Alumni News

Finovate Global Latin America: Investment and M&A Drive Innovation in Payments and Lending

Finovate Global Latin America: Investment and M&A Drive Innovation in Payments and Lending
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent fintech developments in Latin America. The region was one of the few places in the world to see significant fintech funding in Q2 of 2023. Further, fintech in Latin America will be the focus of a special panel at FinovateSpring in May.

Here are a handful of headlines to help you get up to speed on the variety of fintech innovation happening in countries like Mexico and Colombia.

Colombian payments orchestration platform Yuno raises $25 million

Payments, as we say in the fintech business, is the gift that keeps giving. And this week, Colombian payments orchestration platform Yuno is on the receiving end. The company announced this week that it has raised $25 million in funding from a consortium of investors including DST Global Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Tiger Global, Kaszek Ventures, and Monashees.

With customers ranging from McDonald’s to Avianca, Yuno offers fast and reliable payments orchestration for businesses in industries like e-commerce, retail, and mobility. The company’s platform offers features such as one-click checkout modifications and smart routing. Yuno also integrates data from all payment processors and anti-fraud tools into a single, unified interface. The company will use this week’s investment to support its operations in both North and South America. The investment also will help fuel Yuno’s expansion to new markets in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

“This financial backing validates our vision and our ability to take the global payments industry into the future, helping fuel positive change across many different sectors of the economy. We are thrilled to bring our cutting-edge solutions to new markets,” Yuno CEO and co-founder Juan Pablo Ortega said.

Mexico’s Ziff acquires digital lender Arrenda

Meanwhile, a few miles north, Mexican revenue-based financing company Ziff has acquired Arrenda, a Mexico-based digital lending startup. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Arrenda founder and CEO Joe Merullo will take the position of Chief Technology Officer in Ziff’s C-suite.

Ziff founder and CEO Gerardo Name said the acquisition will boost the company’s product offering and “enable us to rapidly penetrate new market sectors.” Currently, Ziff’s revenue-based financing solution provides liquidity to Mexican SMEs – which often have little to no credit histories – by funding up to 36 months of receivables. The acquisition will enable Ziff to leverage Arrenda’s Adelanta digital lending platform, which enables Mexican property owners convert future rental payments into cash within 24 hours. Name added that he hopes to see Ziff distribute more than $1 billion pesos to Mexican SMEs by the end of 2027.

BBVA Technology expands to Latin America

Created in 2023, BBVA Technology announced its expansion to Latin America this week. To be headquartered in Mexico, the new entity – officially titled “BBVA Technology en América” – represents the merger of a number of technology companies that previously operated under the name BBVA Axial Tech. The goal of the nearly 600-strong body is to help advance BBVA Group’s digital transformation objectives. The company noted that in addition to a regional expansion, the creation of BBVA will help boost career opportunities for BBVA’s tech talent.

From Mexico City, Mexico, BBVA Technology will provide technology services to BBVA firms operating in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Former BBVA Axial Tech CEO Robert Altes will serve as CEO of the new company.

Note that BBVA has also set up a companion entity in Europe – “BBVA Technology in Europe” – led by CEO Ricardo Jurado and headquartered in Spain.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Savis and Open Banking advisory firm Konsentus announced the creation of an operational structure for open banking in Vietnam.
  • New Zealand-based Kiwibank went live with ACI Worldwide’s Enterprise Payments Platform.
  • Hong Kong’s Mox partnered with Wise to enable low-cost, international payments directly from the Mox app.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South African payroll and HR software company PaySpace agreed to be acquired by HR startup Deel for $100 million.
  • Kenya’s Equity Bank launched instant withdrawals courtesy of a partnership with PayPal.
  • A partnership between Mastercard and Ethiopian commercial bank Awash Bank will bring new payment solutions to consumers in the country.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Tarabut teamed up with Bahrainian fintech BENEFIT to launch a new consent authentication method.
  • Is there a “silver lining” in Israel’s fintech funding slowdown?
  • Mastercard forged a long-term global partnership with First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Pakistan’s Raqami Islamic Digital Bank partnered with banking solutions provider Codebase Technologies.
  • India’s central bank introduced a new self-regulatory framework for the nation’s fintechs.
  • Turkish challenger bank Papara announced plans to acquire Pakistan-based digital wallet provider SadaPay.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexican revenue-based financing fintech Ziff acquired digital lending company Arrenda.
  • Chilean fintech Levannta raised $2.5 million in funding in a round led by Manutara Ventures.
  • Mexico-based microlender Baubap secured $120 million in debt financing.

