Daily news

Yahoo Finance Acquires Commonstock to Add Investor Insights

Yahoo Finance Acquires Commonstock to Add Investor Insights
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Yahoo has acquired social investing platform, Commonstock. Terms were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition will bring investor insights to the company’s Yahoo Finance brand.
  • Launched in 1997, Yahoo Finance has more than 150 million monthly users.

Yahoo has acquired Commonstock, a San Francisco, California-based social investing network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Yahoo Finance president Tapan Bhat said that the purchase would help create a “singular destination for all our customer’s financial needs.” He praised Commonstock for creating a “trusted community” and for “sharing high-quality insights and knowledge that help everyday investors create wealth.”

Specifically, the acquisition will add investor insights to the Yahoo Finance platform. Commonstock offers a social network, integrated with brokerages, where retail investors and traders can discuss trading and investing strategies, portfolio performance, and more. Commonstock provides features such as real-time alerts to let users know when investors they are following are making trades. This helps facilitate the exchange of investment strategies, fostering a collaborative investing climate. The network has more than $10 billion in connected assets.

David McDonough, Commonstock founder and CEO, said the acquisition was an opportunity to “build community and products on the largest consumer finance stage.” Note that Yahoo Finance currently has more than 150 million monthly users. McDonough added, “This acquisition will allow us to accelerate our mission at scale, emphasizing community-driven knowledge and ensuring the amplification of quality insights to separate signal from noise.”

The acquisition was personal for McDonough, who said that Yahoo Finance made a major impact on his career trajectory. In his statement, he credited the company’s message boards for helping him learn about the stock market during the financial crisis. He said that the combination of Yahoo’s reach and Commonstock’s expertise would be a significant value for investors.

Launched in 2020, Commonstock has raised more than $34 million in funding. The company includes Coatue, QED, Floodgate, Upside Ventures, Resolute Ventures, and Abstract Ventures among its investors. Individual investors ranging from Bill Ackman and Ari Emanuel to Turner Novak and Jill Carson also have backed the startup.

Yahoo Finance offers free stock quotes, timely business news, and portfolio management resources. Additionally, the platform provides mortgage rate data and other information to help individuals better manage their finances. Launched in 1997, Yahoo Finance is among the top 20 largest news and media websites. The platform began covering cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency news in 2017.

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich

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Koverly Launches BNPL Solution for FX Payments

Koverly Launches BNPL Solution for FX Payments
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Koverly is launching KoverlyPay, a new B2B BNPL tool.
  • KoverlyPay offers businesses a 30-day extension on FX payments.
  • Clients can use KoverlyPay to extend payments over four, eight, or 12 fixed weekly installments.

B2B payment tool Koverly is jumping on the buy now, pay later (BNPL) trend this week with the launch of its newest tool. The Massachusetts-based company unveiled KoverlyPay, a new B2B BNPL tool that offers a free, 30-day extension on FX payments.

Koverly clients can use KoverlyPay to extend payments over four, eight, or 12 fixed weekly installments. Businesses can apply for the financing using KoverlyPay, which is integrated into the point-of-sale, at checkout and receive a decision within 24 hours. Once a business is approved, they do not have to repay their purchase for the first 30 days. After the initial 30 days, for both FX and local payments, businesses pay as low as 1.5% interest per month.

“Inventory is the lifeblood for importing businesses, and it is directly impacted by cash flow,” said Koverly CEO Igor Ostrovsky. “Our KoverlyPay offering for FX transactions is designed to give businesses enough extra working capital to unlock at least one additional inventory turn per year. For a typical importing business, this can boost annual profitability by 50% to 100%. This is a game changer for global trade.”

As growth in the B2C BNPL space begins to slow, interest in B2B BNPL has seen growth. Melio, Allianz Trade, Yapily, and others have recently launched B2B BNPL tools. Banks have started implementing stricter small business lending practices, and we can expect to see small businesses pursue working capital via alternatives channels such as BNPL expand.

