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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FISannounced today that it is partnering with Stratyfy to bolster the capabilities of its SecurLOCK card fraud management solution.
After testing the new SecurLOCK capabilities with customers, FIS anticipates that the updated tool will increase accurately identified card transactions and help prevent fraud. This will reduce friction for end consumers by minimizing fraud and disruption experienced because of false positives.
“With sophisticated fraudsters using new technologies to increase fraud attacks, both businesses and consumers are facing more risk than ever before,” said FIS Head of Fraud Services Eric Kraus. “This new collaboration is a continuation of a commitment to implement new technologies, helping businesses prevent fraudulent behavior to protect the consumers they serve.”
Founded in 2017, Stratyfy provides predictive analytics and decision management solutions for financial institutions. The company demoed one of its solutions, UnBias, at FinovateFall 2022, and won a Best of Show award for its presentation. Among the company’s other solutions are Credit Risk Assessment and Fraud Detection. Stratyfy is one of 80 graduates of FIS’ Fintech Accelerator, having completed the 12-week program in 2020.
“It’s rewarding to see how our unique machine learning approach can enable better outcomes through this solution,” said Stratyfy CEO, and co-founder Laura Kornhauser. “Our relationship with FIS showcases the tremendous value that is possible through partnerships, and we’re thrilled to continue to build upon this important work.”
Banking technology company FIS was founded in 1968, and has a current market capitalization of $40 billion. Earlier this year, the Florida-based company acquired post-trade SaaS platform Torstone Technology to enhance its own capital markets offering. According to Crunchbase, the purchase marks FIS’ 26th acquisition.
A pair of Canada-based Finovate alums – Coconut Software and PayTic – have earned spots in the first cohort of the UK Fintech CTA program. The program runs for eight-weeks, much of it conducted online, and includes a needs assessment and company analysis, participation in the Innovate Finance Global Summit, virtual market briefings, mentor-matching and coaching, as well as strategic business-to-business introductions.
In addition to the digital sessions, participants in the program will be invited to attend local events in the U.K. that will help the firms build and grow their in-market presence and their network. This will enable them to introduce their value proposition to key market participants, investors, as well as potential customers.
Joining Coconut Software and PayTic are a number of other Canadian startups including Symend, OneVest, VoPay, Four Eyes Financial, Octav, and Sibli.
“We are so excited to be selected for the first cohort of the UK Fintech CTA, proudly representing our country’s growing payments landscape as we expand our efforts in the U.K.,” PayTic noted on LinkedIn last week. “Thank you Canadian Technology Accelerators | Accélerateurs technologiques canadiens for this recognition and opportunity to scale!”
Headquartered in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, PayTic made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring. The company offers a SaaS solution that manages all of the significant aspects of program management for card issuers and BIN sponsors in a single interface. PayTic’s technology serves as a central hub within the payments ecosystem, enabling users to automate reconciliation, network report generation, dispute submission, fraud detection, network fee analysis, and robust business intelligence.
At FinovateSpring, PayTic founder and CEO Imad Boumahdi and Director of Product Kate Firuz demoed how PayTic’s platform can help banks, card issuers, BIN sponsors, and fintechs save significant amounts of money by analyzing and optimizing network fees against program activity. The technology enables users to instantly reconcile data across the payments ecosystem from the program and account level to the transaction level. This empowers users to identify exceptions in real-time, generate accurate reports, and remain compliant.
Founded in 2020, PayTic has raised $4 million in funding. Visa Accelerator and Outlierz Ventures are among the firm’s investors.
More than 4,000 kilometers to the west via the Trans-Canada Highway (44 hours if you’re driving), Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Coconut Software is the other Finovate alum that will be joining PayTic as part of the UK Fintech CTA program. Founded in 2007, Coconut Software offers a customer engagement platform to help financial institutions better schedule, manage, and measure customer, prospect, and employee interactions.
Coconut Software made its Finovate debut as part of our special all-digital FinovateSpring conference in 2021. At the event, Senior Solutions Engineer Andre Doucette demoed enhancements to the firm’s appointment scheduling and lobby management technology. These upgrades improved the platform’s online queuing and lobby management capabilities.
