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Fintech Startup Showcase: With Ownwell, Proptech Meets Taxtech

Fintech Startup Showcase: With Ownwell, Proptech Meets Taxtech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Startups

The convergence between the complexities of property management and property taxation has produced more than its fair share of headaches for commercial and residential property owners alike. Fortunately, fintech innovation in the form of Ownwell exists to help these property owners save money when it comes to paying property taxes.

“Property owners have a lot to consider when deciding to protest (property tax overpayments),” Ownwell CEO Colton Pace explained. Pace cited the costs in time and money, the complexity, and the access to real estate industry expertise as major hurdles for property owners when contesting property value assessments. “Ownwell handles the entire process of appealing on behalf of property owners and charges the lowest fees currently on the market,” Pace said. “We ensure all property owners, regardless of financial status, have access to the tools, resources, and information they need to manage their property taxes with confidence.”

Formerly known as realAppeal, Ownwell combines industry expertise and machine learning to provide property owners with protection against overpaying on their property tax. Ownwell provides owners with a savings estimate based on current sales and valuation data. If the owner decides to challenge their assessment, locally-based property tax experts leverage proprietary software to build the best case possible for the property owner. With a Savings-or-Free guarantee, Ownwell customers only pay if the process saves them money on their property tax assessment. The company said that its customers save an average of $1,457, and that “nearly” nine of 10 of its challenges are successful.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Ownwell earned a spot in the fintech headlines recently with news of its $5.75 million seed funding round. The investment was led by First Round Capital, and featured participation by Wonder Ventures, Founder Colllective, Long Journey Ventures, and Scott Banister, former board member of PayPal. The company said that it will use the additional capital to hire additional talent – from sales to technology to local tax expertise – across the board. The seed funding comes as the Ownwell reports growing its customer base by 40x over the past nine months, with operations in Texas, California, Washington, and Florida.

“Real estate is often the most valuable asset homeowners and investors own, but it’s difficult to track and manage the rising costs of property taxes, insurance, financing, and more,” First Round Capital partner Bill Trenchard said. “Ownwell is building a platform to help property owners reduce their property taxes and manage the other costs of ownership with confidence.”

Photo by David McBee

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American Express Teams Up with Billtrust to Streamline Virtual Card Acceptance

American Express Teams Up with Billtrust to Streamline Virtual Card Acceptance
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, American Express, Daily news
  • American Express and Billtrust announced a partnership that will leverage automation to enhance acceptance of AMEX virtual cards.
  • The collaboration is designed to meet the accounts receivable (AR) needs of suppliers who are experiencing faster payments and increased cash flow.
  • A Finovate alum since 2015, American Express recently partnered with i2c to help fintechs and financial institutions develop solutions on its payments network.

A partnership between American Express and B2B accounts receivable (AR) automation and integrated payments innovator Billtrust will make it easier for suppliers to accept payments via AMEX’s virtual cards.

The integration, announced late last week, will enable suppliers to automate and accelerate virtual card payments and to benefit from real-time insight into their outstanding invoices and current cash flow. The partnership, according to AMEX President of U.S. Global Merchant Services Colleen Taylor, is designed to help suppliers keep pace with both an increased demand for products and services, as well as a need for faster, more efficient payment processes. This is due, Taylor suggested, in large part to the trend of businesses “moving away from paper-based payments to electronic payments for the greater visibility and speed they provide.”

Unfortunately, this trend of faster payments and larger cash flows also means that many companies have existing AR systems that are often inadequate. The partnership between American Express and Billtrust responds to this challenge by giving suppliers a complete solution that covers all aspects of the AR process, including credit decisioning, ordering, invoicing, payments, cash application, and collections. The partnership also will give suppliers access to Billtrust’s Business Payments Network (BPM), which boosts invoice and digital payment efficiency by connecting them with hundreds of buyers and buyer portals.

“Both Billtrust and American Express recognize the need to support merchants and suppliers in responding to buyer demands for digital payment options,” Billtrust CEO Flint Lane said. “This collaboration brings automation to American Express merchants and suppliers, helping create better outcomes and increased customer satisfaction.”

