Alumni News

BILL Launches New Procurement Capabilities for Small Businesses

BILL Launches New Procurement Capabilities for Small Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bill.com, Daily news
  • BILL is expanding beyond payments by launching new procurement tools that unify accounts payable, receivable, expense management, forecasting, and payments into one centralized platform for small businesses.
  • The new release offers features like advanced approval routing, invoice matching, and bulk payments.
  • With the launch, BILL positions itself as a financial command center for SMBs, offering a holistic alternative to point solutions like Ramp by delivering integrated, customizable, and scalable cash flow management.

Small business financial software provider BILL unveiled new procurement capabilities this week. The California-based company is releasing new tools to help businesses and accountants take control of their cash flow. Adding this well-rounded set of procurement capabilities signals BILL’s intent to move beyond payments into a broader role as a small business financial command center.

BILL is enhancing its platform with new procure-to-pay capabilities, and bringing accounts payable, accounts receivable, payment cards, expense management, insights, and forecasting in a single solution. The additional procurement tools will enable businesses to efficiently manage, approve, and track purchase orders with greater accuracy. Features like advanced approval routing and automated invoice matching will help reduce fraud risk and payment errors, while streamlining workflows to minimize manual effort and increase operational efficiency.

While other platforms, such as Ramp, focus on specific elements of small business financial operations, BILL differentiates itself with a holistic approach that combines procurement, payments, and forecasting in one platform. Consolidating all of a business’ needs into one platform not only streamlines operations but also reduces the need for third-party add-ons and disjointed data reconciliation between systems.

“Our expansion into procurement reinforces how BILL is driving innovation and setting new standards for helping businesses and accountants to manage and control their cash flow, eliminate ‘busy work’, and make strategic decisions that drive long-term growth and success,” said BILL Founder and CEO René Lacerte.

The three new capabilities BILL is releasing include BILL Multi-Entity, which enables businesses and accounting firms to manage payments across multiple organizations from a single, centralized platform; the BILL API Platform, which allows businesses and accountants to tailor financial workflows to meet their own needs; and a bulk payments option that will save businesses time and money by paying thousands of bills at a time.

The new capabilities will allow, for example, a multi-location accounting firm to route purchase approvals through custom rules for each entity while managing all payments from a single dashboard. This reduces manual tracking, improves compliance, and frees up teams to focus on higher-value tasks.

“In an uncertain environment, control and visibility of cash flow is not only key to efficiency—it’s one of the most powerful levers a business has to be more resilient. Legacy spreadsheets and disparate tools are costing American businesses time, money and opportunity, and BILL is the only technology partner delivering more control, more value and more innovation SMBs need and deserve,” added Lacerte.

Founded in 2006, BILL helps 460,000 businesses automate their financial operations and has processed $266 billion in payments volume. The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BILL, went public in 2019 and has a market capitalization of $4.55 billion.

Photo by Amina Filkins

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BehaviorQuant and Quantlake Forge Strategic Partnership to Enhance Investment Decision-Making

BehaviorQuant and Quantlake Forge Strategic Partnership to Enhance Investment Decision-Making
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BehaviorQuant
  • BehavioralQuant, a company that puts behavioral analytics to work helping individuals make better investment decisions, announced a strategic partnership with Quantlake.
  • The partnership combines BehavioralQuant’s Advisory analytics with Quantlake’s personalized ETF portfolios.
  • Headquartered in Austria, BehaviorQuant made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.

A newly announced strategic partnership between BehaviorQuant and Quantlake is designed to bridge the gap between research and investor expectations. The partnership integrates BehaviorQuant’s Advisory analytics into Quantlake’s platform to give individual investors the ability to leverage behavioral intelligence to enhance their investing decisions.

“This collaboration marks the first time that personalized ETF portfolios are generated based on each investor’s actual behavioral risk profile—not just financial data or standard risk scoring,” BehaviorQuant COO and Co-Founder Gerlinde Berghofer wrote on the company’s website. “By embedding BehaviorQuant’s analytics into the Quantlake platform, this partnership introduces a new level of personalization and intelligence into the investment journey.”

BehaviorQuant’s Advisory solution leverages the fact that behavior plays a major role in investment decision-making and success. The technology incorporates how investors think, feel, and act under uncertainty. This allows for investment recommendations that are psychologically aligned with and financially sound for the investor. Once investors complete a short BehaviorQuant assessment, they receive personalized portfolio recommendations that are based on their behavioral risk profile and their financial status.

