Bluefin Payment Systems

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bankjoy, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, Currency Cloud, Equifax, Fintech Rundown, Insuritas, nCino, PaySend, Plaid, Revolut, Settle, VISA, Zafin

We’re starting off the week with a major acquisition in the U.K. lending space, as well as fintech funding news in payments, wealth management, and financial education.

Digital banking

Missouri-based Central Bank leverages Personetics’ AI-driven engagement platform to enhance financial wellness.

SaaS core modernization and transformation solution provider for banks Zafin unveils new tools – Dynamic Cohorts and Signals – to enhance customer personalization and engagement.

Digital banking experience platform Plumery announces availability on Google Cloud Marketplace.

Emporia State Federal Credit Union launches new app courtesy of a partnership with digital banking solution provider Bankjoy.

Bank integration provider AccessPay secures $24 million in equity and debt financing.

Payments

Paysend partners with Currencycloud to enhance its FX and treasury capabilities.

Integrated payments company Bluefin adds 23 new devices, 6 new applications, and three new key injection facilities (KIFs) to its Encryption Management Services P2PE Component listing.

Germany payment management platform NX Technologies raises $23.8 million (EUR 22 million) in Series B funding.

Stripe teams up with Amazon to power payments for Just Walk Out technology in Australia and Canada.

MENA-based payment gateway provider HyperPay inks a collaboration with Capital Bank.

Lending

Baker Hill forges new partnership with Dallas-based Harmony Bank.

ChargeAfter secures a patent for its embedded lending technology.

National Building Society agrees to acquire Virgin Money for $3.7 billion (£2.9 billion).

Desjardins partners with cloud banking firm nCino to leverage its Automated Spreading Solution to enhance lending.

Open banking

Dwolla expands its partnership with MX to power account aggregation and verification.

Open banking platform Link Money forges partnership with Silicon Valley Bank to enhance ACH processing and money movement for merchants.

Wealth management

Online trading and investing platform Robinhood launches rewards credit card for its Robinhood Gold subscribers.

Wealth-building platform Belong secures $3.7 million (£2.95 million) in pre-seed funding.

Multi-asset class investment accounting platform FundGuard raises $100 million in Series C funding.

Financial education

Wealth building and financial education platform Goalsetter closed a $9.6 million Series A extension round.

Cash management

Cash-flow management platform Settle launches Automatic 3-Way Matching for Purchase Orders.

Fraud prevention

Plaid forges partnerships with Sandbox Banking and RealPage to help fight fraud in the customer experience.

AI-powered fraud and risk platform DataVisor launches its end-to-end anti-money laundering (AML) solution.

Financial crime compliance company Napier AI reports that its customer Banco do Brasil has won the Celent Model Risk Manager 2024 Award for combatting financial crime.

Visa adds three new AI-powered risk and fraud prevention solutions.

Cryptocurrencies / Blockchain

Revolut and Layer 1 blockchain Sui team up to boost blockchain education and adoption.

Trading and investing platform eToro adds 12 new altcoins to its cryptocurrency offerings.

Identity management / verification

ID verification company AU10TIX unveils expanded Digital ID solution.

Insurtech

Rewards credit card company Yonder to offer its members a new travel insurance experience courtesy of a partnership with embedded insurance orchestration firm Qover.

New Jersey’s largest credit union, Affinity Federal Credit Union, partners with Insuritas to launch Affinity Insurance Agency.

PayPal Ventures and MassMutual Ventures lead $47 million Series C funding round for Indonesian insurtech Qoala.

Mortgagetech

Equifax UK teams up with Homely to help first-time homebuyers become “mortgage-ready.”

Photo by Madison Inouye

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Bluefin Payment Systems Acquires TECS Payment Systems

Bluefin Payment Systems Acquires TECS Payment Systems
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, Mergers & Acquisitions

Payment and data security company Bluefin Payment Systems announced it will acquire TECS Payment Systems, an omnichannel payment solutions provider.

Once the deal is finalized, Bluefin and TECS will serve a combined 34,000 merchants and close to 300 global partners in 55 countries. And for both Atlanta, Georgia-based Bluefin and Austria-based TECS, the acquisition will expand their geographical footprint.

“We are delighted to welcome TECS’ employees, customers and partners to Bluefin,” said Bluefin CEO John M. Perry. “This combination brings together two companies that focus relentlessly on meeting merchant needs for next-generation payment processing and management as well as the secure exchange of PHI and PII data with PCI-validated encryption and tokenization.”

Bluefin will leverage the purchase to offer its customers omnichannel payments and smartPOS capabilities, which will be integrated into the company’s existing payments and data security suite. TECS clients will benefit from added data security solutions, as well as additional resources for its TECS product and solution suite.

