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Tyfone Teams Up with FinGoal to Help Banks Personalize their Products

Tyfone Teams Up with FinGoal to Help Banks Personalize their Products
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FinGoal, Tyfone
  • Tyfone has partnered with FinGoal to deliver personalized banking solutions.
  • Tyfone will leverage FinGoal’s Insight Platform to help its clients transform transaction data into detailed personas and next-best actions for users.
  • FinGoal’s Next Best Actions has already been adopted by a portion of Tyfone’s clients, and more plan to join soon.

Digital banking solutions provider Tyfone has teamed up with FinGoal this week to help banks deliver personalized products and tools to account holders.

Tyfone will leverage FinGoal’s Insight Platform that turns transaction data into detailed personas and offers next-best actions for each account holder. Specifically, Tyfone clients will have greater access to FinGoal’s Next Best Actions, a tool that increases conversion rates, lifetime value, and engagement. Currently, a portion of Tyfone’s client base is already using Next Best Actions, and more plan to join soon.

Showcased at FinovateSpring 2023, FinGoal’s Next Best Actions can help increase conversion rates, lifetime value, and engagement across digital banking solutions by leveraging digital banking and personal financial data. With that data, FinGoal’s clients can better understand users and provide actionable insights.

“Today’s account holders want more than just banking—they’re looking for personalized insights and a seamless experience that helps them make better financial decisions,” said Tyfone Director of Strategic Partnerships Jared Kopelman. “By integrating FinGoal into our platform, we’re equipping our clients with powerful tools like transaction cleansing and categorization and clear merchant logos. This partnership empowers financial institutions to deliver a more intuitive and tailored experience that helps institutions better understand its customers and deepen relationships.”

Tyfone was founded in 2004 and provides digital banking and payment solutions. The Oregon-based company’s digital banking solution, nFinia, is an enterprise solution that allows CFIs to deliver a hyper-personalized digital banking experience to both retail and commercial customers. The configurable solution offers more than 300 financial functions and provides an open ecosystem with direct integrations with more than 160 players.

Headquartered in Colorado, FinGoal was founded in 2018. In addition to its personalized offers technology, the company offers transaction enrichment and account aggregation and verification tools.

“The better an institution knows its users, the better it can serve those users,” said FinGoal CEO David Nohe. “Tyfone is known for its modern and sophisticated banking solution, and this partnership gives banks and credit unions a modern platform with actionable insights to power better engagement. FinGoal will arm our joint clients with data analytics and enhanced user experience.”

Photo by Jopwell

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Hastings Direct Loans Partners with IDVerse

Hastings Direct Loans Partners with IDVerse
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, IDVerse
  • Identity verification solution and infrastructure company IDVerse announced a partnership with Hastings Direct Loans.
  • The U.K.-based lender will leverage IDVerse’s technology to enhance the accuracy and reliability of its identity verification process.
  • IDVerse, as OCR Labs, won Best of Show at FinovateAsia in 2017. The company rebranded to IDVerse in 2023.

Hastings Direct Loans is working with IDVerse to further automate the customer journey by adding IDVerse’s identity tools to its offering. The lender will put IDVerse’s identity tools to work to boost the accuracy and reliability of its identity verification process.

Calling IDVerse’s technology a “perfect match,” Hastings Direct Loans Head of Digital, IT and Change, Sam Kerr added, “Hastings prides itself on giving our customers a fair, easy to understand loan process by implementing innovative technology solutions into our stack, which also enable our ambitious growth plans. The API approach from IDVerse has allowed us to ingest more data to further insights in our decision process leading to better outcomes for our customers and business.”

IDVerse’s tools and infrastructure empower businesses to verify identities within seconds using only their face and smartphone. IDVerse’s identity verification technology covers more than 16,000 identity documents, and works with more than 140 different languages and typesets to produce face matching accuracy of 99.998%. Equipped with Zero Bias AI Tested technology, IDVerse enables businesses to verify a wider range of identities, ensuring greater accessibility, for example with those with disabilities.

