Daily news

Blend Labs Raises $150 Million, Forges Strategic Partnership with Haveli Investments

Blend Labs Raises $150 Million, Forges Strategic Partnership with Haveli Investments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blend, Daily news, Funding, Fundings
  • Cloud banking services provider Blend raised $150 million in new funding from PE firm Haveli Investments.
  • The investment comes in the form of convertible preferred stock with a zero percent coupon.
  • Blend Labs is an alumni of both FinovateSpring and our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley, presenting at both events in 2016.

Cloud banking services provider Blend has secured an investment of $150 million from technology-focused private equity firm Haveli Investments.

The investment comes in the form of convertible preferred stock with a zero percent coupon. Blend will use most of the capital – approximately $145 million – to repay amounts payable under its current credit agreement. The remainder of the investment will be used for general corporate purposes. Overall, the investment is designed to fortify Blend’s financial position and balance sheet, paving the way for long-term growth and value creation.

“This partnership with Haveli reflects confidence in Blend’s continued journey to transform financial services and is an important show of faith in our growth strategy,” Blend Co-founder and Head Nima Ghamsari said. “We look forward to working with Haveli to advance our goal of driving innovation in the space and delivering lasting value for our customers and shareholders.”

Blend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2016. The company returned to the stage later that year to demo its technology at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. In the years since, Blend has grown into a major cloud banking services provider helping financial services firms process $1.7 trillion in loan applications in 2022, and capturing more than 23% of mortgage market share in the second half of that year. So far in 2024, Blend has forged partnerships with Fannie Mae, Randolph-Brooks Federal Credit Union, Citizens Bank, and Michigan Schools and Government Credit Union (MSGCU).

As part of this week’s investment, Brian Sheth, Chief Investment Officer with Haveli Investments will join Blend’s board of directors. In a statement, Sheth praised the company as a market leader in providing mortgage and consumer banking software for banks, credit unions, and other lenders. “We have known the Blend team for several years and have been impressed with their innovation and vision,” Sheth said. “With a blue-chip customer base and an improved balance sheet, we believe Blend is well positioned to succeed with its modern, next-gen platform.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Challenger Bank Lunar Raises $25.7 Million

Challenger Bank Lunar Raises $25.7 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Challenger bank Lunar raised $25.7 million (€24.1 million) in funding, boosting the company’s total raised to around $512 million.
  • Lunar plans to use today’s funds to expand on its basic package offered to Swedish residents to become a more full-service bank.
  • In 2023, Lunar reached 850,000 customers, marking an increase from 700,000 customers the year prior.

Challenger bank Lunar announced this week it has raised $25.7 million (€24.1 million) in a supplementary funding round. According to Crunchbase, the new investment boosts Lunar’s total raised to just shy of $512 million, around $54 million of which was brought in over the past four months.

Lunar was founded in 2015 and currently offers retail and commercial digital banking services. The company received its banking license in 2019 and on the retail side offers personal checking accounts with debit cards, youth accounts, in-app PFM tools, a BNPL tool that can be retroactively applied to purchases already made, as well as an investing platform that allows users to invest in stocks, ETFs, and crypto. On the commercial side, Lunar offers business bank accounts, automated bookkeeping, cash flow analytics, expense management tools, loans, insurance, and more.

“Securing €50.9 million in such a challenging market reflects strong confidence in our growth strategies,” said Lunar Founder and CEO Ken Villum Klausen. “We’re seeing robust growth in our newly launched business area Banking Services, where we’re extending our in-house developed Nordic infrastructure to external partners.”

Lunar plans to use today’s funds to expand on its basic package offered to Swedish residents to become a more full-service bank. The company’s banking services are currently available to users in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

Approaching its 10th year of operation, Lunar reached 850,000 customers in 2023– including 20,000 business users. This total user number marks an increase from 700,000 customers in 2022. Concurrently, customer activity, as measured by transactions, nearly doubled during this period.

“Our journey doesn’t stop here, “Villum Klausen added. “We’re not just broadening Lunar’s basic banking services, but we’re also evolving into a full-service bank. Our aim is to cater to both private customers and businesses in Sweden, demonstrating our commitment to growth and our vision for the future.”

