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Satago Teams Up with Embedded Finance Innovator mmob

Satago Teams Up with Embedded Finance Innovator mmob
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, mmob
  • Embedded finance innovator mmob announced a partnership with U.K.-based fintech Satago.
  • The partnership will make it easier for lenders and corporations to integrate Satago’s cash flow and invoice financing solutions for SMEs.
  • mmob won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022.

Embedded finance specialist mmob has forged a partnership with U.K.-based fintech Satago. The partnership will help lenders and corporates more easily integrate and embed Satago’s Invoice Finance and Cash Flow solution – including its 3-in-1 Working Capital solution. This is courtesy of mmob’s hyper-efficient, “single snippet of code” integration that reduces the time required to embed Satago’s technology to “mere hours.”

After it has been embedded, the solution then enables SMEs to access Satago’s Invoice Financing, Risk Insights, and Credit Control offerings via their digital channels. Automatic, periodic updates ensure that the technology scales and optimizes as the business grows and expands.

“Satago’s invoice financing and cash flow management solution is a vital tool, and we are delighted to be able to help them integrate into SME-facing platforms at speed,” mmob Founder and CEO Irfan Khan said. “Mmob’s universal API adaptor removes the barriers of time and cost for companies who want to add a new solution for their customers, so now it’s easier than ever to work with Satago.”

Satago leverages real-time data, Open Banking, and API technology to help lenders and other businesses streamline operations, increase revenues, and improve the customer experience. Its 3-in-1 Working Capital solution combines invoicing financing, risk insights, and credit control to enable lenders to offer faster financing, control credit risk, and get repaid sooner. In February, the company announced that it was joining NayaOne’s Tech Marketplace. Founded in 2012, Satago was acquired by Oxygen Finance in 2017.

Headquartered in London and founded in 2020, mmob won Best of show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, the company showed its Intelligent Partnerships Infrastructure, which enables third-party providers to leverage no-code tools to build and deploy digital customer experiences. The solution includes an Analytics Module that allows companies to analyze both user behavior and revenue to further innovate and enhance the user experience.

mmob has raised $6.2 million (€5.8 million) in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company’s financial backers include high net worth individuals, banking executives, as well as angel investors.

Photo by Pixabay

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DataVisor and Mitek Team Up to Help Financial Institutions Fight Check Fraud

DataVisor and Mitek Team Up to Help Financial Institutions Fight Check Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, DataVisor, Mitek
  • Fraud and risk platform DataVisor announced a partnership with identity verification company Mitek this week.
  • DataVisor will integrate Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender solution into its platform to offer FIs real-time check fraud decision orchestration.
  • DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall in New York. Mitek has been a Finovate alum since winning Best of Show at its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2011.

AI-powered fraud and risk platform DataVisor has teamed up with identity verification innovator Mitek. Courtesy of the partnership, DataVisor will integrate Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender with its own advanced machine learning and real-time data analysis to give financial institutions comprehensive check fraud protection in a single platform. The partnership will enable financial institutions to execute real-time orchestration of check fraud decisions, minimize fraud losses, and boost operational efficiencies.

“Our vision has always been to create an end-to-end, comprehensive platform that effectively combats all types of financial fraud,” DataVisor CEO and Co-Founder Yinglian Xie said. “By joining forces with Mitek, we’re elevating our check fraud protection capabilities. It also streamlines the experience for our customers, eliminating the need to engage with multiple solutions in silo and therefore can address different fraud challenges more effectively with a centralized, holistic view.”

Mitek’s Check Fraud Defender puts AI and computer vision technology to work to visually evaluate distinct check attributes in real-time. The solution leverages a consortium model, which enables DataVisor customers to proactively flag future check deposits connected to stolen or fraudulent checks across participating institutions. Additionally, the combination of Mitek’s check image analysis and DataVisor’s analysis of check and customer lifecycle data will enable users to detect a wide variety of check fraud tactics including check kiting, remote deposit capture fraud, check washing, counterfeit checks, and identity theft.

“Together, we leverage our collective advanced technologies to safeguard financial transactions,” Mitek VP of Digital Banking Strategy Kerry Cantley said. “By combining DataVisor’s comprehensive platform with Mitek’s robust Check Fraud Defender consortium, we’ve created a top-tier solution, setting new standards in proactive fraud prevention.”