Photo by Enrique Hoyos

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Singapore Offers Visa’s Currencycloud In-Principle Approval for MPI License

Singapore Offers Visa’s Currencycloud In-Principle Approval for MPI License
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Currency Cloud, Daily news
  • Currencycloud was offered In-Principle Approval to serve as a Major Payment Institution license holder in Singapore.
  • If granted the license, Currencycloud will be able to offer its full suite of intra-regional and international money movement services to Singapore businesses.
  • “Having the license would allow us to integrate with the robust financial network in Singapore and collaborate with valuable industry players,” said the company’s Managing Director of APAC Rohit Narang.

B2B cross-border payments fintech Currencycloud announced this week that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) offered the company In-Principle Approval (IPA) to serve as a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license holder in the region.

If the MAS grants Currencycloud the MPI license, the company will be able to offer its full suite of intra-regional and international money movement services to Singapore businesses. These additional capabilities will allow the U.K.-based company to process intra-Asia and east-to-west payments more quickly, efficiently, and seamlessly.

The MPI license will also impact Singapore-based businesses, which will be able to leverage Currencycloud to help their customers make conversions and payouts in their own time zones and local currencies. Ultimately, the license will help these local businesses launch new financial services quickly by leveraging local networks combined with its multi-currency account capabilities.

“The IPA for a Major Payment Institution License is testament to the strength of the Currencycloud brand,” said Currencycloud Managing Director of APAC Rohit Narang. “Having the license would allow us to integrate with the robust financial network in Singapore and collaborate with valuable industry players. The payments opportunity in Asia-Pacific is significant, and Singapore’s excellent infrastructure, world-class regulatory system, and strategic geographical location serve as an ideal base for accelerating future payments innovation across the region.”

Founded in 2012, Currencycloud facilitates cross-border, multi-currency transactions.  In addition to offering virtual wallets, the company also enables banks, fintechs, and FX brokers to offer their users the ability to send, receive, and manage their multi-currency payments. Among the company’s clients are Starling Bank, Revolut, Penta, and Lunar. 

Currencycloud was acquired by Visa in 2021. Mike Laven is CEO.

Photo by Guo Xin Goh on Unsplash

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Payroll Connectivity Provider Argyle Raises $30 Million in Series C Funding

Payroll Connectivity Provider Argyle Raises $30 Million in Series C Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Daily news, Funding, Fundings
  • Payroll connectivity provider Argyle raised $30 million in Series C funding this week.
  • The round was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund.
  • New York-based Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

Income and employment data provider Argyle secured $30 million in new funding in a Series C round led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund. Bain Capital Ventures, SignalFire, and Checkr also participated in the round. The investment consists of both equity and debt and takes the company’s total capital raised to more than $100 million. The funding will help Argyle continue to adapt and expand its automated income and employment verification platform. No valuation information was provided in the funding announcement.

This week’s news comes in the wake of a year in which Argyle notched a number of significant accomplishments and milestones. In 2023, Argyle onboarded more than 90 new customers. The company also boosted its total customer count to more than 140 firms in verticals such as mortgage, personal lending, and background screening.

To date, Argyle has processed more than 1.6 million annual verifications. This includes direct-source income and employment verifications for 90% of the U.S. workforce. Last year, the company achieved a 3.6X growth in bookings, generated cost savings for up to 80% of customers, and built integrations with lending partners ICE and nCino. Argyle also became the first consumer-permissioned provider to integrate into Dark Matter’s Empower LOS.

“Our verticalized approach and direct-source model has provided accurate data and an enhanced consumer experience for our customers,” Argyle CEO and founder Shmulik Fishman said. “With this capital from our valued investors, we will continue to tailor our solutions to priority verticals while improving the verification experience for the next wave of prospective customers that can benefit from our services.”

In an extended “Letter From Our Founder & CEO”, Fishman articulated the journey his company has made and underscored Argyle’s commitment to what he referred to as the “human side of digital transformation.” Noting that even “novel technology” is “only half the equation,” Fishman added “widespread digital transformation only happens when people trust new technologies enough to change their behavior. And change is really hard – even when it’s absolutely essential.” Calling the current moment Argyle’s “enterprise-adoption era” Fishman wrote that now was the time to ensure that “people and process take center stage.”