Photo credit: Lunar

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SecureAuth Acquires Access Management Technology Company Cloudentity

SecureAuth Acquires Access Management Technology Company Cloudentity
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cloudentity, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Seattle, Washington-based Cloudentity has been acquired by access management firm SecureAuth.
  • Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cloudentity has raised $13 million in funding.
  • Cloudentity made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.

Access management and authentication company SecureAuth has completed its acquisition and integration of Cloudentity. Announced earlier this year, SecureAuth’s acquisition of the Seattle, Washington-based company will help position the firm as a market leader in the Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) space.

Cloudentity, which made its Finovate debut in 2022 at FinovateFall, is a specialist in advanced SaaS-delivered access management technology. The company supports both Fine-Grained Authorization (FGA) and Business-to-Business-to-Consumer (B2B2C) use cases, and also provides support for advanced authorization and consent specifications including Financial-grade API (FAPI) 2.0, which powers Open Finance communities around the world.

Integrating Cloudentity’s orchestration and FGA capabilities will complement SecureAuth’s suite of identity security solutions such as its AI/ML Risk Engine and Passwordless MFA technologies. The combined functionality will enable businesses to upgrade their customer experiences with enhanced security and compliance – with less friction.

“With the acquisition of Cloudentity, SecureAuth is poised to revolutionize the CIAM market,” SecureAuth Chief Operating Officer Kelly Wenzel said. “Cloudentity was built from the ground up as a pure cloud-native deep identity solution that can be implemented on-premise, via public cloud or private cloud, as a single-tenant or multi-tenant deployment within hours. This powerful combination of deployment flexibility and deep capabilities allows us to serve our customers in implementing identity security without sacrificing customer experience.”

As part of the transaction, Cloudentity CEO Brook Lovatt will join SecureAuth as Chief Product Officer. Lovatt said in a statement that the combined company will help drive innovation in the identity security space. “Together, these technologies provide a comprehensive CIAM solution set with an extremely short time-to-value that enables organizations to quickly and easily deliver exceptional digital experiences, while maintaining the highest standards of security and compliance.”

Cloudentity was founded in 2001. Prior to its acquisition, the company had raised $13 million in funding. Forgepoint Capital and WestWave Capital are among the firm’s investors.

Photo by Amanda Grove

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Veritran and Swift Announce Collaboration to Enhance Cross-Border Payments

Veritran and Swift Announce Collaboration to Enhance Cross-Border Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, VeriTran
  • International banking technology company Veritran announced a collaboration with financial messaging services company Swift.
  • As part of the collaboration, Veritran has joined the Swift Partner Programme.
  • Headquartered in Argentina, Veritran made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021.

A new collaboration between Veritran and financial messaging services innovator Swift will empower financial institutions to provide an enhanced and streamlined cross-border payments experience for customers. As part of the collaboration, Veritran has joined the Swift Partner Programme, which will give its customers access to a variety of Swift solutions to increase the transparency and security of cross-border payments.

“Collaborations such as this are improving the experience for those sending payments cross-border, while also increasing transparency and security to improve the ecosystem as a whole,” Swift Global Head of API Acceleration Juan Carlos Botrán said. “It’s vital that industry players work together in this way to overcome increasing fragmentation in the cross-border payments landscape.”

An international banking technology company, Veritran will benefit from access to Swift solutions such as the Swift GPI Tracker, Payment Pre-validation, and SwiftRef. Swift GPI Tracker enables users to check the status of cross-border payments. Payment Pre-validation validates beneficiary data before the payment is sent. SwiftRef is Swift’s payments reference data solution, which streamlines payment operations and helps users easily find the data sets they need in a single location.

“This agreement is designed to align with the changing market demands, prioritizing the need for speed and flexibility with a more transparent and consistent pricing structure for users, the retail sector, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large corporates,” Veritran CCO Marcelo Fondacaro said. “At Veritran, we’re fully committed to leading the charge towards an innovative future in international payments.”

