Alumni News

Embedded Finance Platform Highnote Launches Instant Payments

Embedded Finance Platform Highnote Launches Instant Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Highnote
  • San Francisco, California-based embedded finance platform Highnote has launched its Instant Payments capability.
  • The new addition to its unified product platform will enable businesses to provide near real-time payments from Highnote-issued cards to eligible debit and prepaid cards.
  • Founded in 2021, Highnote made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

Embedded finance platform Highnote, which began the year with a $90 million Series B funding round led by Adams Street Partners, has announced the latest addition to its unified product platform. The company launched its Instant Payments capability this week to empower businesses to provide near real-time payouts from Highnote-issued cards to eligible external debit and prepaid cards.

Instant Payments enables businesses to push funds to debit and prepaid cards in the US. This not only gives users faster access to their earned wages, but also boosts liquidity and enhances payout operations. By embedding instant payments functionality directly into its product platform, Highnote believes its solution compares favorably to “stitched together” legacy infrastructures by giving users built-in access to seamless, intelligent money movement. Use cases for the technology include gig worker payouts, employee tips, insurance reimbursements, merchant settlements, refunds, and more.

“Instant Payments reflects both where our subscribers are today and where the market is headed,” Highnote CTO Kin Kee said. “By embedding on-demand disbursements directly into our issuing stack, we are helping businesses move money faster and more intelligently, all within a single, unified product experience.”

Highnote’s Instant Payments is supported by Mastercard’s portfolio of money transfer solutions, Mastercard Move, as well as by Visa Direct, and is currently available to all Highnote’s US subscribers.

Visa SVP for Money Movement North America Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore underscored the ability of the technology to help businesses “leverage Visa’s scale and robust security infrastructure to deliver faster and more reliable payouts.” Stefany Bello, SVP for Digital Partnerships, Fintech & Enablers for Mastercard, North America, highlighted the company’s “longstanding relationship with Highnote” and the importance of the collaboration in ensuring “businesses can securely access critical funds in near real-time to keep their operations up and running.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, Highnote made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. The company offers a unified, embedded finance platform, designed for modern card issuance, acquiring, credit, and real-time money movement. The platform features built-in ledgering, integrated payment capabilities and complete program management to help fintechs, vertical SaaS providers, and businesses launch their own embedded payments experiences.

Highnote has raised more than $140 million in funding courtesy of a Seed and Series A round in 2021 and a Series B round at the beginning of 2025. John MacIlwaine is Co-Founder and CEO.

Photo by Maria Orlova

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Crux Analytics and Bankwell Forge Strategic Partnership

Crux Analytics and Bankwell Forge Strategic Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Crux Analytics
  • Small business intelligence platform Crux Analytics has forged a strategic partnership with commercial bank Bankwell.
  • The partnership will integrate Crux Analytics’ automated platform into Bankwell’s business banking services to enable the bank to provide more personalized and proactive solutions.
  • Based in New York, Crux Analytics made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego.

A strategic partnership between small business intelligence platform Crux Analytics and commercial bank Bankwell will boost Bankwell’s ability to deliver personalized and proactive solutions and services to its business customers. The integration will enable Bankwell to leverage Crux Analytics’ automated platform that offers enhanced lead targeting and prioritization, as well as active relationship monitoring to spot potential business opportunities as they develop.

“Bankwell’s commitment to digital solutions that support personalized service makes them an ideal partner,” Crux Analytics Co-Founder and CEO Jacob Bennett said. “Our platform enhances the human element of banking by giving bankers tools to be a more effective partner to their business clients while helping to drive institutional growth.”

The partnership between Crux Analytics and Bankwell comes at a time when small businesses are expressing a “disconnect” between their stated level of trust in their bank, the actual services their bank offers, and some of the tools and solutions that small businesses need. In response to this challenge, recently noted in research by American Banker, Crux’s intelligence platform helps financial institutions use data to both recognize what their small business customers might need as well as provide those solutions in a personalized, tailored way.

“In today’s competitive landscape, businesses need a financial partner who understands their specific challenges and opportunities,” Bankwell Chief Innovation Officer Ryan Hildebrand said. “Crux’s technology augments our bankers’ expertise with powerful automation and business-specific intelligence, allowing them to spend more time delivering value to clients.”

