Alumni News

Does COVID-19 Spell the End of Globalization? Trust in a Time of Crisis

Does COVID-19 Spell the End of Globalization? Trust in a Time of Crisis
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Weekly Alumni News
Photo by Aksonsat Uanthoeng from Pexels

As parts of the world inch toward a new normal in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, fintech companies – including our Finovate alums – are increasingly finding their footing in an environment of health and financial insecurity. Companies are developing solutions to make it easier for small businesses, for example, to access relief funding. Others are helping consumers secure health care benefits and rewards, or giving SMEs and micro-entrepreneurs no-fee access to their services and solutions.

And while some fear that this global public health crisis heralds the end of globalization, alums like TransferWise and SoFi are busy setting up shop in places like the UAE, and making acquisitions that enable them to launch new solutions in markets like Hong Kong. Other Finovate alums are busy making friends and influencing innovation by combining data extraction technology with mortgage servicing, or leveraging digital identity technology to support eKYC for e-commerce and gaming.

COVID-19 remains a serious threat. As the number of cases worldwide nears three million and the number of deaths rise above 207,000 (985,000 cases and 55,000+ deaths in the U.S. alone), we are still likely closer to the beginning of this challenge than we are to its conclusion. But as Forrester Research analyst Alyson Clarke suggested in a recent Finovate podcast, the time to prepare for life after the crisis – as odd and uncomfortable as it may be – is often when the crisis seems at its worst.

Fintech in Extraordinary Times: Codes of Trust in the Age of Crisis

Finovate podcast host Greg Palmer sat down with Dr. Louise Beaumont to discuss in the impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the economy and the fintech ecosystem. Co-Chair of the Chair Open Banking & Payments Working Group at Tech UK, Beaumont works with lawmakers and regulators to drive positive disruption: helping corporates cope with it and enabling startups to exploit it.

A frequent speaker and lecturer, Beaumont has delivered keynote addresses to Finovate audiences on topics ranging from platformification in banking to the role of emerging codes of trust in financial services.

Finovate Newsletter Goes Bi-Weekly

Coming soon to an inbox near you, our Finovate newsletter soon will switch from a daily offering to a new, twice-weekly delivery. Whether you read us for the latest news on our Finovate alums or for a look at top trends in fintech, stay tuned as our new format helps you keep track of your favorite fintech upstarts, as well as gain new insights from some of our industry’s most perceptive analysts and observers.

Here is our weekly roundup of news from our Finovate alums.

  • Lending-as-a-Service innovator ezbob introduces CBILS (Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme) eligibility and credit assessment engine.
  • Fenergo launches cloud-based, digital remote account opening solution to help SMEs in the U.S. secure PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) funding faster.
  • TransferWise goes live in the UAE.
  • The Logic looks at Cinchy’s plan to develop a “data collaboration command center” to help Canadian health organizations manage the COVID crisis.
  • Ocrolus brings its data extraction and analysis technology to mortgage servicing platform Brace.
  • Voleo announces pilot project to optimize data for tax reporting for independent broker dealer Haywood Securities.
  • StrategyCorps launches In This Together campaign to extend health-related benefit to the customers and members of banks and credit unions free of charge.
  • Fenergo inks OEM agreement with IBM to combat financial crime.
  • SoFi acquires parent of Hong Kong-based online brokerage firm 8 Securities, bringing SoFi Invest to the Hong Kong market.
  • Diamond Credit Union partners with financial literacy specialist Zogo Finance.
  • Blackhawk Network teams up with Rybbon to provide digital prepaid rewards.
  • CRIF Realtime launches COVID-19 Credit Passport to help SMEs present an accurate portrait of their finances to potential lenders.
  • Ocrolus to support income verification for credit decisioning services provider FormFree.
  • U.K. online investment manager Nutmeg integrates with Yolt in an embrace of open banking.
  • Trustly teams up with Swedish insurance firm Folksam to make it easier for students to make insurance payments and get their insurance claim payouts.
  • Digital asset security platform Curv Air debuts its Curv Air Gap signing solution with eToro.
  • Currencycloud launches pilot program to provide SWIFT gpi tracking capabilities to clients via API.
  • ETRONIKA’s BANKTRON to power digital banking for Baltic International Bank.
  • Jumio teams up with Playtech to provide remote onboarding and eKYC for gaming operators.
  • Kofax and ImageTech Systems collaborate on loan processing solution to help financial institutions process COVID-19 related assistance faster.
  • Fiserv teams up with Deluxe to bring merchant services – such as access to the CloverPOS platform – to SMEs.
  • Experian and Funding Xchange team up to offer eligibility portal for borrowers seeking to access COVID-19 related relief funds.
  • Bankjoy partners with a trio of credit unions – Estacado FCU, Prospectors CU, and Discovery CU – with a combined $293 million in assets and 22,000 members.
  • Insuritas announces strategic partnership with Salesforce and Veruna as it unveils its iInsure insurance agency management ecosystem.

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

Empyr Acquired by Augeo, Becomes Figg – Under the agreement, Empyr will rebrand as Figg, combining Augeo’s card-linking technology with Empyr’s publisher experience. Figg will benefit from Augeo’s existing 60 million users and $300 billion in transaction volume for loyalty offers.