Founded in 2005, Veritran made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateFall 2021. At the conference, Veritran demonstrated how to leverage its enterprise low-code platform to build solutions like its white-label digital wallet. The platform provides optimum time-to-market, boosting development times by 33%; a memorable UX; unlimited integration and scalability; and bank grade security.

Veritran maintains headquarters in Spain and the U.S., as well as in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The company has a major presence in Latin America, with offices in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and Paraguay.

Photo by Andres Idda Bianchi

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DigiShares and InvestBay Team Up to Tokenize and Democratize Real Estate Investing

DigiShares and InvestBay Team Up to Tokenize and Democratize Real Estate Investing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, DigiShares
  • White-label tokenization platform for real estate DigiShares has partnered with Czech online real estate investing platform InvestBay.
  • InvestBay will leverage DigiShares’ technology to tokenize real estate.
  • Headquartered in Denmark, DigiShares made its Finovate debut at our online fintech conference in the spring of 2021.

Denmark-based white-label tokenization platform for real estate DigiShares has partnered with Czech online real estate investing platform InvestBay. Courtesy of the partnership, InvestBay will integrate DigiShares’ white label, real estate tokenization technology with its own platform that facilitates fractional property investments.

“We build InvestBay in such a way that it is similar to real ownership but in smaller fractions,” InvestBay CEO and Founder Daniel Rajnoch explained. “Investors benefit from two potential revenue streams: rental income and capital value growth over time. It is also hassle-free ownership, because InvestBay will take care of everything with their partners. This includes finding guests, maintenance, cleaning, checking guests in and out – all the usual headaches of fully owning a property.”

InvestBay’s “crowd-owning” model enables investment properties to be co-owned by tens or even hundreds of micro-investors. Geared toward holiday properties in Europe, investors can participate with as little as $107 (€100) and enjoy the use of the properties on preferential terms. Adding tokenization, according to Rajnoch, creates a “vehicle for enabling liquidity and creating equal opportunity access to this investment sector for smaller retail investors.”

Founded in 2018, DigiShares made its Finovate debut at our online fintech conference in the spring of 2021. At the event, the company demoed its white-label tokenization platform that digitizes and automates the processes involved in the financing of real estate projects. The platform enables users to fractionalize assets, companies, and funds down to $107 (€100); allows investors to pay in both fiat and stablecoin; and facilitates P2P and wallet-to-wallet trading without counterparty risk.

“We are very excited about collaborating with InvestBay on democratization of real estate investment and happy that they see our white label tokenization platform as a good fit for their requirements,” DigiShares CEO and Co-Founder Claus Skaaning said. “Together with InvestBay we share the vision that one day everyone will be able to invest in attractive real estate assets to longer term help close the global wealth gap.”

DigiShares’ partnership with InvestBay is the company’s sixth collaboration this year. DigiShares began 2024 teaming up with Danish real estate developer Coreestate and urban mobility solutions provider Custowner Mobility. Also this year, the company expanded its partnership with public permissioned blockchain network Polymesh (first announced in December), teamed up with Spanish proptech startup Equito App, and announced that it was collaborating with Polygon to create a decentralized ID framework for tokenization.

Photo by The Lazy Artist Gallery

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Upstart Launches RCP, a Tool to Help Banks Customize Loan Offers

Upstart Launches RCP, a Tool to Help Banks Customize Loan Offers
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Upstart launched a new capability, Recognized Customer Personalization (RCP), that allows banks to present customized loan offers to their clients searching for a loan on Upstart.com.
  • Banks can tailor the offer to each prospective borrower based on their risk tolerance, return target, preferred loan size and terms, and geographic focus.
  • Currently, more than 20 lenders within Upstart’s network are already using the new tool.

Lending marketplace Upstart recently unveiled a feature it calls Recognized Customer Personalization (RCP). This new personalization tool enables banks using Upstart’s Referral Network to present a customized loan offer to their customers who use Upstart.com to look for a loan.

