Alumni News

10x Banking Accelerates Digital Banking Modernization with audax

10x Banking Accelerates Digital Banking Modernization with audax
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 10x Banking, Alumni News
  • Finovate Best of Show winner 10x Banking has partnered with audax Financial Technology to accelerate digital banking modernization with banks throughout Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
  • The partnership will help banks modernize their core operations quickly, but incrementally, keeping technology debt low as they pursue new business models such as Banking-as-a-Service and super apps.
  • Founded in 2016, 10x Banking is headquartered in London, UK. Antony Jenkins is Founder, Chair, and CEO,

10x Banking, which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023, has teamed up with audax Financial Technology to bring digital banking modernization to core banking service providers throughout Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. While speed is the headline, deploying systems that are capable of keeping up with the rapid growth of the digital payment and fintech markets is just as important.

“This partnership shows banks don’t need to choose between speed and resilience; they can have both,” 10x Banking Founder and CEO Antony Jenkins said. “By combining 10x Banking’s modern core with audax’s digital agility, banks in high-growth regions can innovate at pace, minimize risk, and deliver lasting customer value.”

In the partnership announcement, 10x Banking underscored research that indicated that a growing number of banks perceive the failure to modernize their core systems as an “existential risk.” In the APAC region, research indicated that 67% of banking executives believed they were falling behind in terms of digital modernization, a sentiment supported by the fact that only 8% reported that they had prioritized core banking at their institutions.

Together, 10x Banking and audax, a banking technology solutions provider supported by Standard Chartered, will empower banks to launch new digital products and services faster than is possible with their current legacy core systems. audax’s expertise in enabling modern banking systems, combined with 10x Banking’s meta core platform capable of processing more than a billion real-time transactions annually, will enable banks to modernize incrementally. This will help them keep overall technical debt low while still reaching new customer segments and launching new business models, ranging from Banking-as-a-Service to super apps.

“Traditional core banking projects take years and cost tens of millions,” audax CEO Kelvin Tan said. “Our partnership with 10x Banking changes that equation entirely. Banks can launch full digital services in as fast as six months for a fraction of the cost. That’s the difference between a digital banking project that only works for major cities versus one that can also reach underserved markets across the regions we serve.”

Singapore-based audax offers a plug-and-play digital banking platform that enables banks to quickly launch scalable, compliant solutions—from Banking-as-a-Service to new digital banks. Founded in 2023, audax includes Standard Chartered and Maybank Islamic among its customers.

Headquartered in London, UK, 10x Banking was founded in 2016. A B Corp-certified core banking platform, 10x Banking handles six billion API calls a month and generates more than three million statements an hour for global institutions.

Photo by Corporate Locations on Unsplash

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Visa Launches USDC Settlement in the US

Visa Launches USDC Settlement in the US
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, VISA
  • Visa has launched USDC stablecoin settlement in the US, enabling issuers and acquirers to settle transactions in Circle’s dollar-denominated stablecoin using blockchain infrastructure.
  • Cross River Bank and Lead Bank are piloting the capability to deliver faster, always-on settlement and improved treasury efficiency while remaining compatible with existing payment rails.
  • The move signals stablecoins’ shift from experimentation to bank-ready infrastructure.

Visa unveiled today that it has launched stablecoin settlement in the United States. The payments giant is partnering with Circle’s USDC dollar-denominated stablecoin to enable US issuers and acquirers to settle with Visa in USDC.

USDC settlement relies on blockchains to offer issuers faster money movement and seven‑day settlement windows that will improve both speed and liquidity, modernized treasury management with automated treasury operations, and interoperability between traditional payment rails and blockchain-based payments.

“Visa is expanding stablecoin settlement because our banking partners are not only asking about it— they’re preparing to use it,” said Visa’s Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships Rubail Birwadker. “Financial institutions are looking for faster, programmable settlement options that integrate seamlessly with their existing treasury operations. By bringing USDC settlement to the US, Visa is delivering a reliable, bank‑ready capability that improves treasury efficiency while maintaining the security, compliance, and resiliency standards our network requires.”

