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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Black-founded and run fintech Kinly announced a partnership with open finance company MX.
The partnership will bring MX’s financial data aggregation and enhancement solutions to Kinly via the Lehi, Utah-based company’s open finance APIs.
MX is a multiple-time, Finovate Best of Show winner. Founded in 2020, Atlanta, Georgia-based Kinly has raised $20 million in funding.
Kinly, a digitally-oriented financial services company dedicated to helping African Americans build generational wealth, has teamed up with financial data aggregation and enhancement solutions platform MX to power its custom-built financial tools.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and founded in 2020 by CEO Donald Hawkins, Kinly leverages financial education, savings and wealth building, and other strategies to help improve financial outcomes. The company offers a deposit account, a Visa debit card, early wage access, overdraft protection up to $100, and cash back rewards for purchases made at participating Black-owned businesses as well as thousands of popular retailers. There are no hidden fees, no minimum balance required, and Kinly customers can also take advantage of fee-free ATM withdrawals nationwide. Deposits are FDIC-insured, and Kinly’s banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank.
Hawkins praised MX for both its mission and its “passion for diversity.” He added, “I’ve been impressed with MX’s world-class financial data platform for years and look forward to partnering with them. MX’s open finance APIs will help fuel our mission to help serve and improve the financial livelihood of our broad community.”
The partnership with Lehi, Utah-based MX – a multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner – will bring valuable data aggregation and enrichment to Kinly courtesy of MX’s open finance APIs. This connectivity will enable Kinly to quickly and securely link to and verify data for a wide variety of financial use cases ranging from account opening and money movement to underwriting.
“Working closely with Kinly to help provide data enhancement and personalized financial advice for the Black community aligns perfectly with our mission to empower the world to be financially strong,” MX Chief Product Officer Brett Allred said. “We’re big fans of Kinly and the underrepresented community it serves and look forward to its continued growth and ongoing partnership into the future.”
Kinly joins a growing ecosystem of Black and African American-based financial institutions, including Greenwood, CapWay, and Guava. The company has raised a total of $20 million in funding courtesy of a $5 million seed round in November of 2020 and a $15 million Series A round in August of 2021. Forerunner Ventures led Kinly’s Series A, which featured participation from Kapor Capital, Anthemis Group, and Point72 Ventures, as well as from individual investors from the world of professional sports such as Marshawn Lynch and Kevin Durant.
U.K.-based GoHenry has acquired France-based Pixpay for an undisclosed sum.
The deal will help GoHenry expand further into Europe.
GoHenry and Pixpay will operate under their own brands with no change in staffing or headquarters.
Kids money management app GoHenry has acquired France-based Pixpay for an undisclosed amount.
The move will help U.K.-based GoHenry expand further into Europe, taking advantage of Pixpay’s teen mobile banking operations in France, Spain, and eventually Germany and Italy.
“Pixpay is the most developed player in Europe,” said GoHenry CEO Alex Zivoder, “and we’re excited to combine our expertise in financial education to accelerate not only GoHenry’s growth but to accelerate the financial fitness of even more kids and teens globally.”
Founded in 2019, Pixpay’s mobile banking app targets a slightly older user base then GoHenry. Pixpay is aimed at pre-teens and teenagers, while GoHenry caters to kids as young as six years old. Both seek to not only help kids spend and save money, but also to teach them responsible money habits at an early age. With almost 200,000 users, Pixpay has raised €11.1 million. Benoit Grassin is co-founder and CEO.
“We are delighted to be joining the GoHenry Group as we prepare to accelerate Pixpay’s expansion across Europe,” said Grassin. “GoHenry’s experience and heritage will only serve to strengthen the already strong proposition offered by Pixpay.”
The acquisition will not impact current operations at either company. Both GoHenry and Pixpay will function under their own brands with no change in staffing or headquarters. The two plan to work together to improve their products and “further transform financial education across the globe.”
GoHenry launched in 2012 and has since raised $66.2 million. The company expanded into the U.S. in 2019 and now counts more than two million members across the U.S. and the U.K.
“So as we expand into Europe, we’re excited to empower even more young people with the money management skills they need to thrive in today’s digital economy,” the company said in its announcement.
Utility data aggregator Urjanet has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.
Urjanet made its Finovate debut last fall at FinovateSpring 2021.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atlanta, Georgia-based Urjanet facilitates access to data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers around the world.