The new capability offers lenders on the Upstart Referral Network insight into which of their customers are in the market for a loan and enables banks to send an immediate and automated branded credit offer to the customer. Banks can tailor the offer to each prospective borrower based on their risk tolerance, return target, preferred loan size and terms, and geographic focus. RCP also allows lenders to use their own, in-house underwriting model, or leverage Upstart’s AI-enabled credit decisioning tool.

“In the current economic environment, lenders are laser focused on retaining their customers and increasing the lifetime value of those relationships,” said Michael Lock, SVP of Lending Partnerships, Upstart. “RCP enables them to reach their existing customers in a new way, provide more value, and build loyalty.”

RCP is currently available for personal loans and Upstart plans to expand the program to auto loans and home equity lines of credit in the future. Currently, more than 20 lenders within Upstart’s network are already using RCP.

Charles Eads, Chief Lending Officer of one such lender, Abound Credit Union, noted RCP’s potential to help the credit union serve members outside of its typical geographic boundary. “RCP will enable us to retain and better serve our existing members,” said Eads. “This innovative program will allow us to continue to meet the financial needs of our members in the communities we serve, as well as those members who have moved outside of the area.”

California-based Upstart was founded in 2012 to leverage AI and machine learning to price credit and automate the borrowing process. The company closed its IPO in 2020 and is currently traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker UPST with a market capitalization of $2.02 billion.

Photo by Monica Silvestre

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B2B Payments Consolidates: Paystand to Acquire Teampay

B2B Payments Consolidates: Paystand to Acquire Teampay
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, PayStand
  • Paystand is acquiring Teampay. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
  • Following the acquisition, Paystand will serve more than one million business customers.
  • Teampay will continue to serve its existing customers under the same brand, and things will be business as usual “in the near term.”

Cloud-based billing and payment platform Paystand announced this week it has agreed to acquire expense management platform Teampay. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The strategic move marks the California-based company’s second acquisition. Paystand purchased procurement platform Yaydoo in 2022. Now, the company services more than one million companies.

Teampay was founded in 2016 to offer spend management, accounts payable automation, purchasing assistant, spend approval tools, accounting automation, and more to help small-to-mid-market businesses and enterprises automate their spending without sacrificing control.

Paystand, which leverages the blockchain and cloud technology to digitize and automate businesses’ cash lifecycle, will use Teampay to scale its services. “With the fusion of Paystand and Teampay we significantly expanded our network, which now touches over one million businesses,” Paystand said in a blog post announcement.

Logistically, Teampay will continue to serve its existing customers under the same brand, and things will be business as usual “in the near term.” The companies did not specify whether Paystand planned to dissolve the Teampay brand and bring the customers under its own platform.

Paystand was founded in 2013 to help businesses digitize receivables, automate processing, reduce time-to-cash, eliminate transaction fees, and enable new revenue. In addition to its B2B payments and billing capabilities, the company also helps businesses leverage the blockchain to securely record their payment history by certifying and notarizing payments on the blockchain. Paystand has raised a total of $98 million. Jeremy Almond is Co-Founder and CEO.

Photo by Alexander Suhorucov

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BMO Unveils Greener Future Financing to Help SMEs Build Climate-Resilience

BMO Unveils Greener Future Financing to Help SMEs Build Climate-Resilience
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Green Banking
  • BMO is bringing its Greener Future Financing program to the U.S.
  • Green Future Financing is BMO’s first climate financing program to help SMEs become climate-resilient.
  • BMO’s program offers both climate resiliency loan discounts and green business advisory.

Canada-based BMO is bringing its Greener Future Financing program to the United States.

The eighth largest bank in North America by assets, BMO announced the launch earlier this week. Greener Future Financing is the financial institution’s first climate financing program designed to help SMEs build climate-resilient operations. Specifically, the program will offer climate resiliency loan discounts and green business advisory to help businesses meet their climate sustainability goals.

BMO’s announcement means that it will commit $30 million in support of SMEs that are investing in technologies to reduce their carbon footprint and mitigate the potential impact of weather-related events.

