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Paysend Secures $125 Million in Series B Led by One Peak

Paysend Secures $125 Million in Series B Led by One Peak
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, PaySend

In a round led by One Peak, and featuring participation from Infravia Growth Capital, Hermès GPE, Plug and Play, and others, U.K.-based mobile payments platform Paysend has secured $125 million in Series B funding. The round takes the company’s total capital to more than $700 million according to estimates from TechCrunch, and puts the firm in a position to expand geographically, add talent, and develop new products.

“Paysend’s vision is to develop the next generation integrated global payment ecosystem for consumers and SMEs,” Paysend CEO Ronnie Millar said. “Our innovative technology is connecting 12 billion cards worldwide to pay and send instantly anywhere, anyhow and (in) any currency – we call this Money for the Future. This saves time, saves money and connects millions of people and businesses around the world.”

Paysend offers international, cross-border money transfers, and card processing, as well as banking and e-commerce services for SMEs. With 90% of its transfers arriving in 15 seconds or less, Paysend leverages its own global network of banks, international and local payment systems – as well as partnerships with the major card networks – to reduce the “significant barriers to entry” for consumers and businesses sending money internationally. “Our platform aims to democratize the service by providing a one-stop-shop to pay and send money to families, suppliers, employees and partners in any currency anywhere in the world at a significantly reduced cost,” Millar said.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Paysend now serves more than 3.7 million consumers; 17,000 small and medium-sized businesses; and 110 receiving countries with its end-to-end, vertically-integrated technology. This month, the company announced that its U.S. customers would now be able to send money to Canada. Paysend also announced the opening of a new regional headquarters in Singapore.

In May, Paysend announced a partnership with open finance innovator Plaid to accelerate the bank authentication and money transfer process for international customers. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Mastercard that would help expand the company’s reach in both the U.K. and EEA.

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Revolut Adds Invoicing Capabilities for Business Banking Clients

Revolut Adds Invoicing Capabilities for Business Banking Clients
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Revolut

Global financial services company Revolut added an invoice creation tool for its Revolut Business clients today. The added capability enables businesses to create, send, and reconcile invoices from within the Revolut app.

By using Revolut’s invoice tool, the fintech’s business banking clients are able to send their customers professional-looking invoices with customized branding. The tool also offers customers more payment options, including credit card, bank transfers, and Apple Pay. Once payment is made, the business receives the funds faster– directly into their Revolut Business account.

One of the biggest benefits of Revolut’s invoices is that it helps with heavy lifting on the administrative side of things. For example, businesses can use Revolut to monitor invoices and receive real-time tracking and notifications.

The new development comes on the heels of the company’s rollout of currency forward contracts in the U.K. that enables companies to set their fixed future FX rate online to help manage market risk. It also closely follows the launch of QR code payment capabilities for businesses. Both of these features make Revolut an increasingly robust option for companies seeking a banking option. As a result, the Revolut app is even more sticky for business users.

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Glia Partners with MAP to Boost Digital Member Engagement at Credit Unions

Glia Partners with MAP to Boost Digital Member Engagement at Credit Unions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Glia

A collaboration between digital customer service innovator Glia and credit union membership service organization (CUSO) Members Access Processing (MAP) will help credit unions better serve their members via their channel of choice – whether it is messaging, video banking, voice, cobrowsing, or a combination of options.

“Consumers expect every business they interact with to deliver quick, seamless service and support, and their credit unions are no exception,” Glia co-founder and CEO Dan Michaeli explained. “By partnering with us and making Digital Member Service a critical part of their digital transformation, MAP will be able to help its financial institution clients boost member satisfaction and loyalty while strengthening their overall competitive positions.”

Glia combines on-screen collaboration and AII-enabled customer assistance to offer a Digital Customer Service solution that enriches web and mobile experiences and improves engagement. The company’s platform not only meets customers on their channel of choice; the solution enables the service representative and customer to transition seamlessly between chat, audio, video, messaging, and phone as needed during the course of the query to ensure that the customer’s needs are met.

“As digital usage continues to rise, it’s a strategic imperative for credit unions to be able to form strong member relationships from within digital channels,” MAP president and CEO Cyndie Martini said. “Glia’s platform allows for credit unions to engage members from where they are in their journey, eliminating the need for disjointed, clunky phone experiences. This ultimately drives efficiencies for the credit union while creating a more cohesive, enjoyable experience for members.”

