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Finovate Global Brazil: Instant Payments, Acquiring AI Tech, and Money for Med Students

Finovate Global Brazil: Instant Payments, Acquiring AI Tech, and Money for Med Students
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global, Temenos

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Brazil.

Brazilian fintech Matera raised $100 million in funding from U.S. investor Warburg Pincus. The investment gives Warburg Pincus a majority stake in the firm, and is designed to help fuel Matera’s expansion into North America.

A key part of Brazil’s PIX instant payments ecosystem, Matera offers core banking, instant payments, and QR code payment technology to more than 250 banks, credit unions, and financial institutions globally. The company includes two of the top three banks in the world and more than one-third of all banks in Brazil as its customers.

This week’s investment arrives as the company reports 2023 revenues of $77 million and 4x growth since 2020. Within a real-time payments system that accounts for more than 40% of all electronic transactions in Brazil, Matera alone processes more than five billion transactions a year.

“PIX set the standard for the digital finance revolution,” Matera CEO Carlos Netto said. “At Matera, we know first-hand the pressure for banks to modernize their infrastructure to keep up with innovative new payment methods such as instant payments and pay-by-bank. We’re honored to leverage our PIX expertise with proven solutions to help financial institutions across North America keep pace with their customers’ digital demands.”

Matera’s flagship solution for the North American market is Digital Twin, a high-performance ledger that sits on top of a bank’s existing core platform. Digital Twin responds to two particular issues: core banking modernization and the ability to create real-time digital user experiences. Additionally, Matera is introducing its QR code payments solution. The technology enables both billers and merchants to offer consumers QR codes to make payments via mobile phone. Matera’s QR code payments offering also enables consumers to generate QR codes from a mobile app in order to make payments.

Matera was founded in 1987 in Sao Paulo. The company also maintains offices in Rio de Janeiro, Maringá, and Campinas in Brazil; as well as in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

One of Finovate’s few Brazilian alums, Nubank, is also one of the biggest fintechs in the country. And while the company has received a great deal of acclaim for its efforts to promote financial inclusion, Nubank is also making inroads when it comes to integrating AI technology into its operations.

To this end, the company has acquired U.S.-based data intelligence start-up Hyperplane. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Nubank said that it will use Hyperplane’s AI technology in multiple ways, generating insights, improving decision-making, and enhancing the customer experience.

“Nubank’s mission since its founding is to fight complexity and empower fanatical customers,” David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, said. “Our early investments in AI, coupled with the impressive infrastructure and talent that (the) Hyperplan team has been able to put together, will accelerate our mission. Consumers globally will access not only the very best financial products but also receive truly customized financial advice that empowers them to live a better life.”

Founded in 2013, Nubank made its Finovate debut at FinDEVrNewYork 2016. The digital banking platform serves more than 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia with solutions for credit and lending, investment, payments, and insurance. Last month, the company launched direct cryptocurrency transfers, and forged partnerships with Lightspark and fellow Finovate alum, Wise.

Alume, a Brazilian fintech that specializes in providing financing for higher education expenses raised $7 million (R$39 million) in funding this week. The round was led by Japan-based Credit Saison.

Helping fund the education of the country’s future medical professionals is Alume’s specialty. The company offers student loans to medical students in Brazil, as well as to newly graduated doctors. To date, the company has more than 4,000 clients and has disbursed $29 million in financing.

“Alume differentiates itself by combining technology with a deep understanding of the medical sector,” Alume Co-founder and CEO Pedro Silveira said. “Our medical-specialized accountants deliver a superior experience and tax savings for professionals.”

Alume offers three different kinds of student loans. The company provides financing of up to 80% of the student’s monthly tuition fees starting with the ninth semester of attendance onwards. Alume also offers an allowance of up to R$1,600 per month (approximately $287) to help pay for housing, food, and transportation expenses. Third, Alume provides financing for medical residency preparatory courses. Monthly interest rates start at 1.99%.

In addition to financing, the company is adding an accounting service to its offering. The service will be designed to assist doctors who serve as legal entities and will help them manage both their accounting and tax reporting.

Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Alume was founded in 2019.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Accelerex, a digital payment services provider based in Nigeria, introduced its “Payment with Fingerprint” system.
  • Stanbic Bank Kenya upgraded its Temenos core in partnership with Temenos regional implementation partner Orion Innovation.
  • Nigerian fintech Fintava unveiled its banking-as-a-service technology.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Estonia-based fintech Mifundo is awarded a $2.7 million (€2.5 million) grant from European Innovation Council.
  • Latvian multi-asset investment platform Mintos announced its entry into the Czech market this week.
  • Digital wallet Kuady has expanded to Bulgaria.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Egyptian fintech unicorn MNT-Halan raised $157.5 million to support expansion outside the country.
  • Jordan Kuwait Bank teamed up with Mastercard and UAE-based fintech FOO to launch new prepaid digital wallet, eliWallet.
  • The Central Bank of Bahrain will require all licensed financial and banking institutions to adhere to the country’s Open Banking regulations by the first of September.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian startup TechFini secured approval from NPCI to facilitate UPI-based payment solutions to banks, financial institutions, and fintechs.
  • Paytech Paysys Labs and Raqami Islamic Digital Bank Pakistan partnered to enhance digital payments in the country.
  • India-based credit card company OneCard announced a collaboration with Razorpay.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexican fintech OCN secured $86 million in Series A funding.
  • Brazilian banking software provider Matera raised $100 million in funding from Warbug Pincus.
  • Argentina-based payments processor Tapi secured $22 million to support its expansion into Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore based fintech Qashier launched its payment linked loyalty program, Treats.
  • Financial infrastructure platform Stripe unveiled a new series of products designed for the Japanese market.
  • Hong Kong-based digital bank ZA Bank announced new reserve banking services for stablecoin issuers.

Photo by Florencia Potter

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Stratyfy and Prism Data Team Up to Help Lenders Make Better Decisions

Stratyfy and Prism Data Team Up to Help Lenders Make Better Decisions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Stratyfy
  • AI technology company Stratyfy announced a strategic partnership with cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform Prism Data.
  • Stratyfy will integrate Prism Data’s cash flow data and scoring to improve decision-making for lenders.
  • New York-based Stratyfy won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2022.

AI technology company Stratyfy has forged a strategic partnership with cash flow underwriting and data analytics platform Prism Data. Courtesy of the partnership, Stratyfy will put Prism Data’s cash flow data and scoring to work to help lenders make better decisions when traditional credit data does not provide enough information.

“Solely depending on traditional credit data can paint an incomplete financial picture of loan applicants, which results in lenders missing out on good, profitable customers,” Stratyfy Co-Founder and CEO Laura Kornhauser explained. “By combining our proprietary AI/ML technology with Prism Data’s CashScore, we can harness cash flow data to help lenders accurately and transparently identify credit-worthy customers who may have been overlooked otherwise.”

Prism Data’s CashScore solution analyzes thousands of financial data points that are often absent from traditional credit reporting. These factors include income, assets, expenses, volatility, and the ability to repay. CashScore simplifies complex cash flow underwriting to a three-digit score and can be used by lenders to approve or decline credit applications or as part of a process that includes traditional credit models and scoring.

“Prism’s CashScore enables credit decisions that are more accurate and more inclusive – allowing lenders to say ‘yes’ to up to 30% more customers without taking on additional risk,” Prism Data President Erin Allard said. “Paired with Stratyfy’s cutting-edge decisioning technology, we’re confident lenders will be better positioned to advance financial inclusion and boost profits at the same time.”

Founded in 2016, New York-based Prism Data launched its CashScore FirstDetect solution earlier this year. FirstDetect predicts the likelihood that a customer will default on a loan. The technology uses a variety of financial details as well as trend and pattern analysis to obtain a clear overview of the customer’s spending, earning, and saving behavior. FirstDetect is especially helpful in dealing with “first-party fraud” in which a customer applies for a loan in their own name, but does so with no intention of paying the loan back.

