportunities,” President and CEO of TradeStation Securities’ parent company, TradeStation Group, Inc. John Bartleman said.

The partnership combines two significant forces in the algorithmic trading tools space. TradeStation Securities provides institutional-grade tools and personalized services, enabling traders to buy and sell a wide range of assets including equities, equity options, and futures. A favorite of advanced retail and institutional traders, TradeStation caters to market participants who often require a more customizable and sophisticated trading experience, especially those who rely on algorithms to make buy and sell decisions. The integration will make the transition from building strategies to executing them in the market that much smoother.

“With this collaboration, mutual customers can create, manage, and analyze trading strategies from the new cross-platform integration,” QuantConnect CEO Jared Broad said. “TradeStation Securities is a well-known self-directed online broker-dealer and futures commission merchant, and it’s exciting to know that QuantConnect’s platform will be available to mutual customers.”

Founded in 2011, QuantConnect made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. At the conference, the company demoed its cloud-powered stock market backtesting technology, which can simulate years of stock market data in minutes. The company’s quantitative analytics platform facilitates more than 500,000 backtests per month for a community of more than 300,000 quants and developers. QuantConnect’s platform is powered by the LEAN Engine, an open source infrastructure for algorithmic trading.

QuantConnect’s partnership with TradeStation Securities comes a month after the Miami, Florida-based firm announced an integration with brokerage platform Alpaca. Courtesy of the partnership, Alpaca users can leverage QuantConnect’s technology to design, backtest, and trade algorithmic strategies for stocks, ETFs, options, as well as cryptocurrencies.

Photo by Pixabay

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French Regtech Dotfile Secures €6M in New Funding

French Regtech Dotfile Secures €6M in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Dotfile, Funding
  • France-based regtech Dotfile has secured $6.7 million (€6 million) in new funding.
  • The round was led by Seaya Ventures. The company’s existing investors Serena and Hexa also participated in the investment.
  • Dotfile made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London.

Fresh off its FinovateEurope debut earlier this year, Paris-based fintech Dotfile has raised $6.7 million (€6 million) in funding. The round was led by Seaya Ventures, and featured participation from the firm’s existing investors Serena and Hexa. In a statement, the regtech innovator indicated that the funding will power its R&D efforts as well as fuel its international expansion plans.

Dotfile leverages AI to enable banks and other financial institutions to automate customer onboarding and ensure compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. The company’s business verification platform improves upon the traditionally manual, complex, and expensive Know-Your-Business (KYB) process by aggregating dozens of different data sources to produce a comprehensive picture of a business within 10 seconds.

“More than $200 billion is invested in compliance every year, yet 2% of the world GDP is still going through the money-laundering rinse cycle, which is fueling crime,” Dotfile CEO Vasco Alexandre said. “AI could change how effective those policies are and the positive impact for our societies could be massive.”

The investment in Dotfile comes at a time of growing awareness of the importance of compliance in financial services – and the ability of technology to help banks and other institutions meet these obligations. From banks seeking to maximize opportunities in fintech partnerships to cryptocurrency platforms eager for greater clarity on digital asset regulations, institutions throughout financial services are finding themselves in an increasingly dynamic regulatory environment. To help companies better manage their compliance obligations, a new generation of fintechs such as Dotfile have emerged with tools, workflows, and other solutions–often AI-powered–to streamline and enhance verification, ensure accurate auditability, and reduce costs.

“Compliance is costing banks up to 10% of their revenue, 1 out of 4 employees work in a compliance-related position and existing systems are sometimes more than a decade old,” Alexandre said. “With the competition from fintech intensifying, a transition is bound to happen and generative AI is the tipping point.”

Dotfile made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. At the conference, the French regtech demonstrated its end-to-end business verification platform that empowers compliance teams to streamline their operations. The company was founded in 2021 by Alexandre and Titouan Benoit, and received major support from startup studio Hexa (formerly known as eFounders). Today, Dotfile has more than 50 customers across 10 countries, including banks, private equity firms, and fintechs. Most recently, the company announced a partnership with private market investment platform Roundtable, helping the firm improve its KYC process to optimize and accelerate customer onboarding.

Photo by Paul Deetman

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Xero Clients Can Now Offer BNPL Payments via Klarna

Xero Clients Can Now Offer BNPL Payments via Klarna
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna, Xero
  • Xero and Klarna have partnered to allow small businesses to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at checkout, giving consumers more flexible payment choices.
  • Under the partnership, Xero’s small business clients will have access to BNPL capabilities that may help boost revenue and enable more large-ticket sales.
  • This collaboration has the potential to help Xero’s small business clients maintain healthy cash flow by getting paid upfront.

