Alumni News

Canada’s FundThrough to Acquire Invoice Factoring Business from BlueVine

Canada’s FundThrough to Acquire Invoice Factoring Business from BlueVine
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BlueVine, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

BlueVine, an SME financing company that made its Finovate debut in 2014, announced this week that it is selling its invoice factoring business to Toronto, Canada-based FundThrough.

FundThrough noted that the deal is designed to accelerate both its commitment to embedded finance as well as fuel expansion plans for the U.S. market. Specifically, FundThrough believes the acquisition of its American rival will enable it to increase its U.S. clientele by 2x, boosting the number of customers in the States who use its technology to turn unpaid invoices into access to working capital.

“We are committed to helping small businesses grow and thrive – especially those who sell to large customers where long payment terms and a lack of financing options stand in the way of growing a business,” FundThrough co-founder and CEO Steven Uster said. “BlueVine was one of our biggest competitors in the U.S. market, and through this acquisition we can fulfill our mission on a much larger scale.”

With growth of more than 10x since its founding in 2014 and 3x growth over the past year, FundThrough has scaled to process more than $120 million in funding each month. The company’s AI-powered funding platform, along with its partnerships with companies like Intuit and Enverus, has enabled it to cut the standard amount of time it takes for SMEs to get their invoices paid by as much as 97%.

Invoice factoring was BlueVine’s founding business – and the centerpiece of the company’s 2014 Finovate presentation. The company has grown significantly since then, adding a range of new financing solutions for small businesses and giving the Redwood City, California-based fintech the ability to choose which area of small business financing it will focus on going forward.

“Since launching BlueVine, we’ve been focused on the financial needs of small businesses and are very proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish,” BlueVine co-founder and CEO Eyal Lifshitz said. “As we evolve our products and services, we continuously examine how we can better serve our customers at scale. We determined that FundThrough is perfectly positioned to serve our factoring clients with the care and individual attention they need and deserve. Our factoring clients will be in great hands with FundThrough.”

As part of the acquisition, BlueVine’s invoice funding division employees will join the FundThrough team. The transaction will enable BlueVine to focus on other elements of its business including its BlueVine Business Checking, Payments, and Line of Credit offerings. Since inception in 2014, the Redwood City, California-based fintech has helped SMEs access more than $14 billion in financing.

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TransUnion Brings Credit Data to Public Blockchain Networks

TransUnion Brings Credit Data to Public Blockchain Networks
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TransUnion

Consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion is moving in the direction of Web3. The Illinois-based company announced this week it will bring off-chain consumer credit, identity, and compliance information to public blockchain networks.

The move is made possible via a partnership with Spring Labs, a company that offers decentralized infrastructure for credit and identity data. Spring Labs allows network participants, such as financial institutions, to share information about credit and identity data without needing to share the underlying data itself. Specifically, TransUnion will bring its VantageScore to Spring Labs’ ky0x Digital Passport, a tool that enables blockchain and smart contract applications to access off-chain data sources to create new, permission-controlled decentralized Web3 services and applications.

“We believe in the growth potential of DeFi,” said TransUnion President of U.S. Markets and Consumer Interactive Steve Chaouki. “Providing credit and identity data on-chain is a huge step towards improving the financial products available in the space. Working with Spring’s ky0x, we now have a solution for users to control and share their data on blockchain in a privacy-preserving way, enabling them to safely interact with a broader set of financial products.”

Transporting consumer credit data to the blockchain allows users to offer up information about themselves while maintaining privacy and anonymity of their identity. This secure data sharing allows users to access smart contract applications and helps DeFi and Web3 apps to scale.

Ultimately, the move should benefit both end users and lenders. By having their credit score available on-chain, users can receive better interest rates from DeFi lenders. Simultaneously, DeFi lenders can reduce their risk.

“Enabling access to an industry-standard, trusted credit risk score like VantageScore on-chain and in a consumer permissioned, anonymous way opens the door to greater growth and financial inclusion in the DeFi space,” said TransUnion SVP Consumer Lending Business Leader Liz Pagel. “Paired with ky0x’s AML and KYC capabilities, DeFi lenders can transact with confidence at lower rates, potentially paving the way for lending without the over-collateralization that is standard today.”