Additionally, the technology leverages light refraction analysis to determine liveness, removing the need for users to turn or move uncomfortably or endure unnatural lighting in order to establish their identity. Zero Bias AI also means normalizing user photos to account for individuals that may not have the most modern smartphone camera technology or high-speed data connection. In addition to integrating and testing within a month, Hastings Direct Loans noted that it had experienced a 4x ROI within a month of launch based on the amount of fraud the company has caught.

IDVerse Commercial Director Adam Desmond complimented the Hastings team for its eagerness to embrace enabling technologies. “They understand the need for fintechs to use the latest technology and data to drive improved outcomes in customer experience – which led to better business outcomes. Being able to exchange information at speed during the integration has allowed us to show the true value of the tech (in) near instant time.”

Headquartered in the U.K., Hastings Direct Loans has offered personal loans to consumers for more than three years. To date, the firm has financed nearly $655 million (£500 million) for more than 50,000 customers, and currently processes more than $39 billion (£30 billion) worth of loan quotes per month. Hastings Direct Loans is part of the Hastings Group, a U.K.-based digital insurance provider with more than 3.1 million live customers policies.

Founded as OCR Labs, the company won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateAsia 2017 in Hong Kong. The firm rebranded as IDVerse in May 2023. More recently, the company has forged partnerships with data and compliance infrastructure company Prembly, age and identity verification solutions provider Veratad Technologies, and identity verification and fraud prevention specialist TrustID.

Last month, IDVerse announced the beta launch of its real-time face matching solution, Face Access, that offers 99.998% accuracy and instant, secure user authentication. Face Access features both Zero Bias AI and the company’s Deepfake Defender protection, which provides 100% liveness video fraud assessment with ISO 30107-3 compliance for presentation attack detection (PAD).

IDVerse has raised $45 million in funding according to Crunchbase, and includes Equable Capital and OYAK among its investors. The company is headquartered in London. John Myers is CEO.

Photo by Yoss Traore

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Fidelity Investments Closes $250 Million Venture Capital Fund 

Fidelity Investments Closes $250 Million Venture Capital Fund 
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Fidelity, Funding
  • Fidelity Investments has launched its first dedicated venture capital fund, Venture Capital Fund I.
  • The $250 million Fund I targets mid-to-late stage companies in technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.
  • The new fund marks a shift from Fidelity’s traditional private market investing, allowing the firm to make direct minority investments and cater to high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and registered investment advisers.

Fidelity Investments recently closed its Venture Capital Fund I LP, or what it is calling Fund I. The $250 million fund– which received support from investors including high net-worth individuals, family offices, and registered investment advisers– held its final closing on September 30.

Fidelity has been investing in private companies for over 15 years, having backed Twilio, Stripe, and even SpaceX. During its decade-and-a-half of investing, Fidelity has deployed over $28 billion across 600 investments in 350 private companies. Historically, the firm has focused on high-growth category disruptors, leveraging its mutual funds to back private companies with notable competitive advantages.

Fidelity Investments Portfolio Manager and Global Head of Private Equity Karin Fronczke emphasized how the launch of the new fund strengthens Fidelity’s already robust track record of investing in private companies. “The success of this fundraise speaks to Fidelity’s legacy investing in private companies. We are grateful for the support from the fund’s limited partners,” she said.

The firm’s introduction of Fund I, however, marks a significant departure from its traditional approach, carving out a more defined venture capital strategy. With Fund I, Fidelity has a dedicated vehicle for direct minority investments and will target mid-to-late stage companies in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors.

Additionally, the new fund will help Fidelity meet the growing demand from high net-worth individuals, family offices, and registered investment advisers who want more diversification in private market investments. Fidelity’s Fund I is a notable shift towards a specialized venture capital structure that can cater to investors seeking access to high-growth private companies and diversification beyond traditional public markets.