Headquartered in New York and founded in 2017, Stratyfy made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2018. The company returned to the Finovate stage for FinovateFall 2022, winning Best of Show for a demo of its Unbias solution. Unbias enables financial institutions and fintechs to “uncover, understand, and undo” bias in complex financial decision-making such as underwriting. The technology, delivered via API, is part of Stratyfy’s suite of machine learning tools to help institutions minimize bias, support inclusion, and enhance risk-adjusted returns.

Photo by Dobromir Hristov

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ReceiptHero Secures New Funding

ReceiptHero Secures New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, ReceiptHero
  • ReceiptHero announced new funding this week, courtesy of investors including SeedX VC, LifeLine VC, and SuperHero VC, as well as angel investors.
  • The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
  • ReceiptHero made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.

Finland-based ReceiptHero has secured new funding, the company reported this week. Participating in the round were SuperHero VC, SeedX VC, LifeLine VC, as well as angel investors and team members. The amount of the investment was not disclosed; prior to this week’s announcement, the company had raised more than $6.2 million (€5.7 million) in total capital.

ReceiptHero said that the funding will accelerate the company’s goal of eliminating paper receipts and creating greater value in the data that is available from real-time receipt delivery. To this end, ReceiptHero has stated that its goal is to serve more than a million payment terminals in Europe and the U.K., with the first retail pilots in the U.S. to launch within the next year and a half.

“When we founded ReceiptHero over five years ago, we had to spend a lot of time heavily educating the market on what a digital receipt is,” ReceiptHero CEO Saku Pihlajaniemi said. “Fast forward to today we see a large amount of merchants inquiring about our service and they have a clear strategy on how they want to deploy digital receipts across their stores.”

Receipt Hero made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company showed how its API platform enables receipts to be created and distributed via a variety of channels. Business customers benefit from the compatibility between digital receipts and their accounting software. Individual customers get not only an enriched transaction list in their mobile banking app, but also the ability to have that transaction data used to enhance their app’s budgeting and spending tools.

This year has been a big partnership year for the Helsinki-based firm. The company began 2024 by integrating with Shopify, bringing digital receipts to the e-commerce platform. In March, ReceiptHero announced partnerships with Finnish retailer HalpaHalli, ceramics and textiles brand Pentik, and cashless payment solutions company CoreGo. More recently, the company teamed up with cash register and payment terminal solution Solmio-kassa, and TuloPOS, a point of sale and ordering system for the hospitality industry.

For more, check out our Finovate Global interview with ReceiptHero Chief Operating Officer Scott Moore.

Photo by Markus Winkler

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Lemonade Launches Buildings and Contents Insurance in the U.K.

Lemonade Launches Buildings and Contents Insurance in the U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Lemonade is expanding further into the U.K. market, making buildings and contents insurance products available to U.K. residents.
  • Lemonade originally launched in the U.K. in October 2022 via a partnership with British insurance company Aviva.
  • With today’s launch, U.K. homeowners can receive instant coverage from £14 a month.

Digital insurance company Lemonade announced further expansion into the U.K. market today. The New York-based company is making its buildings and contents insurance products available for U.K. users.

Lemonade originally launched in the U.K. in October 2022 as a Prudential Regulation Authority-licensed carrier. Since then, the company reports that the region is among its fastest growing markets. Today’s launch will expand the company’s home insurance offerings, allowing U.K. homeowners to purchase further coverage for their home and belongings. Lemonade expects the new launch will help continue its growth in the U.K.

“The U.K. has proven to be an exciting market for us with a large digitally-savvy population who appreciate an easy, personalized experience,” said Lemonade CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Schreiber. “Growing our home insurance offerings this quickly is a tribute to our incredible team and our thriving partnership with Aviva.”

The new insurance offering will enable U.K. homeowners to receive instant coverage from £14 a month. The insurance includes base coverage, which covers rebuilding costs, temporary accommodation, and civil and property liability; as well as flexible contents coverage of up to £100,000. Depending on their needs, users also have the option to select from a list of add-on coverage options, including home emergency, accidental damage, theft and loss, and legal protection.