Piloting the launch are Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, which are leveraging the Solana blockchain to settle with Visa in USDC. Visa is planning broader availability in the US in 2026. Cross River Bank, a leading infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, reinforces the importance of true interoperability. “Fintech and crypto innovators increasingly ask us to bring stablecoins into their existing product suite,” said Gilles Gade, Founder, President and CEO of Cross River. “A unified platform that natively supports both stablecoins and traditional payment networks is the foundation for how value will move globally. As one of the first US banks to enable USDC settlement with Visa, we’re demonstrating how a tech-forward, deeply integrated banking partner can connect blockchain networks and legacy systems at scale.”

Today’s announcement comes the same week that Visa Consulting & Analytics launched its Stablecoins Advisory Practice to offer education and guidance on market fit and implementation. VyStar Credit Union and Pathward are early participants in the program, which they will use to find new opportunities in the $250 billion stablecoin market.

Visa, which became one of the first major payment networks to settle in stablecoins in 2023, has been positioning itself at the forefront of the stablecoin revolution. Last month, the company’s monthly stablecoin settlement volume passed a $3.5 billion annualized run rate threashold.

Visa’s move to bring USDC settlement to the US shows that the early momentum in stablecoin activity this year is set to continue into next year as the payment rail moves from experimental to a bank-ready settlement tool. By embedding stablecoin settlement directly into its network, Visa is making programmable, always-on settlement a practical option for traditional banks seeking to improve liquidity management, shorten settlement cycles, and bridge existing payment rails with blockchain infrastructure.

Photo by Jonathan Borba

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eToro Brings Stock Lending to the UK

eToro Brings Stock Lending to the UK
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, eToro

Social trading and investment network eToro unveiled that it will begin rolling out its stock lending program in the UK. The capability, which is available in Europe and the UK, enables eligible users to lend out their stocks.

Stock lending isn’t new. In fact, it has long been a passive revenue generator for large brokers and hedge funds. Bringing this capability to an alternative platform like eToro gives the fintech a competitive edge as it brings more transparent, value-added services to the retail trading market. As investor expectations increase, platforms that provide passive-income engines, improved liquidity, and greater control over their portfolios may gain more interest in an ever-crowded market.

Facilitating the launch are global financial services company BNY and stock lending program EquiLend. Under these partnerships, BNY is acting as custodian and clearing provider, while EquiLend identifies borrowers and facilitates the lending process. eToro anticipates that the new program will allow its investors to put their portfolios to work while retaining their investments.

As with most stock lending programs, borrowers post collateral, and investors can still sell their positions at any time. By partnering with institutions such as BNY and EquiLend, eToro aims to ensure operational safeguards that offer retail users institutional-grade risk management.

“Launching stock lending in the UK is a key step in our mission to make passive income opportunities available to every investor,” said eToro VP of Execution Services Yossi Brandes. “With the ability to lend not just US but also global stocks, we are maximizing the potential for our clients to generate additional revenues, and this rollout sets the stage for further expansion into new markets.” 

Launching in the UK expands eToro’s partnership with BNY, which it leverages for clearing and custody services for its stock and ETF offering across 19 global exchanges.

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with eToro, delivering an integrated solution encompassing clearing, settlement, custody, foreign exchange and cash management to UK investors,” said BNY Executive Platform Owner of Global Clearing Victor O’Laughlen. “By combining the capabilities of eToro and EquiLend with the scale and deep expertise of BNY’s leading Global Clearing platform, this initiative aims to equip retail investors with an institutional-grade solution to support their investing journey.”

Israel-based eToro said that the move marks the next step in the company’s plan to expand stock lending access to retail investors worldwide.

For eToro, today’s launch is more than a feature. The expansion is a signal of the company’s strategic move into deeper monetization and institutional-grade services. Leveraging BNY’s clearing and custody infrastructure places eToro closer to the operational standards of traditional brokers while maintaining its core social-trading product. Adding features like these in partnerships with traditional financial institutions could help eToro attract more sophisticated retail investors looking for passive-income tools and greater flexibility.

Founded in 2007, eToro has since raised $693 million in funding. With more than 35 million registered users and investors on its trading and investing platform, the company offers trading and investing tools that are more accessible and collaborative. eToro launched in the US market in 2019, entering a space where Robinhood had already established a six-year presence.

eToro began 2025 with its public debut in May. The company is now listed on Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker ETOR. eToro has a current market capitalization of $3.5 billion.