American Express has been a Finovate alum since 2015, when the company presented The role of B2B payments in the evolving commerce ecosystem at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. The company’s partnership news with Billtrust comes in the wake of a collaboration with digital payment and banking technology company i2c that will make it easier for fintechs and financial institutions to develop and scale products on AMEX’s global payments network. American Express trades on the NYSE under the ticker AXP, and has a market capitalization of $127 billion.

Photo by Taras Makarenko

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Fidelity Enters the Metaverse with New Financial Education Experience: Invest Quest at The Fidelity Stack

Fidelity Enters the Metaverse with New Financial Education Experience: Invest Quest at The Fidelity Stack
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Fidelity
  • Fidelity Investments announced the launch of its gamified, metaverse-based financial education experience.
  • The Fidelity Stack is an eight-story, virtual building that hosts a lobby, a dance floor, a rooftop for hanging out, and an Invest Quest challenge to help users learn about ETF investing.
  • Fidelity Investments’ new offering comes in the wake of the launch of a metaverse-themed exchange-traded fund (ETF), FMET.

Financial Literacy Month meets the metaverse movement as Fidelity Investments unveils a new gamified financial education experience located in Decentraland, a virtual world launched in 2020. The new offering, The Fidelity Stack, features a lobby, a dance floor, and a roof top hangout, as well as an Invest Quest challenge in which visitors gather “orbs” and learn the basics of investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) while moving through eight-story Fidelity Stack facility.

“We’re part of a dynamic shift as young people take control of their finances in new ways,” Fidelity CMO and Head of Emerging Customers David Dintenfass said. “The next generation seeks out financial education in all the places they spend time, whether physical or virtual. We’re committed to serve customers in these decentralized communities as they transform and grow.”

In a preview video of The Fidelity Stack in Decentraland, Fidelity in the Metaverse, the investment firm noted that while the new experience is “not our first metaverse rodeo” The Fidelity Stack nevertheless represents Fidelity as “the first brokerage firm to have an immersive, educational metaverse experience.” Locating its new offering in Decentraland also could help Fidelity Investments reach younger audiences; Decentraland is dedicated toward users in the 18-35 age range – a cohort that Reuters noted represented 3.8 million of the Fidelity brokerage accounts opened in 2021.

The Fidelity Stack comes hot on the heels of the launch of a new ETF from Fidelity Investments that enables investors to add exposure to companies that are building the metaverse to their portfolios. FMET, as the ETF is called, includes shares of companies such as Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Adobe, and NVIDIA. Unveiled along with another new ETF – the Fidelity Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF, FDIG – FMET is designed to give investors the opportunity to participate in the growth of new technologies without requiring investors to have a great deal of experience in or familiarity with the complexity that accompanies these new innovations.

“Leveraging Fidelity’s decades of investment experience, we are focused on growing our broad product lineup with innovative strategies that offer choice, value, and new opportunities to investors,” Fidelity Head of ETF Management and Strategy Greg Friedman said. “We continue to see demand particularly from young investors, for access to the rapidly growing industries in the digital ecosystem and these two thematic ETFs offer investors exposure in a familiar investment vehicle.”

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Personetics Teams Up with Ecolytiq to Launch New Sustainability Insights Offering

Personetics Teams Up with Ecolytiq to Launch New Sustainability Insights Offering
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Personetics
  • Personetics launched its Sustainability Insights solution this week, giving consumers visibility into the carbon emissions of their spending and investments.
  • The new offering is made possible thanks to a partnership with sustainability-as-a-service company ecolytiq.
  • The launch of Sustainability Insights comes less than a month after the company introduced new proactive cash flow management functionality on its platform.

Financial data-driven personalization innovator Personetics announced the launch of a new offering, Sustainability Insights, to help financial institutions respond to consumer demand – and increasing expectations from regulators — for sustainable, environmentally-responsible, climate-aware finance. The new solution has been made possible courtesy of Personetics’ partnership with sustainability-as-a-service company ecolytiq, and will enable customers to see their own carbon footprint, as well as suggest ways they can reduce the impact of their transactions on the climate by pursuing greener spending options and financial objectives that are support climate sustainability.