Most recently demonstrating its Best of Show-winning technology at FinovateSpring earlier this month, Glia has teamed up with more than 150 banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions since its inception in 2012. This year, in addition to its collaboration with MAP, Glia has teamed up with Abe.ai, an AI-powered virtual assistance solution provider from fellow Finovate alum Envestnet | Yodlee, and partnered with low code digital automation platform provider Newgen Software. Glia began the year with an announcement that Illinois-based BCU, a 294,000+ member credit union with $4.2 billion in assets, has selected its platform to enhance digital engagement with its members.

“Member service has always been one of our primary differentiators, and we recognized the need to evolve our approach to keep up with changing member preferences by extending our exceptional service into digital channels,” BCU SVP of digital strategy and delivery Carey Price said. “With Glia’s platform, we will be able to provide a more modern, convenient experience for members that still allows us to form meaningful relationships digitally. We believe this will be a major competitive advantage moving forward.”

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Zip to Acquire Twisto and Spotii

Zip to Acquire Twisto and Spotii
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Twisto

Online payments technology provider Zip has agreed to fully acquire remaining shares of BNPL players Twisto and Spotii. The acquisitions are expected to close for $109 million and $16.3 million, respectively.

By purchasing Czech Republic-based Twisto and United Arab Emirates-based Spotii, Australia-based Zip will grow its global presence. Specifically, the deal enables Zip to extend its BNPL services into the Czech Republic and United Arab Emirates.

This follows Zip’s recent expansion into the U.S. and the U.K. that was made possible after it acquired QuadPay in September of last year for $269 million.

Founded in 2013, Twisto is more than just a BNPL technology provider. The company offers its accountholders one-click payment convenience for online purchases, a unique billpay experience by enabling users to pay by taking a photo of the paper bill, and a touchless in-person payments experience with a special payment bracelet. Additionally, Twisto provides a payment card that charges no interest until the following month and an app that makes it easy for users to track their monthly expenses.

“With Twisto’s existing operations in Central Europe, we are uniquely positioned to tackle the $1.1 trillion European eCommerce market,” said Twisto Founder and Chief Executive Officer Michal Smida. “Being part of Zip’s global platform will allow us to accelerate growth, expand to new markets, win global merchants operating in Europe, leverage global partnerships already in place and broaden our product offering. We share the same ethos – striving relentlessly to deliver the best omnichannel payments experience to both customers and merchants.”

Spotii is relatively new to the BNPL game, having been founded last year by Anuscha Iqbal and Ziyaad Ahmed. Despite this short tenure, the company has already seen impressive traction. Not only has Spotii integrated 650 merchants into its platform, it has also grown its total transaction volume at an average of 90%+ month-on-month since it was founded.

The Twisto and Spotii acquisitions are expected to be finalized in the fourth and third quarters of this year, respectively.

Photo by Tomas Sobek on Unsplash

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Acquisition Brings Unicorn Valuation to Ireland’s Fenergo

Acquisition Brings Unicorn Valuation to Ireland’s Fenergo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fenergo, Mergers & Acquisitions

Irish regtech Fenergo has agreed to be acquired by a pair of private equity firms, Astorg of Paris and Bridgepoint of London. The deal, which involved selling a majority take worth $600 million, values Fenergo at $1.1 billion (€900m), and will give the company additional capacity to “make strategic acquisitions and stay ahead of the competition.”

“We are delighted that Astorg and Bridgepoint have chosen to invest in our company, providing us with the financial strength required to pursue our ambitious high-growth strategy,” Fenergo founder and CEO Marc Murphy said. “Both Astorg and Bridgepoint have enormous experience and credibility in our sector, something I am keen to leverage over the coming years. Ultimately, we only exist to serve the needs of our customers. We are looking forward to partnering with them in the next phase of our development.”

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Dublin, Fenergo made its Finovate debut three years later, demonstrating its innovative client onboarding and account opening management solution. Since then, Fenergo has established itself as a major player in the space, partnering with 32 of the world’s top 50 financial institutions, as well as technology companies like IBM, PwC, and Luxoft. The company says its technology has provided clients with 82% reduction in onboarding times, 34% savings in audit costs, and 7x ROI in four years or less.

Fenergo began the year with the launch of its KYC & Onboarding for Salesforce solution, connecting its client lifecycle management (CLM) technology and regulatory intelligence with Salesforce’s CRM. The integration makes it easier for banks and other financial institutions to enhance the customer experience by providing a more seamless onboarding process.