Photo by John Angel on Unsplash

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Trulioo Joins Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to Secure Agent-Led Payments

Trulioo Joins Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to Secure Agent-Led Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Trulioo
  • Trulioo has joined Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) to provide its Digital Agent Passport and Know Your Agent (KYA) framework, creating a trusted identity layer for AI-driven, agent-led payments.
  • AP2 establishes a common standard for how AI agents transact, and Trulioo ensures every agent interacting in the ecosystem is authenticated, authorized, and accountable before executing a payment.
  • Agentic payments remain early but are poised to scale quickly as identity layers like KYA mature and combine with programmable settlement rails such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits, enabling safe, real-time autonomous transactions.

Agentic payments are on the rise this season, and digital identity platform Trulioo is stepping up to help protect agent-led transactions. The Canada-based company has joined Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2) initiative.

With the launch, Trulioo is deepening its long-standing ties with Google, which leverages Trulioo’s Global Identity Platform for Know Your Customer (KYC) verification.

Google launched AP2 in September 2025 to provide an open, standardized framework for digital payments. AP2 connects banks, fintechs, and merchants with its protocol that creates a common language for how AI agents can transact on behalf of users.

Trulioo will bring its Digital Agent Passport and KYA framework to AP2. Together with Trulioo’s KYA framework, the Digital Agent Passport creates a verifiable trust layer within AP2, ensuring every digital agent is authenticated, authorized, and accountable before transacting.

“The future of commerce belongs to agents that can think, act, and transact independently, but only if they can be trusted,” said Trulioo CEO Vicky Bindra. “By joining AP2, we’re helping define the identity backbone for autonomous payments, where verified agents transact transparently, responsibly, and at machine speed. This is the architecture, and the future, of trusted agentic commerce. We’re proud to be working with Google to bring verified identity to agentic payments.”

Headquartered in Canada and founded in 2011, Trulioo has raised $475 million. The company offers global verification for both businesses and customers in 195 countries and with the ability to verify more than 14,000 ID documents and 700 million business entities while checking against more than 6,000 watchlists. Trulioo has demoed at 10 Finovate events, most recently showcasing its identity platform at FinovateEurope 2023.

Trulioo launched its Know Your Agent (KYA) solution in August 2025. “KYA is a new identity layer designed for agent-led digital interactions, bringing trust and compliance to agentic commerce without compromising speed or user experience,” the company said. “This isn’t just technical infrastructure—it’s a real-time trust layer that quietly safeguards the ecosystem while letting everything move at machine speed.”

Agentic payments are still in their early stages, largely because true autonomy requires more than intelligent agents. For the ecosystem to work, agentic payments require a secure, verifiable system for authorizing transactions without human intervention. As identity layers like KYA mature, consumers and businesses will become more comfortable allowing AI agents to initiate payments, execute purchases, manage subscriptions, or even negotiate transactions on their behalf.

The shift becomes even more notable as agentic payments intersect with programmable settlement rails such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits. These payment methods enable real-time, programmable, and low-cost transactions that will help autonomous agents operate safely at scale. When combined, trusted agent identity plus programmable money could bring agent-led commerce into mainstream markets rapidly, especially if security layers like Trulioo’s are already in place.

Photo by Czapp Árpád

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MoneyGram Teams with Fireblocks to Upgrade its Rails with Stablecoins

MoneyGram Teams with Fireblocks to Upgrade its Rails with Stablecoins
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MoneyGram
  • MoneyGram is partnering with Fireblocks to introduce stablecoin-based settlement across its global payments network, enabling faster, lower-cost transactions and real-time liquidity management.
  • Fireblocks’ blockchain infrastructure will power a programmable settlement layer that streamlines reconciliation, reduces pre-funding needs, enhances treasury operations, and supports large-scale stablecoin flows.
  • As a legacy payments giant adopts digital-asset rails, fiat-backed stablecoins are becoming core infrastructure for cross-border payments and corporate treasury.

Cross-border payments network MoneyGram is taking a step toward modernizing its global settlement infrastructure by partnering with Fireblocks to bring stablecoin-based settlement into its core treasury processes. The collaboration aims to enable faster payments, lower costs, and real-time liquidity across MoneyGram’s worldwide network.

Fireblocks is a blockchain infrastructure and security platform designed for storing, transferring, and issuing digital assets. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, the company’s suite of digital asset tools includes treasury management, wallets-as-a-service, payments, and tokenization. Fireblocks also offers stablecoin infrastructure that enables institutions to seamlessly move, hold, manage, and issue stablecoins with enterprise-grade security.

