Backbase

Finovate Global France: Lydia Launches New Digital Brand, RockFi Raises Millions, Meet Finovate’s French Alums

Finovate Global France: Lydia Launches New Digital Brand, RockFi Raises Millions, Meet Finovate’s French Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Finovate Global, Klarna, MasterCard

This week, Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in France.

French start-up Lydia announced 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 RockFi raised €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 trillion in 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.

Dotfile – FinovateEurope 2024 – demo

ShareID – FinovateEurope 2024 – demo

Numeral – FinovateEurope 2023 – demo

SESAMm – FinovateEurope 2023 – demo

Thread – FinovateEurope 2021 – demo

BLECKWEN – FinovateEurope 2020 – demo

Worldline – FinovateEurope 2017 – demo

Ledger – FinovateEurope 2016 – demo

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German B2B payments provider Billie forged a strategic pan-European collaboration with BNP Paribas.
  • Klarna expanded its Pay in 3 service to Slovakia.
  • U.K.-based business financial platform Tide launched in Germany this week.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Emirates NBD and Pine Labs announced a collaboration to bring new payment solutions to businesses in the region.
  • A partnership between NymCard and Dellsons Associates will help bring embedded finance solutions to businesses in the Middle East and Pakistan.
  • Israel-based fintech Kima teamed up with Mastercard’s FinSec Innovation Lab to explore use cases for a “defi credit card.”

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian digital payments company PhonePe partnered with LankaPay to bring UPI payment acceptance to Sri Lanka.
  • Kazakhstan announced the availability to 10+ new CBDC card services since the launch of its digital tenge.
  • U.K.-based startup Fintech Farm raised $32 million in funding to fuel its expansion to India.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • TransNetwork acquired Inswitch to bring cross-border digital payments options to Latin America.
  • Mexico-based BNPL platform Aplazo raised $70 million in new funding.
  • Uruguayan cross-border payments platform dLocal announced the expansion of its partnership with Deel.

Asia-Pacific

  • Backbase, digital enabler SmartOSC, and Vietnam-based OCB partnered to launch the OCB OMNI 4.0 app to enhance digital banking in Vietnam.
  • Philippines-based fintech Skyro teamed up with identity verification company ADVANCE.AI.
  • Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) is facilitating the use of e-CNY wallets, launched this week.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Mastercard partnered with the Cooperative Bank of Oromia to improve financial inclusion in Ethiopia.
  • Payment processing solutions company PayRetailers went live in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
  • The Financial Times recognized Africa’s Moniepoint as the fastest growing fintech in the region.

Photo by Martijn Adegeest

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Expensify, Fintech Rundown, Flywire

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.

Payments

Payments enablement and software company Flywire announces expanded availability of its third-party invoicing solution.

Bank payments company GoCardless appoints Jolawn Victor as Chief Growth Officer.

Bankart partners with Diebold Nixdorf to modernize its payment processing platform across southeast Europe.

Tango launches Global Choice Link, to offer its business customers an easy platform to send rewards, incentives, and payouts to recipients across the globe.

REPAY becomes a Certified Integration Partner with Corelation’s KeyStone platform.

Mastercard and Salesforce announce new integration to transform transaction disputes.

Small business banking

Expensify unveils unlimited virtual cards for enhanced spend management.

Core banking

Vietnam-based Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) leverages Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform to launch its OMNI 4.0 app.

Banque Internationale à Luxembourg selects Temenos‘ core banking and payments to increase agility and efficiency of its retail, corporate, and private banking operations.

Investing

Raisin reports first profit as customer deposits increase.

Lending

SALT granted FCA approval and gears up for summer launch.

London-based automated mobile debt management platform Incredible raises $1 million in pre-seed funding.

Challenger banking

French payments app Lydia launches new challenger bank proposition called Sumeria.

E-commerce

Mexican BNPL platform Aplazo secures $70 million in equity financing.

Fraud prevention

Financial services technology provider Koodoo teams up with Resistant AI to enhance its ability to check documents for fraud.

Digital banking

U.K.-based “greener” digital bank Tandem introduces new Chief Technology Officer Suavek Zajac.

Photo by Armin Rimoldi

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Baker Hill, Boss Insights, Chimney, Daily news, eToro, Fintech Rundown, Marqeta, Numeral, PayStand, Signicat

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.

Digital banking

Backbase forges strategic partnership with EverBank to enhance commercial and treasury services.

Small business tools

Boss Insights earns spot in the FinTech Innovation Lab New York’s 2024 class.

Paystand brings full payments integration to Microsoft Business Central.

Aurora Payments launches ARISE, a one-stop payment platform for small and medium businesses.

