Alumni News

M&A Monday: Best of Show Winner TipRanks Acquires The Fly; TreviPay Agrees to Buy Apruve

M&A Monday: Best of Show Winner TipRanks Acquires The Fly; TreviPay Agrees to Buy Apruve
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Acquisition, Alumni News, Daily news, David's column, Mergers & Acquisitions, TipRanks, TreviPay

2023 is only a few days old but the merger and acquisition action in the fintech industry has already begun.

2022 featured a number of major fintech acquisitions – from Vista Equity Partners $8 billion purchase of tax compliance specialist Avalara to Technisys’ $1.1 billion acquisition of SoFi to Fiserv’s $650 million deal with Finxact. As the new year begins amid economic uncertainty and a technology industry that is contracting, will 2023 produce more deal-making activity in fintech or less?

With this question in mind, here’s a look at recent year-ending and year-beginning M&A activity from a pair of our Finovate alums: TipRanks and TreviPay.

We learned last week TipRanks had agreed to acquire real-time financial news digital provider, The Fly. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New Jersey, The Fly is a leading digital publisher that offers a live-streaming subscription service featuring short form stories and content on publicly-traded companies.

“TipRanks is a natural home for The Fly,” company President Ron Etergino said. “Both companies strive to level the playing field for investors and TipRanks’ institutional-grade research tools and data will enhance The Fly’s financial news products.”

With its technology that provides market research tools to retail investors and traders, TipRanks took Finovate audiences by storm in its debut appearance in 2013. The New York-based company won Best of Show at both FinovateSpring in May of that year and again at FinovateFall in September.

More recently, the Tel Aviv, Israel and New York-based company launched a new solution that determined risk factors for publicly traded companies, as well as a tool that analyzes publicly traded companies’ online traffic. In 2021, the company raised $77 million in funding in a round led by Prytek. Last year, TipRanks introduced country-specific websites for Australia, Canada, and the U.K.

TipRanks’ acquisition of The Fly is designed to further the company’s mission of becoming a “one-stop-shop platform for the retail investor,” according to CEO Uri Gruenbaum. “We see a lot of synergy between our companies and are excited that we can expand our offerings to provide breaking news – one of the top requirements of our Enterprise customers and end users,” Gruenbaum said.

Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in Q1 of this year.

Amid the flurry of year-ending news, one alumni acquisition we missed was TreviPay’s decision to acquire payments platform Apruve early last month. Headquartered in Overland, Kansas, and making its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, TreviPay supports B2B commerce with its payments and invoicing network designed to optimize transactions between buyers and sellers. The company’s acquisition of payment platform Apruve is designed to help complement and add to TreviPay’s current order-to-cash technology and merchant invoicing solutions.

“The acquisition of Apruve will accelerate our advancement in the technology manufacturing vertical and expand our geographic reach into key Asian markets,” TreviPay CEO Brandon Spear said.

Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but all Apruve employees will be retained post-acquisition. Apruve was TreviPay’s second acquisition of 2022, having purchased B2B invoice payments network company BATON Financial Services in February.

With 90,000 buyers and 80,000 seller locations around the world, TreviPay automates the order-to-cash process via omni-channel checkout options, localized B2B invoicing, managed receivables, and fraud and risk management. The company’s tailored payments and invoicing networks enable merchants and suppliers alike to develop more profitable and enduring trade relationships. TreviPay processes $7 billion in transaction volume across 32 countries and 19 different currencies.

Founded in 1980, TreviPay demoed its Small Business Supplier Network (SBSN) at FinovateFall 2022. The offering gives banks the ability to grow its small business product offerings by enabling them to tap into the small business B2B trade credit market.

Photo by nappy

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Income Data Verification Platform Argyle Secures Accreditation from PBSA

Income Data Verification Platform Argyle Secures Accreditation from PBSA
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Daily news
  • Income data verification company Argyle has secured accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA).
  • The 880+ membership organization was founded in 2003 and helps keep screening firms up to date on new legislation and industry best practices.
  • Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in May of last year.

Real-time income data platform Argyle has received accreditation from the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). This accreditation provides Argyle with a “seal of approval” as well as “national recognition” that its income data verification technology complies with industry standards with regards to both compliance and consumer protection.

“Argyle is committed to automating employment verifications in the background check industry,” Argyle CEO Shmulik Fishman said. “For our consumers and end users, we operate under rigorous standards and don’t compromise or cut corners. We’re pleased PBSA’s accreditation confirms those commitments.”