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateSpring in 2011, Mitek has grown into a leader in digital access solutions. The company’s technology helps increase approval rates while keeping fraudsters at bay, and enables companies to meet compliance demands from AML and KYC to GDPR and PSD2. In addition to its solution for check fraud, Mitek also offers a low code identity verification solution, an biometric authentication solution MiPass, and Mobile Deposit, the company’s mobile remote deposit capture offering. Today, 99% of U.S. banks and 7,900 of the world’s largest organizations use Mitek’s technology for mobile check deposits.

Headquartered in San Diego, California, Mitek was founded in 1986. The company trades on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker “MITK,” and has a market capitalization of $673 million. Max Carnecchia is Chief Executive Officer.

Among Finovate’s newest alums, DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, the company demoed its Fraud & Risk Platform that enhances fraud detection and minimizes fraud losses via a combination of device intelligence, rules and decision engines, case management, and the ability to seamlessly integrate any data source, including third-party data.

DataVisor’s partnership with Mitek comes less than a month after the Mountain View, California-based firm launched its end-to-end anti-money laundering (AML) solution. The new offering integrates with the company’s fraud platform natively to provide additional support against emerging cybersecurity threats.

Founded in 2013, DataVisor has raised more than $94 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The company includes TruStage Ventures and NewView Capital among its investors.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Santander to Launch Openbank Brand in U.S. and Mexico

Santander to Launch Openbank Brand in U.S. and Mexico
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Santander is launching its Openbank digital banking brand in the U.S. and Mexico.
  • Openbank currently serves two million customers across Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Argentina, and counts $19.3 billion (€18 billion) in deposits.
  • Santander aims to launch in the new regions in the second half of this year.

Spain-based mega bank Santander announced plans to launch a new digital offering in the United States under the Openbank brand in the second half of this year. 

Santander launched Openbank in 1995 as a telephone bank. The bank moved online in 1999, becoming an online broker for real-time trading in domestic and international markets. Openbank currently offers payment cards, including debit and credit cards, prepaid cards, and travel cards; personal loans and mortgages; bank deposit tools; home, life, car, and digital insurance; as well as mobile banking capabilities and PFM tools. Openbank serves two million customers across Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Argentina, and counts $19.3 billion (€18 billion) in deposits.

“Openbank is the largest digital bank in Europe by deposits with among the highest customer loyalty and satisfaction,” said Openbank Executive Chair Ana Botín. “We remain committed to growing our business in the United States, the largest financial services market in the world, leveraging our proprietary technology and global expertise to deliver a winning customer experience.”

In addition to launching Openbank in the U.S., Santander also announced it will be rolling out the digital bank to users in Mexico around the same time.

To promote the U.S. launch, Santander global ambassador and golfer Jon Rahm and his team will wear an Openbank logo on their shirts during all golf competitions, starting at the Masters in Geogria this weekend. “The golfer will help Santander and Openbank increase their visibility in North America, where Santander has a significant presence,” the bank explained.

Many non-U.S.-based digital banks have experienced difficulty launching in the U.S., citing the difficulty to obtain a banking license from the U.S. OCC. As Finovate Analyst David Penn wrote in a blog post yesterday, “…it has not been easy for financial institutions outside the U.S. to secure approval to operate within the U.S. For example, Monzo, a U.K.-based challenger bank, tried and walked away from the process in 2021 when approval seemed unlikely. Unfortunately, new U.S.-based firms looking for bank charters have only fared a little better. For every Savi Financial, there is a New Canaan Bank.” Openbank should not have the same issue, however, as the bank will likely rely on Santander’s banking license it received after buying out Sovereign Bank in 2008.

Photo courtesy Santander

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Empower Picks Up Petal to Expand into Credit Cards

Empower Picks Up Petal to Expand into Credit Cards
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Empower announced plans to acquire Petal for an undisclosed amount.
  • The deal will help Empower expand into the credit card market.
  • Empower also announced it closed the acquisition of Philippines-based consumer credit and lending fintech Cashalo.

Empower, a fintech helping to extend credit to underserved consumers, announced plans to acquire underserved credit card provider Petal. Financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this quarter, were not disclosed.

New York-based Petal was founded in 2018 to offer underserved consumers access to credit cards. To better help marginalized consumers access the credit they need, the company doesn’t require them to have a credit score to qualify for the card. Instead, Petal leverages users’ open banking data as underwriting data to offer them credit and help them establish a credit history. Empower anticipates integrating Petal’s technology into its own will help it broaden into the U.S credit card market.