Fund I is already in motion, having invested $31 million in 10 companies spanning industries including aerospace, defense, artificial intelligence, and e-commerce.

Fidelity, which already manages 50 alternative funds, recently launched liquid alternatives ETFs and mutual funds. The firm currently counts $27.8 billion in assets under management in alternatives and $80 billion in alternative investment assets under administration.

This announcement comes at an interesting time for the fintech venture capital funding environment, which is experiencing a notable drought. As Finovate Research Analyst David Penn noted on the blog earlier this week, “According to market intelligence platform Tracxn, funding for U.S.-based tech companies in Q3 of this year fell, both in comparison to the previous quarter as well as when compared to Q3 2023. Tracxn also reported that the number of tech unicorns actually increased this year compared to last year, with 13 new unicorns acknowledged in Q3 2024 compared to just five in Q3 2023.”

However, Fidelity’s optimism in launching a new fund may signal a turning point in the fintech funding landscape. This shift could push more traditional asset managers to create similar venture capital funds, pushing more capital into later-stage fintech firms, a group which has been ignored by investors over the past few years.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

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FIS Launches Digital Trading Storefront to Upgrade the Trading Experience

FIS Launches Digital Trading Storefront to Upgrade the Trading Experience
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, FIS
  • FIS has launched its Digital Trading Storefront, enabling banks, brokers, and fund managers to offer a customizable digital trading experience with real-time execution and enhanced personalization.
  • The new Digital Trading Storefront is built on FIS’s Cross-Asset Trading and Risk Platform.
  • The new tool supports both buy-side and sell-side strategies while helping firms manage trading volumes and mitigate regulatory compliance risks.

Payment, banking, and investment systems provider FIS unveiled its Digital Trading Storefront today. The new tool enables banks, brokers, market makers, and fund managers to offer their customers a new digital trading experience.

The new Digital Trading Storefront builds upon FIS’ existing Cross-Asset Trading and Risk Platform. Formerly known as Front Arena, FIS Cross-Asset Trading and Risk Platform helps firms enter new markets quickly and support strategies for both the buy side and sell side. FIS’ Digital Trading Storefront enhances this by offering a suite of digital tools that allow for personalization and real-time trade execution.

Firms can customize their Digital Trading Storefront by integrating their own front or back-end components, and tailoring the design and customer experience to suit their brand. The platform facilitates more accessible trading in real-time, while helping mitigate regulatory compliance risk with APIs. When firms move their cross-asset trading platforms into the digital platform, they are better able to manage trading volumes at scale.

“Providing a competitive digital trading experience has become crucial for financial institutions who want to help customers be smarter when putting their money to work,” said FIS President, Capital Markets Nasser Khodri. “With this launch, FIS is unlocking financial technology that enables banks, broker dealers and wealth managers worldwide to deliver more modern experiences to their customers when their money is at work.”

FIS was founded in 1968. Headquartered in Florida, the firm offers a wide range of products and tools for its 15,000 clients across the globe, processing $50 trillion annually. In addition to wealth management tools, FIS also offers payment capabilities, risk management tools, customer communications products, and more.

In recent months, FIS has expanded its reach in the fintech and banking sectors through new offerings and partnerships. In July, FIS teamed up with Lendio, a fintech known for its lending technology, to launch a new SMB Digital Lending solution to support SMBs in need of financing. In August, Commerce Bank selected FIS to implement a loyalty program management platform.

Photo by Pixabay

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Cardlay Teams Up with Visa to Enhance Spend Management

Cardlay Teams Up with Visa to Enhance Spend Management
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cardlay Payment Solutions, Daily news, VISA
  • Cardlay Payments Solutions has inked a partnership with Visa.
  • The collaboration combines Cardlay’s spend management technology with Visa’s payment network, data capabilities, and market position to drive innovation in spend management for commercial card issuers and their customers.
  • Headquartered in Denmark, Cardlay made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring.

