Alumni News

Travelex Selects NCR Atleos to Revamp ATMs

Travelex Selects NCR Atleos to Revamp ATMs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, NCR Corporation
  • Travelex is partnering with NCR Atleos to upgrade 600 ATMs across eight countries.
  • Travelex will replace its old machines with NCR Atleos’ SelfServ ATMs equipped with advanced software and Vision, a SaaS monitoring tool.
  • NCR Atleos will also facilitate Click and Collect functionality, which allows U.K. customers to pre-order currency online for fast, in-person pick-up at select airport ATMs.

Foreign exchange and travel services company Travelex announced today it has selected NCR Atleos to replace a set of its ATMs. The new machines will replace Travelex’s old ones in locations across the U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Australia, and New Zealand.

In an effort to refresh its international ATMs, the U.K.-based company is swapping out the hardware and software of its 600 ATMs across eight countries. In their place, Travelex will put NCR Atleos’ SelfServ ATMs loaded with the company’s software and Vision, a SaaS monitoring tool.

“Travelex is dedicated to simplifying our customers’ access to international money, however and whenever they choose, and our expanded partnership with Atleos directly supports this mission,” said Travelex Chief Customer Officer Simon Jackson. “By relying on the experts at NCR Atleos for the implementation of modern ATM technology, we gain efficiencies and streamlined operations while adding value for our customers, ensuring travellers across the globe have reliable, secure and easy access to their cash.”

The new ATMs will not only be able to support domestic currency transactions, but they will also offer enhanced capabilities that leverage the machines’ touch screens and barcode readers. Some areas will also offer ATMs with contactless readers, which enable customers to make withdraws by tapping a card or an NFC-enabled phone or smartwatch.

The SelfServ ATM also supports Travelex’s Click and Collect, a function to help U.K. customers pre-order foreign currency online at a favorable rate, then pick it up at one of 50 of Travelex’s airport ATM locations in the U.K. “We are making it possible for travelers to access currency exchange via self-service,” explained NCR Atleos Executive Vice President, Global Sales Diego Navarrete. “We are proud to support Travelex in enhancing their ATM infrastructure, ultimately continuing to expand financial access for consumers around the world.”

This is not the first time the two have teamed up. NCR Atleos has powered Travelex ATMs in other markets in the past. NCR Atleos previously supported Travelex ATMs in other geographies at airports and travel hubs.

Founded as NCR Corporation in 1881, the firm spun out NCR Atleos in October of 2023 to run as an independent company focused on ATMs. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, NCR Atleos employs 20,000 people across the globe to facilitate hardware, software, and service for line of ATM-related technology.

Travelex’s integration of features like contactless transactions, touch screens, and barcode readers will set a new standard for ATMs. This reflects the industry’s focus on both improving efficiency and enhancing the customer experience.

Photo by Te lensFix

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Alkami Teams Up with Kemba Credit Union

Alkami Teams Up with Kemba Credit Union
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology, Alumni News
  • Digital banking solutions provider Alkami Technology has teamed up with Ohio-based credit union, Kemba Credit Union.
  • Via the partnership, the financial institution will launch a new digital banking solution for its retail and business members.
  • One of Finovate’s earliest alums, Texas-based Alkami Technology made its Finovate debut as iThryv in 2009.

Digital banking solutions provider Alkami Technology announced a partnership with Cincinnati, Ohio-based Kemba Credit Union. The institution, founded in 1934, will leverage its relationship with Alkami to launch a new digital banking solution for its retail and business members. The fintech’s digital banking platform will give Kemba Credit Union members intuitive self-service tools, advanced fraud prevention, and a highly personalized experience.

“Kemba’s successful launch and transition to the Alkami Platform is indicative of a strong partnership to come and we look forward to providing their retail and business members with exceptional digital banking resources,” Alkami VP of Client Experience Group Services, Shannon Marshburn said.

The new platform will empower Kemba Credit Union to boost growth in deposit accounts, create new cross-sell opportunities, and foster greater loyalty. In addition to the platform itself, the credit union will benefit from access to Alkami’s software development kit (SDK) and APIs to further customize its digital banking platform to meet member needs and ensure connectivity to functionality throughout the fintech ecosystem.