To be honest, there is a potential downside to this partnership. Traditional credit scores are prone to racial bias and have negative consequences for borrowers who have no established credit. By porting this imperfect risk underwriting model to the decentralized world, we may be doing ourselves a disservice.

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Community Banking Network CBANC Unveils New B2B Fintech Marketplace

Community Banking Network CBANC Unveils New B2B Fintech Marketplace
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, cbanc Network, Credit Unions, Daily news

CBANC, the biggest verified professional network for U.S. commercial banking institutions – and the professionals that run and work for them – announced the launch of its new platform this week. The CBANC Marketplace will host data and information on 1,000 products from more than 450 companies – all designed to meet the unique needs of small banks and credit unions.

“Over the past 10 years, CBANC has been a place for all financial professionals to connect and discover the information they need to succeed,” CBANC CEO Tom Ferries said. “Today, the speed of technological innovation is outpacing awareness, and community banks and credit unions need a place to discover what’s available for them and feel confident in their decisions.”

The CBANC Marketplace gives companies the ability to have their solutions accessed by a verified audience of community banking and credit union professionals. Both the CBANC Community and Marketplace are free for all employees of U.S. financial institutions, and there is no cost for fintechs and other companies that want to add their product or solution. For more information, and to request inclusion in the CBANC Marketplace, visit the network’s vendor hub.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2009, CBANC benefits from the collective wisdom of more than 8,600 financial institutions with a combined total of more than $22 trillion in assets. The CBANC Community consists of 65,000 verified financial professionals representing more than 80% of all financial institutions in the United States. A unique opportunity to connect and collaborate with peers in the industry who are innovating in a wide range of technologies from AI to the blockchain to cryptocurrencies, the CBANC Network earned a spot on the 2020 Inc 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in the U.S. Ferries, who took over at CEO days before the Inc 5000 announcement, credited CBANC’s three-year revenue growth of more than 6.5x for helping the organization secure the listing.

“Our strong revenue growth is a testament to the value we deliver to our Members and Partners,” Ferries said. “Look for new and exciting product launches later this year to continue our mission of helping our Members preserve the diversity of the American banking system.”

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BeSmartee Pursues Opportunities in Commercial Lending with FlashSpread Acquisition

BeSmartee Pursues Opportunities in Commercial Lending with FlashSpread Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, BeSmartee, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

With its acquisition of financial analysis as a service company FlashSpread, digital mortgage platform BeSmartee’s ability to deliver a complete, digital lending experience just got that much more complete.

“We are excited to welcome FlashSpread and Ariel Trybuch to the BeSmartee family,” CEO and co-founder of BeSmartee Tim Nguyen said in a statement. “This is an acquisition that not only brings new clients, technologies, and talents to BeSmartee, but one that also sparks further innovation into all lending verticals, including mortgages, consumer, and commercial.”

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Glendale, California, FlashSpread specializes in instant tax spreading for commercial lenders and fintechs. The company’s proprietary algorithms enable lenders to convert scanned tax returns into customized and comprehensive financial reports with the click of a button. The technology brings significant efficiencies to the commercial loan process – from origination to servicing – and empowers lenders to make accurate, data-driven credit decisions quickly.

Via its acquisition of FlashSpread, BeSmartee will be able to accelerate its growth strategy, prioritizing increased automation as it expands into the commercial lending space. FlashSpread is integrated with some of the largest loan origination systems in the commercial lending industry, with more than 100 financial institutions relying on its technology to automate manual processes. Post-acquisition, FlashSpread will continue independently to serve customers as a “BeSmartee Company” with FlashSpread founder and CEO Ariel Trybuch taking on the role of General Manager.

“This partnership will provide the resources necessary to support the hyper-growth FlashSpread is currently experiencing, as well as allow us to provide our customers with an even higher level of customer support, rapidly introduce new features and functionality, and expand our ever-growing library of supported document types,” Trybuch said. The company will continue growing its document library to support a broader range of financial statements, as well as launch a no-code reporting module to offer instant custom reports, and unveil an ongoing credit monitoring tool.

BeSmartee’s acquisition announcement comes just days after the company reported a partnership with Freddie Mac. The Huntington Beach-based fintech will integrate Freddie Mac’s automated underwriting system, Loan Product Advisor, improving workflows for lenders by automating risk assessment, and both asset and income data review. The integration will also improve lenders’ ability to make smart business decisions, leveraging actionable insights from Loan Product Advisor’s rich data visualization features.

