Alumni News

Ethoca and ChargebackZero Team Up to Help Merchants Minimize Chargebacks

Ethoca and ChargebackZero Team Up to Help Merchants Minimize Chargebacks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ethoca, MasterCard
  • Ethoca announced a partnership with India’s ChargebackZero to help merchants eliminate chargebacks.
  • The collaboration will integrate Ethoca’s chargeback alert technology into ChargebackZero’s Intelligent Dispute Prevention & Management Solution (iDPMS).
  • Ethoca made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall. The company was acquired by Mastercard in 2019 for an undisclosed sum.

Ecommerce fraud and chargeback prevention company Ethoca has teamed up with India-based ChargebackZero to help merchants minimize chargebacks. The partnership will also bring greater transparency to consumer transactions, and make it easier for merchants to share the details of confirmed fraud and dispute incidents.

The collaboration will enable merchants to rely on a chargeback alert system that notifies them in the event of an impending chargeback. Notifications are made via the ChargebackZero dashboard, which combines a variety of alert types from card issuers with ChargebackZero’s dispute management tools. The alerts allow merchants to identify and revolve customer disputes with the customer’s issuing bank in near-real time. By preventing chargebacks, including chargebacks that occur post-authorization, the partnership will make it easier for merchants to accept more orders without increasing their exposure to potentially fraudulent activity.

Ethoca offers a suite of solutions to help merchants and issuers eliminate chargebacks, reduce card not present (CNP) fraud, recover lost revenue, and improve the customer experience with a better dispute resolution process. Ethoca’s Consumer Clarity solution connects issuers to merchant order and account history details in real time. This gives issuer call center agents with the data they need to manage real-time conversations with cardholders when disputes arise. Ethoca also offers its Ethoca Alerts technology, which provides issuers and card-not-present merchants with access to a global collaboration network that enables them to share fraud and customer dispute data in real time, rather than in weeks as is normally the case with chargebacks.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ethoca made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. In the years since then, the company has inked partnerships with fellow Finovate alum TSYS, as well as Pegasystems, BlueSnap, and Cartes Bancaires. Ethoca agreed to be acquired by Mastercard in the spring of 2019 for an undisclosed sum. Calling Mastercard “a natural home,” Ethoca CEO Andre Edelbrock said the acquisition would “bring our services to more places and more people, ultimately contributing to the beset possible online payment experience.”

Ethoca serves more than 5,400 merchants in 40+ countries and more than 4,000 card issuers in more than 20+ countries. Eight of the top ten North American ecommerce brands, 14 of the top 20 North American card issuers, and six of the top ten U.K. card issuers use Ethoca’s technology to eliminate chargebacks, prevent fraud, and recover lost revenue.

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Taulia and Standard Chartered Team Up to Collaborate on Working Capital Finance

Taulia and Standard Chartered Team Up to Collaborate on Working Capital Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Standard Chartered Bank, Taulia
  • Taulia and Standard Chartered signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on working capital finance solutions.
  • The partnership will initially focus on supply chain finance and dynamic discounting.
  • The agreement will offer Taulia access to Standard Chartered’s global client base.

Supply chain finance company Taulia has inked an agreement with Standard Chartered this week. The agreement comes in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate across a range of working capital finance solutions.

The two will begin by focusing on supply chain finance and dynamic discounting, two solutions that Taulia offers to buyers. Taulia will use its expertise in this area, combined with Standard Chartered’s global client base, to help clients build a more resilient and sustainable supply chain.

Ultimately, the partnership aims to enable suppliers to access working capital in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

“We are excited to work with Taulia to explore new and innovative ways to support our clients’ working capital needs, as well as extending the Bank’s leading sustainable trade expertise into their business network,” said Standard Chartered Global Head of Trade & Working Capital Kai Fehr. “Taulia’s footprint also complements that of the Bank, offering greater opportunities for us to support companies in the West with their supply chain flows into Asia, Africa and the Middle East.”