“We pride ourselves in providing our members with a high-quality, personalized banking experience that will further our mission to enrich their financial lives,” Kemba Credit Union President and CEO Dan Sutton said. “By partnering with Alkami, we are thrilled to expand that experience through a new digital platform. The launch and implementation of Alkami’s Platform exceeded our expectations, and we are impressed with the speed, look, and feel of the mobile application.”

Kemba Credit Union serves more than 130,000 members in Southwest Ohio, Southeast Indiana, and Northern Kentucky. The institution transitioned to a new online and mobile banking platform earlier this year, and recently announced that it was offering the Ohio Homebuyer Plus Program. This program offers a specialized tax-advantaged savings account with above-market interest rates to support Ohioans looking to purchase a home. Named to Cincinnati.com/The Enquirer’s Top Work Places roster for the past six years in a row, Kemba Credit Union has more than $1.7 billion in assets.

Alkami Technology made its Finovate debut in 2009 as iThryv. In the years since then, the Texas-based fintech has helped more than 800 financial institutions transform their digital banking offerings to meet growth goals, optimize the customer and member experience, and ensure regulatory compliance. Firms using Alkami’s banking platform for at least five years have experienced 25% higher loan growth, 19% higher revenue growth, and 11% higher core deposit growth relative to their peers.

Earlier this month, Alkami announced that it had been listed as the top digital banking provider to the credit union market based on the total number of enrolled mobile users. The recognition comes courtesy of FI Navigator, a U.S. banking vertical data and analytics company. The announcement follows news that Alkami was named “Best Banking App” in October in Tearsheet’s The Big Bank Theory Awards.

In October, Alkami teamed up a pair of regional financial institutions: Connecticut-based Nutmeg State Financial Credit Union and Montana-based Intrepid Credit Union.

Photo by Dave Morgan

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Dynamic Planner Partners with Salesforce

Dynamic Planner Partners with Salesforce
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Dynamic Planner
  • U.K.-based financial planning and advice platform Dynamic Planner has teamed up with Salesforce.
  • The partnership will make Dynamic Planner available on the Salesforce AppExchange and is the company’s second CRM partnership in as many months.
  • Dynamic Planner made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022 in London.

Risk-based financial planning system Dynamic Planner has announced a new partnership with Salesforce. Now launched on the Salesforce AppExchange, Dynamic Planner will give Salesforce customers access to an enhanced and engaging digital financial planning experience.

“This collaboration provides financial planning and wealth management firms who use Salesforce with the ability to underpin their entire financial planning process with Dynamic Planner,” company Chief Revenue Officer Yasmina Siadatan said. “It will boost productivity gains and efficiencies, whilst delivering seamless and engaging wealth and financial planning for Salesforce customers. We look forward to working with Salesforce to provide an enhanced experience for firms.”

Founded in 2004, Dynamic Planner offers a digital financial planning and advice platform that helps investment advice firms scale their businesses, boost capacity, and better engage clients with mapped investment solutions and digital experiences. Dynamic Planner enables advisers to profile clients, conduct annual reviews, and perform cash flow planning with increased efficiency and speed. The company notes that 80% of annual reviews conducted via Dynamic Planner are completed in 35 minutes or less, with 20% of these reviews completed in less than five minutes. More than 40% of U.K. investment advice firms and more than 150 asset managers use Dynamic Planner’s technology.

Dynamic Planner’s partnership with Salesforce comes a month after the platform announced a CRM integration with Adviser Cloud. The new integration will make it easier for advisers to transfer client records efficiently and securely between Dynamic Planner and Adviser Cloud, saving time and lowering the risk of manual errors during rekeying of information. Integrations such as these are an important way to boost efficiency and lower operational costs for financial planning firms and their client.

“Adviser Cloud has always focused on providing intuitive, user-friendly software for financial advisers, and this integration continues that mission by eliminating data rekeying and enhancing workflows,” Adviser Cloud Tech Lead Ewan Humphreys said.

Headquartered in the U.K., Dynamic Planner made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its end-to-end, risk-based financial planning system that combines intuitive technology with a trusted, independent asset risk model. Dynamic Planner uses more than 2,400 covariance correlations to accurately assess the risk of tens of thousands of investments and client portfolios every day. Ben Goss is CEO.

Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom

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LendSaaS Taps Ocrolus for AI-Driven Document Analysis

LendSaaS Taps Ocrolus for AI-Driven Document Analysis
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ocrolus
  • Alternative lending platform LendSaaS now integrates Ocrolus’ AI-powered document automation and fraud detection.
  • Through the partnership, LendSaaS customers gain access to Ocrolus’ automated document review, including bank statement analysis, which helps lenders make faster, more confident funding decisions.
  • The integration with Ocrolus will allow LendSaaS clients to more efficiently leverage data in everything from processing lending applications to accelerating loan origination and facilitating servicing processes.

Alternative lending origination and servicing software provider LendSaaS has teamed up with AI-powered document automation and analysis company Ocrolus this week. The strategic partnership will offer LendSaaS customers access to Ocrolus’ industry-leading document analysis, cash flow analytics, and fraud detection directly through the LendSaaS platform.

“LendSaaS is one of the leading platforms in MCA origination and servicing,” said Ocrolus CEO Sam Bobley. “Thanks to our new partnership, Ocrolus is now an embedded integration available within LendSaaS, allowing customers to achieve end-to-end automation.”

LendSaaS helps lending businesses succeed by offering tools to support everything from loan origination to servicing. The New York-based company offers daily collections through ACH and credit card processors, public data and credit searching, as well as merchant interviews for underwriting, detailed reporting, daily collections, and more. Founded in 2014, LendSaaS has funded $6 billion and processes more than $16 million in average daily ACH volume.

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

Under today’s partnership, LendSaaS customers will have access to Ocrolus’ technology that will enable them to automate all tasks, such as reviewing documents, including reviewing bank statements and processing independent sales organization (ISO) applications. LendSaaS expects the move will help its customers more efficiently offer businesses with capital.

“Businesses seeking working capital often opt for the first offer they receive. To compete in this fast-paced market, our customers need to be able to make quick and confident financial decisions,” said LendSaaS Owner and Founder Josh Carcione. “By partnering with Ocrolus, we’re working to eliminate the need for manual document review by providing digital access to high-quality data so our customers can get a competitive edge through quick, confident financial decision making.”

Photo by Agence Olloweb on Unsplash

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API Platform Speakeasy Raises $15 Million in Series A Funding

API Platform Speakeasy Raises $15 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Speakeasy
  • API platform Speakeasy has secured $15 million in Series A funding.
  • The company will use the capital to expand its product offerings, accelerate its roadmap, and hire additional talent.
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, California. Speakeasy made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York this year,

In a round led by FPV Ventures, API platform Speakeasy has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Also participating in the investment were Google Ventures (GV) and Quiet Capital. Speakeasy noted that it plans to use the funding to expand its product offerings, accelerate its roadmap, and grow its team.

“Building a really great … modern API is very much undervalued and underestimated at companies,” Speakeasy CEO Sagar Batchu said in a statement on LinkedIn. “Everyone wants to be Stripe or Twilio or GitHub in terms of quality, but to get to that status … takes huge amounts of effort.”

Founded in 2022, Speakeasy offers an API platform designed to give developers the tools they need to build quality, reliable APIs. Concerned over the fact that growing API use among businesses was outpacing the ability of developers to provide them, Speakeasy looks to close the gap with a platform that handles the more cumbersome aspects of API development, freeing developers to focus on higher-order tasks like refining business logic.

Developers can use their favorite API framework to build APIs, and Speakeasy will help ensure APIs adhere to both industry and internal best practices. Speakeasy’s platform automates API testing to avoid shipping unintentional breaking changes, and also automatically generates the SDKs to make API integration easier.

“The Speakeasy team’s past experience building enterprise APIs has given them profound insight into, and empathy for, the struggles engineering teams are facing,” FPV Ventures Managing Partner Wesley Chan said. “They are building a platform that will not only address existing inefficiencies in API development but anticipates future challenges in the ecosystem.”

Speakeasy made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its technology enables financial institutions to build robust, well-managed, easy-to-use APIs. With Speakeasy’s API platform, technology teams can automate the creation and maintenance of API documentation and client SDKs that facilitate rapid and seamless API integration. Customers using the platform have been able to boost API user adoption, reduce time-to-integration, and save significant engineering costs. In 2024, Speakeasy noted that nearly 3,000 users have generated 7,250 SDKs.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Speakeasy includes fellow Finovate alums Apex Fintech Solutions and Apiture, as well as API companies Kong, Codat, and Shippo, among its customers.