“In today’s highly challenging business environment, there is no margin for error in delivering exceptional, digital, and joined-up customer experiences,” Murphy explained when the new offering was launched. “Automation is key so that customers can be onboarded without unnecessary manual intervention in the back-end processes. Salesforce is the launchpad for automated onboarding while Fenergo ensures compliance by design through API-powered multi-channel orchestration.”

Fenergo was awarded top honors in the Client Lifecycle Management Solution category at the Ninth Annual WealthBriefing European Awards this month, echoing the recognition the company received at the beginning of the year from Asian Private Banker. So far in 2021, Fenergo has forged partnerships with Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank and Mizuho Americas.

Check out our interview last summer with Fenergo’s James Follette on the challenges of digital transformation in the age of COVID-19.

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Plaid and Square Team Up to Improve the ACH Payments Experience

Plaid and Square Team Up to Improve the ACH Payments Experience
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Plaid

Two fintech megaliths, financial data and infrastructure platform Plaid and merchant services company Square formed a partnership this week that will offer merchants a smoother experience when it comes to ACH payments.

Through the deal, U.S. merchants can process ACH payments without storing clients’ bank account information. Square is leveraging a tokenized check system that uses Plaid to help customers connect their bank accounts. Plaid enables customers to enter their bank login credentials to connect their account and enable the payment.

This system works especially well for businesses that take payments for high-value orders. That’s because it increases the certainty that they payment will go through. Making acceptance even easier, Square offers fee-free refunds on ACH payments processed.

“Payment flexibility, security, and transparency are core to Square’s Payment Platform,” said the Head of Square’s Payment Platform Dennis Jarosch. “By offering ACH payments, we can help businesses process large transactions online at a low cost without worrying about bank authentication, compliance, or any managed payment complexities. We’re excited to offer ACH as one of many ways that businesses get paid fast and securely with Square.”

For Plaid, this news comes shortly after the company closed a $425 million round of funding. Plaid was founded in 2012 to build APIs to connect consumers, financial institutions, and developers. Today, the company also offers a suite of analytics products that provides further insights into transactions.

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nCino Collaborates with KPMG Australia to Boost Middle and Back Office Performance

nCino Collaborates with KPMG Australia to Boost Middle and Back Office Performance
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, nCino

nCino will bring its cloud-based Bank Operating System to the Land Down Under to help KPMG Australia improve its middle and back office operations for its bank clients.

“nCino has a proven track record of helping financial institutions innovate while optimizing their processes,” nCino Director of Strategic Partnerships in APAC Zameer Momin said. “As more and more financial institutions are embarking on their business transformations, we are truly excited to be able to offer the power of KPMG Australia’s banking operations knowledge with nCino’s cloud technology to help create a robust and scalable digital experience.”

nCino’s Bank Operating System leverages the Salesforce platform to offer financial institutions a complete, end-to-end banking solution. nCino’s technology integrates with the institution’s core systems, and combines CRM, onboarding, account opening, loan origination, deposit accounts, credit analysis, ECM, and instant reporting capabilities. nCino notes that its client institutions have experienced a 92% reduction in servicing costs, a 54% reduction in policy exceptions, a 40% decrease in loan closing time, and a 22% increase in efficiency using its cloud-based Bank Operating Systems. These FIs have also experienced a 1.2x increase in account opening completion rates.

KPMG Australia Partner Alex Moreno pointed to the changing nature of the financial services landscape in Australia – including the arrival of both new digital competitors and increased regulation – as reasons for the collaboration with nCino. “Customers are expecting a better experience from their bank,” Moreno said. “Most banks have challenges with operational efficiency and internal time to competency, and secure and responsible lending is in the spotlight. The combination of KPMG’s Banking Operational Excellence Practice and nCino’s Bank Operating System is well positioned to help navigate these challenges.”

A Finovate alum since 2017, nCino began 2021 by announcing new partnerships with Platinum Bank ($425 million in assets) headquartered in Minnesota, and the National Bank of Canada ($332 billion in assets). More recently, nCino brought its technology to Hamburg Commercial Bank and Boston Private, and also worked with Coast Capital and Amerant Bank to expand their use of nCino’s solutions.

Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, nCino was founded in 2012. The company, which went public last July, trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker NCNO and has a valuation of $5.4 billion.