Connecticut-based Bankwell is a commercial bank with more than $3 billion in assets. The institution was founded in 2002 and serves communities in Southern Connecticut from its headquarters in New Canaan. The bank’s holding company, Bankwell Financial Group, is a publicly traded firm on the NASDAQ—ticker symbol BWFG—and has a market capitalization of $300 million. Christopher Gruseke is Bankwell’s Chief Executive Officer.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in New York, Crux Analytics made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego. At the event, the company showed how its flagship platform sources, qualifies, and engages small business leads. The technology uses personalized outreach on behalf of the banker to remove many of the logistical burdens financial institutions face when forming and maintaining small business relationships.

Crux Analytics’ partnership announcement with Bankwell came at the same time that the firm reported that it would be a part of the incoming cohort for credit union collective CURQL’s accelerator program. Crux joins two fellow Finovate alums—Fingoal and Themis—as well as earned wage access specialist Reset and scam defense platform Charm Security.

Photo by Pixabay

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Signicat Acquires Digital ID Verification Company

Signicat Acquires Digital ID Verification Company
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Signicat
  • Signicat has acquired Dutch identity verification provider Inverid for an undisclosed amount.
  • Inverid’s flagship product, ReadID, uses NFC on smartphones to securely verify ID documents, making it ideal for high-assurance use cases like banking, government, and cross-border compliance.
  • The acquisition positions Signicat to meet growing regulatory and fraud prevention demands across Europe.

Fraud prevention solutions provider Signicat announced this week that it is bolstering its identity authentication and orchestration tools with the acquisition of the Netherlands-based Inverid.

Signicat is purchasing Inverid from its founders and the company’s majority shareholder, Main Capital, both of which have agreed to reinvest a portion of what they receive back into Signicat. This indicates that they believe in the potential of the combined company and want to retain a financial stake in its future.

Inverid (formerly known as InnoValor) was founded in 2013 and has a team of 75 developers working on solutions that increase digital trust. The company’s flagship solution, ReadID, helps organizations verify identity documents leveraging NFC on users’ smartphones. Inverid counts 50 clients, including Rabobank, the UK and Danish governments, and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex).

NFC-based document verification is one of the most accurate and tamper-resistant ways to validate identity documents. This is because it pulls data directly from the chip inside a passport or ID, rather than relying on OCR or a camera scan. This makes ReadID a powerful addition for high-assurance use cases like onboarding for banks, insurers, or government services.

Signicat will integrate the ReadID capabilities into its own set of solutions, which include identity proofing, trust orchestration, authentication, and electronic signing.

“By adding Inverid’s unique NFC-based solution to our platform, we can offer our customers the best possible document verification technology and unmatched identity solutions,” said Signicat CEO Asger Hattel. “This transaction demonstrates our commitment to remaining at the forefront of digital identity innovation, constantly striving to offer our customers still more effective tools to fight fraud while improving digitization journeys for their end users.”

Signicat has been in the identity industry for nearly two decades, having launched its identity verification tools in 2006. Today, the Norway-based company supports 240+ data sources to identify businesses and individuals. Signicat offers national eID and biometric verification, ID document scanning, data verification AML/KYC checks, and more. In 2019, Signicat was acquired by private equity investor Nordic Capital for an undisclosed amount.

“The acquisition of Inverid is an important step to further strengthen Signicat’s offering to deliver even better digital identity solutions to the market,” said Nordic Capital Advisors Managing Director Rolf Torsøe. “Building on a successful partnership between the companies and a strong cultural fit, this transaction will unlock immediate synergies. Nordic Capital is enthusiastic about supporting Signicat’s continued growth journey in Europe.”

This acquisition comes at a time when fraud is evolving rapidly, and governments and financial institutions across Europe are doubling down on strong identity verification. By integrating NFC-based document checks, Signicat is closing a key gap for high-assurance use cases like government onboarding and cross-border compliance. This is especially true in an era when regulations surrounding identity verification are shifting, creating a moving target for organizations.