TransferWise Brings its Money Transfer Innovations for Banks to Mambu – Mambu will leverage TransferWise’s TransferWise for Banks solution via API, giving its clients an out-of-the-box solution that allows them to focus on building a quality user experience and expanding their offerings.

Email Specialist SparkPost Celebrates Fifth Anniversary – SparkPost, which celebrated the fifth anniversary of the launch of its cloud-based solution earlier this month, is one of the companies innovating in the email delivery and analytics space.

CuneXus Strikes Strategic Partnership with TransUnion – The collaboration matches CuneXus’ Perpetual Loan Approval platform with TransUnion’s vast data assets to deliver relevant brand experiences to consumers quickly, securely, and via the digital channels they increasingly prefer.

Varo Gets Moven: Transition to Enterprise Sends Customers to Digital Banking Upstart – Moven will transition its customers to San Francisco, California-based Varo Money, which is in the process of securing its status as a challenger bank in the U.S.

How the West Was Won: A Salute to the Innovators of FinovateSpring – What have the companies that demonstrated their latest technologies at our west coast fintech conference last spring been up to in the months since then?

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Varo Gets Moven: Transition to Enterprise Sends Customers to Digital Banking Upstart

Varo Gets Moven: Transition to Enterprise Sends Customers to Digital Banking Upstart
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven

When Moven announced a transition away from being a provider of consumer banking services and toward business partnerships, few questioned the company’s capacity to win with enterprise customers. Founded in 2010 by Brett King, Moven has secured partnerships with financial institutions around the world, including Westpac in New Zealand, BCA in Indonesia, TD Bank in Canada, and, most recently, STC Pay in Saudi Arabia.

But there was some question as to what would happen with Moven’s customer accounts, which the company announced it would close by April 30, 2020.

We now have our answer: Moven will transition its customers to San Francisco, California-based Varo Money, which is in the process of securing its status as a challenger bank in the U.S.

“Moven has been a pioneer in the digital banking space and a long-time inspiration,” Varo Money CEO Colin Walsh said. “We are excited to welcome their customers and deliver on the types of technology and features they have grown to love.”

Moven CEO Marek Forysiak said the decision to choose Varo stemmed in part from compatibility with the company’s commitment to fostering financial wellness. The two companies are also looking into ways that Varo can leverage not just Moven’s former customers but also the business’ current and future digital banking technology as Varo continues on the path toward full bankhood.

“We are excited to partner with Varo ahead of their official national charter,” Walsh said. “Our patented financial wellness technology aligns with Varo’s efforts to help everyday Americans gain access to better financial insights and opportunities.”

Founded in 2015, Varo Money offers a mobile banking app, products such as a high-yield savings account, and services including early direct deposit. Available on both iOS and Android platforms, and charging no fees, Varo Money earned regulatory approval from the FDIC in February, insuring the firm’s deposits and giving Varo a major boost in its effort to become a full-fledged bank. To this point, the company has leveraged its partnership with Bancorp as its custodian; Bancorp is slated to transfer those customer deposits to Varo this quarter.

Named one of the 9 Best Checking Accounts for April 2020 by NerdWallet, Varo has raised more than $178 million in funding from investors such as Warburg Pincus and The Rise Fund. The company has an estimated valuation of $418 million.

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Fintech in the Age of COVID-19; Mid-Year Review Delivers Industry Heat Check

Fintech in the Age of COVID-19; Mid-Year Review Delivers Industry Heat Check
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Weekly Alumni News
Photo by Krivec Ales from Pexels

A Mid-Year Heat Check on Fintech

What is the state of fintech as we move toward the second half of 2020? As expectations struggle to catch up with the worldwide public health challenge of the coronavirus pandemic, Finovate will dedicate a week to examining where fintech is right now and where it’s going over the balance of this historic year.

With a focus on the latest trends in payments, fraud and cybercrime prevention technology, bankingtech, and wealthtech, Finovate Fintech Halftime Review will kick off on June 22 and run through June 26. The digital-exclusive, five-day event will feature webinars, videos, white papers, eMagazines, and more – with each day dedicated to a key theme driving fintech today. Login and join us from the comfort of your home – or your home/office. The Finovate Fintech Halftime Review is a great opportunity to get a deep dive into the content that matters to you most.

Finovate Podcast Examines Fintech in the Age of COVID-19

Feeling isolated and anxious while sheltering-in-place? Listen in on some of the most insightful conversations about fintech and the economic challenge of the coronavirus pandemic on the Finovate Podcast.

In his most recent episodes, host Greg Palmer continues his Fintech in Extraordinary Times series, examining the impact of the public health crisis on technology and financial services. Check out his interview with Brett King, founder of Moven, and host of the Breaking Banks podcast; as well as his conversation with fintech expert and former Special Assistant to President Obama, Adrienne Harris.

Here is our weekly roundup of news from our Finovate alums.