Corporate credit card startup Ramp secures $150 million in a round led by Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund.

Wealth management

TIFIN appoints Rob Pettman as Chief Revenue Officer and President to accelerate growth.

Digital identity

Digital identity platform Signicat launches InstantKYC and InstantKYB.

IDnow launches video verification service, VideoIdent Flex.

Prove Identity launches solutions in AWS Marketplace.

Trading and investing

Trading and investment platform eToro enables AGM voting.

Fractional investment platform for luxury assets Konvi acquires alternative investing platforms Diversified and Fractible.

Payments

Berlin-based corporate card platform Pliant raises more than $19 million (€18 million) in a Series A extension round led by PayPal Ventures.

Payment service provider PXP Financial partners with dynamic payment orchestration solutions company Celeris.

Deblock, a current account for both Euros and cryptocurrencies, partners with Numeral to manage its SEPA payments.

Lending

QuickFi wins “Best Overall LendTech Company” at the FinTech Breakthrough Awards for the third time in a row.

Baker Hill introduces new Chief Human Resources Officer Sheila Simpson.

Proptech / mortgagetech

Finovate Best of Show winner Chimney earns one of six spots in NACUSO’s annual Next Big Idea Competition.

Embedded finance

Card issuing platform Marqeta teams up with financial wellness benefits provider Rain to deliver earned wage access.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Danske Bank Taps Backbase to Enhance Digital CX

Danske Bank Taps Backbase to Enhance Digital CX
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Daily news
  • 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:

  1. A mobile-first model that guides customers between automated and expert advice.
  2. A modernized and simplified IT landscape that reduces the number of siloed applications.
  3. A unified platform that consolidates data, business logic, and workflows into a single platform for customers and bank employees.
  4. 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.

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Backbase and FrankieOne Announce Strategic Partnership to Enhance Digital Onboarding

Backbase and FrankieOne Announce Strategic Partnership to Enhance Digital Onboarding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Daily news
  • 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.

Photo by Catarina Sousa

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Backbase and SavvyMoney Partner to Help FIs Promote Financial Wellness

Backbase and SavvyMoney Partner to Help FIs Promote Financial Wellness
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Daily news, SavvyMoney
  • 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 Backbase announced 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.

Photo by Ingo Joseph

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Finovate Global France: Ledger Scores, Burger King Goes Crypto, and French Fintechs Get Funded

Finovate Global France: Ledger Scores, Burger King Goes Crypto, and French Fintechs Get Funded
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Finovate Global, Secfense, ThetaRay

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.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Poland’s Secfense joined 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.
  • Swiss fintech Klarpay AG announced achieving profitability in its first year of operations.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Photo by Alessandro Bonanni

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley: Backbase Rebrands, Boku Booms, and SecureKey Finds Opportunity in Acquisition

FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley: Backbase Rebrands, Boku Booms, and SecureKey Finds Opportunity in Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Boku, FinovateEurope 2023, SecureKey

This week we began our celebration of FinovateEurope’s earliest alums. In honor of FinovateEurope’s Alumni Alley Showcase – a new feature designed to highlight the innovations of FinovateEurope alums – we’re highlighting the companies that introduced their innovations to Finovate’s European audience more than a decade ago – and are still among the top innovators in fintech today.

Visit our FinovateEurope Alumni Alley Showcase hub to learn more about this special opportunity for FinovateEurope alums.

Don’t Call It A Comeback: Backbase’s Big Rebrand

Founded in 2003, Backbase has been demonstrating its fintech innovations on the Finovate stage for more than a decade. Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2011, the company made its most recent on-stage appearance at FinovateFall in 2021, demoing the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. In that ten years, the Amsterdam-based company was awarded Best of Show on four occasions, including three from the company’s demos at our conferences in London.

From its origins as a Bank 2.0 innovator, helping banks take advantage of the growing consumer interest in online and mobile banking, to its current incarnation as an Engagement Banking specialist, Backbase has demonstrated a consistent mission of enabling FIs to turn emerging technologies into opportunities for better customer service and engagement. The company’s official rebrand this fall only underscores much of what Backbase has been about all along.

Backbase founder and CEO introducing Backbase’s technology at FinovateEurope 2011.

“Our proven growth model has brought us to where we are today and it’s time to evolve our branding to reflect that growth,” Backbase founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter said. “Backbase is the innovation partner enabling traditional banks and credit unions to take the leap into the platform era, and we’re just getting started.”

Most recently, Backbase announced an expanded relationship with Boston, Massachusetts-based Eastern Bank ($22 billion in assets). The institution deployed Backbase-as-a-Service (BaaS) and Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform to enable it to offer new digital banking solutions.

