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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
J.P. Morgan is acquiring investment analytics tool Aumni.
While terms of the deal are undisclosed, CNBC reports that J.P. Morgan will pay around $232 million for Aumni.
J.P. Morgan expects the buy will bolster its private markets platform for companies, their employees, and investors.
J.P. Morgan has agreed to acquire Aumni, an investment analytics tool for private capital markets. Announced today, the deal is expected to close in the first half of this year. While financial terms of the deal are undisclosed, CNBC reports the deal will be valued at $232 million.
Aumni’s investment analytics platform leverages AI to extract and analyze deal data buried in legal agreements. The company serves 300 institutions, including venture capitalists, family offices, and university endowments helps firms compile investment data reports, facilitate limited partner reporting, identify co-investors, generate equity financing summaries for each investment in their portfolio, and more.
Founded in 2018, the company has evaluated more than $600 billion in capital across more than 17,000 private companies. Aumni counts names such as Sapphire Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Berkeley Law among its clients.
“We’re thrilled to see this collaboration come to fruition as J.P. Morgan first invested in Aumni in 2021 and quickly realized shared synergies of providing more transparency to the private markets,” said J.P. Morgan Head of Digital Investment Banking, Head of Digital Private Markets Michael Elanjian. “Aumni’s market-leading data structuring and portfolio monitoring solutions, combined with the capital raising and cap table management services of Capital Connect and Global Shares, further enhances the ecosystem of digital solutions that J.P. Morgan is building for companies and investors in both growth and later-stage private markets.”
J.P. Morgan expects the buy will bolster its private markets platform for companies, their employees, and investors. Also contributing to the mission of building a private markets platform are the firm’s launch of Capital Connect, a match-making platform that connects entrepreneurs with venture capitalists and limited partners; and its acquisition of share plan management software company Global Shares.
“Together, we can create a best-in-class suite of services for private market participants, enhancing the experience for all current and future clients,” said Aumni CEO Tony Lewis. Aumni will maintain its headquarters location in Utah and will continue to serve its existing client base.
How has the challenge of digital transformation impacted banks and credit unions in recent years? Has the momentum for change slowed since the peak of the pandemic? How can banks win the “expectations game” with increasingly digital-first customers?
These are some of the questions we posed to Savana CEO Mike Wolfel. Headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Savana offers banks and other financial institutions a digital delivery platform that provides single location, real-time orchestration for all processes and transaction requests across the enterprise.
In recent months, Savana has announced partnerships with Primis Bank, Capco, and Battle Financial. Founded in 2009, the company has raised more than $53 million in funding from investors including Georgian and LiveOak Venture Partners.
What is the primary challenge for banks and credit unions that are trying to undergo digital transformation today in 2023?
Mike Wolfel: Most of the challenges banks and credit unions face center on technical innovation constraints based on their existing technical and operating architectures. Banks and credit unions are often limited either by their complex and rigid solutions already in place to support multiple channels or products, or by the inflexible multi-system architecture that allows them to be more agile. In addition, the lack of complete API exposure of underlying core systems leaves little opportunity to drive digital self-service or product innovation.
The inconsistency of processes implemented in different channels or across products is both a technical constraint and an operational efficiency challenge. These inconsistencies of processes and dependencies on manual work can also create regulatory issues or, at a minimum, lead to customer dissatisfaction.
There was a great deal of momentum behind digital transformation during COVID. Has that momentum waned? If so, why?
Wolfel: The momentum has not changed, but the focus seems to have shifted to different areas and more broadly expanded across various layers of the banking technology. The drive for transformation during COVID, especially during the first year, was a general improvement in digital consumer experiences due to the branch banking challenges. However, the banks we are working with seem to be taking a broader and more systemic internal view to recognize that they need more agility in terms of next-gen cores and more operationally efficient operations systems.
How can banks win the expectations game? How can the customer experience at banks keep up with the kind of CX/UX people experience in other digital interactions?
Wolfel: Bank experiences need to deliver more active intelligence, using AI, to consumer experiences. An adaptive information approach to tailor content and action needs to be more dynamic based on customer intelligence and behavior analytics. Just as Amazon or social media applications recommend the content of interest, consumers can be enlightened with relevant information on their banking behavior that will enable them to see opportunities better.