Named to the 2023 Technology Fast 50, Coconut Software counts a number of North American financial institutions among its customers, including RBC, Arvest Bank, Vancity, and Rogue Credit Union. The company has raised more than $35 million in funding from investors including Klass Capital and Information Venture Partners. Katherine Regnier is founder and CEO.
Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.
Document automation platform Ocrolus announced it has teamed up with financial data aggregation and account verification expert Envestnet | Yodlee this week.
Under the agreement, Envestnet | Yodlee will leverage Ocrolus’ technology to enhance digital document capabilities for its clients. Specifically, Envestnet | Yodlee’s 47 million customers will be able to improve their user experiences by offering their end-users the option to either submit documents or digitally connect bank accounts. Customers will also be able to automate the extraction of financial data from the documents that the end consumer uploads.
“While the financial services industry has undergone significant digital transformation, documents are still a critical source of data,” said Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley. “We are thrilled to partner with Envestnet | Yodlee to provide a more comprehensive and smoother customer experience across a variety of financial services use cases.”
New York-based Ocrolus leverages AI to capture and analyze data from 1,000 different types of documents and digital forms and boasts an accuracy rate of more than 99%. The company counts more than 400 clients, including Enova, PayPal, Brex, CrossCountry Mortgage, Plaid, and SoFi, who use the solution to detect fraud, analyze cash flows and income, and streamline decisions.
With these capabilities Envestnet | Yodlee anticipates its clients will benefit from more efficient and confident decision-making. “With added document automation capabilities, Envestnet | Yodlee will improve and streamline the onboarding process for credit and lending use cases,” explained company Chief Operating Officer Arun Anur.
Envestnet | Yodlee’s client list includes more than 1,300 financial services and fintech companies, including 17 of the top 20 U.S. banks. The company was founded in 1999 as Yodlee, and changed its name to Envestnet | Yodlee after Envestnet acquired Yodlee for $660 million.
In a digital world, sharing documents can be a huge headache. However, automation platforms such as Ocrolus, this process has become much smoother. Today’s collaboration between Envestnet | Yodlee and Ocrolus marks a significant step forward in enhancing the customer experience.
If you have your ear to the ground in the payments space, you have probably heard that pay-by-bank is the latest craze. Operating in the account-to-account (A2A) payments space since 2008, Dwolla is launching a new offering that echoes that trend.
To bring its A2A payments offering into the new era, the Iowa-based fintech announced the launch of Open Banking Services today. The new open banking integrations will expand on Dwolla’s existing API, adding instant account verification, balance checks, and fraud mitigation to the services offered to the company’s mid- to enterprise-sized business clients.
Dwolla’s Open Banking Services are available through a single API that allows businesses to integrate the entire payment experience– from identity verification to exchanging account credentials– into their existing application. The company has pre-integrated with leading open banking service providers to ensure a smoother implementation process for businesses, reduce complexity, and accelerate time-to-market for A2A payment solutions.
Overall, Dwolla eliminates the need for businesses to use multiple vendors. The company’s white-label API streamlines transactions, leveraging The Clearing House’s RTP Network to allow users to send and settle funds in real-time. Dwolla also offers lower transaction fees, improved accuracy, and enhanced security.
“Our vision with Dwolla’s Open Banking Services is to empower businesses with a seamless, all-in-one solution for A2A payments,” said Dwolla CEO Dave Glaser. “By consolidating essential A2A payment functionalities under one roof, we aim to simplify the payment landscape for businesses, enabling faster time-to-market and improved operational efficiency.”
Dwolla is a three-time Finovate alum and most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2015 where it debuted FiSync. The company has raised $72.4 million across nine rounds of funding.
European consumer and business credit data provider CRIFlaunched its ESG Analytics solution this week. The technology will give banks and financial institutions in the U.K. the ability to quickly and accurately assess the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) profiles of their U.K. and Europe-based suppliers, partners, and customers.
ESG Analytics draws on more than 130 key indicators from data sources in the U.K. and Europe. The technology analyzes information on issues such as water usage, waste production, emissions, and health and safety records, as well as modern slavery and inclusiveness. Financial institutions and banks will only need the U.K. or Europe-based business’ VAT or registration number in order to obtain an ESG score on the company. ESG Analytics also provides granular environmental, social and governance indicators – all available without requiring direct interaction with the company being reviewed.