Here’s some big news from a Finovate newcomer that slipped beneath our radar in the wake of FinovateSpring this year. Urjanet, a leading utility data aggregator that made its Finovate debut last May, has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will integrate Urjanet’s global data access with Arcadia’s data and API platform, Arc. This will enable Arc to serve as a universal software layer for the “zero-carbon economy.”
“Without data access, it will be impossible to meet the urgency and size of the climate crisis,” Arcadia CEO Kiran Bhatraju said. “Through our combined capabilities, Arc will help companies in every industry plan for and act on their climate responsibilities, pulling forward a zero-carbon future.”
Urjanet, founded in 2010 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s leading utility data aggregator. The company enables businesses to securely access consumer-permissioned data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers in 47 countries. Urjanet accesses more than one million utility bills a month and flows $150 billion in utility spend through its platform. With 50,000 connected utility accounts around the world, nearly a third (30%) of the Fortune 500 utility bills are captured with Urjanet’s technology. Bhatraju said that the integration with Arc will enable Arcadia’s platform to include more than 95% of all residential and commercial accounts in the U.S., as well as data from 9,500 electric, water, gas, and waste utilities globally. More than 1.35 million utility accounts around the world will be connected courtesy of the acquisition.
“Urjanet and Arcadia have long known the same secret: that on-demand, high-fidelity energy data is key to rapid decarbonization,” Arcadia’s Bhatraju wrote when the acquisition was announced earlier this year. “By integrating Urjanet’s global data access, Arc, Arcadia’s industry-leading data and API platform, becomes a universal software layer for the zero-carbon economy with the ability to serve all customers – residential and commercial – across the globe.”
At its Finovate appearance last May, Urjanet showed how its technology could be used to boost financial inclusion and expand credit access. The company partnered with Equifax to launch a new Payment Insights solution that enables banks and lenders to use utility payment history to help establish worthiness for loans.
More recently, Urjanet launched its new flagship platform, Utility Cloud, which provides easy and automated access to credentialed utility account information. Unveiled in April, Utility Cloud provides universal access to utility data, delivering sustainability reporting, energy consumption, utility bill data, and bill images on-demand. This allows businesses to become more energy-efficient, reduce energy spending, and produce quality, aggregated data for ESG reporting.
“Going forward, our customers’ data will be available on-demand in one central location, simplifying their utility data access even more. “Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik said. “This one-of-a-kind platform will help organizations streamline very manual and expensive business processes associated with organizing bills from all over the world.”
Envestnet acquired revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies.
Envestnet will use the buy to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Financial wellness technology firm Envestnetannounced its 16th acquisition today. The Chicago-based company announced it has purchased revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Redi2 offers a revenue management platform tailored to financial services companies. The tool offers fee calculation, invoice creation, payouts and accounting, and billing compliance. Among Redi2’s products are Revenue Manager, which provides client revenue accounting and billing services for asset managers; Wealth Manager, which delivers multi-party billing and payouts for broker-dealers and asset managers; and BillFin, which offers advisory billing and invoicing for financial advisors.
Envestnet will use Redi2’s technology to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities. The company anticipates the additional expertise will drive client engagement and ultimately boost revenue.
“Redi2 is a pioneer and innovator in the cloud-based delivery of wealth and investment management billing software, making them an ideal partner as we continue to strengthen our financial wellness ecosystem,” said Envestnet Executive Vice President of Business Lines Tom Sipp. “This acquisition enhances our strategic enablement of service and data, and over the next two years will create operating leverage by bringing Envestnet and Redi2’s administrative, revenue, and billing services together.”
Envestnet was founded in 1999. The company’s most noteworthy acquisition was its purchase of Yodlee in 2015. The Yodlee acquisition broadened Envestnet’s wealthtech offerings, launching it into the world of open finance. Envestnet is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ENV and has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion.
Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire open banking platform Nordigen.
The Latvia-based fintech, a Finovate alum since 2018, connects to 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.
Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close later this summer, were not disclosed.
Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquireNordigen, an open banking platform based in Latvia. GoCardless will integrate Nordigen’s open banking connectivity into its account-to-account network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this summer.
“The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level,” GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said. “By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner, or fintech.” Takeuchi added that the acquisition will “lead to experimentation … that will create even more compelling use cases.”
Nordigen leverages open banking to help banks and lenders make more creditworthy loans. The company offers solutions that automate income and liability verification, and provides critical insights into prospective borrowers from account data for scoring models. Nordigen offers high-performance analytics including transaction categorization, feature engineering for credit modeling, and the capacity to generate risk scores from account data. Operating in 13 countries and partnered with more than 50 banks and lenders around the world, Nordigen connects to more than 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.