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Clarity AI Acquires Sustainability Fintech ecolytiq

Clarity AI Acquires Sustainability Fintech ecolytiq
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ecolytiq, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Clarity AI has announced its acquisition of Sustainability-as-a-Service fintech ecolytiq. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition will add to Clarity AI’s suite of sustainability solutions and enhance the firm’s ability to embed sustainability intelligence into financial decision-making.
  • ecolytiq introduced itself to Finovate audiences in 2021 as part of our developers conference FinDEVr.

German Sustainability-as-a-Service innovator ecolytiq has agreed to be acquired by Clarity AI. The company helps financial institutions, public organizations, and individuals boost sustainability by calculating the environmental impacts of payment transactions. Terms of the acquisition were not immediately available. As part of the acquisition, Visa—which has had a longstanding strategic partnership with ecolytiq—has become an investor and strategic partner of Clarity AI.

“ecolytiq was founded with the idea that banking can be a powerful catalyst for climate action,” ecolytiq Co-Founder and Managing Director David Lais said. “The mission has always been to empower individuals to drive positive climate impact at scale through their everyday purchasing decisions. By joining forces with Clarity AI, we’re taking that vision to the next level—combining our behavioral science-based climate engagement technology with a world-class, AI-driven sustainability platform. Together, we’re accelerating the transition to a greener future—powered by the best available data and backed by purpose.”

The acquisition will bring additional climate engagement technology to Clarity AI’s platform, which is designed to embed sustainability intelligence into decision-making at scale, turning complex data into actionable insights that support responsible consumption and investment. ecolytiq’s technology leverages behavioral science to analyze transaction data in real-time and quantify environmental impacts. This information is delivered as high-impact sustainability content that has helped encourage climate-positive activity for millions of consumers and businesses throughout Europe and beyond.

Clarity AI Founder and CEO Rebeca Minguela called the acquisition “a declaration of intent,” noting that ecolytiq’s platform “aligns perfectly with our mission to embed sustainability intelligence into every decision—from multi-billion-dollar portfolios to everyday purchases. Together, we’re setting a new standard for how financial institutions engage customers with data that drives meaningful change.”

Recognized by Forrester as a Leading Provider in the field of sustainability intelligence, Clarity AI serves a network of clients managing a combined $70 trillion in assets. These clients include companies such as Invesco, Nordea, Lazard Asset Management, and Santander. From its inception in 2017, Clarity AI has put AI technology to work to support its suite of data solutions, analytics capabilities, and tools for portfolio management, corporate research and engagement, regulatory reporting, online banking, and more. Headquartered in New York, Clarity AI maintains offices in Europe and the Middle East, as well.

Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and founded in 2020, ecolytiq has teamed up with the likes of Mashreq, HSBC, and Piraeus—as well as with fellow Finovate alums like Tink and TSYS—to provide solutions that help individuals and organizations understand the impact of their transactions on the environment and make adjustments to lower their carbon footprint. A Certified B Corporation, ecolytiq has approximately 14,500 financial institution clients worldwide.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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Jumio and Prometeo Partner to Launch ID Verification Solution

Jumio and Prometeo Partner to Launch ID Verification Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Jumio
  • Jumio and Prometeo have partnered to streamline identity and bank account verification across Latin America.
  • The integration combines biometric authentication, AI, and Prometeo’s banking network to improve security, reduce operational time, and enhance user experience for fintechs and digital platforms.
  • The two are aiming to help organizations meet regulatory requirements while scaling to meet growing demand for secure, digital financial services.

Digital identity solutions company Jumio announced this week that it has partnered with fintech infrastructure company Prometeo to create a solution for identity authentication and bank account validation across Latin America.

Integrating Jumio’s identity verification platform with Prometeo’s account validation will provide Prometeo’s clients with access to a single solution that simplifies processes including onboarding and payment reconciliation while reducing operational times, preventing fraud, and delivering a better user experience.

“This alliance allows us to offer stronger bank account validation, a key element in any authentication process. We’re no longer just confirming whether an account exists — we’re also verifying who’s behind it, which redefines how fintechs and digital companies build fast and efficient onboarding processes,” said Prometeo Commercial Director Roberto Gaudelli. “We’re proud to reach this milestone, which adds an extra layer of security and trust for our clients.”

Founded in 2018, Prometeo’s financial infrastructure allows businesses to integrate seamlessly with the financial system in Latin America and the US. The company offers an embedded banking platform and multi-banking solution to offer fintechs, digital banks, payment gateways, online gaming platforms, and e-commerce companies automated access to financial information and transactions through a single API. Prometeo’s network consists of more than 1,500 connections to 1,200 financial institutions across 11 countries.