“Considering the growing attention of the regulatory bodies toward ESG compliance in the EU but also in the U.K., ESG Analytics enables banks, insurers and corporates to understand the impact of businesses they work with today and helps to inform their decision-making in this ever-more important area of work,” CRIF Regional Director for the U.K. and Ireland Sara Costantini said. “And by working with regulatory bodies all around the world, we ensure that we remain at the forefront of regulation so we can pass this knowledge onto U.K. financial institutions.”
ESG Analytics will complement CRIF’s current ESG service, Synesgy, launched last fall. The solution enables businesses in the U.K. to assess the sustainability of their supply chains. Synesgy also helps companies enhance decision-making during the procurement process, avoid operational and reputational risk, and provide greater transparency with regard to ESG.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our time and every one of us has to play our part in protecting the planet for future generations,” Costantini said when Synesgy was launched in September. “For businesses this is no exception. As customers look to companies that are a force for good, it’s crucial that businesses understand both their own ESG performance and that of their entire supply chain.”
Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, CRIF made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014. In the years since, the company has grown into a major international credit bureau and business information provider with more than 10,500 FIs; 1,000+ insurance companies; 90,000+ business customers; and 1,000,000+ consumers in 50 countries using its services.
U.K.-based Wealthify has sought out ClearBank to serve as its embedded banking partner. Online saving and investing service Wealthify will leverage ClearBank’s banking license and API to launch its Instant Access Savings Account.
ClearBank’s API offers real-time clearing access, or instant money transfers. Wealthify’s new savings account, which tracks the Bank of England’s base rate, pays out 4.91% AER (Annual Equivalent Rate), which equals 4.80% gross at the time of publishing.
Wealthify hopes the new account will help support customers in today’s cost of living crisis. “The way people save has evolved rapidly over the last decade,” said Wealthify CEO Andy Russell. “People want more from their money, and choices during different economic conditions, and we’re thrilled to provide it to them. Wealthify’s savings account—powered by ClearBank—offers speedy setup, a great rate, and the ability to see savings and investments all in one place—a holistic view of your finances, at your fingertips.”
Originally founded in 2016, Wealthify demoed its online investing service at FinovateEurope 2017 and had raised $3.15 million (£2.5 million) before being acquired by financial services giant Aviva in 2020. Wealthify currently offers investment products– including stocks and shares ISAs, junior ISAs, self-invested personal pensions– and general investment accounts along with its savings accounts.
The company’s tech-forward approach leverages human intelligence. All of the investments are managed by a team of professionals. “For wealth management experts like Wealthify, our embedded banking offering is an efficient way for them to focus on quality customer service, without spending unnecessary time and resources on licenses or outsourced projects,” said ClearBank CEO Charles McManus.
ClearBank was founded in 2015 by former Worldpay CEO Nick Ogden. The UK-based company earned its banking license from the FCA in late 2016. While ClearBank itself does not lend, provide credit, or invest end users’ funds, the company does allow its banking-as-a-service clients to leverage its banking license to provide banking services. End customers benefit from $107,000 (£85,000) in deposit insurance from the FSCS.
To kick off Finovate’s commemoration of Black/African-American History Month this year, we’re highlighting some of the Black and African-American fintech professionals who represented their companies and their fintech innovations at our Finovate conferences in 2023.
Andre Llewellyn – Marketing Consultant/Advisory Board Member with AI Squared
Along with company CTO Michelle Bonat, Andre Llewellyn helped demonstrated the new Generative AI-based features on AI Squared’s platform at FinovateFall last year.
The company’s technology enables financial services companies to leverage Generative AI – and their own data – to maximize their enterprise assets.
A marketing consultant and AI Squared Advisory Board member, Llewellyn is a marketing veteran whose insights helped fuel new product and brand launches for Procter & Gamble, Instagram, Hashflow, and Candy Digital. He is a graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business.
Michael Duncan’s Bankjoy made its first Finovate appearance in 2016.
The company, which returned to the Finovate stage in 2022 and 2023 for FinovateFall, helps community banks and credit unions access modern banking technology. Bankjoy’s solutions help FIs better target specific market niches and deliver superior digital banking experiences.