The partnership will give investors access to scientifically-validated risk profiles, leveraging the same behavioral finance tools used by financial institutions on Wall Street. Investors will also benefit from personalized portfolio selection. The integration between BehaviorQuant and Quantlake will connect investor behavioral assessments with systematic ETF model portfolios to limit emotional decision-making while at the same time ensuring investors remain within their risk preferences. This combination, both firms assert, will help investors remain committed to their investment plans during times of market volatility when the temptation to make emotionally based investing decisions is greatest.

“For too long, research providers have delivered investment insights without considering how they’ll be interpreted and used by actual investors,” Quantlake CEO Romain Gandon said. “This partnership fundamentally changes that approach by starting with the investor’s behavioral profile and connecting the investment strategy with it. We’re not just offering research—we’re creating a complete solution that works with, rather than against, natural human psychology.”

Quantlake helps retail investors access professional-grade, systematic strategies for long-term investing. The platform emphasizes data-driven approaches that enable investors to overcome emotional biases. Quantlake simplifies ETF selection and provides cost-effective investment solutions that make investing in the financial markets more accessible for individual investors.

Headquartered in Austria and founded in 2018, BehaviorQuant made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the event, the company demonstrated how its technology brings behavioral science and machine learning to bear in improving investment decision-making. Check out my Finovate Global interview with BehaviorQuant CEO Thomas Oberlechner in which he discusses how his company’s technology also has helped financial institutions learn more about the financial advisors who guide their investment decisions.

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Leeds Building Society Partners with Mambu to Pilot Digital Savings Offering

Leeds Building Society Partners with Mambu to Pilot Digital Savings Offering
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Mambu
  • Leeds Building Society, the fifth largest building society in the UK, has gone live on Mambu’s cloud banking platform.
  • The financial institution has launched a pilot digital savings solution and expects to add its mortgage offering to the modernization initiative.
  • Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Mambu has been a Finovate alum since 2013.

After operating on a legacy core system for more than two decades, Leeds Building Society—the fifth largest building society in the UK—has gone live on Mambu’s cloud banking platform. The first step for the institution, in what it is calling a multi-year core modernization project, has been to launch a pilot digital savings solution.

“Our partnership with Mambu continues to go from strength to strength. We’ve spent the past year building the engineering foundations for the complete overhaul of our technology and we are delighted to see the technology being used for live savings accounts,” Leeds Building Society Chief Operating Officer Rob Howse said.

In a statement, Leeds Building Society praised Mambu for the speed with which the institution was able to launch its new savings offering. The building society noted that the savings products launched less than a year after starting the build. Leeds Building Society anticipates eventually adding its mortgage offering to its modernization plan thanks to Mambu’s composable architecture and cloud technology.

Composable banking enables financial services companies to leverage the fast and flexible assembly of independent, best-for-purpose systems to design and deliver new solutions and services. Composable banking allows firms to apply agile principles to build, test, and release new solutions; select and combine technologies in unique ways to design a competitive advantage; build both off-the-shelf and customized cloud solutions; and avoid the potential delays and dependencies of relying on single vendor partners.

Mambu’s cloud banking platform enables financial institutions to take advantage of these features, empowering firms to offer configurable deposits and lending products, collaborate with third-party technology providers, and more. To date, the platform has delivered 400 successful go-lives, served more than 260 customers and 114 million end users, and provided cost savings of up to 50% on implementation, integration, customization, infrastructure, and maintenance.

“Partnering with Mambu provides us with a solution that brings the best composable architecture and cloud technology coupled with innovative functionality that matches the very best in the industry,” Howse added. “This strategic move will mean we can spend more time improving the lives of our members and less worrying about our legacy technology.”

Established in 1875, Leeds Building Society has one million members across the UK. Operating as a mutual, Leeds Building Society offers mortgage, savings, insurance solutions, as well as financial wellness and financial literacy content. The partnership with Mambu coincides with the institution’s 150th anniversary and the “Year of the Cooperative”—a global effort launched by the United Nations to promote the work of cooperative financial institutions and their contributions to sustainable development.

“Leeds Building Society’s move to Mambu is a landmark moment for both the organization and the building society sector at large, reflecting our strengthening presence in the sector and our strong track record of providing transformative solutions to banks, fintechs, and other financial services organizations across the United Kingdom,” Mambu Chief Revenue Officer Mark Geneste said.

