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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
This week’s Fintech Rundown begins with a handful of stories about partnerships in wealth management and lending, as well as moves by banks to bolster their fraud prevention capabilities. Check back all week long for updates and more fintech news!
This week’s edition of Finovate Global features recent fintech news and headlines from the Netherlands.
Netherlands-based digital banking platform Plumerysecured $3.3 million in funding this week. The investment came from of early-stage investor DN Capital and Fontes, managed by international VC firm QED Investors, and raises the company’s total funding to date to $7.8 million. Plumery added that it is preparing for a larger Series A round next year.
“Our commitment to product excellence and expansion into key markets (are) central to our roadmap, and this funding will propel us even further,” Plumery Founder and CEO Ben Goldin said. “We look forward to working with our partners in this next phase of our evolution and sustained growth in today’s competitive market.”
Plumery will put its new capital to work in a variety of ways. The company plans to expand its sales and marketing efforts, bolster international partner management, and enhance its platform’s capabilities for SMEs, consumers, lenders, and microfinance companies. Plumery will also look to add talent, particularly in product, engineering, and commercial roles.
Founded in 2022, Plumery offers a digital banking platform that enables businesses to rapidly customize and deploy their banking operations. The firm’s platform enables mobile and online banking interfaces and experiences to be built on top of legacy core platforms at a lower cost and at up to 80% faster than traditional methods. In its funding statement, the company noted that it plans to launch additional features including conversational banking and AI-driven automation and insights as part of its expansion plans.
It’s hard to imagine a Finovate Global look at fintech in the Netherlands that didn’t include a nod to Engagement Banking Platform Backbase. Especially upon hearing news that the company has moved to new headquarters in Amsterdam.
This week, Backbase celebrated the grand opening of its 5,000 square-meter, international headquarters at Oosterdoksstraat 114. Backbase CEO and Founder Jouk Pleiter said in a statement that the new HQ was “more than just a building,” noting that “it represents the outcome of a 20-year journey fueled by entrepreneurship, perseverance, and focus on innovation and customer success — all driven by our people.”
And at a time when many companies are struggling to encourage workers to spend more time in the office, it is hard not to be touched by the comments of Carolien Roos, partner at Firm Architects and designer of Backbase’s new headquarters. “Our vision was to create a space that not only inspires innovation but also brings people together,” Roos said. “The design encourages the kind of serendipitous encounters and discussions that often lead to groundbreaking ideas — a key ingredient in Backbase’s recipe for success.”
Backbase has been putting that recipe to good use of late. Also this week, the company announced that it was teaming up with business identity platform, and fellow Finovate alum, Middesk to enhance KYB verification for both banks and credit unions. Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform, integrated with Middesk, will give financial institutions access to real-time verification data sourced from multiple databases including the offices of all fifty Secretaries of State, the IRS, the USPS, OFAC, and more.
“Businesses today want a seamless verification process that meets compliance standards while limiting delays during the onboarding process,” Backbase VP of Product Robert Soetens said. “Together with Middesk, Backbase is continuing to implement modern, flexible, scalable, and API-first solutions (for) banks and credit unions, helping them deliver the best-in-class digital experiences to their business clients.”
Headquartered in San Francisco and founded in 2019, Middesk made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demoed its Verification solution that provides a complete and accurate view of customers — from entity names to watchlist screening. Middesk counts Affirm, Brex, and fellow Finovate alums Plaid and Gusto among its customers. Kyle Mack is CEO and Co-Founder.
In addition to forging new partnerships, Backbase launched its Intelligence Fabric Layer last week. The new offering is a set of data/AI infrastructure and development capabilities that embed natively in the Enterprise Banking Platform. These capabilities, which include Agentic AI, help banks realize “significant productivity gains” in both customer servicing and sales. The Intelligence Fabric leverages Backbase’s Grand Central Integration Platform-as-a-Service, which unifies data from multiple sources, including core banking systems, payment gateways, fintechs, and non-fintech systems such as CRMs.
“We see a future where AI Agents will work autonomously in the background, handling tasks, managing processes, and collaborating with customers and employees,” Pleiter said. “The adoption and evolution of these new-gen, super-powerful agents will dramatically reduce internal and external labor spend on overheads such as sales, marketing, customer service, and compliance operations.”