PBSA Executive Director Melissa Sorenson credited Argyle for joining the 880+ member organization and for supporting the PBSA’s efforts to “advance excellence within the background screening industry.” Founded in 2003, PBSA helps keep member firms in the United States and abroad informed about legislation that potentially impacts screening, as well as helps companies access practical guidance on industry best practices, news, and trends. The organization’s member organizations are defined as “consumer reporting agencies” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and are regulated by both the FTC and CFPB.

Making its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring, Argyle is a New York-based technology company that enables consumers to connect their employment records to companies’ apps and websites. This secure connection allows businesses to access the income and identity data required in order to offer and deliver a range of digital experiences. At the same time, consumers benefit from access to more financial products and total control over the use of their data.

At FinovateSpring in 2022, the company demoed a design update for its Link technology to improve the tool’s usefulness for end users. Link is the front-end interface that lets consumers grant access to their payroll information. The 4.0 upgrade demoed last spring is designed to make it easier for users to connect their accounts, reduce drop-off rates, and improve the overall look and feel of the solution.

Argyle was founded in 2018. The company has raised more than $77 million in funding from investors including Bain Capital Ventures and SignalFire. Last fall, Argyle announced a partnership with Dallas, Texas-based payments company Highline to give lenders across the U.S. access to payroll-linked lending and billpay functionality.

“True financial inclusion begins with the recognition that there is a shortage of non-predatory options available for many Americans who need access to relatively small dollar loans,” Highline CEO Geoff Brown said. “The team at Argyle recognizes this as well and, like Highline, is committed to helping more consumers gain access to credit in a way that also makes sense for lenders and fits their business objectives.”

Photo by Ali Camacho Adarve

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FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley: Relevant Rewards, Data Driven Banking, and Innovations in Digital Billpay

FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley: Relevant Rewards, Data Driven Banking, and Innovations in Digital Billpay
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AcceptEmail, Alumni News, Cardlytics, D3 Banking, FinovateEurope 2023, Lodo Software

Many of Finovate’s most storied alumni made their Finovate debuts at our European conference, FinovateEurope. Next year at FinovateEurope (March 14 through 15) we will feature the event’s alums in a special showcase called Alumni Alley. For those companies that first demoed their innovations at FinovateEurope, Alumni Alley is a great opportunity to show the world their latest innovations and accomplishments.

Is Alumni Alley for you? Visit our Alumni Alley hub today and find out!

This week, we shine a light on another set of three companies that made their first Finovate appearances at our first FinovateEurope conference in 2011: a digital advertising platform for banks, an innovator in data-driven digital banking, and an e-billing/billpay pioneer.

Cardlytics Delivering Relevant Rewards Before it was Cool

Cardlytics was a young company when it made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2011. The Atlanta, Georgia-based firm already had gained significant traction for its technology: a transaction marketing platform that helped banks and retailers offer rewards to customers based on their individual buying behavior. During its demo, Cardlytics noted that its technology reached tens of millions of consumers via hundreds of retailers in the U.S. who were leveraging the platform to deliver what have now become table stakes in the loyalty and rewards business: precise targeting and highly relevant offers. Cardlytics returned to the FinovateEurope stage a year later, earning a Best of Show award for its latest loyalty management solution.

From a company with 100 employees and more than $27 million in funding in 2011, Cardlytics has grown into a leading advertising platform for banks and other financial institutions. The company boasts more than 184 million bank customers on its platform and more than $650 million in customer rewards paid. Cardlytics went public in 2018, and currently trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker CDLX. The company has a market capitalization of more than $169 million.

Scott Grimes and Lynne Laube, Cardlytics’ first and second CEOs, demonstrating the company’s technology at FinovateEurope.

“We delivered solid double-digit growth despite the serious challenges present in the economy,” Cardlytics CEO Karim Temsamani said in November when the company shared Q3 financials. “While the economy may be uncertain, I believe there is inherent resiliency in platforms that prove return on ad spend, and I am positive we can grow profitably.” Temsamani joined the company as CEO this summer, taking over from co-founder Lynne Laube who is retiring from the leadership post. Temsamani comes to Cardlytics from Stripe, where he worked as Head of Global Partnerships and, before that, Head of Banking and Financial Products.

Lodo Software, D3 Technology, and the Road from PFM to Data Driven Digital Banking

These days, the idea of fintechs coming from places other than Silicon Valley is increasingly commonplace. But in 2011, there was something more than a little novel about the fintech innovation that was coming out of places like Omaha, Nebraska – courtesy of startups like Lodo Software.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2011, Lodo Software demoed a cross-selling solution that helped banks leverage the data gathered by the PFM component of the platform to personalize offers and marketing campaigns. The product, OurCashFlow, organized and analyzed customer data to ensure that financial institutions are sending the right messages to the right customers at the right time. The platform’s messages and notifications are scheduled within the platform and are delivered to customers via their PFM dashboard.