Berlin, Germany-based Mambu made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2013. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage in New York for FinovateFall 2021 and in London at FinovateEurope 2022 (in partnership with Persistent Systems). Mambu began 2025 announcing a partnership with Money DD, a subsidiary of Thailand’s Government Savings Bank (GSB), in support of its new digital lending platform Good Money. The fintech also teamed up with Spain’s Ibercaja Banco, helping the institution launch a dedicated consumer finance entity. Last month, Mambu announced a pair of additions to its C-suite, introducing Ellie Heath as Chief People Officer and Semhal Tarekegn O’Gorman as Chief Customer Success Officer.

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Trulioo Teams up with Cross-Border Embedded Payment Solutions Provider PingPong

Trulioo Teams up with Cross-Border Embedded Payment Solutions Provider PingPong
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Trulioo
  • Identity verification platform Trulioo has partnered with cross-border payments solutions company PingPong.
  • PingPong will deploy Trulioo Business Verification and Watchlist Screening to enhance onboarding and improve payment experiences for customers worldwide.
  • Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Trulioo won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023.

Identity platform Trulioo has teamed up with cross-border embedded payment solutions company PingPong. The company has selected Trulioo Business Verification and Watchlist Screening to reduce manual processes during onboarding and to provide fast, compliant payment experiences to customers around the world.

The partnership comes at a time when cross-border payments are expected to grow at 5.9% CAGR, reaching $50 trillion by 2032. At the same time, there are a range of hurdles experienced by businesses when it comes to cross-border payments. These include managing country-specific regulations, dealing with fraud and financial crime, as well as cumbersome onboarding processes. By deploying Trulioo’s advanced Business Verification and Watchlist Screening technology, PingPong will improve its ability to quickly verify individuals and companies worldwide while shortening onboarding time and reducing other operational challenges.

“The digital payments boom creates an abundance of growth opportunities and a broad attack surface for fraud, meaning enterprises can no longer rely on rigid verification methods,” Trulioo CEO Vicky Bindra said. “Fast, flexible, and scalable verification capabilities deliver the trust and security that form the foundation of global commerce. We’re proud to partner with PingPong to help drive growth and compliance in the cross-border payments industry.”

Trulioo’s Business Verification, or Know Your Business (KYB), features many of the same checks as Know Your Customer processes do. Nevertheless, Trulioo’s offering adds a number of additional verification processes due to the complexity of business registration, ownership data, and, at times, business structure. Business Verification offers easy integration, maximized accuracy, minimal to no manual processes, verification in any language, and continuous performance optimization that evolves its data engine and network of interconnected data sources.

The company’s Watchlist Screening checks individuals and businesses against more than 6,000 international watchlists and 20,000+ adverse media sources. Users can deploy the technology to screen against sanctions lists, check for politically exposed persons, and access print, digital, and broadcast media to gain insights into potential customers, including past criminal activity. The technology provides for fewer false positives, continuous monitoring, and simple integration with existing systems.

“Ensuring compliance while providing world-class, digital-first onboarding for businesses is critical to our global payments infrastructure,” PingPong Global Compliance Officer Julia Yao explained. “As we continue to scale and power cross-border payment services for enterprises of all sizes, automation and smart technology are fundamental to delivering fast, secure payment services. Trulioo is a vital partner as we combine our regional expertise and cutting-edge technology to automate business verification around the world.”

Founded in New York in 2015, PingPong is a leading cross-border payments platform, processing more than $250 billion in cumulative transaction volume. The company’s API-first cross-border payments platform integrates with businesses to send, manage, and receive money faster worldwide. PingPong holds more than 60 financial licenses, operates 32 offices in 15 countries, and employs more than 1,500 employees.

A Finovate alum since 2014, Trulioo won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022 and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the Vancouver, Canada-based company demonstrated its identity platform for individual and business verification. The technology features a no-code Workflow Studio and an educational resource hub called Navigator.

Trulioo’s business and individual verification platform covers 195 countries. The platform can verify 14,000+ identity documents and 700 million business entities, and access more than 6,000 watchlists. The company’s technology puts hundreds of predictive risk signals, consortium data, and industry-specific machine learning models to work helping businesses fight fraud and financial crime.

Trulioo’s partnership news comes just weeks after the company introduced Vicky Bindra as its new Chief Executive Officer. Bindra succeeds Steve Munford, who served as CEO since 2020. Bindra comes to Trulioo having worked as Chief Operating and Product Officer at Nuvei and, before that, as Group President and Chief Product Officer at FIS.