Jumio’s platform offers an identity intelligence platform that uses biometric authentication, automation, and data-driven insights to help its clients know and trust their online users. The company was founded in 2010 and came close to collapse when it filed for bankruptcy in 2016. After restructuring, Jumio sold to Centana Venture Partners, which acquired the company for $850,000 two months after its bankruptcy filing. Since its acquisition, Jumio has processed over one billion transactions from over 200 countries and territories.

“Connecting our best-in-class biometric verification technology with the largest banking network in Latin America not only delivers a more complete solution to the market, it also raises the bar for security and efficiency,” said Jumio Strategic Alliances Manager for Latin America Pilar Pereira. “This alliance integrates advanced AI capabilities, data analytics, and user behavior interpretation, elements that truly make a difference and allow us to offer a robust, intelligent solution designed to tackle one of the region’s biggest challenges.”

Prometeo and Jumio anticipate that their alliance will improve verification in Latin America. By joining forces, they’re aiming to make digital onboarding smoother and more secure by helping organizations verify a person’s identity and bank account at the same time. Their integrated, modular solution tackles real pain points like fraud prevention, compliance with local and global regulations, and it is scalable for businesses of all sizes.

Photo by Alexandre Lima

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Anonybit Partners with SmartUp to Introduce Digital Identity Solution for AI Agents

Anonybit Partners with SmartUp to Introduce Digital Identity Solution for AI Agents
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Anonybit
  • Decentralized biometrics solutions company Anonybit announced a partnership with AI-native no-code platform SmartUp.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, the two companies are introducing what they call the first privacy-preserving digital identity solution for AI agents.
  • Founded in 2018, Anonybit made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego.

Decentralized biometrics solutions provider Anonybit has teamed up with AI-native no-code platform SmartUp to launch what the two companies are calling the first privacy-preserving digital identity solution for AI agents. The solution brings secure, identity-bound agentic automation to enterprise workflows in payments, supply chain, and order management, and marks a pioneering implementation of agentic commerce secured by decentralized biometrics.

“Agentic commerce holds incredible promise for efficiency and scale, but without identity, it also introduces serious risks around trust, fraud, and control,” Anonybit Co-Founder and CEO Frances Zelazny said. “We’re proud to be the first to bring a real-world solution to market that delivers secure, ethical, and scalable agentic workflows. With SmartUp, we’re proving that identity-bound agents can operate in production, not just in theory. Our decentralized biometric cloud, data vault, and token management system form the missing identity layer the enterprise needs to build trust, ensure accountability, and future-proof agent-driven automation.”

The partnership comes at a time when use of agentic systems has grown dramatically. According to research by Gartner, by 2026, 80% of digital workers will rely on AI agents in order to complete routine customer service operations. McKinsey anticipates that agent-driven automation could be a major boon to productivity in the enterprise.

But as agentic AI does more of the work, who (or what) is truly operating on behalf of the user and where does accountability actually lie? Anonybit answers this question with a decentralized infrastructure that binds identity to agents: authenticating users, authorizing actions, and providing cryptographically secure identity tokens across the lifecycle of the agentic flow.

Anonybit’s decentralized biometric cloud supports all major biometric modalities (face, voice, finger, iris, and palm) for both authentication and step-up verification. The solution avoids storing biometric data in a single location, and leverages its decentralized data vault to protect the sensitive data collected by agents and ensure data residency, compliance, and quantum-resistant security. Anonybit also features an identity token management system that enables agents to operate on behalf of users with precise authorization that is auditable and works across any workflow—online, in-person, or automated. Via the partnership with SmartUp, identity-bound agents are authenticating business users and customers, using biometrics and privacy-preserving credentials to bind agents to these identities, authorizing specific tasks by way of scoped identity tokens and integrations with orchestration platforms, and providing real-time auditability and zero-trust across workflows.