Danish fintech Cardlay is collaborating with digital payments leader Visa to power innovations in the spend management space for commercial card issuers and their clients. The two companies’ new referral relationship combines Cardlay’s white label spend management platform with Visa’s market position, payment network, and data capabilities to provide fully embedded commercial cards and spend management solutions to their clients.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Visa, a highly respected leader in the digital payments industry,”  Cardlay CEO Jørgen Christian Juul said. “To be able to fuel our product and commercial growth further together with Visa is great and the collaboration will help bring our vision to life: delivering fast and effortless spend management to commercial card issuers.”

Cardlay leverages the integration of virtual and plastic payment cards, card management, and expense management (including automated VAT reclaim) to help companies automate key business processes. A strategic partner to banks, fintechs, card issuers and processors, as well as other financial institutions, Cardlay also runs its own virtual card program to complement its software suite.

Cardlay’s technology enables commercial card issuers to enjoy a fast time-to-market and ROI, as well as benefit from data capabilities such as real-time virtual credit cards and Visa’s Fleet 2.0 data. These capabilities provide greater efficiency via access to data and insights, facilitate cost reduction, and help support sustainable transportation and mobility budgets.

“We’re delighted to have partnered up with Cardlay and look forward to our work together, helping to streamline financial operations for businesses, providing them with greater transparency and control over their spending,” said Helen Jones, Executive Director, Visa Commercial Solutions, Visa Europe.

Headquartered in Denmark and founded in 2020, Cardlay Payment Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring earlier this year. At the conference, the company demoed its bank-integrated, real-time expense management solution, Cardlay Expense. More than 500 companies and 5,000+ users in 10 markets around the world are taking advantage of the technology to simplify and streamline the spend management process.

Cardlay has raised more than $29 million in funding according to Crunchbase. The company’s investors include Global PayTech Ventures and SEB Venture Capital.

Photo by Stefan Grage

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Indeed Flex Taps Branch to Offer Same-Day Payouts

Indeed Flex Taps Branch to Offer Same-Day Payouts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Indeed Flex has partnered with Branch to offer temp workers same-day payouts.
  • Temp workers on the Indeed Flex platform can access up to 50% of their earnings within one hour of finishing their shifts.
  • Integrating Branch Direct, Indeed Flex can give workers the option to receive their pay either through direct deposit for a small fee or into the Branch digital wallet for free.

Temporary staffing platform Indeed Flex has teamed up with Branch, a workforce payments platform that provides flexible options for businesses to pay their workers. Indeed Flex will use Branch to pay its temp workers in the same day of completing their shift.

Indeed Flex offers job seekers in a range of industries– including industrial, hospitality, facilities management, and retail– to choose from a wide range of jobs and schedules to fit their needs and gather experience to build their career. The company provides flexible work solutions with temporary, temp-to-permanent, and long-term opportunities.

“At Indeed Flex, flexibility is at the heart of everything we do, and we’re excited to enhance that commitment through our partnership with Branch,” Indeed Flex Founder and CEO Novo Constare. “By enabling Flexers to access their pay as quickly and easily as they can pick up shifts, we’re reinforcing our core value of providing both work and financial flexibility that adapts to their unique needs.”

By integrating Branch’s fast payout tool, Branch Direct, into its payouts, Indeed Flex can now offer temp workers access to up to 50% of their earnings within one hour of completing their shift. With Branch Direct, workers can quickly receive a predetermined percentage of their earnings into their existing bank account for a small fee after linking their debit card. Alternatively, the employee could receive the funds into their Branch digital wallet for free.

“Branch is excited to collaborate with Indeed Flex and support their mission of empowering the flexible workforce with greater choice,” said Branch Founder and CEO Atif Siddiqi. “The Branch platform and app are designed to meet the unique needs of both temporary staffing firms and contingent workers. We’re proud to offer an end-to-end solution that allows Indeed Flex to enhance workers’ financial stability and overall work experience with even more speed, ease, and convenience.”