Koverly combines foreign exchange and credit into its invoicing, billpay, and accounting tools. The company, which currently processes $200 million a year in both domestic and international payments, launched global payment capabilities last summer. Today, global payments account for 50% of the company’s volume. 

Since it was founded in 2021, Koverly has received $7.6 million in Seed funding from Vinyl Capital, One Way Ventures, and Accomplice.

Photo by Anna Nekrashevich

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Backbase and SavvyMoney Partner to Help FIs Promote Financial Wellness

Backbase and SavvyMoney Partner to Help FIs Promote Financial Wellness
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Daily news, SavvyMoney
  • A pair of Finovate alums – Backbase and SavvyMoney – have forged a new partnership.
  • The partnership will integrate SavvyMoney’s Credit Score Insights into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform.
  • The integration will enable customers to access real-time credit scores from within their banking apps.

Engagement banking company Backbase announced a strategic partnership with credit score solutions firm and fellow Finovate alum SavvyMoney. The partnership will integrate SavvyMoney’s credit score solution, Credit Score Insights, into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. This will give community banks and credit unions the ability to provide their customers with real-time credit scores directly from their banking app.

“There’s a growing demand from consumers for guidance from their banking apps to help them make informed financial decisions,” Backbase VP of Product Management for the U.S. mid-market Brian McNutt said. He added that it was “crucial” that customers and members see community banks and credit unions as “trusted financial advisors,” and that doing so would help these FIs compete with their larger rivals. “That’s the idea behind our Fintech-as-a-Service offering,” he added, “to reduce our customers’ time-to-market and time-to-value, so FIs can focus on innovation.”

SavvyMoney’s Credit Score Insights helps FIs offer tailored financial recommendations and advice to their customers and members. The technology also helps FIs manage their marketing efforts to build hyper-personalized offers and deals. The increased value brought to banking apps courtesy of the Credit Score Insights integration also will help improve stickiness and app usage trends. At the same time, end users will benefit from a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to their credit score. They will also be able to update their credit report, run credit score simulations, and build an action plan to set and meet credit score goals.

“As a company, we are committed to empowering individuals to achieve their financial goals and improve their overall financial well-being,” SavvyMoney President and CEO JB Orecchia said. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Backbase to make crucial credit score functionality easily accessible via banking apps.”

Formerly known – and first appearing on the Finovate stage – as DebtGoal, the company rebranded as SavvyMoney in 2011. In the years since then, SavvyMoney has forged partnerships with more than 1,150 financial institutions and driven $3.8 billion in loans for clients courtesy of its SavvyMoney offer engine. The company unveiled its pre-approval marketing solution earlier this year – in partnership with Credit Union of Southern California (CU SoCal). SavvyMoney was named a “2023 Best Place to Work in the Bay Area” by Fintech Finance in May.

A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase has won Best of Show on four different occasions. Most recently demoing its technology last September at FinovateFall, Backbase serves more than 120 financial institutions around the world. The company’s Engagement Banking Platform gives FIs a unified platform designed to respond to every step of the customer journey – from onboarding and servicing to loyalty and loan origination. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase also recently announced partnerships with Vietnam’s Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) and business and IT consulting provider Valleysoft.

Photo by Ingo Joseph

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TreviPay Introduces Support for Cross-Currency B2B Sales

TreviPay Introduces Support for Cross-Currency B2B Sales
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, TreviPay
  • TreviPay, a B2B payments and invoicing network, announced support for cross-currency sales between businesses.
  • The new capability will serve as an “enhanced trade credit” and will help businesses increase buyer loyalty.
  • Headquartered in Kansas, TreviPay made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall.

B2B payments and invoicing network TreviPay announced support for cross-currency sales between businesses. The new capability will enable TreviPay to facilitate transactions in which buyers want to be invoiced in and to pay with a currency that is different from the currency disbursed to the merchant. Referring to the capability as an “enhanced trade credit,” TreviPay believes it will help businesses boost buyer loyalty.

