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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Polish IT solutions provider Comarch announced a strategic partnership with DSK Bank.
The partnership will help accelerate a strategic digitization program the bank launched in 2021.
Comarch has been a Finovate alum for more than a decade, making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London.
Comarch, an IT solutions provider and systems integrator based in Poland, has forged a strategic partnership with DSK Bank. The partnership will accelerate the Bulgaria-based financial institution’s ongoing strategic digitalization efforts, which began in earnest in 2021.
“We are delighted to support DSK Bank in achieving its digitalization goals with our cutting-edge IT solutions,” Comarch Group CEE Director Piotr Kusek said. “This partnership underscores our mutual commitment to introducing innovative strategies that will transform the banking landscape and elevate financial services to a new level.”
An international IT business solution provider, Comarch employs 6,400 engineers, business consultants, marketing specialists, and other professionals who help optimize operations and business processes for companies in a wide variety of verticals including telecommunications and financial services. Comarch’s clients include BP Global, Telefónica Global, and Vodafone Germany.
Part of the OTP Banking Group, DSK Bank is Bulgaria’s largest bank. The institution was founded in 1951, and has total assets of more than $15.8 million (€14.74 million). In the spring of 2022, DSK Bank teamed up with another Finovate alum, Backbase, to support its digital transformation efforts.
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Kraków, Poland, Comarch made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. Within a few years, the company reported revenues in excess of PLN 1 billion, hired its 5,000th employee, and opened its 90th worldwide office. Comarch launched its modern financial platform for business, Apfino, in 2021, and unveiled Poland’s first commission-free shopping platform, Wszystko.pl, in 2023.
This year, the IT solutions provider has extended its partnership with Dutch telecommunications operator KPN, teamed up with insurance company P&V Group – which will adopt Comarch’s Employee Benefits solution – and announced a collaboration with UAE-based telecommunications company and ICT player du. Last month, Comarch joined the European Loyalty Association, partnered with charitable organization The Blind Loyalty Trust, and secured accreditation as a Peppol Service Provider in Malaysia.
B2B payments facilitator Monto is exiting stealth with a $9 million funding round.
The Seed funding round was led by Scale Venture Partners.
The company plans to use the funds to scale its growth in the U.S.
There’s a new entrant in the B2B payments space. B2B payments facilitator Montoemerged from stealth this week, simultaneously announcing a $9 million Seed round.
Scale Venture Partners led the investment, while Verissimo Ventures, F2 Venture Capital, Firsthand Alliance, Room40 Ventures, and individual investors also participated. “Our investment in Monto is the result of years of work focusing on the CFO suite and the intersection with procurement. We are very well aware of the evolution of and pain points in this trillion-plus dollar market,” said Scale Venture Partners’ Alex Niehenke. “Monto is the only company that solves the one-off workflow problem for AR teams. It is the missing piece for any AP platform, without it, suppliers suffer.”
Monto will use today’s funds to further invest in technological improvements, as well as to fuel its U.S. expansion. As a starting point, the company is opening its first U.S. office in New York City.
Founded in Tel Aviv, with offices throughout the globe, Monto seeks to help make ACH and RTP B2B payments collection as easy as tapping a card. Business finance teams can use the company’s payments tool to receive payments from their customers’ third-party payment platforms, AP portal, or supplier portal, including Workday, QuickBooks, SAP, and Microsoft Dynamics. The payments simplification helps companies reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and eliminate manual work by consolidating financial data from numerous sources.
Monto’s clients include large enterprises from various industries, including Shutterstock, TechTarget, Miro, and G2. Since launch, the company has helped its customers facilitate nearly $1 billion to buyers in more than 300 portals.
Monto’s founders, Maya Cohen and Nitsan Yerushalmi, previously worked implementing ERP systems in finance departments. “Monto is a strategic decision for CFOs, future-proofing them against a landscape where most, if not all, customers will soon use portals,” said Cohen, who now serves as the company’s CEO. “With Monto, getting paid by customers will be fully automatic, a concept we call ‘zero-touch,’ and we succeed in achieving that by working with, not against, the portals, an important distinction.”