A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in 2021. The four-time Finovate Best of Show winner was founded in 2003 and counts more than 150 financial institutions around the world as users of its Engagement Banking Platform.
For more on Agentic AI, check out our primer from Senior Research Analyst Julie Muhn.
Finovate has been happy to introduce our audiences to a number of fintech innovators based in the Netherlands over the last decade-plus. Check out this roster of Dutch fintechs that have demoed their innovations on the Finovate stage.
Indian neobank Jupiter is reportedly in talks to acquire a stake in SBM Bank India, according to TechCrunch.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Binance secured Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license to operate in Argentina.
Trinidad and Tobago inked an agreement with NPCI International Payments to build a real-time payments system based on India’s UPI.
Paysendpartnered with Mastercard to launch Paysend Libre in Mexico to promote financial inclusion.
Asia-Pacific
Malaysia’s Maybank partnered with China’s Bank of Hangzhou to enhance cross-border financing and innovation in AI.
Worldline teamed up with Bank of China Hong Kong to launch an open platform card solution for customers in Hong Kong.
A coalition of banks and other financial institutions in Malaysia have launched a new, integrated platform, the National Fraud Portal (NFP), to fortify the capabilities of the country’s National Scam Response Centre (NSRC).
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kazang Pay launched its card acceptance solution for merchants in Zambia.
African payment infrastructure company Fincra secured a Third Party Payment Provider (TPPP) license in South Africa.
Fall is officially here! A favorite season for many, autumn also marks a likely acceleration in fintech and financial services news and activity. Be sure to check Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest in headlines and news updates!
Nasdaq Verafin announces enhancements to its Targeted Typology Analytics suite to add detection capabilities for terrorist financing and drug trafficking activity.
As summer draws to a close, there may be a big acquisition on the horizon in the fraud and financial crime prevention space. Be sure to check in with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest in fintech news.
Customer engagement company JRNI has integrated with bank technology innovator Backbase.
The integration will bring new appointment scheduling functionalities to users of Backbase’s Engagement Banking platform.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009.
JRNI, a leader in global customer engagement for financial services, has integrated with Backbase, adding new appointment scheduling functionalities to the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform.
“We believe that the banking experience is enriched by building trust through personal connections,” Backbase general manager of ecosystems Roland Boojien said. “This partnership aims to seamlessly provide convenient personal connections in banking and wealth management, effortlessly uniting customers and trusted advisors at their preferred time and location.”
Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform provides financial institutions (FIs) with a range of digital solutions for customer onboarding, servicing, financing origination, loyalty, and more – all from a single platform. Courtesy of the integration, financial institution customers on the platform will be able to book both virtual and in-person appointments seamlessly and securely. JRNI’s Self-Scheduling Appointment booking solution will give FIs the ability to offer an end-to-end embedded experience that begins with initial customer contact and continues through the customer’s entire journey with ongoing relationship management and support.
The Self-Scheduling Appointment booking solution will be available as an out-of-the-box add-on integrated within Backbase’s Digital Assist offering. Digital Assist provides a unified solution that helps customer-facing teams at FIs resolve customer service issues quicker, as well as upsell additional products and services easier.
“Backbase Digital Assist helps make interactions more efficient, effective, and of higher value,” JRNI CEO Phil Meer said. “JRNI’s engagement capabilities complement Backbase’s offering to drive trusted connections and relationships. Backbase shares our vision and its global platform prioritizes customer engagement as a critical pillar.”
Founded in 2008 and based in Boston, Massachusetts, JRNI offers a customer engagement platform that helps companies improve both customer acquisition and retention, as well as promote brands, drive hyper-personalization, and better engage target audiences. The company’s enterprise-grade event management platform handles scheduling, queuing, and analytics to provide customers with a personalized experience whether in-person or virtual.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase has been a Finovate alum since 2009. Most recently demoing its technology at FinovateFall 2021 in New York, the company has won Best of Show on four separate occasions. With more than 150 customers and 2,000+ employees around the world, Backbase provides a platform that enables financial institutions to offer their customers the latest fintech innovations without having to abandon their existing core banking systems.
Backbase’s JRNI announcement comes just days after the firm announced that Malaysia’s Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (Bank Muamalat) had agreed to a long-term partnership designed to “revolutionize” the bank’s digital Islamic Banking offerings. Also participating in the partnership is fellow Finovate alum, Mambu.
This week, Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in France.