“Our mission at Nordigen is to help companies around the world adopt and use Open Banking to enable greater financial transparency and financial inclusion,” Nordigen CEO Rolands Mesters said in a statement. “We share GoCardless’ enthusiasm for the growth of Open Banking and are excited to partner with people who not only share our passion for disruptive innovation in financial services, but who will also help us bring Open Banking freely to a much wider audience.”
Acquisition talk has not slowed down Nordigen, which has forged partnerships at an impressive pace this year alone. In June, Nordigen announced that it was working with Sherpa CRM, Landlord Fusion, HES FinTech, BUNNI, and Acounto. Already this month, Nordigen reported that it has expanded its collaboration with Latvian financial services company AS DelfinGroup.
Founded in 2016, Nordigen made its Finovate debut in 2018 at FinovateFall in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following spring for FinovateEurope in London. Prior to the acquisition announcement, Nordigen had raised $4.2 million in funding from investors including Black Pearls VC and Superangel.
OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures.
The amount of the investment was undisclosed, but adds to the company’s $47 million raised since 2010.
ING is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy.
Enterprise productivity company OpenFinreceived a strategic investment from ING Ventures this week. The amount of the investment was undisclosed. The New York-based company plans to use the funds to expand what it calls “the operating system (OS) of enterprise productivity,” or OpenFin OS.
OpenFin OS helps financial services organizations power internal and customer-facing digital experiences. OpenFin counts more than 2,400 banks, wealth management firms in 60+ countries as OpenFin OS users. Clients include 23 of top 25 global banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and more. OpenFin is aiming to expand the OpenFin OS “to every user within financial services.”
Today’s investor, ING, is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy. As a result of the implementation, ING employees can access intuitive workspace management and automated workflows, and as a result increase their productivity.
“Our investment in OpenFin further validates our determination and commitment to digital transformation and innovation,” said ING Ventures Co-Head Frederic Hofmann. “We are excited to partner with OpenFin as they have proven to be the best in class app platform in this space, transforming distribution and significantly enhancing end-user productivity across the finance industry.”
The amount of today’s funding round was undisclosed, and so was the amount of OpenFin’s most recent round it received in December 2020. Despite this, we know that today’s investment brings the company’s total raised to north of $47 million since it was founded in 2010. That’s the amount of the previous eight investments OpenFin received from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Barclays, CME Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, NYCA Partners, Pivot Investment Partners, SC Ventures, and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.
Last April, OpenFin launchedWorkspace, a tool to help business users consolidate and automate their work across applications and tasks using a single interface. Since then, the company was awarded the “Best Workplace for Change and Transformation” by Harrington Starr.
Tel Aviv, Israel-based ThetaRay announced a partnership with Brazil’s Travelex Bank.
Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s transaction monitoring and sanctions screening solution, SONAR, to enhance its ability to combat money laundering.
ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company has raised more than $112 million in funding.
Transaction monitoring technology provider ThetaRaywill help Brazil’s biggest FX specialist, Travelex Bank, enhance its transaction monitoring and sanctions screening capabilities. Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based anti-money laundering solution, SONAR, to provide both domestic and international transaction monitoring, as well as real-time sanctions screening for international payments.
Travelex Bank Chief Compliance Officer Célia Pizzi highlighted ThetaRay’s ability to meet the institution’s transactions monitoring and sanctions screening needs with a single platform. “ThetaRay’s SONAR will enable us to expand our product services portfolio and improve customer service while improving our overall AML operations,” Pizzi said. “SONAR will provide higher efficiency and secure risk coverage, enabling new businesses and lines of revenue.”
SONAR leverages an advanced type of AI, “artificial intelligence intuition,” that gives banks and financial services institutions a risk-based approach to effectively identify suspicious transactions and individuals. Without bias or thresholds, SONAR provides a comprehensive profile of customer identities across cross-border transaction paths that leads to a quick and accurate identification of money laundering threats. According to ThetaRay, SONAR offers a 95% detection rate and a 99% reduction in false positives when compared to rules-based AML solutions.
“Travelex Bank represents a new generation of global institutions that is readying its money transfer and payment infrastructure for changing conditions,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said. “Travelex is a provider that looks to the future and prioritizes trust, confidence, and quality.”