“SmartUp is pioneering agentic automation in core business functions like order management and supply chain management, and our customers are already seeing the benefits of secure, identity-bound agents,” SmartUp Co-Founder and Country Manager Moishe Shemtov said. “With Anonybit’s identity infrastructure, we ensure our agents are not only autonomous, but accountable. This is the foundation for the next generation of secure enterprise AI.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Anonybit made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego. At the conference, the company showed how its technology integrates with Q2 and other digital banking platforms to enable passwordless login, step-up authentication, and account recovery with no requirement to download an app or use a dedicated device.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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AutoRek Unveils Reconciliation and Data Management Solution for Crypto, AutoRek Mion

AutoRek Unveils Reconciliation and Data Management Solution for Crypto, AutoRek Mion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, AutoRek
  • Automated reconciliation and financial controls company AutoRek recently unveiled its AutoRek Mion platform.
  • AutoRek Mion provides data management and reconciliation capabilities for cryptocurrency and digital asset operations at a time when adoption of these assets is growing rapidly.
  • Headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. Chris Livesey is CEO.

Automated reconciliation and financial control solutions provider AutoRek has launched its AutoRek Mion solution. The new platform provides data management and reconciliation capabilities for cryptocurrency and digital asset operations. AutoRek Mion works where traditional reconciliation systems often fail by processing up to 20 digits before and 18 digits after the decimal point to provide accuracy and scale.

“The financial services industry is at an inflection point with cryptocurrency adoption,” AutoRek CEO Chris Livesey said. “When our client came to us with their challenge, it became clear that this wasn’t just one client’s problem—it was an industry-wide issue that needed solving. Traditional reconciliation systems cannot handle the precision requirements of these assets. AutoRek Mion solves this fundamental problem, enabling institutions to maintain the same rigorous financial controls for crypto that they’ve relied on for traditional assets for decades.”

With a digital asset like Ethereum, for example, which operates at 18 decimal places, existing reconciliation systems are simply not precise enough. AutoRek Mion, in contrast, can handle both high precision numbers and very large numbers at high precision. This comes as new regulatory frameworks on cryptocurrencies and digital assets from the Financial Conduct Authority and the European Union are putting additional compliance pressures on financial institutions. Specifically, both the FCA’s discussion paper DP 23/4 and the EU’s Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) underscore the importance of proper reconciliation controls for digital assets on behalf of clients.

“The challenge wasn’t just about displaying more decimal places—we had to create custom code to overcome fundamental database technology limitations,” AutoRek Chief Product, Technology and Operations Officer Jim Sadler said. “The platform features specialized proprietary functions that ensure mathematical calculations can be processed at these new levels of precision, enabling accurate valuations, currency calculations, and data aggregation for digital assets.”

Headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London. At the conference, the company showed how its intuitive, configurable dashboards and machine intelligence monitor the reconciliations process—from categorizing outstanding transactions to highlighting escalation points—giving financial institutions more control and efficiency and less reliance on spreadsheets and manual processes. Founded in 1994, AutoRek partners with companies in banking, payments, asset management, insurance, and other sectors to help them leverage intelligent automation to better manage their data. The firm’s technology has been implemented by more than 100 companies.

Earlier this year, AutoRek announced a partnership with bank integration solutions provider AccessPay to help streamline the retrieval, reconciliation, and reporting of banking data. The company began the year with news that leading UK insurance, wealth, and retirement firm Aviva had selected AutoRek as its reconciliation and CASS tool.

Photo by Artur Kraft on Unsplash

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Tink and Chip Forge Open Banking Partnership

Tink and Chip Forge Open Banking Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Tink
  • Payment services and data enrichment platform Tink announced an open banking partnership with wealth app Chip.
  • Chip will leverage Tink’s Pay by Bank solution to enable its users to securely and seamlessly top up their saving and investing accounts.
  • Tink won Best of Show in its first two Finovate appearances in 2014 and 2017. The Stockholm, Sweden-based company most recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2019.

A new partnership between open banking pioneer Tink and Chip will bring open banking capabilities to the Chip app. Tink’s Pay by Bank solution will help Chip provide open-banking powered money transfers for its users when they seek to top up their savings and investment accounts on the company’s app. Pay by Bank reduces friction and costs, while enhancing the user experience with secure, seamless connectivity. Additionally, the partnership with Tink will give Chip users access to account insights in real-time, bringing greater visibility to the savings and investment process.