Loan intelligence system company Parlay will join Mastercard’s Start Path Small Business program. Parlay is one of eight companies selected.
Parlay’s technology complements a bank’s or credit union’s loan origination system to streamline and enhance small business loan processing.
Parlay made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2024 in May as part of our Sustainability & Inclusion Scholarship program.
Parlay, which offers an AI-powered Loan Intelligence System (LIS) to help community banks and credit unions boost small business loan volume, is one of eight startups selected to participate in Mastercard’sStart Path Small Business program.
The incoming cohort consists of startups that have shown “dedication to democratizing financial tools and providing cutting-edge services for SMEs,” Mastercard noted in a statement. The statement underscored specific functions – such as spend management, onboarding, risk monitoring, loan approvals, and embedded finance solutions – that innovative fintech startups are helping digitize for small businesses.
Joining Parlay in the upcoming cohort of the program are Ballerine, Boost, CredibleX, Digi, Merge, Prime Dash, and RedOwl. The four-month program will give these startups the opportunity to leverage Mastercard’s network and subject matter expertise to forge product partnerships that help small businesses digitize their operations.
Parlay’s embedded fintech software helps lenders achieve a 64% increase in approved loans and an 87% reduction in manual underwriting workload. A white-label solution that complements loan origination systems, Parlay’s technology enables lenders to generate high-quality loan packets and maximize the eligible applicant pool. The company’s LIS also offers readiness insights to help businesses improve their creditworthiness; pre-screening to identify prime, marginal, and ineligible candidate pools; and pipeline analytics to enable loan officers to monitor applicant progress and underwriting eligibility.
“After a decade of work in economic development, our team realized that 77% of small businesses still struggle to access affordable capital and lack the insights need to navigate the lending process,” Parlay founder and CEO Alex McLeod said in a statement announcing the final eight startups invited to join the program. “We envision a future where community lenders, powered by Parlay’s AI-driven loan intelligence system, can get millions more small businesses approved for loans using unique, personalized insights that help both lenders and borrowers.”
Parlay made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in May as part of our Sustainability & Inclusion Scholarship program. The program is designed to spotlight underrepresented founders, as well as startups that are tackling issues such as climate change, diversity, and financial inclusion. Scholarships provide startups with complimentary demo participation, as well as the ability to network with our 2,000+ senior-level fintech attendees, fellow demoing companies, and more.
Past scholarship winners include Best of Show winning companies like Debbie, which won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2023, as well as Kobalt Labs and Remynt, both of which won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2024.
Founded in 2022, Parlay is headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia.
equipfi is launching Plan Your Purchase, a BNPL solution that offers consumers financing for their purchase before they make the transaction.
Consumers can use Plan Your Purchase to take out loans ranging from $500 to $2,000.
Plan Your Purchase is integrated directly into a bank’s existing digital banking app, offering more control over the user experience.
BNPL-as-a-Service provider equipfiunveiled a new solution this week called Plan Your Purchase. The new tool empowers banks and credit unions to allow their account holders to take out pre-qualified installment loans from their bank before they make a purchase.
equipfi calls Plan Your Purchase a “pre-purchase BNPL solution,” meaning that the bank offers the consumer financing for their purchase before they make the transaction. Plan Your Purchase is integrated into a bank’s existing digital banking app to provide personalized BNPL offers directly to the customers. This makes it easy for users to get the financing they need to make a qualified purchase without a credit check, additional applications, new logins, upfront cost, or dependency on merchant integration.
Using Plan Your Purchase, pre-approved consumers can take out loans ranging from $500 to $2,000. The consumer can view and accept the loans immediately, and the funds are available within moments.