Brandon Spear, TreviPay CEO, pointed out that merchants operating on a global scale have unique challenges when it comes to their more diverse customer base. “Not all merchants are able to establish a bank account in every preferred currency of their customers,” Spear said. “TreviPay’s enhanced technology and cross-currency solution empowers geographical expansion and makes global trade more accessible to merchants across all sales channels.”

Founded in 1980 and headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, TreviPay made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company showed how its Small Business Supplier Payments Network enables banks tap into the small business B2B trade credit market and expand their small business product offerings. In her presentation, TreviPay SVP and Head of Small Business Markets Rissi Lovern explained the financial burdens placed on small business suppliers as an opportunity for banks.

“Every day our small business suppliers act as a bank for their business customers,” Lovern said to the FinovateFall audience last September. “Oftentimes these business customers are much larger than they are. In fact, in the U.S., they extend five trillion dollars in trade credit annually, financing less than 15% of those extensions, and waiting an average of 51 days to get paid.”

Small business suppliers want real-time, risk-free, debt free payments, Lovern said. Business buyers, at the same time, demand trade credit because it is a key component of their working capital stack. TreviPay’s Small Business Supplier Payments Network responds to both needs.

In the year since its Finovate debut, TreviPay has teamed up with payments orchestration technology provider BlueSnap and acquired payments platform Apruve, and forged partnerships with SME cashflow specialist Cloudfloat and SaaS-based marketplace management solution Mirakl. More recently, the company announced a partnership with Samsung Electronics Australia. The deal will enable Samsung’s direct-to-consumer business to extend payment terms and invoice-based purchasing to B2B buyers.

“In today’s world, enabling merchants to extend credit to their buyers in a streamlined and convenient embedded payment experience is essential to compete globally and drive customer loyalty,” Spear said.

Operating in 32 countries and in 20 currencies, TreviPay processes more than $6 billion in transaction volume annually.

Photo by Lukas Kloeppel

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Ramp Raises $300 Million at a $5.8 Billion Valuation

Ramp Raises $300 Million at a $5.8 Billion Valuation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Ramp landed $300 million in Series D funding today, bringing its total funding to $1.7 billion.
  • Today’s funds come from new investor Sands Capital, along with existing investors Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund.
  • At $5.8 billion, the company’s current valuation is 28% lower than its 2022 valuation of $8.1 billion.

Late-stage VC funding has been down in 2023, but business finance automation platform Ramp is bucking that trend today. The New York-based company has announced the closure of a $300 million round of Series D funding.

The investment boosts the company’s total funding to $1.7 billion. With the increase in capital, however, comes a decrease in valuation. The company’s current valuation now sits at $5.8 billion, 28% lower than the company’s $8.1 billion valuation reported last year.

Today’s Series D round comes from new investor Sands Capital, along with existing investors Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, and Founders Fund. Ramp will use the funds to fuel product development and accelerate its expansion into adjacent categories.

“In the last year alone, we’ve expanded Ramp’s offerings to become the only platform in the market that’s designed to save businesses time and money,” said Ramp CEO Eric Glyman. “Our mission is to help our customers build healthier businesses and this funding will help us execute against our goal to continue expanding the Ramp platform to better serve customers. At Ramp, we succeed when our customers can run their business more efficiently.”

Ramp offers its 15,000 clients access to its suite of payment cards, expense management tools, accounts payable offerings, procurement solutions, working capital, and more. Among Ramp’s recent client wins are Anduril, Poshmark, and Virgin Voyages.

Next month, Ramp plans to debut Ramp Plus, a new set of procurement tools to help finance teams with procurement-related tasks. To support this growth, the company also plans to boost its hiring efforts “significantly” and “across all functions.”

Photo by Anna Shvets

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Dock Taps Feedzai to Expand Fraud Prevention

Dock Taps Feedzai to Expand Fraud Prevention
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Feedzai
  • Brazil-based Dock selected Feedzai to provide fraud prevention tools for its customers.
  • Dock will primarily leverage Feedzai’s RiskOps Platform, and will also use the company’s AML and behavioral biometrics tools.
  • Dock counts 70 million active accounts and powers over seven billion transactions each year.