“My focus will be on accelerating product innovation, enhancing our global reach and delivering best-in-class solutions to the market,” Bindra said in a statement earlier this month. “I look forward to working with the talented team at Trulioo to advance the company’s position as The World’s Identity Platform.”

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Plumery Announces Strategic Partnership with Darien Technology

Plumery Announces Strategic Partnership with Darien Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Plumery
  • Digital banking platform Plumery has forged a strategic partnership with financial services consulting firm Darien Technology.
  • The partnership combines Plumery’s technology with Darien Technology’s consulting and software development expertise to empower banks to accelerate their digital transformations.
  • Headquartered in Amsterdam, Plumery made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London.

Amsterdam-based digital banking platform Plumery announced a strategic partnership with Darien Technology. A consulting and technology firm that specializes in South America and Spain, Darien Technology will combine its consulting, software development, and UX/UI design expertise with Plumery’s developer-friendly, API-driven architecture to help banks and other financial institutions accelerate their digital transformations.

“This partnership allows us to extend Plumery’s reach into markets that are undergoing rapid digital change but are often held back by rigid legacy systems,” Plumery Founder and CEO Ben Goldin said. “Our platform provides the foundation for financial institutions to deliver seamless digital banking journeys that are easy to launch, fully customizable, and designed to scale. Through a focus on speed, cost-efficiency, and customer experience, we’re giving institutions the autonomy to evolve continuously without being tied to expensive vendor lock-ins or slow, professional service-heavy delivery models.”

Combining Plumery’s technology and Darien’s acumen will provide financial institutions with a digital banking stack that integrates seamlessly with existing core systems to enable them to offer digital banking experiences across both online and mobile channels. The collaboration will drive frictionless onboarding, KYC compliance, personalized engagement, and full loan origination journeys. Financial institutions will benefit from real-time responsiveness thanks to Plumery’s event-driven platform architecture and cloud-native infrastructure. At the same time, firms will be able to leverage regional delivery capabilities and expertise in guiding firms through their digital transformation journeys courtesy of Darien.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Plumery,” Luis Salazar, Digital Transformation Director & CDO, EMEA, at Darien Technology, said. “Their flexible, cloud-native, event-driven architecture and developer-friendly approach to digital banking, coupled with their ability to support progressive modernization without the need for large-scale core transformations aligns perfectly with our mission to help financial institutions innovate with speed and confidence.”

Headquartered in Panama, Darien Technology is a digital transformation and technology consulting firm that specializes in accelerating innovation, modernizing legacy systems, and delivering digital experiences for banks and financial services companies. The company’s capabilities include software development, systems integration, UX/UI design, cloud infrastructure, digital onboarding, document management, identity verification, and AI-driven data insights. Daniel Sepe is CEO.

Founded as a private consultancy in 2016, Plumery grew into an independent product company in 2022. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London, where it demoed its Super App Accelerator, which empowers financial institutions to launch a comprehensive Super App in weeks rather than years. The solution helps financial institutions transition from traditional banking apps to lifestyle-integrated platforms that serve a wider range of consumer financial demands.

Learn more about Plumery in my conversation with Ben Goldin from earlier this year. We discuss the growth of lifestyle banking as well as trends such as AI and hyper-personalization in banking.

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ValidiFI Adds Authoritative Bank Account Verification to its vAccount+ Suite

ValidiFI Adds Authoritative Bank Account Verification to its vAccount+ Suite
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ValidiFI
  • ValidiFI has expanded its vAccount+ suite to include authoritative bank account verification, enabling real-time validation of account status and ownership using direct-source financial data.
  • The new tools include vAccount+ Verify and vAccount+ Coverage, which will help firms onboard customers, initiate ACH payments, and detect fraud with higher accuracy.
  • Built with AI and machine learning, the enhanced suite supports compliance with NACHA regulations and helps banks, lenders, and fintechs make smarter, faster decisions at scale.

Bank account and payment intelligence company ValidiFI recently unveiled enhancements to its vAccount+ suite. This week’s release will add new capabilities for authoritative bank account verification that firms can use when onboarding new customers, initiating ACH transactions, verifying payouts, and ensuring compliance with NACHA and anti-fraud regulations.

Authoritative bank account verification refers to the process of confirming a retail or commercial customer’s bank account ownership and status using official, direct-source data that is obtained from banks, core processors, or authoritative financial institutions. This is in contrast to traditional verification methods that rely on information supplied by the user, manual document uploads, or even micro-deposits. Instead, authoritative bank account verification leverages real-time data to confirm that an account exists, is open and active, and that the person or business claiming the account is indeed the rightful owner.

