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Trustly and Socure Partner to Offer Open Banking Pay-by-Bank Solution with Enhanced Onboarding

Trustly and Socure Partner to Offer Open Banking Pay-by-Bank Solution with Enhanced Onboarding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Socure, Trustly
  • Pay by bank expert Trustly and digital identity solutions provider Socure have teamed up this week.
  • Together, the companies will offer streamlined onboarding through Trustly’s Pay By Bank services. 
  • Pay-by-bank is expected to see growth this year because of its potential to offer merchants enhanced security, increased speed of payments, and cost savings.

Online payments expert Trustly and digital identity verification and fraud solutions provider Socure are combining their expertis, to launch a pay-by-bank solution with enhanced onboarding, leveraging the power of open banking.

The new tool will offer businesses in a range of sectors– including investing, gaming, trading, and financial services– streamlined onboarding capabilities combined with pay-by-bank functionality. Specifically, Socure’s ID+ platform, leveraging AI-driven predictive analytics, will be integrated with Trustly’s direct banking integration Pay By Bank offering, enabling merchants to seamlessly onboard users and process payments in a single unified process.

“Combining open banking with KYC and screening greatly enhances the robustness of user onboarding and incorporates a seamless payment solution, providing consumers the ultimate onboarding experience,” said Trustly Chief Business Development Officer Craig McDonald. 

On the fraud side, the augmented pay-by-bank solution enhances not only KYC compliance, but also fraud detection and ID verification capabilities, which are crucial in today’s era of advanced deepfakes and synthetic identities. Additionally, the tool helps merchants benefit from the power of open banking, which offers instant and guaranteed payments because they are authorized directly by the bank. This provides a higher level of security compared to other payment methods.

“We are very excited about our partnership with Trustly and its pay-by-bank business model. We think this diversity in payment types brought about by open banking is representative of a new era for consumer choice,” said Evan Rabinowitz, Vice President of Business Development at Socure. “We have a shared belief that trusted identity is essential to the transformation of open and connected banking.”

Trustly was founded in 2008 and today connects its 8,300 merchant clients with 650 million consumers and 12,000 banks in more than 30 countries. The company’s pay-by-bank network currently processes over $42 billion in transaction volume each year. In 2018, Nordic Capital bought Trustly for an undisclosed amount, and since then, Trustly has acquired three companies of its own, including SlimPay, Ecospend, and PayWithMyBank.

Trustly is positioned for growth in 2024, especially in the U.S., which offer significant potential. According to Financial Brand contributor Steve Cocheo, “Pay-by-bank services will accelerate in 2024 in the U.S., driven by a combination of at least five converging trends: the growing availability of real-time payment rails; increased interest from businesses seeking to avoid card processing fees and gain faster access to funds; increasing democratization of payments; a move away from subscriptions to micropayments, and even a potentially big push courtesy of Elon Musk’s banking ambitions.”

Nevada-based Socure was founded in 2012, focusing on its digital identity verification solution. As many services have moved online and ecommerce has accelerated, the company has grown, helping 2,000 customers– including SoFi, Chime, and Capital One– in verifying the identities of their end consumers to help prevent fraud. Socure has raised more than $744 million. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.

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NayaOne Lands $4.7 Million in Funding

NayaOne Lands $4.7 Million in Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, NayaOne
  • NayaOne has received $4.7 million in funding in a round led by EJF Capital.
  • The company will use the funds to accelerate its product roadmap and meet demand.
  • NayaOne offers a sandbox-as-a-service, where banks can test new technologies, as well as a fintech marketplace, which serves as a network of vetted fintech solutions.

NayaOne, which just stepped off the FinovateEurope stage this week, has received $4.7 million in funding for its sandbox-as-a-service platform and fintech marketplace. The amount of the company’s total funds is undisclosed.

This investment round saw contributions from EJF Capital, which led the round, as well as from Valley Ventures and existing investor Carthona Capital. NayaOne will use the funds to accelerate its product roadmap and meet market demand by optimizing bank-fintech relationships.

When asked about the significance of today’s funding round, NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said, “It’s about more than just growth; it’s about setting the pace in a sector that’s fundamentally rethinking how it evolves.”