Taulia was founded in 2009 to help businesses improve their supply chains by providing financing options with flexible payment terms. Used by a network of two million organizations, the company’s tools help businesses accelerate payments and free up working capital. Taulia processes over $500 billion every year. Among Taulia’s clients are Airbus, AstraZeneca, Nissan and Vodafone.

Taulia was acquired by SAP earlier this year and today’s agreement marks the first MoU that Taulia has signed with a banking institution post-acquisition. Taulia anticipates that having the backing of SAP will help it access further opportunities across SAP’s ecosystem and deliver a differentiated experience for both buyers and suppliers.

“We believe that all CFOs should focus on their cash strategy to ensure growth during these turbulent times and our partnership with Standard Chartered will deliver cash when and where it is needed, especially in emerging markets,” said SAP Head of Working Capital Management CoE and member of the Taulia Leadership Team Thomas Mehlkopf.

Photo by Tiger Lily

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Stash Launches its New Infrastructure Platform, Stash Core

Stash Launches its New Infrastructure Platform, Stash Core
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Stash
  • Investing and banking services fintech Stash unveiled its new infrastructure platform, Stash Core, this week.
  • Stash’s new banking account experience is the first new solution built on Stash Core. Credit, savings, and lending solutions are expected to be launched in the future.
  • Stash Core features integrations from a wide number of partners including fellow Finovate alums Mastercard, Marqeta, Mambu, and Alloy.

With its latest innovation, investing and banking company Stash is bringing to market a new proprietary infrastructure platform, Stash Core. The offering supports Stash’s new banking account experience now, and will enable new capabilities in credit, savings, and lending in the future.

“Stash Core gives us flexibility and ownership of every customer touchpoint,” Stash co-founder and CEO Brandon Krieg said. “It’s the future of inclusive finance and transformative to our business.”

Stash’s new banking account experience is built on the Stash Core and provides access to an upgraded Stock-Back Debit Mastercard, enhanced customer support, and benefits such as increased rewards. Stash’s Stock-Back Debit Mastercard gives cardholders the ability to invest in stocks every time they spend on gas, groceries, travel, dining, and more. The company notes that it has provided more than 59 million stock rewards to date and, going forward, will allow cardholders to earn up to 4x more with their new upgraded cards.

“With Stash Core and the Stock-Back Debit Mastercard, we are able to deliver the very best in financial tooling, customer service, and AI-powered, personalized wealth-building for those who want to earn stock and invest as they spend,” Krieg said.

Teased at FinovateFall in New York earlier this month, Stash’s new solution benefits from integrations with Mastercard, Stride Bank, Marqeta, Mambu, Alloy, and others. In an extended blog post, the Stash team described the decision-making that went into the development of Stash Core. The discussion highlighted the importance of building an infrastructure that would enable Stash to “more quickly innovate and introduce new products and services faster” to provide the best possible customer experience.

With more than two million customers and nearly $3 billion in assets under management, Stash helps individuals embark upon their investing journey with as little as $3 per month. Offering a suite of financial products ranging from investing and banking to education and advice, Stash reports that its members are 18% more financially literate than the average American. The company experienced $125 million in annualized revenue in the past year, and announced that weekly contributions have climbed by 30% over the past two years.

Founded in 2015, Stash made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017. In the years since then, the company has secured more than $347 million in funding, forged partnerships with companies from Apex Clearing to the San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, and acquired financial literacy app, PayGrade.

Photo by Pixabay

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Cinchy Launches Credit Union Edition of its Dataware Platform

Cinchy Launches Credit Union Edition of its Dataware Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cinchy, Daily news
  • Data firm Cinchy unveiled the Credit Union Edition of its Cinchy Dataware Platform today.
  • The solution is made specifically to help credit unions easily access and leverage their data without having to replace their core banking system.
  • Cinchy won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Data access and control firm Cinchy unveiled a credit union-specific solution today. The company is launching The Credit Union Edition of its Cinchy Dataware Platform to help credit unions extend the life of their core systems, avoiding the need to replace their existing core with a new one.