Branch, which provides banking services via its partner Evolve Bank and Trust, was founded in 2015. The Minnesota-based company offers businesses a range of payout options that suit their needs– from easy-to-launch payment solutions to fully customized, branded experiences.

Photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash

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Mastercard Acquires Minna Technologies

Mastercard Acquires Minna Technologies
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard, Mergers & Acquisitions, Minna Technologies
  • Mastercard has agreed to acquire subscription management platform Minna Technologies. Terms were not disclosed.
  • Minna Technologies offers technology that enables users to manage their subscriptions from within their bank app or website, saving users millions of dollars in spending on unwanted subscriptions.
  • Minna Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2019. The company is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Terms were not disclosed. But Mastercard announced today that it has agreed to acquire Swedish subscription management platform Minna Technologies. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, will bring greater simplicity and clarity to the subscription process and help enhance the engagement between merchants and their customers.

“This is significant recognition of the strength, growth, and impact of Minna Technologies in powering the global subscription economy, partnering with top-tier banks, fintechs, and subscription businesses,” Minna Technologies CEO and Chair Amanda Mesler said. “We look forward to joining Mastercard’s world-class team and helping businesses to empower consumers with control, convenience, and flexibility in managing their subscriptions and recurring payments.”

Minna Technologies offers banks and other financial institutions a subscription management platform that enables users to take control over their subscriptions via an automatically generated overview of all the user’s recurring expenses. Individuals can use Minna to cancel unwanted subscriptions as well as identify and quickly switch to new utility service providers. Mastercard’s acquisition comes as the number of subscriptions globally has climbed to 6.8 billion, with analysts at Juniper Research expecting that number to climb to 9.3 billion by 2028.

That said, the experience of our subscription economy can be a mixed one for consumers. Changing, extending, or canceling a subscription is often much more difficult than it needs to be. Additionally, the proliferation of subscription-based services means that many people have trouble keeping track of what they subscribe to, and when those subscriptions will be renewed. In the U.S., for example, the average person has 4.5 subscriptions. Additionally, more than 85% of Americans say that they have at least one paid subscription that goes unused each month.

Minna provides a payment-scheme agnostic service that empowers subscribers to manage their subscriptions from within their banking apps and websites. Bringing this technology into Mastercard’s suite of offerings is yet another example of how some of the biggest companies in financial services are leveraging acquisitions to add new solutions – from account-to-account payment functionality to enhanced cybersecurity – to their product mix. To that point, just last week, we shared news that Mastercard rival Visa had agreed to acquire fraud prevention company (and Finovate alum) Featurespace.

Founded in 2014, Minna Technologies demoed its technology at FinovateEurope in 2019. Today, the Sweden-based company has connected with more than 22,000 subscription businesses, served more than 120 million retail bank and fintech users, and saved customers more than $1 billion in spending on unwanted subscriptions.

Photo by Shvets Anna

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CRIF Forges Strategic Partnership with Ozone API

CRIF Forges Strategic Partnership with Ozone API
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, CRIF, Daily news
  • Credit bureau, business information, and credit risk specialist CRIF has inked a strategic partnership with open banking API company Ozone API.
  • The collaboration is designed to hep financial institutions enhance data-driven decision-making, streamline operations, and share data safely.
  • CRIF made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2014.

A newly announced strategic partnership between CRIF and open banking API solution provider Ozone API will help financial institutions securely share their data and create new financial solutions that enhance data-driven decision-making, streamline operations, and improve customer satisfaction.

“By partnering with Ozone API, we are combining our strengths to create a seamless and efficient banking experience for our clients,” CRIF Digital Platform Business Development & Ecosystem Strategy Senior Director Andrea Martellone said. “This collaboration aligns perfectly with our mission to innovate and provide advanced solutions that drive growth in the financial sector.”