  • Ethoca announces extension of its partnership with Microsoft to give the company’s customers access to their digital purchase receipts.
  • ACI Worldwide partners with High Payment Solutions (Hi-Pay) to build the first payments gateway service in Mongolia.
  • Salt Edge brings PSD2 and open banking solutions to Roundups’ donation platform.
  • Avaloq integrates the ACTICO Compliance Suite to help clients prevent financial crime.
  • Worldline partners with Meniga to boost digital customer engagement with Meniga’s personalized banking features.
  • Lendio and TouchBistro partner to help restaurants access PPP loan funds faster.
  • Glance Networks launches Glance for Financial Services, a co-browse, screenshare, and video tool.
  • Zogo Finance signs another three credit unions.
  • Finantix closes acquisition of Swiss data analytics company InCube Group.
  • Minna Technologies launches subscription management pilot for RBI’s Tatra banka.
  • Bankjoy inks partnerships with four credit unions in Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Nebraska with a combined $724 million in assets and more than 65,000 members.
  • Hong Kong Jockey Club customers look to Daon’s IdentityX platform for mobile login services.
  • Tink partners with Kivra to facilitate payment of bills and invoices.
  • Hyundai Card partners with Personetics to deliver financial insights and advice to credit card users.
  • BlueRush appoints Andrew Osmak as new Chief Revenue Officer.
  • Enveil releases ZeroReveal Machine Learning, an encrypted machine learning product.
  • 4Front Credit Union to offer Plinqit to help members save money and stay engaged.

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

Arxan Joins Two Firms to Form New Company – Application security company Arxan Technologies announced yesterday that it has joined forces with two other industry firms, CollabNet VersionOne and XebiaLabs, to form a new entity, Digital.ai.

Behavioral Biometrics Specialist BioCatch Scores $145 Million in New Funding – The Series C round featured participation from new and existing investors including Industry Ventures and American Express Ventures, and boosts the company’s total capital to more than $186 million.

SmartAsset Launches New Client Acquisition Solution – Live Connections enables financial advisors to connect directly with prospective clients by phone via SmartAsset’s SmartAdvisor platform.

Apiax on Why 2020 is Turning Out to Be the Year for Regtech – News from regtech companies has been flowing in 2020. Not only that, we saw significantly more regtech companies at FinovateEurope earlier this year than we have at previous events.

iProov Unveils New Web-Based Biometric Authentication Solution – Three-time Finovate Best of Show winner iProov is bringing its innovations in biometric authentication to the web browser. 

Onfido Raises $100 Million Because “Identity is Broken” – Digital identity verification platform Onfido reeled in $100 million in a round led by TPG Growth this week. The London-based company’s total investment now sits at just over $182 million.

How to Underwrite Loans When Everyone is a Higher Risk – COVID-19 has rewritten so many rules about the economy. It is now more difficult than ever to underwrite risk and ultimately understand if a consumer will pay back their loan.

Currencycloud and Derivative Path to Bring FX to Community Banks – A new strategic partnership between Currencycloud and cloud-based FX trading platform Derivative Path will make it easier for community and regional banks to offer a variety of FX and interest rate derivative trading options to their customers.

Kyckr Deepens Relationship with Citi – Regtech company Kyckr, which first partnered with its client Citigroup in 2016, has extended its relationship with the bank.

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Currencycloud and Derivative Path to Bring FX to Community Banks

Currencycloud and Derivative Path to Bring FX to Community Banks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Currency Cloud, Daily news

A new strategic partnership between Currencycloud and cloud-based FX trading platform Derivative Path will make it easier for community and regional banks to offer a variety of FX and interest rate derivative trading options to their customers.

Derivative Path will embed Currencycloud’s FX technology into its DerivativeEDGE platform, an end-to-end solution for interest rate derivative, FX, and hedge accounting. Together the offering will provide banks with a solution that enables counterparty/order management, electronic spot FX with integrated Request for Quote execution, third party international payments and receipts, and derivatives valuation, as well as compliance reporting.

Derivative Path co-founder and co-CEO Pradeep Bhatia said, “This joint effort will help us leverage our technology capabilities, global infrastructure, and subject matter expertise, to offer banks a platform to manage their FX and payments, a growing need in an underserved space.”

Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Derivative Path partners with financial institutions, buy-side, and commercial end-users to provide over-the-counter, interest rate derivative and FX trading execution and management solutions. Founded in 2013, the company has more than 100 clients and has facilitated thousands of trades with its interest rate, FX, and hedge accounting technology.

Long-time Finovate alum Currencycloud offers 85 APIs over four modules – collect, convert, manage, and pay – that represent the complete B2B cross-border payment workflow. The company has processed $50+ billion to more than 180 countries around the world.

Most recently demonstrating its technology at FinovateSpring 2018, Currencycloud has raised more than $160 million in funding. The company picked up nearly half that sum in a Series E round at the beginning of the year. In February, Currencycloud announced a partnership with U.K. travel money card, Currensea. Mike Laven is CEO.

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Xignite Secures Patent for Market Data Driven Alerts; eXate Earns Accelerator Spot

Xignite Secures Patent for Market Data Driven Alerts; eXate Earns Accelerator Spot
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Ellie Mae, Exate, Onfido, Weekly Alumni News, Xignite

Market data distribution and management solutions provide Xignite has scored a patent for the technology behind its CloudAlerts REST API. The patent recognizes the company’s innovation in developing real-time alerts based on pre-defined stock market conditions. This technology can be added to website or mobile apps by developers to provide users with real-time, automatic notifications on everything from price breakouts to volume surges via SMS, email or onscreen.