Travelex Bank represents international exchange corporation Travelex in Brazil (along with the brokerage Travelex Confidence). The bank provides a wide variety of services including international remittances, imports and exports, crypto exchange transactions, registration services, and more. The firm’s adoption of SONAR, in addition to bolstering its AML capabilities, will also enable Travelex Bank to offer new, compliant products and services.
A Finovate alum since 2015, ThetaRay has spent much of this year forging partnerships with a number of fintechs and banks. In March, ThetaRay announced a partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank and teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Payoneer. Also this spring, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company reported that it had selected sanctions screening firm Screena as its screening solutions partner, and had partnered with omnichannel money movement platform Qolo to provide transactions monitoring.
With more than $112 million in funding, ThetaRay includes Benhamou Global Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), and ABN AMRO Ventures among its investors.
Chicago, Illinois-based CIBC Bank USA has announced a partnership with Finovate newcomer, Velocity Solutions.
CIBC will leverage Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform to lower costs, better manage risk, and increase per-loan profitability.
Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021. The company acquired the Akouba platform in 2018.
CIBC Bank USA has chosenVelocity Solutions’Akouba Digital Lending Platform to support its small business banking division. The Chicago, Illinois-based commercial bank, founded in 1989 as The PrivateBank and Trust Company, will leverage Akouba’s cloud-based SaaS platform to lower the cost, time, and risk associated with the loan origination process. At the same time, the platform will help boost the profitability of every loan made.
“We’ve made tremendous progress with the platform since we acquired Akouba in June 2018,” Velocity Solutions EVP of Product Management Mike Triggiano said. “We’re continually refining the platform and adding new features and functionality. It’s been a thrill to enhance Akouba’s industry-leading technology over the past two years, and the opportunity to add CIBC Bank USA to our growing list of clients is definitely one of the most exciting milestones in Akouba’s history to date.”
Added to Velocity Solution’s product suite four years ago, Akouba is designed to accelerate loan origination for both retail and commercial lending. The only small business loan origination platform endorsed by the American Bankers Association (ABA), Akouba reduces end-to-end time, streamlines operational processes, and helps increase profits. The platform does all this while giving financial institutions the ability to retain control over the decision, pricing, credit policy, risk metrics, and loan amounts, as well as the borrower experience.
“At CIBC, we are building an innovative, relationship-focused bank,” CIBC Bank USA President of Retail and Digital Banking and Head of U.S. Strategy and Administration Brant Ahrens said. “Akouba gives our small business clients the ability to seek financing on any device at any time in any place that is convenient for them.”
Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last September, where the company demoed its Akouba platform. In the months since, Velocity Solutions has introduced a number of new solutions including VelocityConnector that enables efficient and secure API connections between banking data systems; its VelocityScore feature, which helps indicate the ability of accountholders to repay loans; and its Consumer Liquidity Engine, which makes a range of flexible overdraft options and affordable short-term loans available to bank and credit union customers and members.
Founded in 1995, Velocity Solutions is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Christopher Leonard is CEO.
Wirex launched a new line of credit, enabling users to borrow stablecoins against their crypto holdings.
The new credit offering enables users to access the value of their crypto holdings without needing to sell off their crypto assets.
Users can borrow up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT and NXUSD in exchange for their BTC and ETH holdings.
Cryptocurrency payments platform Wirexintroduced a new line of credit this week.
The new offering, Wirex Credit, enables Wirex’s five million customers to instantly borrow up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT, and NXUSD. Wirex uses clients’ BTC or ETH (with more crypto options launching soon) as collateral with zero origination or setup fees. Users can borrow up to 80% of the value of their crypto holdings and only pay interest once their credit line goes live.
Wirex Credit helps customers access the value of their crypto holdings without having to sell. This is especially useful in the current crypto environment. Because the value of BTC and ETH is down, users would have to sell their holdings at a loss if they wanted to make a purchase using crypto. By converting their holdings to stablecoins first, Wirex clients can make purchases using crypto without selling at an inopportune time.
Users can take advantage of Wirex Credit within the Wirex app and receive stablecoins immediately, with no affordability or credit checks.
“This is a landmark point in Wirex offering more ways for everyday users to utilise crypto, and we’ve made it as convenient and straightforward as possible for our customers to take a crypto-backed loan,” said Wirex CEO and Cofounder Pavel Matveev. “Wirex’s vast ecosystem of products means there are huge opportunities for using Wirex Credit, from HODLing to debit card purchases, or using the Wirex Wallet to earn in DeFi protocols.”