“There are many moments in an account holder’s lifetime when timely access to small loans make a big difference,” said Bryce Deeney, co-founder and CEO of equipifi. “By streamlining the loan acceptance process and positioning it in the digital banking experience, Plan Your Purchase helps financial institutions give account holders access to cash flow they already qualify for wherever and whenever they need it.”
By delivering the tool through banks, equipfi puts the bank in control, allowing them to leverage consumer data to provide more personalized offers. Putting the bank in the driver’s seat also allows the bank to control credit pre-approvals to suit their own risk tolerance and offers them more control over the user experience.
The integrated approach also can help banks maintain their top-of-wallet position by offering split payments using existing debit cards. This is different from traditional BNPL providers, which rely on a credit-focused approach. This integration can also help banks drive engagement and loyalty by leveraging transaction data to generate personalized offers and streamline the user experience within their familiar banking app.
Arizona-based equipfi was founded in 2021 to bring the benefits of BNPL financing directly to banks and credit unions. Among the company’s clients are Kane County Teachers Credit Union in Illinois, SunWest Credit Union in Colorado, FedFinancial Federal Credit Union in Washington, D.C., and Eagle Community Credit Union, which is one of the first to go live with Plan Your Purchase.
EarnUp is launching AI Advisor, an AI-powered chatbot to help banks promote financial wellness among their consumers.
AI Advisor accesses and instantly analyzes a user’s real-time banking and credit data to offer personalized, actionable answers to their financial questions.
By working with the consumer to help them improve their financial situation, AI Advisor can help banks build and maintain existing customer relationships.
Debt pay down platform EarnUpannounced the launch of its AI-powered financial wellness tool, AI Advisor, today. The new solution will help financial institutions offer their consumers personalized financial guidance.
AI Advisor is a chatbot that offers users hyper-personalized insights and guidance to help them make informed financial decisions to ultimately achieve their goals. It does this by accessing and instantly analyzing the user’s real-time banking and credit data to offer personalized, actionable answers to their financial questions regarding HELOCs, cards, consolidation loans, and more. By combining a user’s current financial situation with their questions, AI Advisor is also able to offer tailored product recommendations.
Using an approachable chatbot as the communication engine, EarnUp seeks to ensure that every user, regardless of their financial background, benefits from its advice to power a more financially resilient future.
“In today’s competitive landscape, banks must leverage AI to deliver real value to customers,” said KeyBank Chief Financial Officer Clark Khayat. “EarnUp’s AI Advisor goes beyond traditional budget-tracking apps by analyzing financial accounts and providing personalized, actionable insights. This empowers financial institutions to engage in more meaningful interactions, ensuring customers receive the guidance they need to achieve their financial goals.”
Using AI Advisor, banks may be able to retain borrowers, cross-sell loans and other products, capture deposits, and close more loans. That’s because banks can use AI Advisor as a tool to advise consumers on how to improve their financial situation so that they are ready to take out a loan or apply for a credit card. By working with the consumer instead of rejecting them outright, banks will also build relationships with them.
“Our mission is to democratize access to actionable information that will improve financial wellness,” said EarnUp Co-Founder and CEO Nadim Homsany. “This is especially critical as interest rates remain high and borrower debt repayment capacity diminishes. In fact, a recent Bankrate survey found that over half of applicants have been denied for a loan or credit since the Fed began raising rates.”
Since it was founded in 2015, EarnUp has helped nearly three million borrowers reach financial freedom. The company views its AI Advisor tool as a next step to assist individuals in achieving their financial goals.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the companies have been partners since the spring of 2022.
ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2015.
AI-powered financial crime detection technology company, ThetaRay, has acquired European screening company, Screena. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Screena specializes in screening individuals, companies, and other entities against sanctioned party lists. The company’s APIs support syntactic, phonetic, and semantic matching, as well as multicultural recognition services. Each of these technologies is valuable at a time when more companies and financial institutions are taking advantage of opportunities in cross-border payments and trade.