“Safe, affordable credit is unavailable to tens of millions of consumers in the U.S. and billions worldwide. We believe that modern product design and new technologies like cash flow underwriting can be used to radically improve credit access around the world,” said Petal Co-founder Jason Rosen. “This merger brings together two of the leading innovators in this arena. Our combined product offerings, financial strength, technical capabilities, and global reach will allow us to move much faster to close the equity gap in credit.”

The news comes after Petal has been struggling with high interest rates as the cost of borrowing has increased. By June of last year, Petal had cut 20% of its staff and, though it raised $240 million in combined debt and equity funding in August, by November, rumors swirled that Petal would become insolvent if it did not find a buyer quickly.

As part of today’s news, Empower also announced it completed its acquisition of Cashalo, a Philippines-based consumer credit and lending fintech. Empower plans to combine both companies under the Empower name.

“In both companies, we found a shared commitment to harnessing technology and rich alternative data to unlock financial opportunity for more people who merit our consideration,” said Empower Co-founder and CEO Warren Hogarth. “I’m confident that by merging Petal and Cashalo into Empower, we amass new product, operational, and analytical capabilities to help alleviate the credit insecurity that billions of people around the world struggle with.”

Empower was founded in 2016 and uses its technology to underwrite consumers using real-time cash flow, other nontraditional data, and machine learning to assess credit risk. The company offers lines of credit, which are issued by FinWise Bank, and no-interest cash advances. Empower has two million active subscribers and achieved profitability in 2022.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

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European Neobank Bunq Raises $31 Million in New Funding

European Neobank Bunq Raises $31 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Dutch-based digital bank bunq has secured $31 million (€29 million) in new funding.
  • The funding announcement came after the company reported a profit of $57 million (€53 million) for 2023.
  • bunq added that it will re-submit its application for a banking license in the U.S. as part of its expansion plans.

European digital bank bunq has raised $31 million (€29 million) in new funding. The capital infusion from the company’s shareholders came in the wake of bunq’s announcement that it has achieved a net profit of $57 million (€53 million) in 2023. The funds will accelerate bunq’s development strategy, as well as ensure that the company satisfies Dutch Central Bank capital requirements.

The digital bank has credited interest income for its profitability, not just in 2023, but in 2022, as well. The company reported that interest income tripled in 2023, growing from more than €41 million to more than €127 million. In addition to its profit milestone in 2023, bunq also announced that customer assets climbed from $1.9 billion (€1.8 billion) to $7.4 billion (€6.9 billion).

Bunq plans to leverage the new capital to expand more in the U.K., as well as move into the U.S. market. To this end, the institution noted that it plans to resubmit its application for a banking license with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Bunq withdrew its application earlier this year citing issues between Dutch regulators, the OCC, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In a statement, bunq noted that it was “fully committed to resolving all the differences between De Nederlandsche Bank’s, and the FDIC’s, and OCC’s supervisory expectations.”

That said, it has not been easy for financial institutions outside the U.S. to secure approval to operate within the U.S. For example, Monzo, a U.K.-based challenger bank, tried and walked away from the process in 2021 when approval seemed unlikely. Unfortunately, new U.S.-based firms looking for bank charters have only fared a little better. For every Savi Financial, there is a New Canaan Bank.

Bunq raised $111 million last July, boosting the firm’s valuation to $1.8 billion. The company ended 2023 with the launch of its generative AI financial copilot Finn. Fundamentally, Finn will help replace the search function on the bunq app. But the technology will also assist users as they plan their finances, build budgets, review transactions, and more.

“Finn will wow you,” bunq founder and CEO Ali Niknam said when the product was launched. “Years of AI innovation, coupled with a laser focus on our users, allowed us to completely transform banking as you know it. Seeing Generative AI make life so much easier for our users is incredibly exciting.”

Photo by Chait Goli

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Onboarding Automation Specialist Setuply Partners with CheckmateHCM

Onboarding Automation Specialist Setuply Partners with CheckmateHCM
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Setuply
  • Setuply and CheckmateHCM have announced a new collaboration.
  • Checkmate will deploy Setuply’s platform to help companies onboard new employees and enhance skill acquisition.
  • Setuply made its Finovate debut last May at FinovateSpring in San Francisco.