Founded in 2014, Wirex offers an app linked to a Visa debit card that allows customers to spend their cryptocurrency online and in-store at over 61 million locations. The company offers free domestic and international ATM withdrawals, no annual fee, zero exchange fees, near instant crypto transactions, live transaction notifications, and the ability to instantly top up via their debit card with zero fees. Today’s line of credit launch rounds out this set of financial services tools, bringing the company one step closer to providing a comprehensive financial services offering.
Intelligent identity solution provider Sontiq has issued a new report on security in financial services.
The report, 2022 Digital Safety and Security Report for Financial Services, underscores the importance of engaging customers and members in the fight against cyberfraud.
Sontiq made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021 and was acquired a few months later by TransUnion for $638 million.
Intelligent identity security firm Sontiq has warned that the growing sophistication of cybercriminals and increased awareness and concern over the challenge to digital security from the public have created both new challenges and new opportunities for financial institutions. In a new report, the 2022 Digital Safety and Security Report for Financial Services, Sontiq highlights the way cybercriminals have leveraged advanced technologies – including automation and AI – to achieve what Sontiq called a “historic level of data compromise” in 2021.
“Consumers are increasingly anxious about cyber threats, but feel unprepared to take action or deal with the fallout,” Sontiq SVP of Enterprise Risk Solutions Al Pascual said. “Notably, they don’t want generic security advice. Financial institutions can combat increased identity risks with personalized, self-service tools that are seamlessly embedded into the digital banking experience.”
Here are some of the key takeaways from Sontiq’s report.
Financial institutions must understand the threat landscape
“What consumers, organizations, and the media often misunderstand,” the report noted, “is that the data breaches with the greatest impact on individuals are often not the high-profile ones that capture headlines.” Sontiq’s research distinguishes between high-profile breaches at institutions like Facebook/Meta and LinkedIn and high-risk breaches at companies like Gallagher and Waste Management. This is because “high-risk” breaches, while involving fewer victims, tend to involve compromises of more valuable personally-identifiable information compared to “high-profile” breaches.
Synthetic identity fraud is a bigger threat than identity theft
A growing number of financial services companies are recognizing the challenge of synthetic identity fraud, with Sontiq observing that 72% of financial services firms believe that synthetic identity fraud is a “much more pressing issue” compared to traditional identity theft.
Why so? And what’s the difference?
Traditional identity theft involves stealing a real person’s PII (personally-identifiable information) and using that data to engage in criminal activity. And make no mistake: traditional identity theft is still an issue, costing $24 billion in losses and victimizing more than 15 million individuals in 2021. Synthetic identity fraud, by comparison, involves a blending of both real and fictitious information. This enables the fraudster to create a completely new, made-up identity that can then be used to fraudulently open accounts, and apply for loans and credit cards. A newer arrival on the cybercrime scene, synthetic identity fraud also comes at a significant cost. The Federal Reserve has estimated that synthetic identity fraud losses have climbed to $20 billion, making it the “fastest growing financial crime.”
Personalized, proactive identity protection gives financial institutions the opportunity to differentiate themselves
In its report, Sontiq makes it clear that consumers are uncertain about who to turn to in the event of a security breach. “Nearly half of Americans,” the report notes, “say they would not know what to do if their identity was stolen.” Because of this, more than half of American fraud victims (54%) have indicated that they believe their financial institution can play a major role in helping them “navigate and resolve their identity fraud issues.” Breach victims across generations – under 35, between 35 and 54, and over 55 – all turned to their financial institutions for assistance in comparable numbers (50%, 48%, and 44% respectively).
This has resulted in a significant growth in the identity theft protection services market. Analysts project that this market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.4% over the next 10 years.
There are a variety of ways that financial institutions can seize this opportunity by deploying better anti-fraud tools and partnering with fintechs and cybersecurity specialists. But key to all of these efforts, according to Sontiq, is customer engagement. Educating financial services consumers on what to do to enhance their own online security – and what to do in the event of a security breach – is critical. Also important is the role of empowerment, and helping consumers understand what they can do to enhance their own defense against fraud.
“Getting consumers to adopt a self-service approach to identity protection also has the potential to help a financial institution better invest resources,” the report noted. “Informed, engaged customers who actively protect their identities become potent allies – finding fraud earlier and reducing overall risk to them and the financial institution.”
Download the free white paper to read the full report.
Sontiq made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021. At the event, the Nottingham, Maryland-based company demonstrated its BreachIQ solution. BreachIQ identifies and diagnoses a consumer’s security breach history to provide personalized, protective actions the consumer can take to improve financial health and enhance security. The technology effectively leverages AI to turn ID fraud risk into a consumer financial health opportunity.