Boku Blossoms as Mobile Payments Boom

When Finovate audiences first met Boku at FinovateEurope 2011, the San Francisco-based company had 60 employees and $40 million in equity funding. Today, the direct mobile payments company is a publicly traded entity with more than 300 employees and a market capitalization of more than $390 million. Boku processes more than nine billion in payments every year, and includes some of the largest digital brands – from Google and Spotify to Netflix and Microsoft – as customers of what it bills as the largest mobile payments network in the world.

Boku founder Mark Britto demonstrating the company’s mobile payment technology at FinovateEurope 2011.

Boku was among the fintechs to recognize early on the potential mobile payments had to bring financial services to un- and underbanked consumers that owned mobile phones, but did not own credit cards or traditional bank accounts that would enable them to participate in online commerce. The company launched mobile wallet payments in the Philippines in 2012, brought mobile payments to Sony’s PlayStation Store in 2014 and, in 2020, acquired the Estonia-based carrier billing company Fortumo for $41 million.

This fall, Boku announced that it will supply Amazon.com with its digital wallet and other local payment methods as part of a new, multi-year agreement. Boku CEO Jon Prideaux said that the partnership helped reinforce the company’s “strategic move” into digital wallet payments.

SecureKey: Acquisition As An Enabler of Further, Faster Innovation

More than ten years after SecureKey won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2011 for its authentication technology that leveraged contactless cards to streamline the online checkout process, the Toronto, Ontario-based company announced that it had agreed to be acquired by NortonLifeLock’s digital security and privacy firm, Avast.

SecureKey CEO Greg Wolfond demoing the company’s technology at FinovateEurope in 2011.

“SecureKey’s vision has been to revolutionize the way consumers and organizations approach identity and the sharing of personal information in the digital age,” SecureKey CEO Greg Wolfond said when the acquisition was announced this spring. “By working closely with governments, financial institutions, and businesses, we have an established track record of trusted and mature identity networks that provide consumers with the secure digital capabilities they deserve.”

SecureKey’s digital identity technology enables more than 200 million secure transactions a year internationally. Prior to the acquisition, SecureKey also had made major inroads in helping organizations and institutions, including governments, embrace modern authentication technologies. The company’s Verified.Me distributed digital identity verification network and Government Sign-In by Verified.Me provide secure and convenient login options to hundreds of government services and applications online. Both authentication services are provided by Interac under an exclusive Canadian licensing agreement.

Photo by Chris Panas

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Eight Alums Raised More Than $984 Million in Q2 2022

Eight Alums Raised More Than $984 Million in Q2 2022
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Allied Payment Network, Altro, Autobooks, Backbase, Chekk, Crowdz, David's column, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding, SumUp, Thought Machine

We may have missed an alum or two. But with the second quarter of 2022 in the books, here’s a look at our Finovate alumni funding for April, May, and June of this year.

As of our current count, eight Finovate alums have raised more than $984 million in Q2 of 2022. Of the eight alums that received funding in the quarter just ended, two – Allied Payment Network and Chekk – did not disclose the total amount of their investments.

Two of the quarter’s biggest investments were received in June, giving that month the lion’s share of capital raised by Finovate alums in the second quarter of the year.

Previous quarterly comparisons

  • Q2 2021: More than $2.8 billion raised by 14 alums
  • Q2 2020: More than $975 million raised by 15 alums
  • Q2 2019: More than $1.8 billion raised by 29 alums
  • Q2 2018: More than $1.5 billion raised by 25 alums
  • Q2 2017: More than $726 million raised by 25 alums

As we noted last year around this time, it is not unusual for second quarters to produce more moderate funding numbers compared to other quarters. And, as with last year, April proved to be an especially “cruel” month for fintech funding – at least as measured by our alums – with only FinovateEurope alum and relative newcomer Crowdz reporting funding that month.

That said, this year’s Q2 haul surpassed that of two of the previous five second quarters – and with significantly fewer alums participating.

Top Equity Investments

  • SumUp: $624 million
  • ThoughtMachine: $160 million
  • Backbase: $122 million

The top equity investment for the quarter was far and away the $624 million raised by London-based e-commerce innovator SumUp. In fact, all three of the top equity investments in Q2 of 2022 were greater than the largest investment in the previous quarter. SumUp’s massive capital infusion rivals all Finovate alum investments since NuBank raised $750 million in the second quarter of 2021.

Backbase’s fundraising of $122 million was notable because it was the first time the company had sought outside capital in its nearly 20 years of existence.

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2022.