Duncan (CEO) co-founded Bankjoy in 2015. Headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan, Bankjoy has more than 60 clients, more than 120 integrations, and serves more than 1 million customers and members of banks and credit unions. This week, the company announced a new partner – Oregon State Credit Union – that will deploy Bankjoy’s online account opening and loan application.
Mountain View, California-based DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2023.
Solutions Engineer Ryan Nichols (shown) joined company CRO Kevin McWey on stage as they demoed DataVisor’s Fraud & Risk Platform. The company’s solution supports the entire fraud workflow in a self-service solution that is single and flexible.
A software developer and solutions architect with experience at firms like CenturyLink and Internet publisher Giant Oak, Nichols joined DataVisor in 2021. As of the spring of 2023, he is both a Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner (CTCE) and a Certified Cryptocurrency Risk Specialist (CCRS).
Nate Gibbons – Chief Experience Officer with QuickFi
Nate Gibbons, QuickFi’s Chief Experience Officer, is no stranger to Finovate audience – nor to the Finovate Best of Show awards.
The company, an innovator in embedded financing for business equipment, has won Best of Show on two occasions: FinovateSpring 2022 and 2023. And Gibbons was part of the winning team both times (along with colleague Jillian Munson, VP of Process & Automation with QuickFi).
An alum of the University of Rochester Simon Business School, Gibbons is also a Certified Lease and Finance Professional (CLFP). Previous to his tenure at QuickFi, he was Project Manager and subsequently Vice President at First American Equipment Finance.
The company is an Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion firm that consists of The Urban Labs (services) and Lexicon (products). The Lazu Group made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring, demoing its CULTURL Heritage Calendar that offers “content, ideas, and resources for creating timely communication to promote empathy and curiosity and encourage cross-cultural dialogue.”
Lazu is a speaker, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an author. Her book, From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, was published this year. Lazu is also a former banking professional, having worked as EVP and Chief Experience and Culture Officer for Berkshire Bank in Boston.
ModernTax founder and CEO Matthew Parker introduced his company to Finovate audiences last year at FinovateSpring. ModernTax is a data company that makes tax and financial data on non-public entities more accessible. The company has created a verification platform that includes more than seven million businesses, and ModernTax has validated tax records for “hundreds of thousands” of them.
Before launching ModernTax, Parker was co-founder and CEO of Rapidly.co, a SaaS platform that connects accountants, enrolled agents, and tax professionals to their clients online. We caught up with him last fall to talk about the founding of ModernTax and what it means to have a more transparent financial ecosystem.
FinGoal first introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinovateFall in 2021. But it was the company’s return to the Finovate stage the following spring that earned the Colorado-based fintech its first Best of Show award.
Led by Ariam Sium, VP of Product (shown) and Jenn Underwood, Product Analyst, FinGoal’s demo of its Aggregator Switch Kit showed how developers can readily transition from their current data aggregator to access the most enriched and reliable data available.
Finovate VP and host of the Finovate podcast Greg Palmer sat down with Sium in the wake of FinGoal’s Best of Show win last year. Check out their conversation from last summer.
AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. The company, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., specializes in helping companies integrate AI and machine learning functionality into any web-based application. Leading the company’s demo was founder and CEO Benjamin Harvey.
With a Master’s degree and a Doctor of Science in Computer Science – as well as years spent as both a Research and Assistant Professor – Harvey brings a wealth of academic experience to the challenge of entrepreneurship and innovation in the fintech space.
We discussed this, and other aspects of his background and goals, in a Finovate blog interview back in August of last year.
Trucking industry software platform Trucker Pathannounced this week it has tapped online lending marketplace Lendio to embed small business lending tools within its mobile app.
Lendio, will offer Trucker Path’s community of one million users a range of financing services, including asset or revenue-based financing, debt financing, lines of credit, and equipment financing.
“Lendio brings much needed capital to trucking businesses, who have traditionally been underserved by banks,” said Trucker Path CMO Chris Oliver. “Their loan products, which are tailored for transportation businesses, can be used to buy, upgrade or repair equipment, invest in technology to gain a competitive advantage, and expand operations or add staff.”
Lendio has already funded over $330 million for trucking businesses, and will now offer a range of its financing services to the Trucker Path community of users.