“Personetics Sustainability Insights are the next evolution in sustainable finance,” Personetics CEO David Sosna said. “Beyond just showing back customers their carbon footprint, we offer them specific actions that they can take today to reduce their carbon impact, choose climate-friendly savings goals, and push the industry in a greener direction.”

Sustainability Insights offers consumers a personalized, holistic “financial map” that graphically shows the carbon emissions of customer spending and/or investments. The solution also offers personalized insights and advice, tailored to the customer’s financial profile, to help them reduce those carbon emissions. The recommendations range from the more modest, for example, transacting with a different, more eco-conscious merchant, to the more comprehensive, such as setting up a savings plan to pay for the installation of solar panels on a home. Sustainability Insights also leverages quizzes and feedback insights to enhance the accuracy of its recommendations. In a statement, Personetics noted that the solution is based on the company’s “four pillars of sustainable finance” strategy; namely, that the technology be integrated, relatable, interactive, and actionable.

Sustainability Insights is also designed to have benefits for banks and financial institutions, as well as for their customers. For one, Sosna highlighted the ability of the solution to improve customer engagement, and open up new opportunities for cross-selling. “This will create deeper relationships with banking customers and ultimately support banks’ ESG reporting,” Sosna explained. “Every financial institution can be a leader in green banking with Sustainability Insights.”

A Finovate alum since 2016, Personetics serves more than 80 financial institutions in 30 global markets, and reaches 120 million customers. An innovator in the field of financial data-driven personalization, customer engagement, and advanced money management capabilities for financial services, Personetics is dedicated to what it calls “the future of self-driving finance” in which banks are able to serve their customers’ financial wellness needs proactively.

Speaking of which, earlier this month Personetics introduced new “proactive cash flow management” capabilities on its platform. The offering is geared toward helping mitigate liquidity issues that customers face that often lead to overdrafts. Proactive cash flow management predicts 70% of overdraft situations, reduces the frequency of low balance incidents, provides personalized recommendations to help fix overdrafts, and helps enhance customer relationships with their financial institution, leading to higher customer lifetime value (CLV).

“Progressive banks all over the world are seeking new ways to help customers with their money management,” Jody Bhagat, President of Americas at Personetics, said when the cash flow management capabilities were launched. “By adopting a data-driven, personalized approach, banks can unleash their creativity in delivering tailored solutions and treatments that put customers’ financial wellness at the center of the experience.”

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BMO Harris Bank Cardholders Support Reforestation; Rabobank Offers Carbon Insights

BMO Harris Bank Cardholders Support Reforestation; Rabobank Offers Carbon Insights
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, David's column

Last week for Earth Day we talked about the different ways that the fintech industry is responding to the climate challenge. Since then, there’s been even more news on that front – in this case from a pair of banks that are giving their customers the ability to contribute personally to climate sustainability.

First up, BMO Harris Bank announced late last week that it is enabling its cardholders to support reforestation by donating their points to support the Priceless Planet Coalition. The Priceless Planet Coalition reforestation initiative was launched by Mastercard in 2020 and is partnered with Conservation International and the World Resources Institute. The Coalition has a goal of restoring 100 million trees by 2025.

BMO Harris Bank’s policy will enable cardholders in the U.S. to donate up to 500 of their accumulated points to Conservation International. Donating points is easy; cardholders can sign up for the program via BMO Digital Banking on their mobile app or online, then select the credit card account from which the points will be donated.

“Being part of Mastercard’s Priceless Planet Coalition is just one of many actions BMO is taking to support a sustainable future,” BMO Financial Group Head of North American Personal and Business Banking Ernie Johannson said. “What we do today will determine how our world looks tomorrow. In addition to BMO’s own bold actions to grow the good, we are proud to invite customers to join us and to make action as easy as redeeming their card points. Together, our efforts can make a big impact toward sustaining a healthy environment.”