Photo by mali maeder

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Wise to Power Cross-Border Payments for Standard Chartered

Wise to Power Cross-Border Payments for Standard Chartered
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, TransferWise, Wise

Global bank Standard Chartered unveiled this week that it has teamed up with cross-border payments fintech Wise (formerly TransferWise). The bank has selected Wise Platform, Wise’s global payments infrastructure for banks, to power international payments for SC Remit, Standard Chartered’s cross-border payment service.

Wise will facilitate fund transfers for SC Remit customers in Asia and the Middle East. Users will be able to send money in 21 currencies– including USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, SGD, HKD, and JPY. Wise will send the funds in seconds using its transparent, low-fee pricing model.

“We’re continually improving how we deliver exceptional banking experiences for our clients,” said Standard Chartered Global Head, Wealth Solutions, Deposits and Mortgages, and Chief Client Officer Samir Subberwal. “We chose to partner with Wise Platform due to their extensive currency coverage and stellar cross-border payments experience they are known for. This collaboration is a key step in enhancing our international payment services as we offer an even more seamless, faster, and efficient digital global payments experience to our clients.”

Standard Chartered said that the service will be available for SC Remit customers “in the coming quarters.” The bank also plans to expand the service to include more currencies, as well as into more markets.

Wise has been facilitating cross-border money transfers since it was founded in 2011. Today, in addition to its transparent, direct-to-consumer money transfer capabilities, Wise also offers a multi-currency account that allows users to save and hold funds in 50 different currencies, and send and receive money in 22 currencies. Wise holds more than 65 payment licenses, as well as six direct connections to payment systems.

Wise Platform, the infrastructure that Standard Chartered is leveraging, offers an API that allows banks and fintechs to embed cross-border payments capabilities into their existing website or app, allowing their customers to transfer 40+ currencies in 160+ countries. The majority (63%) of Wise’s cross-border payments are completed in under 20 seconds, while 95% take less than 24 hours. The U.K.-based company processes $154 billion (£118 billion) annually. Among Wise Platform’s customers are Monzo, N26, deel, and Shinhan Bank.

The topic of cross-border payments has accelerated in recent months, with traditional financial institutions and fintechs recognizing the need to compete by offering low-cost, rapid transactions across the globe. The rise of e-commerce, combined with new needs to pay remote workers, has led to a refreshed demand for cheaper, faster international payments. Today’s digital world has prompted consumers and businesses to expect speed and transparency when transacting, and banks are under new pressure to modernize their cross-border payment services to meet those needs.

Another factor that has brought cross-border transactions into the spotlight this year is the rise in stablecoin usage. As stablecoins become more mainstream and integrated into traditional payments infrastructure, they offer an international funds transfer solution that combines speed, cost-effectiveness, and digital accessibility.

Wise, however, currently does not use stablecoins and has not implemented blockchain technology into its operations. Instead, Wise has established a highly efficient, transparent, and compliant platform that meets compliance standards worldwide. It is unlikely that Wise will seek to leverage stablecoins any time soon, though, as adding stablecoins to its strategy could introduce new regulatory and operational complexities, which could potentially outweigh any benefits.

Photo courtesy Standard Chartered

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Agent IQ Partners with Narmi

Agent IQ Partners with Narmi
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Agent IQ, Alumni News, Daily news
  • Digital relationship banking innovator Agent IQ has teamed up with digital banking solutions provider Narmi.
  • The partnership will integrate Agent IQ’s Lynq banking platform with Narmi’s digital banking solutions to enable community banks and credit unions to offer enhanced, more personalized services.
  • Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Agent IQ most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.

A newly announced strategic partnership between digital relationship banking firm Agent IQ and digital banking solutions provider Narmi will help both community banks and credit unions enhance customer engagement across digital channels.

“By integrating our Lynq relationship banking platform with Narmi’s digital banking solutions, we’re equipping banks and credit unions with tools to offer a vastly improved customer experience while also empowering them to be more efficient,” Agent IQ Co-founder and CEO Slaven Bilac said.