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PayPal Plans to Launch its Own Stablecoin

PayPal Plans to Launch its Own Stablecoin
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, PayPal

PayPal has confirmed recent rumors regarding plans to launch its own stablecoin. According to Bloomberg, which broke the news last week, a developer found evidence of PayPal’s future stablecoin in the form of the below logo inside the fintech’s iPhone app.

Photo credit: Bloomberg

SVP of Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal Jose Fernandez da Ponte later confirmed the suspicion. “We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators,” Fernandez da Ponte told Bloomberg.

Developer Steve Moser made the discovery by looking at hidden code inside the PayPal app. The code unveils work on PayPal Coin, a PayPal-specific stablecoin that would be backed by the U.S. dollar. After PayPal was made aware of the discovery, the company confirmed that the code was part of a recent internal hackathon and that details surrounding the project will likely change.

If the project comes to fruition, the stablecoin would be just one initiative among a host of other cryptocurrency efforts. In October of 2020 the company partnered with cryptocurrency company Paxos to allow PayPal users in the U.S. to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies. And last March, PayPal launched Checkout with Crypto, a tool that enables users with cryptocurrency holdings to transact using crypto at the online point of sale.

When it comes to working on a stablecoin launch, PayPal is in good company. Meta (formerly Facebook) was developing its own stablecoin, Diem, until it experienced regulatory hurdles and pivoted to work with the Pax dollar instead. On top of that, Visa is looking to leverage a stablecoin to settle transactions.

In addition to its stablecoin ambitions, PayPal is also hoping to gain a reputation as the first super app in the U.S. The company revamped its mobile app last September and now offers a range of features including direct deposit, billpay management, rewards, and more. Founded in 1998, PayPal is now listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker PYPL. The company’s market capitalization currently sits at $213 billion.

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Biometric Authentication Innovator iProov Secures $70 Million in Funding

Biometric Authentication Innovator iProov Secures $70 Million in Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, iProov

An investment of $70 million from Sumeru Equity Partners will enable online facial biometric authentication specialist iProov to expand its business in the United States, grow its worldwide partner network, and add more “top-quality staff” to its global team.

“This investment by one of America’s leading growth funds recognizes the preeminent position we have established,” iProov CEO and founder Andrew Bud said in a statement. “Our potential is enormous and we now have the resources to scale in the United States and worldwide. Our strong balance sheet will give our customers and partners confidence in our long-term ability to keep them and their customers secure.”

Updated valuation information was not immediately available. The company secured Series A funding in 2019, though the amount of the investment was not disclosed. In a statement, the company announced that it had tripled its revenues from 2020 to 2021, and processed more online verifications during a single 10-day period in 2021 than in the whole of 2020. The company added that it had completed more than one million verifications in a single day multiple times in 2021.

As part of the investment, Sumeru Managing Partner Kyle Ryland will join iProov’s Board of Directors. Ryland praised the company’s “combination of patented deep technology, exceptional customer references, and hugely capable team.”

A three-time Finovate Best of Show winner, iProov made its most recent Finovate appearance last spring at FinovateEurope 2021. At the event, iProov demonstrated Flexible Authentication which combines two of the company’s solutions – Genuine Presence Assurance and Liveness Assurance – to enable firms to choose the appropriate level of verification to be applied in a given situation.

Last month, iProov announced a partnership with high-speed passenger rail service Eurostar to test a new contactless fast-track service. The solution, SmartCheck, leverages iProov’s Genuine Presence Assurance technology to provide biometric face verification during the U.K. exit check to both streamline and better secure the travel experience. The pilot project was launched at London’s St. Pancras International station.

“This secure, convenient, and privacy-protecting technology will make life easier and safer for travelers around the world,” Bud said when the Eurostar collaboration was announced in December. “The days of rooting around in your bag for your passport or hoping that your phone battery doesn’t run out before you show your e-ticket at the gate are over. It’s effortless and convenient while also delivering the reassurance and security that travelers expect.”