Carbon tracking, as we mentioned last week, is among the more popular ways that fintechs and financial services companies have empowered consumers to better understand the impact of their spending habits on the environment. Rabobank, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, just announced that it will enable 1,000 of its Rabo payments accountholders to see the impact of their consumption on the climate – courtesy of a Carbon Insights feature on their Rabo app.

“With Carbon Insights, we make consumers part of the solution, just like we do with sustainable farmers who can earn carbon credits through carbon storage in their farmland,” Rabo Carbon Bank CEO Barbara Baarsma said. “Together our eight million private customers can make a difference and combat climate change by changing their spending patterns towards a smaller carbon footprint. For example, by buying different, less carbon intensive food they also stimulate supermarkets to offer more sustainable products.”

Rabobank developed its Carbon Insights capability in partnership with green fintech Ecolytiq, which has partnered with a number of financial services companies to help them develop climate sustainability-based solutions. Ecolytiq, leveraging the European Union’s Open Payment Standard, provides Rabobank with Dutch CO2 values per euro and spending category (food, transportation, clothing, etc.). Rabobank manages the secure environment in which accountholder payment data is processed, ensuring that customer data remains with Rabobank and that data is not used for any other purpose.

Underscoring the emphasis on privacy, Rabo Carbon Bank Product Manager for Carbon Bank Retail Fadoua Ajjaji explained, “Of course we don’t know the exact products somebody buys in the supermarket, so the CO2 emissions remain an estimation. For the calculation we look at the payment itself, not the actual receipt. Customers can provide additional information, if they eat meat or own a car, which allows us to make the calculations more accurate.” Ajjaji called carbon tracking “a missed opportunity” when it comes to meeting the climate challenge “as gaining insights is the first step in making more sustainable choices.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Entersekt and Bonifii Team Up to Bring Context-Aware Authentication Solutions to Credit Unions

Entersekt and Bonifii Team Up to Bring Context-Aware Authentication Solutions to Credit Unions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Entersekt
  • South African identity authentication specialist Entersket has teamed up with U.S. FX network Bonifii.
  • The partnership will give credit unions access to passwordless, context-based authentication technology.
  • The new solution, MemberPass Express, will provide multi-channel authentication in less than ten seconds.

Identity authentication provider Entersekt has announced a collaboration with U.S.-based foreign currency network Bonifii that will enable more credit unions to take advantage of new passwordless, context-aware authentication technology.

The new offering, MemberPass Express, will be made available via MemberPass, the first KYC-compliant, member-controlled digital identity issued by credit union cooperatives. MemberPass Express will enable credit union members to authenticate their identity during e-commerce, online, or mobile banking transactions, as well as while visiting a branch or contacting a call center. The new seamless authentication process, which provides multi-channel authentication in less than 10 seconds, is currently being piloted with a pair of credit unions.

“The joint new solution leverages artificial intelligence to protect members from fraud by analyzing the context (such as identity, behavior, location, device, and channel) of each user journey in real-time,” Entersekt CEO Schalk Nolte said. “This informs the most appropriate member authentication method that will be used, and means that members will now benefit from industry-leading authentication, while enjoying a fast and smooth user experience.”

A Finovate alum since its appearance at FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2014, Entersekt in recent years has forged partnerships with edtech Mindjoy and the MiDO Foundation to support financial literacy in high schools, teamed up with Netcetera to bring new authentication options to Germany’s Hanseatic Bank, and announced a collaboration with open banking platform company ndgit that added Entersekt’s customer authentication and smart messaging solutions available via ndgit’s marketplace.

South Africa-based Entersekt ended 2021 with a major investment from technology-based private equity firm Accel-KKR. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Joe Porten, Principal at Accel-KKR, praised the company for its “deep vertical expertise” and its record of success in the financial services industry. “As a partner, Accel-KKR is committed to helping the Entersekt team accelerate growth and continually deliver innovation in their category.”