Agent IQ specializes in digital relationship banking, providing personalization and customer engagement solutions that help banks and credit unions enhance customer relationships. The firm’s Lynq platform empowers financial institutions to provide proactive guidance and real-time insights to customers by combining human emotion and empathy with the efficiency of computer intelligence and AI. Narmi offers a digital banking platform designed to help community banks and credit unions provide their customers and members with the same kind of digital experience as their larger rivals. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in New York, Narmi boasts that its customers have seen account growth of as much as 3x in less than 30 days and deposit growth of 4x in as little as 90 days.

In a statement, the companies highlighted two major benefits of the partnership. These benefits include seamless digital banking functionality with AI personalization to provide customers with tailored support and consistent engagement, whether opening an account or using mobile banking. Another benefit of the partnership is the ability to enhance customer relationships by allowing customers to make digital transactions while accessing personal guidance from a dedicated banker — all without having to travel to a branch.

“Agent IQ is a perfect complement to Narmi’s digital banking and account opening products,” Narmi SVP of Operations Angela Gentry Yue said. “Together, we’re providing financial institutions with a comprehensive suite of tools that significantly enhance digital engagement and operational efficiency. This collaboration marks a major advancement in our mission to drive innovation in the banking industry.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Agent IQ made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019. The company most recently appeared before Finovate audiences at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. At the conference, Agent IQ demoed its Lynq platform that enables customers to choose a personal banker to help them manage all their financial needs across any digital channel. Lynq leverages built-in augmented intelligence to enable personal bankers to better engage customers and build relationships in the digital space that are as personalized as relationships in a physical branch.

Agent IQ began the year announcing an extension of its integration partnership with fellow Finovate alum Q2. The extension empowers Q2’s sales organization to resell Agent IQ to Q2’s bank and credit union customers. Also in January, the company announced a collaboration with another fellow Finovate alum, ebankIT. Here, the partnership combines ebankIT’s self-service digital channels with Agent IQ’s personal digital engagement platform. “We wish to redefine the digital banking experience, make it more human, and set new benchmarks for customer engagement and satisfaction,” ebankIT CEO Renato Oliveira said when the collaboration was announced.

More recently, Agent IQ made fintech headlines via its work with community banks and credit unions. In July, Stanford Federal Credit Union won the Q2 Innovation Award for the launch of its digital communications channel powered by Agent IQ. The following month, Agent IQ announced a new partnership with the Bank of Utah. The independent community bank leveraged Agent IQ’s Lynq digital engagement platform to launch its new chat solution.

Photo by nagaraju gajula

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Quoroom Merges with Investory.io

Quoroom Merges with Investory.io
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Quoroom
  • Investment management platform Quoroom has merged with portfolio management software company Investory.io.
  • The merger will help streamline the capital-raising process for venture capital funds, angel syndicates, and startup founders.
  • Headquartered in London, Quoroom made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.

It’s been M&A week here on the Finovate blog! Over the past few days, we’ve highlighted merger and acquisition activity from a pair of alums: nCino’s purchase of Full Circl and Array’s acquisition of fellow Finovate alum, Payitoff. For those looking for a silver lining among the VC funding slowdown in fintech, M&A activity like this might do the trick.

Here’s another fintech M&A announcement that almost slipped beneath our radar. Quoroom, an investment management platform that provides end-to-end fundraising and cap table management software for private companies, has merged with Investory.io.

Investory.io provides portfolio management software that facilitates structured and data-driven communication between investors and startups. With more than 3,000 company accounts and 6,500 investor accounts (including more than 1,000 institutional investors and 4,000 angel investors) on its platform, Investory.io leverages data and AI to enable data-driven portfolio decision-making for investors and simplified investor reporting for startups.

Quoroom’s technology provides an investment workflow that covers every aspect of a company’s lifecycle, from building an investor pipeline to legal completion. By giving investors a singular “source of truth” on deal flow and the metrics of portfolio companies, Quoroom helps companies stand out from the crowd and raise capital faster.

The strategic merger between Quoroom and Investory.io will help unify a fragmented market for venture capital infrastructure and analytics. Quoroom users will be able to leverage the integrated functionality of Investory.io to manage investor updates and cap tables in one place. At the same time, angel syndicates and venture capital funds will benefit from being able to manage fundraising, SPVs, portfolios, and LP reporting from within a single investment management platform.

