Alumni News

Pindrop Raises $100 Million to Fight Deepfakes

Pindrop Raises $100 Million to Fight Deepfakes
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Pindrop Security
  • Pindrop raised $100 million in debt financing, boosting its total funding to $318 million in combined debt and equity.
  • Today’s funds come from from Hercules Capital.
  • Since it was founded, Pindrop has analyzed 5.3 billion calls, prevented $2 billion in fraud losses, and detected 104 million spoof calls.

IVR authentication and anti-fraud solutions company Pindrop has raised $100 million in a debt financing round from Hercules Capital. The investment boosts Pindrop’s total funding to $318 million in combined debt and equity.

Pindrop expects the funding will enable it to further develop its technologies, which leverage AI to combat fraud and cyberattacks. The company’s voice security and authentication tools help firms in a range of industries detect fraudsters and authenticate genuine customers at scale.

“We’re pleased to secure this financing with Hercules Capital at such a pivotal moment for Pindrop,” said Pindrop Founder & CEO Vijay Balasubramaniyan. “This funding will fuel our ongoing growth and innovation in voice and AI technologies. As cyber threats continue to evolve, our mission to stay ahead of fraudsters and protect our customers is more critical than ever. We’re excited about the future as we remain committed to driving advancements that safeguard major institutions and deliver unparalleled security in the digital age.”

With major advancements in AI developments over the past few years, Pindrop reports that contact center fraud increased by 60% in the last two years, and now sits at its highest level since 2019. The company expects that, by the end of 2024, one in every 730 calls to a contact center will be fraudulent.

In the U.S., as the presidential election draws near, differentiating fact from fiction when it comes to voice spoofing will be critical. Earlier this year, when a deepfake robocall surfaced of President Biden urging New Hampshire voters not to vote during the Democratic primaries, Pindrop was able to identify the Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine used.

“Hercules is incredibly excited to partner with Pindrop as they continue working to transform the AI and voice authentication landscape,” said Hercules Capital Managing Director John Eggbeer. “We’re proud to support their mission of safeguarding major institutions from rising cyberattack threats. This financing will help accelerate their growth and innovation, enabling them to expand their reach and enhance their capabilities in providing robust security solutions.” 

Since it was founded in 2011, Pindrop has analyzed 5.3 billion calls, prevented $2 billion in fraud losses, and detected 104 million spoof calls. Earlier this year, Pindrop released Pindrop Pulse, an audio deepfake detection solution with real time identification, monitoring, and audio deepfake analysis with advanced liveness detection technology. The company also debuted its Pulse Deepfake Warranty, a warranty that reimburses eligible customers if the Pindrop Product Suite fails to detect a deepfake or synthetic voice fraud.

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

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Stratyfy and Prism Data Team Up to Help Lenders Make Better Decisions

Stratyfy and Prism Data Team Up to Help Lenders Make Better Decisions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Stratyfy
  • AI technology company Stratyfy announced a strategic partnership with cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform Prism Data.
  • Stratyfy will integrate Prism Data’s cash flow data and scoring to improve decision-making for lenders.
  • New York-based Stratyfy won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2022.

AI technology company Stratyfy has forged a strategic partnership with cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform Prism Data. Courtesy of the partnership, Stratyfy will put Prism Data’s cash flow data and scoring to work to help lenders make better decisions when traditional credit data does not provide enough information.

“Solely depending on traditional credit data can paint an incomplete financial picture of loan applicants, which results in lenders missing out on good, profitable customers,” Stratyfy Co-Founder and CEO Laura Kornhauser explained. “By combining our proprietary AI/ML technology with Prism Data’s CashScore, we can harness cash flow data to help lenders accurately and transparently identify credit-worthy customers who may have been overlooked otherwise.”

Prism Data’s CashScore solution analyzes thousands of financial data points that are often absent from traditional credit reporting. These factors include income, assets, expenses, volatility, and the ability to repay. CashScore simplifies complex cash flow underwriting to a three-digit score and can be used by lenders to approve or decline credit applications or as part of a process that includes traditional credit models and scoring.