Brazil-based payments technology player Dock announced this week it has selected risk management tool provider Feedzai to provide new fraud prevention tools for Dock customers.

Founded in 2014, Dock offers card issuing and core banking services to help organizations bring new card digital payments and banking services to their existing operations. The company’s microservices architecture can be tailored to suit a multitude of rules, and can operate in any country, currency and banking system. The company counts 70 million active accounts and powers over seven billion transactions each year.

By partnering with Feedzai, Dock is giving its clients access to Feedzai’s RiskOps Platform, a tool that helps uncover criminal activity by standardizing processes. Feedzai launched RiskOps in 2021 to tackle fraud, money laundering, compliance, and enhance risk policies. The platform’s Financial Intelligence Network (FIN) database contains over one trillion data points, sessions, and profiles of good and bad actors. Dock also plans to integrate Feedzai’s behavioral biometrics module as well as money laundering prevention tools to offer customers a view of risks in real-time.

“We are providing our customers with another cloud-first technology solution that delivers a personalized approach to cyber threat detection and assessment, based on machine learning models and supported by Dock’s expertise,” said Dock Risk Director Armando Junior. “This partnership is aligned with our Latin American expansion strategy. The new feature makes it possible for us to understand even better the needs of our customers throughout the region.”

Feedzai was founded in 2011. The company offers tools ranging from KYC, AML, watchlist screening, transaction fraud monitoring, and more to help companies fight fraud in more than 190 countries. In 2021, Feedzai was valued at more than one billion dollars after receiving a $200 million funding round that boosted its total funding to $277 million. There is no word on an updated valuation.

Photo by Leigh Patrick

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Cybersecurity Firm VU Inks Strategic Partnership with Digital Payments Innovator NovoPayment

Cybersecurity Firm VU Inks Strategic Partnership with Digital Payments Innovator NovoPayment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Cybersecurity company VU and digital payments solutions innovator NovoPayment announced a strategic partnership today.
  • The alliance will make VU’s fraud protection technology available to users of NovoPayment’s banking-as-a-service platform.
  • Headquartered in Miami, Florida, NovoPayment was co-founded by CEO Anabel Pérez in 2007.

Cybersecurity firm VU will join the 60-partner application network of digital payments solutions company NovoPayment. Headquartered in Miami, Florida, NovoPayment offers a banking-as-a-service platform that leverages its network of open APIs, partnerships, and third-party integration to help its customers scale and adapt.

“Collaborating with NovoPayment allows us to expand our vision and address new challenges in the field of cybersecurity in the financial sector,” VU founder and CEO Sebastián Stranieri said. “Together we are committed to generating a positive impact by creating digital solutions to improve the quality of life for citizens and organizations.”

NovoPayment offers services within three principal categories: digital banking, payment infrastructure, and card solutions. The company helps its clients enhance their existing systems to generate new deposits, transaction streams, and customer experiences. In addition to its Miami HQ, NovoPayment maintains offices in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Ecuador, enabling the company to serve a range of customers across the Americas. The company’s clients include financial institutions and acquirers, as well as neobanks and fintechs.

“This alliance will enable us to enhance our payment solutions, providing users with an even safer and more reliable experience,” NovoPayment CEO and co-founder Anabel Pérez said. “We are excited to work with VU, a leader in cybersecurity, to ensure the peace of mind of our clients in the digital world.”

NovoPayment’s partnership with VU comes a little over a month after the company unveiled enhancements to its Orchestra technology. Orchestra is an advanced, cloud-based middleware orchestration layer of its BaaS platform. The technology helps financial institutions modernize their infrastructure and now features enhancements that add capabilities and new API-based use cases. Perez called Orchestra “a streamlined, convenient way to unify user experiences and fast-track innovation while ensuring compliance.”

Earlier this year, NovoPayment and Forrester Research published research on digitization trends at smaller banks and credit unions. In the report, the authors highlighted the compatibility with existing infrastructure as a major hurdle for digitization. Another challenge was the lack of staff to support customer-service based digital strategies. The report concluded that strategic partnerships can help smaller FIs bridge the gap between themselves and their larger competitors.