NayaOne was founded in 2019, just before the digital transformation wave that hit the industry in 2020. The company’s sandbox-as-a-service platform serves as a single place for banks to access hundreds of fintechs and datasets with which they can innovate, build, and test digital solutions quickly and securely. Banks also have access to NayaOne’s network of vetted fintech solutions that have been evaluated for quality, security, and compliance.

Providing banks with a single place where they can access fintechs and datasets helps them reduce the time it takes to adopt new technologies and solutions. It also reduces the risks associated with potential compliance, quality, and security issues.

 “We’re still in the early stage of a tech revolution in banking and capital markets, and NayaOne stands out as the critical infrastructure enabling the next big leap forward,” said EJF Ventures’ Michael Cherepnin.

There’s a story behind the U.K.-based company’s name. The words Naya and One were derived from ancient wisdom. Naya signifies transformation and financial innovation, while One represents the company’s foundational principle, which is: unparalleled connectivity with a single gateway to financial technology.

Photo by Ostap Senyuk on Unsplash

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Gusto Taps Nav to Help Clients Build Business Credit and Access Financing

Gusto Taps Nav to Help Clients Build Business Credit and Access Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gusto
  • Payroll, benefits and HR management solutions company Gusto and B2B credit and financing expert Nav are partnering this week.
  • Under the agreement, Gusto’s small business clients will have access to Nav’s financial health insights as well as its network of financing options.
  • Originally founded as ZenPayroll in 2012, Gusto has raised a total of $746 million.

Payroll, benefits, and HR management solutions company Gusto has selected B2B credit and financing expert Nav to help its small business customers build business credit and access Nav’s network of financing options.

With 300,000 customers, Gusto processes payroll and provides HR services such as employee benefits, health insurance, and 401(k) plans. Following today’s announcement, those businesses will also benefit from Nav’s personalized financial health insights that offer visibility into cash flow, credit insights, and suggested financing options. Additionally, Gusto’s business clients will have access to Nav’s network of 160 different financing options, which include loans, credit cards, and banking.

Gusto anticipates the funding services will help small businesses overcome obstacles such as finding available funding, improving cash flow stability, and managing their expenses.

“At Gusto, our mission is to help small and mid-sized businesses take care of their teams, while accelerating their growth. But these businesses can’t grow without having a full picture of their finances and the funding options available to them,” said Gusto Head of Partnerships Sonya Jamula. “That’s why we’re excited to join forces with Nav to bring them a broader range of options for funding and financial services – and to help more small and mid-sized businesses succeed.”

Nav was founded in 2012. Together with its network of financial providers, the Utah-based company helps its 350,000+ small business customers improve borrowing power and access working capital.

“Nav’s platform makes the path to funding less opaque and limits exposure to painful rejections and predatory lending. Small businesses need to have a transparent view into what options are available to them,” said Nav VP of Revenue Walt Levengood. “Our partnership with Gusto helps small businesses to have more control of their capital and to better manage their costs.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, Gusto has raised a total of $746 million since it was founded in 2012 as ZenPayroll. Co-founder Joshua Reeves is CEO.

Photo by Yan Krukau

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Cross River Bank Launches Investment Banking Division

Cross River Bank Launches Investment Banking Division
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Cross River Bank’s parent company CRB Group is launching an investment banking strategy.
  • The new division, which falls under CRB Securities, will be co-led by Benjamin Samuels and Henry Pinnell.
  • The new launch is sure to disrupt FT Partners, which has dominated the fintech investment banking scene since it was founded in 2001.

Banking-as-a-Service institution Cross River Bank announced its parent company CRB Group has launched an investment banking division.

Benjamin Samuels, who was formerly the Co-Head of Alternative Capital Solutions for Morgan Stanley’s Global Capital Markets Group; and Henry Pinnell, former Co-Head of Investment Banking from SVB Securities; have been tapped to lead the new investment banking team, which will fall under CRB Securities. CRB Securities, which has previously focused on assisting clients with privately placed credit transactions such as asset-backed securities, will advise clients on mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions, and other corporate finance decisions.