The partnership combines CRIF’s credit information and decision support systems with Ozone API’s open banking experience and secure, standards-compliant technology. Not only will the partnership assist financial institutions in meeting evolving needs, CRIF and Ozone API will also enable them to provide more personalized and efficient banking services to their customers now.

“This is an exciting partnership for Ozone API, as this will drive financial inclusion by providing the right tools to financial institutions to allow their customers to make more informed decisions about their financial wellbeing and get access to a wider range of financial services,” Ozone API Global Partnership Lead James Bushby said.

Headquartered in the U.K., Ozone API was founded in 2017. The open banking API platform helps banks and financial institutions take advantage of the opportunities of open banking and open finance with its compliant, open API technology. Ozone API’s technology supports all international standards and empowers financial institutions to create real commercial value and monetize open finance globally. The company began 2024 securing $11.3 million (£8.5 million) in Series A funding in a round led by Gresham House Ventures.

CRIF introduced itself to Finovate audiences in 2014 as part of our FinovateEurope conference. The company provides credit information services for business and marketing; business intelligence services, including credit ratings and data analysis; and digital solutions to support business development and open banking. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Bologna, Italy, CRIF today serves more than 10,000 financial institutions, more than 90,000 business clients, and more than one million consumers. The company operates in 39 countries across four continents.

Photo by Pixabay

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Enfuce Selects allpay cards to Manufacture and Personalize Cards for U.K. Clients

Enfuce Selects allpay cards to Manufacture and Personalize Cards for U.K. Clients
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Enfuce has partnered with allpay cards to enhance Enfuce’s MyCard solution in the U.K., providing customizable card issuance services.
  • MyCard allows fintechs and banks to issue and manage payment cards quickly, simplifies the card issuing process, and offers personalized options like metal, biometric, and sustainable cards made from recycled materials.
  • This collaboration reflects growing trends for modular, cloud-based payments platforms that facilitate a faster time-to-market and improved security for fintechs and banks.

Enfuce and plastic card manufacturer allpay cards have partnered this week. Enfuce has tapped allpay cards to manufacture and personalize payment cards to bolster Enfuce’s MyCard solution for U.K. clients.

“We are thrilled to partner with allpay cards to bring MyCard to market in the U.K. and of course work with them as their selected processing partner,” said Enfuce Co-Founder & Co-CEO Monika Liikamaa. “Our relationship is a true collaboration fostered on trust and well-aligned strategic goals which makes us the perfect pair to deliver card innovation.”

Enfuce launched its MyCard solution in early 2022 as part of their Card-as-a-Service offering. The MyCard platform allows fintechs and banks to issue and manage payment cards quickly and without the need for a large technical team. To simplify card programs, MyCard handles the entire process, including manufacturing, stock management, compliance, and distribution. The tool allows for a deep level of customization, enabling organizations to launch personalized cards, metal cards, biometric cards, vertical cards, and sustainable cards made from corn starch, post industrial waste, and recycled plastic.

Enfuce and allpay cards first linked up in 2023, when Enfuce became allpay’s processing partner. This move, which integrated Enfuce’s modular payments platform for its U.K. clients​, helped allpay enhance its card manufacturing and personalization services.

“We are excited to be supporting Enfuce’s MyCard proposition, particularly as the demand for scalable, secure, and customized card solutions grows in the fintech space,” said allpay cards Head of Sales Emily Lovelock. “By joining forces with Enfuce, we are confident we can deliver a stress-free, high-quality experience for all of their U.K. clients.”

The partnership between Enfuce and allpay cards reflects the increasing demand for customizable, and scalable “-as-a-Service” solutions. Additionally, this collaboration highlights the shift towards integrating cloud-based and modular payments platforms, which allow for faster time-to-market and enhanced security in a fast-evolving regulatory landscape.

Finland-based Enfuce was founded in 2016 and has raised $78 million (€70.5 milion). In addition to its MyCard solution, the company offers card issuance, digital wallets, card program insights, fraud and dispute management, and more.