Photo by Eren Li

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Apex Fintech Solutions and Zogo Finance Partner on DIY Investor Education

Apex Fintech Solutions and Zogo Finance Partner on DIY Investor Education
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Zogo Finance
  • Zogo Finance announced a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions to help promote financial literacy.
  • Clients of the two companies will be able to access more than 450 financial literacy-related educational modules.
  • Zogo Finance won Best of Show at FinovateFall 2019 in New York for its Teen Financial Literacy App.

Zogo Finance, which won Best of Show in its 2019 FinovateFall debut, announced a partnership with Apex Fintech Solutions that will help investors educate themselves on the fundamentals of sound money management. The collaboration will enable clients of both companies to access more than 450 learning modules on investing and financial literacy.

“Millennials and Gen Z are reinventing investing, which requires companies to adapt to their evolving interests, financial aspirations, and educational needs,” Zogo founder and CEO Bolun Li explained. “Apex shares our vision of harnessing technology to create customized, flexible, and accessible learning opportunities to support investors of all types.”

With more than 500,000 users and 180+ financial institution partners, Zogo leverages behavioral economic research – much of it developed at Duke University – to help improve youth financial literacy. The company’s app uses easy-to-comprehend lessons to educate users on complicated financial concepts, and offers rewards and incentives to encourage users to complete the coursework. Users can also earn rewards by taking positive financial actions such as logging into their mobile banking app, visiting a bank branch, or even using their debit or credit cards. Since inception, users of the Austin, Texas-based company’s technology have completed more than 16 million lessons, with the average Zogo users finishing 38 financial literacy courses.

“Our mission is all about democratizing finance through access – and education is a vital part of that,” Apex Fintech Solutions CEO Bill Capuzzi said. “Partnering with Zogo helps us empower our clients and their millions of customers.”

Founded in 2018, Zogo Finance forged 31 new partnerships with financial institutions in the first quarter of 2022. The company has raised $295,000 in funding from investors including MassChallenge and TechStars.

Photo by Pixabay

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Fintech, Sustainability, and the Climate Challenge

Fintech, Sustainability, and the Climate Challenge
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news

The news that CarbonPay has launched a new payment card that helps users determine and offset their carbon footprint is a reminder of the efforts that fintechs of all types are making to support climate sustainability.

CarbonPay’s new offering, only available in the U.S. and the U.K., is a prepaid corporate card called CarbonPay Business Ctrl. The card sits in front of a company business account and comes with an administrator dashboard to enable individual card spending limits. Because the solution is a prepaid card, there are no credit checks, interest rates, or repayment due dates for cardholders to worry about. The card includes smart features such as automating offsetting, carbon footprint tracking data, accounting software integration, and expense management.

CarbonPay says that for every $1.50 (or £1) spent using the card, it offsets 1kg of CO2 at no additional cost. CarbonPay has partnered with sustainability-as-a-service platform Ecolytiq to provide carbon footprint tracking.

“The fight against climate change can’t be solved by a handful of people, it requires systemic change and for everyone to take action,” CarbonPay CEO and founder Rory Spurway said. “That’s what inspired us to create CarbonPay, to help people and businesses around the world make a simple, but impactful change which will help us all in the fight against climate change. We turn every transaction into meaningful climate action by automatically offsetting CO2 every time you pay. It’s a simple, but important step towards making a real difference.”

What other “simple, but important” steps are fintechs taking when it comes to climate sustainability? CommerzVentures recently set out nine fields that fintechs and financial services companies have pursued in order to address the climate concerns of customers and clients. Here’s a look at some of the major categories, and the way fintechs are innovating within them.

Carbon Offsetting: CarbonPay’s new prepaid corporate card, mentioned above, is an example of carbon offsetting in fintech. Carbon offsetting involves lowering or removing carbon dioxide and/or other greenhouse gases in one instance to help compensate for CO2/greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere.