Founded in 1940, MoneyGram serves 50 million clients annually with its payment network that connects over 200 countries and territories, 20,000 corridors, and close to 500,000 retail locations.

“We are leading the next era of money movement by enabling money to move instantly across any channel—fiat or stablecoin,” said MoneyGram Chairman and CEO Anthony Soohoo. “Fireblocks accelerates this vision by giving us the secure, programmable infrastructure to transform global payments at scale.”

The company will use Fireblocks’ stablecoin infrastructure to create a programmable settlement layer to help reduce capital requirements with pre-funding partners through continuous funding, receive stablecoin payments at scale from its partners, improve access to liquidity pools across global entities, streamline reconciliation and financial reporting for stablecoin operations, and improve treasury operations. MoneyGram will also use Fireblocks to help introduce programmable money and more resilient liquidity pathways.

“MoneyGram is rebuilding the rails of cross-border settlement in real time,” said Fireblocks Co-Founder and CEO Michael Shaulov. “By moving to a multi-chain, programmable infrastructure, it’s upgrading the speed and reliability of global payments at the foundation layer—where it matters most for the people who rely on these payments every day.”

For a long-standing, traditional player like MoneyGram, teaming up with Fireblocks pivots the company from traditional correspondent-bank rails toward a modern, agile payments infrastructure. Today’s partnership is an example of how fiat-backed stablecoins are becoming core plumbing for global payments and corporate treasury operations. It shows that stablecoins could provide instant, reliable, low-cost cross-border value movement at scale, while bypassing legacy banking delays and costs.

Photo by David Dibert

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Plaid Partners with ClearBank; Announces AI-Enabled Transaction Categorization

Plaid Partners with ClearBank; Announces AI-Enabled Transaction Categorization
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Plaid
  • Financial data network Plaid and real-time clearing and embedded banking enabler ClearBank announced a new partnership this week.
  • The partnership will enable Plaid to leverage ClearBank’s virtual accounts and UK Faster Payments Service (FPS) access to enhance the sending, receiving, and reconciling of open banking payments.
  • Founded in 2013, Plaid has been a Finovate alum since its debut at our developers conference, FinDeVR Silicon Valley 2014.

A new partnership between ClearBank and Plaid will deliver faster, more secure, and friction-free Pay by Bank experiences for both businesses and customers throughout the UK. Courtesy of the collaboration, ClearBank‘s virtual accounts and direct access to the UK Faster Payments Service (FPS) will enable Plaid to enhance the sending, receiving, and reconciling of open banking payments. This includes making it easier for companies to match incoming payments to specific users or transactions, enhancing the reconciliation process and reducing reliance on manual effort.

“ClearBank and Plaid share a commitment to modernizing financial services through transparency, security, and innovation,” ClearBank Group Chief Executive Officer Mark Fairless said. “By combining ClearBank’s cloud-native infrastructure with Plaid’s open banking connectivity, we’re unlocking potential for businesses to deliver faster, more reliable, and secure payment experiences.”

An enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, ClearBank will provide a regulated, real-time, cloud-native infrastructure that will benefit consumers with faster, more predictable bank payments. The partnership will enable Plaid to offer faster, more reliable pay-ins and payouts that will empower companies to provide better customer experiences at checkout and during account funding.

“Pay by Bank is no longer a niche option,” Plaid Head of Product, Europe, Zak Lambert said. “Adoption is rising quickly, especially among younger consumers who expect instant, secure, and low-friction ways to pay. To meet that demand, businesses need reliable real-time payment infrastructure. ClearBank’s technology helps Plaid deliver instant, secure, and cost-efficient bank payments so companies can better serve their customers’ needs.”

Plaid’s partnership announcement with ClearBank comes as Plaid announced a new AI-enhanced transaction categorization capability that delivers up to 10% greater accuracy on primary categories and 20% greater accuracy on detailed sub-categories. The result is fewer missed transactions and more accurate data labeling. In addition to AI-assisted label generation and targeted human review, Plaid also noted that it would deploy an expanded category taxonomy with more than a dozen new subcategories to help differentiate income types, repayments, disbursements, bank fees, and transfers.