Photo by Sourav Mishra

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FinTech Automation Inks Consumer Data Agreement with Finicity

FinTech Automation Inks Consumer Data Agreement with Finicity
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finicity

FinTech Automation (FTA), an infrastructure-as-a-service platform, announced that it has partnered with Finicity to access consumer data to ensure secure account validation during the account opening process. The collaboration also will drive a transition away from outdated validation methods such as time-consuming micro-deposits.

“Integrating consumer-permissioned data from Finicity’s open banking network streamlines account opening and funding, making it safer, easier, and faster, which reduces account opening abandonment for our customers,” FinTech Automation founder and CEO David Park said. “It’s a great example of how open banking can improve banking and personal financial management offerings and their customer experience at the same time.”

Courtesy of the agreement, FTA customers will be able to connect to their primary accounts in order to fund new investment accounts. FinTech Automation will also be able to use consumer-permissioned data from Finicity’s open banking platform to show customers a more holistic view of their finances that takes into account holdings across multiple financial and wealth accounts. Customers will be able to download and integrate transactions from their wealth accounts into their personal financial management tools.

“Secure account opening is crucial for financial institutions today,” Finicity President and COO Andy Sheehan said. “Open banking data can reduce the friction and mitigate the risk associated with digital account opening. FTA’s integration of Finicity’s open banking platform will further empower consumers to take charge of their financial data and financial futures.”

Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and founded in 2016, FinTech Automation offers a platform that automates administrative activities, integrates enabling technologies, and supports management with instant data and dashboards. The company’s platform and Acceleration Cloud give businesses the ability to manage APIs, relationships, and methods between workers, clients, and documents in an integrated, fully-compliant fashion. With 30 fintech partners and more than 50 advisory firm clients, FinTech Automation helps SMEs take advantage of innovative new financial technologies.

Finicity has been a Finovate alum since 2014. The company participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr 2021, last year with its VP of Data Science Nick Baguley giving a talk on Connecting Siloed Financial Data: Open Banking’s Impact on the Financial Experience. A few months later, Baguley was recognized by HousingWire in its 2021 Tech Trendsetter Awards for improving income identification and categorization to recognize a broader range of income streams. Also earning plaudits in December was Finicity CEO Steve Smith, who was nominated for Executive of the Year by the Lendit Fintech Industry Awards.

Founded in 1999 by Nick Thomas, Warren Rosner, and Smith, Finicity is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The company was acquired by Mastercard in June 2020 for $825 million.

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Tink Completes Acquisition of FinTecSystems

Tink Completes Acquisition of FinTecSystems
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Tink

Visa-owned open banking platform Tink has finalized its purchase of FinTecSystems. The acquisition, which was initiated prior to Visa purchasing Tink, was first announced in May of last year. The integration of the two companies combines Tink’s open banking platform and FinTecSystems’ product suite to offer a more complete solution when partnering for open banking technology.

Additionally, FinTecSystems brings Tink new customers including N26, DKB, Santander, Solarisbank, and Check24. The Germany-based open banking firm will help Sweden-based Tink build on its growth strategy and expand into the DACH region, where FinTecSystems is currently powering over 150 banks and fintechs.

“Germany is a key market for Tink, and we are excited to have acquired an innovative leader with a strong reputation for the quality of its bank connectivity and payments services,” said Tink Co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén. “We have followed FinTecSystems for many years and are impressed by what they have achieved. Through this acquisition, we are taking a big step into the DACH region, and we look forward to supporting the FinTecSystems’ team to further accelerate their growth.”

FinTecSystems was founded in 2014 and facilitates data analytics, digital account checks, account aggregation, and open banking payments. The company connects to more than 99% of the banks in the DACH region, and in Germany specifically, three in every four online credit decisions involve FinTecSystems’ technology.

FinTecSystems’ 78 employees have joined Tink’s team, which now sits at almost 600 employees. FinTecSystems will continue to function as an independent, regulated company in Germany.

Today’s deal comes two years after Tink landed $103 million (€85 million) in a funding round that boosted its total raised to $308 million. The acquisition also comes after Tink itself was bought out by Visa in June of 2021 for $2.1 billion (€1.8 billion).

Tink, whose open banking platform is used by more than 10,000 developers, was founded in 2012 and currently serves 18 markets from its 13 offices. The company is a two-time Finovate Best of Show Award winner, and most recently demoed at FinovateEurope 2019.