A strategic relationship between client onboarding automation specialist Setuply and human capital management solution provider CheckmateHCM will help new employees “adapt and excel in their roles swiftly,” Setuply CEO Rachel Lyubovitzky said in a statement.

“Observing our technology facilitate streamlined onboarding and creating opportunities for emerging knowledge workers is gratifying,”Lyubovitzky said. “This showcases the potential of our technology but also serves as a beacon of innovation and inspiration for the entire industry.”

Checkmate’s decision to deploy Setuply’s advanced onboarding technology comes amidst an economic backdrop of increased competition and low unemployment. This makes it a challenge for firms to hire and retain workers of all kinds, including B2B knowledge workers. Setuply’s platform not only helps bring new talent into organizations efficiently and quickly. The company’s technology also gives businesses the tools they need to close expertise gaps, provide advanced training, and accelerate skill acquisition. Using a project and template-based approach, with detailed instructions in multiple formats, the platform helps establish processes to accelerate job training that are both repeatable and testable.

“Leveraging Setuply for our client onboarding and support has transformed our approach to client onboarding and service delivery,” Checkmate CEO Josh Robinson said. “It has amplified our processes, enabling us to surpass our goals and expand our capabilities. Going beyond operational efficiency has sparked a new era of expansion for us.”

Setuply’s partnership news with Checkmate comes just weeks after the company announced the release of a suite of new features and enhancements to its platform. The updates include:

  • Questions functionality to centralize and streamline project communication between workflows.
  • User-friendly customizable data forms built natively into the product.
  • A secure data repository to simplify complex data management tasks.
  • Automated project creation to leverage comprehensive data integration to intelligently initiate new projects.
  • A customer engagement portal to enhance client interaction and project visibility.

“As companies navigate the complexities of digital transformation, the demand for intuitive and yet comprehensive solutions has never been higher,” Setuply Head of Product Kelly Blackledge said. “Setuply’s latest update responds to this need, providing innovative tools that streamline onboarding processes, enhance data management, and improve client interactions.”

Headquartered in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Setuply was founded in 2022. The company made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring 2023 and returned later that year to demo its technology at FinovateFall in New York.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

Photo by Seth Dewey on Unsplash

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Quavo Teams with Snowflake to Boost Fraud Protection

Quavo Teams with Snowflake to Boost Fraud Protection
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Quavo Fraud & Disputes has teamed up with Snowflake.
  • The partnership between Quavo and Snowflake will allow Quavo to offer its clients access to more extensive datasets, helping them manage their fraud and disputes processes.
  • Since it was founded in 2015, Quavo has helped recover nearly $660 million for 6+ million users

Disputes-as-a-Service company Quavo Fraud & Disputes announced that it has teamed up with data warehouse-as-a-service provider Snowflake this week.

“As Quavo has continued to push the limit of automation in the payment dispute management space, data security and flexibility have become increasingly important,” said Quavo Director of Strategic Partnerships Dana Reiner. “I am excited we have formalized our relationship with Snowflake, as they have proven to be a vital part of our analytics and innovation.”

Quavo will integrate Quavo Fraud & Disputes (QFD) with Snowflake’s platform. QFD is Quavo’s SaaS platform that helps issuing financial institutions resolve fraudulent and disputed transactions. Using the tool, banks can manage the entire flow of the disputes process. By partnering with Snowflake, Quavo will be able to offer its clients access to more extensive datasets, which will help them manage their fraud and disputes processes.

Quavo was founded in 2015 to help financial institutions deal with the rising cost of fraud and payment disputes. Since then, the company has helped recover nearly $660 million for 6+ million users who have suffered financial fraud, merchant issues, and identity theft. Quavo counts KeyBank, Galileo, Green Dot, and others among its clients.

Snowflake launched its data platform in 2012 to help businesses load, integrate, analyze, and share their data, securely and at scale. While the California-based company’s solutions span many different verticals, Snowflake’s financial services use cases include quantitative research and trading, personalized investment planning, financial crime prevention, insurance underwriting tools, and more.

Snowflake’s Head of Banking & Capital Markets James McGeehan made it clear that today’s partnership is just the start of the alliance between the two companies. “We look forward to further collaboration with Quavo in an effort to advance fraud resolution capabilities for financial institutions,” McGeehan said. “Our scalable cloud data platform combined with QFD will help to arm issuers with a robust data solution for the fight against fraud, and help customers to safeguard consumers’ financial well-being.”