French start-up Lydiaannounced the launch of a new digital banking brand this week. Named Sumeria, Lydia plans to invest more than €100 million in the new initiative, as well as hire 400 people over the next three years. Sumeria, according to a post on LinkedIn, offers 4% interest and is designed to be a “simple and accessible banking super app.
“We are convinced that technology (cloud, mobile) is not an end in itself, but a way to simplify life, through everyday details,” the company noted in a statement on its website. Arguing that current accounts should be neither “trendy gadgets” nor make users captive to a given app, system, or institution, the company explained: “It should solve a real problem. This is why Lydia’s choices, with Sumeria, are motivated by common sense and its ambition to be universal: for everyone, for everything.”
Lydia’s brand announcement follows a decision by the company to split its digital banking app into two components. Originally launched in 2013 as a P2P payments app, Lydia’s solution scaled, adding more and more financial services features over the years. It was the launch of its Lydia Accounts offering convinced the company that a change was necessary to keep its early adopters – who relied heavily on the P2P service – onboard. The result was to offer the P2P services separately from Lydia’s digital banking proposition through the Lydia Accounts app. The original Lydia app will become Sumeria, with the new features mentioned above – such as stock trading, savings accounts and loans – to be ported to the new banking brand.
Headquartered in Paris, Lydia has raised more than $259 million in funding. The company’s investors include Accel and Echo Street Capital. In addition to the launch of Sumeria, Lydia is also seeking a credit institution license from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority.
Paris, France-based private wealth management startup RockFiraised €3 million in funding this week. The round was led by Varsity I and featured the participation of numerous business angels in technology and private management. The company plans to use the capital to grow its workforce by 3x by the end of 2024 so as to provide private banking and wealth management expertise to clients throughout France.
“Since the beginning of the year, we have seen strong client traction eager for a new model to manage their wealth,” RockFi Co-Founder and CEO Pierre Marin said. “With a market of €4.8 trillionin assets ahead of us and no tech leader yet in France and Europe, our ambition is very high for the coming years.”
RockFi’s model combines human expertise and technology to offer services including banking, wealth management, life insurance, and pension savings. The firm has a targetable clientele with assets of more than €100,000, representing six million households in France.
“Three months after our official launch this is an important step that anchors a strong momentum and allows us to further accelerate the construction of the new private management,” the company wrote on its LinkedIn page this week. “The ambition remains: to surround ourselves with the best talent and partners in each field and to deploy a tech ecosystem to unleash the potential of independent wealth managers at the service of their clients.”
Meet Finovate’s French Alums!
Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a number of fintech innovators based in France. Here’s a look at some of French fintechs that have demoed their technology on the Finovate stage in recent years.
Last week brought a small uptick in fintech funding and drama ensued when Tabapay renounced its agreement to purchase Synapse’s assets. Stay tuned to this week’s news for updates as this situation– and others– evolve throughout the week.
TangolaunchesGlobal Choice Link, to offer its business customers an easy platform to send rewards, incentives, and payouts to recipients across the globe.
REPAYbecomes a Certified Integration Partner with Corelation’s KeyStone platform.
In the U.S., the tax deadline kicks off the week, but don’t let that get you down! Sit back, relax, and catch up on some of the latest fintech news headlines. Check back for real-time updates on how the fintech landscape evolves this week.
Danske Bank has signed a deal with engagement banking solutions provider Backbase.
Danske Bank will tap Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform to help tailor its digital experience to suit its users’ needs and preferences.
Among Backbase’s most recent partnerships are FrankieOne and SavvyMoney.
Engagement banking solutions provider Backbase inked a deal with Denmark-based Danske Bank this week.
“This engagement is a testament to our customer focus and our commitment to ensuring the best digital banking experience for the future,” said Danske Bank Chief Operating Officer Frans Woelders. “A new platform that works across the web, mobile apps, and our adviser tools is one of the ambitions in Danske Bank’s Forward ’28 strategy, and the agreement with Backbase is the next step towards achieving that ambition.”
Under today’s deal, Danske Bank will leverage to Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform, allowing the bank to enhance the customer experience by tailoring the digital experience to suit the user’s needs and preferences.
Specifically, Backbase cites four aspects of digital banking that its Engagement Banking Platform can enhance, including:
A mobile-first model that guides customers between automated and expert advice.
A modernized and simplified IT landscape that reduces the number of siloed applications.