From navigating spelling differences and out-of-order components to comprehending multiple alphabets including Arabic, Cyrillic, Chinese, and Thai, Screena has a near 100% true detection rate and screens 500+ transactions per second in live conditions. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Luxembourg, Screena helps financial institutions identify bad actors who may be engaged in activities ranging from money laundering to drug trafficking to terrorist financing.
Screena CEO Cédric Iggiotti said that the integration with ThetaRay was a “game-changer” for the company. “For too long, screening was siloed from other critical financial crime detection tools,” Iggiotti said. “Our partnership with ThetaRay not only meets stringent regulatory demands but also significantly enhances our crime detection capabilities, as evidenced by our recent successes with major financial institutions.”
ThetaRay and Screena have been partners since the spring of 2022, when ThetaRay chose the startup as its screening solutions partner. In a statement on this week’s acquisition, ThetaRay CEO Peter Reynolds spoke of the company’s “mission to power the global fight against financial crime” through the use of AI-enabled technologies. He added that the acquisition “furthers our commitment to delivering an end-to-end platform that enables banks, fintechs, and regulators to effectively identify financial crime – vital capabilities to grow and operate a financial institution today.”
Israel-based ThetaRay made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. Today, the company has more than one billion users, enables more than 11 billion in trusted transactions a year, and monitors more than $15 trillion in transactions annually. The company’s signature offerings include its transaction monitoring and screening solution, SONAR, as well as its Customer Risk Assessment (CRA) product unveiled earlier this year.
Reynolds was named CEO of the company last summer. He succeeds Mark Gazit, who had been ThetaRay’s CEO for more than 11 years.
This morning CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz reported that 97% of the Windows sensors knocked out during CrowdStrike’s botched software update a little over a week ago are back online. That’s great news for those companies still reeling from one of the biggest IT outages in history.
When it comes to cybersecurity companies, CrowdStrike is widely considered to be a belle of the ball. Here’s wealth manager Josh Brown, a shareholder in the company since 2020, bringing the roses less than a year ago:
You can talk as much about cloud and mobile and social and machine learning and distributed computing and generative AI as you’d like, if you can’t secure your data and provide safe access to users, you have nothing. Literally ….
Spending on top-of-the-line security solutions has now been enshrined into securities law, in addition to all the other reasons to take this stuff seriously, such as not getting sued into the stone age by your customers or forced to make Bitcoin ransom payments to international cyber terrorists ….
As a business manager, you would cut IT spending on literally anything else first. A small handful of publicly traded companies have what I consider to be a massive runway ahead of them. CrowdStrike is aiming to become the Salesforce of the industry.
To recap: Friday morning, July 19, a bug in a CrowdStrike software update resulted in major IT outages that grounded flights and brought chaos to banks and other businesses around the world.
“CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts,” CrowdStrike’s Kurtz wrote on the social media platform X the morning afterward. “Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated, and a fix has been deployed.”
As we learn more about exactly what happened, is there a particular insight here for banks, fintechs and financial services companies? At a time of heightened concern over third-party risk in our industry, the CrowdStrike outage is yet another reminder of the importance of not only choosing technology partners carefully, but also of ensuring resiliency in the event of an issue with a partner.
The latter is especially pertinent here. Many of the challenges and controversies with regard to third-party risk management in financial services involve the latter, vetting issue, primarily. A signature example is the case of Synapse, the fintech whose allegedly improper handling of customer funds led to more than 200,000 users losing access to their money and numerous disputes with banking partners. CrowdStrike is being accused of no such malfeasance and will, in all likelihood, remain a major player in the cybersecurity industry, with its reputation scratched perhaps but probably not scarred.
That leaves us with resiliency. In banking, the definition of resiliency has expanded significantly in recent years. From the failures of the banking crisis to the strains of the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying economic slowdown a little over a decade later, banks have dealt with major challenges to both financial and operational resiliency.
The CrowdStrike outage represented a different type of disruption, and one that may be less amenable to the solutions that have ensured bank resiliency in the past (i.e., leadership, talent, and technology). Given many of the common complaints when technology disappoints, it’s worth wondering if we should look at ourselves, not just our institutions, for greater “resiliency.”