Photo by Dominika Gregušová

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Lucinity’s AI-Powered Platform Delivers Innovations in Workflow Automation

Lucinity’s AI-Powered Platform Delivers Innovations in Workflow Automation
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Lucinity

Regtech innovator Lucinity is starting to draw attention.

The company, headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. At the conference, Lucinity demonstrated its AI-enabled copilot, Luci, which enhances financial crime compliance via insight generation, report writing, and automation. The solution uses GenAI to streamline tasks for compliance professionals, enabling them to make informed, data-driven decisions and to address higher order challenges directly. The technology performs internet searches, background checks, fraud detection, sanctions screening, and more.

As the team explained at FinovateSpring last year, financial crime fighters spend a significant amount of their time reviewing fraud alerts to determine whether or not they are significant. A major challenge lies in the fact that accurately evaluating the risk of a given alert requires understanding a great deal about the context in which the alert occurred. Compounding this challenge is the reality that much of the information required to do this can be scattered across multiple systems, making the process both more complicated and more time-consuming. Lucinity’s technology helps financial crime professionals simplify and understand the data quickly; a tier 1 bank estimated that Luci could save them $100 million a year by slashing alert review times from an average of 2.5 hours to 25 minutes.

“What we are doing with Lucinity is taking different transactions, KYC information, etc. and creating a picture or story of what the possible financial crime could look like,” Lucinity Co-founder and CEO Gudmundur Kristjansson explained during the company’s demo. “And with that story, we’re enabling the financial crime investigators to take the investigation time from hours to minutes.”

The company’s innovations have been noticed. Just last month, Lucinity secured the Chartis Research Award for Workflow Automation. The honor recognizes the way the company’s technology leverages AI and automation to enhance compliance processes and remove inefficiencies. Lucinity was also named to Chartis Research’s top 50 Financial Crime and Compliance Companies (FCC50) for 2024.

“Through our focus on workflow automation, Lucinty is able to save thousands of hours from the investigation process, drastically reducing the cost of compliance for financial institutions,” Kristjansson said. “This means that banks can then shift resources to revenue-generating areas of the business, rather than pouring more resources into compliance.”

Lucinity enters 2024 with a host of new partnerships. Icelandic neobank indó, financial crime fighting platform Neterium, and fellow Finovate alum Trustly were among the firms Lucinity joined forces with in 2023. This year, in addition to the accolades mentioned above, the company announced the appointment of Theresa Bercich as Chief Product Officer and recognition of her as a Co-Founder. In a statement, Kristjansson credited Bercich for her work on Luci and for her contributions to the company as a whole. “Her journey from a data scientist to VP of Product, and now to CPO and Co-founder, mirrors the growth and dynamic evolution of Lucinity itself,” Kristjansson said.

Lucinity has raised more than $25 million in funding. The company’s total includes an investment of $17 million it raised in 2022. Keen Venture Partners led that Series B round.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

Photo by Marc-Antoine

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Busey Bank Taps CorServ to Launch Modern Card Program

Busey Bank Taps CorServ to Launch Modern Card Program
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Busey Bank has selected CorServ to offer a new credit card program for its commercial clients.
  • Busey Bank is giving up its Agent Bank program in favor of CorServ’s Account Issuer Program, in which Busey Bank will directly issue credit cards.
  • CorServ has been offering card issuing services since it launched in 2009.

Illinois-based Busey Bank announced today it has selected card issuer CorServ to power a a modern credit card program for its commercial customers.

Busey Bank has switched from its Agent Bank program, in which a third party financial institution issued the cards, selecting CorServ’s Account Issuer Program, in which Busey Bank will directly issue credit cards to its customers through CorServ’s program. The bank anticipates the move will make its card solution more comprehensive and will improve the interchange, benefitting both the bank and its clients.

“Busey Bank uniquely knows the financial situation and banking needs of our commercial customers,” said Busey Bank EVP and Director of Treasury Management Andy Santangelo. “CorServ’s commercial card program provides us with tools for credit decisioning, options for local servicing, and custom rebates which empower Busey Bank to better serve our commercial customers compared to what National card issuers can offer.”

Busey Bank was founded in 1868 and serves retail and commercial customers across its 80 branch locations in Illinois, Missouri, Florida, and Indiana. In addition to its commercial card service offerings, the bank also offers commercial clients business planning and business online banking tools.