Lemonade’s U.K. operations are made possible through a partnership with Aviva, a British multinational insurance company that counts about 19 million customers across the U.K., Ireland, and Canada.

“We’re excited to expand our partnership with Lemonade in the U.K., building on our first product launch in 2022,” said Aviva MD Partnerships and Transformation, Personal Insurance Jon Marsh. “Aviva and Lemonade share common values and by working together we can create compelling new propositions and experiences for customers.”

Founded in 2015, Lemonade is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker LMND. The company has a market capitalization of $1.59 billion. In addition to its renters and homeowners insurance products, the company also offers pet, life, and car insurance.

Photo by Rafael Garcin on Unsplash

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Clair Brings Earned Wage Access To Gusto Clients

Clair Brings Earned Wage Access To Gusto Clients
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gusto
  • Earned wage access fintech Clair has partnered with payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto.
  • Under the agreement, employees at many of Gusto’s 300,000 supported businesses will be offered access to On-Demand Pay via Gusto Wallet.
  • Gusto is Clair’s first partner to announce participation in the new embedded EWA product.

Embedded earned wage access provider Clair and payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto are teaming up this week. The partnership will allow Gusto to offer earned wage access (EWA) to their small business clients.

Founded in 2019, Clair offers an embeddable EWA tool. Clair’s clients, which include Trinet, 7Shifts, syncHR, use the EWA tool to help their combined 12,000 business customers offer their employees earlier access to their paychecks with no interest. Once employees set up a Clair spending account, they can receive a paycheck advance at any time for hours they’ve already worked.

Clair offers end users banking services powered by Pathward, N.A., including a virtual and physical Mastercard debit card, access to fee-free ATMs, and does not charge monthly service fees or require a minimum balance.

“Emergency expenses often arise and employees need a secure and convenient way to cover those unexpected costs,” said General Manager and Head of Product at Gusto’s Members business unit Dan Loomis. “Due to these needs, we decided to add an on-demand pay offering to Gusto Wallet and knew it would be crucial to find the right partner to bring it to life in a seamless, compliant way. We evaluated all the major players in the EWA space and Clair stood out as our ideal partner, bringing both the compliance framework and technical capabilities we need to offer wage advances right inside our existing app. We’re proud of this industry-leading collaboration that expands the possibilities of embedded financial wellness benefits.”

Under today’s partnership, employees at many of Gusto’s 300,000 supported businesses will be offered access to sign up for On-Demand Pay via Gusto Wallet. The company anticipates the move will help employees increase prosperity by delivering not only earlier access to their pay, but also to financial and work productivity tools. Gusto is Clair’s first partner to announce participation in the new embedded EWA product.

Gusto was founded in 2011. Originally known as ZenPayroll, Gusto provides a cloud-based payroll, benefits, and HR management solution. The company’s tools help businesses with things like time and attendance, hiring and onboarding, talent management, and more. Company co-founder Joshua Reeves is CEO.

Photo by Karolina Kaboompics

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Salt Edge Launches API Upgrade to Support Open Banking

Salt Edge Launches API Upgrade to Support Open Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Salt Edge
  • Open banking solutions provider Salt Edge has released the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API.
  • The new version, the company’s sixth, features enhancements designed to make integration easier and quicker.
  • Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, Salt Edge most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2019.

Canadian open banking solutions provider Salt Edge is back in the fintech headlines. This week, the company unveiled the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API. Within the package, Salt Edge will make its Account Information API available initially, with its Payments API scheduled to be launched “in short order” afterward.

The latest release features a number of updates and enhancements, which the company says are a direct result of listening to clients, as well as the company’s in-house team. The new version provides endpoints optimization to make integrating with Salt Edge’s API easier and quicker. Salt Edge has also put in the effort to ensure the consistency of the API environment regardless of the license clients use. This facilitates easier and more accurate navigation through the documentation, and those clients that do use Salt Edge’s license will benefit from enhanced access and control with API V6. A third enhancement provides real-time updates, notifications, and event triggers, offering a more dynamic and responsive system that enables clients to monitor activity and quickly address issues as they arise.

Salt Edge’s product enhancement news comes one month after the Ottawa, Ontario-based fintech announced partnerships with Italian API-based e-document management platform A-Cube API and Moldovan financial institution Moldindconbank. A-Cube API, which had been using Salt Edge for its account information services, has now integrated Salt Edge’s Payment Initiation solution. This will facilitate the linking of A-Cube API’s e-invoicing system with account-to-account payments, making the invoicing process faster, more secure, and more accurate.

The company’s partnership with Moldindconbank will help the financial institution ensure that it meets regulatory requirements with regard to open banking. The bank, like all financial institutions in the country, has until February 2025 to comply with new open banking regulations issued by the National Bank of Moldova. To this end, Salt Edge’s full-stack Open Banking Compliance solution will enable Moldindconbank to, in the words of the bank’s Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board Mihail Iovu, “quickly comply with local open banking requirements while elevating our digital solutions, furthering our dedication to providing top-notch services to our clients.”

Founded in 2013, Salt Edge made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 and returned the following year for FinovateEurope 2019. Garri Galanter is CEO.

Photo by Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash

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BNP Paribas Partners with Ant International

BNP Paribas Partners with Ant International
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • BNP Paribas has partnered with Ant International on multiple initiatives.
  • Among the projects, BNP Paribas will allow its merchant clients to accept payments via Ant International’s Alipay+, BNP Paribas will sponsor Ant International’s WorldFirst to participate in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) scheme, and BNP Paribas will leverage Ant International’s Whale platform to explore opportunities in tokenized deposits.
  • Ant Group, which was originally an affiliate of Alibaba, created Ant international to foster international expansion efforts.

French bank BNP Paribas announced this week it has teamed up with Ant Group subsidiary Ant International. The two agreed to work together on four projects to help BNP Paribas foster its digital payment initiatives.

For the first collaboration, BNP Paribas will work with Ant International’s Alipay+, a cross-border mobile payment solution. The partnership will allow BNP Paribas’ merchant clients that use its acquiring service across Europe to accept payments from more than 25 international mobile partners via Alipay+.

The two will also work to help WorldFirst participate in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) scheme. WorldFirst, which is Ant International’s digital payment and financial services platform for global businesses, aims to reinforce its participation in SEPA to help businesses make online cross-border payments and fund transfers within the SEPA Zone. Under the agreement, BNP Paribas will sponsor WorldFirst’s participation in the SEPA scheme, allowing WorldFirst to expedite its integration and onboarding onto SEPA. Ultimately, WorldFirst’s clients will be able to access SEPA payment schemes in real-time and automate treasury payments.

Additionally, BNP Paribas will leverage Ant International’s Whale platform to explore opportunities in tokenized deposits for global treasury management. In turn, Ant International will use BNP Paribas’ infrastructure to build out its Whale platform further.

The Whale platform leverages the blockchain to facilitate commercial digital payments and financial services on a global scale. The treasury management tool offers cross-border payment solutions that leverage tokenized deposits, support for digital wallet functionality integrated into Alipay+, and provide data analytics tools that offer insights into customer behavior and transaction patterns, and more.

“Through our collaboration with a leading industry partner, we will bring together digital payments and innovative technology solutions from Ant International, with BNP Paribas’s depth of experience in the European market, to deliver greater connectivity and make global travel and trade more convenient,” said Ant International President Douglas Feagin.

Ant International is headquartered in Singapore. The firm’s parent company Ant Group, which was originally an affiliate of Alibaba, created Ant international to foster international expansion efforts. In addition to Alipay+ and WorldFirst, Ant International’s other brands include Antom, Anext Bank, and Bettr.

BNP Paribas operates in 63 countries and has about 183,000 employees, including more than 145,000 in Europe. The bank was officially established in May of 2000, after the merger of France-based BNP and international investment bank Paribas.

Photo by Floriane Vita on Unsplash

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Bain Capital to Acquire Envestnet for $4.5 Billion

Bain Capital to Acquire Envestnet for $4.5 Billion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Wealthtech innovator Envestnet has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital in a deal valued at $4.5 billion.
  • Also participating in the deal is Reverence Capital. Strategic partners BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, and State Street Global Advisors also have agreed to invest in the transaction.
  • Envestnet has been a Finovate alum since 2016. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2021.