Perez and Oscar Garcia Mendoza founded NovoPayment in 2007. The company raised $19 million in Series A funding last spring.

Photo by Tory Brown

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Mahalo Banking and Larky Announce Expanded Partnership to Boost Account Holder Engagement

Mahalo Banking and Larky Announce Expanded Partnership to Boost Account Holder Engagement
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Larky
  • Mahalo Banking and Larky have announced an expanded partnership to enhance account holder engagement for Mahalo clients.
  • The partnership will integrate Larky’s nudge platform into Mahalo’s online banking platform.
  • Larky made its Finovate debut in 2014. Mahalo Banking will make its Finovate debut next month at FinovateFall.

An expanded partnership between a pair of Finovate alums is designed to help boost account holder engagement. Mahalo Banking, a banking solution provider for credit unions, and account holder engagement technology company Larky announced this week that they are building on their relationship by integrating Larky’s nudge technology into Mahalo’s online banking platform.

“Our partnership with Larky enables us to offer our credit union clients an invaluable tool for member engagement at a time when the market needs new approaches to nurture and grow depositor relationships,” Mahalo Banking co-founder and COO Denny Howell said.

The integration with Larky’s nudge platform will give account holders notifications about the different product and service offerings from their financial institution. Notifications also alert account holders to contextually relevant information about their branch. Financial institutions benefit from access to analytics and A/B testing to learn how their customer and member engagement programs are working. Mahalo customers will also be able to access Larky’s nudge Score. This solution leverages AI to predict the performance of new push notifications.

“We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Mahalo, opening doors for their clients to harness the power of our nudge platform’s tailored and proactive engagement capabilities,” Larky VP of Growth Scott Brown said. “This reinforced partnership interweaves the unique assets of both organizations, bolstering the digital banking landscape for consumers and fostering expansion for community based financial institutions.”

August has been a busy month for the Ann Arbor, Michigan based company. Larky just reported that Innovations FCU has gone live with its customer engagement platform. And a few days ago, Larky announced a collaboration with credit union technology partner Trellance and Michigan State University Federal Credit Union (MSUFCU). The goal of the partnership is to build a unique, data-centric solution that leverages enhanced, AI-driven segmentation and targeting for MSUFCU. This will enable MSUFCU to create and execute more engaging campaigns to boost tap rates and increase engagement.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Larky made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2014.

Mahalo Banking will be making its first Finovate appearance next month at FinovateFall. The company is a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) that serves as a banking partner for credit unions. The company’s platform features deep integrations into credit union cores to provide robust features sets across all delivery platforms in order to deliver a true omni-channel experience. Mahalo is also unique insofar as its platform features functionality to support customers with cognitive distinctions such as dyslexia, autism, epilepsy, visual impairments, and more.

Like Larky, Mahalo also has been on a furious partnership-making pace this year. Last month, Mahalo announced a partnership with Gerber Federal Credit Union, a Michigan-based financial institution with $225 million in assets. In June, Mahalo teamed up with RiverLand FCU, an FI based in New Orleans with more than $300 million in assets. Also, in May, Mahalo announced new partnerships with two credit unions: ParkView FCU and Rock Valley Credit Union. ParkView FCU is based in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and has $350 million in assets. Rock Valley Credit Union is headquartered in Loves, Park, Illinois, and has assets of $150 million.

Mahalo Banking is based in Troy, Michigan. Jim Stickley is CEO.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki

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Agora Data Services Lands $160 Million for Used Car Financing

Agora Data Services Lands $160 Million for Used Car Financing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Agora Data has landed $160 million in privately placed term financing.
  • The investment marks Agora Data’s fourth privately placed term financing round.
  • While there is no word on total funding, today’s financing adds to the $100 million revolving credit line Agora Data received from Credit Suisse in September 2022.

Agora Data, a company that helps buy here pay here (BHPH) car dealers offer in-house financing, secured $160 million in privately placed term financing this month. The round represents the fourth privately placed term financing the company has received since it was founded in 2017.