“Prism’s CashScore enables credit decisions that are more accurate and more inclusive – allowing lenders to say ‘yes’ to up to 30% more customers without taking on additional risk,” Prism Data President Erin Allard said. “Paired with Stratyfy’s cutting-edge decisioning technology, we’re confident lenders will be better positioned to advance financial inclusion and boost profits at the same time.”

Founded in 2016, New York-based Prism Data launched its CashScore FirstDetect solution earlier this year. FirstDetect predicts the likelihood that a customer will default on a loan. The technology uses a variety of financial details as well as trend and pattern analysis to obtain a clear overview of the customer’s spending, earning, and saving behavior. FirstDetect is especially helpful in dealing with “first-party fraud” in which a customer applies for a loan in their own name, but does so with no intention of paying the loan back.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2017, Stratyfy made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2018. The company returned to the Finovate stage for FinovateFall 2022, winning Best of Show for a demo of its Unbias solution. Unbias enables financial institutions and fintechs to “uncover, understand, and undo” bias in complex financial decision-making such as underwriting. The technology, delivered via API, is part of Stratyfy’s suite of machine learning tools to help institutions minimize bias, support inclusion, and enhance risk-adjusted returns.

Photo by Dobromir Hristov

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ReceiptHero Secures New Funding

ReceiptHero Secures New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, ReceiptHero
  • ReceiptHero announced new funding this week, courtesy of investors including SeedX VC, LifeLine VC, and SuperHero VC, as well as angel investors.
  • The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
  • ReceiptHero made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

Finland-based ReceiptHero has secured new funding, the company reported this week. Participating in the round were SuperHero VC, SeedX VC, LifeLine VC, as well as angel investors and team members. The amount of the investment was not disclosed; prior to this week’s announcement, the company had raised more than $6.2 million (€5.7 million) in total capital.

ReceiptHero said that the funding will accelerate the company’s goal of eliminating paper receipts and creating greater value in the data that is available from real-time receipt delivery. To this end, ReceiptHero has stated that its goal is to serve more than a million payment terminals in Europe and the U.K., with the first retail pilots in the U.S. to launch within the next year and a half.

“When we founded ReceiptHero over five years ago, we had to spend a lot of time heavily educating the market on what a digital receipt is,” ReceiptHero CEO Saku Pihlajaniemi said. “Fast forward to today we see a large amount of merchants inquiring about our service and they have a clear strategy on how they want to deploy digital receipts across their stores.”

Receipt Hero made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company showed how its API platform enables receipts to be created and distributed via a variety of channels. Business customers benefit from the compatibility between digital receipts and their accounting software. Individual customers get not only an enriched transaction list in their mobile banking app, but also the ability to have that transaction data used to enhance their app’s budgeting and spending tools.

This year has been a big partnership year for the Helsinki-based firm. The company began 2024 by integrating with Shopify, bringing digital receipts to the e-commerce platform. In March, ReceiptHero announced partnerships with Finnish retailer HalpaHalli, ceramics and textiles brand Pentik, and cashless payment solutions company CoreGo. More recently, the company teamed up with cash register and payment terminal solution Solmio-kassa, and TuloPOS, a point of sale and ordering system for the hospitality industry.

For more, check out our Finovate Global interview with ReceiptHero Chief Operating Officer Scott Moore.

Photo by Markus Winkler

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Clair Brings Earned Wage Access To Gusto Clients

Clair Brings Earned Wage Access To Gusto Clients
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gusto
  • Earned wage access fintech Clair has partnered with payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto.
  • Under the agreement, employees at many of Gusto’s 300,000 supported businesses will be offered access to On-Demand Pay via Gusto Wallet.
  • Gusto is Clair’s first partner to announce participation in the new embedded EWA product.

Embedded earned wage access provider Clair and payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto are teaming up this week. The partnership will allow Gusto to offer earned wage access (EWA) to their small business clients.

Founded in 2019, Clair offers an embeddable EWA tool. Clair’s clients, which include Trinet, 7Shifts, syncHR, use the EWA tool to help their combined 12,000 business customers offer their employees earlier access to their paychecks with no interest. Once employees set up a Clair spending account, they can receive a paycheck advance at any time for hours they’ve already worked.

Clair offers end users banking services powered by Pathward, N.A., including a virtual and physical Mastercard debit card, access to fee-free ATMs, and does not charge monthly service fees or require a minimum balance.