Founded in 2007, Bluefin offers encrypted and tokenized payments for point-of-sale transactions. Additionally, the company’s data security platform, ShieldConex, tokenizes payments, Personally Identifiable Information (PII), and Protected Health Information (PHI) entered online. Last month, the company appointed a new CRO to fuel its growth. And, earlier this fall, Bluefin partnered with commercial hardware manufacturer Sunmi.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Data Security Specialist Bluefin Banks $25 Million in Growth Funding

Data Security Specialist Bluefin Banks $25 Million in Growth Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, Daily news, Funding

In a round led by Macquarie Capital Principal Finance, payment and data security technology company Bluefin has raised $25 million in new financing. With total capital now standing at more than $30 million, the company said the funding would “fuel” its product line, help drive growth internationally as well as within the U.S., and support “opportunistic acquisitions.”

In its statement, Bluefin put this week’s investment, and the growth opportunities for the company, in the context of changes taking place as a result of the global health crisis. Noting that the pandemic has increased reliance on mobile point of sale devices, Bluefin warns that this means the number of potential attack entry points for hackers and cybercriminals has also increased. With an estimated 27.7 million mobile POS devices in use by 2021, Bluefin argues that additional security to defend private data will be required for all businesses, regardless of their sales hardware preference.

“Bluefin is dedicated to remaining at the forefront of technology and solution development in the fight against breaches and cyberattacks,” Bluefin CEO John M. Perry said. “Our partnership with Macquarie will enable Bluefin to not only introduce more solutions to protect e-commerce, online and point-of-sale transactions, but also to make these solutions available globally through our extensive partner network and Bluefin’s products. We look forward to leveraging Macquarie’s deep financial and global expertise in this next phase of company growth.”

A specialist in securing Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Protected Health Information (PHI), as well as financial card data, Bluefin leverages PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) and tokenization to safeguard information upon entry, in transit, and in storage. Bluefin’s technology enables secure payment acceptance for card present, e-commerce, and mobile transactions, and is available via its network of 130+ integrated partners or directly through the company.

“Bluefin has developed industry-leading data and payment protection technologies, which are crucial in the global climate of rising data breaches and cyberattacks against organizations of all sizes,” Macquarie Capital Principal Finance Managing Director Anand Subramanian said. “We are very pleased to partner with this innovative company to expand their cybersecurity product suite and fuel continued growth in the U.S. and internationally.”

An alum of our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, Bluefin announced a partnership with CPA Site Solutions in September, enabling the accounting website provider to offer enhanced online billpay. In August, the company teamed up with electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) solutions provider Invoice Cloud.

Photo by Harrison Haines from Pexels

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Bluefin Unveils ShieldConex

Bluefin Unveils ShieldConex
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems

Payment security solutions company Bluefin is expanding its expertise this week with the launch of ShieldConex, a tool to help secure personal data for firms in retail, hospitality, healthcare, and high education verticals.

With ShieldConex, firms can enter sensitive consumer data– including personally identifiable information and card data– into forms embedded on their website. Once sensitive data is entered into an online form, Bluefin’s technology immediately tokenizes it, replacing it with a Format Preserving Token (FPT) or Format Preserving Encryption (FPE) that can be used in the same way as the original data. With the encryption in place, even if an organization is hacked, the fraudster only sees tokenized data, which is useless to them.

The new tools allows merchants to remain compliant in encrypting their data while maintaining control over the embedded, client-facing form.

According to Bluefin Chief Strategy Officer Ruston Miles, the company is currently “in testing” to help a major airline tokenize user information entered online. “What makes this system unique is the fact that we will collect the information on behalf of the client first, and then perform FPT or FPE. Thus, the client never touches the sensitive data on their web property and the partner gets back a vaultless token for storage – it’s the best of both worlds,” added Miles.

Originally focused exclusively on securing the payment experience, Bluefin offers token-based payment processing, payment tokenization, point-to-point encryption, EMV authentication, and Payment iFrame, a tool that allows merchants to embed an iFrame in their checkout page to encrypt user-entered payment data.

Miles gave a presentation at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2014 about how Bluefin’s point-to-point encryption can help with PCI compliance. Recently, the Georgia-based company partnered with NCR and Powertranz to help secure NCR’s Aloha POS solution.

Bluefin has raised $6 million and was founded in 2007. John Perry is CEO.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Akamai, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, DataSine, DemystData, Fiserv, Flybits, IdentityMind Global, SumUp, Wealthfront, wipro

On Finovate.com

  • Fiserv Drives Digital Transformation for NEFCU.
  • DemystData Lands $12.5 Million for its Data Marketplace.
  • CashFlows Partners with Akamai for Defense Against DDoS Attacks.
  • Wealthfront Acquires Financial Planning Startup Grove.