“It’s brilliant to partner with Tink, whose open banking solutions provide a fast and secure option for our users adding money to their savings on the Chip app,” Chip Co-Founder Alex Latham said. “We’re looking forward to working with the Tink team to promote these payment options, with a few more exciting updates coming soon.”

Tink’s Pay by Bank enables Chip customers to launch payments directly from their accounts on their banking apps. This reduces the amount of cumbersome and potentially error-prone manual entry and avoids the inconvenience of waiting for funds to clear when transferring money. The seamlessness of the process helps ensure that users complete their transactions before dropping off in frustration, and empowers Chip to offer its customers a variety of ways to fund their accounts.

“Chip has been on a tremendous growth journey in recent years, and we’re delighted to become a part of their success story by bringing more payment options to their user base,” Tink Head of Payments Ian Morrin said. “The Tink Chip partnership highlights how open banking APIs are powering smarter saving tools and reshaping the personal finance ecosystem.”

Chip offers an automatic savings and investing “wealth app” that enables users to build, manage, and grow their long-term wealth. The company’s Chip Cash ISA allows users to earn tax-free interest on their savings, with new customers earning 4.33% AER (annual equivalent rate) for the first 12 months. For investing, Chip customers can choose between a free plan that allows users to begin buying and selling funds, stocks, and shares with a platform fee of 0.25%, and the company’s ChipX account that offers a full curated range of funds with 0% platform fees. Founded in 2016, London-based Chip announced its first profitable quarter in Q4 2024, assets under administration of £5.2 billion, and 327,000 customers.

Tink won Best of Show in its first two appearances on the Finovate stage in 2014 and 2017. The company most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2019. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Tink makes its open banking solutions available in 20 markets around the world and boasts 13,000 connections to financial institutions. The company was acquired by Visa in 2021.

Photo by Jon Flobrant on Unsplash

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Zafin Unveils Transaction Enrichment to Transform Data into Actionable Insights

Zafin Unveils Transaction Enrichment to Transform Data into Actionable Insights
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Zafin

Enterprise banking software company Zafin has launched Transaction Enrichment. The new capability transforms raw transaction data into rich, contextual insights that will enable banks and other financial institutions to deliver more personalized experiences to their customers.

“Transaction Enrichment is foundational to delivering true personalization in banking and is an integral part of a long-term strategy to improve customer relationships and personalized service,” Zafin CEO Charbel Safadi said. “Our approach is more than just data enrichment. It enables banks to move beyond generic offers and engage and reward customers in ways that reflect their daily behaviors, financial goals, and full relationship with the bank.”

Transaction Enrichment is a key component in Zafin’s effort to provide financial institutions with the tools they need to boost customer loyalty and build a foundation for relationship banking. The capability transforms raw transaction records into contextualized information using 70 expense and income categories, merchant logos, clean merchant names, merchant website links, and more. The technology includes an adaptive accuracy engine that helps build confidence via machine learning models that adapt continuously to new inputs and patterns, as well as feedback loops that leverage human insight to ensure accuracy.

Zafin’s technology is currently deployed with UAE-based Commercial Bank International (CBI). The financial institution has used Transaction Enrichment as part of its strategy to provide a more intuitive and personalized digital banking experience for its customers. Transaction Enrichment facilitates online transaction categorization and provides spending insights to help the institution’s customers gain a more comprehensive understanding of their spending and greater control over their financial lives.

“Enhancing our transaction data has helped us deliver a clearer, more intuitive digital experience for our customers,” CBI Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer and Head of Ventures Giovanni Gavino Everduin said. “It goes beyond transparency—it’s about laying the foundation for deeper personalization and fostering a new kind of loyalty built on everyday behavior.”

Zafin made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York. In the years since then, the Vancouver, Canada-based fintech has partnered with many of the world’s top banks including ING, CIBC, HSBC, Wells Fargo, PNC, and ANZ. Zafin also works with regional and mid-market banks to help them increase speed to market, reduce operational complexities, become and remain compliant with relevant regulations, and strengthen customer engagement.