D3 Technology CEO Mark Vipond demoing the company’s technology at FinovateEurope 2011 in London.

Lodo Software rebranded as D3 Technology in 2014 in a move that CEO Mark Vipond said reflected “the company’s evolution from a personal financial management software provider to the creator of one of the market’s only true omnichannel, data driven digital banking solution.” The company created D3 Banking to help financial institutions deliver a consistent, personalized, banking experience anywhere, at any time, and on any device. Five years later, in the summer of 2019 , fellow Finovate alum NCR announced that it would acquire the company.

“NCR is a great fit for D3 and the timing is right for us to combine forces to create a powerful digital transformation platform for large financial institutions,” Vipond said when the acquisition was announced. “This transaction enables us to capitalize on new market opportunities and bring top-tier capabilities to our mutual and future clients.”

AcceptEasy: A Pioneer in E-Billing and Billpay via Email

Enabling secure and straightforward e-billing and payments via email was the innovation championed by Netherlands-based fintech AcceptEmail at FinovateEurope in 2011. Founded in 2006 and launching its solution less than a year later, AcceptEmail offered a three-click process for customers to pay bills directly from their email accounts without requiring manual data entry and re(entry). The company’s technology brings convenience to the billpay process for consumers and helps billers realize lower DSO (days sales outstanding) due to more customers paying their bills faster as well as less collection activity. The platform also supports credit management (notifications and reminders) as well as smart SEPA Direct Debit notifications.

AcceptEmail (now AcceptEasy) CEO Peter Kwakernaak introducing his company to Finovate audiences at FinovateEurope 2011.

The company was acquired by Serrala in February 2020 for an undisclosed amount and announced a rebrand to AcceptEasy. The rebranding was designed to reflect the fact that the company had evolved beyond email to become a bill service provider that enables payments in all digital channels. “The flexibility and architecture of our technology is perfect for all sorts of transactional messaging,” AcceptEasy CEO Peter Kwakernaak explained. “The payment moment is becoming a personalized and interactive contact moment .. (it) is one of the most important steps in the customer journey.” He added, “Our services make it possible for enterprises to provide consumers and small businesses an optimized brand experience and save costs in the process.

Photo by Nikita Khandelwal

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Green Dot and Wealthfront Extend Relationship

Green Dot and Wealthfront Extend Relationship
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Green Dot, Wealthfront

Wealth management provider Wealthfront is extending its relationship with digital bank and banking-as-a-service provider Green Dot this week.

Wealthfront originally tapped Green Dot in 2020 to use the company’s banking-as-a-service tools to offer its Cash Account clients access to checking features. Today, the two announced they are continuing the relationship.

Wealthfront’s Cash Account leverages Green Dot to offer features competitive with other digital banks, including the ability to receive direct deposits up to two days early, pay bills, send and deposit checks, and use a debit card to access cash at ATMs. The account requires a $1 initial deposit, offers unlimited free transfers, automated savings features, near-instant transfers into Wealthfront’s Investment Accounts, and more.

Additionally, Wealthfront’s Cash Accounts pay a 3.80% APY, a huge improvement over what most firms were offering during the recent near-zero interest rate environment. The competition among digital banking providers has intensified, and competing on interest rates will be a good way for these newcomers to gain new customers and increased deposits. That’s because many large traditional banks are paying an average of just 0.24% APY.

Other players in the wealth management space are also currently offering high interest rates on their checking accounts. Personal Capital just announced it will pay 3.85% and Betterment is paying 3.75% on its high-yield account.

“Today’s investors want smart saving and investing products that help them build wealth in all market conditions, which is why we’re proud to offer the Cash Account to help our clients earn more on their uninvested savings,” said Wealthfront VP of Product Dave Myszewski. “With one of the highest rates on the market plus checking features powered by Green Dot, we’re able to provide a best-in-class Cash Account that is far superior to what a traditional bank can offer, so our clients can grow their long-term wealth easily and conveniently.”

Wealthfront had a hopeful start to 2022 when UBS agreed to acquire the California-based company for $1.4 billion in January. Nine months later, however, UBS called off the agreement because of “unspecified regulatory concerns.” Along with the termination, UBS gave Wealthfront $70 million in financing at a $1.4 billion valuation. “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,” said Wealthfront Chief Executive Officer David Fortunato.

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Moneyhub Raises $18.2 Million, Completing $66.8 Million Funding Round

Moneyhub Raises $18.2 Million, Completing $66.8 Million Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Moneyhub
  • Moneyhub raised an additional $18.2 million (£15 million) from savings and retirement business Phoenix Group.
  • The investment is the second part of a 48.6 million (£40 million) Moneyhub received in October, and brings the company’s total funds to $81.6 million.
  • Phoenix Group’s Standard Life is a long-standing client of Moneyhub.