“Business leaders and our customers are telling us that they value products, services, and incentives that will help reduce their carbon footprint – as well as insights to help them adapt and thrive in this evolving business landscape,” BMO Head of U.S. Business Banking Niamh Kristufek said.

A look at the two main components of the program reveals an emphasis on both financial and human capital. The climate resiliency loan discounts give a rate discount of 0.5% on qualifying lending products including business term loans, business flex loans, owner-occupied commercial estate mortgage loans, and investor-owned real estate mortgage loans ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000. The loans must be used for program-approved purposes; for example, purchasing renewable energy technologies such as LED lighting, smart meters, flood proofing, and more. An additional 0.25% will be available for customers that set up automatic payments via a BMO business checking account when the loan is closed.

BMO’s green business advisory will help business owners get the information and capital they need to build climate resilient operations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The advisory will help SMEs better understand emerging climate-related policies and regulations, as well as technologies and case studies to help them better manage climate risks.

The program is slated to go live in 24 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In two of these states – Michigan and Texas – businesses participating in the program must be located within 100 miles of a BMO full-service retail branch in an adjacent state.

“BMO’s commitment to sustainability is guided by our Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, and our Climate Ambition to be our clients’ lead partner in the transition to a net-zero world,” Kristufek said. “Through our Greener Future Financing program, BMO is meeting these needs to help our customers make progress, advising them of climate-related risks and plans that future-proof businesses.”

Photo by Scott Webb

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Salesforce Launches Transaction Dispute Management Tool for Banks

Salesforce Launches Transaction Dispute Management Tool for Banks
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Salesforce launched two new capabilities within its Einstein 1 platform, Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions.
  • Transaction Dispute Management helps service agents streamline dispute management, while Einstein Copilot Banking Actions serves as a chatbot and AI assistant for bank service agents.
  • Salesforce launched Einstein 1 in 2023 to enable customers to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into customer experiences.

Salesforce announced today it has launched new capabilities to help banks resolve transaction disputes. The new, AI-powered tools streamline the entire dispute process to resolve customer inquiries and requests more efficiently.

The new tools include Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions. These capabilities are available within one of Salesforce’s tool suites, Einstein 1, which the company launched in 2023 to enable customers to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into customer experiences. The two transaction dispute resolution tools help banks combine consumer transaction data with customer data from Salesforce to automate manual tasks, reduce errors, resolve issues, and improve customer communications.  

The Transaction Dispute Management tool is an AI-powered solution that helps service agents at banks streamline dispute management. Like many dispute management tools on the market, Salesforce’s offering works for the entire dispute process– from the time a dispute is submitted until it is resolved. The tool helps banks maintain communication channels with customers, card networks, merchants, and issuing banks. One of Salesforce’s differentiating factors with the tool, however, is that it allows bank agents to use prebuilt email prompt templates and generative AI to draft personalized customer emails related to dispute activity within their workflow. Transaction Dispute Management also integrates with card networks to provide connected workflows, simplifying coordination with merchants.

The second capability Salesforce launched within Einstein 1 today, Einstein Copilot Banking Actions, is a chatbot and AI assistant for bank service agents. The tool helps agents ask questions and receive relevant responses based in metadata, then automate tasks within their workflow. For example, an agent can ask Einstein Copilot to trigger a fee reversal request for a disputed transaction, issue a provisional credit, or pull a list of recent customer transactions. Because all actions run within the Einstein Trust Layer, they do not compromise data security or privacy standards.

“The current process for managing transaction disputes is complex and cumbersome, leading to decreased productivity for bank service agents,” said Salesforce SVP & GM for Financial Services Eran Agrios. “These new capabilities simplify and streamline the entire transaction dispute cycle, enabling banks to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive innovation across their business.”

Salesforce was founded in 1999, and in the company’s 25 years of operations, it has expanded well beyond a simple CRM solution. The California-based company currently provides a host of sales and marketing tools, digital storefronts and commerce solutions, data analytics and visualization offerings, collaboration software, and more.