Trucking businesses can access Lendio’s financing tool within the Trucker Path mobile app. Users can apply for financing from Lendio’s network of lenders in as little as 15 minutes via a process that will not impact the applicant’s credit score. Lendio makes the capital available as quickly as 24 hours. Lendio offers applicants access to a dedicated expert who can discuss their needs and help them decide on the most suitable financing option for their particular situation.
“With Lendio’s Embedded Lending, Trucker Path users will now have faster access to financing from a variety of lenders that best meet their business’ needs,” said Lendio CEO and Co-Founder Brock Blake. “We know access to capital can be a big roadblock for many small businesses, and our marketplace has helped hundreds of thousands of businesses with this – including many in trucking and transportation – over the past decade. This partnership aligns perfectly with our mission to create a world where small businesses survive and thrive, and we’re so excited to work with Trucker Path.”
Since its 2011 launch, Utah-based Lendio has functioned as a matchmaker between small businesses and lenders. Businesses seeking funding can submit a single application to Lendio, tapping into its network of over 75 lenders. The platform then pairs each business with a suitable lender from the company’s in-house network.
The company positions itself as a mission-driven organization, and lives up to its word. When the coronavirus hit in 2020, the U.S. Small Business Administration passed the CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and Lendio became a critical resource for merchants across the nation. The company saw that many small businesses were experiencing mass confusion around different types of relief programs, and quickly created a COVID-19 Relief Hub on its website to educate business owners, help them apply for funding, and match them with one of its lender partners. Additionally, for every new marketplace loan Lendio facilitates, Lendio Gives—an employee-contribution and employer-matching fund, in partnership with KIVA–provides a microloan to low-income entrepreneurs around the world, continuously re-investing the fund.
Lendio, backed by the likes of Runa Capital and Comcast Ventures, has secured over $108 million in funding. Most recently, the company took in $31 million in a 2020 round led by Mercato Partners. Lendio has made three acquisitions, most recently purchasing online lending platform QuarterSpot in 2021 for an undisclosed amount.
Automated identity verification specialist Onfido announced the launch of its Compliance Suite.
The Compliance Suite features qualified electronic signatures, one-time passwords, and no-code compliance workflows.
Onfido made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018.
Automated identity verification specialist Onfido unveiled its Compliance Suite this week. The new offering helps companies meet the regulatory requirements for customer onboarding as they expand into new markets.
Compliance Suite brings qualified electronic signature (QES) and One-time Password (OTP) functionality, as well as no-code compliance workflows, to Onfido’s Real Identity Platform. QES offers a digital signature solution that relies on signals unique to the signer. The technology is also backed by a qualified digital certificate that provides a reliable way to confirm the identity of the individual associated with the signature.
Along with the company’s AI for fraud prevention and global document coverage, the result is a fully customizable identity verification solution that enables businesses to manage both local and global compliance needs under a single provider and control center. Compliance Suite has successfully passed its conformity assessment board checks and will be deployed by Onfido customers across Europe.
“Onfido’s Compliance Suite eases the regional compliance headache and delivers a one-stop-shop compliance offering that allows leaders to focus on their expansion, register customers faster, and remain agile to future regulatory demands,” Onfido Chief Product Officer Yuelin Li said. “With Compliance Suite, we now have the most comprehensive verification offering in the market, making Onfido the go-to scaling partner for globally trusted institutions.”
Onfido made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 and returned to the Finovate stage later that year for FinovateFall. The announcement of Compliance Suite follows news last month that Onfido had teamed up with digital investment platform InbestMe. The partnership made InbestMe the first roboadvisor in Spain to integrate identity verification technology as part of its onboarding process.
Headquartered in London, Onfido has raised more than $182 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Crane Venture Partners and TPG Growth are among the firm’s most recent investors. Mike Tuchen is CEO.
Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.
The partnership between core banking platform, 10x Banking, and mortgage origination platform, Mast, will enable real-time connectivity between the two systems. This connectivity will be a boon for lenders, who will benefit from streamlined data exchange. It will also deliver the kind of real-time mortgage servicing that eliminates the need for – and potential complications of – manual data entry between multiple systems.
“This partnership represents a key milestone in how we support the transformation of the UK mortgage and building societies market,” 10x VP and Global Head of GTM and Partnerships Frederico Venturer said. “This integration will enable customer-facing innovation that rethinks the mortgage lifecycle using cloud-native tools, unlocking new growth opportunities for our clients.”
