Alumni News

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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Bits of Stock Now Available in Q2’s Digital Banking Platform

Bits of Stock Now Available in Q2’s Digital Banking Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bits of Stock, Daily news, Q2
  • Q2 is leveraging Bits of Stock’s technology to help its financial institution clients reward their customers with fractional shares of stock.
  • The partnership was made possible through the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program, which makes it easy for fintechs to reach Q2’s financial institution clients.
  • Bits of Stock showcased its rewards platform alongside its client OMB Bank at FinovateFall last year.

Q2’s financial services clients have a new way to reward their consumers. That’s because fractional stock rewards platform Bits of Stock has teamed up with the digital banking and lending solutions company.

With Q2’s Digital Banking Platform, Q2’s financial services clients can offer their customers fractional stock when they redeem loyalty points or as a reward for certain activities like making a transaction with their debit or credit card, opening an account, applying for a loan, or making a deposit.

“We are pleased to welcome Bits of Stock to the Q2 Partner Accelerator program,” said Q2 Innovation Studio Managing Director Johnny Ola. “Financial Institutions now can offer fractional stocks as rewards on account spend and activity.”

Bits of Stock aims to help community financial institutions and credit unions engage their accountholders by rewarding them with fractional shares of their choice of stock. This enables younger users to build up their stock portfolios by microinvesting. In addition to today’s partnership with Q2, the New York-based company also has partnerships with Jack Henry, OMB Bank, Strata Credit Union, Gravy Stack, and others.

“This partnership is a value multiplier for customers, Q2, and Bits of Stock,” said Bits of Stock CEO Arash Asady. “Both companies are committed to finding innovative ways to empower financial services for consumers at scale.”

The partnership was made possible through the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program, an initiative within the Q2 Innovation Studio that allows financial services companies like Bits of Stock to leverage Q2’s SDK to integrate their technology into the Q2 Digital Banking Platform. The program not only creates an easy way for third party fintechs to integrate into Q2’s platform, but it also helps Q2’s bank clients leverage a wide range of new solutions that they can quickly deploy to their customers.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 claims more than 40% of the top 10 banks in the U.S. as customers. The company’s platform reaches one out of 10 digital banking customers in America. Q2 went public in 2014 and is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $2.43 billion.

Bits of Stock showcased its rewards platform alongside its client OMB Bank at FinovateFall last year. The two demoed OMB Bank’s Stock Rewards Checking Account that rewards cardholders in the fractional stock of their choice every time they swipe their card. Bits of Stock was founded in 2016 and has received $5.9 million in funding.

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CRIF Unveils its ESG Analytics Solution to Help FIs Access Sustainability Data

CRIF Unveils its ESG Analytics Solution to Help FIs Access Sustainability Data
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, CRIF, Daily news

European consumer and business credit data provider CRIF launched its ESG Analytics solution this week. The technology will give banks and financial institutions in the U.K. the ability to quickly and accurately assess the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) profiles of their U.K. and Europe-based suppliers, partners, and customers.

ESG Analytics draws on more than 130 key indicators from data sources in the U.K. and Europe. The technology analyzes information on issues such as water usage, waste production, emissions, and health and safety records, as well as modern slavery and inclusiveness. Financial institutions and banks will only need the U.K. or Europe-based business’ VAT or registration number in order to obtain an ESG score on the company. ESG Analytics also provides granular environmental, social and governance indicators – all available without requiring direct interaction with the company being reviewed.

“Considering the growing attention of the regulatory bodies toward ESG compliance in the EU but also in the U.K., ESG Analytics enables banks, insurers and corporates to understand the impact of businesses they work with today and helps to inform their decision-making in this ever-more important area of work,” CRIF Regional Director for the U.K. and Ireland Sara Costantini said. “And by working with regulatory bodies all around the world, we ensure that we remain at the forefront of regulation so we can pass this knowledge onto U.K. financial institutions.”

