Daily news

Nutmeg Acquired by JPMorgan Chase

Nutmeg Acquired by JPMorgan Chase
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Nutmeg

Just when you thought the big banks might be getting a little too complacent about the challenge from fintech, JPMorgan announced today that it will acquire U.K.-based digital wealth management platform Nutmeg. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but Reuters cited a source who gave Nutmeg a valuation of more than $972 million (£700 million).

JPMorgan Chase CEO of International Consumer Sanoke Viswanathan said that the acquisition would give the bank the opportunity to “build Chase in the U.K. from scratch using the very latest technology.” The Nutmeg acquisition also will complement JPMorgan Chase’s U.K. digital bank launch scheduled for later this year.

A Finovate alum since 2012, Nutmeg was a pioneer in offering affordable, automated financial planning and investment services. Now the largest digital wealth manager in the U.K., Nutmeg has grown into a platform with more than 140,000 clients and $4.9 billion (£3.5 billion) in assets under management. Investors can open an account with as little as £100 or £500, depending on the product, and configure their investment goals and risk level, as well as investment style in a minutes. With a product suite that includes a variety of ISAs (Lifetime, Junior, Stocks and shares) as well as pension and general investment accounts, Nutmeg leverages exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to keep costs low and diversification options broad for investors.

Nutmeg and JPMorgan are far from strangers. The two companies announced a partnership back in November of last year to launch a “bespoke new investment offering” called Smart Alpha for Nutmeg customers. The new Smart Alpha portfolios blend Nutmeg’s core investment principles and expertise in exchange-traded funds and fractional investing with JPMorgan Chase’s in-house multi-asset knowledge and experience. Smart Alpha portfolios are designed for investors of all risk levels who want a globally diversified, dynamic portfolio derives additional returns via smart and transparent security selection.

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Digital ID Verification Specialist OCR Labs Secures $15 Million to Power Expansion

Digital ID Verification Specialist OCR Labs Secures $15 Million to Power Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, OCR Labs

From the rise of digital commerce to the growth of the gig economy to the challenge of a global pandemic, digital identity technology has been one of the bigger beneficiaries of a number of trends sweeping societies around the world. Add to this a new emphasis on financial inclusion and social equity, and you have a recipe for opportunity for many innovators in the digital identity space.

The latest company to take advantage of the current moment is OCR Labs, which made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley, in 2016. The company, headquartered in Sydney, Australia and founded by Matthew Adams and Daniel Aiello, returned to the Finovate stage the following summer, earning a Best of Show award for a demo of its ID verification solution.

OCR Labs combines five different technologies – ID document OCR, document fraud assessment, liveness detection, video fraud assessment, and face matching – in a single, end-to-end digital identity experience. The company’s technology has been deployed in a wide range of verticals – from financial services and e-commerce to telecommunications and real estate – to provide AML and KYC-compliant digital ID verification and customer onboarding.

This week OCR Labs announced that it had raised $15 million (EUR 12.5 million) in Series A funding. The round was led Oyak Group of Turkey and will enable the company to expand into markets into Turkey, the U.K., and throughout Europe. OCR Lab currently maintains an international headquarters in London.

“No one wants to spend hours trying to prove who they are, whether it’s for a job or for a bank account, and we also want to know we’re protected against identity theft and fraud,” OCR Labs co-founder Daniel Aiello said. “Digital ID verification has a key role to play, but this year we’ve also seen the limitations if hybrid models are used. People are a barrier and a risk, but fully automated technology can have a huge impact on many industries and privacy. OCR Labs is built to be secure, frictionless and fast, and capable of recognizing ID documents the world over.”

Enjoying triple-digit growth since its launch, OCR Labs has partnered with Reed Screening to help businesses verifying candidate identities during the COVID crisis ahead of a potential in-person COVID check mandate later this month. There is some pressure to allow businesses to continue remote COVID checking, an idea with which OCR Labs understandably sympathizes.

“The need for digital verification is growing exponentially,” Aiello said. “This past year we’ve seen more demand from new sectors as they try to navigate the pandemic and an inability to operate in-person. We believe it has accelerated what needed to happen.”