Open finance solutions company Moneyhub announced it received an additional $18.2 million (£15 million) investment. Today’s funds come from savings and retirement business Phoenix Group.

The funding round is a follow-on to the recent $48.6 million (£40 million) Moneyhub received in October. Legal & General and Lloyds Banking Group led that round, contributing $42.4 million (£35 million), and Shawbrook Bank provided an additional $6 million (£5 million) in debt funding. Moneyhub’s total funding now adds up to $81.6 million.

Moneyhub was founded in 2014 and creates software for open banking, open finance, and open data applications. Organizations leverage these tools to add data aggregation, insights, and payment systems to their applications in order to create a more personalized digital experience for their end users. U.K.-based Moneyhub plans to use the investment to develop its solutions and expand globally. The company currently counts more than 100 organizations, including more than 30 high-profile enterprise firms, as clients.

Phoenix Group’s Standard Life is a long-standing client of Moneyhub. The firm leverages Moneyhub’s Open Finance platform to create Money Mindset, a financial wellness proposition for workplace pension customers.

“We are delighted that Phoenix Group has chosen to go even further by investing in the business,” said Moneyhub CEO Samantha Seaton. “With Consumer Duty and Pensions Dashboard driving the need to focus on consumer outcomes, the only answer is to work in a trusted data sharing approach with your customers.”

Photo by Jill Burrow

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Verification Platform Sumsub Partners with French Money Transfer Firm Tempo

Verification Platform Sumsub Partners with French Money Transfer Firm Tempo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Sumsub
  • London-based regtech Sumsub has partnered with Paris-based money transfer company Tempo.
  • The partnership will help Tempo enhance its user identity verification operations and reduce fraud in line with French regulations.
  • Sumsub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

London-based regtech Sumsub – which stands for Sum & Substance – has teamed up with Paris-based money transfer company Tempo. The partnership will enable the French fintech to leverage Sumsub’s technology to verify user identities and secure customer data in line with KYC and AML regulations. Tempo will benefit from access to a range of KYC services and the partnership already has enabled Tempo to meet AML compliance requirements as established by French regulators.

“We are glad to offer our all-in-one verification platform to global digital payments providers like Tempo, making money transfers more accessible to people worldwide,” Sumsub CEO and co-founder Andrew Sever said. “With Sumsub’s KYC. KYB, transaction monitoring and AML solutions, it’s easier for businesses to expand to international markets and increase their client base while staying fully compliant with regulations and ensuring bulletproof fraud protection.”

Sumsub made its Finovate debut two years ago at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company demoed its KYC/AML Checks and Risk Management Toolkit, which enables businesses to accelerate verification, and lower costs by as much as 6x, as well as detect and eliminate digital fraud. The company offers global coverage of more than 200 markets and combines best-in-class technology with human legal expertise to enable Sumsub to help companies in diverse regulatory regimes.

In a statement, Tempo France CEO Alla Zhedik highlighted the fact that Tempo is licensed by the Bank of France. “This imposes strict compliance obligations,” Zhedik said. “And that is where KYC plays a great role and is also why the joint project with Sumsub is so important for us.” Zhedik added that the partnership not only helped minimize fraud and money laundering risks, but also gives Tempo “access to the most advanced customer data processing solutions.”

With more than 2,000 customers in verticals ranging from fintech and digital assets to transportation and gaming, Sumsub claims to have achieved some of the highest conversion rates in the industry, reaching more than 91% in the U.S., and more than 95% in the U.K. The company said that is is able to verify users in less than 50 seconds on average.

Sumsub’s partnership news comes one month after the company announced that it was joining Brazilian fintech association, ABFintechs. Also in November, Sumsub reported that Markor Technology, provider of B2B and B2C technology solutions for iGaming operators, had selected Sumsub to provide enhanced verification and fraud protection.

Photo by Elina Sazonova

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Glia Partners with Jack Henry to Bring Innovations in Digital Customer Service to Banks and Credit Unions

Glia Partners with Jack Henry to Bring Innovations in Digital Customer Service to Banks and Credit Unions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Glia, Jack Henry
  • Glia and Jack Henry announced a partnership this week that will integrate Glia’s Digital Customer Service into Jack Henry’s Banno digital banking platform.
  • The integration will enable a wider number of banks and credit unions to interact with their customers via digital channels such as voice and video banking.
  • Glia and Jack Henry are both Finovate alums. Jack Henry made its Finovate debut in 2010. Glia has won Best of Show at Finovate conferences six times.