ESG Analytics will complement CRIF’s current ESG service, Synesgy, launched last fall. The solution enables businesses in the U.K. to assess the sustainability of their supply chains. Synesgy also helps companies enhance decision-making during the procurement process, avoid operational and reputational risk, and provide greater transparency with regard to ESG.

“Climate change is the defining issue of our time and every one of us has to play our part in protecting the planet for future generations,” Costantini said when Synesgy was launched in September. “For businesses this is no exception. As customers look to companies that are a force for good, it’s crucial that businesses understand both their own ESG performance and that of their entire supply chain.”

Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, CRIF made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014. In the years since, the company has grown into a major international credit bureau and business information provider with more than 10,500 FIs; 1,000+ insurance companies; 90,000+ business customers; and 1,000,000+ consumers in 50 countries using its services.

Photo by Jack Carey

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Pagaya Uses AI to Help U.S. Bank Customers Qualify for Unsecured Loans

Pagaya Uses AI to Help U.S. Bank Customers Qualify for Unsecured Loans
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, US Bank
  • U.S. Bank is using technology from Pagaya to help underwrite unsecured personal loans.
  • Pagaya’s AI model generates underwriting recommendations and completes a secondary credit decisioning review of borrowers who were originally rejected.
  • The partnership, which has the potential to expand U.S. Bank’s borrower pool, has already led to the approval of more than 2,000 personal loans over the past few months.

U.S. Bank announced today it has tapped alternative underwriting solutions company Pagaya to help more borrowers qualify for loans.

U.S. Bank initiated the partnership to help more clients access personal loans, which often pose more risk for lenders because they are unsecured. Pagaya leverages AI to complete a secondary credit decisioning review of borrowers who are initially rejected. If Pagaya approves the borrower, U.S. Bank will originate and service the loan.

Key to the solution is Pagaya’s AI model that analyzes thousands of data points to generate tailored underwriting recommendations. Because the model uses more data than a traditional regression model, U.S. Bank can more efficiently find applicants who are responsible borrowers, but who don’t fit into the bank’s FICO score cutoff.

As interest rates remain high, banks will continue to face challenges in managing their lending operations. When higher interest rates lead to increased borrowing costs, some customers are unable to afford previously attainable loans. Also contributing to the smaller borrower pool, banks have become more selective in their lending practices by focusing on borrowers with strong credit profiles and stable financial histories.

“We know that we have many clients who don’t fall within our traditional credit parameters,” said U.S. Bank Head of Consumer Lending Partnerships Mike Shepard. “By expanding access to responsible credit solutions, we are giving clients access to funds when they need it the most, through their existing and trusted banking relationship with us.”

Ultimately, using Pagaya helps U.S. Bank extend loans to more clients by delivering credit to individuals who would otherwise be rejected. Since U.S. Bank began working with Pagaya for underwriting a few months ago, the bank has been able to approve more than 2,000 clients for personal loans.

New York-based Pagaya was founded in 2016 and has raised $1.6 billion in combined debt and equity across ten funding rounds. The company went public via a SPAC merger in 2021 and currently trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker PGY with a market capitalization of $8.95 million.

“We share U.S. Bank’s commitment to increasing access to life-changing financial products and services,” said Pagaya Chief Growth Officer Leslie Gillin. “With Pagaya’s integrated and seamlessly embedded lending technology, our lending partners can expand and deepen their client relationships to a more diverse group of borrowers.”

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

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Ripple to Acquire Digital Asset Platform Standard Custody

Ripple to Acquire Digital Asset Platform Standard Custody
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Ripple
  • Decentralized finance company Ripple acquired Standard Custody & Trust Company, a firm that offers institutional-grade custody, escrow, and settlement platform for digital assets.
  • The California-based company says the purchase not only underscores its commitment to regulatory compliance, but that it will also help bolster its existing product offerings.
  • Terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Blockchain and crypto solutions company Ripple announced its fourth acquisition today. The company bought Standard Custody & Trust Company for an undisclosed amount.