“With this acquisition, Quoroom users can now manage cap tables, investor relations, and fundraising activities all in one place, making the process more efficient and effective,” the company noted on its LinkedIn page earlier this month when the deal was first announced. Quoroom added separately that it plans to offer “enhanced functionalities in the coming months” to further streamline investment management and make investor relations operations more efficient.

Headquartered in London and founded in 2018, Quoroom made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company demoed its latest suite of investor relations tools, including enhanced investment recommendations, the ability to automatically visualize company financial metrics, and investor updates to keep shareholders informed during funding rounds.

We interviewed Quoroom CEO and CoFounder Ulyana Shtybel last summer as part of our Finovate Global interview series.

Photo by energepic.com

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nCino Agrees to Acquire FullCircl

nCino Agrees to Acquire FullCircl
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Mergers & Acquisitions, nCino
  • Cloud banking platform nCino has agreed to acquire Client Lifecyle Intelligence platform FullCircl. The purchase price is $135 million, subject to customary adjustments.
  • The acquisition comes a year after the two first forged a partnership in July 2023.
  • Wilmington, North Carolina-based nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017 in London.

In a deal valued at $135 million, banking solutions provider nCino has agreed to acquire U.K.-based Client Lifecycle Intelligence (CLI) platform, FullCircl. The acquisition comes a year after the two companies forged a partnership that combined FullCircl’s advanced data capabilities with nCino’s cloud banking platform.

“The acquisition of FullCircl is a strategic move for nCino that will not only enhance our data and automation capabilities, but also enables us to expand our reach across the U.K. and more broadly in Europe with an end-to-end experience for full client lifecycle management,” nCino CEO and Chairman Pierre Naudé said. “Having worked closely with the FullCircl team for some time now, we recognized the value our joint technology can deliver, and this acquisition marks an exciting step forward in our mission of driving innovation and powering a new era in financial services.”

nCino and FullCircl first partnered last year to improve the efficiency and profitability of acquiring, onboarding, and servicing SME customers. The collaboration set out to cut onboarding times, increase efficiency in credit operations, accelerate revenue growth, and win and retain more SME customers. Today’s acquisition announcement creates a new, end-to-end client lifecycle management experience that integrates customer acquisition and onboarding, KYC and KYB, as well as rules-based monitoring.

“We have been working with the nCino team for several years, and the close alignment in both organizations across vision, culture, customers, product, and market opportunity have contributed to this exciting acquisition making perfect sense,” FullCircl CEO and Cofounder Andrew Yates said. “We both serve regulated industries who walk a tightrope between a strict operating rulebook and a mandate to deliver growth and shareholder value, all while providing a seamless client experience.”

Founded in 2011, London-based FullCircl offers a Customer Lifecycle Intelligence (CLI) platform that helps companies in regulated industries better manage a variety of key business challenges. Via its applications, proprietary ‘graph’ technology, intelligent rules-based decision engine and APIs, FullCircl derives millions of actionable insights daily on entities from 160 countries. This enables the platform to provide a near real-time record of companies, corporate officers and shareholders, and the relationships between them. With more than 700 customers and 15,000+ users, the firm processes more than 300 million onboarding and monitoring transactions per month and facilitates the onboarding of more than 200,000 customers a year.

nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2017 in London. Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, and founded in 2012, the company currently delivers innovative banking experiences to more than 1,800 customers around the world, including community banks, credit unions, and independent mortgage banks, as well as some of the largest financial institutions in the world.

nCino began the month inking a partnership with Tokushima Taisho Bank. The Japan-based financial institution chose nCino’s Commercial Banking Solution to bring greater efficiency and increased value to its business lending operations. Other recent partnerships with nCino include the company’s work to enhance corporate lending at Netherlands-based bank ABN AMRO and its agreement to automate loan origination processes and expand portfolio management capabilities for U.K. specialist bank Shawbrook.

nCino is a publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker NCNO. The firm has a market capitalization of $4 billion.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Cloud Banking Platform Mambu Inks Partnership with Kuady

Cloud Banking Platform Mambu Inks Partnership with Kuady
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Mambu
  • Cloud banking platform Mambu has teamed up with payments service processor Kuady.
  • Mambu is powering Kuady’s digital wallet offering, which has just launched in Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico.
  • Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Mambu made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia in 2013.