Photo by RDNE Stock project

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QuantConnect Collaborates with TradeStation

QuantConnect Collaborates with TradeStation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, QuantConnect
  • Online brokerage firm TradeStation has partnered with open source algorithmic trading platform QuantConnect.
  • The collaboration will enable mutual customers to build and automate strategies with QuantConnect, and then execute their trades via their TradeStation brokerage accounts.
  • QuantConnect made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. The company was founded in 2011.

Multi-asset online brokerage service TradeStation has announced a partnership with open source algorithmic trading platform QuantConnect. The two companies have integrated their solutions to enable mutual customers to create and automate their trading strategies on the QuantConnect platform, and then execute their trades via API through their TradeStation brokerage account.

“By integrating our personalized brokerage service with QuantConnect’s algorithmic trading platform, we’re providing sophisticated traders with powerful tools to develop, backtest, and automate their strategies, enhancing their ability to identify and execute new trading opportunities,” President and CEO of TradeStation Securities’ parent company, TradeStation Group, Inc. John Bartleman said.

The partnership combines two significant forces in the algorithmic trading tools space. TradeStation Securities provides institutional-grade tools and personalized services, enabling traders to buy and sell a wide range of assets including equities, equity options, and futures. A favorite of advanced retail and institutional traders, TradeStation caters to market participants who often require a more customizable and sophisticated trading experience, especially those who rely on algorithms to make buy and sell decisions. The integration will make the transition from building strategies to executing them in the market that much smoother.

“With this collaboration, mutual customers can create, manage, and analyze trading strategies from the new cross-platform integration,” QuantConnect CEO Jared Broad said. “TradeStation Securities is a well-known self-directed online broker-dealer and futures commission merchant, and it’s exciting to know that QuantConnect’s platform will be available to mutual customers.”

Founded in 2011, QuantConnect made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013. At the conference, the company demoed its cloud-powered stock market backtesting technology, which can simulate years of stock market data in minutes. The company’s quantitative analytics platform facilitates more than 500,000 backtests per month for a community of more than 300,000 quants and developers. QuantConnect’s platform is powered by the LEAN Engine, an open source infrastructure for algorithmic trading.

QuantConnect’s partnership with TradeStation Securities comes a month after the Miami, Florida-based firm announced an integration with brokerage platform Alpaca. Courtesy of the partnership, Alpaca users can leverage QuantConnect’s technology to design, backtest, and trade algorithmic strategies for stocks, ETFs, options, as well as cryptocurrencies.

Photo by Pixabay

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French Regtech Dotfile Secures €6M in New Funding

French Regtech Dotfile Secures €6M in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Dotfile, Funding
  • France-based regtech Dotfile has secured $6.7 million (€6 million) in new funding.
  • The round was led by Seaya Ventures. The company’s existing investors Serena and Hexa also participated in the investment.
  • Dotfile made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London.

Fresh off its FinovateEurope debut earlier this year, Paris-based fintech Dotfile has raised $6.7 million (€6 million) in funding. The round was led by Seaya Ventures, and featured participation from the firm’s existing investors Serena and Hexa. In a statement, the regtech innovator indicated that the funding will power its R&D efforts as well as fuel its international expansion plans.

Dotfile leverages AI to enable banks and other financial institutions to automate customer onboarding and ensure compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. The company’s business verification platform improves upon the traditionally manual, complex, and expensive Know-Your-Business (KYB) process by aggregating dozens of different data sources to produce a comprehensive picture of a business within 10 seconds.

“More than $200 billion is invested in compliance every year, yet 2% of the world GDP is still going through the money-laundering rinse cycle, which is fueling crime,” Dotfile CEO Vasco Alexandre said. “AI could change how effective those policies are and the positive impact for our societies could be massive.”