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Papa’s Brand New Bag: GoDaddy Unveils Small Business Payments Solution

Papa’s Brand New Bag: GoDaddy Unveils Small Business Payments Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Domain registrar and web hosting giant GoDaddy is the latest technology company to unveil its own payment processing solution. Launched this week, GoDaddy Payments enables GoDaddy Websites + Marketing and Managed WordPress WooCommerce customers to conduct their commerce transactions directly via GoDaddy. The firm’s new payments capability comes courtesy of technology and talent gained from its acquisition of Poynt last December.

“GoDaddy is hyper focused on empowering our customers to sell everywhere with a single solution in a seamlessly intuitive experience,” GoDaddy President of Commerce Osama Bedier said. “GoDaddy Payments represents a major step towards centralizing every tool and service a business needs to successfully sell online. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we look forward to accelerating our efforts.”

Bedier founded Poynt in 2013 to reimagine payment terminals into smart, connected devices that power third-party apps and solutions. The company offered a range of point-of-sale hardware and software solutions to facilitate payments, including the its Android-based smart POS terminals and its PoyntOS-powered, third party-terminals. Before being acquired, Poynt handled more than $16 billion in gross merchandise volume a year for its 100,000+ merchant clients.

With more than 20 million customers on its platform, GoDaddy enables individuals and organizations to build professional websites that help them attract customers, and sell their products and services. The company’s new payments offering will give GoDaddy’s ecommerce customers a fast and secure way to manage orders, payments, and refunds. The solution also leverages a single intuitive dashboard that enables customers to manage their payments operations alongside the rest of their other business operations. GoDaddy Payments accepts all major credit and debit cards including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover, and the company added that GoDaddy Payments would be available for use for in-person, offline shopping later this year, as well.

Headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, GoDaddy is a public company with a market capitalization of $14 billion. It trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker GDDY.

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B9 Raises Pre-Seed Funding to Help New American Workers Get Paid

B9 Raises Pre-Seed Funding to Help New American Workers Get Paid
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

A pre-seed funding round of $1.7 million will help U.S. fintech startup B9 build its financial app that helps immigrant workers secure interest-free payroll advances.

“Immigrant communities and other marginalized groups are invisible to traditional banks,” B9 CEO Sergei Terentyev said. “They are hardworking people who deserve a full service banking option that fits the way they earn and spend.” Terentyev called the response to B9 “overwhelming” and said that “hundreds of thousands” of interested users have joined the company’s waiting list.

“In our view, access to banking services that allow families to share resources, build credit and plan for the future is an equality issue, and the early response we’ve seen demonstrates the magnitude of the demand,” Terentyev added.

B9 offers 0% APR pay advances of up to 15 days, as well as a free virtual Visa debit card, and access to both U.S. and international money transfers. The San Francisco, California-based company charges a monthly subscription fee of $4.99.

B9 will use the funding to add to its team, as well as make technology investments. The company hopes to have 100,000 customers by the end of the year with its focus on consumers who are not only underserved by traditional banks, but are also often preyed upon by predatory lenders. In addition to its early wage access feature, B9 expects to offer additional services such as merchant discounts and access to insurance.

In their funding announcement, the company underscored the size of the non-U.S. born population – more than 40 million – as well as the fact that the lion’s share of U.S. population growth – up to 80% – will come from the growth of the first- and second-generation immigrant population.

B9’s services are set up with this in mind. In addition to offering a low, monthly subscription rate, applicants only require a U.S. mailing address, social security number, or ITIN, as well as a government-issued ID from either a U.S. source or from the applicant’s country of origin. Multiple language customer service is available.

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Best of Show Winner Finn AI Adds to its Chatbot Offerings for Banks

Best of Show Winner Finn AI Adds to its Chatbot Offerings for Banks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finn.ai

Finn AI, the two-time Best of Show winner whose conversational AI technology has helped banks and credit unions add to their digital engagement solutions, announced a set of new additions of its own today. The Vancouver, British Columbia-based fintech unveiled three new chatbot service levels to give banks and credit unions greater options in tailoring the online banking experience for their customers and members.