Technology, data, and wealth solutions company Envestnet has agreed to be acquired by Bain Capital. The transaction values Envestnet at $4.5 billion or $63.15 per share. Also participating in the deal is Reverence Capital, along with a number of strategic partners that have agreed to invest in the transaction. These partners include BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin Templeton, and State Street Global Advisors, and each will hold a minority position in the company once the transaction is completed.

“This is a validation of Envestnet’s proven ability to operate at market-leading scale – serving more assets, accounts, and advisors and effectively connecting our company and our technology,” Envestnet EVP Business Lines Tom Sipp said. Calling the acquisition an “exciting new chapter,” Sipp highlighted the opportunities that lie ahead in Envestnet’s status as a private company rather than a public one. “As a private company, we can accelerate our ability to further elevate our market-leading platform with greater functionality and an even broader solution set that enables advisors to better serve clients at all stages of their financial life.”

A giant in the field of wealth management, Envestnet manages more than $6 trillion in assets, nearly 20 million accounts, and counts 109,000+ financial advisors as users of its technology. This includes more than 800 asset managers that use Envestnet’s Wealth Management Platform. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, the company works with 17 of the 20 largest banks in the U.S., and 48 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms. This year, Envestnet has forged partnerships with Salesforce, Australian wealthtech HeirWealth, insurtech Ladder, and fellow Finovate alum Ocrolus, which specializes in financial document automation and analysis.

Envestnet made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016. More recently, the company brought its data aggregation and analytics platform, Envestnet | Yodlee, to FinovateFall 2021 in New York. At the conference, the company showed how the platform leverages Conversational AI to deliver hyper-personalized financial insights and goals-based micro-savings applications.

Takeover talk had been circulating around Envestnet for months. A report in Bloomberg from late May indicated that the company was “drawing takeover interest from buyers including Advent International and GTCR.” The report also noted an uptick in private equity’s interest in the sector, crediting “reliable cash flows” that can be “scaled up through acquisition.”

“This is a great outcome for Envestnet’s clients and employees, and one that maintains its entrepreneurial spirit,” Envestnet Co-Founder Bill Crager said. “Envestnet is exceptionally well-positioned to continue to build a gateway to the future of financial advice. I couldn’t be more excited about the company going forward, its continued success, and ability to serve more advisors – enabling them to deliver more holistic financial advice.”

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology, Alumni News, Coinbase, Daily news, Envestnet, Fintech Rundown, VISA

We’re starting off the newsweek with a bang as Bain Capital announces that it will take wealthtech and Finovate alum Envestnet private in a deal valued at $4.5 billion. Be sure to check back all week long with the latest fintech news and headlines.

Crypto / DeFi / Web3

Payment orchestration platform FinMont partners with Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payment servics firm, BitPay.

Coinbase launches new web app to help users better manage their digital assets portfolio.

Blockchain payment network Partior secures $60 million in Series B funding.

Wirex and Visa announce an expanded partnership to promote Web3 payments.

Payments

Mangopay teams up with European marketplace ManoMano to bring new payment capabilities to marketplace merchants.

Allied Payment Network introduces new Chief Financial Officer Hank Vanjaria.

U.K. payments platform Payset partners with ClearBank to access the U.K. payment system for local and cross-border transactions.

BNPL company Affirm teams up with Canadian retailer RONA, enabling the store to offer flexible online payment options.

Singapore based fintech Qashier launches its payment linked loyalty program, Treats.

TerraPay partners with YeePay to enhance the customer experience.

Nala raises $40 million to build B2B payments platform, scale remittance services.

Stripe reaches $70 billion valuation.

Klarna considers Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan for lead banking positions for a potential 2025 IPO.

Payments processor Tapi lands $22 million.

Temenos teamed up with Visa to integrate Visa Direct with Temenos Payments Hub and make available to banks via Temenos Exchange.