Around the web

  • SumUp to power card payments for Fleximize members.
  • Wipro teams up with Blue Prism to launch new automation lab in Australia.
  • AiThority talks with DataSine CEO Igor Volzhanin on the role of machine learning and AI in marketing technology.
  • IdentityMind picks up new patent for digital identity-based automated review.
  • Tink urges regulators to “be flexible” when it comes to the implementation deadline of September 14 for PSD2.
  •  Flybits named to the Digital Finance Institute’s list of Canada’s Top 50 Fintech Companies for 2019.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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PayPal in Argentina; Temenos Backs African Challenger Bank

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, ArthaYantra, Bluefin Payment Systems, BLUERUSH, Experian, Finovate Global, iSignthis, NCR Corporation, PayPal, Sberbank, Temenos, ThreatMetrix, Tinkoff Bank

Finovate Global is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • PayPal invests $750 million in Argentina-based e-commerce company MercadoLibre.
  • First Data to acquire Brazilian electronic funds transfer (EFT) solution provider Software Express.
  • NCR, Bluefin, and Powertranz team up to support POS card processing for Caribbean quick serve restaurants.
  • BlueRush deploys its Individeo platform with a large Colombian bank courtesy of a partnership with Bee Concept.
  • The Wall Street Journal looks at how global FIs are gaining interest in the Latin American alternative lending market.

Asia-Pacific

  • Experian launches Singapore-based incubator, Experian X Labs.
  • South Korean crypto company Kakao raises $90 million via private coin offering.
  • Thai Stock Exchange to launch a digital asset exchange next year.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Front office and core banking technology from Temenos to drive digital revamp for African challenger bank, Vista Bank.
  • Financial Software and Systems takes 46% stake in South Africa’s Ecentric Payment Systems.
  • South Africa’s second largest retail bank, Capitec, extends its partnership with ACI Worldwide.
  • ThreatMetrix teams up with Blue Turtle Technologies to help market its fraud prevention solution to customers in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Tinkoff Bank reports 2018 highlights including launch of new mortgage app, a joint P2P money transfer offering with Sberbank, and more than 2.7 million new active credit customers.
  • iSignthis Inks Banking and Payments Deal with Ibanera.
  • Bulgaria-based Software Group scores €18 million loan from Europe Investment Bank.
  • EU Startups features lending platform Inlock its look at 10 Hungarian startups to look out for in 2019.
  • Bulgaria’s Municipal Bank to deploy new core and payments solutions from Oracle.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) launches $10 million fund for fintech startups in the MENA region.
  • Commercial Bank of Qatar joins R3.
  • Credit scoring solution provider Creditinfo opens regional hub in Muscat following new strategic partnership with the Central Bank of Oman.

Central and South Asia

  • ArthaYantra wins Fintech of the Year (India) at The Asset Triple A Digital Awards.
  • Africa’s Naspers plans to spend $1 billion on investments in Indian fintechs.
  • Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures division to launch digital platform for Indian SMEs.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Bluefin, Bluefin Payment Systems, BLUERUSH, Exate, Experian, iSignthis, Minna Technologies, NCR Corporation, NYMBUS, PayActiv, Temenos, VISA

On Finovate.com

  • PayActiv and Visa Help Workers Access Earned Wages Earlier.
  • Temenos Drives Digital Transformation for Africa’s Vista Bank.
  • iSignthis Inks Banking and Payments Deal with Ibanera.

Around the web

  • BioCatch adds touchscreen pressure as a new behavioral biometric value.
  • NCR, Bluefin, and Powertranz team up to support POS card processing for Caribbean quick serve restaurants.
  • Experian launches Singapore-based incubator, Experian X Labs.
  • ETFLogic unveils ETFLogic Pages, a new platform for analyzing exchange-traded funds.
  • Minna Technologies and Exate earn spots in the fourth edition of ING’s FinTech Village.
  • BlueRush deploys its Individeo platform with a large Colombian bank courtesy of a partnership with Bee Concept.
  • Inspire Federal Credit Union goes live with NYMBUS.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AlphaBot, Bluefin Payment Systems, Coinbase, Daon, Expensify, Finicity, identitii, Insuritas, Jack Henry, Jumio, Kabbage, Kinetica, Lendio, On Deck Capital, Openfinance, PayReverse, Ping Identity, Ripple, Topicus, Trustly, YellowDog, Zenmonics

On Finovate.com

  • OnDeck Launches Subsidiary to Help Banks with Small Business Lending.