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2018, Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, company co-founder and COO Billy Marsden showed how Argyle’s Link 4.0 design update enhanced account connectivity, and decreased drop-off rates for users of its real-time income data platform. Link 4.0 also upgrades the platform’s visual style to boost consistency across Argyle’s product line.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

Photo by David Besh

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Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation

Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Envestnet, Ocrolus, Yodlee

Document automation platform Ocrolus announced it has teamed up with financial data aggregation and account verification expert Envestnet | Yodlee this week.

Under the agreement, Envestnet | Yodlee will leverage Ocrolus’ technology to enhance digital document capabilities for its clients. Specifically, Envestnet | Yodlee’s 47 million customers will be able to improve their user experiences by offering their end-users the option to either submit documents or digitally connect bank accounts. Customers will also be able to automate the extraction of financial data from the documents that the end consumer uploads.

“While the financial services industry has undergone significant digital transformation, documents are still a critical source of data,” said Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley. “We are thrilled to partner with Envestnet | Yodlee to provide a more comprehensive and smoother customer experience across a variety of financial services use cases.”

New York-based Ocrolus leverages AI to capture and analyze data from 1,000 different types of documents and digital forms and boasts an accuracy rate of more than 99%. The company counts more than 400 clients, including Enova, PayPal, Brex, CrossCountry Mortgage, Plaid, and SoFi, who use the solution to detect fraud, analyze cash flows and income, and streamline decisions.

With these capabilities Envestnet | Yodlee anticipates its clients will benefit from more efficient and confident decision-making. “With added document automation capabilities, Envestnet | Yodlee will improve and streamline the onboarding process for credit and lending use cases,” explained company Chief Operating Officer Arun Anur.

Envestnet | Yodlee’s client list includes more than 1,300 financial services and fintech companies, including 17 of the top 20 U.S. banks. The company was founded in 1999 as Yodlee, and changed its name to Envestnet | Yodlee after Envestnet acquired Yodlee for $660 million.

In a digital world, sharing documents can be a huge headache. However, automation platforms such as Ocrolus, this process has become much smoother. Today’s collaboration between Envestnet | Yodlee and Ocrolus marks a significant step forward in enhancing the customer experience.

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Moneyhub Partners with Rebcat, Navos to Boost Personalization in Financial Advisory

Moneyhub Partners with Rebcat, Navos to Boost Personalization in Financial Advisory
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moneyhub
  • Open data fintech Moneyhub is teaming up with fellow fintech providers, Rebcat and Navos Technologies.
  • Via the partnership, the three companies will work together to develop solutions to help large financial institutions offer personalized financial advice to their customers.
  • U.K.-based Moneyhub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2015 in London.

Open data fintech provider Moneyhub announced a new partnership this week. The U.K.-based firm has teamed up with fellow fintechs Rebcat and Navos Technologies to help financial institutions offer personalized financial advice and guidance to their customers. The companies will collaborate to launch a number of personalized plug-and-play services, focusing initially on closing the so-called “advice gap.” Additionally, the services will also include financial management, investments, and mortgages.

Moneyhub CEO Samantha Seaton pointed to regulatory changes in the U.K. as one of the trends that guided the partnership decision. “The upcoming changes to the Data Bill and the FCA’s proposals to relax the advice-guidance boundary highlight the significant role of digital advice businesses in the future,” Seaton said. “We have seen first-hand how advanced and robust Rebcat technology is and are delighted with this partnership and the opportunities it brings to unlock financial wellness for more people.”

The joint statement makes clear that Rebcat’s technology is at the core of the offering. The firm is a spin-out of OpenMoney, a digital adviser that Octopus Group acquired in 2023. With nearly 20,000 customers, Rebcat provides a range of B2B financial services. These include white-labeled, end-to-end investment and mortgage advice, as well as a bespoke personal finance and engagement app. Headquartered in Manchester, Rebcat leverages Open Data to help companies offer their customers personalized support and advice. Based in Bristol, Navos Technologies provides services ranging from building digital strategies to implementing effective cybersecurity. Founded in 2020, the company leverages its 120 years of combined experience at U.K. investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown to help companies reach their digital transformation goals.