Investing and wealth management

Apex Fintech Solutions launches its real-time, B2B investment infrastructure, Ascend for Fintechs.

Bain Capital to buy Envestnet for $4.5 billion.

InvestFi forges partnership with HiFin Technology.

Small business finance

America First Credit Union turns to Loquat to enhance onboarding for small business members.

J.P. Morgan Payments selects Slope to provide clients access to a short-term financing solution, leads the fintech’s new round of $252 million in combined debt and equity.

9Spokes launches automated cashflow tool to help financial organizations elevate financial insights for SMBs.

Digital banking

Digital wealth management solutions company Quantifeed forges partnership with banking technology firm Thought Machine.

Digital banking solutions provider Alkami receives certification by J.D. Power for its mobile banking platform.

Banco Santander introduces a new digital service for customers with hearing challenges that translates the bank’s website into British Sign Language (BSL).

Flybits integrates with Q2’s Digital Banking Platform.

Trexis launches suite of digital banking solutions.

Anne Boden quits Starling Bank to focus on AI.

Brightfin launches healthy spending app to remove anxiety around money.

Insurtech

Digital insurance firm Lemonade launches new home insurance offering in the U.K.

Insuritas partners with Integral Group Solution (IGS) to integrate home services product into its embedded insurance platform.

Lending

Mexican fintech OCN secures $86 million in Series A funding.

Open banking

Salt Edge launches the latest version of its Open Banking Gateway API, API V6.

Goldman Sachs’ alternatives unit is leading a consortium investing $540 million in a continuation vehicle created by VC firm NEA, which includes stakes in 11 of NEA’s companies, including Plaid.

Photo by Lukas

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ebankIT and Centrilogic Team Up to Deliver Secure Cloud-Based Solutions

ebankIT and Centrilogic Team Up to Deliver Secure Cloud-Based Solutions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ebankIT
  • Digital banking solutions provider ebankIT announced a partnership with public and private cloud services provider Centrilogic.
  • The partnership will help banks and other financial institutions leverage cloud services to accelerate their digital transformations.
  • ebankIT made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023.

A partnership between digital banking solutions provider ebankIT and multicloud services provider Centrilogic will bring secure, cloud-based solutions to financial institutions. ebankIT will combine its adaptable architecture and core-agnostic capabilities with Centrilogic’s expertise in private and public cloud services to help banks and other financial institutions innovate quickly and achieve their digital transformation goals.

“Centrilogic has extensive experience helping financial institutions achieve success through their digital transformation journeys by delivering reliable and secure cloud-based systems and infrastructure,” Centrilogic CEO Robert Offley explained. “Together with ebankIT, we look forward to empowering banks and credit unions with the foundation necessary to provide industry-leading digital experiences to their clients.”

Courtesy of the collaboration, ebankIT will leverage Centrilogic’s Managed Security Service. This technology provides comprehensive security monitoring to enhance data protection with capabilities such as security logging, vulnerability scanning, and intrusion detection systems.

“An efficient infrastructure management is essential for seamless operations,” ebankIT CEO Renato Oliveira said. “Centrilogic’s expertise will help ebankIT optimize infrastructure, enhance scalability, and improve overall performance.”

Based in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Centrilogic offers both private and public cloud services to mid-market businesses. The firm offers multicloud management, application innovation, data and analytics, and IT advisory to help businesses turn their technology platforms into “business-driving assets”. Centrilogic began 2024 with the appointment of Doug Tracy as the company’s President. The privately-held firm counts TriSpan LLP and Long Point Capital among its investors.

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateEurope in 2015, ebankIT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed a number of new features on its Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform, including a new tool to help banks better anticipate customer needs. More recently, the company has forged partnerships with financial institutions like Metropolitan Commercial Bank as well as with fintechs like fellow Finovate alums Finotta and Glia.

Founded in 2014, ebankIT is headquartered in Porto, Portugal.