Small business accounting software company Xero and global payments network and shopping platform Klarna announced this week that they have teamed up.

The deal is essentially a distribution partnership for Klarna, which will help Xero’s small businesses clients accept buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments from their consumers. Xero small business customers in all regions except Australia can offer Klarna at checkout as a payment option, providing a credit card alternative while still getting paid for the goods or services up front.

“We know that maintaining a healthy cash flow is critical to a successful business, and offering more ways to pay supports increased business growth and getting paid faster,” said Xero SVP Payments & Ecosystem Bharathi Ramavarjula. “In fact, our recent research report shows that if a business doesn’t offer customers their preferred way to pay, they are prepared to take their business elsewhere. By enabling our customers with more ways to pay, including Klarna, we can help them retain customers and increase their revenue.” 

Klarna’s BNPL tools include a four-payment, interest-free installment plan, a 24-month financing option, and a pay-in-30 day option. Before a customer makes their purchase, Klarna verifies their eligibility and offers transparent terms of the payment. Once the purchase is made, the company follows up with reminders to help ensure that shoppers stay current on their payments. According to Klarna, 99% of the financing is repaid and 40% of orders placed are repaid early.

The partnership has the potential to provide BNPL capabilities to small businesses that would normally not be able to offer flexible payments or financing. By offering a more flexible payment option, these businesses have the potential to close more larger-ticket deals. It also has the potential to help businesses maintain healthy cashflow, as merchants using Klarna will receive the payment up front.

“This partnership brings Klarna’s flexible payment options to micro businesses of all kinds so business owners can get paid on time and their customers can choose how and when to pay,” said “Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes. “This includes businesses where gardeners and landscaping services using Xero can now offer a Klarna BNPL payment option, plumbers and heating engineers using Xero can fix their customers’ boilers and let them spread the cost while small businesses involved in the construction industry could spread the cost of smaller projects over three interest-free installments.”

Both Klarna and Xero have been in the fintech news cycle in recent months for different reasons. Last month, Klarna unveiled plans to cut its workforce in half in favor of AI-driven productivity. And earlier this month, Xero announced plans to acquire collaborative reporting tool Syft Analytics.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Best of Show Winner Illuma Labs Raises $9 Million in Series A Funding

Best of Show Winner Illuma Labs Raises $9 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Funding, Illuma Labs

Voice authentication technology innovator Illuma Labs has raised $9 million in funding. The Series A round was led by LiveOak Ventures and featured participation from Forefront Ventures, Curql Fund, UsNet, Capital Factory, Connexus, and TDECU.

As the first major investment for the company, the capital will help accelerate the development of Illuma’s voice verification offerings to help banks and other institutions fight fraud, voice cloning, deep fakes, and more. Illuma Labs also plans to leverage the funding to expand its reach to more credit unions and banks across the country.

“While we are excited about the capital infusion to accelerate our development of fraud prevention and deep fake detection tools, we are equally excited about bringing in new partners to fuel Illuma’s continued commercial growth,” Illuma Co-Founder and CEO Milind Borkar said. He praised both LiveOak Ventures and Forefront Ventures for their operational expertise and industry connections and thanked investors Curql Fund, UsNet, Capital Factory, Connexus, and TDECU for their “continued support.”

Illuma Labs offers banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions the ability to replace their traditional, knowledge-based authentication protocols with a secure, real-time voice authentication solution. The company’s flagship product, Illuma Shield, delivers effortless authentication that enhances the customer experience, improves operational efficiency, and prevents fraud in contact centers.

The funding news arrives one month after the identity verification specialist inked a partnership with Americu Credit Union. The New York State-based CU added voice recognition technology to its Member Contact Center courtesy of a partnership with Illuma announced in August. Earlier this year, Illuma announced that SF Fire Credit Union was adding voice authentication technology to its call center via a collaboration between Illuma and fellow Finovate alum Glia.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, and founded in 2016, Illuma Labs made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage earlier this month at FinovateFall, winning Best of Show for its latest deepfake detection technology that helps banks fend off a new generation of AI-enabled fraudsters.

Photo by panumas nikhomkhai

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Revolut to Launch Standalone Wealth Management App

Revolut to Launch Standalone Wealth Management App
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Revolut
  • Revolut is spinning out its wealth management offering into a standalone app called Revolut Invest.
  • The move will allow Revolut to attract users outside of its existing bank client base.
  • Revolut counts 45 million users, has 3 million active traders, and 20,000 subscribers to its premium investment account.