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

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InComm Partners with NCR Atleos on Cardless Cash ATMs

InComm Partners with NCR Atleos on Cardless Cash ATMs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, InComm, NCR Corporation
  • InComm Payments and NCR Atleos (dba Atleos) have forged a new partnership that will enable cardless cash pickup at more than 23,000 ATMs around the US.
  • The partnership will help InComm cover the “digital-to-physical” gap when it comes to self-service cash payments.
  • Founded in 1992, InComm made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2011. NCR Atleos was formed when NCR Corporation split into two entities (the other being NCR Voyix).

Want cash but don’t have your card? A new partnership between InComm Payments and NCR Atleos might have you covered.

InComm Payments has adopted Atleos’ ReadyCode API which will enable InComm Payments’ fintech and banking partners to offer cardless cash pickup at more than 23,000 ATMs around the country. The partnership offers a scaled ATM network and API solution in ReadyCode that will help InComm Payments bridge the “digital-to-physical” cash payments gap and allow consumers to make cardless cash withdrawals via a simple and secure code delivered through their preferred application. ReadyCode is currently enabled in ATMs in retail locations in more than 40 states in the US.

“Atleos’ ReadyCode API offering provides an additional modality and channel for our money movement partners and their consumers to access cash in a self-service manner at ATMs located at some of the nation’s most convenient retailers,” InComm Payments VP of Product John Houseal said. “This service expands our cash-out network in a new way, connecting our partners with differentiated access to serve their customers beyond the counter.”

Atlanta, Georgia-based InComm Payments made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2011. The company also participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr SiliconValley 2014 (in partnership with Cashtie). Founded in 1992, InComm today delivers end-to-end payment platforms that enable omnichannel connections and alternative payment options for companies in industries ranging from financial services and gifting to healthcare and human resources. Operating in more than 40 countries around the world, InComm has more than 525,000 points of retail distribution, processes more than $65 billion in annual transaction volume, and manages more than one billion cards a year.

“Enabling InComm Payments’ broad and deep program relationships with access to the ReadyCode solution will provide more flexibility for consumers to transact where and how they want, without the need for a card,” Atleos SVP, Global Network Solutions, Ben Bregman said. “This relationship will also provide additional use cases to drive utilization of the ATM for increasingly digital-first providers beyond traditional financial institutions, and continue to fulfill on our promise to our retail partners to drive incremental foot traffic to their stores.”

Formed in 2023 when NCR Corporation split into two entities (the other being NCR Voyix), NCR Atleos offers self-service financial access through one of the largest independently-owned ATM networks in the US. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, the company helps boost operational efficiency for financial institutions, increase footfall for retailers, and provide consumers with the kind of digital-first, self-service financial experiences that are secure and convenient. Atleos is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, under the ticker NATL, and has a market capitalization of $2 billion. Tim Oliver is President and Chief Executive Officer.

Photo by Stephen Cook on Unsplash

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Bud Financial Inks Partnership with Fruition

Bud Financial Inks Partnership with Fruition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bud
  • Financial empowerment platform Fruition announced a partnership with transaction enrichment and insights and analytics company Bud Financial.
  • The collaboration will enable Fruition to provide its members with enriched transaction data to help them budget better and make more insightful financial decisions.
  • Bud Financial made its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. The company is headquartered in London.

Financial empowerment platform Fruition has teamed up with transaction enrichment and insights and analytics company Bud Financial to bring enhanced, personalized financial experiences to customers.

“This collaboration brings Fruition’s members control over their financial futures by leveraging AI-driven insights, relevant education and expert guidance, all underpinned by Bud’s market-leading financial models,” Bud CEO and Co-Founder Edward Maslaveckas said. “Fruition’s commitment to providing smarter financial guidance makes them the perfect first client of our exciting Intelligent Search capability. We can’t wait to see how Intelligent Search helps Fruition’s members to take control of their financial data and smash their financial goals.”

Fruition will leverage a pair of Bud Financial solutions—Enrich and Engage—to provide its members with enriched transaction data and intelligent, personalized financial insights to support more informed financial decision-making. Enrich is Bud’s transaction enrichment platform that enables companies to convert difficult-to-understand customer transactional data into easier-to-recognize transactions with accurate categorization and identifiable merchant names.

Engage offers “next generation” personal financial management that puts transaction data to work in personalizing the digital banking experience. The solution features an AI-powered transaction search feature—Intelligent Search—that enables customers to interact with their bank using natural language. The feature is built on AI-powered transaction intelligence and helps reduce contact center queries about unclear or disputed transactions.