A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateEurope in 2015, Moneyhub supports seamless connections via a single source to thousands of financial institutions in 37 countries. This enables financial services companies to access a comprehensive view of their customers needs, habits, preferences, and aspirations. Banks, pension companies, wealth managers, lenders, retailers, and insurers all use Moneyhub’s open data platform to transform data into personalized digital experiences and insights – as well as initiate payments.

Headquartered in Bristol, Moneyhub was founded in 2011. The company began this year by earning a spot as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s (CCS) Open Banking Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) framework for its Open Banking and Payment services. CCS is an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office. The entity helps the public sector secure maximum commercial value when procuring goods and services.

Photo by Lisa Fotios

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SoFi’s Galileo Extends Partnership with The Bancorp to Offer Real-Time Payments

SoFi’s Galileo Extends Partnership with The Bancorp to Offer Real-Time Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SoFi, The Bancorp Bank
  • Galileo Financial Technologies has expanded its partnership with The Bancorp Bank.
  • Though The Bancorp Bank, Galileo will leverage The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network to offer real-time payments to help its retail and commercial clients transfer money in real time, 24-hours a day.
  • The Clearing House reported record usage of its RTP network in the third quarter of last year, when it reached 64 million transactions valued at $34 billion.

SoFi-owned Galileo Financial Technologies has expanded its relationship with The Bancorp Bank this week in an effort to enable real-time payments.

Under the scaled up agreement, Galileo and The Bancorp will leverage The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments (RTP) network to fuel real-time payments services. By offering instant money movement between bank accounts, the two will enable Galileo’s fintech clients to help their retail and commercial customers solve cash flow challenges by gaining fast access to their funds.

With the RTP network, real time money movement is available on any day of the year, 24-hours a day. This availability and speed not only solves cashflow issues, it also helps businesses deal with time sensitive transaction and ultimately enhances customer satisfaction.

“Consumers and businesses expect payments to be available instantly, and offering real-time payment capabilities ensures Galileo’s clients can deliver on that expectation,” said Galileo Financial Technologies Chief Product Officer David Feuer. “With this integration between The Bancorp and Galileo, we can offer a swift, efficient way to ensure faster money movement today.”

The Clearing House, which launched its RTP network in 2017, has seen growth in demand for real-time payments. In the third quarter of last year, the company reported that usage of its RTP network hit a record high, reaching 64 million transactions valued at $34 billion. The Clearing House competes directly with the U.S. government’s real-time money service, FedNow, which launched in July of 2023. Currently, more than 350 financial institutions enable their retail customers and 150,000+ business clients to send payments over the RTP network. 

Founded in 2001, Galileo is a payment processing platform that allows third party fintechs and businesses to build and scale their own financial services offerings. The company’s client list includes DailyPay, Bluevine, Dave, MoneyLion, Monzo, and others. Galileo was acquired by SoFi in 2020 in a $1.2 billion deal.

Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, The Bancorp Bank provides fintechs with the people, processes, and technology to meet their banking needs. The bank is the third-largest bank by assets, has more than 75 million prepaid cards in distribution and processes 1.1 billion transactions each year. Damian Kozlowski is President and CEO.

Photo by Thomas Brenac

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Trustly and Socure Partner to Offer Open Banking Pay-by-Bank Solution with Enhanced Onboarding

Trustly and Socure Partner to Offer Open Banking Pay-by-Bank Solution with Enhanced Onboarding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Socure, Trustly
  • Pay by bank expert Trustly and digital identity solutions provider Socure have teamed up this week.
  • Together, the companies will offer streamlined onboarding through Trustly’s Pay By Bank services. 
  • Pay-by-bank is expected to see growth this year because of its potential to offer merchants enhanced security, increased speed of payments, and cost savings.

Online payments expert Trustly and digital identity verification and fraud solutions provider Socure are combining their expertis, to launch a pay-by-bank solution with enhanced onboarding, leveraging the power of open banking.

The new tool will offer businesses in a range of sectors– including investing, gaming, trading, and financial services– streamlined onboarding capabilities combined with pay-by-bank functionality. Specifically, Socure’s ID+ platform, leveraging AI-driven predictive analytics, will be integrated with Trustly’s direct banking integration Pay By Bank offering, enabling merchants to seamlessly onboard users and process payments in a single unified process.