“Emergency expenses often arise and employees need a secure and convenient way to cover those unexpected costs,” said General Manager and Head of Product at Gusto’s Members business unit Dan Loomis. “Due to these needs, we decided to add an on-demand pay offering to Gusto Wallet and knew it would be crucial to find the right partner to bring it to life in a seamless, compliant way. We evaluated all the major players in the EWA space and Clair stood out as our ideal partner, bringing both the compliance framework and technical capabilities we need to offer wage advances right inside our existing app. We’re proud of this industry-leading collaboration that expands the possibilities of embedded financial wellness benefits.”

Under today’s partnership, employees at many of Gusto’s 300,000 supported businesses will be offered access to sign up for On-Demand Pay via Gusto Wallet. The company anticipates the move will help employees increase prosperity by delivering not only earlier access to their pay, but also to financial and work productivity tools. Gusto is Clair’s first partner to announce participation in the new embedded EWA product.

Gusto was founded in 2011. Originally known as ZenPayroll, Gusto provides a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR management solution. The company’s tools help businesses with things like time and attendance, hiring and onboarding, talent management, and more. Company co-founder Joshua Reeves is CEO.

Photo by Karolina Kaboompics

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FIS Taps Lendio to Facilitate SMB Lending

FIS Taps Lendio to Facilitate SMB Lending
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, FIS, Lendio
  • FIS has partnered with online lending marketplace Lendio.
  • Under the agreement, FIS will leverage Lendio’s technology to fuel its new Digital Lending solution.
  • FIS’ Digital Lending tool aims to streamline and automate the lending process for financial institutions.

Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FIS has teamed up with online lending marketplace Lendio. The core banking giant is leveraging Lendio’s technology to launch its new SMB Digital Lending solution.

FIS’ new SMB Digital Lending solution seeks to offer small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) easier access to capital by streamlining and automating the lending process for financial institutions. The new lending tool provides fully automated decisioning by combining big data and machine learning with underwriting expertise.

Leveraging Lendio’s technology, FIS’ Digital Lending solution will help banks source, underwrite, and fund SMB loans, making them more affordable for the borrower. By leveraging embedded transaction analytics, FIS’ Digital Lending will also offer lenders a holistic view of borrower health, pre-qualify SMB depositors, and help them create targeted marketing and sales campaigns.

“By partnering with Lendio, we are leveraging our unmatched scale and reach in the banking industry plus Lendio’s advanced small business underwriting technology and empowering financial institutions to profitably serve their small business customers,” said FIS Lending SVP Division Executive Steve Sabin. “The expansion of our digital banking capabilities illustrates FIS’ commitment to serving the entire money lifecycle—whether at rest, in motion, or at work—and I look forward to seeing the positive impact the solution brings.”

Adding a lending solution to its portfolio that focuses specifically on SMBs will complement FIS’ existing banking tools that cover both retail lending and commercial lending. FIS may be most well-known for its core banking services, but the firm also supports digital banking, payment processing, merchant acquiring services, consulting services, and more. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, FIS has a current market capitalization of $42.8 billion.

“We are thrilled to partner with FIS, a global leader in financial technology, to help bring this SMB lending platform to banks across the country,” said Lendio CEO and Co-founder Brock Blake. “Our mission at Lendio is to fuel the dreams of small business owners by simplifying small business lending. FIS SMB Digital Lending is a perfect fit for that mission, as it enables banks to offer a fast, easy, and transparent loan process to their small business clients. Together with FIS, we are creating a win-win situation for banks and small businesses, and we look forward to expanding our reach and impact through this partnership.”

Lendio was founded in 2011, and has since helped to match small businesses seeking capital with suitable lenders. Businesses in need of funds can submit a single loan application to Lendio, tapping into its network of over 75 lenders. The platform then pairs each business with a suitable lender from the company’s in-house network.

Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash

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Salt Edge Launches API Upgrade to Support Open Banking

Salt Edge Launches API Upgrade to Support Open Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Salt Edge
  • Open banking solutions provider Salt Edge has released the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API.
  • The new version, the company’s sixth, features enhancements designed to make integration easier and quicker.
  • Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Salt Edge most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2019.