“Fueling Agora’s mission to enable any car dealer to be a finance company, this $160 million private term financing provides additional funding capacity and reiterates our commitment to our customers’ future growth,” said company CEO Steve Burke.

While there is no data on the amounts of the company’s previous three privately placed term financing rounds, Agora Data said that each of them performed better than projected. Today’s financing adds to the $100 million revolving credit facility the company received from Credit Suisse last September.

Founded in 2017, Agora Data’s Agora Capital helps car dealerships lend to non-prime customers. Lending to unattractive borrowers ultimately helps dealers sell more cars. To provide a competitive interest rate on these sub-prime loans, the company leverages AI to analyze over $350 billion in loan data. Agora Data also offers Agora Trade, a product that allows investors to buy a portfolio of seasoned auto loans at a lower rate of default.

Texas-based Agora Data targets the underbanked community and its strategy will likely fair well as the cost of living crisis, combined with a high interest rate environment, continues. Competitors in the auto financing space include CreditIQ, Creditas, Caribou (formerly known as MotoRefi), and others.

Photo by Jeerayut Rianwed

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Credit Sesame Unveils Credit Builder Mastercard

Credit Sesame Unveils Credit Builder Mastercard
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Credit Sesame, Daily news
  • Credit Sesame launched a new solution to help individuals improve their credit.
  • The new offering, Sesame Credit Builder, is a Mastercard debit card designed to make it easier to build positive payment histories.
  • Today’s launch comes two years after the company first unveiled its credit builder banking technology.

Financial wellness platform Credit Sesame has introduced a new tool to help individuals improve their credit. The new offering, Sesame Credit Builder, is a Mastercard debit card that leverages everyday spending and recurring services to build positive payment histories.

“The new Sesame Credit Builder Mastercard brings inclusion and breaks down the barriers for everyone and (e)specially people with low or limited credit history to build better credit history,” Credit Sesame founder and CEO Adrian Nazari said. “We are making it easy for more Americans to get credit for the money they spend and the payments they make.”

Sesame Credit Builder arrives nearly two years after Credit Sesame first announced general availability of its credit builder banking technology. Today’s offering works like this: individuals must open a virtual secured account with Community Federal Savings Bank (CFSB), which issues the prepaid debit card. Cardholders then begin building credit by depositing money into their Sesame Cash account and making transactions with their debit card. Card purchases create a balance on the cardholder’s virtual secured account. An equal amount of funds is set aside in the cardholder’s Sesame Cash account, which serves as a security deposit to pay off the balance at the end of the month. This approach ensures that cardholders will always have sufficient funds to pay off their balance, thus helping build a positive payment history.

Credit Sesame does not guarantee that any individual’s credit score will improve. The company notes that other factors, including timely bill payments and low credit card balances, also contribute significantly to credit scores.

Nevertheless, according to Tim Montgomery, SVP, Digital Partnerships, North America, Mastercard, technologies like Credit Sesame’s Credit Builder have a significant role to play. “Credit Sesame aims to democratize financial wellness and empower consumers to take charge of their own financial health,” Montgomery said. “Sesame Credit Builder can do just that and help even more consumers improve their credit.”

Founded in 2010, Credit Sesame made its Finovate debut that same year. In the years since, Credit Sesame has grown into a major, financial wellness platform that has helped millions of consumers improve their credit scores and save money on the cost of credit.

Last fall, the company announced a series of major executive hires. Joining the Mountain View, California-based fintech were Bronwyn Syiek as President, Marcus Beisel as Chief Product Officer, Tim Kamienski as Chief Marketing Officer, and David Bagatelle as Chief Banking Officer.

Credit Sesame has raised more than $171 million in funding. The company includes Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) and Menlo Ventures among its investors.

Photo by Tamil Vanan

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Roger Launches to Help New Military Recruits Enlist in a Modern Banking Experience

Roger Launches to Help New Military Recruits Enlist in a Modern Banking Experience
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, NYMBUS
  • Citizens Bank of Edmond is launching Roger, a new digital bank.
  • Roger is geared to serve military service members and their families.
  • Nymbus is powering the new digital bank.