A newly announced partnership between a pair Finovate alums will bring some of the latest innovations in digital customer service to more bank and credit union customers. Digital Customer Service specialist Glia announced this week that its technology is now available via Jack Henry’s Banno Digital Platform.

The integration will give financial institutions using the platform the ability to engage customers across all digital channels – from SMS and chat to voice and video banking. Glia’s acquisition of fellow Finovate alum Finn AI in June adds innovative virtual assistance technology to Glia’s offering – technology that will now be available to banks and credit unions on Jack Henry’s platform. The integration was facilitated by the Banno Digital Toolkit, which uses the same set of APIs upon which the Banno Digital Platform is built.

“Glia is making Digital Customer Service accessible to a growing number of banks and credit unions, empowering them with powerful tools to digitalize and transform customer service,” Glia SVP of Alliances Steve Kaish said. “Our integration with Jack Henry accelerates that mission, allowing more institutions to facilitate digital-first engagements within the digital domain.”

A six-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Glia most recently demoed its Digital Customer Service technology at FinovateSpring last year. At the conference, Glia showed how its latest innovation automatically connects customer inbound calls to the customer’s associated online browsing sessions to give customer service representatives context when handling the customer query. This helps improve the quality of the session, making it easy for the representative to collaborate online with the caller via features like co-browsing, screensharing, and one- or two-way video. This, according to Kaish, will help “community institutions create competitive advantage” versus their national and international rivals.

Founded in 2012, Glia is headquartered in New York City. Daniel Michaeli is CEO and co-founder.

With more than 9,000 customers in the U.S., Jack Henry offers banks and credit unions an ecosystem of innovative financial services solutions, as well as the ability to integrate with leading fintechs. Headquartered in Monett, Missouri, and founded in 1976, the company made its Finovate debut in 2010 and has since grown into a major technology and payment services company with $1.7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021. Jack Henry is a publicly traded entity on the Nasdaq under the ticker “JKHY,” and has a market capitalization of $13 billion.

A Finovate alum since 2010, Jack Henry & Associates was featured in Computerworld’s “Best Places to Work in IT” list for 2023. This week, the company announced that it was adding automated policy management technology to its Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Suite. David Foss is President and CEO.

Photo by Yan Krukov

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Salt Edge and ebankIT Team Up to Help Financial Institutions Maximize the Opportunity of Open Banking

Salt Edge and ebankIT Team Up to Help Financial Institutions Maximize the Opportunity of Open Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ebankIT, Salt Edge
  • A pair of Finovate alums — Salt Edge and ebankIT – have teamed up to help financial institutions leverage open banking to provide more services to customers.
  • The partnership will enable ebankIT’s bank and credit union clients to access accounts from more than 5,000 financial institutions.
  • Salt Edge is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ebankIT is based in Porto, Portugal.

A newly announced partnership between Finovate alums ebankIT and Salt Edge will help financial services companies in Canada, Europe, and elsewhere to maximize the opportunity of open banking. The partnership will enable ebankIT to empower banks and credit unions to access accounts from more than 5,000 banks. At the same time, working with Salt Edge – an ISO 27001 certified company licensed as an AISP under PSD2 – will ensure that open banking compliance requirements across regions will be fulfilled.

“At ebankIT, we understand that Open Banking is the way forward when it comes to humanizing the digital banking experience for millions of end-users worldwide,” ebankIT Head of Sales HQ and Partnerships Pedro Leite said. “That’s why we believe that this partnership with Salt Edge will bring great benefits to our ecosystem of financial institutions.”

With its Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform, ebankIT helps financial institutions to make digital transformations, regardless of their size. Currently licensed to FIs in 11 countries, ebankIT’s platform enables banks and credit unions to offer customer experiences across all modern digital channels, from online and mobile to wearables and the metaverse. A Best of Show winner at FinovateFall in 2019, the Portugal-based company most recently demonstrated its technology this spring at FinovateEurope.

In addition to its partnership with Salt Edge, ebankIT has teamed up with other Finovate alums in 2022. In October, the company announced that it was working with multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner MX to integrate MX’s Insights and Personal Financial Management (PFM) tools into its digital banking platform. Earlier this year, ebankIT announced a collaboration with another multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Horizn. This pact is designed to help financial institutions smoothly launch new ebankIT platform deployments for both front-line employees and customers.

Salt Edge, which demoed its technology at a part of FinovateEurope in 2018 and 2019, was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company offers both an open banking gateway – to help companies access account information, conduct payment initiation, and leverage data enrichment to turn raw data into actionable insights – as well as a PSD2 compliance hub. Salt Edge’s compliance hub provides a full-stack compliance solution for banks and electronic money institutions, strong, mobile customer authentication, and TPP verification.