Photo by Nick Karvounis on Unsplash

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Conversations Platform Provider Eltropy Unveils Voice+

Conversations Platform Provider Eltropy Unveils Voice+
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Eltropy
  • Unified Conversations Platform company Eltropy has introduced a range of new enhancements to its offering.
  • The enhancements include Skill-Based Routing, new Lobby Management features, and a voice and contact center solution, Voice+
  • A Finovate alum for more than seven years, Eltropy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Unified Conversations platform provider Eltropy recently unveiled a set of new enhancements to its offering. The upgrades include Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0), new Lobby Management features, and a modern voice and contact center solution, Voice+.

“These enhancements reaffirm our commitment to quality and mark one of our most significant engineering efforts to date,” Eltropy CEO and Co-founder Ashish Garg said. “We’re excited about the opportunities these improvements will create for credit unions and community banks to elevate their overall member, customer, and employee experience in banking.”

Eltropy Voice+ brings voice functionality to digital channels such as text, video, and chat. Enhanced by an AI layer, Voice+ provides a unified contact center solution for voice, digital, and AI interactions, and gives agents a single interface to support greater efficiency. Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0) provides users with several features including the ability to prioritize high-value interactions, match agent proficiency based on language skills, and identify simultaneous channel handling via cross-channel concurrency. Lobby Management, first introduced earlier this year, now combines the best of digital banking with traditional branch services with efficient check-ins, queue management, branch traffic analytics, and resource planning tools.

Howie Meller, President and CEO of People First Federal Credit Union — which was among the early adopters of Eltropy’s Voice+ — praised the enhancements as a benefit for members and credit union employees alike. “Voice+ will make a big difference in how we serve our members,” Meller said. “Our agents can now use voice alongside text, video, co-browsing, and AI help. This means we can solve problems faster and better, all in one place. It’s a real improvement for our members.”

Eltropy made its first Finovate appearance in 2017, and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2022. In the years since then, the company has partnered with several community financial institutions such as Cyprus Credit Union, InRoads Credit Union, and Magnifi Financial, as well as fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry, Fiserv, and Alkami. In fact, Eltropy began the year celebrating its 600 customer milestone. The company opened the doors to its new headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May.

Photo by Alex Andrews

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Anodot Inks Strategic Partnership with YäRKEN

Anodot Inks Strategic Partnership with YäRKEN
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Anodot, Daily news
  • Cost management platform Anodot has inked a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform.
  • The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to help clients better manage cloud costs.
  • Virginia-based Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022.

Cloud-based cost management platform Anodot has forged a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform YäRKEN. The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to enable clients to manage cloud costs – both on-premises and in the private cloud – from a single interface.

“Anodot and YäRKEN are a perfect strategic match,” Anodot CEO and Co-founder David Drai said. “Our technology uses AI to help enterprises discover inefficiencies in their cloud spend, and YäRKEN’s platform helps those same organizations manage cloud spend across on-prem and cloud deployments.”

YäRKEN offers a tech cost management platform that gives users comprehensive cost optimization across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments to enhance profitability and reduce tech spend. YäRKEN’s platform features legacy platform TCO, Application TCO, IT planning, and Showback/Chargeback. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, YäRKEN announced earlier this year that the company’s solutions were now available on the AWS Marketplace. This news followed confirmation that YäRKEN had secured FinOps platform certification from the FinOps Foundation, underscoring the firm’s commitment to excellence and industry best practices. Ravi Kuppan is YäRKEN CEO and Co-founder.

For its part, Anodot is a cost management platform that identifies waste, tracks savings, and gives users transparency into both current and future costs. The platform enables users to facilitate strategic financial planning and management of multi-cloud, Kubernetes pods and SaaS tools. The solution also features a multi-tenant, multi-billing platform that optimizes costs across departments, teams, products, and unit economics.

“Anodot’s AI capabilities in cost optimization are a perfect match for YäRKEN, enabling us to cover the full spectrum for Anodot’s and YäRKEN’s existing client base,” Kuppan said. “Together, we extend the power of FinOps to include on-prem tech spend.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, Anodot demoed its payments monitoring tool that leverages AI to constantly monitor and correlate payments activity and business performance to identify revenue-critical issues and provide real-time actionable alerts.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

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