Aunified platform that consolidates data, business logic, and workflows into a single platform for customers and bank employees.
More agility, thanks to enhanced flexibility that allows for swift implementation of business capabilities.
Expounding on the last point, Danske Bank Head of Personal Customers and Financial Crime Risk and Prevention Christian Bornfeld said, “This platform will allow us to take our interaction with customers through our digital solutions to the next level and to introduce enhancements at greater speed than ever before. It will thus enable us to provide market-leading convenience and personalization for our customers with great insights, increased proactivity, and easy access to assistance and advice.”
Backbase, which is on a self-described mission “to re-architect banking around the customer,” was an early entrant to the fintech space. Founded in 2003, the Amsterdam-based company offers a range of digital banking solutions, including onboarding, lending, investing, and customer support. Among Backbase’s existing partnerships are FrankieOne, which signed with the fintech last September, and SavvyMoney, which initiated its partnership last August.
Engagement banking innovator Backbase has teamed up with identity verification and fraud prevention company FrankieOne.
The strategic partnership will combine the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform with FrankieOne’s identity verification solutions.
A four-time Finovate Best of Show winner, Backbase most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2021.
Engagement banking firm Backbase has forged a strategic partnership with identity verification and fraud prevention platform FrankieOne. The two companies will work together to help banks and credit unions in Australia and New Zealand onboard customers faster and more securely. The collaboration blends Backbase’s personalized banking experience platform with FrankieOne’s identity verification solutions to make it easier for customers to seamlessly and safely access digital financial services.
Courtesy of the partnership, users of Backbase’s Engagement Banking platform will be able to access a variety of KYC, AML, biometric verification, transaction monitoring, fraud detection, and compliance capabilities from a curated roster of providers. Additionally, the recent launch of Backbase’s Engagement Banking Cloud (EBC) will give its strategic partners – like FrankieOne – a single platform that supports the full customer lifecycle.
“This partnership reinforces Backbase’s global commitment to enhancing our offering and meeting the needs of financial institutions across the region,” Backbase Director of Global Head of Fintech-As-a-Service Mayank Somaiya said. “These partnerships allow us to accelerate the integration of best-in-class capabilities into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform.”
Backbase’s announcement comes just a few days after the company reported that it was working with Judo Bank. The Australian challenger bank, launched in 2016, selected Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform earlier this month. In August, the Amsterdam-based fintech announced partnerships with business and IT consulting company Valleysoft and fellow Finovate alum SavvyMoney. Founded in 2003, the four-time Finovate Best of Show winner most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2021. At the conference, Backbase introduced its customer onboarding solution. This technology consolidates customer finances through direct deposit, billpay auto linking, and debit card account opening.
Onboarding and fraud platform FrankieOne was founded in 2017 by Simon Costello (CEO) and Aaron Chipper (CTO). The company leverages more than 350 data sources to enable businesses to quickly and securely onboard more customers. Headquartered in Australia, FrankieOne notes that its customers see a 11% uplift in match rates after transitioning to FrankieOne.
A pair of Finovate alums – Backbase and SavvyMoney – have forged a new partnership.
The partnership will integrate SavvyMoney’s Credit Score Insights into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform.
The integration will enable customers to access real-time credit scores from within their banking apps.
Engagement banking company Backbaseannounced a strategic partnership with credit score solutions firm and fellow Finovate alum SavvyMoney. The partnership will integrate SavvyMoney’s credit score solution, Credit Score Insights, into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. This will give community banks and credit unions the ability to provide their customers with real-time credit scores directly from their banking app.
“There’s a growing demand from consumers for guidance from their banking apps to help them make informed financial decisions,” Backbase VP of Product Management for the U.S. mid-market Brian McNutt said. He added that it was “crucial” that customers and members see community banks and credit unions as “trusted financial advisors,” and that doing so would help these FIs compete with their larger rivals. “That’s the idea behind our Fintech-as-a-Service offering,” he added, “to reduce our customers’ time-to-market and time-to-value, so FIs can focus on innovation.”
SavvyMoney’s Credit Score Insights helps FIs offer tailored financial recommendations and advice to their customers and members. The technology also helps FIs manage their marketing efforts to build hyper-personalized offers and deals. The increased value brought to banking apps courtesy of the Credit Score Insights integration also will help improve stickiness and app usage trends. At the same time, end users will benefit from a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to their credit score. They will also be able to update their credit report, run credit score simulations, and build an action plan to set and meet credit score goals.