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Privacy.com Rebrands to Lithic, Closes $43 Million in Series B Round

Privacy.com Rebrands to Lithic, Closes $43 Million in Series B Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Privacy.com has a new name and new funding this week. The card issuing platform has rebranded to Lithic and raised $43 million in Series B funding. This brings the company’s total funding to $61 million. The investment was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and saw participation from Index Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Rainfall Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, and Walkabout Ventures.

The company initially launched as Privacy.com, a consumer-facing platform that offers tools to help shoppers generate virtual “burner cards,” which are single-use, disposable card numbers that shoppers could use to shield their actual card number. Going forward, Lithic will maintain this consumer-facing product under the Privacy.com brand.

Last fall, Lithic unveiled its card issuing API for developers. In the past four months, the company has seen impressive growth, with enterprise issuing volumes ballooning by 3x. Lithic will use today’s funding to fuel that growth even further.

The developer-facing tools help them create payment cards for their customers, optimize back-office operations, and simplify disbursements. These capabilities help developers issue a card instantly, reduce administrative burden, and earn a percentage of the interchange revenue.

“We built all these foundational card processing tools for ourselves to power Privacy.com,” said Lithic CEO and Co-founder Bo Jiang. “Then we found that other companies, especially developers, needed the same types of tools. The more we thought about it, the more it made sense to give these tools their own name—Lithic. Its own business, with its own separate customers and its own mission.”

Founded in 2014 by Bo Jiang, Jason Kruse, and David Nicholsand, Lithic is headquartered in New York City.

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Ping Identity and ProofID Bring Identity Security to Tesco Bank

Ping Identity and ProofID Bring Identity Security to Tesco Bank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ping Identity

A pair of identity solution providers – Ping Identity and ProofID – have partnered to enhance identity security for U.K.-based Tesco Bank.

The banking division of Tesco, the largest supermarket retailer in the U.K., Tesco Bank deployed both Ping Identity’s PingAccess and PingFederate to secure key applications. With ProofID as the bank’s implementation partner, the integration – which involved creating a single-factor login process deployed across a private AWS cloud – took only 12 weeks. Importantly, the solution “allow(ed) us to consolidate disparate identity data,” said Tesco Bank security architect David McConchie, “laying the foundation for a common customer identity.”

PingAccess is PingIdentity’s centralized cloud identity and access security solution for apps and APIs. The technology provides secure access down to the URL level and can secure APIs by applying policies to disallow specific HTTP transactions to users in untrusted contexts. PingFederate is an enterprise federation server that enables user authentication and single sign-on. The solution functions as a global authentication authority to enable authorized entities to securely access applications from any device.

“We saw how we could use PingAccess and PingFederate to work across web, mobile and API. The ease with which we could deploy across channels was a critical factor, along with the data governance capabilities,” McConchie said. “Ping Identity gives us the flexible authorization capabilities we need to minimize friction and deliver a customer-centric experience.”

A Finovate alum for nearly 10 years, Ping Identity was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Named a Top Workplace by The Denver Post earlier this month, Ping Identity partnered with global logistics provider DB Schenker in April, and launched its new, cloud-based identity verification service, PingOne Verify, in February.

Ping is publicly-traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PING. With a $1.2 billion valuation upon its IPO in September 2019, the company currently has a market capitalization of $1.9 billion. Andre Durand is founder and CEO.

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Ally Offers Point of Sale Financing with Sezzle

Ally Offers Point of Sale Financing with Sezzle
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Sezzle

Ally Financial’s Ally Lending announced this week it is now offering financing on buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) platform Sezzle. The new collaboration enables select shoppers to pay for purchases over time using Ally’s installment loans or Sezzle’s BNPL installment offerings.

If a purchase is eligible for an installment loan from Ally, the shopper will see the message “financed by Ally” at checkout. Loans will be available for purchases of up to $40,000 with terms ranging from three to 60 months. This broadens the availability of financing typically available on Sezzle, which currently limits shoppers to four installments paid over the course of six weeks on purchases up to $2,500.

“We’re on a mission to financially empower the next generation,” said Sezzle CEO Charlie Youakim. “With Ally Lending’s personalized, flexible financing solutions now available on our platform, we’re able to offer even more options for consumers to budget their purchases and responsibly pay for what they want and need.”

Today’s news comes during a time when both online shopping and BNPL are on the rise. Over the past year, BNPL increased 17% in Gen Z populations and 21% for millennials.

Sezzle initially went public on the ASX in July of 2019, and now has a market cap of over $777 million, a figure that is almost 5x higher than it was at the start of 2020. The company announced earlier this month it will IPO in the U.S. later this year.