The investment in Dotfile comes at a time of growing awareness of the importance of compliance in financial services – and the ability of technology to help banks and other institutions meet these obligations. From banks seeking to maximize opportunities in fintech partnerships to cryptocurrency platforms eager for greater clarity on digital asset regulations, institutions throughout financial services are finding themselves in an increasingly dynamic regulatory environment. To help companies better manage their compliance obligations, a new generation of fintechs such as Dotfile have emerged with tools, workflows, and other solutions–often AI-powered–to streamline and enhance verification, ensure accurate auditability, and reduce costs.

“Compliance is costing banks up to 10% of their revenue, 1 out of 4 employees work in a compliance-related position and existing systems are sometimes more than a decade old,” Alexandre said. “With the competition from fintech intensifying, a transition is bound to happen and generative AI is the tipping point.”

Dotfile made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. At the conference, the French regtech demonstrated its end-to-end business verification platform that empowers compliance teams to streamline their operations. The company was founded in 2021 by Alexandre and Titouan Benoit, and received major support from startup studio Hexa (formerly known as eFounders). Today, Dotfile has more than 50 customers across 10 countries, including banks, private equity firms, and fintechs. Most recently, the company announced a partnership with private market investment platform Roundtable, helping the firm improve its KYC process to optimize and accelerate customer onboarding.

Photo by Paul Deetman

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Xero Clients Can Now Offer BNPL Payments via Klarna

Xero Clients Can Now Offer BNPL Payments via Klarna
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna, Xero
  • Xero and Klarna have partnered to allow small businesses to offer buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at checkout, giving consumers more flexible payment choices.
  • Under the partnership, Xero’s small business clients will have access to BNPL capabilities that may help boost revenue and enable more large-ticket sales.
  • This collaboration has the potential to help Xero’s small business clients maintain healthy cash flow by getting paid upfront.

Small business accounting software company Xero and global payments network and shopping platform Klarna announced this week that they have teamed up.

The deal is essentially a distribution partnership for Klarna, which will help Xero’s small businesses clients accept buy now, pay later (BNPL) payments from their consumers. Xero small business customers in all regions except Australia can offer Klarna at checkout as a payment option, providing a credit card alternative while still getting paid for the goods or services up front.

“We know that maintaining a healthy cash flow is critical to a successful business, and offering more ways to pay supports increased business growth and getting paid faster,” said Xero SVP Payments & Ecosystem Bharathi Ramavarjula. “In fact, our recent research report shows that if a business doesn’t offer customers their preferred way to pay, they are prepared to take their business elsewhere. By enabling our customers with more ways to pay, including Klarna, we can help them retain customers and increase their revenue.” 

Klarna’s BNPL tools include a four-payment, interest-free installment plan, a 24-month financing option, and a pay-in-30 day option. Before a customer makes their purchase, Klarna verifies their eligibility and offers transparent terms of the payment. Once the purchase is made, the company follows up with reminders to help ensure that shoppers stay current on their payments. According to Klarna, 99% of the financing is repaid and 40% of orders placed are repaid early.

The partnership has the potential to provide BNPL capabilities to small businesses that would normally not be able to offer flexible payments or financing. By offering a more flexible payment option, these businesses have the potential to close more larger-ticket deals. It also has the potential to help businesses maintain healthy cashflow, as merchants using Klarna will receive the payment up front.

“This partnership brings Klarna’s flexible payment options to micro businesses of all kinds so business owners can get paid on time and their customers can choose how and when to pay,” said “Klarna Chief Commercial Officer David Sykes. “This includes businesses where gardeners and landscaping services using Xero can now offer a Klarna BNPL payment option, plumbers and heating engineers using Xero can fix their customers’ boilers and let them spread the cost while small businesses involved in the construction industry could spread the cost of smaller projects over three interest-free installments.”

Both Klarna and Xero have been in the fintech news cycle in recent months for different reasons. Last month, Klarna unveiled plans to cut its workforce in half in favor of AI-driven productivity. And earlier this month, Xero announced plans to acquire collaborative reporting tool Syft Analytics.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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