Courtesy of a new partnership with cloud banking platform Mambu, payments service processor Kuady has launched its digital wallet in Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico. The launch comes less than nine months after the beginning of the partnership between the two companies, and sets the stage for further expansion in Latin America, as well as in Africa and Europe.

“We’re proud to support Kuady in its mission to enhance financial inclusion and transform how people manage their money,” Mambu Chief Revenue Officer Mark Geneste said. “As the adoption of digital wallets continues to grow globally, consumers are seeking smart alternatives to cash that provide flexible and ready-to-use spending, and we are here to support financial institutions and fintechs looking to expand and innovate in this space. We can offer the speed to market, future-proofing, and flexibility needed to stay ahead of the competition.”

Kuady’s new offering is powered by Mambu’s cloud banking platform and supported by Microsoft Azure. The company’s digital wallet will help consumers readily access their funds and manage their finances. Kuady’s wallet also empowers merchants to easily scale across borders, enabling instant payouts, chargeback protection, and more. Launched in July, the digital wallet arrives at a time when demand for digital wallets is surging. Mambu reported that the digital wallet market, which stood at 2.8 billion wallets and $5.5 trillion in spending globally in 2020, is expected to top $10 trillion in global spending by 2025. “One in every two people will choose to pay this way,” Mambu’s research into digital wallets revealed.

“With the tech foundation provided by Mambu, we’ve experienced incredible speed and flexibility allowing us to launch and expand our digital wallet across key Latin American markets in just under nine months,” Open Payment Technologies Ltd. Managing Director Mario Ricciardi said. Kuady is the registered business name of Open Payment Technologies. “As we look to enter more countries in Latin America and eventually expand across Africa and Europe,” Ricciardi added, “we’re excited about growing our business together with Mambu.”

Mambu made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2013 in Singapore, and most recently demoed its technology for Finovate audiences at FinovateFall 2021 and again in partnership with Persistent Systems, at FinovateEurope 2022. In addition to its partnership with Kuady, the Berlin, Germany-based firm this month teamed up with INDEXO Bank. The financial institution, which recently secured a banking license from the European Central Bank, leveraged technology from Mambu to launch banking operations in Latvia.

Photo by Lukas

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Array Acquires Consumer Debt Management Company Payitoff

Array Acquires Consumer Debt Management Company Payitoff
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Array, Mergers & Acquisitions, Payitoff

Array, an embedded consumer products platform, has agreed to acquire embedded debt guidance solutions provider Payitoff. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal will build on Array’s position in the intelligent debt management solutions industry, and further equip the company to help financial institutions, fintechs, and digital brands accelerate growth, create new revenue streams, and enhance the consumer experience.

“Financial institutions and other providers of financial products in digital experiences realize that helping their consumers better understand and manage their debt is a powerful way to increase deposits, revenue, and brand loyalty,” Array Founder and CEO Martin Toha said. “We acquired Payitoff because our companies have a shared vision to provide seamless, embeddable products that fuel financial progress. This provides our clients with the best of all worlds: bringing valuable products to market faster without additional resources and overhead.”

Founded in 2020, Array offers a range of embeddable private label products that enable businesses to serve as “one-stop shops” for financial services. The company’s solutions help financial institutions serve a wider range of customers’ financial needs, increasing engagement, and opening up new potential sources of growth. Array’s solutions can be implemented through embedded or private label sites, as well as via its API, and turn 18-month builds into 6-12 week deployments.

Array won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following year at FinovateSpring 2022, taking home its second Best of Show award in as many appearances. Most recently demoing its technology at FinovateSpring 2023, Array introduced its HelloPrivacy and Subscription Manager solutions. HelloPrivacy monitors and removes personally identifiable information (PII) from the web to help defend against identity theft, robocalls, and other privacy risks. Subscription Manager allows subscribers to manage their subscriptions from a single location, as well as cancel unwanted subscriptions and negotiate lower rates on select subscriptions.

Array began 2024 with the appointment of Kew Kelly-Yuoh as Chief Financial Officer, a partnership with digital banking solutions provider Narmi, and a spot on the Fintech Innovation 50 list for 2024. This spring, Array reported that its online privacy solution, Privacy Protect, had surpassed four million in protected users and removed more than 200 million online records on their behalf. Earlier this month, the company announced that Lumin Digital, a provider of cloud-native, digital banking solutions, will offer a suite of Array products including My Credit Manager with Offers Engine, and Identity Protect — along with Privacy Protect and Subscription Manager — as part of its Financial Wellness Monitoring Suite for financial institutions.