Photo by Kindel Media

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Impact Asset Manager Finance in Motion Partners with Financial Crime Regtech Napier AI

Impact Asset Manager Finance in Motion Partners with Financial Crime Regtech Napier AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Napier
  • Impact asset manager Finance in Motion has teamed up with financial crime compliance specialist Napier AI.
  • Finance in Motion will deploy Napier AI Continuum as its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) platform.
  • London-based Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018.

Financial crime compliance company Napier AI announced a partnership with impact asset manager Finance in Motion this week. The partnership calls for Finance in Motion to deploy Napier AI Continuum as its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) platform.

Additionally, Napier AI will include its Client Screening solution and Client Risk Assessment module as part of the Napier AI Continuum platform deployment. The objective is to provide Finance in Motion with the tools it needs to continue driving public and private capital toward impact investments in emerging markets – while ensuring that capital does not end up financing illicit or criminal activity.

Finance in Motion Managing Director Sylvia Wisniwski explained: “Like any institution, we have a duty to ensure that the public and private capital raised is used exclusively for the intended objectives, in our case impact investments in emerging markets. Accordingly, regulation requires effective measures to prevent funds from being used to finance criminal activities. The collaboration with Napier AI allows us to efficiently query data through automated processes and integrated systems.”

Napier AI Continuum will provide Finance in Motion with API-enabled, cloud native, automated client screening, and supports transliteration of 22 languages. The platform also offers AI fuzzy matching and secondary scoring capabilities. Finance in Motion will benefit from customizable workflows, a sandbox environment for optimizing screening configurations, and configurable dashboards with no-code rule binding and AI insights to drive efficient decisioning.

“The key to dismantling criminal networks lies in cutting off their sources of revenue entirely by correctly identifying accounts, transactions, and behavioural patterns associated with financial crime,” Napier AI CEO Greg Watson said. “Napier AI’s cutting edge compliance solutions supercharge Finance in Motion’s mission to generate positive change in emerging markets with automated client screening.”

Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and founded in 2009, Finance in Motion specializes in development finance. An impact asset manager, the company structures, advises, and manage both private debt and equity investments in emerging markets. The company supports financing of projects ranging from sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and biodiversity, to micro-finance, natural capital, and affordable housing.

Finance in Motion has $2.8 billion (€3.6 billion) in assets under management or advisory, and has active investments in 39 countries. Last month, the company was featured in the ImpactAssets 50 roster of the top 50 impact managers in the world. The recognition was the eighth consecutive listing for Finance in Motion, which was named “Emeritus Impact Manager.”

Founded in 2015, Napier made its Finovate debut three years later at FinovateEurope 2018. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its Customer Screening and Transaction Monitoring Enhancement tools help improve AML oversight. The technology reduces false positives by up to 80%, and can be used to supplement or replace existing customer screening systems.

Napier began 2024 announcing a partnership with Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) digital banking provider Satchel. The following month, Napier unveiled its Napier Continuum Live and Napier Continuum Flow services to facilitate the deployment of its AML platform. Napier Continuum Live is a plug-and-play hosted offering. Napier Continuum Flow is a headless API service.

Also in February Napier secured $56 million (£45 million) in funding from private equity firm Crestline Investors. The company said that the investment will help power business expansion over the coming years. The funds will also support Napier AI’s development of new NextGen screening and monitoring solutions powered by Explainable AI.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier

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ComplyAdvantage Acquires Knowledge Graph Creator Golden

ComplyAdvantage Acquires Knowledge Graph Creator Golden
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • ComplyAdvantage announced plans to acquire knowledge engine builder Golden Recursion for an undisclosed amount.
  • ComplyAdvantage will implement Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation methods to help financial institutions minimize their risk of financial crime.
  • The deal will also increase ComplyAdvantage’s footprint in the U.S. and will make Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) a top shareholder of ComplyAdvantage.

Fraud and AML risk detection platform ComplyAdvantage announced it has agreed to acquire knowledge engine builder Golden Recursion. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2017, Golden is developing a self-constructing knowledge database used to accelerate discovery and education. The San Francisco-based company combines human effort and machine intelligence to simplify the process of gathering and communicating knowledge. As a result, Golden has created one of the world’s largest knowledge graphs, a diagram that facilitates information analysis by displaying interconnected data points and their relationships.