FinovateEurope 2022 is right around the corner. If you are an innovative fintech company with new technology to show, then there’s no better time than now and no better forum than FinovateEurope. To learn more about how to demo your latest innovation at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, March 22 to March 23, visit our FinovateEurope hub today!

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Bank of Charles Town to Digitize its Commercial Lending Experience in Partnership with Jack Henry

Bank of Charles Town to Digitize its Commercial Lending Experience in Partnership with Jack Henry
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Jack Henry

The latest chapter in Bank of Charles Town’s digital transformation was written today. The West Virginia-based financial institution announced that it is collaborating with Jack Henry & Associates to digitize its commercial lending operations.

“We selected Jack Henry’s lending platform because it supports our broader digital banking strategy,” Bank of Charles Town (BCT) Vice President Anthony J. Ranghelli said. “The platform will help us grow with scale and efficiency while improving everyone’s experience. Our immediate goal for the next few years is to expand our digital lending footprint geographically to support businesses in neighboring communities and diversify our portfolio.”

Bank of Charles Town has spent the past few years investing in digital banking solutions, including a new website, digital wallets, and mobile deposit functionality. This week’s announcement will enable the FI to move away from the manual backend processes that have governed its previous loan origination system. The new technology from Jack Henry & Associates will bring new efficiencies, an improved customer experience, and streamlined workflow for employees. Ranghelli noted that the partnership will enable BCT to better serve its small and medium-sized business customers, especially “niche industries” such as dentist offices and law firms which he called “a priority for our bank.”

Founded in 1871 by a coalition of Jefferson County, West Virginia farmers and business leaders, Bank of Charles Town has grown into a $511 million-financial institution serving communities in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia; Loudon County, Virginia; and Washington County, Maryland. BCT was named a Best Bank to Work For by American Banker in 2020 for a second year in a row. Alice Frazier is President and CEO.

A Finovate alum since 2011, when the company showcased its ProfitStars division, Jack Henry & Associates finished 2021 with new partners and new functionalities for its solutions. The company announced a collaboration with Envestnet | Yodlee in December and also reported that its Jack Henry Lending platform, the centerpiece of its partnership with Bank of Charles Town, has been upgraded to include tax return spreading capabilities. This move will further reduce the amount of manual work that typically burdens the lending process and will accelerate the time to loan fulfillment.

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CRIF Partners with Swoop Funding to Help Small Businesses Unlock Working Capital

CRIF Partners with Swoop Funding to Help Small Businesses Unlock Working Capital
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CRIF, Daily news

Late last month, credit management solutions provider CRIF announced plans to team up with Swoop Funding, a business funding and savings platform. CRIF anticipates the partnership will help the U.K.’s community of 5.9 million SMEs access more funding and ultimately grow.

Swoop will leverage CRIF’s Credit Passport business credit scoring technology that provides real time credit scores for SMEs. This tool will benefit both Swoop and the small businesses themselves. Swoop will help match businesses with funding and savings products. For businesses with lower credit scores, this will help them potentially find previously unavailable sources for working capital. The partnership will also offer SMEs insights into their businesses’ financial performance and viability, and help them see how lenders view them.

“We designed Credit Passport to remove friction in the lending decisioning process and help SMEs get the right funding for them, when they need it, as well as to help educate businesses so they can build the most financially healthy and resilient companies,” said CRIF Realtime Chief Product Officer Glen Keller. “CRIF’s partnership with Swoop puts us at the heart of the U.K.’s SMEs with useful information at a time when they need it the most and will really make a difference to the market.”

CRIF’s Credit Passport helps bridge the gap between the financial industry and business owners. The tool leverages open banking to offer lenders a view into SME’s credit quality and will give Swoop’s SME clients insight into their own business credit score.

Swoop was founded in 2018. The company’s business funding and savings platform helps SMEs discover the right funding solution– ranging from loans to equity to grants– to fit their need. Swoop also has a business financial management (BFM) spin, and offers tools to help businesses identify savings opportunities. The company has matched its more than 79,000 customers with over $187 million in funding.

Italy-based CRIF was founded in 1988 and has more than 5,500 employees working across 70+ subsidiary companies on four continents. The firm counts 10,500+ financial institutions, 600 insurance companies, and 82,000 businesses as clients. In all, one million consumers in 50 countries use CRIF’s services. In 2020, CRIF acquired PFM company Strands to complement its customer acquisition, portfolio management, and credit collection tools. Last year, CRIF participated as an investor in nine fintech funding rounds.