ValidiFI can leverage the new capabilities to validate up to 85% of accounts based on authoritative data and known transaction history. ValidiFI’s new authoritative bank account verification tool leverages AI and machine learning to analyze bank account and routing number patterns and relationships, which extends coverage to provide insights on 96% of accounts.

“Expanding the vAccount+ suite to include authoritative bank account verification empowers organizations in the B2B payments space to make informed decisions, optimize workflows, and improve risk management strategies,” said ValidiFI CEO John Gordon. “This addition reflects our commitment to delivering actionable insights that drive smarter, more efficient business operations.”

The two authoritative bank account verification tools include vAccount+ Verify, which verifies with authoritative sources for higher accuracy; and vAccount+ Coverage, which maximzes verification using all available data, including authoritative sources.

The tools verify the accuracy of the customer’s bank account and routing number, and offer the option to authenticate bank account ownership by matching the applicant’s details with the account owner’s information. The ownership details help organizations detect discrepancies and potential fraud.

Founded in 2014, ValidiFI offers real-time bank account verification and payment intelligence solutions for both retail and commercial customers. Its tools help lenders, banks, and fintechs improve credit decisioning, prevent fraud, and manage risk with more precision. ValidiFI’s platform is particularly effective in spotting suspicious patterns, such as synthetic identities or mule accounts, and in supporting compliance with account verification mandates such as NACHA’s WEB Debit Rule. By delivering actionable insights instantly, ValidiFI enables its clients to make confident, data-driven decisions at scale.

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Currency Risk Management Firm Argentex Partners with French Paytech Numeral

Currency Risk Management Firm Argentex Partners with French Paytech Numeral
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Numeral
  • Currency risk management and alternative banking specialist Argentex announced French fintech Numeral as its strategic payment technology partner.
  • The partnership will help Argentex optimize payment execution and give the firm advanced reconciliation capabilities.
  • Headquartered in Paris, France, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London.

Currency risk management and alternative banking specialist Argentex has chosen Numeral as its strategic payment technology provider. The designation means that Argentex will leverage technology from the French fintech to transform its payments and FX infrastructure. Argentex will be able to streamline its connectivity with banks via a single integration point, supporting operations across 140 currencies in the UK, EU, UAE, and Australia.

Implementing Numeral’s technology will give Argentex three chief benefits. First, the deployment supports comprehensive banking integration coverage through a single platform. This optimizes payment execution efficiency across multiple banking partners for Swift, SEPA, and UK Faster Payments. Second, Argentex will leverage advanced reconciliation capabilities to ensure accurate financial record-keeping and operational accuracy of both cross-border payments and associated FX trades. Third, Numeral’s platform provides a flexible architecture that supports parallel instances for different geographical regions and business units. This helps maintain strict control and compliance standards.

“By selecting Numeral’s payment technology, we are reinforcing Argentex’s position at the forefront of multi-currency payment processing,” Argentex Chief Operating Officer Tim Rudman said. “The platform’s ability to centralize banking access through a single integration significantly reduces operational complexity while enabling us to uphold the highest standards of security, control, and compliance across our global payment operations.”

Headquartered in London, Argentex is a currency risk management and alternative banking specialist for businesses and financial institutions. The firm provides FCA-registered relationship managers and access to wholesale exchange rates from Tier 1 banks. Argentex clients further benefit from the ability to pay in and out of ring-fenced accounts and hedge their exposure using a wide variety of financial products. With more than 5,500 corporate and institutional clients, Argentex has transacted more than $200 billion for its clients since 2012.

“Argentex’s sophisticated requirements leverage the full potential of the Numeral platform and expertise—from managed multi-bank connectivity to the management of dozens of settlement accounts across multiple currencies and automating FX trade reconciliations,” Numeral Co-Founder and CEO Édouard Mandon said. “We are proud to support a global currency expert like Argentex in their ongoing pursuit of efficiency and innovation.”

Headquartered in Paris, France, Numeral made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed how financial institutions use its platform to automatically send, receive, and reconcile SEPA payments. Numeral also demonstrated how they can manage payment errors via SEPA R transactions using the platform.