In addition, the capabilities of the experience, not just a pretty design, need to provide an effective and comprehensive set of services to the consumer to take action without requiring the need to engage the bank in the direct channels (branch, call center). Clearly, consumers prefer self-service and being able to act at a time and place of their choosing. Additionally, having the same processes and awareness of customer engagement actions need to be available to the banker if the consumer reaches out for direct support. Often, in today’s environment, the bank is unaware of why the customer might be calling when making a transition for support between digital to direct engagement.
What are the first key steps a financial institution needs to take in order to be ready for digital transformation – to say nothing of executing the transformation itself?
Wolfel: That depends on the goals and the transformation journey desired by the bank. But, in general, several things are consistent for the banks we work with on their journeys. First, they are taking a much broader view than trying to solve for a specific channel improvement. For those that are considering new next-gen core technology, they need to decide on a big bang or progressive renovation approach. The progressive renovation (gradual cutover to a new core) takes significant planning because it will create significant operational issues with customer and account data spread across multiple cores.
Comparatively, a big bang cutover to a next-gen core will require significant ecosystem rework and presents a potentially higher risk. Fortunately, Savana’s approach and architecture support our bank partners regardless of their desired approach. In the end, having a clear vision of the full end-state vs. a siloed or segmented view is the critical consideration.
What role does Savana play in helping facilitate digital transformations for financial institutions?
Wolfel: Savana’s Digital Delivery Platform is driving ‘Core-to-Customer’ innovation. Savana’s platform is designed to operationalize the bank across all cores, all products, and all channels. The system provides a consistent customer engagement experience and standardized bank operations processes from OAO & OLB across any engagement channel, including self-service, branch, and assisted call center operations.
Savana recently raised a significant amount of equity capital. What did that investment say about Savana’s accomplishments and potential. What will the investment enable the company to do in 2023 and beyond?
Wolfel: Savana has been working with early adopter customers over the last few years to get the platform into production and be able to continue the buildout of the solution architecture to meet the original strategy and the diverse needs of our bank partners. The investment by fintech investors and about six strategic bank partners is a validation of our strategy and confirmation of the capabilities and value that Savana’s platform brings to the market. The investment allows us to continue our growth strategy more broadly in the market across banks and credit unions. Savana has delivered a unique and differentiated solution for our bank partners to execute complex transformation journeys, as recognized by the investment. Savana will continue accelerating our offerings in all areas of digital, branch, call Center, and bank operations and for a broader market segment.
eToro landed $250 million in funding at a $3.5 billion valuation
The investment boosts the company’s total funding to $573 million.
Today’s funding comes from an agreement made during eToro’s cancelled SPAC transaction.
eToroannounced today it received $250 million in funding in a round that values the social trading and investment network at $3.5 billion. Investors in the round, which boosts eToro’s total funding to $573 million, include ION Group, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Velvet Sea Ventures, and existing investors.
In 2021, eToro planned to go public via a merger with FinTech Acquisition Corp. V, a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal worth $10 billion. That deal was cancelled in 2022 and, according to eToro’s update, today’s funding “stems from an Advance Investment Agreement which eToro entered into in February 2021 as part of its proposed SPAC transaction.”
Today’s investment will help eToro with its plans for growth over the next few years. “Our 2023 to 2025 strategy focuses on scaling our brokerage business in our key markets and increasing profitability via revenue growth and cost management,” said eToro Founder and CEO Yoni Assia.
Along with today’s funding announcement, eToro released highlights of its fiscal year 2022 performance. The company has 2.8 million funded accounts, up 17% from 2021. The company’s accountholders paid commissions totaling $631 million– a figure that is down from the company’s 2021 performance, but up 5% from 2020.
Adding to its busy 2022, eToro made two acquisitions, picking up options trading app Gatsby for $50 million and acquiring portfolio management tools provider Bullsheet for an undisclosed amount. The company increased its footprint for digital asset operations, receiving a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) registration in France, joining the registry of cryptoasset providers in Italy, and securing a New York BitLicense and Money Transmitter License.