CorServ has been offering card issuing services since it launched in 2009. The fintech currently offers a turnkey credit card issuing service, a direct credit card issuing service, and a payment cards-as-a-service API. Leveraging CorServ’s Account Issuer Program, Busey Bank will offer its commercial customers better credit card products, a self-service card management interface, customizable reports that include including Level 2 and 3 transaction data, virtual cards, employee spend controls, and expense reporting.

CorServ has raised a total of $2.1 million, according to Crunchbase. Last month, the company was selected by Scale Bank to enhance its commercial lending. Additionally, a month earlier, Gorham Savings Bank announced plans to utilize CorServ’s technology to improve its commercial credit card program.

“CorServ’s program gives commercial customers a modern approach to banking with more capabilities for a convenient and simple experience,” said CorServ CEO Anil Goyal. “We are thrilled to partner with Busey Bank to contribute to their legacy of associate excellence, customer service, community involvement, and expanding shareholder value.”

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

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Wise Platform Powers New Global Account and Card Program for Brazilian Fintech Nubank

Wise Platform Powers New Global Account and Card Program for Brazilian Fintech Nubank
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Nubank, Wise
  • Brazilian fintech and financial services giant Nubank has teamed up with Wise Platform.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, Wise Platform will power a new global account and international debit card for Nubank.
  • Wise Platform offers banks, financial institutions, and businesses the ability to leverage its infrastructure to make cheaper, easier payments.

Brazilian fintech Nubank has partnered with Wise Platform to power its global account and international debit card. Wise Platform, Wise’s infrastructure solution for banks, financial institutions, and businesses, now counts more than 85 partners around the world, including Bank Mandiri, Monzo, and Google Pay.

The partnership will power Nubank’s new global account and international debit cards for the fintech’s premium tier, “Ultravioleta,” customers. The collaboration will also enable Nubank customers to hold both U.S. dollars and euros, as well as use their card to spend in local currencies in 200 countries and territories.

“Through this partnership, we’re helping Nubank customers access fast, transparent payments and the ability to easily manage money across currencies,” Wise Platform Global Managing Director Steve Naudé said. “Across the sector, we are seeing a real push from banks and financial institutions to provide their customers with best-in-class international payments services. By working with Wise Platform, banks are able to achieve this in a matter of months or even weeks.”

Wise’s partnership with Nubank represents continued growth for the company in Brazil; Wise reports that it has issued more than one million Wise cards within 15 months of its going live in the country. For its part, Nubank has more than 90 million customers in South America, with more than 85 million in Brazil.

Nubank introduced itself to Finovate audiences in 2016 with its presentation at FinDEVr NewYork. In the years since, the company has grown from a financial services startup to the largest digital bank in Brazil and the second largest financial institution in the country. Late last month, Nubank announced that it has reached the four million customer milestone for its Nubank PJ offering, launched in 2019, which provides solutions for entrepreneurs. This week, the firm’s subsidiary, Nu Colombia, secured a $150 million loan from DFC, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, to help expand its services in the country.

Making its Finovate debut as TransferWise in 2013, the company rebranded as Wise in 2021 to reflect its evolution beyond its origins as an innovator in the international money transfer space. Today, the company supports three main lines of business: its global money transfer service and international account; Wise Business, a global business account with features such as mass payouts and multi-user access; and Wise Platform, which enables companies to give their customers easier, cheaper payments by leveraging Wise’s infrastructure. Co-founder Kristo Käärmann is CEO.

Photo by Caroline Cagnin

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Finzly Launches Account Galaxy Embedded Banking Solution

Finzly Launches Account Galaxy Embedded Banking Solution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finzly
  • Banking-as-a-Service provider Finzly launched Account Galaxy, a new embedded banking solution.
  • Account Galaxy allows non-banks and fintechs to launch virtual accounts with real-time transaction monitoring.
  • The virtual accounts exist alongside an organization’s current infrastructure within what Finzly calls a “sidecar core.”

Account Galaxy is the name of the newest solution from Finzly. The Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) solutions provider unveiled the new embedded banking solution in an announcement today that highlights how Account Galaxy can help banks participate in embedded banking.