“By combining our experienced team of AI and large language model (LLM) specialists with ComplyAdvantage’s industry-leading data science team, we are creating a global team of data experts,” said Golden Founder and CEO Jude Gomila. “Together, I’m confident we will transform financial crime risk management for businesses worldwide.” Gomila will join ComplyAdvantage as a board observer and special advisor.

Golden has raised almost $60 million, having Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as one of its top contributors. As part of today’s deal, a16z will become a top ComplyAdvantage shareholder, joining Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, and Balderton Capital.

“We are excited to welcome their talented team to the ComplyAdvantage family, alongside a16z, who bring powerful expertise as we embark on the next phase of our growth journey,” said ComplyAdvantage CEO Vatsa Narasimha.

U.K.-based ComplyAdvantage offers financial institutions a wide view of their vulnerability to financial crime. The company leverages AI and machine learning to sort through ComplyAdvantage’s database of entities, which is updated continuously to ensure accuracy. The company plans to implement Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation methods that use natural language processing to bring supplementary, disparate data sources into what ComplyAdvantage calls its “data ingestion layer.” These additional data points will offer ComplyAdvantage clients more comprehensive, real-time financial crime risk insights.

“Delivering AI-enriched financial crime insights to our customers through a best-in-class user experience built on the most interconnected data has been our north star at ComplyAdvantage since day one. The acquisition of Golden is a critical milestone on that journey,” said Narasimha.

The acquisition will also help ComplyAdvantage expand its footprint in North America, specifically in the U.S. With its five offices based in New York, London, Singapore, Cluj-Napoca, and Lisbon, the company currently serves more than 1,000 organizations in 75 countries.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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Small Business Lending Platform JUDI.AI Inks a Trio of New Credit Union Customers

Small Business Lending Platform JUDI.AI Inks a Trio of New Credit Union Customers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, JUDI.AI

What do Apple Federal Credit Union, Carter Credit Union, and SCE Credit Union all have in common?

All three financial institutions announced this month that they are teaming up with small business lending platform JUDI.AI.

In a series of blog posts at the company’s website, JUDI.AI’s Director of Marketing Kyle Thom welcomed the three credit unions to what he called “our growing group of 35+ forward-thinking community lenders who are on a mission to reinvent small business lending.”

JUDI.AI offers credit unions and community banks an alternative approach to helping small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need. The company enables financial institutions to digitally transform their credit decisioning and underwriting operations to assess the financial health of their small business customers and members on a continuous basis.

In addition to instant cash flow analysis, automated underwriting, continuous monitoring, and real-time portfolio reporting, JUDI.AI adds automated analysis of current banking data to supplement traditional financial data sources such as credit scores and financial statements.

Here’s a look at JUDI’s new partners:

  • Apple Federal Credit Union. $4.3 billion in assets. 240,000+ members, Twenty-one locations across northern Virginia.
  • Carter Credit Union. $722 million in assets. 55,000+ members. Eleven locations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Fort Worth, Texas.
  • SCU Credit Union. $1.1 billion in assets. 67,000+ members. Eight locations in southern California and southern Nevada.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, JUDI.AI made its Finovate debut at our all-digital fintech conference, FinovateWest 2020. Most recently, the company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022. At the event, Thom and JUDI.AI Chief Product Officer Su Ning Strube, demonstrated how the platform enables lenders to process 50% more SME loan applications without committing any additional resources, and approve 20% more loans with no added risk.

“What makes JUDI.AI unique in that we identify cash flow metrics that are predictive and correlated to future defaults, and we combine that information in our proprietary small business model with traditional credit scores to calculate the creditworthiness of any borrower,” Su Ning Strube explained from the Finovate stage.

In addition to the credit unions signed in April, JUDI.AI this year has also welcomed Canadian alternative lender Glasslake Funding and Hawaii’s Kauai Federal Credit Union to its client roster. Kauai FCU is the first and only certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) on the island of Kauai.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

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