Launched in 2019, Sontiq was formed when EZShield acquired identity theft protection provider IdentityForce. Last spring, Sontiq announced its acquisition of Breach Clarity, a post-breach fraud specialist and Finovate Best of Show winner. In October 2021, Sontiq itself was acquired by fellow Finovate alum TransUnion for $638 million. In a statement, TransUnion said that Sontiq’s identity security technology compliments its own digital identity assets and solutions.
“TransUnion is committed to empowering consumers to shape their financial futures,” TransUnion President of U.S. Markets and Consumer Interactive Steve Chaouki said. “With Sontiq, we will ensure that consumers and businesses have a comprehensive set of tools to protect the financial profile they have built.”
Australian superapp Bano has selected Currencycloud to facilitate low FX rates.
Integrating Currencycloud’s API offers Bano users access to Currencycloud’s low FX rates, which makes investing in the U.S. stock market more accessible for Bano users.
“Bano is committed to simplifying financial management for Australia’s GenZ and Millennials,” said Bano Head of Financial Markets and Treasury Randall Maccan.
Visa-owned Currencycloudannounced this week it has been selected by Australia-based superapp Bano. Bano will leverage Currencycloud’s FX Converter to facilitate remittances for its Millennial and Gen Z users.
Bano is a digital banking app regulated by ASIC and AUSTRAC. The startup, which is is accessible in over 180 countries, offers physical and virtual Visa debit cards with features such as bill-splitting, fund requests, FX conversions, cashback, rewards, and multi-currency accounts.
Integrating Currencycloud’s API offers Bano users access to Currencycloud’s low FX rates and low AUD to USD conversion rates. This low conversion rate will make investing in the U.S. stock market more accessible for Bano users.
“Bano is committed to simplifying financial management for Australia’s GenZ and Millennials,” said Bano Head of Financial Markets and Treasury Randall Maccan. “Enlarging the breadth of our superapp services with products like the FX Converter is a key part of this mission. Our partnership with Currencycloud has meant we can create a product that will provide a much-needed service for our customers, especially international students in Australia.”
Founded in 2012, Currencycloud facilitates cross-border, multi-currency transactions. The London-based company has processed more than $100 billion to over 180 countries for bank and fintech clients including Starling Bank, Revolut, Penta, and Lunar.
In July of last year, Visa snapped up Currencycloud in a deal that valued the company at $963 million. Last October, the company partnered with Plaid, embedding Plaid’s Payment Initiation Services into its own solution to allow customers to fund their accounts without ever leaving the platform.
Digital financing platform Funding Societies agreed to acquire payments solutions company CardUp.
The announcement comes four months after Funding Societies closed a $294 million Series C investment.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Digital financing platform Funding Societies has agreed to acquire payments solutions company CardUp for an undisclosed amount. The news comes four months after Funding Societies raised $294 million in Series C funding.
Singapore-based Funding Societies will leverage CardUp’s payments products to complement its own lending capabilities. The new tools will empower its SME clients to manage and pay expenses, receive payments, and borrow funds.
CardUp, which is also headquartered in Singapore, offers payment capabilities, such as card payments to non-card accepting recipients, online payments acceptance, invoice automation tools, and licenses and integrations with third-party software to help businesses make and collect payments. The no-code solutions make it easy for companies to improve cash flow management, unlock rewards on existing credit cards, and automate tasks. Since it launched in 2016, CardUp has served “tens of thousands” of business clients ranging from micro businesses to corporates.
CardUp will continue to operate its consumer and business services. The company’s employees across Asia will transition over to the Funding Societies team and CardUp CEO Nicki Ramsay will join Funding Societies’ management team to lead its payments business.
Funding Societies, which is licensed and registered in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and operates in Vietnam, connects small businesses with financing while offering alternative investment opportunities for individual investors. The company offers a range of financing products, including micro loans, term loans, invoice financing, supply chain financing, revolving credit, and more. In 2021, Funding Societies connected small businesses with $1 billion in working capital. Funding Societies also supports businesses with a credit card that offers 5% cashback.
“Acquiring CardUp enables us to leapfrog and accelerate our market leadership in the regional fintech space, integrating payments capabilities, enhanced user experience, and local licenses to our digital lending experience across key markets,” said Funding Societies Co-founder and CEO Kelvin Teo. “We are excited to work with the CardUp team and are honored to join forces with them.”