Ripple said the move serves two purposes. First, it underscores the company’s “commitment to regulatory compliance,” and second, it will enable Ripple to strengthen its existing offerings and add new products to its lineup. Specifically, the California-based company has its eye on Standard Custody’s limited purpose trust charter and its money transmitter licenses. Both will complement Ripple’s existing portfolio of regulatory licenses.

“Ripple and Standard Custody are dedicated to enabling enterprises to reap the benefits of blockchain across a host of financial use cases building institutional-grade solutions to tokenize, store, move, and exchange value. By expanding our licenses portfolio and making smart acquisitions, Ripple is well-positioned to take advantage of the current market opportunities and further strengthen our crypto infrastructure solutions,” said Ripple President Monica Long. “We will continue to leverage our strong financial standing to expand our product offerings, support new initiatives on the product roadmap and serve a broader segment of customers.”

Owned by blockchain infrastructure company PolySign, Standard Custody was founded to create an institutional-grade custody, escrow, and settlement platform for digital assets. “Together with Ripple, we will further innovate and extend our leadership position in providing crypto infrastructure,” said Standard Custody CEO Jack McDonald.

Amid an environment of increased scrutiny of decentralized finance tools and digital assets, Ripple is looking to conduct its operations in the most transparent, regulatory compliant way. The company and its subsidiaries have acquired a New York BitLicense, nearly 40 U.S. money transmitter licenses, a Major Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and a Virtual Asset Service Provider registration with the Central Bank of Ireland.

Ripple was founded in 2012 and offers tools for global money transfers, CBDCs, and digital assets. Last year, the company acquired digital asset management solutions company Metaco for $250 million. Additionally, Ripple has recently partnered with HSBC, BBVA, and Zodia Custody, and launched its payments offering in Africa. The company supports live commercial custody offerings in 20 regulatory jurisdictions, and facilitates payments to 70 countries worldwide.

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Wealthify Taps ClearBank to Launch Instant Access Savings Account

Wealthify Taps ClearBank to Launch Instant Access Savings Account
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Wealthify

U.K.-based Wealthify has sought out ClearBank to serve as its embedded banking partner. Online saving and investing service Wealthify will leverage ClearBank’s banking license and API to launch its Instant Access Savings Account.

ClearBank’s API offers real-time clearing access, or instant money transfers. Wealthify’s new savings account, which tracks the Bank of England’s base rate, pays out 4.91% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate), which equals 4.80% gross at the time of publishing.

Wealthify hopes the new account will help support customers in today’s cost of living crisis. “The way people save has evolved rapidly over the last decade,” said Wealthify CEO Andy Russell. “People want more from their money, and choices during different economic conditions, and we’re thrilled to provide it to them. Wealthify’s savings account—powered by ClearBank—offers speedy setup, a great rate, and the ability to see savings and investments all in one place—a holistic view of your finances, at your fingertips.”

Originally founded in 2016, Wealthify demoed its online investing service at FinovateEurope 2017 and had raised $3.15 million (£2.5 million) before being acquired by financial services giant Aviva in 2020. Wealthify currently offers investment products– including stocks and shares ISAs, junior ISAs, self-invested personal pensions– and general investment accounts along with its savings accounts.

The company’s tech-forward approach leverages human intelligence. All of the investments are managed by a team of professionals. “For wealth management experts like Wealthify, our embedded banking offering is an efficient way for them to focus on quality customer service, without spending unnecessary time and resources on licenses or outsourced projects,” said ClearBank CEO Charles McManus.

ClearBank was founded in 2015 by former Worldpay CEO Nick Ogden. The UK-based company earned its banking license from the FCA in late 2016. While ClearBank itself does not lend, provide credit, or invest end users’ funds, the company does allow its banking-as-a-service clients to leverage its banking license to provide banking services. End customers benefit from $107,000 (£85,000) in deposit insurance from the FSCS.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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