The new solution enables credit unions that are currently constrained by their core banking systems. Many of the outdated systems result in siloed data, which makes it difficult for the credit union to leverage their data to create better systems, an improved user experience, and cost savings.

Cinchy’s calls the capability “liberating data.” Today’s new launch enables credit unions to access their data in three ways. First, with real-time data from core banking system and applications without the need for copy-based integration. Second, with tools including auto-versioning, auto-backup, auto-protection, auto-correction, and auto-tracking. And third, with user accessibility that allows for instant collaboration.

“At Cinchy our goal is to enable organizations to save money by liberating and controlling their data in ways that were not previously possible,” said Cinchy CEO Dan DeMers. “Today we’re making this a reality for credit unions with the introduction of the Cinchy Dataware Platform Credit Union Edition.”

Founded in 2017, Cinchy leverages data fabric to help banks access data from apps and other silos and assemble it within an easy-to-access data network. Among the company’s clients are TD bank, Colliers International, AIS, and Natixis. Cinchy has been named a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Company to Watch and a Top Growing Canadian Company by The Globe and Mail. The company most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2021 and won best of show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Nordigen to Provide Open Banking Data for Teenit

Nordigen to Provide Open Banking Data for Teenit
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Nordigen
  • Nordigen has been selected by Teenit, an Amsterdam-based PFM tool, to provide open banking services.
  • Nordigen will enable Teenit to securely connect to customers’ bank accounts to source transaction and account balance information.
  • “Open banking goes hand-in-hand with personal financial management tools as access to customer information enables PFMs to stay up-to-date with their suggestions and analytics,” said Nordigen CEO and Co-Founder Rolands Mesters.

Personal financial management (PFM) tool Teenit has selected Nordigen for open banking. The Amsterdam-based PFM company will offer its users an aggregate view of their finances, complete with insights and analysis on their spending and saving habits.

By integrating with Nordigen’s freemium offering, Teenit can securely connect to customers’ bank accounts to source real-time data on their transactions and savings account balances. With open connectivity to its users’ financial data, Teenit can better fulfill its mission of educating teenagers on money management.

“We wanted to serve education to young customers, no matter what bank they choose,” said Teenit CEO Tatiana Pastukhova. “The integration with Nordigen enables us to fulfill our purpose easily. With parents’ authorization, we are able to connect directly to young customer bank accounts anywhere in Europe, visualize for them their money flows in a teenager-friendly manner and analyze them to further personalize the offered educational content.”

Latvia-based Nordigen was founded in 2016. The company’s freemium model offers access to account information, such as the account holder’s name, bank account numbers, transactions, and account balances for free via bank APIs. Nordigen’s paid products include enriched, transaction-level information that helps make sense of raw transaction and account data.

“Financial literacy and education is incredibly important for all demographics, and starting to build a foundation of knowledge from a young age will be very beneficial for Teenit’s user base,” said Nordigen CEO and Co-Founder Rolands Mesters. “Open banking goes hand-in-hand with personal financial management tools as access to customer information enables PFMs to stay up-to-date with their suggestions and analytics.”

Nordigen was acquired by GoCardless earlier this year to deepen the bank payment company’s expertise in the open banking arena and enable it to become a banking-as-a-service provider.

Photo by Ivan Samkov

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Novatti Group Turns to ThetaRay to Enhance AML Oversight of Global Payments

Novatti Group Turns to ThetaRay to Enhance AML Oversight of Global Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ThetaRay
  • Novatti Group has partnered with transaction monitoring company ThetaRay.
  • Novatti will deploy ThetaRay’s SONAR technology to defend its global payments business from money laundering and other financial crime.
  • A Finovate alum since 2015, ThetaRay has secured partnerships with companies ranging from Travelex Bank to fellow Finovate alum Payoneer.