April: $10 million raised by one alum

May: More than $178 million raised by three alums

June: More than $796 million raised by four alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2022 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

Photo by Pixabay

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Backbase Supports Fintech Innovation in Bahrain; Compass Plus Boosts Digital Payments in Nigeria

Backbase Supports Fintech Innovation in Bahrain; Compass Plus Boosts Digital Payments in Nigeria
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Compass Plus, Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at two Finovate alums that are helping support fintech innovation in the Middle East and Africa.

First up is engagement banking platform provider Backbase. The four-time Finovate Best of Show award-winning company announced this week that it has forged a new partnership with Bahrain FinTech Bay (BFB). The partnership comes under the auspices of BFB’s Venture Acceleration Platform, which seeks to boost the adoption of digital banking technology in the MENA region.

Head of Partners at Backbase Middle East Mehmet Cakal said, “This new collaboration with Bahrain FinTech Bay aligns with our continuous efforts to help banks in the region with a long-term digital strategy and support them with a holistic approach towards digital transformation, to be able to meet the demands and expectations of their customers in today’s age.”

Backbase is no stranger to the MENA fintech and financial services industry. The company, founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, has established partnerships with a number of key players in the region. This includes the National Bank of Bahrain, Banque Saudi Fransi, and the Kuwait International Bank. In fact, Backbase Middle East was awarded “Digital Banking Provider Of the Year” honors at the MEA Finance Banking Technology Summit and Awards last month.

Bahrain FinTech Bay, a leading finech hub in the region, promotes fintech innovation by incubating fintech initiatives via innovation labs, acceleration programs, curated activities, and educational opportunities. Founded in 2017, BFB launched its Venture Acceleration Platform in order to give emerging fintechs “a launch pad and bespoke go-to-market strategies” to help them scale their businesses and take advantage of opportunities in the MENA region. The platform provides those companies selected to participate in the accelerator with market intelligence, exposure to partners, as well as assistance in implementation and regional expansion.

“Our new partnership with Backbase will strengthen our mandate to bring cutting-edge technology offerings to banks and financial institutions in MENA,” Bahrain FinTech Bay CEO Bader Sater said. “Bahrain FinTech Bay is committed to providing curated opportunities for enterprises and supporting startups in the sector to accelerate their growth and expansion efforts across the region.”

Meanwhile, several hundred miles to the south and west, fellow Europe-based fintech Compass Plus is engaged in its own outreach to markets in developing economies. The U.K.-based company, a Finovate alum since 2012, announced this week that it is teaming up with Nigerian fintech Interswitch to help it enhance its payment processing capability.

Interswitch will leverage Compass Plus’ token-based, cloud-native, API-first open development payments platform, TranzAxis, to process Verve, Visa, and Mastercard credit card transactions. Six African banks already have been onboarded onto the new platform, which has enabled Sterling Bank of Nigeria to launch the country’s first Verve credit card.

“We are delighted to partner with Interswitch, one of the biggest processors in Africa,” Compass Plus MEA VP and Deputy Managing Director Adil Ahmed said. “Interswitch has always strived to drive positive change in the region, and now that they have TranzAxis to support their ambitions, they will continue to revolutionize Africa’s payment space in the region, further strengthen the Verve payments network, and manage their Visa and Mastercard credit card business more efficiently.”

Founded in 1989, Compass Plus offers banks and financial services companies retail banking software and services to enable them to better respond to their customers’ banking needs. The company’s solutions address issues from card, account, and merchant management to card personalization, payment processing, and terminal driving to self-service channel management and both mobile and e-commerce. Compass Plus’ TranzAxis technology helps financial services companies develop and support cards, payments, transaction switching, and other retail banking activities.

Headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, Interswitch began as a nationally-focused, transaction switching and processing firm. In the 20 years since then, the firm has grown into Africa’s leading integrated payments and digital commerce platform company with more than 900 full-time workers across Africa – 40% of whom are women. Named “Fintech of the Year” at the 2022 African Banker Awards last month, Interswitch also last month secured a strategic investment from LeapFrog Investments and Tana Africa Capital. The amount of the funding was not disclosed.

“The evolution of fintech in Nigeria and the broader sub-Saharan region has been driven by the need to solve challenges and barriers that exist within the traditional financial system,” Interswitch founder and Group Chief Executive Mitchell Elegbe said. “Interswitch was born from the need to develop solutions that match the unique needs of local customers and merchants.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo by Satheesh Cholakkal

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Backbase Secures $128 Million Investment from Motive Partners

Backbase Secures $128 Million Investment from Motive Partners
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Daily news, Funding
  • Backbase raised $128 million (€120 million) in growth equity funding this week.
  • The round was led by private equity firm Motive Partners, and gave the company a valuation of $2.6 billion (€2.5 billion).
  • Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform enables banks and credit unions to leverage a cloud-based platform to offer bank customers seamless digital experiences.