Around the web

  • Daon partners with Akbank, making the Turkish bank the first in the country to deploy facial recognition technology for mobile banking authentication.
  • YellowDog shortlisted for Tech Company of the Year honors at the 2018 U.K. Business Tech Awards.
  • Bluefin teams up with data security tokenization vendor, TokenEx, to boost payment security.
  • Finicity selected as third-party service provider for Freddie Mac’s automated income and asset assessment solution, Loan Product Advisor.
  • Zenmonics earns a spot in the 2018 IDC FinTech Rankings.
  • FinTech Global recognizes Insuritas as a 2018 InsurTech100 Company.
  • Lendio announces facilitating $1 billion in financing to more than 51,000 U.S. SMEs since inception in 2011.
  • Indonesia’s biggest telecommunications company, Telkomsel, picks Kinetica to support its accelerated analytics, location-based visualization and AI.
  • Blockchain innovator identitii to list on the Australian Securities Exchange this week with anticipated market capitalization of $41 million.
  • Atlanta Business Chronicle interviews Kabbage’s Kathryn Petralia, highlighting her as a 2018 Women Who Mean Business honoree.
  • Sara Berg appointed Chief Operating Officer of Trustly.
  • Expensify launches training and certification program for accountants.
  • Ping Identity launches new Quickstart Private Sandbox for Open Banking and PSD2
  • Openfinance signs data partnership with Refinitiv.
  • Trustly partners with Ingenico for online banking payments.
  • Moneynetint partners with Ripple to leverage instant payment rails.
  • Coinbase expands with new Dublin office.
  • Native American Bank selects Jack Henry’s SilverLake system.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Azimo, BehavioSec, Bluefin Payment Systems, Compass Plus, Kony, NCR Corporation, Payfone, PayPal, SigFig, Vera

On Finovate.com

  • SigFig Buys SmartWealth from UBS.

Around the web

  • Compass Plus migrates Brazilian prepaid card issuer, BPP, to its platform.
  • UBS shutters its robo advisor, SmartWealth, selling technology to SigFig.
  • Azimo forges strategic partnership with African payments business, Interswitch Group.
  • BehavioSec unveils its Behavioral Biometrics Platform, which boosts security with invisible, continuous authentication.
  • PayPal’s Xoom partners with Ria Money Transfer to accelerate global expansion in 86 countries.
  • Bluefin and SoftPoint partner for comprehensive PCI-Validated P2PE solution for POS systems.
  • NCR appoints Andre Fernandez as Chief Financial Officer.
  • Kony teams with Payveris to help banks deliver digital money movement services.
  • Cryptoline News: Payfone’s technology now used to prevent SIM swap attacks.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ACI Worldwide, Behalf, Bluefin Payment Systems, CurrencyFair, Entersekt, Five Degrees, Lendio, Onfido

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Dutch fintech Five Degrees purchases core banking IT systems provider, Libra.
  • QuickBridge to participate in Lendio’s turndown lending program.
  • PasswordPing announces new Chief Executive Officer, Michael Greene. See PasswordPing at FinovateFall next month.
  • Identity-as-a-service specialist Onfido forges partnership with Claim Technology.
  • Alphacomm Solutions to deploy ACI Worldwide’s UP eCommerce Payments technology.
  • CurrencyFair acquires Hong Kong-based Convoy Payments.
  • PYMNTS.com interviews Entersekt SVP of engineering, Richard Bailey.
  • Bluefin and payment service provider Anderson Zaks partner to provide Bluefin’s PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) security solution to merchants and retailers.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bluefin Payment Systems, Conversation.one, GoodData, identitii, Interactions, QuantConnect, ShopKeep POS, Temenos

On Finovate.com

  • Conversation.one Among U.S. Fintechs to Join Finastra’s FusionFabric.cloud Platform.
  • ShopKeep Launches on Android to Broaden Hardware Options.
  • GoodData Launches GoodData Spectrum UI Tools.
  • identitii Forges New Partnership with Robot Automation Specialist Blue Prism.

Around the web

  • Interactions unveils enhanced IVA platform to deliver the omnichannel intelligent virtual assistant capabilities.
  • QuantConnect users now have access to Algorithm Framework, a tool that breaks down algorithmic trading strategies into core modules to make code reusable in the QuantConnect community.
  • Temenos announces launch of its Front Office Suite.
  • Bluefin partners with Paya to provide PCI-validated point-to-point encryption.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Finovate Alumni News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Bluefin Payment Systems, eToro, Gusto, Onfido

On Finovate.com

  • Onfido to Power Digital ID Verification for Bitstamp.

Around the web

  • eToro adds XLM to cryptocurrency offering for users to buy & sell Stellar Lumens on its platform.
  • Bluefin Payments teams up with Datacap Systems and Monetary to provide encryption to POS merchants.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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