What’s unique about Xignite’s approach is the way it is able to deliver market data-driven user alerts at scale, incorporating both the wide variety of user preferences as well as processing a sizable volume of exception conditions in real-time. Fellow Finovate alum SoFi leverages Xignite CloudAlerts in its SoFi Invest service, using the technology to warn investors when a portfolio holding drops below critical levels.

“SoFi saw record investing activity last week during the coronavirus outbreak and that really tested our alerts system,” SoFi Trading and Investment Manager Samuel Nofzinger said. “Our customers value the alerts because they help them invest and protect their money better, especially in today’s volatile market.”

Congratulations to eXate Technologies. The U.K.-based cybersecurity firm – and FinovateEurope 2018 alum – earned a spot in Tech Nation’s Cyber 2.0 growth program. This year’s class marks the second cohort for the program, which is geared toward early-stage cybersecurity startups. Companies participating in the six-month accelerator get peer-to-peer learning with program mentors, masterclasses led by expert scale coaches, as well as meetups and networking with peers, investors, and potential clients.

Add Onfido to the list of Finovate alums that are pitching in to help organizations manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The company announced late last week that it is offering six free months’ use of its biometric identity solution to nonprofit organizations that are fighting the coronavirus. Nonprofits in healthcare, home care, and education are among those to benefit from the program, including a company that uses Onfido’s technology to verify completion of COVID-19 testing.

The Finovate Podcast is on fire! If you’ve not been able to keep up, here are links to the latest conversations with host Greg Palmer.

Here is our weekly roundup of news from our Finovate alums.

  • FreeAgent partners with NatWest to offer its customers online cloud accounting software.
  • Zogo Finance drops app set-up fees for its credit union customers in Louisiana.
  • Ellie Mae announces general availability of peer benchmarking comparison analysis solution, Ellie Mae Insights.
  • Baker Hill launches NextGen SBA Fast Track to help SMBs access CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.
  • Temenos wins Google Cloud Technology Partner of the Year award.
  • NYMBUS teams up with NCR Corporation to help SMBs impacted by COVID-19.
  • University First FCU brings on Insuritas to launch a digital insurance agency.
  • Artegence and Efigence become Magnolia Platinum Partners.
  • Kabbage partners with an undisclosed bank to deliver Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to U.S. small businesses.
  • Moven founder Brett King hints at partnership with Varo Money, encourages users to open an account.
  • ShopKeep and Lendio partner to help small businesses access COVID-19 funds.
  • ATFX now accepting payments via Trustly.
  • ACI Worldwide unveils new “Delay My Payment” feature of its ACI Speedpay solution to help billers and consumers during the COVID crisis.
  • DriveWealth launches DriveHSA, a new tool for Health Savings Account platform providers.
  • Kasasa sees a 288% increase in borrowers using its Take-Back feature.
  • Stash now counts one million banking customers.
  • MX launches portal for banks navigating the Small Business Administration’s new Payment Protection Program.
  • Credit Hero leverages Salt Edge to access borrower’s bank data.
  • Finanteq introduces new initiative to provide free digital banking tools – Pocket Branch and Extentum – to banks during the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Bankjoy hosts online summit to address how credit unions and fintechs can partner to respond to the economic challenges of COVID-19.

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

The Importance of Financial Literacy During Uncertain Economic Times – A growing number of fintechs – many of them Finovate alums you’ll meet below – have devised innovative ways to help young people in particular, become better earners, savers, spenders, and investors.

Kabbage Collaborates with Facebook to Back Retailers During the COVID Crisis – Together, the two companies will help merchants continue to generate revenue at a time when their customers – for sound reasons based on public health – are largely staying away.

SoFi Inks Agreement to Acquire Galileo Financial Technologies – In a cash and stock deal valued at $1.2 billion, online lender and personal finance innovator SoFi has agreed to acquire financial services API and payments platform, Galileo Financial Technologies.

Building a Financial Advisor for Main Street America – We recently chatted with SuperMoney founder and CEO Miron Lulic to give us an update on the company’s platform that helps consumers reach their financial goals.

BankBazaar Adds $3.8 Million to Series D – The capital comes from Amazon and Walden SKT Venture Fund, who have joined Sequoia, GUS Holdings, and Eight Roads Investments in the round. 

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Kabbage Collaborates with Facebook to Back Retailers During the COVID Crisis

Kabbage Collaborates with Facebook to Back Retailers During the COVID Crisis
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Kabbage

One of the most immediate impacts of the worldwide effort to combat the COVID-19 virus is social distancing. And however effective social distancing is in limiting the ability of the coronavirus to spread, it is equally effective in crushing the revenues of businesses large and small.

To help small businesses in the retail sector cope with this challenge, small business cash flow solution provider Kabbage has partnered with Facebook. Together, the two companies will help merchants continue to generate revenue at a time when their customers – for sound reasons based on public health – are largely staying away.

Via the partnership, small businesses can sign up on a new website sponsored by Kabbage: www.helpsmallbusiness.com. This will enable them to sell online gift certificates through Kabbage’s KabbagePayments portal and automatically list them on Facebook. These offers will be visible to Facebook users through their Facebook mobile app; Facebook users can then purchase gift certificates from the www.helpsmallbusinss.com website.