Citizens Bank of Edmond is launching its new digital bank today. Roger, the new digital-first bank, aims to offer tailored banking services to meet the needs of military service members, their families, and their supporters.

“Our vision is crystal clear,” the bank announced on LinkedIn, “to mobilize financial resources that lay the foundation for unshakeable financial strength and future prosperity for every newly enlisted service member.”

Citizens Bank of Edmond CEO Jill Castilla launched Roger because, as a new military recruit 30 years ago, she couldn’t find a bank designed to meet her needs. “When I enlisted at 19, I had little access to my bank accounts and financial tools,” she explained. Castilla went on to lead Citizens Bank of Edmond, a bank founded in 1901 that now boasts $375 million in assets.

To suit its niche set of users, Roger offers a military-friendly direct deposit form and enables recruits to access their earned funds up to two days faster. Additionally, the Visa debit card is accepted at Armed Forces Financial Network terminals located at U.S. military bases worldwide. Users can also set up savings plans and round-up their transactions to contribute to accounts.

In a unique twist on the round-up savings feature, Roger will match users’ savings. For the first 90 days after opening their account, Roger will match 100% of round-ups, up to $100. After that period, Roger will match 15% of round-ups, up to $20 per month. The round up matching feature restarts every 30 days.

In addition to Citizens Bank of Edmond, which is behind the launch of Roger, the bank is leveraging banking technology provider Nymbus to power the digital banking experience. “We’re extremely proud to partner with Citizens Bank of Edmond on this essential niche bank for the military community,” said Nymbus Chairman and CEO Jeffery Kendall. “With Jill’s leadership and vision, we aim to deliver special-purpose products to help military service members succeed.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Currency Risk Management Startup Finofo Launches with Cross-Border Payments Solution

Currency Risk Management Startup Finofo Launches with Cross-Border Payments Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Currency risk management company Finofo launched today.
  • The Calgary-based startup announced that the first phase of its launch is the release of its cross-border payments tools.
  • Finofo raised $1.25 million ($1.6 million CAD) in pre-seed funding in January.

Canadian currency risk management startup Finofo launched publicly today. The company, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, calls its platform an “all-in-one” solution for businesses’ financial needs and has unveiled tools for cross-border payments as its first offering.

In an extended blog post Finofo co-founder Prateek Sodhi announced the company’s launch and its mission to help businesses manage currency risk. Sodhi underscored the challenge of managing currency risk, calling it a “multifaceted task that requires specialized talent in finance.” He noted that larger companies can often afford to hire the specialized talent required to effectively manage currency risk. However, Sodhi said, “most regular businesses are left grappling with these complexities with a team consisting mainly of trained accountants and corporate finance specialists.”

To this end, Finofo has built a digital platform that leverages advanced algorithms to examine the intricacies of currency fluctuations for individual businesses. If currency fluctuations become an issue, the platform quantifies the value of the risk. This enables the platform to develop tools and strategies, specific to individual businesses and their financial condition, to manage this risk.

The launch of Finofo, according to Sodhi, will take place in three stages. The first stage, announced today, includes the platform’s cross-border payments tools. These tools enable businesses to send or receive money in more than 40 currencies across 180 countries. Businesses will also be able to use Finofo to convert money into different currencies and automate accounts payable.

The second stage of the launch will involve development of the company’s smart hedge engine. This solution will help streamline currency hedging trade execution to reduce the price risk of currencies during the trading process. Future initiatives include financial planning and analysis solutions to help businesses conduct real-time foreign-exchange risk analytics.

“We’re not interested in merely selling financial instruments,” Sodhi wrote this week. “Instead, we leverage our unique technology to help businesses understand if, when, and how much they need them.”

In addition to its launch announcement, Finofo also disclosed that it raised $1.25 million ($1.6 million CAD) in pre-seed funding back in January. The round was led by Motivate Venture Capital. SaaS Venture Capital, Desjardins Financial Holding, and Sweet Spot Capital also participated.

Photo by Juman Salem

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