Business payments enabler Novatti Group has partnered with AI-powered transaction monitoring specialist ThetaRay to defend its global payments operations against money laundering and other financial crimes. Novatti Group will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based SONAR technology, a solution that leverages AI to detect the earliest indications of money laundering activity. SONAR will monitor hundreds of thousands of transactions a year for Novatti Group, enabling the company to ensure that its processed transactions are fraud-free without sacrificing quality of service.

Group GM of Risk, Legal, and Compliance at Novatti Group Evangelia Pefkou said the company selected ThetaRay for both its efficient technology as well as its ability to scale. “It is a true AI-based solution that effectively prevents financial crime – including unknown and hidden money laundering – with high detection rates and low false positives,” Pefkou said.

Headquartered in Israel, ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. In the years since then, the company has brought its transaction monitoring technology to partners including Travelex Bank, PMI Americas, Qolo, as well as fellow Finovate alum Payoneer. ThetaRay’s combination of AI and machine learning has resulted in a transaction monitoring solution that delivers a 50% boost in efficiency, 99% reduction in false positives, and 100% coverage for all known money laundering risks. The company’s technology has enabled businesses to confidently partner with entities in countries and segments that are considered high-risk.

“SONAR detects even the newest and most sophisticated criminal schemes,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said. “Novatti will be able to simultaneously establish new relationships to grow global business, increase revenues, and improve customer service.”

Founded in 2013, ThetaRay has raised more than $112 million in funding from investors such as Jerusalem Venture Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures, and ABN AMRO Ventures.

Photo by ThisIsEngineering

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Intelligent Compliance Innovator Txtsmarter Secures Series A Funding and Appoints New CEO

Intelligent Compliance Innovator Txtsmarter Secures Series A Funding and Appoints New CEO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, txtsmarter
  • Compliance communications surveillance service txtsmarter has raised Series A funding. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
  • The Silicon Valley, California-based company also announced a new CEO, Edward Green.
  • Founded in 2014, txtsmarter demoed its technology at FinovateSpring earlier this year.

Private messaging communications surveillance service txtsmarter is sharing some big news. First, the Silicon Valley, California-based company has closed a Series A funding round led by North Carolina-based investment bank and financial services company, Carolina Financial Group. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Second, txtsmarter has appointed a new CEO, Edward Green, to lead the company in its next stage of growth. Formerly CEO of Ring Access and Basys Automation Systems, Green also has 26 years of direct venture capital experience. He replaces outgoing CEO Nuri Otus, who is no longer involved in the company’s operations.

Speaking about the fundraising, Green pointed to growing demands from companies to meet regulatory expectations as they relate to private messaging and communications. “Over the past couple of months, global regulatory agencies have focused on financial institutions, levying billions of dollars of fines for missing texts and WhatsApp messages,” Green explained. “txtsmarter’s unique solution empowers companies to achieve eComms compliance in near real-time across an ever-shifting landscape of communications channels.”

txtsmarter’s technology enables the capture, verification, encryption, and archiving of data from private messaging applications, platforms, and services. The company’s compliance communications surveillance service works with Apple iMessage, Android SMS/MMS, WhatsApp, and other messaging products. By making previously inaccessible data available in real-time – and recently adding the ability to access historical messaging data, as well – txtsmarter helps businesses meet compliance obligations and mitigate data leaks.

This spring, txtsmarter was awarded the 2022 Most Innovative Use of Alternative Data in Regulatory Compliance at the A-Team Innovation Awards. The company called the award a validation of the work its done in developing its intelligent compliance solution, as well as a reflection of the need for such a solution in the marketplace.