To this end, compare the CrowdStrike outage to the AT&T breach this spring. Unlike with CrowdStrike, AT&T reported that “AT&T data-specific fields were contained in a data set released on the dark web.” The breach did not allegedly have “a material impact on AT&T operations.” But it did represent the kind of security challenge that cybersecurity companies are built to prevent, and that banks and financial services companies need to be prepared for. When I read “released on the dark web,” I thought of Finovate Best of Show winner SpyCloud, the Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity company that specializes in retrieving stolen credentials from the dark web.
And it appears as if more and more banks and financial institutions are getting the message. In the past few years, companies like Corsound AI (FinovateEurope 2024 Best of Show winner) to 1Kosmos (FinovateSpring 2023 Best of Show winner) have stood out among fellow fintechs for their innovations in everything from deepfake detection to passwordless authentication. As FinovateFall 2024 draws near, it will be interesting to see what innovations the current crop of cybersecurity specialists bring to the current challenges faced by banks and financial services companies alike.
Stripe is acquiring merchant of record service company Lemon Squeezy.
Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.
Lemon Squeezy will help Stripe add merchant of record capabilities, which will help it differentiate itself and may help attract a more global client base.
Financial infrastructure company Stripe is adding to its expertise this week with the acquisition of merchant of record (MoR) service company Lemon Squeezy. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Lemon Squeezy was founded in 2020 to help companies selling digital products globally with its subscription billing plans, payments tools, online storefront builder, checkout overlays, and more. The fintech, which has been processing payments on Stripe since it was founded, serves as an MoR. This means that it takes on responsibilities pertaining to processing cross-border customer transactions. MoR responsibilities can include payment processing, risk management, legal and financial responsibility, tax compliance, customer service and support, and fraud prevention.
Today’s buy marks Stripe’s 16th acquisition since it was founded in 2010. Stripe’s payment products serve companies of varying sizes in a range of industries. The San Francisco-based company’s offerings include online and in-person payment acceptance tools, embedded payments tools such as virtual card issuance, and revenue and finance automation tools such as billing, invoicing, and tax automation.
“It’s no secret that we (like many) have always admired Stripe,” said Lemon Squeezy CEO and Co-founder JR Farr. “When we began discussions about a potential acquisition, it was immediately apparent that our values and mission were perfectly aligned. Lemon Squeezy and Stripe share a deep love for our customers and a commitment to making selling effortless. Now imagine combining everything you love about Lemon Squeezy and Stripe — we believe it’s a match made in heaven.”
Looking ahead, Lemon Squeezy will continue to serve its customer base with its existing MoR services. The only difference is that, going forward, it will do so having the backing of Stripe.
For Stripe, adding MoR services will help it provide a more comprehensive suite of financial solutions. This may attract businesses looking for an all-in-one platform to handle not just payment processing, but also compliance, tax, and customer support. The addition may also help Stripe differentiate it in the crowded market of payment processors, including Square, Adyen, and PayPal. That’s because the MoR capabilities will help businesses seeking global expansion overcome regulatory and tax hurdles by managing complexities including local tax collection and remittance, currency conversion, and regulatory compliance.
Core banking platform 10x Banking released its first “meta core” platform for banks.
10x Banking’s meta core will enable banks and financial services companies to accelerate their digital transformations.
10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.
Cloud-native core banking platform 10x Bankinglaunched a new category of core banking technology today. The company’s new “meta core” is designed to help banks and financial services companies accelerate their digital transformations.
“From my experience, running a bank is all about managing risks, and we’ve designed our meta core to specifically remove the key risks that banks face when upgrading their core,” 10x Banking Founder and CEO Antony Jenkins said. “10x Banking is the first company in the world to offer a ‘meta core,’ which for the first time gives banks a clear roadmap to full transformation.”