Fruition’s Folio offering will use enriched transaction data from Bud to help members secure a comprehensive overview of their finances in a single interface—making budgeting easier. The integration will also enable Folio to deliver customized, targeted notifications to members based on their transaction data. Fruition members will be able to share their data in mentoring sessions which will enable mentors to personalize financial education and ensure that the guidance is both actionable and appropriate for the member’s financial circumstances.

“On average, we’re seeing that 42.6% of all transactions are being enriched more accurately with Bud than with our previous enrichment provider,” Fruition VP of Engineering Elliott Beaty said. “Our partnership with Bud helps us deliver on our promise of financial understanding and actionable insights. Better data for our members means more accurate understanding of their financial situation.”

A personal finance management platform that uses financial data to provide actionable insights, educational resources, and mentorships for consumers and employees, Fruition rebranded from Mentoro in October 2024. Last month, the company launched its Debt Paydown tool, which lies within Folio. The solution allows members to include all of their debts in a personalized debt repayment plan, visualize future repayment strategies, and quantify the interest potentially saved via the paydown plan.

Headquartered in London and founded in 2015, Bud Financial made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 and returned to the Finovate stage again last fall. At the conference, the company demoed its Drive solution which democratizes access to enriched data and actionable insights via AI-powered analysis and a Gen AI-based interface.

Photo by Chris Hardy on Unsplash

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Thought Machine Inks Partnership with DXC Technology

Thought Machine Inks Partnership with DXC Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Thought Machine
  • Banking technology company Thought Machine has teamed up with technology services provider DXC Technology.
  • The two companies are offering a joint solution that combines DXC Technology’s industry expertise with Thought Machine’s core banking platform, Vault Core, and payments processing platform, Vault Payments.
  • London-based Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018.

A newly available joint solution from banking technology company Thought Machine and technology services provider DXC Technology will help small and medium-sized banks initiate and complete their digital transformations faster. The solution combines DXC Technology’s industry expertise and full-service management with Thought Machine’s core banking technology platform, Vault Core, and its payments processing platform, Vault Payments.

“This collaboration underscores our dedication to leveraging next-generation technology to enable banks to modernize faster and deliver exceptional financial products,” Thought Machine Global Head of Partnerships Randy McFarlane said. “With modern core systems, banks are empowered to develop more innovative, customer-centric services with speed and ease. We are excited to work with DXC to accelerate banking transformation and build the future of financial services globally.”

Vault Core is Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform. As a cloud-agnostic solution, Vault Core gives banks the flexibility they need to select their preferred hosting option and provider. Institutions can leverage the technology to replicate their current back book of products, as well as create new financial products such as savings accounts, credit cards, loans, and mortgages. Vault Payments is the firm’s cloud-native payments processing platform and enables banks to work with all payment types regardless of method, scheme, or region. The technology embeds new and existing financial products into the payments platform, and gives users control over the entire payment life cycle.

The joint solution is designed to help smaller and midsized banks and financial institutions compete with their larger, global rivals who are able to build innovative, proprietary platforms in-house. Given the obstacles of complex vendor ecosystems and legacy infrastructures, the new offering from Thought Machine and DXC provides smaller and midsized bank with a one-stop managed service offering the technology, tools, and human talent to help them modernize legacy core banking systems, get new digital products to market faster, and ensure operational efficiency and compliance.

“With more than 45 years of experience in banking operations, DXC is deeply committed to delivering best-in-class digital solutions to the world’s leading financial institutions,” DXC Technology President, Global Infrastructure Services, Chris Drumgoole said. “Our joint solution with Thought Machine provides a comprehensive, future-ready path to modernization—enabling banks to accelerate innovation, improve operational efficiency, and reduce risk.”

Virginia-based DXC Technology partners with companies around the world to help them modernize IT systems, optimize data architectures, and ensure both security and scalability across public, private, and hybrid clouds. With more than 200 technology partners, DXC was created in 2017 in the wake of the merger between Computer Sciences Corporation and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Enterprise Services business.

Headquartered in London, UK, Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018. In the years since then, the company has grown into a leading core banking and payments technology provider for banks and financial institutions around the world, including Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, Lunar, Atom bank, and more.

Photo by David Besh

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