As for long-term plans, “eToro will continue to focus on profitable growth while helping to drive progress towards a world where everyone can invest in a simple and transparent way,” said Assia.
Qolo announced a partnership with payouts company PayQuicker.
The partnership will combine PayQuicker’s Payouts OS platform with Qolo’s card issuing and payments technology.
Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFalll 2022.
Omnichannel payments and card issuing processor Qolo has teamed up with global payouts company PayQuicker. The partnership will combine PayQuicker’s Payouts OS platform with Qolo’s card issuing and payments technology. This will enable PayQuicker to issue a more advanced suite of card products, as well as make multi-channel payouts to help its corporate customers meet a wide range of payout needs.
“We chose Qolo as an issuing-processing partner because they offer the most modern, scalable, and flexible platform that will enable us to bring unique and differentiated payment solutions to our customers,” PayQuicker President Charles Rosenblatt said.
Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. At the conference, Qolo demoed its Companion Core, which offers banks low-cost, fintech functionality that runs in tandem with their existing system. Via a single API set, Qolo provides direct access to all payment rails and account types and offers program management, processing, and platform licensing, as well as acquiring, card and non-card payments, and account solutions.
“Qolo and PayQuicker are aligned in our vision to bring the best payments offerings to market,” Qolo CEO Patricia Montesi said. “We are thrilled to work with them and help power their innovative consumer and commercial programs.”
Founded in 2018, Qolo began the year with news that the company had processed more than $1 billion in total payouts in Q4 of 2022. Qolo has raised $19 million in funding, most recently securing $15 million in a Series A round led by The Raptor Group. The investment, in August 2021, came in the wake of a tripling of Qolo’s staff, as well as a pair of C-suite hires, and the launch of a beta version of its Qolo Accelerator program.
“We experienced strong investor interest fueled by our unique value proposition and rapid pace of customer acquisition,” Montesi said when the funding was announced. “The current fintech climate is driving massive growth, and Qolo’s 100% cloud-native omnichannel offering is perfectly positioned to meet the demand. And we have yet to see a payments model we can’t power.”
Banking and insights platform FinGoal announced a new investment this week. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
The funding round was led by existing investor Naples Technology Ventures (NTV).
FinGoal won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2022 for its Aggregator Switch Kit, developed in partnership with fellow Finovate alum Envestnet | Yodlee.
Digital banking and personal finance insights platform FinGoalsecured new funding this week. The Boulder, Colorado-based fintech announced that it has closed an investment round led by existing investor Naples Technology Ventures (NTV). The amount of the funding was not immediately disclosed.
“We believe FinGoal’s offering is a game changer in the banking and finance space,” NTV Managing Partner Mike Abbaei said. “Their platform will be a thriving success in the new digital world.”
This week’s funding marks the second time NTV has backed FinGoal. The company first invested in FinGoal in early 2022.
A specialist in enabling greater personalization in banking, FinGoal helps financial institutions understand where their customers are spending their money. These insights not only help FIs learn which banking products and services to offer their customers. This analysis also informs banks and other financial institutions on how best to market new offerings to their customers, as well.
“A business owner isn’t shopping for a business payments product – they want a way to better serve their customers and reduce costs,” FinGoal CEO David Nohe said. “Knowing what is really happening in the lives of customers allows FIs to do more with the account holders they already have.”
Making its Finovate debut in 2021, FinGoal returned to the Finovate stage less than a year later, securing a Best of Show award for its Aggregator Switch Kit that makes it easier for developers to quickly and easily transition away from their current data aggregator. The solution was developed in partnership with fellow Finovate alum Envestnet | Yodlee and provides a translation layer API that enables engineering teams to switch to Envestnet | Yodlee’s enrichment and make their first API call soon afterwards.
“Before today, switching aggregator was a pain in the butt,” FinGoal’s VP of Product Ariam Sium said from the FinovateSpring stage last May. “It took a lot of time and put a lot of product road maps at risk. At FinGoal, we believe that the best data made available through reliable and safe infrastructure is key to the future of financial services. That’s why we’re going to show you how to switch aggregators in minutes.”