Canadian open banking solutions provider Salt Edge is back in the fintech headlines. This week, the company unveiled the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API. Within the package, Salt Edge will make its Account Information API available initially, with its Payments API scheduled to be launched “in short order” afterward.

The latest release features a number of updates and enhancements, which the company says are a direct result of listening to clients, as well as the company’s in-house team. The new version provides endpoints optimization to make integrating with Salt Edge’s API easier and quicker. Salt Edge has also put in the effort to ensure the consistency of the API environment regardless of the license clients use. This facilitates easier and more accurate navigation through the documentation, and those clients that do use Salt Edge’s license will benefit from enhanced access and control with API V6. A third enhancement provides real-time updates, notifications, and event triggers, offering a more dynamic and responsive system that enables clients to monitor activity and quickly address issues as they arise.

Salt Edge’s product enhancement news comes one month after the Ottawa, Ontario-based fintech announced partnerships with Italian API-based e-document management platform A-Cube API and Moldovan financial institution Moldindconbank. A-Cube API, which had been using Salt Edge for its account information services, has now integrated Salt Edge’s Payment Initiation solution. This will facilitate the linking of A-Cube API’s e-invoicing system with account-to-account payments, making the invoicing process faster, more secure, and more accurate.

The company’s partnership with Moldindconbank will help the financial institution ensure that it meets regulatory requirements with regard to open banking. The bank, like all financial institutions in the country, has until February 2025 to comply with new open banking regulations issued by the National Bank of Moldova. To this end, Salt Edge’s full-stack Open Banking Compliance solution will enable Moldindconbank to, in the words of the bank’s Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board Mihail Iovu, “quickly comply with local open banking requirements while elevating our digital solutions, furthering our dedication to providing top-notch services to our clients.”

Founded in 2013, Salt Edge made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 and returned the following year for FinovateEurope 2019. Garri Galanter is CEO.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

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Bain Capital to Acquire Envestnet for $4.5 Billion

Bain Capital to Acquire Envestnet for $4.5 Billion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Wealthtech innovator Envestnet has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital in a deal valued at $4.5 billion.
  • Also participating in the deal is Reverence Capital. Strategic partners BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, and State Street Global Advisors also have agreed to invest in the transaction.
  • Envestnet has been a Finovate alum since 2016. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021.

Technology, data, and wealth solutions company Envestnet has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital. The transaction values Envestnet at $4.5 billion or $63.15 per share. Also participating in the deal is Reverence Capital, along with a number of strategic partners that have agreed to invest in the transaction. These partners include BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, and State Street Global Advisors, and each will hold a minority position in the company once the transaction is completed.

“This is a validation of Envestnet’s proven ability to operate at market-leading scale – serving more assets, accounts, and advisors and effectively connecting our company and our technology,” Envestnet EVP Business Lines Tom Sipp said. Calling the acquisition an “exciting new chapter,” Sipp highlighted the opportunities that lie ahead in Envestnet’s status as a private company rather than a public one. “As a private company, we can accelerate our ability to further elevate our market-leading platform with greater functionality and an even broader solution set that enables advisors to better serve clients at all stages of their financial life.”

A giant in the field of wealth management, Envestnet manages more than $6 trillion in assets, nearly 20 million accounts, and counts 109,000+ financial advisors as users of its technology. This includes more than 800 asset managers that use Envestnet’s Wealth Management Platform. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, the company works with 17 of the 20 largest banks in the U.S., and 48 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms. This year, Envestnet has forged partnerships with Salesforce, Australian wealthtech HeirWealth, insurtech Ladder, and fellow Finovate alum Ocrolus, which specializes in financial document automation and analysis.

Envestnet made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016. More recently, the company brought its data aggregation and analytics platform, Envestnet | Yodlee, to FinovateFall 2021 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how the platform leverages Conversational AI to deliver hyper-personalized financial insights and goals-based micro-savings applications.

Takeover talk had been circulating around Envestnet for months. A report in Bloomberg from late May indicated that the company was “drawing takeover interest from buyers including Advent International and GTCR.” The report also noted an uptick in private equity’s interest in the sector, crediting “reliable cash flows” that can be “scaled up through acquisition.”