The collaboration comes with an API integration guide on 10x Docs. The guide gives mortgage lenders in the UK a fast and straightforward integration path. The guide includes a number of different integration scenarios that are particularly germane to UK’s mortgage market. These scenarios include product creation and account onboarding.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with 10x and provide seamless integration for UK mortgage institutions,” Mast CEO Joy Abisaab said. “Together, we empower UK lenders to unlock new levels of operational efficiency and enable the delivery of exceptional customer experiences.”
London-based Mast offers cloud-native mortgage technology infrastructure that enables lenders to boost capacity, lower costs, and enhance operational controls. The company has helped clients reach more than 20% increases in conversion from Decision in Principal (DIP) to completion. Mast’s technology has also facilitated a more than 70% increase in lending for its customers – without adding operational capacity.
Founded in 2016, 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut last year at FinovateEurope. In its live demo, the company demonstrated its 10x SuperCore Cards solution. This innovation enables banks to leverage the 10x Bank Manager interface to build a card proposition in minutes.
10x Banking’s partnership news comes shortly after the company announced a collaboration with B2B lend tech company Trade Ledger. A real-time API connection between Trade Ledger’s data platform and 10x Banking’s SuperCore platform will allow banks and alternative lenders bring complex working capital solutions to market quickly. These solutions include invoice, receivables, and supply chain finance products.
10x Banking also teamed up with compliant open banking API technology provider Ozone API late last year. The integration will enable banks to combine real-time banking capabilities with a solution that helps them take advantage of open banking. Ozone API co-founder and CEO Huw Davies praised the way the partnership will “make it easier for banks to reduce complexity in their tech stack, allowing banks to comply with any global open banking standards, so they can focus on accelerating growth and value creation.”
10x Banking has raised more than $252 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company’s investors include BlackRock and JPMorgan Chase.
Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.
Last month we shared the first round of demoing companies to make the cut for FinovateEurope 2024. With more names on the way, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the return of three alums who will be demoing their latest fintech innovation live on stage in London next month, February 27 through 28.
NayaOne: De-risking innovation and facilitating partnership
A Best of Show winner in its Finovate debut last year, NayaOne offers a secure, Digital Sandbox platform that helps banks take the risk out of innovation, integration, and partnership with fintechs. Financial institutions that use NayaOne’s platform gain single key access to more than 350 technology vendors that are being actively evaluated by banks, a secure digital sandbox environment, and 2.5 billion datapoints to facilitate evaluation and review of new technologies.
NayaOne’s approach allows banks to review multiple vendors simultaneously. This helps them get their proofs-of-concept evaluated faster, saving money and enabling greater integration-induced productivity with less integration-related risk.
Among the company’s 2023 highlights are, most recently, its partnership with market network and technology platform PIMFA WealthTech. NayaOne teamed up with the wealthtech firm last fall to launch a client analytics and profiling tech sprint. The goal of the tech sprint was to explore how both unstructured and alternative data can be used to identity and attract potential clients. The sprint also examined use cases for Large Language Models in client services, such as pre-onboarding.
The partnership with PIMFA WealthTech came in the wake of NayaOne’s securing of the Digital Sandbox tender from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority last spring. “We believe that our digital transformation platform and synthetic data technology will be a valuable asset in helping fintech companies to develop and test their products more efficiently and effectively,” NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said in April.
NayaOne also announced partnerships with Polymesh, which joined the NayaOne Network in June, and Valley National Bank, which deployed its innovation platform – powered by NayaOne – the previous month.
Headquartered in London, U.K., NayaOne was founded in 2019. The company most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in September.
NF Innova: Turning traditional banks into digital leaders
NF Innova will return to the Finovate stage next month at FinovateEurope. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2014 and was among the alums to participate in FinovateAfrica in Cape Town four years later.
Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and founded in 2013, NF Innova demoed its FINTENSE Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showcased its innovation in personal finance management, leveraging augmented reality to enable users to see their financial data in a new and compelling way.
In addition to augmented reality, NF Innova’s platform automates a number of customer-facing processes, including account opening. In fact, the company notes that firms using its technology have experienced efficiency increases of up to 600% thanks to NF Innova’s end-to-end automation of five different customer facing digital products.