Founded in 2018, Payitoff was born out of CEO Bobby Matson’s personal struggle to pay off “six-figure student loans and debt.” After initially launching a student loan management solution, Matson and his team expanded their offerings to include a more comprehensive set of debt management tools. Enabling companies to seamlessly integrate broad debt management functionality into their digital platforms, Payitoff has managed 200,000+ loans valued at more than $1.5 billion.

“The opportunity for impact between Array and Payitoff is massive,” Matson said. “Student loan payments resumed a year ago, and with delinquencies starting to impact borrowers’ credit this month, the timing of this acquisition couldn’t be more critical. Array’s reach, combined with our debt management tools, will empower financial institutions and fintechs to help their consumers manage debt and save thousands — all with a seamless integration.”

Payitoff made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, the consumer debt management tool provider demonstrated its white label, no code solution that empowers financial institutions to help their customers save money on student loan repayments. Earlier this year, Payitoff was selected to participate in Mastercard’s Start Path Open Banking Program.

Photo by Pixabay

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Socure Acquires Real-Time Risk Decisioning Company Effectiv for $136 Million

Socure Acquires Real-Time Risk Decisioning Company Effectiv for $136 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Effectiv, Mergers & Acquisitions, Socure
  • Socure has acquired risk decisioning company Effectiv for $136 million
  • Socure will integrate Effectiv’s AI-powered orchestration platform into its digital identity verification and fraud solutions.
  • The acquisition will enable Socure to enhance fraud prevention, automate identity verification, and manage risk across onboarding, authentication, payments, account changes, and more.

Digital identity verification company Socure has acquired risk decisioning company Effectiv in a $136 million deal.

The agreement, which is set to close next month, will bring Effectiv’s developer-friendly, AI orchestration and decisions platform into Socure’s digital identity verification and fraud solutions platform. Socure expects the purchase will enhance its customers’ fraud-fighting efforts while offering the ability to verify identities across the entire customer journey.

Socure will use Effectiv to create complex, combinatorial rules that apply not only to its own solutions but also to those from third parties. Effectiv will provide a unified approach to enhancing identity verification for Socure, automating risk and trust decisions across various processes, including onboarding, authentication, payments, account updates, account recovery, and regulatory filings.

Effectiv, which demoed at FinovateFall 2023, was founded in 2021 to provide an open platform that integrates a wide range of risk solutions– including identity and payment fraud controls, underwriting, Know Your Business (KYB) and anti-money laundering (AML) tools– to facilitate decisions in real-time. Using Effectiv’s technology, firms can combat identity theft, account takeover, scams, and real-time payment fraud. Among the company’s clients are Ouro/Netspend, Lightspeed Commerce, Cardless, and Payco.

Today’s move positions Socure in the $200 billion enterprise fraud industry. The Nevada-based company, which currently serves 2,700 customers, will now be able to help its clients tackle payments fraud, credit underwriting, and AML transaction monitoring.

“With a world-class platform from Effectiv and analytics that allows for adaptive and progressive risk decisioning, we will be able to help our partners with a single view of identity to drive instant risk and trust decisions anytime, anywhere,” said Socure founder and CEO Johnny Ayers.

This isn’t Socure’s first time working with the Effectiv team. The company worked with Effectiv founders Ravi Sandepudi, Ritesh Arora, Jonathan Doering, and Anupam Tarsauliya when they worked at fraud prevention platform Simility before it was acquired by PayPal for $120 million in 2018.

Logistically, the Effectiv team will join Socure. The group will work to develop and promote Socure’s platform product, engineering, data science, and will immediately contribute to its enterprise go-to-market strategy.

“Socure has uniquely built everything required to solve for new account opening at the identity level—arguably the hardest problem because it’s the first time you’ve seen the consumer,” said Effectiv CEO and Co-founder Ravi Sandepudi. “Now we can review and analyze the user’s risk profile across transactions and accounts over time, maintaining an up-to-date perspective which was impossible before.”

Sandepudi will become Head of Platform Products at Socure.

Photo by Fernando Arcos

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