10x Banking’s meta core enables banks and system integrators to focus development efforts exclusively on high-value code. By abstracting away common product elements, including the core ledger, the new platform empowers banks to create and maintain as little as 2,000 lines of code for a single customized banking product. This represents a reduction of up to 10x in code base compared to neo-code platforms. The difference is even bigger compared to legacy cores, where the reduction in code base can be as high as 10,000x.
Key to these efficiency gains is the firm’s development tool ProductKit, which is built on 10x Banking’s SuperCore technology. ProductKit features a set of pre-built modules which abstract away the complexity that comes with building deposit and lending products for retail, SME, and corporate banking customers. The platform also puts a premium on the developer experience. Developers can fully customize all of the pre-built modules at every level using any coding language. This helps teams quickly create highly customized banking solutions and experiences without excessive costs or extensive development resources.
“The ‘meta core’ provides banks with the best of all worlds,” Jenkins added, “flexibility on the one hand and unlimited scalability on the other hand. The benefits are much faster speed to market, enterprise-grade security, the ability to unlock data for AI, and a lower cost base.”
London-based 10x Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the event, 10x Banking demoed its 10x SuperCore Cards solution, which enables banks to build a card proposition in minutes using its 10x Bank Manager interface. The technology empowers financial institutions to build and launch enterprise-grade, full stack functional card business solutions in as little as 12 weeks.
10x Banking began the year securing a $45 million investment in a round led by existing investors BlackRock and J.P. Morgan. The funding took the company’s total equity capital to $297 million, according to Crunchbase. Also in January, 10x Banking announced a partnership with mortgage origination platform Mast, enabling real-time connectivity between the two systems. 10x Banking includes challenger bank Chase UK, Westpac, and Old Mutual, the second largest financial services company in Africa, among its customers.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights recent fintech news from Singapore.
Monetary Authority of Singapore announced plans to invest $74.36 million (100 million Singaporean dollars) to fund quantum computing and AI projects. The funding is part of the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Grant Scheme (FSTI 3.0) designed to support banks and other financial institutions as they innovate and develop capabilities in both quantum computing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies.
This month’s investment comes in the wake of a $110 million infusion into FSTI back in August 2023. The FSTI 3.0 was launched in 2022 as part of an effort to fortify and future-proof Singapore’s position as a major international fintech hub. MAS originally pledged 150 million Singaporean dollars to the scheme over a three-year period, and this month’s investment is an addition to that amount. The scheme is live until March 2026, but could be extended.
Given the emphasis on AI in financial services of late, MAS’s interest in quantum computing and its applications for banks and financial services companies is especially noteworthy. MAS will support eligible financial institutions with up to 50% funding for the construction of quantum computing technology centers. Companies that develop quantum computing-based cybersecurity solutions can receive up to 30% in co-funding.
With regard to AI, MAS is also supporting the development of AI innovation centers. Again, one of the main areas of emphasis is cybersecurity, which MAS identified as a use case for the first pilot project. Noting that AI tools have become “more widely accessible” and that “financial institutions have been progressively adopting AI,” MAS also observed that the degree of “AI-readiness and adoption” across financial institutions in Singapore is uneven. The AI component of FSTI 3.0 is designed in large part to remedy this.
Blockchain-based financial infrastructure company Partior has raised more than $60 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Peak XV Partners (previously known as Sequoia Capital India & SEA). Valor Capital Group and Jump Trading Group also participated as new investors along with existing shareholders J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered, and Temasek.
Founded in 2021, the Singapore-based company offers banks unified, ledger-based interbank rails for real-time clearing and settlement. Partior’s 24/7 blockchain network works with real-time local currency payment and RTGS systems globally and facilitates direct and indirect settlement flows with market participants. The shared ledger further supports transfers with real-time settlement finality, providing instant liquidity and transparency compared to the sequential processing typical of legacy payment systems.
“Partior is breaking down silos and rewriting the rules for cross-border clearing and settlement,” Partior Chief Executive Officer Humphrey Valenbreder said. “We see a very bright future for blockchain-based frictionless, cross-border transactions. Having some of the world’s best banks and investors back our vision validates this even further.”
The fresh capital will fuel new capabilities including intraday FX swaps, cross-currency repos, Programmable Enterprise Liquidity Management, and Just-in-Time multi-bank payments. The funding will also enable Partior to integrate a range of new currencies beyond currently supported USD, EUR, and SGD.
“As one of the founding shareholders of Partior, we’ve always believed in the transformative potential of its technology to shape global financial market infrastructure. This latest round of investment is a testament to the incredible progress Partior has made toward this endeavor,” Temasek Managing Director for Investment (Blockchain) Pradyumma Agrawal said.
DBS and Deloitte have teamed up to launch the Sustainability Accelerator Tool. The new offering will help SMEs in Singapore accurately assess their sustainability maturity levels and identify and address gaps in their efforts.
The two firms hope to empower 1,000 SMEs in Singapore over the next 12 months with the new solution, and plan to introduce the tool to other markets from the next year forward.
“The Sustainability Accelerator Tool is unique in its ability to provide SMEs with meaningful and practical guidance,” Deloitte Southeast Asia Sustainability & Climate Leader Brian Ho said. “Leveraging Deloitte’s expertise in sustainability transformation, it not only identifies strengths and gaps, but also provides actionable recommendations to enhance sustainability performance.”
Three key benefits of the new offering are industry-specific analysis, which provides insights into unique sustainability challenges; customized strategic recommendations based on the degree of progress (“emerging,” “maturing,” or “leading”) the business has achieved in its path toward greater sustainability; and regional adaptability to ensure that the solution can be used by SMEs across Asia.
SMEs using the tool also get a customized Sustainability Readiness Report which gives them an analysis of the company’s sustainability maturity, as well as provides insights on how to address any specific sustainability challenges they may have.
“The Sustainability Accelerator Tool is the latest in our ongoing efforts, where we strive to futureproof SMEs through practical and holistic solutions,” DBS Group Head of Corporate and SME Banking Koh Kar Siong said.
The introduction of the Sustainability Accelerator Tool follows the spring launch of DBS’s ESG Ready Programme to help SMEs efficiently transition to lower carbon business models. Headquartered in Singapore, and boasting a presence in 19 markets, DBS provides a full range of consumer, SME, and corporate banking services. The firm has been named “Safest Bank in Asia” by Global Finance for 15 consecutive years from 2009 to 2023.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
International embedded finance platform Liberis announced its entry into the German market in partnership with Nexi.
Lithuanian identity verification company iDenfy unveiled its automated utility bill verification tool.
Germany-based private markets platform bunch secured $15.5 million in Series A funding.
India-based payments and API banking company Cashfree Payments secured a payment aggregator-cross border license from the RBI.
Latin America and the Caribbean
The Brazilian central bank announced a pause in their plan to add recurring payments to its Pix platform.
Argentine fintech Tapi secured $22 million ahead of its expansion into Mexico.
BBVA opened an international cybersecurity center in Mexico.
Asia-Pacific
Melbourne, Australia-based Airwallex secured an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) the first major payments company to do so.
Bank Indonesia and Bank of Korea inked a MoU to encourage cross-border payments between the two countries.
In a bid to become a “global fintech hub,” the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has invested $74.36 million (100 million Singaporean dollars) into quantum computing and AI projects.
Sub-Saharan Africa
South African fintech Peach Payments acquired custom software development firm Operativa.
Revolut has received its banking license from the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority.
The license comes three years after Revolut initially applied for a license in 2021.
Revolut currently holds a E.U. banking license, as well as a banking license in Mexico.
International challenger bank Revolut has now received its official banking license in the U.K. The London-based company first applied for the banking license in 2021, and today, after three years of patiently waiting, the U.K. Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) granted the license.