A Finovate alum for more than a decade, Plaid made its Finovate debut at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014. Today, the San Francisco-based fintech offers a data network that covers more than 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, the UK, and Europe, making it easier for people to connect their financial accounts to the products and services they want. Plaid works with thousands of companies, including Fortune 500 firms and many of the world’s largest banks.

Plaid was founded in 2013. Co-founder Zack Perret is CEO.

Photo by Tim Bish on Unsplash

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Insurtech Eleos Launches AI Voice Agent

Insurtech Eleos Launches AI Voice Agent
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Eleos
  • Embedded income protection and life insurance provider Eleos has launched its AI Voice Agent.
  • The new offering is designed to provide customers with always-on, around-the-clock assistance, backed by human customer service professionals.
  • Eleos made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. Kiruba Shankar Eswaran is Co-Founder and CEO.

London-based insurtech Eleos recently unveiled its AI Voice Agent. The new solution will provide always-on, 24/7 customer service, including the ability to make outbound calls to prospective clients. The AI Voice Agent draws answers from actual Eleos policy documents to address customer queries regarding issues such as policy coverage updates, claims information, how to cancel existing policies, and more.

“We’re committed to making protection simple, accessible, and always available,” Eleos Life CEO and Co-Founder Kiruba Shankar Eswaran said. “Our voice agent extends this mission by giving customers the support they need, exactly when they need it—whether that’s at midnight or mid-afternoon. We’re removing barriers to access and empowering our customers to manage their protection with confidence.”

Eleos emphasized that its new AI Voice Agent is designed to support, not replace, human customer service professionals. Rather, the AI agent will serve customers with basic queries, as well as those who have difficulty reading online content or writing emails. In all instances, customers will have ready access to a human agent via phone, email, or WhatsApp.

Eleos’ AI Voice Agent is the latest iteration of the company’s ongoing investment in AI-powered technology. In August, Eleos unveiled Theea, an intelligent chatbot that guides customers through their insurance application with step-by-step instructions and personalized coverage calculations.

“Life insurance is one of the most important financial decisions people can make, but too often it feels out of reach,” Eswaran said when Theea was launched. “With Theea, we’re changing that by building awareness through clear, jargon-free guidance, improving access with on-demand, multilingual support, and driving engagement by giving people the confidence to explore and choose coverage in their own time. Our mission has always been to make protection simple and inclusive, and Theea is a powerful step in that direction.”

An insurtech specializing in embedded term life insurance, disability insurance, and income protection in both the US and UK, Eleos made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024. At the conference, the company showed how it partnered with consumer brands to embed life insurance and income protection into their online journeys. Eleos demonstrated how the company leverages partner data to raise awareness of the importance of life insurance and income protection, provide quotes on various insurance products, and expedite the application process.

Photo by Peter Spencer

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Fidelity International Taps Tink for Account Top-Ups via Pay by Bank

Fidelity International Taps Tink for Account Top-Ups via Pay by Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Tink
  • Fidelity International is partnering with Visa-owned Tink to offer pay by bank account top-ups, giving investors a faster, more seamless way to fund ISAs, SIPPs, cash management accounts, and general investment accounts.
  • Tink’s pay by bank enables real-time, secure bank-to-bank transfers, settling in under 40 seconds and reducing friction, fraud risk, and costs associated with manual transfers or card-based payments.
  • Pay by bank adoption is accelerating across Europe, driven by lower fees, faster settlement, and open banking growth.

Global asset manager and retirement savings firm Fidelity International has teamed up with Visa’s open banking platform Tink. Fidelity will leverage Tink’s pay by bank tool to enable account top-ups for its personal investing customers and advised clients.

Adding the account top-up capability will allow Fidelity International users to quickly add funds to their ISAs, SIPPs, cash management accounts, and general investment accounts. With Tink’s pay by bank, users can send funds directly from their bank accounts using their secure bank log-in details. The funds are sent on fast rails that settle the transaction in less than 40 seconds on average and offer real-time payment confirmation.

“Fidelity’s focus is always on making investing as accessible and straightforward as possible. Partnering with Tink to offer pay by bank gives both our personal investors and our advised clients a fast, convenient way to fund accounts—reducing friction and improving the overall customer experience,” said Fidelity International Chief Digital Officer, Global Platform Solutions, Ian Hood. “By integrating pay by bank, we’re expanding our digital payments infrastructure to offer a modern, secure alternative to traditional methods like manual bank transfers, helping users move money quickly and safely.”