Carbon Accounting: Carbon accounting is a key part of carbon offsetting and involves measuring the amount of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases created by a given process. In the fintech context, companies like Meniga are working with banks like Iceland’s Íslandsbanki to launch solutions that track the carbon footprint of a customer’s spending decisions . Carbon accounting is related to ESG Reporting, which involves the disclosure of information on a company’s environmental, social, and corporate governance. This provides interested investors with the transparency they need in order to determine whether or not a potential investment is consistent with their environmental, social, and corporate governance values.

Impact Investing/Financing: Investment strategies that seek to combine positive financial returns with positive environmental outcomes are referred to as impact investing or financing strategies. Within fintech, a growing number of roboadvisors have sought ways to enable customers to invest in companies – or funds of companies – that have a proven commitment to climate sustainability. Also known as socially responsible investing, digital investment platforms from Betterment to Personal Capital have included these kinds of investing options for their clients.

Sustainable Banking: Sustainable banking involves using ESG criteria to set the policy agenda for otherwise traditional banking. Whereas banks and other financial institutions historically have focused on the balance between risk and return, sustainable banking adds another factor, impacts, to create a third dimension that bank leaders must focus on when running their businesses. The most common example of this in the environmental context is the effort by sustainable banks and financial institutions to invest in renewable energy enterprises while eschewing investment in fossil fuel companies.

Indeed, looking at the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which features the top 10% of the largest 2,500 companies in the S&P Global BMI based on their long-term ESG criteria, we see that those banks near the top of the list earned their lofty ranking in large part due to their hands-off attitude toward “dirty” energy such as oil and coal. BBVA, for example, secured the top spot this year as the most sustainable bank in the world – along with South Korea’s KB Financial Group. The Spanish bank earned credit for doubling its sustainable finance target and for issuing objectives to decarbonize its portfolio by 2030.

“This recognition confirms the success of our sustainability strategy and encourages us to continue working with the goal of accompanying our customers and society as a whole as they move toward a more sustainable and inclusive future,” BBVA Global Head of Sustainability Javier Rodríguez Soler said in a statement.

Photo by Akil Mazumder

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Best of Show Winner Arkose Labs Launches New Fraud Detection Solution, Arkose Detect

Best of Show Winner Arkose Labs Launches New Fraud Detection Solution, Arkose Detect
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Arkose Labs, Daily news
  • Arkose Labs launched its new fraud detection solution, Arkose Detect.
  • The new offering was formerly an embedded component of the company’s Arkose Protect technology.
  • Arkose Labs won Best of Show at its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2019.

A new fraud detection solution from Arkose Labs called Arkose Detect will help prevent fraud attacks on consumer accounts as well as help businesses boost revenue by providing legitimate users with a seamless customer experience.

“Every company today is operating in the ‘decision economy,’ which is stimulated and fueled by data,” Arkose Labs Chief Product Officer Ashish Jain said. “We designed Arkose Detect to leverage the collective data from the world’s biggest companies so that those hard-to-suss-out fraud attacks can be easily detected. As fraud is constantly evolving, we have an ambitious product roadmap and will continue to innovate to stay ahead of threats.”

Arkose Detect was previously an embedded component of the company’s dynamic attack response solution, Arkose Protect. Now, in the wake of testing with major international businesses, Arkose Detect is being rolled out as its own product. Arkose Detect leverages AI to force fraudsters and cybercriminals to become increasingly sophisticated in their attacks. This raises the cost of their attacks against businesses defended with Arkose Detect, incentivizing fraudsters to go elsewhere.

Additionally, the new solution gives customers a risk score that allows them to adjust their own fraud models to better detect both automated, malicious bots as well as human-driven fraud attacks. Arkose Labs will also share the fraud data collected and analyzed by Arkose Detect with its customers in order to enable them to enhance their internal fraud prevention processes. Arkose Detect features more than 70 raw risk signals and more than 150 pre-built insights culled from Arkose Labs’ global network.

“In just six years, Arkose Labs has grown to boast a portfolio of category-leading customers across financial services, gaming, travel, ecommerce/retail, social media, and technology industries,” Arkose CEO and founder Kevin Gosschalk said. “And this is just an early chapter in our growth story. Our forecasted trajectory is exciting and attracting attention due to the efficiency of our core technology, on which Arkose Detect is built.”