“We’re giving financial institutions flexibility in how they embrace chatbots,” Finn AI co-founder and CEO Jake Tyler said. “They can either adopt fully-integrated bank chat now or they can build their digital experience over time.”

Finn AI’s Virtual Banking Assistant, powered by AI, enables banking customers to use their preferred communication channel – including Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, SMS, iOS, web chat and more – to conduct their banking activities. The AI also helps banks and credit unions gain deeper insights into customer behavior and preferences in order to make increasingly accurate and relevant responses and recommendations. With more than 800 pre-built workflows, the technology is able to answer queries out-of-the-box without human intervention, as well as know when to route more complex queries to human agents.

“By introducing an AI chatbot, banks can deliver better service, achieve higher loyalty, and build broader product relationships,” Tyler said.

The new levels are being introduced today are:

  • Level 1: Quick and easy responses to the most common queries to the institution’s public website.
  • Level 2: Concierge-based navigation to help customers and members using plain language on authenticated mobile and online banking sites
  • Level 3: Virtual assistant-based chatbot that enables end-users to bank via chat in plain language over the customer’s or member’s channel of choice

Founded in 2014, Finn AI has partnered with financial institutions such as ATB Financial, United Federal Credit Union, and TymeBank, as well as one of the largest U.S. card networks and a top ten U.S. retail bank. This spring, the company joined the National Association of Credit Union Services Organizations (NACUSO), and unveiled a handful of new platform features and partner integrations including interest rate tracking and enhancing the bot’s ability to respond to queries involving issues of financial literacy.

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Stripe Launches Tax Tool for Businesses

Stripe Launches Tax Tool for Businesses
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Stripe is building out its tools for small businesses this week. The ecommerce technology company launched Stripe Tax, after completing a six month long pilot.

The new tool helps businesses automatically calculate and collect sales tax, VAT, and GST on the merchant’s behalf. Not only this, the new offering also generates reports and helps businesses navigate complicated regional requirements. The capabilities will lift a burden off small businesses, especially in the U.S., where there are over 11,000 different tax jurisdictions.

“No one leaps out of bed in the morning excited to deal with taxes,” said Stripe Co-founder and President John Collison. “For most businesses, managing tax compliance is a painful distraction. We simplify everything about calculating and collecting sales taxes, VAT, and GST, so our users can focus on building their businesses.”

Stripe Tax features include:

  • Real time tax calculation, which leverages the customer’s location to calculate and collect the right amount of tax and keeps up-to-date with rate and rule changes
  • Frictionless checkout, which reduces checkout friction by using location information to calculate and show taxes to customers.
  • Tax ID management, which helps B2B businesses collect the tax ID number from customers and validate VAT IDs for European customers
  • Reconciliation, which creates comprehensive reports for each market in which a business is registered to collect tax

The tax calculation and collection capabilities will be available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.S., and the U.K.

The launch follows Stripe’s acquisition of tax tool startup TaxJar in May. “With TaxJar, we will help millions of internet businesses running on Stripe with their sales tax and make it easier for them to sell internationally,” commented Stripe CFO Dhivya Suryadevara. “And as a CFO, I’m delighted to welcome so many new colleagues who care deeply about taxes!”

It also comes after a rather sizable funding round the company announced in March, when Stripe raised $600 million in funding. The Series H round brought the company’s total funding to $2.2 billion and boosted its valuation to $95 billion.

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Klarna Locks in $639 Million in New Funding; Earns $46 Billion Valuation

Klarna Locks in $639 Million in New Funding; Earns $46 Billion Valuation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Klarna

In a round led by SoftBank – and featuring participation from Adit Ventures, Honeycomb Asset Management, and WestCap Group – consumer payments pioneer Klarna has raised $639 million in funding. The investment brings the company a valuation of $46 billion at a time when the buy now pay later trend is reshaping consumer financing

“Consumers continue to reject interest- and fee-laden revolving credit and are moving toward debit while simultaneously seeking retail experiences that better meet their needs,” Klarna founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said. “More transparent and convenient alternatives align with evolving global consumer preferences and drive worldwide growth.”