Learn more about FinGoal in our podcast interview with Finovate VP Greg Palmer and FinGoal’s Sium.
With this latest tranche, the India-based company maintains its $12 billion valuation.
The new investment brings PhonePe’s total funding to $650 million.
Just one month after raising $100 million, India-based PhonePeannounced it closed a $200 million investment. With the new round, PhonePe’s pre-money valuation remains flat at $12 billion.
Today’s investment boosts the payments application expert’s total funding to $650 million, placing it more than halfway to reaching its $1 billion capital raise target. In its announcement today, PhonePe noted that it is expecting further progress toward the $1 billion goal, saying it is expecting more funding “in due course.”
PhonePe will use today’s funds to build and scale new businesses including insurance, wealth management, lending, stockbroking, Open Network for Digital Commerce-based shopping, and account aggregators. The investment will also help PhonePe grow UPI payments in India, including UPI lite and Credit on UPI. “We are excited about the next phase of our growth as we build new offerings for Indian consumers and merchants, along with enabling financial inclusion across the nation,” said PhonePe Founder and CEO Sameer Nigam.
“We are excited about PhonePe’s future and have confidence in how it continues to expand its offerings and provide access to financial services for Indians at scale,” said Walmart International President and CEO Judith McKenna. “India is one of the world’s most digital, dynamic and fastest growing economies, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to continue to support PhonePe.”
PhonePe was founded in 2015 and was acquired by Walmart-owned Flipkart in 2016. The company counts around 450 million registered users, a total that accounts for nearly one in three adult Indians. In 2017, PhonePe began offering investing tools, mutual fund products, and insurance tools.
Stripe received $6.5 billion in Series I funding, along with an updated valuation of $50 billion.
The $50 billion valuation is almost half of the company’s peak valuation of $95 billion received in 2021.
Today’s investment will not be used to fuel company growth, but will instead be used to provide liquidity to employees and address employee equity awards withholding tax obligations.
Stripeannounced a $6.5 billion Series I funding round today. Alongside the financing round, the payments processing company also unveiled an updated valuation.
The investment comes from existing Stripe shareholders– including Andreessen Horowitz, Baillie Gifford, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, MSD Partners, and Thrive Capital. New investors GIC, Goldman Sachs Asset and Wealth Management, and Temasek also contributed to the round, which boosts Stripe’s total funding to $8.7 billion.
Stripe also unveiled that it is now valued at $50 billion. This number is notably lower than the company’s peak. Stripe’s valuation rose to $95 billion in March of 2021, making it the most valuable U.S. startup. In July of 2022, the company’s valuation began tipping downward to $74 billion, and earlier this year, TechCrunch reported that Stripe was valued at $63 billion.
Unlike most venture funding rounds, however, today’s investment will not be used to fuel company growth. Instead, as Stripe notes in its announcement, “The funds raised will be used to provide liquidity to current and former employees and address employee withholding tax obligations related to equity awards.” This liquidity will offset the issuance of today’s round’s new shares, and therefore will not result in a reduction of the percentage of ownership that current investors hold in the company.
Founded in 2010, Stripe processes hundreds of billions of dollars each year and offers a range of products– including a suite of global payments solutions, banking-as-a-service offerings, and revenue and financial management tools.
Payments platform for digital worlds, Tilia, has raised $22 million.
The funds come from South Korea-based Dunamu and J.P. Morgan Payments.
Tilia offers a compliant way for digital content creators to receive micropayments and mints fiat-pegged currency that can be used in virtual economies.
Tilia, a digital payments platform for games and virtual worlds, announced this week it received $22 million in funding.
Today’s funds come from South Korea-based Dunamu. Combined with the funds that existing investor J.P. Morgan Payments invested in Tilia in October of 2022, the venture round boosts the company’s total raised to $22 million. Tilia will use today’s round to scale its platform and address the demand for payments in digital economies.
Originally founded in 2019, Tilia was spun out of Second Life creator Linden Lab in 2022. The California-based company’s payments platform is the backbone for online economies such as those found in online games, creator platforms, social commerce, and other digital worlds. Tilia enables creators to receive direct payouts by processing user-generated content transactions and microtransactions, allowing them to monetize their operations. For games and virtual worlds, the company mints branded tokens that are compliant in the U.S. and have a fixed conversion rate to fiat currency.