Cross River Bank has been building its network and banking expertise since it was founded in 2008. Today, the company offers marketplace lending, capital solutions, card and account programs, a wide range of payment tools, and solutions for loan financing. Cross River Bank plans to leverage its history and connections to offer its investment banking clients a comprehensive suite of investment banking services.

“We are proud to launch our investment banking division of our broker-dealer with two well-respected professionals in the industry, combining decades of experience in both the fintech industry and capital markets,” said Cross River Founder and CEO Gilles Gade. “Ben and Henry are tasked with enhancing even further our product offering to our fintech partners and beyond, enabling us to solve the distinct needs of each and every client.”

While the launch isn’t likely have a major effect on the fintech industry as a whole, it will certainly impact one player in particular: FT Partners. Founded by Steve McLaughlin, FT Partners has been one of the top fintech deal-makers since the firm’s 2001 launch. Cross River Bank is coming to the investment banking game with long-standing relationships from its vast network of fintech clients. This makes the new firm a formidable competitor to FT Partners.

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Google to Shutter Standalone Google Pay App

Google to Shutter Standalone Google Pay App
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Google
  • Google is shutting down its Google Pay app in the U.S. on June 4, 2024. The payment infrastructure will still be available for ecommerce transactions and in-store tap-to-pay capabilities.
  • The app will still be available in India and Singapore.
  • Google is funneling users to Google Wallet, which U.S. consumers use 5x more than Google Pay.

Take a second to think about the last time you opened up the Google Pay app on your phone to make a payment or manage your digital payment cards…..

That may be the reason Google plans to shut down the U.S. version of its standalone Google Pay app. Starting June 4, 2024, users in the U.S. will no longer be able to access Google Pay. Instead, Google is funneling users to Google Wallet, which in the U.S. is used 5x more than Google Pay.

This move won’t impact the infrastructure of Google Pay– users will still be able to use the online payment system to checkout online or tap-to-pay in a physical brick-and-mortar store. Additionally, Google Pay will still be available to users in India and Singapore. In fact, Google said it will continue to build for the “unique needs” in those countries.

For now, here’s what U.S. users need to know:

  • Users can view and transfer their Google Pay balance to their bank account using the app until June 4. After that time, users can transfer their funds using the Google Pay website.
  • Users can access the offers and deals search capabilities within a new deals destination via Google Search.
  • After June 4, users will no longer have the ability to send, request, or receive peer-to-peer money transfers from the U.S. Google Pay app.

Google made clear that just because the app is dissolving, Google Pay isn’t going away. In fact, the company says it has “invested in making payments as fast and seamless as possible — like improving Google Pay autofill in Chrome, making it easy to pay for public transit and expanding the types of passes you can store in Wallet.”

Google Pay last made fintech headlines in December of 2023, when the company announced it was partnering with Affirm and Zip to add BNPL options for users in the online checkout flow.

Photo by Deepanker Verma

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Zūm Rails Raises $7.8 Million to Merge Open Banking and Instant Payments

Zūm Rails Raises $7.8 Million to Merge Open Banking and Instant Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Zūm Rails landed $7.78 million (CAD $10.5 million) in a Series A funding round led by Arthur Ventures.
  • The company will use the funds to scale its U.S. growth and to further expand its payments offerings, including the launch of new banking-as-a-service features.
  • Zūm Rails currently processes more than $1 billion in payments through its platform every month.

Canadian fintech Zūm Rails (pronounced zoom rails) brought in $7.78 million (CAD $10.5 million) in funding this week. The Series A round, which was led by U.S.-based Arthur Ventures, marks the company’s first VC funding round.

Founded in 2019, Zūm Rails seeks to make the payments experience less disjointed by integrating open banking and instant payments into a single gateway. This removes the need to stack technologies on top of one another and ultimately creates a better and more secure customer experience. The company launched in the U.S. market late last year, leveraging partnerships with Visa Direct, Mastercard, and MX.

Zūm Rails will use today’s funds to scale its U.S. growth and to further expand its payments offerings. Specifically, the company plans to launch new banking-as-a-service features for merchants and has plans to unveil a FedNow offering in the U.S. that will enable businesses to send and receive FDIC-insured payments in near-real-time. FedNow, the U.S. government’s real time payment service, launched last July.