A Finovate alum since 2012, Stockholm, Sweden-based Klarna was among the innovators in “after-delivery payment” which enabled buyers to receive products before payment was due, with the facilitating company taking on all credit and fraud risk for online merchants. To state the obvious, Klarna’s approach to consumer financing has caught on in the years since with a wave of companies across the globe launching their own “buy now pay later” options – especially of late. Today, with this investment, Klarna is Europe’s biggest fintech unicorn, with more than $1.2 billion in 2020 revenues, and more than 18 million customers in the U.S. alone. The company’s payment options are available at nearly a quarter of the top U.S. retailers, and can be found in 17 markets around the world. Klarna’s most recent offering, Pay in 4, is a full embrace of the buy now pay later format, giving consumers the opportunity to pay for purchases over time in four, interest-free payments.

In addition to being the highest-valued private fintech in Europe, Klarna is now the #2 fintech in terms of valuation in the world – behind Stripe. And as part of the GiveOne initiative launched by Klarna earlier this year, the company will direct 1% of this week’s investment to “initiatives supporting planet health.”

“Klarna is really transforming and disrupting corporate giving by not only implementing a long-term commitment but also by enabling others to do the same,” explained Nina Siemiatkowski, founder and CEO of Milkywire, a social impact platform that serves as Klarna’s strategic partner in the GiveOne project. “We hope that many more companies follow their lead and support our planet by funding those who are on the frontlines making impactful change on a daily basis.”

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SumUp Partners with Google Pay to Facilitate Business Payments

SumUp Partners with Google Pay to Facilitate Business Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SumUp

Global payments company SumUp announced this week that it is collaborating with Google Pay. The two have partnered to help merchants make business transactions safer and easier using their SumUp card, which was launched in February of last year.

The partnership will enable SumUp’s 125,000 business cardholders in the U.K., France, Italy, and DACH to add their SumUp payment card to their Google Pay mobile wallet. Google Pay will also support virtual cards, which will allow merchants to make purchases from suppliers without having their physical card. It will also allow new cardholders to start using their SumUp card immediately after it is issued, instead of waiting for the card in the mail.

“At SumUp, we’re always looking to help our merchants find new ways to improve their businesses, particularly as we move out of this pandemic and hopefully towards a more economically positive future,” said SumUp VP of Banking Dimitri Gugunava. “Collaborating with Google Pay is a really important development for us, because it means we can remove layers of friction for small businesses who need to make quick (but safe) payments on the go.”

SumUp was founded in 2012 and helps three million merchants accept card payments using a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) device and a Mastercard-branded small business payment card. The U.K.-based company also offers small business tools including invoice-creation software, inventory management, customer loyalty features, employee time roll, and reporting technology.

The collaboration announcement comes after SumUp pulled in $895 million in debt funding from Goldman Sachs, Temasek, Bain Capital Credit, Crestline, and others. SumUp Co-founder Marc-Alexander Christ said that the cash will help the company grow its customer base and drive the development of new services for its small business clients across the globe.

Coinciding with today’s news, SumUp released a new TV ad today that promotes the company’s mPOS device for small and micro merchants. Check it out below:

Photo by Oli Dale on Unsplash

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Roboadvisor Scalable Capital Secures $180 Million in New Funding

Roboadvisor Scalable Capital Secures $180 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Scalable Capital

In a round led by Tencent, digital wealth management platform Scalable Capital has locked in more than $183 million (€150 million) in Series E funding. The new capital brings the company’s total funding to more than $317 million (€260 million) and gives the Munich, Germany-based firm a valuation of $1.4 billion – making the firm Germany’s, and fintech’s, latest unicorn. Scalable Capital said that the financing will help the company add to its workforce, as well as help support expansion into European markets like France, Italy, and Spain.

“We see huge demand to invest money in the capital markets instead of leaving it in bank accounts,” Scalable Capital co-CEO and co-founder Florian Prucker said. “Our clients can access fully managed globally diversified ETF portfolios and – in the same app – self directed trading in shares, ETFs, crypto currencies, and funds. We also provide a market-leading offering of ETF, stocks, and crypto monthly savings plans. We are planning to launch derivatives trading next.”