The integration makes it easy for small businesses to sell online gift certificates and place them where they are most likely to be seen by consumers increasingly resorting to online shopping in lieu of traveling to brick and mortar stores. It’s also a way for consumers to support their favorite retailers.

“Now with the powerful reach of Facebook, small business owners have greater opportunity to share gift certificate offers to the community that rely upon them,” Kabbage CEO Rob Frohwein said. “Small businesses are the most impacted in this crisis and this is one way Kabbage is applying its technology and resources to save them.”

The initiative with Facebook is only a small part of Kabbage’s participation in the effort to help SMEs survive the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. The company is one of many helping facilitate relief funding to SMEs via the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP provides funding up to 2.5x average monthly payroll, and the SBA forgives the portion of the loan that is used for critical business operations such as payroll, rent, mortgage interest, or utilities if all employees are kept on staff. Kabbage reports that it has received more than 37,000 applications for the PPP, totaling more than $3.5 million.

“The smallest businesses in America are always the hardest hit, the most vulnerable, and the most in need when a crisis strikes, and together with our bank partner, we are working tirelessly to support them,” Frohwein said.

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Kabbage has been a Finovate alum since 2010 when the company debuted its Kabbage Loan at FinovateSpring.

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Fintech in Extraordinary Times: Leadership and the Importance of Productivity

Fintech in Extraordinary Times: Leadership and the Importance of Productivity
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Podcasting

With a global pandemic reshaping the way we live and work, Finovate VP Greg Palmer and his Finovate Podcast turned to two of our industry’s most insightful observers this week to help put the current challenges to fintech in context.

Ron Shevlin, Managing Director of Fintech Research at Cornerstone Advisors, is one of the world’s top fintech influencers. Author of the book Smarter Bank and a columnist for Forbes, he has provided keynotes and moderated panels at industry events including FinovateFall.

On the challenges facing business leaders during the COVID crisis

We’re wrestling, all of us, with three major concerns: our physical health, our mental health, and our financial health. And if you’re an executive at a fintech company, a bank, a credit union, whatever it might be, you’re wrestling with those things in multiple dimensions: your personal physical, financial, and mental health; your family’s physical, financial, and mental health, your employees’ three areas of health and your customers’. You add that up and it’s pretty daunting …

Listen to Greg’s full 20 minute conversation with Ron Shevlin.

Alyson Clarke is a Principal Analyst with Forrester Research. Among our Analyst All-Stars at FinovateFall 2019 last year, she is a specialist in digital business transformation, creating digital and customer “obsessed” cultures, and digital strategy and innovation.

On how a likely post-COVID-19 recession will affect fintechs and financial services firms

I think we’re clearly going to see fintech funding slow – especially for new or less established startups. In fact, I think it will slow across the board from VCs to corporate funding. I think that will be some of the downside for the fintechs.

In terms of financial services and banks, they’re going to do what they naturally do and that’s focus on cost-cutting and making the operations more efficient. Sadly, some of that focus will be on automation and things like that for the sake of reducing headcount. The problem with that is that they really need to be focused on productivity, not just cost-cutting, because (managing) recessions is about preparing for the upturn.

Listen to Greg’s full 15-minute conversation with Alyson Clarke.

And be sure to check out all the interviews from the Finovate Podcast.

Here is the latest news from our Finovate alums.

  • Microsoft and Plaid collaborate to enable people to import bank and credit card account data into a new PFM solution, Money in Excel.
  • Newly-rebranded Transact Bank (formerly Colorado National Bank) to deploy core banking technology from Fiserv.
  • Vymo introduces new Work from Home solution to help agents and relationship managers work remotely.
  • Insuritas partners with Indiana-based Security Federal Savings Bank.
  • Tradeshift launches Tradeshift Engage to foster digital collaboration between suppliers and buyers.
  • Signifyd releases COVID-19 Business Continuity Package to help ecommerce businesses during the pandemic.
  • NYMBUS launches SmartLenders program to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19.
  • Dwolla appoints Brady Harris as CEO.
  • iProov releases new Android SDK with user experience improvements, easier integration, and performance enhancements.
  • Breach Clarity to waive fees for six months during COVID-19 crisis.
  • PayActiv partners with Paychex to give businesses the ability to grant their workers immediate access to earned wages.
  • Onfido, Admiral Markets, and GetID collaborate to drive omnichannel identity verification in Estonia.
  • Jack Henry’s lending suite now supports Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

Teslar Teams Up with Liberty National Bank to Boost Commercial Lending – The Oklahoma-based bank will use Teslar’s technology to boost productivity, increase transparency, and streamline its commercial lending process.

IdentityMind Global Acquired by Acuant – The deal offers Acuant access to IdentityMind’s digital identity product, a SaaS platform that builds, maintains, and analyzes digital identities and helps companies perform risk-based authentication, regulatory identification, and detect and prevent synthetic and stolen identities.

Vymo Offers Work From Home for Sales Professionals – Vymo, the company whose intelligent sales assistant makes life easier for on-the-go sales pros, has unveiled a new enhancement to help sales teams at this time when customer engagement is even more challenging. 