“As two cutting-edge tech players pursuing to revolutionize the financial world, we strive to create innovative solutions that will improve financial services for both institutions and consumers,” Salt Edge Chief Growth Officer Alina Beleuta said. “By teaming up, we can double our forces to bring innovations to the financial landscape through seamless open banking solutions.”

Photo by Lisa Fotios

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Finovate Global Australia: CBA Launches Tech Hub, ANZ Plus Reaches 100K Customer Milestone, Aussie Regulators Target AMEX

Finovate Global Australia: CBA Launches Tech Hub, ANZ Plus Reaches 100K Customer Milestone, Aussie Regulators Target AMEX
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Launches Tech Hub in Brisbane

Over the summer, Australia’s Commonwealth Bank (CBA) unveiled its latest technology hub in Melbourne. This week, we learned that the financial institution’s hub-building game is still strong, with word that that CBA has established another technology hub, this time in the city of Brisbane.

The goal of the new hub, located in Brisbane’s central business district, is to help build the technology community in Queensland writ large. The bank is collaborating with The University of Queensland (UQ), Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and TAFE Queensland to enable students and graduates to participate in CBA’s Tech Associates and Graduate programs. The new hub will also create job opportunities for technology professionals including engineers, cyber specialists, and data scientists.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia Chief Information Officer Brendan Hopper pointed to COVID era trends as one reason why CBA has become especially interested in Queensland. “The COVID pandemic saw many of our technology professionals choose to relocate to Queensland to pursue a change of lifestyle,” Hopper explained. “By having the tech hub in Brisbane, our people based there will still have access to major technology employers like DBA and can make an impact in their work without having to relocate interstate.”

The technology hub in Brisbane is the third such opportunity CBA has launched this year. In February, the bank opened a technology hub in Adelaide.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a multi-national institution with operations in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., and the U.K. The financial institution, one of the four biggest banks in Australia (along with National Australia Bank (NAB), ANZ, and Westpac) was founded in 1911 by the Australian government and privatized in 1996. CBA had more than one trillion in total assets as of 2020.

ANZ’s Digital Bank Reaches 100,000 Customer Milestone

Speaking of Australia’s big banks, ANZ announced this week that its digital bank, ANZ Plus, has reached 100,000 customers, and more than two billion in deposits.

“New features, better security, along with a suite of tools and coaches to help people save more, combined with competitive rates are driving more people to ANZ Plus than ever before,” ANZ Managing Director of Design and Delivery Peter Dalton said. “(It) is the fastest growing new digital bank in Australia.”

Launched in March, ANZ Plus offers accountholders an everyday account that tracks spending, and a savings account with features to help users reach their financial goals. ANZ Plus offers 3.5% interest on savings for ANZ Save balances under $250,000; and charges neither monthly account fees nor withdrawal fees at major Australian bank ATMs. Additionally, ANZ Plus customers can schedule one-on-one sessions with a financial coach to help them uncover ways that they can enhance their financial wellness, including tips on spending less and saving more.

“We are continually adding new features to improve customer experience,” Dalton said, “and have begun piloting our digital home loan product with staff.”

Other features available on ANZ Plus include biometric logins for iOS users, as well as dynamic CVV, BPAY, pay to PayID, and the ability to join with an international passport.

ANZ – which stands for the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd – is the second biggest bank in Australia by assets. Headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, ANZ was founded in 1970 as part of the largest bank merger in Australian history at the time. In the decades since then, ANZ has grown into a multinational banking and financial services entity with more than 51,000 workers, nine million customers worldwide, and more than one trillion in assets.

Australian Regulators Take AMEX to Court

While Australian banks are expanding opportunities for technology professionals and creating new resources for financial technology users, Australian regulators are cracking down on what they believe represents bad behavior on the part of one of financial services’ biggest players.

We learned this week that the Australia Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is alleging that a pair of credit cards issued by the local unit of American Express and co-branded with retailer David Jones did not provide adequate explanations about how the cards actually work.

Specifically, regulators have filed a lawsuit claiming that customers were confused about whether they had applied for a loyalty card or a credit card. Further, the lawsuit charges that American Express did not limit distribution to customers that were exclusively interested in cards that enabled them to earn points and receive other benefits. Regulators assert that AMEX was aware of the issue as early as February, but failed to act until July.

“Product providers must monitor and review whether consumers are receiving products consistent with their needs and cannot bring a ‘set and forget mindset’ to product governance,” ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court said in a statement. “It is critical that providers respond to poor outcomes they identify by making changes.”