Having Tencent as an investor, according to Scalable Capital co-CEO and co-founder Erik Podzuweit, will also help the company improve its appeal to millennial customers who have become increasingly comfortable investing via their smartphones.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Scalable Capital offers banks, insurers, and corporate clients a digital wealth management platform that support automated investing and rebalancing. With customers ranging from ING to Openbank (Santander’s digital bank) to Siemans Financial Services, Scalable Capital provides globally diversified, cost-efficient ETF portfolios that are personalized to the investor’s risk profile.

Scalable Capital currently has more than $5 billion in assets under management. In the wake of this week’s funding, the company plans to add cryptocurrencies to its product portfolio, open a new office in Berlin, and double its workforce this year to 400.

Scalable Capital began the year with a pivot: the company announced in January that it would continue its direct to consumer business in Germany and Austria, but will limit its operations in the U.K. to its B2B business. The cost of customer acquisition was cited as one of the challenges to the company’s retail ambitions in the U.K. and, as such, Scalable Capital decided to focus on expansion and development with its German platform and its B2C and wealth businesses.

Also this year, Scalable Capital announced the appointment of new Chief Strategy Officer Dirk Urmoneit. Urmoneit comes to the company after holding senior positions at index provider Solactive AG and investment banks J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

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Credit Sesame Scores $51 Million; Completes Zingo Acquisition

Credit Sesame Scores $51 Million; Completes Zingo Acquisition
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Credit Sesame, Daily news, Funding

On the consumption side of personal finance, managing credit is one of the most important aspects of financial wellness. And for more than a decade, Credit Sesame has been among the more innovative companies in this space. From its origins as a hub for financial planning tools, insights into credit scoring, and advice on smart borrowing, Credit Sesame has grown into a leader in the financial wellness industry with new solutions like its Sesame Cash debit account, which topped one million customers less than a year after emerging from its beta launch.

“With Sesame Cash and features like real-time cash back rewards and rewards for improving their credit score,” Credit Sesame GM and Head of Global Banking Miro Pavletic explained when the solution was introduced last September, “we are helping customers put more money back in their pocket than any other digital banking service. Whether you’re looking to buy groceries or debating where to grab takeout, we can connect you with the brands you love and give you cash back instantly,” Pavletic said.

The $51 million in new funding the company raised this week is a testament both to the journey Credit Sesame has been on since its launch in 2010, as well as the potential the firm has to continue to play a leading role in helping millions of consumers better understand and manage their finances.

“Creating access to better credit and finance is critical for financial prosperity for consumers in our country, and it’s enlightening to see major banks and the federal government also taking action,” Credit Sesame CEO Adrian Nazari said. “The impacts of the past year have only made those needs greater, and through our recent acquisition and fundraising, we are proud to be expanding our platform offerings and leading the charge in opening more doors to financial inclusion and wellness for all.” 

The company sees its current mission as closing the “credit chasm,” which it believes limits economic opportunities for more than 44 million “credit invisible” Americans. Part of this effort includes Credit Sesame’s decision to acquire Zingo, a transaction that was completed recently. A fintech company headquartered in Portland, Oregon, Zingo helps renters improve their credit scores via timely rent payments. With almost 80% of its 15 million members renting, rather than owning, a home, Credit Sesame expects the acquisition to represent a “significant growth opportunity for the company” while enhancing “financial inclusion for its customers.” Credit Sesame anticipates integrating Zingo’s rent reporting technology into its financial wellness platform over the summer.

Looking out over the balance of 2021, Credit Sesame appears to be taking a page from Zingo’s book by launching a new feature that will enable consumers to use their cash to help them improve their credit rating. Requiring no credit check, the new solution will allow Credit Sesame customers to leverage their cash and credit together to help build a strong financial foundation and create a path toward better financial health.

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NuBank’s $750 Million Funding Round Proves Digital Challengers Are Still in the Game

NuBank’s $750 Million Funding Round Proves Digital Challengers Are Still in the Game
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Nubank

Digital banking giant NuBank is about to become even more gigantic. That’s because the Brazil-based pulled in $750 million in Series G funding. When added to the $400 million it raised in January, the funds bring the Series G round to $1.15 billion.