U.K.-based fintech Revolut unveiled today that it plans to spin out its wealth management offering into a standalone app.

The new app, Revolut Invest, will feature capabilities from Revolut’s $9.5 billion (€8.5 billion) wealth management business, as well as additional functionality. At present, Revolut offers its users stock trading as well as a roboadvisor tool. The new app will offer much of the same features: access to 5,000 assets, including U.S. and European stocks, ETFs, commodities, and bonds. The app will also come with new products, such as contracts for difference (CFDs). Revolut Invest will offer the option to upgrade to Revolut’s premium subscription tier called Trading Pro that offers reduced commission fees, increased limits, and analytics.

One of the key advantages for Revolut in making its investing services a standalone tool is the ability to attract customers beyond its current user base. New investors using Revolut Invest won’t need to be existing Revolut banking clients, allowing the company to more easily expand its 3 million active traders and its 20,000 Trading Pro subscribers.

New Revolut Invest users will also be given the option to add Revolut’s banking services during the onboarding process. Conversely, Revolut’s banking clients will not need to download the new trading app, as they will still be able to conduct their investing activities within Revolut’s banking app.

Revolut is currently piloting Revolut Invest in Greece, Denmark, and the Czech Republic. The company is aiming to double the number of investments available in the app in the next three months. To fuel this growth, Revolut is scheduled to launch the investment app in other European Economic Area countries by the end of the year and also revealed plans to launch it in the U.K., U.S., Singapore, and Australia, as it already has the licensing in place in these regions.

With more than 45 million retail customers and 500,000 business customers, Revolut supports more than 25 currencies for users in more than 140 regions. The company offers current accounts, savings accounts, and debit cards that feature the ability to pay in multiple currencies. Revolut also has a credit card product in the U.S., Ireland, Lithuania, and Poland.

Last month, Revolut’s valuation was billed at $45 billion, cementing its reputation as Europe’s most valuable fintech. Earlier this summer, the company earned its banking license from the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), adding deposit insurance for its users in the region. These two factors place Revolut in a good position to go public; and it is likely the company will favor a NASDAQ listing over listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Photo by Mariia Shalabaieva on Unsplash

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FICO and Jersey Telecom Team Up to Fight Authorized Push Payment Fraud

FICO and Jersey Telecom Team Up to Fight Authorized Push Payment Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FICO
  • Global analytics software company FICO has teamed up with Jersey Telecom to offer a new solution to combat Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud.
  • The new offering, the FICO Customer Communications Service Scam Signal, combines real time network data with customer and payment data to identify and mitigate APP fraud as it happens.
  • FICO made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York, in 2016.

A partnership between analytics software company FICO and Jersey Telecom (JT) has yielded a new solution to provide direct, near real-time intervention to protect customers from financial crime in general and Authorized Push Payment (APP) fraud in particular.

The solution, the FICO Customer Communications Service Scam Signal, works by identifying the most relevant telephony signals that indicate a scam is taking place. The new offering represents the first real-time combination of telephony data, customer data, and payment data to deal with the problem of Authorized Push Payment fraud.

“Authorized Push Payment fraud is where customers are tricked into sending authorized payments to scammers,” JT Head of Mobile Intelligence Solutions Clare Messenger said. “This type of fraud is growing around the world; 2023 losses in the U.K. alone reached £460 million. To protect customers from being caught by such scams, the new FICO and JT solution enables direct intervention with the customer to quickly determine if a payment should proceed.”

To achieve the new solution, Jersey Telecom worked with the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) and the U.K. Mobile Network Operators to access mobile network insights while adhering to a privacy compliance framework that protected customers’ personal information. Meanwhile, FICO uncovered strong correlations between a customer’s mobile phone behavior and the potential that an active scam is occurring. The Scam Signal leverages this combination of real-time network data, customer data, and payment data to identify and mitigate the social engineering tactics that can trick and ultimately defraud account holders.

“The integration of Scam Signal within the FICO Customer Communications Service allows banks to present customers with personalized, omni-channel, and highly contextualized messages that break the scammer’s spell for high-risk activities,” FICO VP of Product Management Adam Davies said.

“These messages can be built into conversation ‘flows’ that respond in real-time to the actions the customer takes,” Davies explained. “For example, if a customer hesitates or looks to progress a payment, additional messages can be sent, and different options offered, such as suggesting delaying the payment or offering to speak to a fraud prevention specialist.”

The new offering is currently available in the Channel Island of Jersey, the U.K., and Spain, and there are plans to eventually expand to additional markets. Nevertheless, FICO reported that “major high-street banks in the U.K.” are already deploying Scam Signal. One institution piloting the new technology said that it had reduced the number of people being scammed by 41%, lowered fraud losses from scams by 44%, and reduced the number of false positives by 55%.