“We’ve brought open banking and instant payments together in an omni-rail solution that enables companies to check off all of their payments needs from a single gateway,” said Zūm Rails Co-founder and CEO Marc Milewski. “With Arthur Ventures’ investment, we’re positioned for further expansion of our solution through the addition of banking-as-a-service and other new capabilities.”

As part of building out its U.S. operations, Zūm Rails has been working with financial service providers such as Fiserv to democratize access to open banking capabilities and real-time, FDIC-insured payments for businesses. “Having already transformed the Canadian payments landscape, the company is well-positioned to increase this growth with the investments it’s making in its product and scaling its presence across all of North America,” said Arthur Ventures Vice President Jake Olson.

As for what’s next, company Co-founder and Chief Sales Officer Miles Schwartz said that the company’s long-term vision transcends its individual capabilities. “Integrating these capabilities into a single solution that makes businesses’ lives easier will continue to be our focus as we double down on our expansion in the U.S.,” explained.

Zūm Rails, which up until now has been self-funded, currently processes more than $1 billion in payments through its platform every month. Among the company’s clients are Questrade, Coinsquare, and Desjardins.

Photo by Jonathan Petersson

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Australia’s Summerland Bank Partners with Cloud Banking Company nCino

Australia’s Summerland Bank Partners with Cloud Banking Company nCino
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, nCino
  • Australia-based regional mutual bank Summerland Bank announced a partnership with cloud banking company nCino.
  • The financial institution will deploy nCino’s Cloud Banking Platform to modernize its technology stack.
  • Headquartered in North Carolina, nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017.

Customer-owned regional mutual bank Summerland Bank has partnered with cloud banking innovator nCino. The institution will leverage nCino’s Cloud Banking Platform to enhance its loan origination operations for mortgages, personal loans, overdrafts, credit cards, car loans, and business loans.

“This partnership embodies what we stand for at Summerland Bank: innovation, better banking and an unwavering commitment to our customers and communities, and we’re thrilled to be working with nCino to help us bring these values to life,” Summerland Bank CEO John Williams said.

Summerland Bank will take advantage of intelligent process automation and integration with data sources to enhance the customer experience in various ways, including faster response times. The bank also will benefit from lowering the amount of manual work in its lending operations, reducing error rates and, instead, accelerating time to approval and fund disbursement. nCino’s platform will provide the institution with a single system of interaction for the bank’s originations team – for both consumer and business lending alike.

“Through our single platform, nCino is committed to providing cutting-edge solutions that enable financial institutions to succeed in today’s competitive landscape, and we are thrilled that Summerland has made the strategic decision to partner with us,” nCino Managing Director, APAC, Mark Bernhardi said. “This partnership underscores their commitment to harnessing technology to deliver superior experiences.”

Founded in 1964, Summerland Bank has more than $1 billion in assets and achieved net profit of $7.2 million last year. The institution changed its name from Summerland Credit Union in November, and is currently a B corp certified bank with more than 27,000 customers. Summerland serves the Northern Rivers community of New South Wales and maintains 10 branches in the area.

Headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, nCino made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017. In the years since, more than 1,850 financial institutions have selected nCino’s cloud banking platform to achieve commercial loan origination rates of more than 54% and increases of more than 12% in account opening rates.

The partnership with Summerland Bank is nCino’s fourth collaboration this year. The company began 2024 with the news that Camden National Bank was deploying solutions from nCino’s Mortgage Suite in order to transition from its legacy mortgage point-of-sale (POS) technology. Also in January, The Bank of Bennington announced that it was expanding its partnership with nCino, adopting the North Carolina-based fintech’s Consumer Banking Solution after realizing significant efficiency gains with nCino’s Mortgage Suite. Earlier this month, nCino announced that Mechanics and Farmers (M&F) Bank went live on its cloud banking platform. Headquartered in Durham, North Carolina, M&F Bank is the second oldest and eighth-largest African-American-owned bank in the U.S.