Along with today’s news, Tilia also announced two new appointments. The company brought on Brad Oberwager as CEO and Catherine Porter as Chief Business Officer. Oberwager has served as Executive Chair at Tilia for the past two years.
“Today’s payments infrastructure was built for traditional commerce – it hasn’t caught up with the new way of living and working in a digital, creator-driven economy,” said Oberwager. “At Tilia, we have a massive opportunity to unlock new revenue streams for both online creators and the platforms they build in, whether they are gaming worlds, social platforms, or next generation marketplaces. As I take the helm at Tilia, my focus will be on providing a payments system that enables these expanding digital economies.”
Sezzle announced plans to publicly list on the Nasdaq by the end of September.
The company will continue to sell common stock on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The news comes two years after Sezzle’s original announcement of plans to publicly list in the U.S.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) technology provider Sezzleannounced on Monday it plans to list publicly in the U.S. on the Nasdaq, while continuing to sell common stock on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company originally listed on the ASX in 2019 using Chess Depositary Interests (CDIs), which are traded on the ASX to allow non-Australian companies to list their shares on the exchange. Prior to listing on the Nasdaq, Sezzle plans to remove the Foreign Ownership Restricted on United States Person Prohibited tag from the CDIs to allow participation from U.S. investors.
“A listing on the Nasdaq is a natural evolution for Sezzle given the company is already filing the necessary reports with the SEC,” said Sezzle Chairman and CEO Charlie Youakim. “Although we are not seeking to raise capital as part of the Nasdaq listing, we are excited to expand the universe of potential investors to the United States.”
Sezzle plans to list in the U.S. no later than the end of September 2023.
Avid fintech nerds may have a sense of déjà vu reading Sezzle’s headline today. In fact, it echoes a news post we published in 2021: Sezzle Plans to File for U.S. IPO. According to that release, “Plans for the public listing are still in early stages. Details, such as the timing, price, and use, have not been revealed.” Sezzle’s release today revisits the plan for a U.S. IPO, but with more concrete details.
Sezzle was founded in 2016 and the company’s growth ballooned alongside the increasing interest in BNPL in 2020. In turning its focus from growth to profitability, Sezzle has made significant cost-saving efforts, including exiting a handful of foreign markets and cutting 20% of its North American workforce. Last February, we reported that fellow BNPL player Zip planned to acquire Sezzle. The deal was terminated in July in light of macroeconomic and market conditions.
APEXX Global has raised $25 million in a Series B round.
The funds come from existing investors Forward Partners, Alliance, and MMC Ventures.
APEXX Global will use the new investment to expand further into North America and to boost product development.
Global payment solutions company APEXX Global has raised $25 million in Series B funding. The investment, which comes from Forward Partners, Alliance, and MMC Ventures, brings APEXX’s total amount raised to $37.1 million.
“I’m delighted to announce that we have successfully closed our Series B funding round,” said APEXX Global Co-founder and CEO Peter Keenan. “Since day one we’ve been laser-focused on our mission to build the world’s leading payment orchestration platform and deliver clear benefits to merchants. We‘ve seen strong growth across international markets, delivering significant cost savings and transaction conversion benefits. We look forward to using these funds to further consolidate our position in driving the future of global payments.”
APEXX Global, which currently holds offices in New York, London, and India, plans to use the funds to expand further into North America via its New York office. The company will also leverage the investment to boost product development.
APEXX offers a payment orchestration layer to help merchants optimize their payment stack. The company’s payment gateway enhances the global payment processing experience by processing payments locally to help circumvent foreign exchange fees on cross-border transactions.
In addition to traditional payment methods, APEXX enables businesses to offer alternative payment methods to their end customers. The company currently partners with more than 120 alternative payment methods, including Apple Pay, Klarna, Alipay, and PayPal. Allowing users to pay using their preferred method not only enhances the user experience, but it also has the potential to increase sales.