“Combining open banking with KYC and screening greatly enhances the robustness of user onboarding and incorporates a seamless payment solution, providing consumers the ultimate onboarding experience,” said Trustly Chief Business Development Officer Craig McDonald. 

On the fraud side, the augmented pay-by-bank solution enhances not only KYC compliance, but also fraud detection and ID verification capabilities, which are crucial in today’s era of advanced deepfakes and synthetic identities. Additionally, the tool helps merchants benefit from the power of open banking, which offers instant and guaranteed payments because they are authorized directly by the bank. This provides a higher level of security compared to other payment methods.

“We are very excited about our partnership with Trustly and its pay-by-bank business model. We think this diversity in payment types brought about by open banking is representative of a new era for consumer choice,” said Evan Rabinowitz, Vice President of Business Development at Socure. “We have a shared belief that trusted identity is essential to the transformation of open and connected banking.”

Trustly was founded in 2008 and today connects its 8,300 merchant clients with 650 million consumers and 12,000 banks in more than 30 countries. The company’s pay-by-bank network currently processes over $42 billion in transaction volume each year. In 2018, Nordic Capital bought Trustly for an undisclosed amount, and since then, Trustly has acquired three companies of its own, including SlimPay, Ecospend, and PayWithMyBank.

Trustly is positioned for growth in 2024, especially in the U.S., which offer significant potential. According to Financial Brand contributor Steve Cocheo, “Pay-by-bank services will accelerate in 2024 in the U.S., driven by a combination of at least five converging trends: the growing availability of real-time payment rails; increased interest from businesses seeking to avoid card processing fees and gain faster access to funds; increasing democratization of payments; a move away from subscriptions to micropayments, and even a potentially big push courtesy of Elon Musk’s banking ambitions.”

Nevada-based Socure was founded in 2012, focusing on its digital identity verification solution. As many services have moved online and ecommerce has accelerated, the company has grown, helping 2,000 customers– including SoFi, Chime, and Capital One– in verifying the identities of their end consumers to help prevent fraud. Socure has raised more than $744 million. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.

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NayaOne Lands $4.7 Million in Funding

NayaOne Lands $4.7 Million in Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, NayaOne
  • NayaOne has received $4.7 million in funding in a round led by EJF Capital.
  • The company will use the funds to accelerate its product roadmap and meet demand.
  • NayaOne offers a sandbox-as-a-service, where banks can test new technologies, as well as a fintech marketplace, which serves as a network of vetted fintech solutions.

NayaOne, which just stepped off the FinovateEurope stage this week, has received $4.7 million in funding for its sandbox-as-a-service platform and fintech marketplace. The amount of the company’s total funds is undisclosed.

This investment round saw contributions from EJF Capital, which led the round, as well as from Valley Ventures and existing investor Carthona Capital. NayaOne will use the funds to accelerate its product roadmap and meet market demand by optimizing bank-fintech relationships.

When asked about the significance of today’s funding round, NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said, “It’s about more than just growth; it’s about setting the pace in a sector that’s fundamentally rethinking how it evolves.”

NayaOne was founded in 2019, just before the digital transformation wave that hit the industry in 2020. The company’s sandbox-as-a-service platform serves as a single place for banks to access hundreds of fintechs and datasets with which they can innovate, build, and test digital solutions quickly and securely. Banks also have access to NayaOne’s network of vetted fintech solutions that have been evaluated for quality, security, and compliance.

Providing banks with a single place where they can access fintechs and datasets helps them reduce the time it takes to adopt new technologies and solutions. It also reduces the risks associated with potential compliance, quality, and security issues.

 “We’re still in the early stage of a tech revolution in banking and capital markets, and NayaOne stands out as the critical infrastructure enabling the next big leap forward,” said EJF Ventures’ Michael Cherepnin.

There’s a story behind the U.K.-based company’s name. The words Naya and One were derived from ancient wisdom. Naya signifies transformation and financial innovation, while One represents the company’s foundational principle, which is: unparalleled connectivity with a single gateway to financial technology.

Photo by Ostap Senyuk on Unsplash

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Gusto Taps Nav to Help Clients Build Business Credit and Access Financing

Gusto Taps Nav to Help Clients Build Business Credit and Access Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gusto
  • Payroll, benefits and HR management solutions company Gusto and B2B credit and financing expert Nav are partnering this week.
  • Under the agreement, Gusto’s small business clients will have access to Nav’s financial health insights as well as its network of financing options.
  • Originally founded as ZenPayroll in 2012, Gusto has raised a total of $746 million.

Payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto has selected B2B credit and financing expert Nav to help its small business customers build business credit and access Nav’s network of financing options.

With 300,000 customers, Gusto processes payroll and provides HR services such as employee benefits, health insurance, and 401(k) plans. Following today’s announcement, those businesses will also benefit from Nav’s personalized financial health insights that offer visibility into cash flow, credit insights, and suggested financing options. Additionally, Gusto’s business clients will have access to Nav’s network of 160 different financing options, which include loans, credit cards, and banking.

Gusto anticipates the funding services will help small businesses overcome obstacles such as finding available funding, improving cash flow stability, and managing their expenses.

“At Gusto, our mission is to help small and mid-sized businesses take care of their teams, while accelerating their growth. But these businesses can’t grow without having a full picture of their finances and the funding options available to them,” said Gusto Head of Partnerships Sonya Jamula. “That’s why we’re excited to join forces with Nav to bring them a broader range of options for funding and financial services – and to help more small and mid-sized businesses succeed.”

Nav was founded in 2012. Together with its network of financial providers, the Utah-based company helps its 350,000+ small business customers improve borrowing power and access working capital.

“Nav’s platform makes the path to funding less opaque and limits exposure to painful rejections and predatory lending. Small businesses need to have a transparent view into what options are available to them,” said Nav VP of Revenue Walt Levengood. “Our partnership with Gusto helps small businesses to have more control of their capital and to better manage their costs.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, Gusto has raised a total of $746 million since it was founded in 2012 as ZenPayroll. Co-founder Joshua Reeves is CEO.

Photo by Yan Krukau

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Dwolla Launches Open Banking Integrations

Dwolla Launches Open Banking Integrations
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Dwolla

If you have your ear to the ground in the payments space, you have probably heard that pay-by-bank is the latest craze. Operating in the account-to-account (A2A) payments space since 2008, Dwolla is launching a new offering that echoes that trend.

To bring its A2A payments offering into the new era, the Iowa-based fintech announced the launch of Open Banking Services today. The new open banking integrations will expand on Dwolla’s existing API, adding instant account verification, balance checks, and fraud mitigation to the services offered to the company’s mid- to enterprise-sized business clients.

Dwolla’s Open Banking Services are available through a single API that allows businesses to integrate the entire payment experience– from identity verification to exchanging account credentials– into their existing application. The company has pre-integrated with leading open banking service providers to ensure a smoother implementation process for businesses, reduce complexity, and accelerate time-to-market for A2A payment solutions.

Overall, Dwolla eliminates the need for businesses to use multiple vendors. The company’s white-label API streamlines transactions, leveraging The Clearing House’s RTP Network to allow users to send and settle funds in real-time. Dwolla also offers lower transaction fees, improved accuracy, and enhanced security.

“Our vision with Dwolla’s Open Banking Services is to empower businesses with a seamless, all-in-one solution for A2A payments,” said Dwolla CEO Dave Glaser. “By consolidating essential A2A payment functionalities under one roof, we aim to simplify the payment landscape for businesses, enabling faster time-to-market and improved operational efficiency.”

Dwolla is a three-time Finovate alum and most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2015 where it debuted FiSync. The company has raised $72.4 million across nine rounds of funding.

Photo by Pixabay

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Australia’s Summerland Bank Partners with Cloud Banking Company nCino

Australia’s Summerland Bank Partners with Cloud Banking Company nCino
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, nCino
  • Australia-based regional mutual bank Summerland Bank announced a partnership with cloud banking company nCino.
  • The financial institution will deploy nCino’s Cloud Banking Platform to modernize its technology stack.
  • Headquartered in North Carolina, nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017.

Customer-owned regional mutual bank Summerland Bank has partnered with cloud banking innovator nCino. The institution will leverage nCino’s Cloud Banking Platform to enhance its loan origination operations for mortgages, personal loans, overdrafts, credit cards, car loans, and business loans.

“This partnership embodies what we stand for at Summerland Bank: innovation, better banking and an unwavering commitment to our customers and communities, and we’re thrilled to be working with nCino to help us bring these values to life,” Summerland Bank CEO John Williams said.