Photo by Marcus Ireland

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Kani Payments Teams up with Core Banking Platform Pismo

Kani Payments Teams up with Core Banking Platform Pismo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Kani Payments
  • Reconciliation and reporting platform Kani Payments has forged a strategic partnership with core banking platform Pismo.
  • The partnership will make Kani’s SaaS platform available to Pismo’s bank, marketplace, and fintech clients.
  • Kani Payments made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring in San Francisco.

U.K.-based reconciliation and reporting platform Kani has forged a strategic partnership with Pismo, an issuer processor and core banking platform headquartered in Brazil. The pact will make Kani’s SaaS platform available to Pismo’s clientele of banks, marketplaces, and fintechs. Kani’s technology automates back office processes, enabling financial institutions and financial services companies to more easily fulfill their compliance reporting obligations.

Kani reports that firms ranging from electronic money institutions and BIN sponsors to challenger banks and fintechs have used its technology to complete weeks’ worth of often complex transaction reporting and reconciliation in less than 30 seconds. In a statement, the company noted that it has experienced significant growth since its founding in 2018. The strategic partnership with Pismo is a big part of that, insofar as the Brazilian fintech is Kani’s largest client win to date.

“Having Kani Payments join our partners’ network will help financial institutions to turbocharge report generations and submissions,” Pismo CEO for North America, EMEA, and APAC Vishal Dalal said. “It will unlock useful insights to help them make better, more informed decisions, shaping a new era for banking and payments.”

Founded in Brazil in 2016, Pismo counts domestic banking firms Itaú and BTG among its clients. The company works with the world’s largest card networks, and processes $208 billion in transactions a year across 97 million accounts and 53+ million issued cards worldwide. Visa International acquired Pismo at the beginning of 2024 in a deal valued at $1 billion. We reported on the pending deal in our Finovate Global column back in the summer of 2023.

“Pismo’s cloud-based platform empowers teams to build fast and companies to launch rapidly, and as such, it shares many of our values and a core aim of helping businesses drive efficiency,” Kani Payments founder and CEO Aaron Holmes said. “As a global business, Pismo is the perfect partner to help us realize the next phase of our growth strategy, and we’re looking forward to making our solution available to a much wider market.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Newcastle, U.K., Kani made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. At the conference, the company demoed how its automated reconciliation and reporting platform conducts fully automated reconciliations, and automates legal, regulatory, and scheme reporting requirements. The platform also gives users the ability to explore and investigate data to better understand consumer and product behavior.

Photo by Mike Bird

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Bits of Stock Now Available in Q2’s Digital Banking Platform

Bits of Stock Now Available in Q2’s Digital Banking Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Bits of Stock, Daily news, Q2
  • Q2 is leveraging Bits of Stock’s technology to help its financial institution clients reward their customers with fractional shares of stock.
  • The partnership was made possible through the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program, which makes it easy for fintechs to reach Q2’s financial institution clients.
  • Bits of Stock showcased its rewards platform alongside its client OMB Bank at FinovateFall last year.

Q2’s financial services clients have a new way to reward their consumers. That’s because fractional stock rewards platform Bits of Stock has teamed up with the digital banking and lending solutions company.

With Q2’s Digital Banking Platform, Q2’s financial services clients can offer their customers fractional stock when they redeem loyalty points or as a reward for certain activities like making a transaction with their debit or credit card, opening an account, applying for a loan, or making a deposit.

“We are pleased to welcome Bits of Stock to the Q2 Partner Accelerator program,” said Q2 Innovation Studio Managing Director Johnny Ola. “Financial Institutions now can offer fractional stocks as rewards on account spend and activity.”

Bits of Stock aims to help community financial institutions and credit unions engage their accountholders by rewarding them with fractional shares of their choice of stock. This enables younger users to build up their stock portfolios by microinvesting. In addition to today’s partnership with Q2, the New York-based company also has partnerships with Jack Henry, OMB Bank, Strata Credit Union, Gravy Stack, and others.

“This partnership is a value multiplier for customers, Q2, and Bits of Stock,” said Bits of Stock CEO Arash Asady. “Both companies are committed to finding innovative ways to empower financial services for consumers at scale.”