Today’s round was led by Berkshire Hathaway, which contributed $500 million. Additional investors include Sands Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, MSA Capital, Advent’s Sunley House Capital, Brazilian asset managers Verde Asset Management, as well as Absoluto Partners.

With the new investment comes a new valuation. NuBank is now valued at $30 billion, a figure that rivals the valuation of Brazil’s number three bank, Banco Santander Brasil.

NuBank was founded in 2013 to serve the underbanked population across Brazil, a group that adds up to 30% of the country’s population. Today, the digital challenger has 40 million customers and offers a robust range of banking services including a debit card, insurance, loans, small business accounts, and P2P payment tools.

Today’s news comes after the company brought on two C-level hires, Matt Swann as Chief Technology Officer and Arturo Nunez as Chief Marketing Officer.

NuBank will use the funds from today’s investment to fuel further expansion into Mexico and Colombia, launch new products, and hire more employees. While the company has been in Mexico since 2018 and Colombia since last October, NuBank’s banking tools are currently limited to credit cards in both nations.

The massive size of this round and the notoriety of the lead investor offer a hint that digital-only banks are not just a fad limited to 2020. These newcomers have the ability and willingness to serve populations that banks have consistently ignored. Because of this, existing digital banks have increased their customer numbers in the past year, and there has been a massive onslaught of new digital banking players vying for a niche subset of the population.

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Glia and Posh Partner to Bring Digital Member Service to TwinStar Credit Union

Glia and Posh Partner to Bring Digital Member Service to TwinStar Credit Union
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Glia

Multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner Glia and Conversational AI specialist Posh Technologies have teamed up to bring new customer engagement options to TwinStar Credit Union.

“The financial institutions that provide customers and members with a strategic blend of human touch and AI will have high retention and acquisition rates,” Glia co-founder and CEO Dan Michaeli said. “By partnering with Glia and Posh, TwinStar offers members a seamless support network where no duplication is required. It’s a faster, better member experience that alleviates the frustrations associated with typical support lines. Easy communication with financial support is a cornerstone to service and long-lasting relationships.” 

Courtesy of this partnership, TwinStar CU will offer a seamless digital chat experience available directly from its website and mobile app that features both automated and live member support. The automated chatbot solution will be able to respond to basic queries regarding branch hours, ATM locations, routing numbers, and similar information. More complex inquiries will be transferred to human contact center agents via Glia’s live chat feature, creating a more efficient experience for both members and support teams.

Member service will not be limited to live chat, either. Once live agents are engaged, members will be able choose the communication channel of their choice – messaging, video banking, or voice – as well as toggle between communication options and take advantage of support tools like co-browsing. The result is “faster and better service to our members in a multitude of ways” according to Scott Daukas, TwinStar Chief Strategy Officer. “We are thrilled to offer this great service to our members,” he said.

Headquartered in Washington State, TwinStar CU serves more than 135,000 members in Washington and Oregon, and manages $1.8 billion in assets. The institution traces its origins back to 1937, when teachers at Olympia High School who were struggling to secure loans on their meager salaries joined together to form the Thurston County Teacher Credit Union. The institution’s first branch, a classroom at the high school made available four days a week, was opened in 1950. The credit union became TwinStar in 2006.

Boston, Massachusetts-based Posh Technologies was spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2018. The company specializes in creating intelligent chatbots and interactive voice response (“conversational IVR”) phonebots and includes financial institutions like the State Department FCU and Finovate alum Mr. Cooper among its customers. Posh has picked up non-equity backing from MassChallenge and FinTech Sandbox.

Most recently winning Best of Show honors at FinovateSpring last month, Glia announced a partnership with credit union service organization, Members Access Processing (MAP) in May, as well. In March, the company announced a collaboration with AI-powered virtual assistant solution provider Abe.ai. With more than 200 banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions as its partners, Glia began the year with news that BCU, a $4.2 billion credit union based in Illinois, had selected its Digital Member Service platform to better engage its 294,000 members.

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