Summerland Bank will take advantage of intelligent process automation and integration with data sources to enhance the customer experience in various ways, including faster response times. The bank also will benefit from lowering the amount of manual work in its lending operations, reducing error rates and, instead, accelerating time to approval and fund disbursement. nCino’s platform will provide the institution with a single system of interaction for the bank’s originations team – for both consumer and business lending alike.

“Through our single platform, nCino is committed to providing cutting-edge solutions that enable financial institutions to succeed in today’s competitive landscape, and we are thrilled that Summerland has made the strategic decision to partner with us,” nCino Managing Director, APAC, Mark Bernhardi said. “This partnership underscores their commitment to harnessing technology to deliver superior experiences.”

Founded in 1964, Summerland Bank has more than $1 billion in assets and achieved net profit of $7.2 million last year. The institution changed its name from Summerland Credit Union in November, and is currently a B corp certified bank with more than 27,000 customers. Summerland serves the Northern Rivers community of New South Wales and maintains 10 branches in the area.

Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017. In the years since, more than 1,850 financial institutions have selected nCino’s cloud banking platform to achieve commercial loan origination rates of more than 54% and increases of more than 12% in account opening rates.

The partnership with Summerland Bank is nCino’s fourth collaboration this year. The company began 2024 with the news that Camden National Bank was deploying solutions from nCino’s Mortgage Suite in order to transition from its legacy mortgage point-of-sale (POS) technology. Also in January, The Bank of Bennington announced that it was expanding its partnership with nCino, adopting the North Carolina-based fintech’s Consumer Banking Solution after realizing significant efficiency gains with nCino’s Mortgage Suite. Earlier this month, nCino announced that Mechanics and Farmers (M&F) Bank went live on its cloud banking platform. Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, M&F Bank is the second oldest and eighth-largest African-American-owned bank in the U.S.

Photo by Marcus Ireland

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Kani Payments Teams up with Core Banking Platform Pismo

Kani Payments Teams up with Core Banking Platform Pismo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Kani Payments
  • Reconciliation and reporting platform Kani Payments has forged a strategic partnership with core banking platform Pismo.
  • The partnership will make Kani’s SaaS platform available to Pismo’s bank, marketplace, and fintech clients.
  • Kani Payments made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco.

U.K.-based reconciliation and reporting platform Kani has forged a strategic partnership with Pismo, an issuer processor and core banking platform headquartered in Brazil. The pact will make Kani’s SaaS platform available to Pismo’s clientele of banks, marketplaces, and fintechs. Kani’s technology automates back office processes, enabling financial institutions and financial services companies to more easily fulfill their compliance reporting obligations.

Kani reports that firms ranging from electronic money institutions and BIN sponsors to challenger banks and fintechs have used its technology to complete weeks’ worth of often complex transaction reporting and reconciliation in less than 30 seconds. In a statement, the company noted that it has experienced significant growth since its founding in 2018. The strategic partnership with Pismo is a big part of that, insofar as the Brazilian fintech is Kani’s largest client win to date.

“Having Kani Payments join our partners’ network will help financial institutions to turbocharge report generations and submissions,” Pismo CEO for North America, EMEA, and APAC Vishal Dalal said. “It will unlock useful insights to help them make better, more informed decisions, shaping a new era for banking and payments.”

Founded in Brazil in 2016, Pismo counts domestic banking firms Itaú and BTG among its clients. The company works with the world’s largest card networks, and processes $208 billion in transactions a year across 97 million accounts and 53+ million issued cards worldwide. Visa International acquired Pismo at the beginning of 2024 in a deal valued at $1 billion. We reported on the pending deal in our Finovate Global column back in the summer of 2023.

“Pismo’s cloud-based platform empowers teams to build fast and companies to launch rapidly, and as such, it shares many of our values and a core aim of helping businesses drive efficiency,” Kani Payments founder and CEO Aaron Holmes said. “As a global business, Pismo is the perfect partner to help us realize the next phase of our growth strategy, and we’re looking forward to making our solution available to a much wider market.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Newcastle, U.K., Kani made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. At the conference, the company demoed how its automated reconciliation and reporting platform conducts fully automated reconciliations, and automates legal, regulatory, and scheme reporting requirements. The platform also gives users the ability to explore and investigate data to better understand consumer and product behavior.

Photo by Mike Bird

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