As of this time, neither AMEX nor the company that owns the David Jones department store chain have commented on the lawsuit.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Tencent’s financial division, Tencent Financial Technology unveiled a new cross-border payments business, Tenpay Global.
  • Tonga Development Bank partnered with Europe-based payments platform BPC.
  • Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia launched a new digital offering, Rize.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South African fintech Ukheshe secured new funding from DPI and Fireball Capital.
  • In a bid to boost digital payments, the Central Bank of Nigeria put a limit of $45 on daily ATM withdrawals.
  • Finclusion, a credit-based neobank based in the Republic of Mauritius, raised $2 million in equity financing and rebranded officially to “Fin.”

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Ukraine will be the first country to benefit from the new cross-border payments partnership forged between Mastercard and Paysend.
  • Deutsche Bank announced a partnership with NVIDIA to encourage the use of AI and machine learning in financial services.
  • German corporate financing platform FinCompare partnered with ING Germany.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • A pair of Egypt-based fintechs – consumer financing platform One Finance and BNPL provider ADVA One – announced a partnership this week.
  • Saudi Araban fintech Tweeq secured an e-money license from the kingdom’s central bank, SAMA.
  • bondIT, a fixed income investment technology company based in Israel and New York, raised $14 million in funding.

Central and Southern Asia

  • U.K.-based financial services platform Tide went live in India with its app and business account.
  • The State Bank of Pakistan announced that it is drafting legislation ahead of a planned CBDC launch in 2025.
  • SBM Bank India reported that it is pursuing funding to support the development of its BaaS platform.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Latin American cryptocurrency platform Bitso announced a partnership with remittance company Félix Pago to enable WhatsApp-based crypto-powered payments.
  • Brazil-based digital bank C6 partnered with Thought Machine for its core banking technology.
  • Argentine fintch Ualá to offer personal loans to customers in Mexico courtesy of a partnership with ABC Capital.

Photo by Steve Weir

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BondIT Secures $14 Million in Funding in Round Led by BNY Mellon

BondIT Secures $14 Million in Funding in Round Led by BNY Mellon
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BondIT, Daily news, Funding
  • Fixed income technology innovator bondIT has raised $14 million in new funding.
  • The investment round was led by BNY Mellon and brings bondIT’s total equity capital to more than $32 million.
  • bondIT made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2016.

Credit analytics and fixed income technology company bondIT has raised $14 million in new funding. The strategic investment was led by BNY Mellon and featured the participation of existing investors, as well. BNY Mellon will join bondIT’s Board of Directors as part of the investment. Valuation information was not provided when the funding was announced but, according to Crunchbase, the funding brings bondIT’s total equity capital to more than $32 million.

“This investment will help us accelerate innovation and offer clients a unique holistic solution for fixed income investing,” bondIT founder and CEO Etai Ravid said. “As bond investors are keen to lock in higher yields, our versatile technology and data-driven approach can help them increase automation to improve efficiency and performance, and better mitigate risk.”

Headquartered in New York and Herzliya, Israel, bondIT provides front office investment technology. The company leverages data science, explainable AI, and other advanced technologies to enable its customers to build, analyze, and manage investment portfolios. bondIT’s technology helps its clients accomplish in minutes what previously took hours or even days. Predictive credit analytics enable bondIT customers to anticipate potential changes in corporate credit risk and take advantage of potential investment opportunities before they manifest themselves in the market

“Collaborating with bondIT will allow us to deliver innovative digital solutions for fixed income investors by enabling investment professionals to explore new investment options more easily through the use of AI, further expanding their portfolio optimization capabilities for clients,” BNY Mellon MD John Goodheart said.

bondIT’s relationship with BNY Mellon extends back to 2021, when bondIT participated in BNY Mellon’s startup accelerator program. In the months since then, bondIT added David Curtis as Partner and Head of Global Client Business, and teamed up with MEAG, the asset manager of Munich Re and ERGO. The MEAG partnership, announced almost exactly one year ago, will digitize MEAG’s credit risk workflows. The Munich, Germany-based company will also use bondIT’s Scorable Credit Analytics to enhance its own credit research processes. A component of bondIT’s fixed income technology solutions suite, Scorable Credit Analytics analyzes more than 250 data points a day and translates raw data from a wide variety of financial and market data sources to provide actionable insights for investors.

“Working with bondIT is another important step in driving technological progress across our organization,” MEAG CIO of Public Markets Prashant Sharma said. “We aim to continuously increase the quality and efficiency of our investment process, and technology plays a crucial part in this.”

Photo by Pixabay

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AvidXchange Taps Wise to Power Cross-Border Payments Solution

AvidXchange Taps Wise to Power Cross-Border Payments Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransferWise, Wise
  • AvidXchange partnered with Wise this week.
  • The partnership enables AvidXchange to expand on the global payments capabilities it launched last month.
  • The partnership will help AvidXchange offer its U.S.-based clients an embedded payment experience, creating a more convenient payment process.