Earlier this year, Numeral announced that Societe Generale went live with Numeral’s SEPA instant credit transfer integration for its indirect participants. In less than four months, three banks have launched SEPA instant payments by connecting their core banking systems to Societe Generale’s infrastructure and deploying Numeral’s instant payment capabilities.

Numeral began this year as a Mambu company, announcing its acquisition by the core banking system provider—and fellow Finovate alum—in December 2024.

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CCBank Turns to Tyfone as its Digital Transformation Partner

CCBank Turns to Tyfone as its Digital Transformation Partner
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Tyfone
  • CCBank has chosen Portland, Oregon-based digital banking provider Tyfone.
  • As part of the partnership, CCBank will deploy Tyfone’s nFinia Digital Banking Platform in order to offer new digital banking solutions to its business and retail customers.
  • Tyfone made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2008.

Utah-based CCBank has partnered with digital banking provider Tyfone. The financial institution will deploy the fintech’s nFinia Digital Banking Platform to bring innovative digital solutions to both its small- and medium-sized businesses and retail account holders.

An open, API-driven platform, Tyfone’s nFinia empowers financial institutions to select their preferred third-party providers and integrate them into their digital experience. This provides a single access point and log-in for consumer and business loan originations, credit cards, wealth management, and more. This seamless, single-sign-on experience will be available to all CCBank customers via mobile app, online banking, and in-branch services.

“We wanted to take a leap forward in terms of user experience to better compete with larger institutions and tech-forward providers,” CCBank Chief Operating Officer Eric Wright said. “We were looking for a partner with the resources that give us the ability to offer robust technology and third-party integrations while also enabling us to configure our platform to meet our specific needs. Tyfone fits these criteria perfectly, and we cannot wait to present our new platform to our customers.”

A community-focused financial institution with assets of more than $1 billion, Utah-based CCBank serves businesses and retail customers via branches in Salem, Provo, Orem, Pleasant Grove, Sandy, and St. George, as well as through its mobile app and online channels. Founded in 1993, CCBank partnered with Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines earlier this month to invest in Utah communities by providing financial support to local organizations involved in affordable housing, community development, and other social needs.

“Community banks are the lifeblood of local businesses and jobs, and CCBank’s culture of service and collaboration with the customers is also reflected in their interactions with vendor partners,” Tyfone CEO Siva Narendra said. “We are honored to work alongside CCBank and its visionary team to continue to advance our commercial digital banking capabilities and empower the bank to provide differentiating digital services to its customers.”

One of Finovate’s earliest alums, Tyfone demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2008. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, the company provides digital banking services for both consumers and businesses via partnerships with community financial institutions across the US. Tyfone’s partnership news with CCBank comes just a few weeks after the company announced that Partners 1st Federal Credit Union has selected its nFinia Digital Banking Platform. Partners 1st FCU is headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and maintains 20 branches across five states.

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Tuition.io Lands Debt Funding from ORIX Corporation

Tuition.io Lands Debt Funding from ORIX Corporation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Funding, Tuition.io

Student loan benefits platform Tuition.io has received an undisclosed amount of debt financing from ORIX Corporation USA’s Growth Capital business. This marks Tuition.io’s sixth investment, adding to its five equity rounds that total $15.2 million.

Tuition.io was founded in 2011 to help graduates pay off their student loans while giving businesses a strategic differentiator to improve hiring and employee retention. The company debuted as a direct-to-consumer offering to help student loan borrowers view, understand, and compare their debt and get customized restructuring plans. Today, Tuition.io enables businesses to provide student loan repayment assistance, 529 plan contributions, and tuition reimbursement through a single, customizable interface.

“Partnering with ORIX USA marks a significant milestone for Tuition.io as we expand our mission to make education benefits more accessible and impactful for employers and their workforces,” said Tuition.io COO and CFO Scott Simmons. “This investment enables us to accelerate innovation, reach more organizations, and empower employees with the resources they need to thrive in their careers. We’re excited about the opportunities ahead and the support of ORIX USA to help drive our vision forward.”

ORIX USA’s Growth Capital business was founded in 2001 and has since provided $2.7 billion in funding to 200 companies in a range of sectors from biotech to energy.

“We are excited to partner with Tuition.io as they continue to transform the way employers support their workforce through education benefits,” said ORIX USA’s Growth Capital Business Director Austin Szafranski. “With student debt remaining a critical issue for employees nationwide, Tuition.io’s platform provides a meaningful solution that helps companies attract and retain top talent. We look forward to supporting their growth and impact in the marketplace.”