“This is a great outcome for Envestnet’s clients and employees, and one that maintains its entrepreneurial spirit,” Envestnet Co-Founder Bill Crager said. “Envestnet is exceptionally well-positioned to continue to build a gateway to the future of financial advice. I couldn’t be more excited about the company going forward, its continued success, and ability to serve more advisors – enabling them to deliver more holistic financial advice.”

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology, Alumni News, Coinbase, Daily news, Envestnet, Fintech Rundown, VISA

We’re starting off the newsweek with a bang as Bain Capital announces that it will take wealthtech and Finovate alum Envestnet private in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. Be sure to check back all week long with the latest fintech news and headlines.

Crypto / DeFi / Web3

Payment orchestration platform FinMont partners with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment servics firm, BitPay.

Coinbase launches new web app to help users better manage their digital assets portfolio.

Blockchain payment network Partior secures $60 million in Series B funding.

Wirex and Visa announce an expanded partnership to promote Web3 payments.

Payments

Mangopay teams up with European marketplace ManoMano to bring new payment capabilities to marketplace merchants.

Allied Payment Network introduces new Chief Financial Officer Hank Vanjaria.

U.K. payments platform Payset partners with ClearBank to access the U.K. payment system for local and cross-border transactions.

BNPL company Affirm teams up with Canadian retailer RONA, enabling the store to offer flexible online payment options.

Singapore based fintech Qashier launches its payment linked loyalty program, Treats.

TerraPay partners with YeePay to enhance the customer experience.

Nala raises $40 million to build B2B payments platform, scale remittance services.

Stripe reaches $70 billion valuation.

Klarna considers Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan for lead banking positions for a potential 2025 IPO.

Payments processor Tapi lands $22 million.

Temenos teamed up with Visa to integrate Visa Direct with Temenos Payments Hub and make available to banks via Temenos Exchange.

Investing and wealth management

Apex Fintech Solutions launches its real-time, B2B investment infrastructure, Ascend for Fintechs.

Bain Capital to buy Envestnet for $4.5 billion.

InvestFi forges partnership with HiFin Technology.

Small business finance

America First Credit Union turns to Loquat to enhance onboarding for small business members.

J.P. Morgan Payments selects Slope to provide clients access to a short-term financing solution, leads the fintech’s new round of $252 million in combined debt and equity.

9Spokes launches automated cashflow tool to help financial organizations elevate financial insights for SMBs.

Digital banking

Digital wealth management solutions company Quantifeed forges partnership with banking technology firm Thought Machine.

Digital banking solutions provider Alkami receives certification by J.D. Power for its mobile banking platform.

Banco Santander introduces a new digital service for customers with hearing challenges that translates the bank’s website into British Sign Language (BSL).

Flybits integrates with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform.

Trexis launches suite of digital banking solutions.

Anne Boden quits Starling Bank to focus on AI.

Brightfin launches healthy spending app to remove anxiety around money.

Insurtech

Digital insurance firm Lemonade launches new home insurance offering in the U.K.

Insuritas partners with Integral Group Solution (IGS) to integrate home services product into its embedded insurance platform.

Lending

Mexican fintech OCN secures $86 million in Series A funding.

Open banking

Salt Edge launches the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API, API V6.

Goldman Sachs’ alternatives unit is leading a consortium investing $540 million in a continuation vehicle created by VC firm NEA, which includes stakes in 11 of NEA’s companies, including Plaid.

Photo by Lukas

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ebankIT and Centrilogic Team Up to Deliver Secure Cloud-Based Solutions

ebankIT and Centrilogic Team Up to Deliver Secure Cloud-Based Solutions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ebankIT
  • Digital banking solutions provider ebankIT announced a partnership with public and private cloud services provider Centrilogic.
  • The partnership will help banks and other financial institutions leverage cloud services to accelerate their digital transformations.
  • ebankIT made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023.

A partnership between digital banking solutions provider ebankIT and multicloud services provider Centrilogic will bring secure, cloud-based solutions to financial institutions. ebankIT will combine its adaptable architecture and core-agnostic capabilities with Centrilogic’s expertise in private and public cloud services to help banks and other financial institutions innovate quickly and achieve their digital transformation goals.