“As a company, we are committed to empowering individuals to achieve their financial goals and improve their overall financial well-being,” SavvyMoney President and CEO JB Orecchia said. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Backbase to make crucial credit score functionality easily accessible via banking apps.”
Formerly known – and first appearing on the Finovate stage – as DebtGoal, the company rebranded as SavvyMoney in 2011. In the years since then, SavvyMoney has forged partnerships with more than 1,150 financial institutions and driven $3.8 billion in loans for clients courtesy of its SavvyMoney offer engine. The company unveiled its pre-approval marketing solution earlier this year – in partnership with Credit Union of Southern California (CU SoCal). SavvyMoney was named a “2023 Best Place to Work in the Bay Area” by Fintech Finance in May.
A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase has won Best of Show on four different occasions. Most recently demoing its technology last September at FinovateFall, Backbase serves more than 120 financial institutions around the world. The company’s Engagement Banking Platform gives FIs a unified platform designed to respond to every step of the customer journey – from onboarding and servicing to loyalty and loan origination. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase also recently announced partnerships with Vietnam’s Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) and business and IT consulting provider Valleysoft.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at the wave of funding that fintechs in France have received in recent weeks. The $108 million secured by hardware crypto wallet maker Ledger appropriately leads the pack. But there have been a handful of investments in a variety of French fintechs that are also noteworthy.
First up, though, it’s Ledger’s massive fundraising. The Paris, France-based crypto wallet designer and manufacturer announced that it raised $108 million in funding this week. The investment is part of the company’s Series C round and, as such, does not change Ledger’s $1.4 billion valuation. The funding does add to the $385 million the company raised in 2021.
Ledger’s latest investors are a lengthy list of new and existing backers. True Global Ventures, Digital Finance Group, and VaynerFund are among the new investors. Existing investors 10T, Cité Gestion Private Bank, Cap Horn, Morgan Creek, Cathay Innovation, Korelya Capital, and Molten Ventures are among Ledger’s existing investors who also participated.
“Today, Ledger announced our funding round. These funds will accelerate our mission to bring a new generation of secure consumer devices to hundreds of millions exploring critical digital assets and blockchain-enabled technology,” Ledger chairman and CEO Pascal Gauthier wrote in a blog post at the Ledger website.
Ledger demonstrated its crypto hardware technology at FinovateEurope back in 2016. The company currently offers three hardware wallets, Ledger Nano X and Ledger Nano S Plus, and Ledger Stax. The latter model, the company’s latest, was only recently announced and is scheduled to begin shipping to customers within the next few months.
The investment in Ledger is a reminder that France remains among the more crypto-friendly countries in Europe, if not the western world. U.S. based Circle, the company behind both USDC and Euro Coin, recently announced that it had chosen France for its European headquarters. This is just one reflection of the country’s openness to the cryptocurrency industry.
News that Burger King fast food restaurants in Paris will begin accepting cryptocurrency for payment may be another. The company has partnered with Instpower, who will deploy its power bank rental machines in Burger King’s Paris locations. The power bank rental machines are connected to a pair of cryptocurrency payment services – Alchemy Pay and Binance Pay. Now Burger King consumers will be able to get their Whoppers, charge their mobile devices, and pay in crypto all in the same place. The move is a boon for Instpower as it seeks to expand the popularity of power banks in Europe. The collaboration is also a clear win for crypto, which benefits from both the publicity and the convenient new use case for crypto holders.
Ledger is not the only French fintech scoring investor dollars this month. N2F, a French startup that offers business financial management software, raised $26 million (€24 million) in a round led by PSG Equity. A French fintech called Elyn that offers try-before-you-buy services raised $2.7 million (€2.5 million) in pre-seed funding in a round led by Headline and Sequoia Arc. On the financing front, B2B lender Aria secured a $53.3 million (€50 million) debt facility courtesy of M&G Investments. The funding added to the $21.7 million (€20 million) debt facility the company announced last year.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Poland’s Secfensejoined the Cybersecurity program of Google’s Startups Growth Academy. Secfense demoed its passwordless authentication technology at FinovateEurope 2022.
Austria-based Finmatics secured $6.5 million (€6 million) in Series A funding for its technology that brings the power of AI to accounting and tax planning.