“With txtsmarter, there is no data loss, no apps to install, and no learning curve; it’s an elegant solution for the modern world of e-comms compliance surveillance for any company,” Hugh Cumberland, Managing Director, UK/EMEA, said. “We have all seen what big headlines can do to a company’s brand and reputation and have observed the FCA cracking down on firms to ensure all communications are recorded as required. txtsmarter mitigates communication data gaps to prevent sanctions and fines during the audit process. It’s as simple as that.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Hawk AI and Diebold Nixdorf Partner for New AML Surveillance and Fraud Prevention Solution

Hawk AI and Diebold Nixdorf Partner for New AML Surveillance and Fraud Prevention Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Diebold, Hawk:AI
  • New Finovate alum Hawk AI announced a collaboration with Diebold Nixdorf.
  • The partnership will facilitate the distribution and implementation of Hawk AI’s AML Surveillance and Fraud Prevention suite to banks.
  • Hawk AI made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco.

Hawk AI, a fraud-fighting and AML platform based in Germany, announced a new partnership with fellow Finovate alum Diebold Nixdorf. Together, the two companies will collaborate to distribute and implement Hawk AI’s AML Surveillance and Fraud Prevention suite in banks to enable them to combat financial crime more effectively. The initial focus on the collaboration will be in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and will make it easier for Diebold Nixdorf customers in particular to access Hawk AI’s financial crime fighting technology.

Hawk AI CEO and co-founder Tobias Schweiger said that the willingness of financial institutions to adopt technology like Hawk AI’s AML Surveillance and Fraud Prevention suite is due to both “operational considerations” as well as the demands of regulatory authorities, which are “starting to ask for answers to fast-changing financial crime trends which no longer can be addressed with old technology and too much labor.” Instead, Schweiger said, Hawk AI’s partnership with Diebold Nixdorf helps alleviate one of the critical problems to answering these regulatory queries; namely the challenge of implementing newer, better financial crime fighting technology. Schweiger credited Diebold Nixdorf for having the “strong know-how, and professional services capabilities” to make implementation easier and less risky for customers.

“We’re thrilled to work with Hawk AI, a pioneer in explainable AI-powered AML and modern fraud prevention,” Diebold Nixdorf Director Solutions DACH Walter Gries said. “While combating new fincrime techniques is urgently needed, financial institutions must ensure a transparent process where frontline workers, auditors, and regulators trust the results. Hawk AI’s systems provide this trust, and we look forward to bringing the technology to new financial institutions together.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, Hawk AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring earlier this year. At the event, the company demoed its technology that combines AI with traditional, rule-based strategies to monitor financial transactions in real-time. When suspicious activity is observed, the platform sends alerts to financial crime specialists for further investigation. This helps limit the amount of false positives that can weigh-down the effectiveness of a financial crime solution and create unwanted friction for customers.

Hawk AI’s partnership with Diebold Nixdorf comes just one month after the German company reported that it was working with KYC and customer onboarding specialist Ondato. Announced last month, Hawk AI and Ondato have teamed up to offer an integrated KYC validation process that features AML transaction monitoring and behavioral analysis. Ondato CEO and co-founder Liudas Kanapienis highlighted this aspect of the partnership in his statement, noting that the collaboration will enable Ondato to “expand client onboarding and compliance management towards behavior monitoring.”

Also in August, Hawk AI teamed up with Aux, a credit union service organization (CUSO) that serves more than 200 credit unions in the U.S. The partnership will make it easier for credit unions to access Hawk AI’s financial fraud and AML solutions. Aux VP of Compliance Services Gaye DeCesare praised Hawk AI’s technology as “easier to use and more cost effective than other legacy products on the market today.” DeCesare also underscored the fact that HAWK AI’s technology is “enhanced with new features and functionality” on a regular basis.

Photo by PhotoMIX Company

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UBS Ditches Wealthfront After Agreeing to a $1.4 Billion Acquisition

UBS Ditches Wealthfront After Agreeing to a $1.4 Billion Acquisition
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Wealthfront
  • UBS and Wealthfront have mutually terminated a $1.4 billion acquisition announced earlier this year.
  • Despite the call-off, UBS has given Wealthfront $69.7 million in financing at a $1.4 billion valuation.
  • The termination of the deal comes after a significant decline in fintech valuations.