Founded in 2012, Tink was an early player in Europe’s open banking ecosystem. The Sweden-based company was acquired by Visa in 2022 for $2 billion and today offers a wide variety of products ranging from payments to account data to risk decisioning and finance management. With 3,000+ connections to all major banks across Europe, Tink processes 10 billion transactions per year across 19 geographical markets.

Pay by bank is one of Europe’s fastest-growing payment methods, driven by lower transaction costs, faster settlement times, and a shift toward open banking–powered digital payments. For merchants, direct bank-to-bank transfers eliminate interchange fees and reduce chargeback risk, making the payment experience both cheaper and less prone to fraud. Consumers benefit from a smoother checkout flow, fewer authentication steps, and greater security due to strong customer authentication.

According to Juniper Research, there are currently 183 million open banking users worldwide, a number expected to surpass 645 million by 2029. The combination of cost efficiency, real-time settlement, higher authorization rates, and improved fraud controls positions it as one of the most strategically important payment innovations in the market today and offers the potential for it to become a mainstream payment option.

For Tink, Fidelity’s rollout is another signal that pay by bank is moving from early adoption into mainstream financial services. As Tink Head of Payments Ian Morrin noted, “Pay by bank represents the next evolution of open banking payments, delivering a fast, secure way to pay directly from your bank account. As adoption accelerates, we’re thrilled to see leading institutions like Fidelity put open banking at the heart of their payments experiences to make topping up investment accounts more seamless.”

Photo by Karola G

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Backbase and Unblu Transform Self-Service Banking into Human-Connected Experiences

Backbase and Unblu Transform Self-Service Banking into Human-Connected Experiences
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, unblu
  • Backbase and Unblu have forged a new strategic partnership to transform self-service banking into a trusted, human-connected experience that combines the best of both worlds.
  • The partnership will integrate Unblu’s Conversational Engagement Platform with Backbase’s AI-powered banking solution, adding features such as live chat, voice and video calling, and AI-powered chatbots.
  • Both Unblu and Backbase most recently appeared on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021 in New York. Backbase is a four-time Best of Show winner that first demoed on the Finovate stage in 2009.

A new strategic partnership between Backbase and Unblu is designed to help transform self-service banking into a trusted, human-connected experience. The two companies will offer a joint solution that combines Unblu’s Conversational Engagement Platform with Backbase’s banking platform, adding features such as live chat, voice and video calling, co-browsing, and AI-powered chatbots.

“Digital banking should never come at the expense of human connection,” Backbase Global VP of Marketplace Mayank Somaiya said. “By embedding Unblu’s collaboration tools into our ecosystem, banks can deliver effortless transitions from automated service to expert guidance, helping customers feel supported throughout their digital journey.”

The goal is to enable customers to transition seamlessly from digital self-service to human-assisted interactions in a single engagement. The solution will enable relationship managers, case workers, and frontline service agents to access the customer’s individual context in order to better serve them. A unified employee workbench connects capabilities that were previously isolated across the bank’s tech stack. This empowers bank employees to deliver seamless human-digital interaction within the Backbase platform, benefit from AI-enhanced productivity that automates routine tasks and produces real-time insights, and maintain complete regulatory compliance via encrypted communications, audit trails, and built-in data residency controls.

Use cases for the joint offering include onboarding and account opening, wealth management, customer service, and enabling hybrid branch experiences. The pre-integrated solution will be available to Backbase customers around the world in early 2026.

“We’re excited to partner with Backbase to help financial institutions deliver the kind of personal, frictionless customer experiences today’s users expect,” Unblu Co-CEO Jens Rabe said. “By bringing our digital interaction tools directly into the Backbase platform, we’re enabling banks to build deeper relationships while maintaining the compliance and security standards they can’t compromise on.”

A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase is a four-time Finovate Best of Show winner. Based in Amsterdam, Backbase offers an AI-powered banking platform that helps banks modernize their operations across retail, SME, commercial, and private banking, as well as wealth management. Backbase has enabled financial institutions to achieve year-over-year increases in retail transactions by 51%, customer satisfaction rates of 78%, and app onboarding in less than five minutes. Founded in 2003, Backbase forged a partnership with Facilization, a consulting, system integration, and financial services software firm, in October. The company also teamed up with Akkuro, a core banking technology provider, and Prove, a digital identity company, in September. Founder Jouk Pleiter is Backbase’s CEO.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Unblu most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helps 170+ financial institutions around the world deliver an “in-person” experience online. The company’s customers include UBS, Deutsche Bank, and Intesa Sanpaolo, and the firm has forged partnerships with fintechs—and fellow Finovate alums—such as Temenos, Avaloq, Q2, and ebankIT.