Last month, Scam Signal won the Silver Medal at Datos Insights’ Fraud Impact Awards for “Best Scam and APP Fraud Prevention” solution. The technology has also been shortlisted for the “Anti-Fraud Solution of the Year” award at the 2024 U.K. Payments Awards.

FICO made its Finovate debut in 2016 at our developers conference, FinDEVr New York. Today, businesses in more than 100 countries use FICO’s technology and solutions to defend customers against fraud, advance financial inclusion, boost supply chain resiliency, and more. The company’s FICO Score has become the standard measure of consumer credit risk in the U.S., and is used by 90% of the country’s top lenders.

Founded in 1956 and headquartered in San Jose, California, FICO is publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker FICO. The company has a market capitalization of $47 billion.

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PNC and Plaid Repair Relationship to Empower Open Banking

PNC and Plaid Repair Relationship to Empower Open Banking
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Plaid
  • PNC and Plaid have partnered to allow PNC customers to connect to and share their financial data with third party financial applications.
  • Plaid will help connect PNC customers to apps, while PNC’s API provider Akoya will ensure that PNC’s customer data is securely shared with third party apps powered by Plaid.
  • Today’s announcement comes five years after PNC blocked multiple data aggregators, including Plaid, claiming they circumvented PNC’s security protocol.

Getting a head start on Section 1033 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, PNC Financial Services Group announced recently that it has partnered with financial data access company Plaid. The two have signed a data access agreement to enable PNC customers to connect and share their financial data with third party financial applications through Plaid.

PNC will also leverage its API service provider Akoya. Through this partnership, Plaid will help connect PNC customers to apps, while as the API provider, Akoya will ensure that PNC’s customer data is securely shared with third party apps powered by Plaid, without needing to share login credentials.

The collaboration among the three players will ultimately offer a better user experience. That’s because Plaid will help to increase security by eliminating screen scraping and other fraud-prone data collection techniques. The partnership will also allow consumers to access their financial data without having to share their credentials with the third parties themselves. Additionally, Plaid will offer the customer control​ of their own data, allowing them to determine which third party apps may have access to their data.

“Through this new partnership with Plaid, PNC customers will be able to achieve greater data security, privacy, and control while using the third-party financial apps and services they enjoy,” said PNC Executive Vice President, Digital and Payments Natalie Talpas. “PNC’s use of its Akoya-provided API allows for all data recipients, including Plaid, to get connected fast, while also enabling customers to reliably control what financial data they are permissioning without having to share their login credentials with third parties.”

This partnership is notable not just for PNC and its customers, but also for bank customers across the U.S. That’s because PNC’s partnership with Plaid indicates a positive change in attitude toward open banking in the U.S. In the past, PNC has notoriously held a stance against open banking. The bank not only prevented its customers from accessing Venmo in 2019, it also blocked multiple data aggregators, including Plaid, claiming they circumvented PNC’s security protocol.

With today’s partnership, however, the two now appear to be on good terms. “We are pleased to have reached a data access agreement with PNC that further supports their customers securely connecting to applications and services powered by Plaid,” said Plaid Head of Open Finance Partnerships Christy Sunquist. “Moving the industry away from credential-based access is a top priority for Plaid, and our alignment on key principles around security, access and control played a definitive role in establishing this partnership. We look forward to future collaboration for many years to come.”

Photo by Tim Douglas

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Walmart Taps Fiserv to Offer Pay by Bank

Walmart Taps Fiserv to Offer Pay by Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fiserv
  • Walmart is partnering with Fiserv to enable pay-by-bank payments for online purchases starting in 2025.
  • Benefits to Walmart include lower transaction costs, faster settlement, reduced fraud, and fewer payment declines, while customers can avoid stacked pending transactions.
  • Consumers may face challenges like added friction and lost credit card rewards, but early pilot results have exceeded Walmart’s expectations for pay-by-bank adoption.

Walmart made its latest move in the fintech space this week after announcing it has partnered with Fiserv to offer pay-by-bank for online purchases.

Bloomberg unveiled this week that, while the retailer has offered pay-by-bank via Walmart Pay for a few months now, the payments were routed through ACH payment rails and still took days to clear. Beginning in 2025, however, Walmart will leverage Fiserv’s NOW Network, which will route the payments through The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow. Launched in 2014, Fiserv’s NOW Network aims to reach as many banks as possible to provide consumers and businesses the ability to send, receive, and access funds immediately while supporting credit push payments.