“Centrilogic has extensive experience helping financial institutions achieve success through their digital transformation journeys by delivering reliable and secure cloud-based systems and infrastructure,” Centrilogic CEO Robert Offley explained. “Together with ebankIT, we look forward to empowering banks and credit unions with the foundation necessary to provide industry-leading digital experiences to their clients.”

Courtesy of the collaboration, ebankIT will leverage Centrilogic’s Managed Security Service. This technology provides comprehensive security monitoring to enhance data protection with capabilities such as security logging, vulnerability scanning, and intrusion detection systems.

“An efficient infrastructure management is essential for seamless operations,” ebankIT CEO Renato Oliveira said. “Centrilogic’s expertise will help ebankIT optimize infrastructure, enhance scalability, and improve overall performance.”

Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Centrilogic offers both private and public cloud services to mid-market businesses. The firm offers multicloud management, application innovation, data and analytics, and IT advisory to help businesses turn their technology platforms into “business-driving assets”. Centrilogic began 2024 with the appointment of Doug Tracy as the company’s President. The privately-held firm counts TriSpan LLP and Long Point Capital among its investors.

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateEurope in 2015, ebankIT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed a number of new features on its Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform, including a new tool to help banks better anticipate customer needs. More recently, the company has forged partnerships with financial institutions like Metropolitan Commercial Bank as well as with fintechs like fellow Finovate alums Finotta and Glia.

Founded in 2014, ebankIT is headquartered in Porto, Portugal.

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

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Conversations Platform Provider Eltropy Unveils Voice+

Conversations Platform Provider Eltropy Unveils Voice+
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Eltropy
  • Unified Conversations Platform company Eltropy has introduced a range of new enhancements to its offering.
  • The enhancements include Skill-Based Routing, new Lobby Management features, and a voice and contact center solution, Voice+
  • A Finovate alum for more than seven years, Eltropy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Unified Conversations platform provider Eltropy recently unveiled a set of new enhancements to its offering. The upgrades include Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0), new Lobby Management features, and a modern voice and contact center solution, Voice+.

“These enhancements reaffirm our commitment to quality and mark one of our most significant engineering efforts to date,” Eltropy CEO and Co-founder Ashish Garg said. “We’re excited about the opportunities these improvements will create for credit unions and community banks to elevate their overall member, customer, and employee experience in banking.”

Eltropy Voice+ brings voice functionality to digital channels such as text, video, and chat. Enhanced by an AI layer, Voice+ provides a unified contact center solution for voice, digital, and AI interactions, and gives agents a single interface to support greater efficiency. Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0) provides users with several features including the ability to prioritize high-value interactions, match agent proficiency based on language skills, and identify simultaneous channel handling via cross-channel concurrency. Lobby Management, first introduced earlier this year, now combines the best of digital banking with traditional branch services with efficient check-ins, queue management, branch traffic analytics, and resource planning tools.

Howie Meller, President and CEO of People First Federal Credit Union — which was among the early adopters of Eltropy’s Voice+ — praised the enhancements as a benefit for members and credit union employees alike. “Voice+ will make a big difference in how we serve our members,” Meller said. “Our agents can now use voice alongside text, video, co-browsing, and AI help. This means we can solve problems faster and better, all in one place. It’s a real improvement for our members.”

Eltropy made its first Finovate appearance in 2017, and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2022. In the years since then, the company has partnered with several community financial institutions such as Cyprus Credit Union, InRoads Credit Union, and Magnifi Financial, as well as fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry, Fiserv, and Alkami. In fact, Eltropy began the year celebrating its 600 customer milestone. The company opened the doors to its new headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May.

Photo by Alex Andrews

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Anodot Inks Strategic Partnership with YäRKEN

Anodot Inks Strategic Partnership with YäRKEN
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Anodot, Daily news
  • Cost management platform Anodot has inked a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform.
  • The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to help clients better manage cloud costs.
  • Virginia-based Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022.

Cloud-based cost management platform Anodot has forged a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform YäRKEN. The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to enable clients to manage cloud costs – both on-premises and in the private cloud – from a single interface.

“Anodot and YäRKEN are a perfect strategic match,” Anodot CEO and Co-founder David Drai said. “Our technology uses AI to help enterprises discover inefficiencies in their cloud spend, and YäRKEN’s platform helps those same organizations manage cloud spend across on-prem and cloud deployments.”