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Finovate Alums Raised $1.2 Billion in Q4; $8.4 Billion for the Year

Finovate Alums Raised $1.2 Billion in Q4; $8.4 Billion for the Year
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

Finovate alums notched their biggest fourth quarter fundraising since 2014, securing $1.2 billion in equity investment. The strong Q4 gives Finovate alums a 2021 fundraising total of $8.4 billion, more than double the capital raised in any previous year.

Previous Annual Comparisons

2021’s fundraising strength comes courtesy of $3.3 billion raised in Q1, $2.8 billion raised in Q2, and $1.1 billion raised in Q3. Fundraising in this year’s fourth quarter is also significantly higher than that raised in previous Q4s, and by a significant margin. The fact that Q4’s sizable fundraising totals came as a result of investments in only six alumni makes the current quarter’s accomplishment all the more remarkable.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q4 2020: More than $472 million raised by 17 alums
  • Q4 2019: More than $876 million raised by 21 alums
  • Q4 2018: More than $800 million raised by 19 alums
  • Q4 2017: More than $730 million raised by 23 alums
  • Q4 2016: More than $700 million raised by 26 alums

Four of this quarter’s fundings were at or above the $200 million mark. This marks a first for Finovate alums. The biggest investment received in Q4 of 2021 was the $450 million secured by Socure, a fundraising total that has never been met by a Finovate alum in the final quarter of the year.

Top Quarterly Equity Investments

  • Socure: $450 million
  • Zopa: $304 million
  • Mambu: $266 million
  • Thought Machine: $200 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q4 2021.

October 2021: More than $329 million raised by two alums

November 2021: More than $650 million raised by two alums

December 2021: More than $266 million raised by two alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the fourth quarter of 2021, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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Data Storytelling Innovator Narrative Science Acquired by Salesforce

Data Storytelling Innovator Narrative Science Acquired by Salesforce
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Narrative Science

Narrative Science reported on Wednesday that its acquisition by Salesforce – and integration into Saleforce’s Tableau team is complete. First announced last month, the closing of the acquisition this week will combine Narrative Science’s automated data storytelling capabilities with Tableau’s analytics platform.

“Bringing the Narrative Science award-winning, world-leading AI in analytics team and their innovations to Tableau will help us reach millions more people who are underserved with data,” Tableau President and CEO Mark Nelson wrote on the company’s blog this week. “It will help close the data literacy gap, reimagine an entirely new analytics experience, and set people up for success in this digital-first world.”

Salesforce acquired Tableau Software in 2019 in a deal that combined “the world’s #1 CRM with the world’s #1 analytics platform” Tableau announced in a press release that August. The goal of the acquisition was to enable Salesforce customers to “unlock even greater value from their data” using Tableau’s combination of diverse visualization, analytics, and AI. By adding Narrative Science’s data storytelling technology, Tableau and Narrative Science move closer to their shared goal of “making data more available to everyone, everywhere.”

A Finovate alum since 2013, Narrative Science is a leading provider of automated business analytics and natural language communication technology. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the company is an innovator in the field of data storytelling. As a strategy for delivering business intelligence, data storytelling transcends both data visualization and static dashboards by translating insights into easy-to-understand stories and giving business users a personalized data digest. The company’s Lexio solution, its latest iteration unveiled in the fall of 2020, serves both businesspeople who require data insights in order to do their jobs, but do not have the time or skills to become data analysts, as well as leaders of analytics teams who need to ensure that insights are accessible to and understandable by employees who can translate them into action.

“Unlike today’s typical BI tools, Lexio anticipates what employees need to know so they can make faster and better data-driven decisions,” Narrative Science co-founder and CEO Stuart Frankel said. “Data without context is useless, and Lexio brings that context and understanding to every single employee in plain language and in a consumer-like experience.”

As of this fall, Narrative Science has raised nearly $43 million in funding from investors including Jump Capital, Sapphire, and Battery Ventures. In October, the company earned a #1 ranking in Crain’s Chicago Business Most Innovative Companies 2021 roster. Over the summer, Narrative Science’s Lexio won the “AI-Based Analytics Innovation Award” at the AI Breakthrough Awards.

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