Azimo Partners with Siam Commercial Bank – SCB clients will benefit from Azimo’s digital money transfer program that uses RippleNet, a blockchain-based money transfer service. Using RippleNet, Azimo will be able to instantly deliver payments from Europe to SCB client accounts.

CRIF to Acquire Strands – The union will bring Strands’ personal financial management and business financial management solutions to CRIF’s client base that includes 6,300 banks, 55,000 businesses, and 310,000 consumers across 50 countries.

Ocrolus’ Nicole Newlin On Digitization, Visualization, and the Age of Partnerships – We caught up with Nicole Newlin, VP of Solutions for Ocrolus, to talk about how the company leverages artificial intelligence to automate critical business tasks like underwriting for lenders.

EVO Payments Raises $150 Million to Help Manage COVID-19 Crisis – Merchant acquirer EVO Payments, the parent company of EVO Snap, has secured $150 million in cash to help fortify the company’s balance sheet, retire debt, and provide funding for future investment opportunities during the COVID-19 crisis.

How Lending-as-a-Service Can Impact Small Businesses in Need – One of the brutal facts of the COVID-19 outbreak is that it will be difficult for small businesses to survive. The self-distancing and shelter-in-place orders, while temporary, are taxing for already cash-strapped merchants.

Plaid to Power Microsoft’s New PFM Tool – Further proving that every company is a fintech company, Plaid has formed a partnership with Microsoft.

More Than $1.3 Billion Raised by 13 Alums in Q1 of 2020 – Finovate alums raised more than $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2020, matching their best, first quarter performance to date from two years ago. 

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Teslar Teams Up with Liberty National Bank to Boost Commercial Lending

Teslar Teams Up with Liberty National Bank to Boost Commercial Lending
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 3E Software, Alumni News, Daily news, Teslar
Photo by Vadim B from Pexels

Automated workflow and portfolio management solutions provider Teslar Software is partnering with Liberty National Bank. The Oklahoma-based bank will use Teslar’s technology to boost productivity, increase transparency, and streamline its commercial lending process.

“By leveraging our advanced portfolio management tools,” Teslar CEO and founder Joe Ehrhardt said, “Liberty National Bank will benefit from stronger data and increased visibility in the commercial lending process, helping them carry out their growth plans with confidence.”

Specifically, the bank will use Teslar’s technology to enhance its exceptions tracking, reporting, and portfolio management. This will give Liberty National Bank’s loan officers better access to more customer information, enabling them to both better engage customers as well as take advantage of potential cross-selling opportunities.

“We’re confident that through our partnership with Teslar, we’ll be able to boost efficiencies, improve accuracy of information, and provide better customer service, ultimately helping us rise above the competition,” Liberty National Bank Chief Credit Officer Michael Bucher said. “Our bank appreciates that Teslar’s platform is built by former bankers who understand our unique challenges and goals.”

With seven branches in five counties in Oklahoma, and a new loan production office in Oklahoma City, Liberty National Bank has nearly doubled its asset size over the past ten years. Founded in 1902 as the Bank of Elgin before Oklahoma had been granted statehood, the institution became Liberty National Bank in 2002. Currently serving customers in Oklahoma and North Texas, the bank has assets of $456 million as of last summer.

Teslar provides community banks and credit unions with a lending and credit management SaaS solution that enables them to manage all stages of the loan lifecycle, from pipeline and call activity to loan review. The company behind the technology, 3E Software, was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas. Teslar has been a Finovate alum since 2015.

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Tink Acquires Eurobits; A Look at Financial Inclusion 3.0

Tink Acquires Eurobits; A Look at Financial Inclusion 3.0
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news

Tink Ties Up with Eurobits Technologies – Stockholm-based open banking platform Tink, announced late last week that it is acquiring Spanish account aggregation services provider – and fellow Finovate alum – Eurobits Technologies for $17 million (€15.5 million). The acquisition will enhance Tink’s position in Southern Europe, extending the firm’s presence to 17 markets around the world.

“We are extremely impressed by the Eurobits team, what they have built and their very strong position in Southern Europe,” Tink co-founder and CEO Daniel Kjellén said. “Not only does it strengthen our platform through increased connectivity, it also gives existing Eurobits customers access to our payment initiation and data services.”

A certified account information and payment initiation services provider (PISP), Eurobits facilitates more than 50 million transactions a month in Europe and Latin America. The company, which demonstrated its account aggregation technology at FinovateEurope 2019, works with some of Europe’s biggest fintech and financial institutions, including BBVA, Santander, and Fintonic. Founded in 2014, Eurobits is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

“Tink is undoubtedly one of the most innovative companies within open banking,” Eurobits CEO Arturo Gonzalez Mac Dowell said. “Joining forces with them to help expand their coverage across Europe and Latin America is a unique opportunity, not only for both of our businesses, but for the broader industry as a whole.”

Tink’s most recent Finovate appearance was also at FinovateEurope 2019. Founded in 2012, the company began this year with a major fundraising, picking up $100 million in funding in a round co-led by Dawn Capital, HMI Capital, and Insight Partners. Tink has collaborated with PayPal, Klarna, NatWest, and ABN AMRO. The company’s platform is used by more than 5,000 developers.