The partnership was made possible through the Q2 Partner Accelerator Program, an initiative within the Q2 Innovation Studio that allows financial services companies like Bits of Stock to leverage Q2’s SDK to integrate their technology into the Q2 Digital Banking Platform. The program not only creates an easy way for third party fintechs to integrate into Q2’s platform, but it also helps Q2’s bank clients leverage a wide range of new solutions that they can quickly deploy to their customers.

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 claims more than 40% of the top 10 banks in the U.S. as customers. The company’s platform reaches one out of 10 digital banking customers in America. Q2 went public in 2014 and is now traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $2.43 billion.

Bits of Stock showcased its rewards platform alongside its client OMB Bank at FinovateFall last year. The two demoed OMB Bank’s Stock Rewards Checking Account that rewards cardholders in the fractional stock of their choice every time they swipe their card. Bits of Stock was founded in 2016 and has received $5.9 million in funding.

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Rasa Raises $30 Million for its Generative AI Solution in a Round Co-Led by PayPal Ventures

Rasa Raises $30 Million for its Generative AI Solution in a Round Co-Led by PayPal Ventures
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Rasa has raised $30 million in Series C funding for its generative AI for financial services solution.
  • The round was co-led by StepStone Group and PayPal Ventures.
  • Rasa was the first AI-related investment for PayPal Ventures’ new AI Fund.

With two of the world’s top three banks, two of the largest U.S. banks, and American Express among its customers, PayPal Ventures’ first AI-based investment, a company called Rasa, is well on its way toward making a name for itself in the “Generative AI for financial services” space.

“This investment accelerates our lead in the market, and fuels our drive to redefine what is possible for businesses using generative AI-powered chat and voice platforms at scale,” Rasa CEO Melissa Gordon explained. “With our technology, we’re well-positioned to transform how businesses interact with their customers, making every conversation impactful and personal. We will use the funding to advance our technological leadership and strengthen our market presence.”

Founded in 2016, and boasting a remote-first presence in San Francisco, London, Paris, Berlin, and Belgrade, Rasa secured $30 million in Series C funding for its conversational AI platform last week. StepStone Group and PayPal Ventures co-led the round, which featured participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Accel, and Basis Set Ventures. At this time, updated valuation information was not available. The fresh capital will enable Rasa to grow its team, the company noted in a statement. Rasa is looking to add talent across both North America and Europe in a variety of roles, including marketing and engineering.

Rasa’s technology powers sophisticated and robust AI assistants that support user engagement. Additionally, the company leverages Conversational AI with Language Models (CALM) to offer solutions that combine the flexibility and nuance of Large Language Models (LLMs) with the control and certainty of traditional, NLU-based chatbots. Currently deployed in a pair of solutions, Rasa Pro and Rasa Studio, the CALM-based technology keeps interactions coherent and natural.

“At Rasa we’ve reinvented how conversational AI works,” Rasa co-founder and CTO Dr. Alan Nichol said. “While many in the industry claim to incorporate generative AI, often it’s merely an addition of LLMs onto their existing platforms.”

Rasa is the first investment from PayPal Ventures’ new AI fund. Launched with the mission of investing in early stage AI startups from multiple industries and verticals, the fund is a recognition of opportunities for real-world applications of AI in fields from customer success and compliance to risk and personalization.

“We are thrilled to mark the launch of our AI Fund with our investment in Rasa,” PayPal Ventures partner Alan Du said. “We believe Rasa offers a best-in-class platform for enterprises to develop robust, conversational AI, and we have seen how its concierge solutions improve customer engagement and business performance.”

Rasa is competing in a crowded space as more financial institutions and businesses embrace AI as a tool for enhancing the customer experience. Among Finovate alums alone, companies such as Kore.ai and boost.ai, as well as Best of Show winners like Finn.ai and Voca.ai, have demonstrated the capacity of AI-based solutions to transform the way financial services companies engage their customers. Other alums – ranging from SESAMm to ForwardLane to Kognitos – have demonstrated a variety of applications using Generative AI specifically.