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show-winning demo at FinovateSpring in 2019, Arkose Labs has since partnered with Bugcrowd to launch a private bug bounty program, introduced the industry’s first warranty against credential stuffing attacks, and unveiled a range of “significant updates” to its fraud detection platform including the development of Arkose Enforce, Arkose Insights, and Arkose Detect.

“The latest product enhancements include detection capabilities which are adapted to a world where attackers are spoofing devices and other identifying information,” Jain said when the updates were announced in October. “Customers also have easier access to the multi-layered risk insights that we use in our machine learning-powered decision engine.”

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Arkose Labs was founded in 2015. The company has raised more than $106 million in funding from investors including the SoftBank Vision Fund 2, M12 – Microsoft’s Venture Fund, and the Sony Innovation Fund, among others.

Photo by Rodolfo Clix

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Revolut Turns to Cross River to Power U.S. Expansion

Revolut Turns to Cross River to Power U.S. Expansion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Revolut
  • Revolut announced a partnership with fintech technology infrastructure company Cross River.
  • The partnership will enable Revolut to offer personal loans to its customers in the U.S.
  • The announcement comes in the wake of Cross River’s announcement that it raised $620 million in March.

International superapp Revolut has partnered with fintech infrastructure provider Cross River to help it build and scale its business in the U.S. The collaboration will facilitate the first personal loans for Revolut’s U.S. customers and, courtesy of Cross River’s technology infrastructure, will be followed by additional credit solutions to be launched later this year.

“At Revolut, we’re building the world’s first global financial superapp so the move into credit and personal loans is a natural next step,” Revolut U.S. Head of Lending Tarun Bhushan said. “Revolut has developed technology to provide loans instantly to approved customers, with no origination fees – so customers can get the credit they need, when they need it.”

In addition to the absence of origination fees, the partnership means that Revolut borrowers will also be liberated from late fees and prepayment penalties, as well. Potential borrowers can also use the Revolut app to check their rates without affecting their credit score. Revolut’s “near-instant” and same-day loan funding solution means that users receive their funds in their Revolut wallet accounts within minutes of approval. Customers can also establish automatic loan repayments using the app’s AutoPay feature.

“At Cross River, we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to provide access to credit,” EVP and Head of Fintech Banking at Cross River Adam Goller said. “Our partnership with Revolut is instrumental in facilitating responsible financial solutions to consumers, and we’re excited to be powering Revolut’s U.S. expansion.”

Loans from Revolut are currently available only to the company’s U.S, customers. Revolut expects to be able to make the personal loans available to all U.S. consumers “in the coming months.”

Revolut’s partnership news comes as the company makes headlines for both personnel moves and expansion into new markets. This spring, Revolut appointed a new APAC General Manager, a new CEO for Brazil ahead of its expansion into that Latin American country, as well as a new General Manager and a new Head of Growth to support Revolut’s move into the U.S. market.

“It’s an exciting time to be joining Revolut as we further establish and grow our brand in the U.S.,” new Revolut General Manager for the U.S. Yuval Rechter said in March. “The pandemic has supercharged the digitalization of banking and Revolut is the best answer for U.S. consumers seeking greater value, transparency, and flexibility in how they manage their money.”

Cross River made fintech headlines less than a month ago with the news of its $620 million capital raise led by Eldridge and Andreessen Horowitz. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s tech-focused growth strategy which consists of projects in embedded finance – including payments, lending, and crypto – as well as investments in “people and communities,” plans for international expansion, and “bolstering strategic partnerships.”

“Cross River is powering the future digital economy and changing lives by reinventing the way financial services are accessed,” Cross River founder, President, and CEO Gilles Gade said last month with the financing was announced.