No Static at All: The Finovate Podcast Features Tosin Agbabiaka of Octopus Ventures – Be sure to catch the latest episode of the Finovate Podcast with host Greg Palmer. His most recent episode features Octopus Venture’s Tosin Agbabiaka whose presentation on the future of financial inclusion was one of the more captivating addresses at FinovateEurope in Berlin earlier this year.

Here is our weekly look at the latest news from our Finovate alums.

  • Strands to offer its product suite on Oracle’s Banking-as-a-Service platform.
  • Mambu to power the private debt investment platform of Goldbell Financial Services.
  • Lendio facilitates $2+ billion in loans to U.S. small businesses.
  • Fiserv and U.S. Bank ink data sharing agreement.
  • Daon to deliver onboarding and biometric authentication solutions to SE Asia’s TONIK digital bank.
  • Trusona to provide Radiologex with user authentication technology.
  • Canada’s Interior Savings Credit Union to deploy core processing technology from Fiserv.
  • DriveWealth inks partnership with UAE-based wealth management firm, WealthFace.
  • HooYu teams up with Baanx to help the mobile cryptocurrency platform conduct identity verification.
  • Revolut introduces Revolut Junior, a money management app for kids aged seven to 17.
  • Personetics announces strategic partnership with Avaloq.
  • Jumio donates identity verification services, via its automated solution, Jumio Go, to help organizations dealing with the COVID pandemic.
  • SumUp introduces its free mobile payments and invoicing offering for EU merchants.
  • Salt Edge partners with Hungary’s second largest online invoicer, Billingo.
  • Behavioral biometrics-based fraud detection solutions provider SecuredTouch earns Best Product at 2020 Loyalty Security Association Lion’s Den.
  • iGTB teams up with First Abu Dhabi Bank.
  • Green Dot names Dan Henry as CEO.
  • Aire offers three months of free access to its credit information services to help lenders during the coronavirus crisis.
  • Tink acquires Eurobits Technologies, a Spanish account aggregation vendor, for $17 million (€15.5 million).
  • Best of Show winning financial literacy app Zogo teams up with financial coop VolCorp.
  • Minna Technologies and Jscrambler earn finalist spots in the Tech5 Founders Day competition among top European startups.
  • Personetics announces strategic partnership with Avaloq.

Finovate Alumni Features and Profiles

Moven Minds its Business in B2B Pivot – In a transition announced earlier this week, Moven is moving away from the direct to consumer / neobank model to focus on what founder Brett King summed up as “our distributed smart banking and financial wellness capabilities.”

ebankIT and Enterprise Engineering Forge North American Partnership – Finovate Best of Show winner ebankIT is working with fellow Finovate alum Enterprise Engineering (EEI) to launch a new omnichannel banking solution geared toward financial institutions in North America in general, and the U.S. in specific.

Arkose Labs Locks in $22 Million for its Fraud Fighting Technology – In a round led by Microsoft’s venture capital arm, M12, anti-fraud solutions provider – and FinovateSpring Best of Show winner –Arkose Labs has raised $22 million in Series B funding. 

TheWaay, Neo Digital Banking and Serving the Mass Affluent Market – Founded in 2016, TheWaay offers a Lifestyle Banking platform that helps banks and other financial institutions better understand and meet the needs of their customers.

Revolut Arrives in the U.S.A. – Revolut, the London-based fintech and alternative bank that reached unicorn status in 2018, has finally made its move to America.

Ripple Explains What’s Holding Back Blockchain Adoption – Last fall, blockchain payments company Ripple, in conjunction with Celent, conducted a survey to better understand payment services providers’ adoption of blockchain-based payments.

Lighter Capital Takes Debt Financing to Canada – The physical border between the U.S. and Canada may be closed, but that’s not stopping tech startup financing provider Lighter Capital. The Seattle-based company announced today it has launched its services in Canada.

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Moven Minds its Business in B2B Pivot

Moven Minds its Business in B2B Pivot
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven
Photo by Daria Shevtsova from Pexels

Blame it on the ‘rona? In a transition announced earlier this week, Moven – which made headlines recently with its partnership with Saudi Arabia’s STC Pay – is moving away from the direct to consumer / neobank model to focus on what founder Brett King summed up as “our distributed smart banking and financial wellness capabilities.”

“It has become patently clear we need to focus our energies and our resources on the segment of our business where we can reach the most consumers moving forward,” King said.

The company specifically noted the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Moven’s funding pipeline as a leading factor in the decision. The company emphasized that its Enterprise business remains healthy and well-funded.

“The Moven brand now has the opportunity to represent patented financial well-being, available to enterprises of all types,” Head of Moven’s U.S. Strategy Denny Brandt said. “Our patent gives us competitive strength in a rapidly evolving B2B environment. We continue to be involved in ventures in multiple geographies where we power direct-to-consumer banking services.”

Moven announced that it will close customer accounts at the end of April. The company has begun to communicate with accountholders to let them know what to expect as well as to ensure a smooth transition.