Payment automation solutions company AvidXchange announced this week it has selected international money transfer company Wise (formerly known as Transferwise) to expand its international payment capabilities.

“Partnering with Wise to provide our customers with best-in-class international payment capabilities was an easy decision because of their market-leading platform and seamless integration capabilities,” said AvidXchange Chief Growth Officer Dan Drees. “Together, we stand firm as leaders and remain dedicated to making our customers’ payments process more efficient regardless of country lines.”

AvidXchange launched its global payments last month to create an embedded cross-border payment solution for its middle market business clients and their suppliers. Piloting the launch is Oracle NetSuite. The company will enable its clients to access the tool using AvidXchange’s SuiteApp within NetSuite’s SuiteCloud platform.

AvidXchange offers a range of payment automation products, which include invoicing, electronic bill payment, accounts payable automation software, purchase order requisitions, and more. The company serves a range of industries, including real estate, construction, financial services, hospitality, healthcare, and more.

Today’s partnership with Wise helps AvidXchange offer its U.S.-based clients an embedded payment experience that creates a more convenient payment process. The integration enables users to pay both domestic and international suppliers, all within the AvidXchange platform. Wise also offers AvidXchange clients more visibility into fees, gains, and losses to help them better control costs and view cash flow.

“Current systems don’t allow businesses to easily send, spend, or receive money internationally,” said Wise Platform Head Steve Naude. “Through our collaboration with AvidXchange, Wise is helping businesses gain access to a faster, more cost-effective and seamless way to manage finances with domestic and international suppliers in multiple currencies and countries. With 50% of transfers sent instantly, always at the mid-market rate, AvidXchange customers can now have confidence knowing they are saving time and money with each transaction.”

With more than 50 bank and business clients, Wise is one of the best-known players in the international remittance market. The London-based company was founded in 2010 with a simple mission: money without borders.

AvidXchange was founded in 2000 and currently processes over $140 billion transactions annually across its network of more than 680,000 suppliers. Despite its long tenure in the space, AvidXchange has only been a public company for a little over a year. The company debuted on the NASDAQ in October of 2021 and currently has a market capitalization of $1.69 billion.

Photo by Cup of Couple

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Canadian Cross Border Payments Innovator Buckzy Raises Series A Funding

Canadian Cross Border Payments Innovator Buckzy Raises Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Buckzy Payments, Daily news, Funding
  • Canadian real-time cross border payments company Buckzy has raised $14.5 million in Series A funding.
  • The investment was led by Mistral Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures, and featured participation from new investors Luge Capital and Blue 9 Capital, as well as existing investor Revel Partners.
  • Buckzy made its Finovate debut in 2019 at FinovateFall.

In a round led by Mistral Venture Partners and Uncorrelated Ventures, Canada-based real-time, cross border payments company Buckzy has secured $14.5 million in Series A funding. Valuation information was not immediately available. This week’s investment takes the company’s total equity funding to more than $23 million, according to Crunchbase.

“This round of financing is a validation of Buckzy’s vision to create an intelligent and automated international payment system,” Buckzy CEO Abdul Naushad said. “We’re on a mission to build the plumbing for real-time money movement globally, the same way high-speed internet fundamentally shifted the communications industry.”

New investors Luge Capital and Blue 9 Capital, and existing investor Revel Partners, also participated in the round. Luge Capital General Partner Karim Gillani will join Buckzy’s board as an advisor.

Buckzy offers real-time, cross border payments and Banking-as-a-Service capabilities via an embedded finance platform. The platform offers multi-currency bank accounts, local settlement accounts, and real-time FX quoting and booking. A licensed money transfer company, Buckzy has signed up more than 140 bank, neobank, and fintech customers since going live with its platform in 2020.

Calling the cross-border payments market a $150 trillion market globally – and one that is still underserved – Mistral Ventures Partners Managing Director Code Cubitt praised Buckzy for its ability to deliver “a much better customer experience, more automation, and lightning-fast payments.” Cubitt said the company had “the right blend of experience, expertise, and insight to build the next generation of cross border payments.”

Buckzy’s funding news comes at the same time that the company announced the appointment of Seema Rai Nair as VP of Customer Success and Network Expansion. Nair will be responsible for growing the company’s partnership network of banks, fintechs, ecommerce platforms, and other financial service providers.

“Demand for real-time and near real-time international payment services is rising around the world, and companies are increasingly turning to alternative providers such as Buckzy to address their need for fast, secure international payments,” Nair said in a statement.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Buckzy was founded in 2018. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York the following year.

Photo by Andre Furtado

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