No matter the circumstances, breakups are always hard. Just ask financial services firm UBS and roboadvisor Wealthfront.

After agreeing to acquire Wealthfront in a deal valued at $1.4 billion in January, the two announced last week that the deal was off. Prior to last week, the acquisition was expected to close in the second half of this year. However, the two parties cited “unspecified regulatory concerns” as a reason for the deal collapse.

Purchasing Wealthfront, a roboadvisor headquartered in California, would have helped Switzerland-based UBS grow in the U.S. market and also would have offered access to Wealthfront’s digital wealth management tools and user-friendly technologies.

In January, Wealthfront had 470,000 clients and a total of $27 billion in assets under management. The company was founded in 2008 by Andy Rachleff and Dan Carroll as KaChing, and rebranded under the Wealthfront name in 2010. The company is known for it user-friendly, automated investing tools. Last year, Wealthfront added to its reputation by creating a Socially Responsible Investing Portfolio that is designed around sustainability, diversity, and equity.

“We are continuing to explore ways to work together in a partnership and UBS has given us $70 million in financing at a $1.4 billion valuation,” said Wealthfront Chief Executive Officer David Fortunato. “With this fresh round of funding under our belt along with the ability to begin self-funding the business, we are committed to building a lasting company that positively impacts the lives of our clients for decades to come.”

UBS has offered the new investment, which totals $69.7 million, via notes that can be converted into Wealthfront shares. “That protects other investors in Wealthfront from potentially having to mark down their stakes in the companies,” explained the Wall Street Journal

It is worth noting that the call-off of the acquisition comes after a significant decline in fintech valuations. If the deal was to have gone through, UBS would have likely overpaid for Wealthfront. It will be interesting to see if the Swiss bank will acquire a cheaper U.S.-based roboadvisor as a replacement now that valuations have decreased.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Identity Decisioning Platform Alloy Locks in $52 Million to Help Companies Fight Fraud

Identity Decisioning Platform Alloy Locks in $52 Million to Help Companies Fight Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, Daily news, Funding
  • New York-based identity decisioning platform Alloy has raised $52 million in funding at a valuation of $1.55 billion.
  • Alloy will use the additional funding to help it respond to global demand in the wake of its recently announced international expansion.
  • Alloy made its Finovate debut at FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016.

Alloy secured $52 million in new funding today. The identity decisioning platform for banks and fintechs announced that the investment, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Avenir Growth, gives the New York-based company a valuation of $1.55 billion. The capital will help Alloy respond to growing global demand for its fraud prevention solutions.

Existing investors Canapi Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Avid Ventures, and Felicis Ventures also participated in the funding. This week’s investment comes almost one year after the company raised $100 million at a valuation of $1.35 million.

“We feel incredibly lucky to have partners that not only understand the impact of our investments into our platform and in expanding globally but also proactively come to the table to support them,” Alloy co-founder and CEO Tommy Nicholas said when this week’s investment was announced. “With this newest investment we’ll be able to accelerate our growth and better address the global fraud challenges that companies are facing.”

Alloy demonstrated its technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016. At the event, the company discussed how its technology enables businesses to build fully-customizable APIs for customer identification and compliance. In the years since then, Alloy has grown into a fraud-fighting unicorn with more than 300 companies using its API-based platform to automate identity decisions during the account origination process and monitor those decisions on an ongoing basis. Leveraging more than 160 data sources, Alloy enables institutions and companies to pull customer, credit bureau, and alternative data through a single point of integration to help them find and onboard good customers without increasing their exposure to potentially fraudulent activity.

Over the past 12 months, Alloy has experienced revenue gains of more than 2x. Processing more than a million decisions daily, Alloy includes Ally Bank, Ramp, and Evolve Bank & Trust among its customers. The company was named to the seventh annual Forbes Cloud 100 last month, a roster of the world’s top private cloud companies. In August, Alloy also announced that its fraud and risk decisioning platform is now officially available in 40 countries in North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC.