Founded in 2011, Moven made its Finovate debut a few years later at FinovateEurope in London, earning a Best of Show award. The New York-based company, among the first to combine smartphone apps, debit cards, and bank accounts as part of a unified strategy for managing personal finances, launched Moven Enterprise in 2016 to license its technology to banks and other financial institutions. Moven Enterprise debuted on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope in 2017, showing how its engagement platform brings value to customers while producing measurable, positive business outcomes for banks.

Notably, Moven’s partnership with STC Pay is not the company’s first foray into the MENA region. A little over a year ago, Moven announced that it was teaming up with Bahrain-based Almoayad Technologies, which is leveraging the company’s technology to help fulfill the open banking mandate from the country’s central bank.

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ebankIT and Enterprise Engineering Forge North American Partnership

ebankIT and Enterprise Engineering Forge North American Partnership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ebankIT, Enterprise Engineering

Finovate Best of Show winner ebankIT is working with fellow Finovate alum Enterprise Engineering (EEI) to launch a new omnichannel banking solution geared toward financial institutions in North America in general, and the U.S. in specific.

The collaboration will combine Enterprise Engineering’s experience as an integrator and advisor on digital transformation and open banking with ebankIT’s omnichannel digital banking platform.

“This partnership is an important step on the consolidation of our growth strategy for the North American market, where we already have a significant presence,” ebankIT CEO Renato Oliveira said. “With the change of both operations and customer service models, it is essential for banking organizations to have a flexible and sophisticated solution, capable of bringing a true omnichannel experience, which is exactly the main strength of ebankIT.”

The companies previewed this initiative back in February. The joint venture is geared toward helping banks and credit unions in the U.S. offer full-service banking capabilities, including leading-edge technology solutions, to their customers. EEI and ebankIT are marking this latest development in their relationship with a series of educational, half-day seminars on Open Banking beginning this month in New York City.

“This partnership represents a terrific opportunity for EEI and ebankIT,” EEI founder George Anderson said when the collaboration was announced. “Our product sets are extremely complimentary and are best-in-class in our target markets.” Anderson noted that the partnership will result in “impossibly fast time to market and ROI for our joint customers.”

Founded in 2014 and maintaining offices in Porto, Portugal and London, U.K., ebankIT demonstrated its Digital Concierge 2.0 solution at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The technology unites financial and third party services via open banking integrations and channel analytics to provide relevant and engaging customer journeys.

Enterprise Engineering participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, presenting its Trusted Network Platform, an advanced data aggregation and management solution. A WealthManagement.com 2018 Industry Award winner, New York-based Enterprise Engineering was founded in 1995.

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Arkose Labs Locks in $22 Million for its Fraud Fighting Technology

Arkose Labs Locks in $22 Million for its Fraud Fighting Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Arkose Labs, Daily news, Funding

In a round led by Microsoft’s venture capital arm, M12, anti-fraud solutions provider – and FinovateSpring Best of Show winner –Arkose Labs has raised $22 million in Series B funding. The round, which takes the company’s total capital to more than $36 million, also featured participation from existing investors PayPal and USVP.

“Our platform takes a zero-tolerance approach to cyber-attacks and our team is committed to putting a stop to the global fraud epidemic,” Arkose Labs CEO and founder Kevin Gosschalk said. He praised both Microsoft and M12 for their recognition that the challenge of cybersecurity is to “eliminate fraud, rather than contain it.”

Global Head of M12 Nagraj Kashyap noted that Microsoft was no stranger to Arkose Labs’ work in fraud-fighting. “Multiple Microsoft businesses are already benefiting from this innovative technology,” he said. “With Arkose’s end-to-end anti-fraud platform, enterprises across the globe can better protect against fraud and abuse long-term.”

San Francisco, California-based Arkose Labs offers an authentication system that identifies the context, behavior, and reputation of requests, recognizing them as either authentic or inauthentic. Authentic requests are passed through, while inauthentic requests are remediated with a set of dynamic defenses. Requests that cannot be recognized are processed via a challenge-response mechanism until there is evidence of the request’s authenticity. This process also helps improve the platform’s real-time decisioning, reducing the number of false positives over time.

The platform helps defend against a variety of threats including ATO (account takeover), scraping, spam, gift card abuse, and other fraud. Microsoft Director of Identity Security Alex Weinert credited Arkose Labs for offering a cybersecurity solution that is as efficient as it is effective. “Arkose Labs’ technology is an important component of our multi-pronged approach to minimize fraud without negatively impacting legitimate customers,” he said.

Arkose Labs said that the funding will help drive platform development and fuel global expansion, as well as enable the firm to add talent. The investment comes in the wake of the firm’s near doubling of its customer base and the introduction of a number of platform enhancements. These additions include new functionality for Arkose Detect, the platform’s dynamic risk engine, and for Arkose Enforce, the platform’s adaptive step-up mechanism.

“2019 was a banner year, with our platform detecting and preventing $500 million fraud attacks over the last twelve months,” Gosschalk said in January, “saving our customers hundreds of millions in fraud losses and operational costs.”

Founded in 2015, Arkose Labs was recognized by CNBC in its 2019 Upstart 100 roster. The company’s VP of Marketing and Strategy, Vanita Pandey, and Senior Producer, Hedda Peters, won Women in Cybersecurity awards at Cyber Defense Magazine’s Cyber Defense Global Awards last fall.

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