NF Innova also reports faster times in completing common operations ranging from credit card payments to loans, as well as greater efficiency when it comes to orchestrating digital channels and segmentation.
In August NF Innova announced a strategic partnership with proactive mobile app security company Promon. The alliance will integrate Promon’s state-of-the-art technology to enhance security for users of NF Innova’s FINTENSE platform. NF Innova began 2023 by opening the doors on new offices in Čačak, Serbia, to provide workspace closer to where a number of its employees live.
Realmonitor: Helping banks benefit more from the homebuying process
Proptech innovator Realmonitor offers a white-label, AI-based property discovery mobile app designed to help address the specific pain points of the real estate market in Central and Eastern Europe. Because of the way properties are advertised in the CEE, there are often pricing discrepancies and anomalies that make the market difficult for home sellers, buyers, and agents.
Realmonitor brings transparency to this market by featuring all listings on the market from listing sites, Facebook Marketplace, Groups, and other locations. The technology conducts price comparisons to identify the best offers for advertised properties and provides instant push notifications when opportunities arise.
At the same time, banks benefit from an increase in mortgage loan prospects, as well as early engagement insofar as prospective homebuyers have used their whitelabled solution to find their properties.
Last month, Realmonitor won recognition as the most promising Hungarian fintech and Beyond Banking Solution of the Year at the FinTechShow. In its seventh year in 2023, the FinTechshow is an opportunity for fintechs and financial services companies in the country to “discuss digital transformation directions, new technological trends, and challenges.
“The application helps users throughout the entire journey of searching for, buying and selling real estate, and in relation to renovations and maintenance, with a specialist search engine,” Realmonitor founder Péter Faragó said upon receiving the award. “The greatest value of the application is that it helps save time for the user, who can handle everything related to the purchase, renovation, and maintenance of a home in one place, through one platform.”
Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.
Agency execution specialist Liquidnet has turned to investment technology company bondIT to give new tools to traders on its Fixed Income electronic trading platform. Liquidnet will leverage bondIT’s Scorable Credit Analytics to help traders better anticipate market trends. The technology will also help them mitigate credit risk and make more informed decisions quicker.
“With this integration, our goal is to give access to crucial information to investment firms of all sizes,” Liquidnet Global Head of Fixed Income Product and Partnership Programs Nicholas Stephan explained. “Our members will have seamless access to a wide range of credit data giving them an extra edge ahead of making their trading decisions.”
Scorable Credit Analytics leverages data science, Explainable AI, and machine learning to help fixed income investors anticipate changes in credit ratings and spreads. The solution predicts downgrade and upgrade probability for 3,000+ rated corporate and financial issuers worldwide. Using insights such as these, traders can spot investment opportunities earlier and outperform peers. Courtesy of explainable AI, Scorable ensures transparency and allows users to understand the reasons behind the predictions. The integration will benefit Liquidnet’s 700+ member firms that access the platform’s primary and secondary market trading protocols for corporate bonds.
“Bonds are back, but so is risk,” bondIT Head of Global Client Business Dr. David Curtis said. “Technology becomes an ever more important ally in this dynamic financial landscape. The synergy between bondIT’s AI-driven Scorable Credit Analytics and Liquidnet’s platform empowers traders with actionable insights, enabling them to stay ahead in today’s volatile markets.”
Founded in 1999, Liquidnet is an institutional trading network headquartered in New York. More than 1,000 institutional investors in 49 markets across six continents use Liquidnet’s technology. Interdealer broker TP ICAP acquired the company in 2021 for $700 million.
Note that Liquidnet is not the first company this year to deploy bondIT’s Scorable solution. Wealth management solution provider First Rate announced a strategic partnership with bondIT in June. The Arlington, Texas-based firm integrated Scorable Credit Analytics into its own AI-driven reporting tool.
bondIT made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2016. In the years since, the Israel-based fintech has grown into a 50+ person team, and partnered with some of the world’s leading asset managers, banks, and technology firms. In addition to Scorable Credit Analytics, bondIT offers two other solutions: Frontier and Embedded. Frontier provides data-driven, personalized, fixed income portfolio management. Embedded is bondIT’s end-to-end, integrated portfolio construction, research, and trading solution.