Account Galaxy offers two main use cases to facilitate BaaS functionality: advanced payment processing and flexible accounting capabilities. These capabilities offer non-banks and fintechs virtual accounts where transactions can be monitored in real-time. The accounts not only provide reduced compliance risk, but also offer enhanced speed. Additionally, Account Galaxy helps small-to-mid-size banks attract commercial clients by embedding services into ERP, accounts receivables, and payables in an automated way.

“Embedded banking will have a significant impact on how banking services are provided to business and consumers,” said Datos Insights Strategic Advisor Enrico Camerinelli. “Providing tools to empower banks of all sizes to participate in this emerging industry will lead to greater innovation and ultimately better services for all.”

Account Galaxy’s virtual accounts are supported by a virtual ledger, enabling them to exist alongside an organization’s current infrastructure within what Finzly calls a “sidecar core.” This setup prevents new accounts from overburdening the organization’s existing systems.

“With Account Galaxy, banks can cost-effectively enable the integration of banking services into corporate systems and non-bank platforms, unlocking new opportunities for growth and innovation,” said Finzly founder and CEO Booshan Rengachari.

Finzly’s flagship offering, Finzly OS, enables clients to launch a modern bank from scratch. The company’s API connects to all U.S. payment rails, including Fed ACH, Fedwire, RTP, SWIFT, and FedNow. Founded in 2012 under the name SwapsTech, the North Carolina-based company recently landed $10 million in funding in a Series A round led by TZP Group.

Finzly most recently demoed at FinovateSpring 2023, and has taken home Best of Show honors for its demos at FinovateFall 2020 and FinovateSpring 2020. By the way, we’re still accepting applications from companies interested in demoing at our upcoming conferece, FinovateSpring 2024. Take a look at the event and find out more about what it takes to demo.

Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

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Quantum Metric Launches AI-Powered Session Summarization Solution Felix AI

Quantum Metric Launches AI-Powered Session Summarization Solution Felix AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Quantum Metric
  • Digital analytics platform Quantum Metric released its new Gen AI-powered session summarization solution, powered by Google Cloud’s Gemini Pro.
  • The new offering will help users manage customer session replays faster and more efficiently.
  • Quantum Metric won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at our all-digital FinovateEurope conference in 2021.

Digital analytics platform Quantum Metric announced the release of a suite of new solutions to help organizations better listen and respond to the needs of their customers. Chief among these new offerings is Felix AI, the company’s new Gen AI-powered session summarization solution, powered by Google Cloud’s Gemini Pro.

Session summarization helps enhance the session replay process. Session replays are a critical tool in reviewing and refining the customer experience. But they tend to be both complex and time consuming. Leveraging Gemini Pro, Felix AI summarizes sessions in seconds to capture the exact experience of the customer. The technology simplifies digital customer listening by instantly quantifying session information. Felix AI is then able to ascertain the significance of each issue, as well as its potential impact on key business metrics. The solution also enables users to examine the details of individual customer experiences by asking clarifying questions, for example, about specific campaigns the customer has participated in.

Via API, Felix AI can be directly integrated into VoC feedback received from text, email, as well as social platforms like Slack. The solution can also provide role-based summaries to help call center agents quickly understand the customer’s concern before they’ve expressed it.

“In the past, our focus was transactional. How do we help the customer to make a purchase, book a flight, or open an account,” Quantum Metric founder and CEO Mario Ciabarra said. “The relationships we build with customers today are much more complex and span an entire lifecycle. To succeed, digital organizations need tools like Felix AI to simplify how they listen to their customers, and tools like Interactions and User Analytics to listen at scale and across their entire customer lifecycle. This is the beginning of a new generation of digital analytics tools and we can’t wait to see what our digital organizations can do to further the standards for a great digital customer experience.”

In addition to Felix AI, Quantum Metric also announced three other components of its spring release. These solutions are Interactions, which provides tools to help marketers and UX professional optimize page layout and content, and a pair of analytics solutions: User Analytics and Lightning Analytics. User Analytics provides new data visualizations such as retention and churn to interpret user behavior over time. Lightning Analytics lets users monitor, diagnose, and optimize workflows and apps built on Salesforce Lightning.

Founded in 2015, Quantum Metric is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at our all-digital European fintech conference in 2021. Quantum Metric returned later that year to demo its technology at our all-digital FinovateSpring event. The company has raised $251 million in funding according to Crunchbase. Uncorrelated Ventures and Endeavor Catalyst are among the firm’s investors.

Photo by Markus Winkler

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