Engagement banking platform Backbase secured $128 million (€120 million) in growth equity funding from private equity firm Motive Partners. The investment gives the company, which made its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2021, a valuation of $2.6 billion (€2.5 billion). The funding also marks Backbase’s first-ever funding event since its founding in 2003.

“Today is a major milestone for more than 2,000 Backbasers and 150 customers around the world, to celebrate the incredible progress we made,” Backbase founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter said in a statement. “With this partnership, we’re even better equipped to drive our Engagement Banking vision to the next level.”

The investment from the “founder-friendly” firm will enable Backbase to commit more resources to its Engagement Banking solution, helping power the company’s mission to “re-architect” banking in a customer-focused way. Backbase’s technology gives banks and credit unions the ability to move away from disconnected, point and channel solutions. Instead, with Backbase’s cloud-based platform, financial institutions can build frictionless customer journeys across all stages of the customer lifecycle from onboarding and servicing to lending and expanding wallet share.

With more than 150 financial institutions around the world using its technology, Backbase gives banks and credit unions the ability to quickly digitize and transform their customer-facing operations to meet the expectations of increasingly digitally-savvy banking customers. At its most recent Finovate appearance last fall, Backbase demonstrated a customer onboarding solution that consolidated a customer’s finances via direct deposit, billl pay auto linking, and debit card account opening. The technology showed how financial institutions can get key insights into their customers and empower them to take more control over their financial lives.

“Backbase’s proven track record of entrepreneurship and organic growth will continue,” Jouk said. “Our formula is simple: focus on the needs of our customers and empower highly skilled teams to deliver. We’re changing a big industry, which is hard work. Having critical mass and market momentum allows us to stay laser-focused. Together we’re making it happen.”

Founded in 2003, three-time Finovate Best of Show winner Backbase maintains a global headquarters in Amsterdam.

Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee Partner to Bring Data Aggregation, Account Verification, and Enriched Transaction Data to Banks

Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee Partner to Bring Data Aggregation, Account Verification, and Enriched Transaction Data to Banks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Envestnet, Yodlee
  • Two Finovate alums, Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee are teaming up to help financial institutions better serve their customers.
  • The collaboration will offer pre-built integrations with Envestnet | Yodlee’s Data Aggregation, Account Verification, and Transaction Data Enrichment solutions.
  • Both Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee made their most recent Finovate appearances at FinovateFall in New York in September.

A newly announced partnership between Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee will enable financial institutions to offer their customers a holistic view of their finances, as well as an improved customer experience. Specifically, the partnership will bring account data aggregation, account verification, and transaction data enrichment from Envestnet | Yodlee to the Backbase Engagement Banking platform. The move enhances Backbase’s financial wellness capabilities and intuitive customer journeys, and supports the company’s goal of becoming a category leader in the engagement banking platform space.

Backbase CPO Karan Oberoi called the collaboration a “major milestone” in the company’s efforts to “bring value to every step of the full customer lifecycle on a single, unified platform.” Oberoi highlighted the ability of the Backbase Engagement Banking platform to help financial institutions leverage technologies from innovative fintechs like Envestnet | Yodlee “while limiting implementation, procurement, and risk assessment time.”

Adding Account Data Aggregation to the platform will enable customers to combine and maintain all of their financial accounts in a single application. In addition to making it easier for customers to better understand their financial status, the feature also increases stickiness – as well as the potential for cross-selling opportunities – as customers spend more time on the bank’s app. Account Verification allows customers to add and verify their financial accounts in a single app without requiring the use of micro-deposits. Both KYC and AML compliance are also enhanced by the addition of the account verification capability. Lastly, by providing transaction data enrichment, the platform will lower the cost- of-serve for financial institutions and improve customer engagement.

“Entering into this strategic partnership with Backbase is another proof point on how industry leaders are relying on quality data, comprehensive coverage, and intelligent insights from Envestnet | Yodlee to meet fast-growing banking demands,” Envestnet Data and Analytics Group Head Farouk Ferchichi said.

Both multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winners, Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee made their most recent appearances on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in New York last September. Backbase demoed a customer onboarding solution that consolidates customer finances via direct deposit, billpay auto linking, and debit card account opening. Envestnet | Yodlee showed how Conversational AI technology can be deployed to deliver hyper-personalized financial insights and goals-based micro-savings applications.

Photo by Essow

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook