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Finovate Global Egypt: Funding Startups and International Partnerships

Finovate Global Egypt: Funding Startups and International Partnerships
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

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

Egyptian fintech Sahl raised $6 million in funding

An investment of $6 million will help Cairo-based fintech Sahl pursue its expansion in Saudi Arabia. The funds – courtesy of a Series A round led by Ayady for Investment and Development and featuring participation from existing investors Egypt Pay, Delta Electronic Systems, and E-Finance – will also help support Sahl’s mobile bill payment platform.

Sahl enables users to pay for more than 50 services, including electricity, water, mobile bill payments, and more via NFC-enabled, rechargeable prepaid cards. The firm also offers B2B solutions: the company’s Services Gateway serves as a central hub to aggregate billpay services for other payment processors and digital apps, while Sahl’s Acceptance solution helps businesses accept online payments. Founded in 2020, Sahl is among the few Egyptian companies to directly integrate with government agencies and telecom operators.

Ultimately, the company plans to grow into a more comprehensive financial services provider. For now, Sahl’s growth strategy involves becoming the dominant force in the payments market for utilities companies – a market worth EGP 250 billion a year.

“At Sahl, we are committed to addressing the challenges faced by consumers in utility payments, starting with electricity and expanding to water, gas, telecom, and various other essential services,” Sahl CEO Abdullah Assal said. “Our innovative use of NFC technology eliminates the need for consumers to leave their homes to charge prepaid cards, saving valuable time and effort.”

Sahl serves more than 12 million customers a month and 15 million households in Egypt.

HSBC Egypt to launch $31.5 million fund for SME-based fintechs

You don’t have to be Sahl to feel as if good funding fortunes are coming your way. HSBC Egypt will launch a new $31.5 million (EGP 1.5 billion) fund dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses in the fintech sector. The fund, which will be managed by EFG Holding, has secured approval from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) as well as the backing of financial institutions such as the Suez Canal Bank. The fund is slated to go live in Q3 of 2024.

The focus on fintech is designed to take advantage of the spread of digital banking and payments in the region. But the initiative is part of a grander strategy by HSBC to encourage technological innovation and spur economic growth in Egypt.

Established in 1982, HSBC Bank Egypt supports a network of 100 branches and 20 mini-bank units throughout the country. The largest foreign bank in Egypt, HSBC Bank Egypt has total assets of approximately $7 billion and a market share of 7%.

Banknbox Egypt announced multiple strategic partnerships

Digital services and paytech provider Banknbox Egypt has inked strategic partnerships with banks and fintechs in eight countries so far in 2024. Backed by the Central Bank of Egypt, Banknbox has teamed up with firms and financial institutions in countries ranging from Iraq and Libya to Moldova and a number of African countries.

“We would like to thank the CBE for its continuous support in ensuring that Banknbox achieves its vision of transforming Egypt into a regional hub,” Banknbox Chairperson and Managing Director Bassem Mahmoud said.

Banknbox is a regional payment solutions and processor offering issuing and acquiring services, as well as value-added services such as billpay and fraud management. The company also offers integrated digital banking services, including mobile and internet banking, electronic wallets, eKYC and encoding services, and more. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Cairo, Banknbox began the year partnering with SWFT, a banking and finance platform for SMEs. The strategic partnership will give SMEs a suite of innovative banking solutions and tools for smart cash flow management.

“We believe that by uniting efforts with SWFT, we can revolutionize the way SMEs manage their finances,” Mahmoud said. “It’s a new opportunity for Banknbox to provide more services to the Egyptian market, relying on its regional platform in Egypt to serve companies and banks in the region. This strategic cooperation complements the company’s successes in achieving growth rates in the Egyptian market.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • International e-wallet service provider and payment gateway STICPAY integrated with India’s real-time payments system, UPI.
  • Pakistan-based consultancy Dellsons Associates partnered with UAE-based NymCards to expand into Pakistan and the Middle East.
  • Indian digital lending platform Fibe raised $90 million in Series E funding.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • Malaysia-based digital challenger Boost Bank launched its banking app.
  • Talino Venture Studios and Chemonics International unveiled an instant payment system, Higala, in the Philippines.
  • Indonesian B2B fintech Paper.id closed a Series B round led by Square Peg.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Telecommunications and mobile money services provider Airtel Africa teamed up with Network International for payment processing.
  • Central Bank of Kenya to issue payment licenses to fintech startups.
  • Is “passporting” the key to helping advance the growth of fintech in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Payment management solutions provider Paytiko announced expansion to Dubai.
  • ICYMI: Check out our Finovate Global interview with Michal Berdugo of Israel-based Citrusx.
  • Oman Arab Bank launched its direct debit service.

Photo by Tamer Soliman

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Credit Karma to Acquire Tech and Employees from Mobility Risk Intelligence Company Zendrive

Credit Karma to Acquire Tech and Employees from Mobility Risk Intelligence Company Zendrive
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Credit Karma, Daily news, Intuit, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Credit Karma has agreed to acquire technology and assets from Zendrive, a mobility risk intelligence provider.
  • Credit Karma has also brought on certain Zendrive employees, including the company’s CEO Dennis Ellis and its Co-founder and CTO Pankaj Risbood.
  • Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, were not disclosed.

Intuit’s Credit Karma announced today that it has agreed to acquire technology, assets, and select employees from mobility risk intelligence provider Zendrive. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Credit Karma will use the new technology to accelerate development and adoption of its auto insurance product, Karma Drive. Launched in December of 2020, Karma Drive leverages Zendrive to offer customers a telematics-powered, usage-based insurance savings opportunity based on their driving habits. After a 30-day driving trial, during which users receive continuous real-time feedback on their driving, they are offered a potential discount on a new policy from one of Credit Karma’s auto insurance partners.

Since launch, more than 6 million members have enrolled in the Karma Drive program, which has extended more than 4 million discounted policy offers from Credit Karma’s insurance partners. 

“We see opportunities to improve traditional telematics practices that lock consumers into a policy and track driving behaviors in a way that can potentially increase policy costs,” said Credit Karma’s Rory Joyce in a blog post announcement. “We have redefined and simplified consumers’ access to insurance discounts based on mobile telematics data. Karma Drive users can see if they can qualify for a discount from carriers without having to buy a policy or even engage directly with the insurer.”

As part of today’s deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, Credit Karma has acqui-hired certain Zendrive employees, including the company’s CEO Dennis Ellis and its Co-founder and CTO Pankaj Risbood. Credit Karma anticipates the new talent will help it to scale its telematics experience.

Photo by Peter Fazekas

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Pinwheel Partners with Lumin to Offer Deposit Switching Within Digital Banking Suite

Pinwheel Partners with Lumin to Offer Deposit Switching Within Digital Banking Suite
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Pinwheel is integrating its technology into digital banking solution Lumin Digital.
  • Under the partnership, Lumin will leverage Pinwheel’s Prime and Verify tools that will offer a deposit switching solution and verified income and employment information, respectively.
  • Lumin expects the move will improve both account activation and acquisition ROI for its financial services clients.

Payroll data connectivity platform Pinwheel announced today it is integrating its technology into digital banking solution Lumin Digital.

Pinwheel will help Lumin bring its financial institution clients frictionless account activation technology. By adding Pinwheel’s deposit-switching solutions, Lumin expects it will improve both account activation and acquisition ROI.

“This partnership provides our customers options for deposit switching solutions and is paramount to helping them achieve their goals,” said Lumin Chief Product Officer Sean Weadock. “Pinwheel is advancing their market in terms of ease, coverage, and security.”

Under the partnership, Lumin will leverage Pinwheel Prime and Verify. Pinwheel Prime is Pinwheel’s two-click deposit switching solution, which digitizes the direct deposit switching process to provide real-time insights into customers’ income. This increased visibility into customer data helps financial institutions form deeper relationships and increase the customer lifetime value.

Pinwheel’s Verify product allows financial institutions to improve their underwriting processes by accessing their customers’ verified income and employment information. Because Pinwheel is a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), financial institutions can legally use the income and employment data for credit decisioning.

“Between traditional financial institutions and neobanks, consumers have many choices, so we want to help banks and credit unions make their deposit switching process for customers as easy as possible,” said Pinwheel Partnerships Lead Brian Karimi-Pashaki. “In a recent survey, we discovered that 72% of consumers say they would be more likely to make a bank their prime bank if it offered Pinwheel Prime at acquisition, which is reason enough to want to get our technology into the hands of as many financial institutions as possible.”

New York-based Pinwheel was founded in 2018 and in addition to its Prime and Verify products also offers Earnings Stream, an early wage access tool; Taxes, a tool to help retrieve and assess customers’ tax forms; Digital, which offers third party companies digital payroll connectivity solutions; and Smart Branch, a tool to deliver Pinwheel’s digital payroll data connectivity solutions in-branch. Pinwheel helps third party apps connect to over 1.5 million employers using over 1,800 platforms, which cover up to 100% of U.S. workers paid via direct deposit. With more than $77 million in funding, the company counts Block, Citizens Bank, Acorns, Credit Karma, and others among its clients.

Founded in 2016, California-based Lumin has integration, referral, and reseller partnerships with multiple, major financial services players, including Larky, Constant, Glia, Envestnet, Paymentus, Jack Henry, Atomic, BioCatch, and others.

Photo by Skye Studios on Unsplash

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Bud Financial Joins Akoya’s Open Banking Network

Bud Financial Joins Akoya’s Open Banking Network
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bud, Daily news
  • Bud Financial, a data intelligence platform, has joined the open banking network of Akoya.
  • The move will help Bud Financial market its personalization solution and data insights to financial institutions.
  • Bud made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023 in New York last year.

Data intelligence platform Bud Financial has joined the U.S. open banking ecosystem of Akoya. The move will make it easier for the company to enable financial services companies to offer their customers hyper-personalized financial experiences. The new resources will also help FIs take advantage of new growth and revenue opportunities.

“We’re really excited to bring together Bud’s AI banking personalization with Akoya’s unique data aggregation capabilities,” Bud CEO and Co-Founder Ed Maslaveckas said. “Banks and fintechs that work with Bud can leverage a full stack solution, bringing all consumer data into one place with access to tools that understand the data. This means anyone within a financial institution can create hyper-personalized experiences or insights, improving cross and up-sell of products.”

The combination of Bud’s AI-powered data enrichment techniques and Akoya’s secure and scalable open finance network of trusted data providers will offer FIs a number of major benefits. These include the ability to offer personalization at scale, enhanced personal finance management, data-driven risk management and cash flow analytics, as well as other efficiency gains that are achievable thanks to deep insights into customer data.

“Increased transparency, enhanced customer experiences, and streamlined operations are just a few of the ways this partnership will deliver real value,” Akoya CEO Behram Panthaki said.

Bud is the second Finovate alum that Boston, Massachusetts-based Akoya has partnered with this year. Last month, Akoya announced a strategic partnership with white-label data platform 9Spokes, which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. 9Spokes aggregates permissioned business data from multiple sources to help companies improve financial management and strategic decision-making. The Auckland, New Zealand-based firm was founded in 2012.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York, Bud made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall in New York. At the conference, the company showed how its generative AI platform can transform bank data into a comprehensive financial picture with customer-level, transaction-level, and portfolio-level insights to power better decision-making. Bud securely enriches 300 million transactions a month and boasts that “zero” of its 100+ employees across four countries have access to client data.

Photo by Pixabay

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eToro to Publish Investment Education Content on X

eToro to Publish Investment Education Content on X
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, eToro
  • Social investing and trading platform eToro has partnered with social media platform X.
  • eToro will publish investment education content on X, leveraging investment experts and thought leaders from its eToro Academy.
  • Founded in 2007, eToro has won Finovate Best of Show awards on each of its six Finovate appearances.

It may not be a step on the road to making X a payments superapp, but the decision to partner with eToro to publish investment education content on the social media platform is among the most interesting fintech/financial-related moves from X to date.

eToro and X announced this week that they are working together to provide investment content on the social media platform via video, posts, and Spaces. The content will consist of insights and analysis from thought leaders from the investing community who will discuss a combination of breaking financial news, top trends in finance and investing, as well as investment fundamentals live on the platform. The material will be free to all X users and will be available in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and the UAE.

“We believe that there is power in shared knowledge,” eToro Co-founder and CEO Yoni Assia said. “It’s why we created a collaborative, social investment platform, and it’s why we prioritize financial education through our eToro Academy. Having been long-term collaborators with X, we are delighted to extend our partnership to provide more opportunities for financial learning and the sharing of investment insights on X.”

The partnership announcement comes with a renewed agreement for title sponsorship for X’s real-time Cashtag feature. This feature provides charting tools and data from TradingView on stocks, cryptocurrencies, and other assets, as well as the ability to trade and invest with eToro.

“Bringing eToro Academy to X is testament to the strength of the partnership we have built together and the continued growth of the financial investment conversation on X,” the social media platform’s CEO Linda Yaccarino said. “The continued success of our collaboration will bring more high-quality video content to the service, building on our innovation around cashtags and new features.”

To Yaccarino’s point about the growth of what used to be called “fintwit,” it’s worth knowing that there were more than 1.4 billion posts on X last year that were about trading or investing. This figure reflected year-over-year growth of 54%.

“We know that an increasing number of people turn to social media for accessible, relevant financial content,” Assia said. “It provides a forum for many who were excluded by more traditional channels. Partnering with X will enable us to deliver the very best in financial education to a global audience.”

Founded in 2007, eToro supports more than 35 million registered users and investors on its trading and investing platform. The company offers a collaborative investing community to help investors and traders learn the skills and develop the tools they need in order to reach their financial goals, whether through traditional assets or non-traditional assets. One of Finovate’s earliest and most popular alums, eToro won Best of Show in each of its six Finovate appearances from 2011 through 2017.

Photo by @coldbeer

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Citi Launches Citi Real-Time Funding for Corporate Clients

Citi Launches Citi Real-Time Funding for Corporate Clients
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Citi, Daily news
  • Citi launched Citi Real-Time Funding (RTF), a real time funds transfer tool.
  • The new tool helps commercial clients move funds between cross-border accounts automatically, based on pre-defined rules.
  • Citi Real-Time Funding (RTF) is now available in Australia, Hong Kong, and the U.K.

Citi announced today that it is offering faster funds transfers for some clients. Today, the bank unveiled Citi Real-Time Funding (RTF), a real-time funds transfer tool that helps commercial clients move funds between cross-border accounts automatically, based on pre-defined rules.

Citi RTF is launching as part of the bank’s real-time treasury suite of solutions for corporate clients and is now available in Australia, Hong Kong, and the U.K. Citi plans to expand the capability to additional geographies later this year.

“With the introduction of Citi RTF, Citi continues to deliver best-in-class, real-time treasury solutions to help our clients remain competitive and agile,” said Citi Services Global Head of Liquidity Management Services Stephen Randall. “With the proliferation of instant payments and evolving business models, treasuries must be able to support rapidly growing, 24/7 cash flows. Citi RTF complements our existing treasury products like Real-Time Multibanking, On-Demand Sweeps and Real-Time Liquidity Sharing that are powering our clients’ journeys to real-time liquidity management.”

Because the funds transfer rules are set by the client, clients can tailor the solution to ensure that cash is available when and where it’s needed. Transfers between intercompany accounts can be done 24/7, including intraday, afterhours, weekends, and holidays. The new tool also offers clients complex cash forecasting and a consolidated view of their accounts, including intercompany loans and cash positions, in a single report.

As real-time money movement services become more prolific in commercial banking, they are poised to become indispensable components of sophisticated treasury management systems. The speed of money movement, combined with the increased visibility of real-time funds, offers businesses greater financial agility and strategic advantage.

Photo by Renel Wackett on Unsplash

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Hawk Announces Series B Round Extension

Hawk Announces Series B Round Extension
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Fundings, Hawk:AI
  • Munich, Germany-based Hawk announced an extension of its Series B funding round this week.
  • The amount of the extension was not disclosed. But the anti-financial crime regtech said that the investment did increase its valuation.
  • Hawk made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2022.

Germany-based regtech Hawk announced an extension of its Series B funding round. The amount of the extension was not disclosed, but the company noted that the investment did significantly boost its valuation. The extension included funding from Rabo Investments, and also featured participation from existing investors BlackFin Capital Partners, Sands Capital, DN, Picus, and Coalition. Hawk will use the additional capital to fuel international growth and to help the firm meet growing demand for its AI-powered anti-financial crime solutions.

“We’re honored that Rabobank has recognized the significance of our technology and joins us in building a global market-leading enterprise, while also benefiting first-hand from our solutions and experience,” Hawk CEO Tobias Schweiger said. “I would also like to gratefully thank our existing investors for their ongoing support and look forward to continuing our partnership.”

Hawk, which rebranded from “Hawk AI” earlier this year, offers anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-the-financing-of-terrorism (CTF) technology that leverages explainable AI to detect more financial crime and reduce false positives. In fact, the company’s AI-powered technology delivers a 3x to 5x increase in risk detection and a 70% average reduction in the number of false positives. Banks, payments companies, and other financial services firms benefit from the ability to combine AML transaction monitoring, payment screening, and (Perpetual KYC) pKYC in a single solution that also includes powerful fraud prevention capabilities.

“Rabobank has been working with machine learning applications for many years,” Rabo Investments Managing Director Martijn Scholtes said. “What impressed us most about Hawk is that they’re delivering compelling results using explainable AI. Their advanced screening, detection, and monitoring capabilities align very well with our mission to build a more secure and robust financial ecosystem.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, Hawk AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demoed its AML Surveillance Suite, which leverages traditional rule-based models and AI to provide financial institutions with next generation AML compliance. “AI should be used to achieve three major outcomes,” Hawk GM of North America Steve Liú explained at the event, “one, finding suspicious and risky behavior that peer rule systems simply cannot; two, decrease the number of false positives drastically by using behavioral profiling on top of existing rules; and third, that all of this is fully explainable for operators and auditors, and available to our users on a platform allowing for secure information sharing.”

Hawk began the year by appointing former HSBC executive Michael Shearer as its Chief Solution Officer. Less than a month later, the company introduced new APAC General Manager Robin Lee, formerly of Napier. In February, Hawk won the XCelent Advanced Technology 2024 award and, in May, the company earned a spot on the 2024 FinTech Global Fincrime Tech 50.

Photo by Leon

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HSBC Taps Quantexa for Decision Intelligence

HSBC Taps Quantexa for Decision Intelligence
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Quantexa is launching its Q Assist technology suite to augment decision-making among its clients and employees.
  • HSBC announced it is an early adopter of Q Assist and will pilot the technology as part of Quantexa’s Lighthouse Program.
  • BNY Mellon is also currently evaluating joining the Lighthouse Program.

Decision intelligence solutions company Quantexa announced today that HSBC has selected its newly launched Q Assist, a technology suite to help organizations augment decision-making among frontline and information workers. 

The Q Assist Technology Suite helps clients leverage context aware generative AI without having to invest much in infrastructure, tooling, or add skilled human resources. Specifically, employees can tap into copilots, linked data, Quantexa’s knowledge graph capability, and more to enhance the accuracy and reliability of generative AI models. The Technology Suite is comprised of an integration layer that serves as a framework of tools, connectors, and APIs that link Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform with LLMs and conversational AI systems; a prompt management and sharing capability that integrates with external prompt tools and frameworks; and a copilot that allows users to query large and disparate data via a natural language interface.

Along with the launch of Q Assist, Quantexa also unveiled its Lighthouse Program for early adopters. “Quantexa’s engineering principle of shaping solutions to deliver maximum customer value has allowed our clients to play an integral role in helping to shape the product requirements for Q Assist,” said Quantexa CTO Jamie Hutton. “Through the company’s Lighthouse Program for early adopters, we have the benefit of working with industry leaders that provide valuable feedback throughout our roadmap process.”

HSBC is participating in the Quantexa Lighthouse Program, making the firm an early adopter of Q Assist. The technology suite will help HSBC streamline the processes of analysis, investigation, and reporting for its knowledge workers; reduce the firm’s reliance on data science and operations teams; offer its customer facing teams access to enriched data and insights in order to improve the customer experience; and enable teams to accelerate the decision-making process while improving traceability of decisions. HSBC anticipates that, within the first year of deploying Q Assist, the technology will help democratize analytics and accelerate processes, ultimately leading to productivity gains.

“This new solution has the potential to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of complex tasks such as anti-money laundering investigations and sales strategies by providing trusted data and contextual analytics,” said HSBC Global Chief Operating Officer of Commercial Banking David Rice. “The introduction of contextual analytics and innovation will enable HSBC to concentrate our resources more productively and ultimately help our customers.”

Quantexa noted that BNY Mellon is also currently evaluating joining the Lighthouse Program. “The next phase in our innovation efforts will see us exploring the potential of enabling frontline workers across the bank to use Gen AI to act on the data insights confidently and reach new levels of efficiency in the process,” said BNY Mellon, Cheif Data Officer Eric Hirschhorn.

Quantexa expects to make Q Assist available publicly outside of its Lighthouse program by early 2025.

Photo by Google DeepMind

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Peru Pursues Real-Time Payments via India’s UPI Technology

Peru Pursues Real-Time Payments via India’s UPI Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, David's column

Earlier this year, we looked at how the drive for real-time payments in the West could benefit from studying the successes of India’s real-time payments network, UPI. Last week, we learned that there is at least one country in the Western hemisphere that’s taking us up on our suggestion and that country isn’t the United States, it’s Peru.

Launched in 2016, the National Payments Corporation of India’s United Payments Interface was built to support both peer-to-peer payments and transactions with merchants via mobile phone. The initiative has been hugely successful; in 2023, the number of UPI transactions exceeded 100 billion. The Indian government boasts that more digital transactions are completed in India than in any other country in the world.

Now, it looks like Peru is getting into the act. The Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) and India’s NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) have signed a deal to deploy a real-time payments system in Peru based on India’s UPI. This partnership makes Peru the first country in South America to adopt the technology. The development is a major feather in the cap of India’s fintech industry and another great example of how countries in Latin America are embracing fintech innovation to promote financial inclusion.

“This will undoubtedly offer new and accessible payment services to everyone, especially the unbanked population of Peru, complementing the existing payments industry,” BCRP governor Julio Velarde said. He referred to the partnership as a “significant step in strengthening and modernizing our payments system, aiming to expand access to digital payments in Peru.”

NIPL was launched in 2020 as the international arm of NCPI. Earlier this year, NIPL teamed up with French payments company Lyra Network to bring UPI payments to France. Outside of India, the UPI system is currently supported in Sri Lanka, Mauritius, the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, and Nepal. Last month, NIPL announced that it was working to bring a UPI-type payment system to Namibia.

The arrival of UPI-based real-time payments in Peru will also bring innovations including QR code payments, biometric authentication, and AI-powered fraud detection. Alleviating the reliance on cash and enhancing financial inclusion and digital financial literacy are among the goals of the initiative.

It’s worth noting that Peru has made significant strides in helping move its citizens from the ranks of the un- and underbanked to full participants in the country’s financial system. In 2015, the number of adults with at least one financial product was approximately 35%. By 2020, this number had increased to more than 43% – and this was before the government’s pandemic-era decision that created millions of bank accounts for unbanked Peruvians to help facilitate aid payments.

Nevertheless, Peruvians remain relatively unbanked compared to those in neighboring countries. The unbanked constitute only 30% of the Brazilian population and only 26% of Chile’s. With a population of more than 32 million, Peru has its work cut out for it. But now, courtesy of NPCI, the third-largest nation in South America has help.

“We will be working together to address our common objective of promoting digital payments, financial inclusion, cost optimization, and transparency in the payment landscape, with scope for further scalability and adaptability, to embrace future technological advancements and market demands,” NPCI International CEO Ritesh Shukla said. “Once live, Peruvian citizens will gain access to an unparalleled level of convenience, security, and efficiency in financial transactions.”

For more on fintech news from around the world, be sure to check out our Finovate Global column, published every Friday afternoon.

Photo by Lukas

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SpyCloud Locks in $35 Million in New Financing

SpyCloud Locks in $35 Million in New Financing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Fundings, SpyCloud
  • Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity firm SpyCloud has raised $35 million in financing.
  • The capital will be used to expand the company’s solutions to help businesses investigate and defend themselves against cybercrime in general and account takeover fraud in specific.
  • SpyCloud won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York.

In a round led by CIBC Innovation Banking, Texas-based cybersecurity company SpyCloud has secured $35 million in growth financing. The investment follows SpyCloud’s $110 million Series D fundraising from August 2023, and will be used to expand the firm’s solutions to help businesses investigate and defend themselves against financial crime.

“As the threat landscape continues to evolve, it’s imperative that digital identities are well protected since they’re the entry point for so many targeted attacks,” SpyCloud CEO and Co-Founder Ted Ross said. “Building automated solutions that combat cybercrime has been our vision since day one, and the financing we received from CIBC Innovation Banking will allow us to continue innovating and growing.”

SpyCloud’s total capital raised stands at more than $203 million, according to Crunchbase. CIBC Innovation Banking is the investment division of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.

SpyCloud specializes in helping firms combat account takeover. The company’s platform scans and analyzes data from breaches, devices infected with malware, and the dark web to find employee login credentials that have been exposed. SpyCloud leverages this data to provide companies with actionable insights to enable them to blunt fraud losses, stop ransomware attacks, and fully investigate cybercrime incidents as they occur.

With customers ranging from Uber, Zscaler, and Samsonite to LendingTree, Canva, and the University of Oklahoma, SpyCloud recaptures 40 million exposed assets every week. The company’s technology seamlessly integrates into a variety of identity response and orchestration systems including Active Directory, Okta, Microsoft Sentinel, Splunk, and more.

Founded in 2016, SpyCloud won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company has more than 550 customers around the world and has recaptured more than 560 billion identity assets. This spring, SpyCloud released its 2024 SpyCloud Identity Exposure Report, which indicated that more than 60% of all data breaches in 2023 were malware related.

“Threat actors are linking together identity records from hundreds of sources to impersonate their victims,” SpyCloud Chief Product Officer explained, “making it extremely difficult for platforms to differentiate between legitimate users and criminals.”

To this end, the report indicates that there is plenty that individuals can do to make it harder for them to be the victim of stolen credentials. Foremost among these strategies is better password hygiene. SpyCloud recaptured nearly 1.8 billion passwords from dark web sources in 2023 alone – a year-over-year increase of more than 80%. Unfortunately, it is not difficult to see how. Beneath a subhead titled, “The U.S. government continues to struggle with bad password practices,” the report observed “the most common passwords associated with .gov emails were password, pass1, and 123456.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Torpago Lands $10 Million to Help Banks Launch Corporate Card Programs

Torpago Lands $10 Million to Help Banks Launch Corporate Card Programs
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Torpago has received $10 million in Series B funding for its corporate card program for banks.
  • Priority Tech Ventures and EJF Ventures co-led the round.
  • Torpago will use the funds to address demand for its Powered By solution, the company’s white-label, end-to-end commercial credit card and expense management software platform.

Corporate card program provider Torpago announced yesterday it received $10 million in Series B funding. The investment was co-led by Priority Tech Ventures and EJF Ventures. BankTech Ventures and other existing investors also contributed.

Torpago will use the funds to address demand for its Powered By solution, the company’s white-label, end-to-end commercial credit card and expense management software platform. The solution is geared toward banks and, specifically, aims to help regional and community banks compete against fintechs and national institutions. Torpago will also use the funds to enhance implementation and compliance resources and expand its product suite.

“We’re at an inflection point where bank and credit union leaders are no longer seeing fintechs as competition, but rather as essential partners to support and modernize their offerings and infrastructure,” said Torpago CEO and Founder Brent Jackson. “The Series B is an opportunity for Torpago to continue our momentum in product innovation and expand our top-of-the-line service that becomes a game changer for banks and credit unions and their customers across the country.”

The company noted that its investors are “eager to continue working” with the company. Investors including EJF Ventures, BankTech Ventures, Assurant Ventures, NFL star David Bakhtiari, and others have served as strategic partners, helping with pipeline generation and commercial strategy. “In addition to providing capital and introducing Torpago to our ecosystem partners, we look forward to engineering an operating plan that accelerates Torpago’s path to profitability,” said Priority Technology Holdings Chairman and CEO Thomas Priore.

Today’s investment comes after a $6 million Series A round Torpago landed in 2023 and boosts the California-based company’s total funding to over $96 million.

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Navigator

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Finovate Global UAE: Thndr Expands, Visa Partners, and the CBUAE Backs Open Finance

Finovate Global UAE: Thndr Expands, Visa Partners, and the CBUAE Backs Open Finance
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, DriveWealth, Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent developments in the fintech industry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Thndr, a digital investment platform based in Egypt, announced an expansion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week. The expansion comes after the company secured a Category 3A license with retail endorsement from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Thndr will initially offer investors in the UAE direct access to U.S.-listed securities, such as stocks, including fractional shares, as well as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“We at Thndr are thrilled to announce our official entry into the UAE market,” Thndr UAE General Manager Salah Kaddoura said. “We’d like to express our sincere gratitude to the FSRA for their openness and for welcoming Thndr to the UAE’s dynamic financial landscape.”

Founded in 2020 and a graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator, Thndr got its start as a commission-free, mobile trading platform for stocks, bonds, and funds. That year, Thndr became the first firm to earn a brokerage license in Egypt since 2008. The company went on to launch a new solution to enable trading in mutual funds and, in 2022, raised $20 million to fuel regional expansion.

With more than three million downloads and 500,000 active monthly users, Thndr notes that Egyptians traded $1.8 billion on its platform in 2023. As of this April, Thndr accounted for 8.5% of all retail transactions in the market. The company also reported that 87% of its users are first-time investors. “I take pride in seeing how our commitment to these principles has democratized investing to all Egyptians,” Kaddoura said, “and can’t wait for what we have in store for the UAE.”

du Pay, the digital payments division of UAE-based telecommunications company du, has formalized a partnership with digital payments giant Visa. The partnership will enable du Pay to issue Visa cards, grow its suite of financial solutions, and bring greater versatility to the du Pay platform.

“We are committed to making payment processes faster, simpler, and more secure while simultaneously enhancing financial inclusion,” du Pay CEO Nicholas Levi said. “The strategic collaboration is poised to accelerate digital empowerment with a focus on inclusivity and serve the needs of those without traditional banking services, ensuring simplified access to products.” For its part, Visa highlighted the impact of the partnership – and du Pay’s new prepaid Visa card – on the growth of digital commerce in the region.

du launched its du Pay solution earlier this year. The technology, available in six languages, offers international money transfers, P2P transfers, billpay, and a unique IBAN for each customer. The company plans to add a card feature “soon.”

Clarity on the role of Open Finance in the fintech and financial services industry of the UAE has arrived in the form of a new, comprehensive framework issued by the country’s Central Bank (CBUAE). The framework provides guidance on how to regulate licensing, supervision, and operation of Open Finance and has already received positive reviews from industry participants.

The CBUAE earned especially high marks for its emphasis on security and customer consent. One observer, Women in Crypto Arabia founder Zina Ashour said the framework “puts power back in the hands of the consumer.” Others, such as Tarabut Gateway CEO Abdulla Almoayed, were grateful for the regulatory clarity and certainty, adding that the “reduction in ambiguity” will enable his firm “to invest in the UAE with supreme confidence.”

Still further plaudits came for the comprehensive nature of the CBUAE’s decision. The UAE’s Open Finance Regulation includes, for example, both Open Banking and Open Insurance, as Global Ventures partner Said Murad observed. Murad also appreciated the fact that the regulation requires all entities licensed by the CBUAE to comply with its requirements for data sharing and service initiation.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal partners with cross-border money transfer firm Ria Money Transfer.
  • European paytech payabl. expanded its coverage by adding four major local payment methods in Latin America.
  • Brazilian fintech EBANX teamed up with South African instant EFT payments provider Ozow.

Asia-Pacifc

  • DBS Taiwan partnered with Thales to bring bio-source payment cards to Asia.
  • The Business Times profiled Vietnamese unicorn VNLife, parent company of payment solutions company VNPay.
  • Malaysia-based digital challenger bank Boost Bank launched its digital banking app.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • U.S.-based fintech Elevate secured $5 million in pre-Series A funding to support its expansion into South Africa.
  • Stanbic Bank Kenya, a member of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, announced an upgrade of its Temenos core.
  • VGS forged a strategic partnership with Onafriq, the largest payments network in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Card issuing platform Marqeta announced its expansion into Poland.
  • Deutsche Bank forged a partnership with Bitpanda to help facilitate cash payments for German crypto traders.
  • Boku teamed up with Poland’s instant payment system BLIK to offer it as a payment method at the Google Play store.

Photo by Nextvoyage

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