Not only does ORIX USA Growth Capital’s investment signal a vote of confidence in student loan repayment technologies, but it also shows strong interest in workforce benefits. As traditional compensation packages evolve to meet modern employee needs, debt financing deals such as this one point to increasing investor confidence in HR tech solutions with long-term impact.

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Embedded Finance Solutions Provider Pipe Acquires Glean.ai

Embedded Finance Solutions Provider Pipe Acquires Glean.ai
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Glean AI, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Embeddeed finance solutions company Pipe has acquired spend management innovator Glean.ai.
  • The acquisition will enable the combined entity to respond to two main pain points for small- and medium-sized businesses: access to capital and effective spend management.
  • New York-based Glean.ai made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022.

Embedded finance solutions provider Pipe announced its strategic acquisition of AI-powered spend management innovator Glean.ai. Founded in 2020, Glean.ai offers a spend management solution for small- and medium-sized businesses that provides one-click access to spending trends, billing mistakes, and opportunities to uncover savings. Glean.ai’s solution also features real-time, cross-functional budgeting and billpay tools, and leverages AI to examine spending patterns over time to help business owners and managers make better decisions.

“Today, I’m thrilled to share that Glean.ai is joining forces with Pipe, a fintech company that offers embedded financial solutions within the software platforms business owners use every day to manage their operations,” Glean.ai CEO Howard Katzenberg said in a statement. “This is a huge milestone—not just for us, but for every finance team we’ve had the privilege to support. Pipe shares our vision for intelligent finance infrastructure and their commitment to innovation makes this partnership even more exciting.”

The acquisition comes at a time when many small businesses (nearly half according to the U.S. Small Business Administration) are relying on personal credit cards to help fund their businesses. Moreover, in many instances, these business owners are not separating their personal from their business expenses. With this acquisition, Pipe is seeking to serve small- and medium-sized businesses with the kind of spend management tools they typically have not been able to access. The acquisition will complement Pipe’s embedded capital and business charge fraud solutions, which are made available via the company’s payments and vertical software partners. Pipe noted that Glean.ai will continue to be available to current and new customers directly from Glean.ai.

Pipe CEO Luke Voiles called the acquisition a strategic move that “empowers us to address the two biggest pain points faced by small businesses today—access to capital and effective spend management.” Voiles added, “by combining Pipe’s innovative technology, resources, and expertise with Glean, we’re giving business owners the precise tools they need to thrive.”

Founded in 2019, Pipe builds embedded finance solutions for growing businesses that reside inside the software those firms are already using. With partners ranging from vertical SaaS companies to payments platforms, Pipe’s technology integrates seamlessly into existing platforms, enabling companies to easily launch customer-friendly solutions, go to market in weeks rather than months, and drive growth. The company’s flagship offerings include an embedded working capital solution, Capital, and a branded business card to optimize spend management.

New York-based Glean AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its strategic Accounts Payable (AP) platform that leverages automation and deep insights to help firms pay the right vendors the right amounts at the right times.

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Fiserv Acquires Pinch Payments to Enhance its Payments Offerings in Asia Pacific

Fiserv Acquires Pinch Payments to Enhance its Payments Offerings in Asia Pacific
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fiserv, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Fiserv has acquired Australia-based PayFac Pinch Payments to strengthen its digital payments offerings and expand its merchant reach across the Asia Pacific region.
  • Pinch’s cloud-based SaaS platform and PayFac expertise will help Fiserv deliver more flexible solutions for PayFacs, ISVs, BPSPs, ISOs, and enterprise clients.
  • Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Payments innovator Fiserv has acquired Australia-based payment facilitator (PayFac) Pinch Payments for an undisclosed amount.

Fiserv anticipates that bringing Pinch into its ecosystem will help it offer more flexible options for PayFacs, ISVs, BPSPs, ISOs and enterprise clients. Pinch will enhance Fiserv’s reach with its access to a greater number of merchants. It will also help fuel Fiserv’s delivery of new payments solutions such as Pinch’s cloud-based SaaS business operating platform for merchants across Asia Pacific. 

“This acquisition further demonstrates Fiserv’s commitment to the local payments market, following our recent launch of Clover in Australia,” said Fiserv Head of Australia Gavin Jones. “By integrating our leading digital payments solutions with Pinch’s innovative technology and local expertise, we are able to deliver innovative payment solutions to empower merchants across the APAC region. We welcome the Pinch associates to the Fiserv family and are committed to seamless integration of services for our customers.”