Starting next year, customers will be able to make online purchases using pay-by-bank by connecting their bank account through Fiserv’s AllData platform. The platform will facilitate authentication and securely link bank accounts. This will be done through integrations with Plaid, MX, Akoya, and Finicity, ensuring a seamless and secure connection to customer accounts.

Leveraging Fiserv to power real time payments is an important move for Walmart as it enters the pay-by-bank game. As Fiserv Head of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox told Bloomberg, “As an industry we believe we need to create this connectivity. FedNow and RTP, they don’t necessarily talk to one another. The NOW Network can play that role in the industry of bringing all these networks together to enable applications like pay-by-bank.”

Walmart stands to receive multiple benefits when consumers choose to pay-by-bank. The retailer will face lower transaction costs by bypassing credit card networks; increased cash flow, since bank transfers settle faster than card transactions; reduced fraud and fewer declines, since the pay-by-bank payments offers direct access to and will authenticate a customer’s bank account; and the potential to reach more consumers who may not have a credit or debit card.

From a consumer perspective, the benefits of pay-by-bank are more difficult to find. Unlike the merchant, they don’t experience any cost savings for opting for pay-by-bank, there is added friction involved in connecting their bank account to Walmart’s platform, they lose out on credit card rewards, and in the event their account is hacked, fraudsters will have the option to make purchases directly from their account, instead of on a credit card that would offer an extra layer of protection while the customer disputes the transaction.

That said, Walmart is touting the ability for pay-by-bank to help consumers avoid stacked pending transactions. “When the transaction processes as a real time payment, customers get immediate access to see that payment come through, I see it hit my account and I can properly budget,” said Walmart Vice President of Emerging Payments Jamie Henry. “It’s not as if I’ve got this phantom payment out there that’s going to take place a couple days down the road.”

And while I remain skeptical on the mass consumer adoption of pay-by-bank, perhaps Walmart’s customer base is more well suited for these types of transactions. Henry said that the initial pilot of pay-by-bank was surprising. “It’s certainly surpassed our expectations of the amount of customers that have registered and actually use the payment type,” he said.

Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash

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Oblinor Partners with Open Banking Innovator Neonomics

Oblinor Partners with Open Banking Innovator Neonomics
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Neonomics
  • Open banking solutions provider Neonomics is streamlining and enhancing the deposit experience for customers of Oblinor.
  • Oblinor offers a digital real estate investment platform that enables users to build a portfolio of secured property loans.
  • Based in Oslo, Norway, Neonomics made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

Digital real estate investment platform Oblinor has turned to open banking solutions provider Neonomics to streamline and enhance the deposit experience. Oblinor, founded in 2018 and headquartered in Norway, has integrated Neonomics’ checkout offering, which will facilitate a faster, more secure process for investors when they deposit funds for their accounts.

“We’re excited to integrate open banking into our platform,” Oblinor Lead Engineer Christopher Maxwell said. “Neonomics has made the transition smooth and effortless, allowing us to offer a faster, more secure, and incredibly user-friendly way to fund investments. This is just the beginning, and we’re excited about the potential to continue driving innovation in financial services alongside Neonomics.”

Oblinor enables individuals to invest in loans to Norwegian property companies and to build a portfolio of secured property loans. Its partnership with Neonomics will enhance the deposit experience by instantly populating details such as account numbers, amounts, and KID numbers, reducing the amount of manual work typically required to enter transaction data. In addition to accelerating the deposit experience, the partnership with Neonomics will provide greater security and less risk of fraud, as well.

“Neonomics is a perfect fit for what Oblinor is building,” Neonomics CEO Christopher Andvig said. “By integrating open banking, we’re adding real value for their users–making it easier, more secure, and more efficient to invest. As the potential of open banking continues to grow, we’re excited to see what’s next in this partnership.”

Founded in 2017, Neonomics made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the event, the Norway-based fintech showed how its technology can be used to facilitate instant payments and bank transfers directly from an app or website. Today, the company unifies access to more than 2,500 banks and 150 million bank customers across Europe. A licensed payments institution authorized by the Norwegian FSA, Neonomics provides payments initiation and account information services for customers ranging from banks to fintechs to payment service providers and more.

Earlier this month, Neonomics introduced new Head of Growth and Interim Country Manager for Finland, Panu Poutanen. Most recently, Poutanen was General Manager of Finland for European cloud-based payment services provider Viva.com. In August, Neonomics announced a partnership with charitable giving platform company Støtte. The company will leverage Neonomics’ open banking technology to facilitate account-to-account payments for its micro-donation offering.

Photo by Oliver Cole on Unsplash

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