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HSBC Launches Multi-Currency Digital Wallet

HSBC Launches Multi-Currency Digital Wallet
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, HSBC

Multi-currency accounts are expanding beyond the realm of fintechs.

This week, HSBC U.S. is launching a multi-currency digital wallet. The new offering, HSBC Global Wallet, will enable U.S. business banking users to exchange foreign currencies and make transactions across borders without using third party tools.

The wallet, which is also being rolled out in the U.K. and Singapore today, will be available in other markets starting next year.

HSBC Global Wallet will offer small-and-medium-sized businesses instant capability to pay in foreign currencies, including Euros, U.K. Pound Sterling, Hong Kong Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Singapore Dollars, Australian Dollars, and Malaysian Ringgit. As a result, these business users will have the ability to make international payments to the U.K., Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and 19 markets in the Eurozone using domestic real-time payment networks. The ability for businesses to receive these local currencies will be available later this year.

“We are excited that the U.S. is one of the first markets in which we are launching HSBC Global Wallet,” said HSBC Head of Liquidity & Cash Management, U.S. and Canada Drew Douglas. “We are excited for the launch and looking forward to expanding the breadth of currencies as we move forward and to introducing receive ‘like a local’ functionality in the very near future.”

Today’s news follows the launch of HSBC’s Global Money account in November of last year. Based on a similar concept, the Global Money multi-currency account enables the bank’s retail banking customers to convert, hold, and transfer multiple currencies from one account. Users can hold up to eight currencies at once and can send money instantly to other HSBC accountholders in more than 15 countries for free.

While the launch of a multi-currency account is a win for HSBC in today’s global economy, there is still one element notably missing– cryptocurrency. The multi-currency accounts that fintechs such as Revolut offer enable users to buy, sell, and hold multiple cryptocurrencies. While HSBC said it has “a pipeline of new currencies and enhancements,” the bank made no mention of future cryptocurrency plans.

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Transaction Security Specialist ThetaRay Scores $31 Million in New Funding

Transaction Security Specialist ThetaRay Scores $31 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global, Funding, ThetaRay

In a round featuring new investors Saints Fund and Eric Benhamou of Benhamou Global Ventures, cross-border transaction monitoring solution provider ThetaRay has raised $31 million in new funding. Led by JVP and BGV Funds, the investment round also featured participation from current investors OurCrowd, Bank Hapoalim, SBT, and others. The funding takes the Israel-based company’s total capital to more than $90 million and will be used to help ThetaRay bring its cloud-based, transaction monitoring solution to new markets.

“We are on the verge of a real revolution in securing the global financial system,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said. “During this period, when the cross-border payment network has become the lifeblood of the world trade infrastructure, ThetaRay is here to instill certainty and reduce risks in secure, cross-border payments.”

ThetaRay’s announcement comes as the governments of both Nigeria and the Ukraine have implemented ThetaRay’s technology to protect cross-border payments from financial crime. The cross-border payments market, estimated at $25 trillion a year, increasingly has been targeted by financial criminals in the post-COVID environment. Unfortunately, the response to this threat has involved tightened controls and enforcement that have resulted in challenges – from slow service to outright blockages – for many of those businesses and banks that need to make legitimate cross-border payments.

To this end, ThetaRay’s SaaS offering analyzes SWIFT traffic, risk indicators, and data from clients, payers, and payees to spot patterns and anomalies that are indicative of suspicious activity – including money laundering and terrorist financing. The technology leverages a proprietary approach to machine learning called “artificial intuition” which simulates the decision-making aptitude of human instinct and subjectivity. Referred to as the “fourth generation of AI,” artificial intuition is being applied to help financial institutions spot large-scale, more sophisticated cybercrime strategies by analyzing the various parameters of the massive number of individual transactions that may make up a given fraud attempt.

“This revolution will enable many organizations and people around the world to transfer money faster, more securely, and with far fewer fees and stops along the way,” JVP founder and chairman Erel Margalit said. “What Swift did to the banking world 25 years ago, ThetaRay will do to the banking world in the next ten years.”

Founded in 2013 and making its Finovate debut two years later at FinovateFall, ThetaRay launched its cloud-based, anti-money laundering (AML) solution for cross-border payments last month. Also in April, the company appointed former Fundtech/Finastra Payments executive Dagan Osovlansky as its new Chief Product Officer. ThetaRay also won the Transaction Security Innovation Award this spring from the FinTech Breakthrough Awards program.

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