Just days after the company announced its partnership with Backbase, Unblu reported that founder and Co-CEO Luc Haldimann would be transitioning into the newly created role of Chief Strategy Officer. Rabe, who joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer and later served as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, has been serving as Co-CEO and will become the company’s sole CEO as of January 2026.

“Luc built Unblu from the ground up and shaped it into an internationally respected technology leader,” Rabe said. “As CEO, I look forward to continuing the collaboration with Luc in his new strategic role to ensure Unblu remains at the forefront of secure, human-centered digital engagement.”

Photo by Javier M. on Unsplash

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Credolab Unveils Income Prediction Model

Credolab Unveils Income Prediction Model
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CredoLab
  • Behavioral and device metadata analytics innovator Credolab has unveiled its Income Prediction Model.
  • The new offering will enable lenders to estimate applicant income using privacy-consented smartphone metadata. This will help them serve would-be borrowers with limited credit histories and proof-of-income.
  • Founded in 2016, Credolab made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2018 in Singapore. Peter Barcak is Co-Founder and CEO.

One of the biggest challenges for lenders seeking to expand into new markets—especially emerging, underbanked, and digital-first markets—is accessing accurate proof-of-income and credit history information. Even in a world in which open banking is embraced—making financial data more accessible overall—customers who have little data to share will remain on the outside, unable to benefit from a growing range of critical banking and financial services.

To meet this challenge, behavioral and device metadata analytics company Credolab has launched its Income Prediction Model. The new offering leverages machine learning to enable lenders to estimate applicant income by using privacy-consented smartphone metadata. The solution analyzes thousands of anonymized behavioral signals that, put together, correlate with income levels. These signals include app ownership patterns, device model and age, and interaction habits. Individual client institutions can train models on their own specific datasets and customize them based on the unique characteristics of their local populations. Importantly, Credolab’s Income Prediction Model never accesses personally identifiable information (PII) or demographic data like age, gender, or education.

Credolab uses proprietary feature engineering to convert raw metadata—collected with explicit user consent via its SDK—into more than 11 million behavioral features. The technology uses selection strategies based on information value, correlation filtering, and gradient boosting to narrow these features into a few dozen highly predictive indicators. The models use elastic-net logistic regression and tree-based ensemble techniques and validate them with out-of-time and out-of-sample testing to ensure both robustness and explainability.

“In many markets, a lack of verified income data is the biggest barrier to financial inclusion,” Credolab Co-founder and CEO Peter Barcak said. “Our new model gives lenders a privacy-safe and statistically sound way to infer income levels using only device behavior. It’s a powerful step toward fairer, faster, and more inclusive credit decisions, especially among populations for whom traditional data simply doesn’t exist.”

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Singapore, Credolab made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2018. Since then, the company has become the device and behavioral data partner for more than 150 banks, financial services companies, and fintechs around the world. The company’s solutions for risk management, fraud prevention, and insight-driven marketing have delivered decreases of up to 21.9% in the cost of risk and fraud, increases of up to 32% in applicant approval rates, and decreases of up to 28% in the cost of acquisition.

Photo by Christian Dubovan on Unsplash

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Klarna Debuts KlarnaUSD Stablecoin

Klarna Debuts KlarnaUSD Stablecoin
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna
  • Klarna revealed plans to launch KlarnaUSD, a new stablecoin built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain.
  • Set to debut on the Tempo mainnet in 2026, KlarnaUSD will leverage early access to Tempo for testing and integration.
  • The move positions Klarna to capture value in the $120 billion cross-border payments market, using stablecoins to cut costs for both consumers and merchants as stablecoin usage surpasses $27 trillion annually.

Two months after reaching one million card sign-ups in the US, BNPL leader Klarna has revealed plans to launch its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD.

Klarna is launching its new stablecoin on the Tempo blockchain. Launched in September 2025, Tempo is an independent, layer-1 blockchain created by Stripe and Paradigm that’s built for payments. KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance by stablecoin infrastructure platform Bridge.