“We’ve seen good momentum in terms of customer growth, and we are delighted to continue to back Peter and his talented team as they work with merchants to rethink payments and save money,” said MMC Ventures Chairman and Co-founder Alan Morgan. With today’s agreement, Morgan will also take a seat on APEXX’s board of directors.
Paysera is partnering with Ria to add cash-pickup capabilities to its suite of financial services offerings.
Paysera clients can select from Ria’s network of 522,000 cash pickup locations in 152 countries.
The new service is currently available to Paysera clients using electronic banking and will be made available on the mobile app in the first half of this year.
E-money app Paysera is adding a cash-pickup service to its suite of financial services offerings. The new capability is made possible thanks to a partnership with international money transfer company Ria.
Owned by Euronet Worldwide, Ria enables clients to send money to a physical Ria cash pickup location instead of a bank. Customers can choose from Ria’s network of 522,000 cash pickup locations in 152 countries. Under today’s partnership, Paysera clients can now tap into this network when sending and receiving funds.
“Sometimes it’s not possible to transfer money to a bank account because the recipient doesn’t have a local bank account,” said Paysera CEO Gintautas Mezetis. “Even if the recipient has an account, it may not be linked to a debit card, the card may have been lost, or there may be no ATMs around to withdraw the money. An international transfer from Europe to Asia is sometimes more expensive than an alternative cash pickup transfer. Therefore, there are many situations where cash pickup transfers are useful and necessary.”
Paysera anticipates the new cash pickup offering will benefit migrants working in developed countries in Europe. Specifically, Paysera is seeking to help Ukrainian citizens temporarily living in European countries due to the war who need to transfer money back home.
The new Ria cash pickup service is currently available to Paysera customers using electronic banking. The company plans to make cash pickup available on the mobile app in the first half of 2023.
Paysera offers an online merchant payment gateway, money transfers, currency conversions, payment cards with a tandem financial management app, event ticketing, and a parcel locker network. The Lithuania-based company has had more than one million app downloads since it was founded in 2004.
As a legacy player in the money transfer space, Norway-based Ria also offers bill payment, mobile top-ups, prepaid debit cards, check cashing, and money orders. The company is partnered with many major retailers to serve as cash pick-up locations, including Walmart, 7-Eleven, Privatbank, and Post Finance.
Credit Karma is launching Net Worth, a new tool that will enable users to view and track their net worth in a single place.
Intuit’s Mint business has joined the Credit Karma team to facilitate the new Net Worth tool.
At launch, the Net Worth tool will be available to U.S. consumers with credit scores above 720.
Intuit-owned Credit Karma is expanding from credit building into wealth building this week with its new launch, Net Worth. The new tool aims to help the company’s 120 million U.S. members track their net worth, and places Credit Karma one step closer toward its goal of becoming a full service personal financial management platform.
Intuit subsidiary Mint is key to today’s launch and has joined the Credit Karma team to implement the new offering. Mint launched in 2007 to help users keep track of all of their accounts in a single place. The company was one of the first to offer account aggregation in a direct-to-consumer offering.
“Credit Karma’s mission is to champion financial progress for all, but we know that financial progress looks different for everyone,” said Credit Karma CEO and Founder Kenneth Lin. “This next evolution of Credit Karma will combine the expertise and momentum generated by Mint with Credit Karma’s scale and technology, and enable us to help more Americans, in particular those who are faced with a new set of financial challenges and are looking to elevate and protect their net worth.”
At launch, Net Worth will be quite simple. The tool will help members understand the components of their net worth, monitor changes, and track their transactions over time. Future iterations will enable users to protect their net worth, maximize credit card rewards based on spending habits, and view investment insights. Interestingly, each of these secondary iterations comes with potential revenue streams, such as selling insurance, credit card promotional partnerships, etc.
Credit Karma is making Net Worth available to U.S. consumers with credit scores above 720 and hopes to expand the tool to more users over time. “Net Worth was built for U.S. consumers who have already made significant progress on their credit score and are looking for that next financial health indicator to track and take action on, as they continue their financial journey,” said Mint General Manager Ryan Steckler. “Before we can help consumers grow their net worth, we’ve built a seamless product experience that gives consumers a holistic view of all of their financial accounts, directly within the Credit Karma app.”