“We’ve identified a clear need in the global market for Alloy, particularly with the recent rise in fraud, fines for poor implementation of regulatory requirements, and the growth of embedded finance,” Alloy Head of Global Edwina Johnson said. “We’re excited to bring Alloy’s unique platform, and team, to companies operating worldwide.”

Photo by Scott Webb

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Best of Show: Catching Up with the Favorites of FinovateFall

Best of Show: Catching Up with the Favorites of FinovateFall
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Array, Autobooks, Bambu, Dreams, FinovateFall 2021, FinovateFall 2022, Horizn, InfoCorp, Long Game, Ocrolus, PwC

These nine fintechs wowed our FinovateFall audiences last year with their innovations in embedded finance, payments, wealth management, and more. To whet your appetite for FinovateFall next month, September 12 through 14, here’s a look at what our FinovateFall 2021 Best of Show companies have been up to since taking home Finovate’s top prize last fall.

FinovateFall 2022 is only two weeks away. Register by September 2nd and take advantage of big early-bird savings!

Array

Won Best of Show for its API-based and embedded personalized consumer credit, identity, and financial wellness solutions. Headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2020.

Forged partnerships with fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry Associates and Alkami Technology. Won a second Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2022.

Autobooks

Won Best of Show for its small business digital invoicing and online payment acceptance solutions. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 2017.

Raised $50 million in funding. Named a finalist in the Best SMB/SME Banking Solution category in the 2022 Finovate awards.

Bambu

Won Best of Show for its technology designed to help financial institutions provide wealth management services. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2017 in Hong Kong and at FinovateAfrica 2018 in Cape Town. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Singapore.

Launched docuseries, Behind the Robo. Named a major player in the robo-advisory market by The Business Research Company. Worked with Standard Chartered Bank Kenya to help them launch their new money market fund offering.

Dreams

Won Best of Show for its engagement banking platform that offers a unique way to engage customers and responsibly expand revenues. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2021. Founded in 2014. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Awarded Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022. Partnered with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard to deliver sustainable banking products for financial institutions. Named to The Fintech 250.

Horizn

Won Best of Show for its platform that helps banks accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateFall Digital 2020 and FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2011.

Partnered with fellow Finovate alum ebankIT to support financial institutions undergoing digital transformation. Powered the new digital learning platform launched by Pacific Western Bank. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2022.

Infocorp

Won Best of Show for its Mobile Native app that brings hyper-personalized experiences for every user in one single bank app. Founded in 1994. Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Partnered with TESOBE to help banks in Latin America leverage open banking to build better, more customer-centric apps and services.

Long Game

Won Best of Show for its gamified finance app that helps banks acquire new customers and increase engagement with their Millennial and Gen Z customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2015.

Acquired by Truist Financial.

Ocrolus

Won Best of Show for its intelligent automation technology that transforms documents into data analytics, helping lenders make timely, high quality credit decisions. Founded in 2014. Headquartered in New York City.

Raised $80 million at a valuation of $500 million. Partnered with fellow Finovate alum Blend to bring automation to the mortgage process.

PwC

Won Best of Show for its Customer Link solution that turns customer data into smarter action and provides a 360 degree view of your customers. Founded in 1845. Headquartered in New York City.

In partnership with Microsoft, teamed up with Finovate alum FintechOS to build a digital banking solution.

Who will take home the trophies this year at FinovateFall 2022? Join us in New York next month as we showcase upwards of 60 innovative fintech companies – all vying for the title of Best of Show.

Photo by Wendy Wei

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Finovate Global Hong Kong: Chekk Brings Digital Identity Tech to Bain Capital – and Raises Capital of its Own

Finovate Global Hong Kong: Chekk Brings Digital Identity Tech to Bain Capital – and Raises Capital of its Own
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Chekk, Funding

It’s been nearly five years since Hong Kong-based Chekk made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia. The company, co-founded by CEO Pascal Nizri, is a B2B2C digital identity ecosystem that shifts ownership of personal data from businesses to individuals as part of its strategy to provide better, more seamless identity verification services.