“With 114 million customers and $118 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna’s scale and Tempo’s infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone,” said Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I’m excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments.”

Klarna will launch its stablecoin on the Tempo mainnet in 2026. Tempo has granted Klarna early access to its infrastructure in advance of the KlarnaUSD launch to allow the fintech to conduct advanced testing, prototyping, and integration.

Klarna and Stripe first teamed up in 2021 when they partnered to allow Stripe users in 20 countries to offer Klarna’s BNPL option, with Stripe as the preferred payments partner in the US and Canada. The partnership between Klarna and Stripe’s blockchain, Tempo, deepens the relationship between the two players.

Today’s announcement comes as cross-border payments are estimated to generate $120 billion in transaction fees annually, and as stablecoin transactions top $27 trillion a year. Launching its own stablecoin isn’t just a way for Klarna to jump on a recent trend. The company will leverage the benefits of stablecoins to reduce costs for both consumers and merchants.

Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash

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Superannuation Fund Brighter Super Selects Napier AI to Upgrade Compliance Infrastructure

Superannuation Fund Brighter Super Selects Napier AI to Upgrade Compliance Infrastructure
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Napier
  • Superannuation fund Brighter Super is upgrading its compliance infrastructure courtesy of a partnership with Napier AI.
  • Migrating to Napier AI’s Continuum platform enables Brighter Super to benefit from Kubernetes-based scalability and intuitive rule-testing capabilities, helping compliance teams adapt to changing regulations.
  • Headquartered in London, Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018.

One of the largest superannuation funds in Queensland, Australia, Brighter Super, has partnered with financial crime prevention platform Napier AI. The fund will leverage Napier AI’s Continuum solution to improve scalability, increase regulatory preparedness, and boost operational efficiency.

“Brighter Super is an excellent example of how a forward-looking institution can use technology to drive compliance transformation,” Napier AI CEO Greg Watson said. “By adopting Napier AI Continuum, Brighter Super has built a scalable, future-ready compliance operation that not only meets today’s regulatory expectations, but also positions them for continued growth.”

Based in Queensland, Australia, Brighter Super migrated from an on-premise system to Napier AI’s hosted environment. The fund now features streamlined post-merger integration, Kubernetes-based scalability, and intuitive rule-testing capabilities that will help future-proof compliance teams, enabling them to better adapt to ever-evolving regulations.

“Napier AI has been instrumental in helping us modernize and scale our compliance operations to keep pace with an evolving superannuation industry,” Brighter Super Chief Risk Officer Shawn Chan said. “As we integrated multiple funds and transitioned to a cloud-based environment, Napier’s platform gave us the flexibility and control we needed—without added complexity. The user-friendly interface meant our team could adapt quickly, even during structural changes.”

Brighter Super manages more than A$36 billion ($23.3 billion) in retirement savings for more than 348,000 members. The fund has experienced significant, M&A-related growth in recent years, merging with Energy Super in 2021 and acquiring Suncorp Portfolio Services Limited in 2022. This fall, Brighter Super announced that it had chosen SuperChoice as its clearing house partner ahead of the new Payday Super regulations that go into effect in July 2026. Also this fall, Brighter Super extended its partnership with MATES in Energy. MATES is a construction industry charity created in 2008 to help reduce the high suicide rate among construction workers. The charity has since been expanded to include workers from other industries, such as energy.

Headquartered in London, and founded in 2015, Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018. The company began this year securing a majority growth investment from Marlin Equity Partners, which took the company’s total funding to more than $55 million. The past few months have been especially busy for Napier AI. The company appointed Noel King as Chief Technology Officer in June, Kenneth Paqvalén as Chief Financial Officer in July, and Adam Flowers as new Chief Revenue Officer in September. Napier AI partnered with UAE-based lottery operator Game LLC in October and, earlier this month, was selected for FCA Supercharged Sandbox launch—supported by fellow Finovate alum NayaOne.

“When deployed in specialist areas such as financial crime, AI can drive billions in cost savings,” Napier AI Chief Product Officer Will Monk said. “The Napier AI / AML Index showed that UK financial institutions could save £2.5 billion annually through AI-driven AML solutions, and the FCA’s Supercharged Sandbox is the perfect platform to streamline this development and deployment to put this cost saving into action.”

Photo by City of Gold Coast on Unsplash

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