Photo by ThisIsEngineering

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CRIF Unveils its ESG Analytics Solution to Help FIs Access Sustainability Data

CRIF Unveils its ESG Analytics Solution to Help FIs Access Sustainability Data
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, CRIF, Daily news

European consumer and business credit data provider CRIF launched its ESG Analytics solution this week. The technology will give banks and financial institutions in the U.K. the ability to quickly and accurately assess the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) profiles of their U.K. and Europe-based suppliers, partners, and customers.

ESG Analytics draws on more than 130 key indicators from data sources in the U.K. and Europe. The technology analyzes information on issues such as water usage, waste production, emissions, and health and safety records, as well as modern slavery and inclusiveness. Financial institutions and banks will only need the U.K. or Europe-based business’ VAT or registration number in order to obtain an ESG score on the company. ESG Analytics also provides granular environmental, social and governance indicators – all available without requiring direct interaction with the company being reviewed.

“Considering the growing attention of the regulatory bodies toward ESG compliance in the EU but also in the U.K., ESG Analytics enables banks, insurers and corporates to understand the impact of businesses they work with today and helps to inform their decision-making in this ever-more important area of work,” CRIF Regional Director for the U.K. and Ireland Sara Costantini said. “And by working with regulatory bodies all around the world, we ensure that we remain at the forefront of regulation so we can pass this knowledge onto U.K. financial institutions.”

ESG Analytics will complement CRIF’s current ESG service, Synesgy, launched last fall. The solution enables businesses in the U.K. to assess the sustainability of their supply chains. Synesgy also helps companies enhance decision-making during the procurement process, avoid operational and reputational risk, and provide greater transparency with regard to ESG.

“Climate change is the defining issue of our time and every one of us has to play our part in protecting the planet for future generations,” Costantini said when Synesgy was launched in September. “For businesses this is no exception. As customers look to companies that are a force for good, it’s crucial that businesses understand both their own ESG performance and that of their entire supply chain.”

Headquartered in Bologna, Italy, CRIF made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2014. In the years since, the company has grown into a major international credit bureau and business information provider with more than 10,500 FIs; 1,000+ insurance companies; 90,000+ business customers; and 1,000,000+ consumers in 50 countries using its services.

Photo by Jack Carey

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Xalts Buys Contour Network to Fuel Trade Finance Solutions

Xalts Buys Contour Network to Fuel Trade Finance Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Financial infrastructure platform Xalts is acquiring Contour Network.
  • Xalts will leverage the purchase to create embedded solutions for trade and supply chain finance.
  • Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Singapore-based financial infrastructure platform Xalts announced this week it is buying Contour Network with an aim to enhance global trade finance. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Contour Network was built in 2017 by a consortium of eight global banks to create an open trade finance network. Today, more than 22 banks and 100+ global businesses use Contour’s network for digital trade finance.

Xalts helps banks streamline global trade, receivables, and supply chain financing operations with tools that facilitate everything from origination to multiparty workflows. The company will leverage Contour’s processes and integrations to facilitate communication and transactions between businesses and financial institutions in its network. Once the deal is complete, Xalts will initially focus on creating solutions that banks, logistics companies, and fintechs can embed within their own applications for their business customers.

Xalts CEO Ashutosh Goel said the company aims to create a “Plaid for Trade.” He explained, “Our vision is to expand the scope of Contour’s network which is trusted by banks and corporates, and build it into a rail that enables businesses to access digital solutions for trade and supply chain finance offered by banks, fintechs and technology partners. Combining our platform with Contour’s Network will allow participants to develop and deploy customized solutions quickly.”

Xalts, which leverages the blockchain to help its clients build tokenization applications, was founded in 2022 and currently has a team of more than 50 employees spread across offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, the U.A.E., and U.K.

“Citi has long been a leader in driving innovation in financial services. We invested in Contour in 2020 and led the seed round for Xalts in 2022,” said Citi Ventures Director Everett Leonidas. “The combination of these two companies into one firm with an expanded vision and a great leadership team will accelerate innovation in global trade finance.”

With Xalts aiming to become the “Plaid for Trade,” the partnership opens up new potential for businesses to access digital solutions for trade and supply chain finance. This move, combined with the company’s use of the blockchain, offers the potential to create more accessible and efficient solutions to a wider range of businesses.

Photo by Kurt Cotoaga on Unsplash

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