“We all know how reluctant Internet users have become to share personal data online,” Chekk co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Benjamin Petit said from the Finovate stage during his company’s demo. “On the other side regulators are forcing banks and financial service providers to collect an increasing amount of data for compliance reasons. And this done during lengthy and painful KYCs that are costly for banks.”

Via a mobile app, Chekk empowers individuals to own their own personal data and control how much of their data they share. At the same time, businesses get access to a secure online or API-based platform that enables them to make data requests and conduct other customer interactions – from onboarding due diligence and ID verification to secure messaging for chats and statements – seamlessly.

Chekk’s SaaS solutions help the company’s retail, private, and corporate customers manage a range of digital identity and data portability challenges and operations. These include multi-language AML checks, including Arabic, Russian, and Chinese, as well as identity verification for more than 200 countries, biometric digital signatures, tools to create and maintain digital forms, a secure encrypted data wallet, and global connectivity to more than 400 million business data sources.

Bain Capital is the latest financial institution to choose Chekk as its partner when it comes to digital identity verification. With $155 billion in assets, the Boston-based alternative investment firm announced in July that it will leverage Chekk’s technology to provide KYB verification for businesses, merchants, and third parties, as well as KYC for individual customers.

The Bain partnership news comes in the wake of Chekk’s announcement of a significant investment (described as “multi-million dollar”) in a round led by HSBC Alternatives, a wing of HSBC Asset Management. The funding builds on previous funding from investors such as SOSV and LeFonds, a pair of venture capital firms, as well as individual investor David Gurle, founder of Symphony Communications Services.

“Thanks to its founders’ hands-on experience, Chekk is building a suite of services that extends well beyond compliance-driven KYC/KYB and puts commercial relationships at the core of its value proposition,” HSBC Asset Management Head of Venture and Growth Investments Remi Bourrette said. “This resonates with our fintech fund’s themes of improving access to financial services while managing the risks arising from criminal activities.

Have we arrived at a reckoning for Hong Kong-based fintech? While the clamp down on Big Tech in China has gotten most of the attention from international technology analysts and observers, the impact on fintech developments in Hong Kong have been relatively overlooked. A recent survey conducted by Google and financial consultancy Quinlan & Associates suggests that the fintech industry in Hong Kong could be in for challenging times.

Specifically, the survey revealed that 60% of the 120+ C-suite executives from early- and late-stage private fintechs contacted felt that Hong Kong was “relatively uncompetitive compared to other fintech hubs.” Among the reasons cited were the city’s regulatory environment, which was viewed as “costly, complex, and time-consuming,” as well as a “talent gap” that had been made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. This talent gap extends beyond technical and product innovation roles to include sales and marketing talent, as well.

Hong Kong has been responsive to these challenges, according to a report from South China Morning Post. The city’s central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, unveiled a four-year plan in June – the Greater Bay Fintech Talent Initiative – that included a pledge to “groom all-round fintech talent” and to provide greater funding assistance for fintech projects. The initiative will feature the support of 20 financial institutions including HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and Hong Kong’s stock exchange. Tech giant Ant Group will also participate in the initiative — the only tech-based company to take part.

“While nurturing local fintech talent has been one of Ant Group’s key missions for years,” Ant Group EVP for strategy development and government affairs Jennifer Tan said, “it’s the group’s honor to join partners from various aspects in cultivating tech talent through the Greater Bay Fintech Talent Initiative.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Azerbaijan-based fintech SmilePay announced partnerships with a pair of major food retailers.
  • German neobank Vivid secured an investment license from the Dutch Financial Supervisory Authority AFM.
  • Hungarian National Bank turned to Grape Solutions to provide IT services per a new 60-month framework agreement.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Photo by Arnie Chou

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