With its new banking license, Revolut can now take and hold deposits for its 9 million U.K. customers. It can also sell financial products such as loans, credit cards, overdraft protection, and savings accounts to U.K. consumers. The PRA has set initial restrictions on the license, however. Revolut is currently in what the regulator calls a mobilization period. During this period, the fintech cannot hold more than £50,000 in customer deposits. This limit will allow Revolut to test its systems and flag any issues before it begins to scale.
“Today’s announcement is a significant step forward for Revolut and for our customers. It is a tremendous responsibility to be a bank in the UK and we will work relentlessly to offer products and services that improve the financial lives of everyone who uses Revolut,” Revolut’s UK CEO Francesca Carlesi said in a statement.
Revolut’s end consumers will not see much will change. They will, however, benefit from having $109,500 (£85,000) in deposit insurance if the bank fails.
Revolut initially launched in 2014 and has since been operating as an e-money payments company in the U.K. The company received its E.U. banking license in Lithuania in December 2018 and since then has begun expanding its banking services across Central Europe. The company also has a banking license in Mexico. In other regions where Revolut operates, it relies on partner banks to hold customer deposits.
According to CNBC, one reason why it has taken Revolt three years to obtain the license is that Revolut’s share structure did not align with the PRA’s rules. Revolut had six classes of shares and ended up having to leverage SoftBank last October to restructure its ownership into ordinary shares. Another source, Banking Dive, said that faulty IT controls were to blame for the delay.
From a competitive standpoint, this is a big deal for Revolut. With its 45 million customers across the globe, the company joins fellow London-based competitors Monzo, N26, and Starling, which all have U.K. banking licenses. Other competitors Wise and Monese still do not have their banking licenses.
“We are incredibly proud to reach this important milestone in the journey of the company and we will ensure we deliver on making Revolut the bank of choice for UK customers,” said Revolut CEO Nik Storonsky.
Online investing and savings service Wealthify introduces its new Chief Executive Officer Richard Ambrose.
Ambrose will succeed Andy Russell, who has served as CEO of the company for the past four years.
Wealthify made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2017.
U.K.-based online investing and saving platform Wealthify has appointed Richard Ambrose as its new Chief Executive Officer. Ambrose replaces Andy Russell, who had served as CEO of the company since the summer of 2020.
“It’s been a privilege to lead Wealthify over the last four years,” outgoing CEO Andy Russell said. “I am very proud of our purpose-driven strategy, our culture of accessibility and quality, and the resulting growth we’ve achieved during this time.”
Most recently General Manager (GM) of Payments at Papaya Global, Richard Ambrose worked as CEO of Azimo for more than three years from 2019 to 2023. Before his appointment as Azimo CEO, Ambrose had been the company’s Chief Operating Officer for two years. He also held numerous roles during his nearly six-year tenure at PayPal, joining the company as Marketing Director for the U.K. in 2011 and eventually becoming Senior Director, Chief of Staff, EMEA.
“I am thrilled to join Wealthify as CEO,” Ambrose said in a statement. “Its mission to make investing more affordable and accessible for everyone is in the best traditions of fintech. Wealthify has built some great technology, and I’m proud to be joining its brilliant team.”
Wealthify is dedicated to using technology to democratize investing. The company offers a range of investment and savings solutions, from ISAs, GIAs, and SIPPs to an instant access savings account. Customers can open investing accounts for as little as £1 (£50 for pensions), and manage their funds via the Wealthify app or website. Wealthify uses passive investment vehicles such as mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to build different investment plans based on the investor’s risk tolerance. Ranging from “Cautious” to “Ambitious,” Wealthify also offers “Ethical” versions of each plan that use negative screening to exclude companies from industries such as tobacco, weapons, and gambling, as well as positive screening to include businesses that have demonstrated a commitment to corporate ethics, social justice, and/or sustainability.
Founded in 2014, Wealthify made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateEurope in London. Wealthify began this year partnering with ClearBank, which now serves as the embedded banking partner for the company’s savings product.