Pinch was founded in 2017 and currently serves 2,000 merchants throughout Australia and New Zealand. The company is best known for its PayFac enablement and its management platform Glassbox. The company serves both enterprises and small businesses, and also offers a developer API, providing a comprehensive set of tools to help businesses facilitate payments more efficiently at scale. 

“Joining Fiserv is an incredible opportunity for the Pinch team and furthers our mission to provide seamless partner experiences to a growing number of merchants,” said Pinch Payments Co-Founder and CEO Paul Allen. “Having worked closely with the Fiserv team, I am confident in our roadmap to expand into new markets.”

The acquisition of Pinch Payments highlights a broader trend in the payments industry as demand grows for faster, more flexible, and embedded payment experiences. Traditional card-based transactions are increasingly being challenged with alternative payment methods such as pay-by-bank, in which consumers make direct, account-to-account transfers without the need for a card network. This shift is being driven by the rise of open banking and a push for lower-cost, real-time payment options.

As businesses and consumers across the Asia Pacific region look for more efficient ways to move money, partnerships and acquisitions like this one position companies like Fiserv to offer a wider range of solutions for customers in more geographies. With PayFac enablement, cloud-based platforms, and emerging capabilities like pay-by-bank, the payments landscape is now offering more speed, transparency, and options.

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CurrencyFair Partners with tell.money to Support its Open Banking Integration

CurrencyFair Partners with tell.money to Support its Open Banking Integration
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CurrencyFair
  • Money transfer company CurrencyFair has teamed up with open banking SaaS platform tell.money.
  • The integration of tell.money’s open banking technology will make CurrencyFair’s money transfer service more seamless, transparent, and compliant.
  • Ireland-based CurrencyFair won Best of Show in its appearance at FinovateAsia 2012 in Singapore.

Dublin, Ireland-based cross-border money transfer company CurrencyFair has partnered with tell.money to support its open banking integration. By integrating tell.money’s open banking technology, CurrencyFair anticipates making its secure and cost-effective money transfer service that much more seamless, compliant, and transparent.

“At CurrencyFair, we are committed to providing customers with the fastest and most secure money transfers possible,” CurrencyFair CEO Jan Lorenc said. “Integrating tell.money’s open banking solutions helps us improve payment efficiency while ensuring compliance with evolving financial regulations.”

In a world in which many people sending money across borders still experience high costs, CurrencyFair helps its customers—expats, overseas homeowners, and small businesses—access the real exchange rate. With an average margin rate of 0.53%—and a small €3 fee—CurrencyFair enables customers to avoid spreads that can be as large as 5% and international transfer fees that can reach €25 on every payment.

Using CurrencyFair is straightforward. Customers simply set up their transaction with the amount and type of currency to be exchanged, provide recipient details, choose a deposit method, and transfer money into their account. CurrencyFair will then exchange the funds at rates that can be up to 8x cheaper than rates offered by banks. Whether individuals are seeking to transfer money overseas, buy overseas property, receive an overseas pension, or pay overseas tuition, CurrencyFair offers competitive FX rates, low-cost global transfers, and dedicated customer support.

“CurrencyFair is a leader in cross-border payments, and we’re pleased to support them in delivering a more seamless and secure experience for their customers worldwide,” tell.money CEO David Monty said.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in London, tell.money provides an open banking SaaS platform, an ecosystem that account providers can join in order to bring open banking solutions to their customers in a compliant way. The company’s solutions include tell.gateway, its dedicated interface APIs; tell.confirm, which meets businesses’ confirmation of payee needs; tell.heartbeat, which provides constant monitoring of APIs; and tell.life, which includes a suite of money management tools to help customers better manage their financial lives.

CurrencyFair made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2012 and won Best of Show later that year for its live demo at FinovateAsia in Singapore. In 2021, the company merged with Assembly Payments, a fintech based in Australia with a presence in Singapore, India, the Philippines, and the US. While CurrencyFair continues to serve consumers and small businesses, the joint venture between the company and Assembly Payments—called Zai—provides integrated financial services such as payments, FX, fraud management, and reconciliation, to mid-market and enterprise-level businesses.

CurrencyFair’s partnership announcement comes one month after the company announced that Jan Lorenc would serve as the company’s new divisional CEO. Lorenc comes to CurrencyFair having worked as SVP and Global Head of Digital Assets Group at Nuvei and as Managing Director and Head of Geo Expansion Affairs for BANXA.

Photo by Steven Hylands

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