YäRKEN offers a tech cost management platform that gives users comprehensive cost optimization across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments to enhance profitability and reduce tech spend. YäRKEN’s platform features legacy platform TCO, Application TCO, IT planning, and Showback/Chargeback. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, YäRKEN announced earlier this year that the company’s solutions were now available on the AWS Marketplace. This news followed confirmation that YäRKEN had secured FinOps platform certification from the FinOps Foundation, underscoring the firm’s commitment to excellence and industry best practices. Ravi Kuppan is YäRKEN CEO and Co-founder.

For its part, Anodot is a cost management platform that identifies waste, tracks savings, and gives users transparency into both current and future costs. The platform enables users to facilitate strategic financial planning and management of multi-cloud, Kubernetes pods and SaaS tools. The solution also features a multi-tenant, multi-billing platform that optimizes costs across departments, teams, products, and unit economics.

“Anodot’s AI capabilities in cost optimization are a perfect match for YäRKEN, enabling us to cover the full spectrum for Anodot’s and YäRKEN’s existing client base,” Kuppan said. “Together, we extend the power of FinOps to include on-prem tech spend.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, Anodot demoed its payments monitoring tool that leverages AI to constantly monitor and correlate payments activity and business performance to identify revenue-critical issues and provide real-time actionable alerts.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

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Curinos and Adrenaline Forge Strategic Partnership

Curinos and Adrenaline Forge Strategic Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Curinos, Daily news

A partnership between data intelligence business Curinos and brand experience company Adrenaline will help banks and credit unions leverage data to make better decisions. The integration of Curinos’ Distribution Optimizer data solution into Adrenaline’s Connected Intelligence offering will also help financial institutions maximize the growth potential of their retail networks.

“We’re excited about incorporating Curinos’ leading-edge data into our already robust analytics offering and making more decision-making tools available to our clients, particularly smaller community banks and credit unions,” Adrenaline Managing Director of Retail Strategy Ben Hopper said. “Now, we’ll be able to quickly and efficiently gather the same data that big banks get and focus our team’s efforts more on translating the information into meaningful insights to drive strategy, for expansion and growth – something that all financial institutions need.”

Curinos’ Distribution Optimizer data tool integrates large volumes of both public bank and proprietary data into a consistent analytical framework that banks and credit unions can use to evaluate their networks and spot potential future opportunities. Adrenaline’s Connected Intelligence is an online platform that supports the access, analysis, visualization, storage, management, receipt, and distribution of market analysis and research. Integrating the technologies will help level the playing field between smaller and mid-market financial institutions and their larger rivals.

“The retail network in banking is undergoing massive transformation as traditional banking institutions are losing share to digital competitors,” Curinos Managing Director of Distribution and Sales Performance Andrew Hovet said. “No matter what their size or service area, these providers are looking for ways to amplify their impact through their branch networks. To maximize growth, they need to leverage analytics and smart strategies to make the best decisions for their networks. This partnership provides them with exactly that.”

Founded in 2021, Curinos made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 in San Francisco. At the conference, the New York-based company demoed its Amplero Personalization Optimizer, which uses machine learning and AI to enable bank marketing teams to deliver hyper-personalized, omnichannel experiences in minutes rather than months.

Earlier this month, Curinos introduced new Chief Technology and AI Officer Olly Downs. Downs joined the company as Chief Data Scientist in 2023. In April, the company announced a partnership with mortgage pricing technology firm Lender Price and reported that Achieva Credit Union ($2.8 billion in assets; 194,000+ members) had become the first customer to integrate Curinos’ Deposit Optimizer Essentials system. Deposit Optimizer Essentials enables credit unions and community banks to leverage data analytics to better manage member deposits and reach funding targets.

“As rates shift, we needed a robust, easy-to-navigate solution, enabling us to reach quickly and efficiently to changing market conditions,” Achieva Product Development Manager Veronica Schornheuser said, “We chose Curinos for the exceptional level of service we have received from them in the past and the intuitive nature of the Deposit Optimizer Essentials platform.”

Craig Woodward is Curinos’ CEO.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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