Photo by Johannes Plenio

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Boss Insights Teams Up with MX to Boost Business Lending with Real-Time Financial Data

Boss Insights Teams Up with MX to Boost Business Lending with Real-Time Financial Data
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Boss Insights, Daily news, MX, Partnership Outlook
  • Finovate alums Boss Insights and MX are partnering to give SMEs access to real-time financial business data.
  • The partnership will support faster, more accurate lending and funding for SMEs, as well as enhancing payment services.
  • A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX is headquartered in Lehi, Utah. Boss Insights is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

A partnership between open finance company MX and business data aggregation innovator Boss Insights will make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to access real-time financial business data. Announced late last week, the collaboration will help banks and other financial institutions better serve their SME customers.

Courtesy of the new partnership, firms will have a 360-degree view of their business customers’ financial health via a single API. The API offers real-time access and integration with accounting, banking, and commerce data from more than 1,000 sources including QuickBooks, Xero, Shopify, Stripe, and Amazon.

“Boss Insights shares MX’s view that finances should be simple, useful, and intuitive,” Boss Insights CEO Keren Moynihan said. “Together, MX and Boss will empower fintechs, private lenders, and financial institutions with a platform to originate, decide, and monitor the business requests of their SMB and commercial business customers. This will help them make faster, more accurate lending, funding, and payment decisions.”

Among Finovate’s newer alums, making its Finovate debut in 2019, Boss Insights leverages big data and AI to accelerate the lending process for SMEs. The company’s Smart Capital product suite offers automated screening, due diligence, and portfolio management, and empowers lenders with real-time insights that lower risk and boost revenue opportunities. Founded in 2017, Boss Insights is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

“The partnership of MX and Boss Insights demonstrates the power and role of connectivity and data in the future of finance,” MX EVP of Partnerships Don Parker said in a statement. “As a leader in Open Finance, MX is committed to expanding our partner ecosystem with reputable partners who align to our overarching mission and stringent data and security standards. Today’s partnership with Boss Insights demonstrates our commitment to Power the Open Finance Economy.”

The newly-announced collaboration with Boss Insights is one of a number of partnerships that Lehi, Utah-based MX has announced in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the company teamed up with omnichannel payments platform Qolo Partners to help fintechs and neobanks scale their businesses faster. In March, MX worked with fellow Finovate alum Fiserv to enable secure consumer financial data access and sharing. That same month, MX announced that it had forged a new data access partnership with the University of Wisconsin Credit Union.

Photo by Luis Ruiz

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Wagestream Raises $175 Million for Earned Wage Access Tool

Wagestream Raises $175 Million for Earned Wage Access Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Earned wage access tool Wagestream raised $175 million.
  • The investment includes $115 in debt funding and $60 in equity funding.
  • Wagestream will use the funds to add to its product lineup and fuel its U.S. expansion.

Earned wage access tool Wagestream landed $175 million in combined debt and equity funding today. The Series C round, which brought $115 in debt and $60 in equity, boosts the U.K.-based company to a total of $254 million in total funding.

New investors in the round include Smash Capital, BlackRock Innovation and Growth Trust, and Silicon Valley Bank. Existing investors Northzone, Balderton, QED, LocalGlobe, XYZ, Village Global, and Fair By Design also contributed.

Founded in 2018, Wagestream has offered one million workers access to $4.7 billion in wages that they’ve earned. The company considers one measure of its success as capital raised to liquidity released. Wagestream estimates that, prior to today’s investment, the company’s ratio was 1:55. That is, for every $1 of capital it raised, it released $55 of capital. “We’re aiming for a ratio of 1:100, meaning every $1 of capital raised by Wagestream will unlock $100 of impact for frontline workers,” said Wagestream Co-founders Peter Briffett and Portman Wills.

In addition to making that ratio possible, today’s investment will also power the development of new services, including an insurance offering that automatically adjusts coverage and premium, an app that enrolls users into optimal energy plans, fair credit without the need for a traditional credit score, and an intelligent savings installment plan.

Wagestream will also leverage the investment to expand internationally. Specifically, the company will focus on serving U.S. users. To fuel this move, Wagestream recently opened its U.S. headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Photo by Rene Asmussen

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