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InComm Acquires Australian Gift Card Innovator The Card Network

InComm Acquires Australian Gift Card Innovator The Card Network
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, InComm, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Incomm Payments acquired Australian gift card provider The Card Network (TCN). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  • The Card Network, founded in 2019, offers a wide range of multi-brand gift cards that aggregate popular consumer brands on a single card.
  • Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Incomm Payments made its Finovate debut in 2011 at FinovateFall in New York.

International paytech InComm Payments has acquired Australia-based gift card provider The Card Network (TCN). The acquisition will help InComm create and offer personalized gift card solutions, as well as support the growth of its brand and retail partners. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Available in-store at leading retailers in Australia as well as online, TCN’s multi-brand gift cards aggregate consumer brands onto a single card, giving card recipients greater choice and flexibility. Examples of TCN’s multi-brand gift card products are the company’s The Active Card, which includes athletic and recreational brands such as Nike, Adidas, and New Balance; The Shop
Card, which features retail brands like Calvin Klein, H&M, and peteralexander; and The Baby Card, which aggregates brands like Toyworld, Kidstuff, and BabyBunting.

“TCN is a pioneer of the multi-brand gift card category with a proven record of delivering reliable products to both the gift giver and the recipient,” InComm SVP of Financial Services and Asia-Pacific Adam Brault said. “We could not be more excited to welcome TCN’s expertise and creativity to our global team.”

Founded in 2019 by Nick Sims and Richard Hewitt, TCN also provides Australian companies with gift solutions for loyalty and rewards programs, as well as B2B gifting opportunities. This week, the company announced the availability of new special edition gift cards “for the MATE that always has your back, for the STAR in your workplace, for the CHAMP that’s always up for a yarn, for the CUTIE that makes you smile, or the BESTIE you can’d do life without.” Unveiled for the winter holiday gift giving season, the new cards enable recipients to choose from more than 30 retailers on a single card. The new offering is available courtesy of a partnership with Coles Group Supermarkets, where the special edition cards can be purchased.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, InComm has been a Finovate alum since its first appearance on the Finovate stage in 2011. In the years since, the company has grown into an international payments technology provider with more than 525,000 points of retail and online distribution, and a presence in more than 30 countries. InComm has been active in both Australia and New Zealand since 2010, helping bring international brands to the region’s gift card market. Brooks Smith is CEO.

Photo by Karen Laårk Boshoff

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Blockchain.com Launches Debit Card for U.S. Users

Blockchain.com Launches Debit Card for U.S. Users
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blockchain, Daily news
  • Blockchain.com is launching a Visa debit card in partnership with Marqeta today.
  • The fee-free card enables users to spend their crypto balance or cash within their Blockchain.com wallet.
  • Blockchain.com counts 50,000 sign-ups for the card from users on its waitlist.

Cryptocurrency platform Blockchain.com is making it easier for users to transact using crypto from their Blockchain.com wallet. The company has released the Blockchain.com Visa debit card today, allowing U.S. users to spend their crypto balance or cash within their Blockchain.com wallet to pay for goods and services online or in person.

The new card does not charge fees and pays a reward of 1% back in crypto for all card purchases. Facilitating the launch are Visa, which provides the payment network, and Marqeta, which powers the card issuing process. Marqeta’s Just-in-Time Funding feature is key to Blockchain.com’s card launch. It enables users to spend from their available crypto balance while settling the transaction in fiat currency in the back end.

“As one of the crypto industry’s oldest and most trusted platforms, we’re excited to roll out the natural next step to make crypto easy to use in the real world and accessible to as many people as possible,” said Blockchain.com CEO and Co-Founder Peter Smith. “This is a prime example of digital assets making their mark on the existing financial services industry, as we shape the future of (mainstream) finance.”

At launch, Blockchain.com already has 50,000 sign-ups for the card from users on its waitlist. Once the rollout of the card in the U.S. is complete, Blockchain.com will make the card available to customers in more countries starting next year.

In launching a payment card tied to its crypto wallet, Blockchain.com joins its competitor Coinbase in this effort. The company initially launched a payment card in partnership with The Shift Card in 2015. However, after the debit card company closed up shop in 2019, Coinbase unveiled its own white-labeled Visa debit card issued by Pathward in 2020.

Blockchain.com was founded in 2011 and serves as a platform for users to buy, sell, hold, and trade cryptocurrencies. With 82 million crypto wallets, the company’s 37 million users have made transactions worth over $1 trillion to-date.

Blockchain.com has raised a total of $490 million in funding, including its most recent Series D round earlier this year that valued the company at $14 billion at the time.

Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash

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Experian and Prove Team Up to Boost Financial Inclusion Worldwide

Experian and Prove Team Up to Boost Financial Inclusion Worldwide
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Experian
  • Experian announced a partnership with digital identity company Prove.
  • The partnership will integrate up to four Prove solutions into Experian’s digital identity and fraud risk mitigation platform, CrossCore.
  • Experian has been a Finovate alum since 2011. Earlier this month, the company announced a collaboration with U.K.-based NewDay.

A global partnership between information services company Experian and digital identity company Prove Identity is designed to help drive financial inclusion around the world via innovations in identity verification technology. The alliance, announced this week, will help companies bring their financial services to a wider range of customers, including members of un- and underbanked communities. The partnership will also enhance access to “faster, easier, and more secure experiences” for consumers.

As part of the deal, Prove will integrate a number of solutions into Experian’s digital identity and fraud risk mitigation platform, CrossCore. The specific integrations will vary by region, but include:

  • Prove Pre-Fill – enables auto-fill of application forms with verified data from authoritative sources
  • Prove Identity – validates consumer-provided personal identity information (PII)
  • Trust Score – provides a real-time assessment of phone number reputation for identity verification and authentication
  • Mobile Auth – provides real-time authentication of a consumer’s status on a mobile network

“At Prove, we believe that all consumers should have access to the digital economy, regardless of whether you already have a credit file or not,” Prove co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Rodger Desai said. “We’re proud to be partnering with Experian, which shares our vision for a more financially inclusive digital world. Together, we are giving more companies across the globe access to advanced identity technology, such as cryptographic authentication, that they can use to verify more consumers in a quick and secure manner.”

Prove specializes in verifying identities for members of un- and underbanked communities, many of whom have little or no traditional credit history. The company’s approach to verification leverages mobile phone-centric identity tokenization and passive cryptographic authentication to ensure security and privacy across digital channels while at the same time keeping friction low. More than 1,000 enterprises use Prove’s platform, processing 20 billion customer requests a year in industries ranging from banking and lending to crypto and payments.

“The rapid surge in demand for digital services and the growth of online accounts has accelerated the need for robust, real-time identity verification solutions with the broadest coverage and greatest inclusion,” Experian SVP of Global Identity & Fraud Marika Vilen said. “Integrating Prove’s industry-leading identity solutions with CrossCore and offering them as part of the CrossCore partner program strengthens our state-of-the-art cloud platform, identity verification, and fraud defense while also enabling our customers to verify more customers.”

A Finovate alum since 2011, Experian made its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall in 2018. The company’s partnership announcement with Prove comes less than a week after Experian reported that it was working with U.K.-based unsecured credit provider NewDay. That partnership is geared toward helping Experian Boost customers access a broader array of credit options.

Be sure to join Experian next month for our webinar presentation, Digital Identity: Fintech’s Key to Unlocking Growth, featuring Chief Innovation Officer for Decision Analytics Kathleen Peters.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

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PayPal Offers Passkey Authentication to Apple Users and Venmo Payments to Amazon Shoppers

PayPal Offers Passkey Authentication to Apple Users and Venmo Payments to Amazon Shoppers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, PayPal, Venmo
  • PayPal will enable Apple users to log in to their accounts with passkeys rather than passwords.
  • PayPal also announced that Amazon had authorized Venmo as a payment option.
  • PayPal made its Finovate debut more than a decade ago at FinovateSpring 2011.

Two days in and it’s already been a pretty good week for PayPal.

On Monday, the payments innovator announced that it had teamed up with Apple. The partnership will enable Apple users to log in to their accounts using a passkey rather than a password. Developed by the FIDO Alliance and the World Wide Web Consortium – along with Apple, Google, and Microsoft – passkeys use cryptographic key pairs. These key pairs consist of a public key that is stored in the cloud and a private key that is stored on the users’ device.

This authentication method has a number of advantages. The fact that the keys are separated means that if a cyberattack compromises a given server, the attacker will not be able to access account credentials. It also makes it harder for individuals to share authentication data between different platforms – a significant challenge for password-based systems, as companies like Netflix have learned.

The passkeys are available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users. PayPal says that it will bring passkeys to other platforms as support is available. U.S. customers will be able to use the passkeys this week. Other markets likely will be able to access the technology early next year.

Today, PayPal added to its roster of Big Tech partners with news that Amazon will enable its customers in the U.S. to pay with Venmo on both Amazon.com and on its mobile app. Available to “select Amazon customers” today, the ability to pay with Venmo will be available to all customers in the U.S. by Black Friday – November 25th, the notorious shopping day after Thanksgiving.

Launched as a free service in 2009 and owned by PayPal since 2013, Venmo traditionally has been a convenient way for friends and family to transfer funds to each other. Last year, Venmo facilitated $230 billion in transactions. But increasingly, merchants ranging from Shopify to Lululemon have embraced the popular payment solution as a way to pay for retail goods and services. With today’s announcement, Amazon users will be able to add their Venmo accounts as an Amazon payment option and to select Venmo as their payment preference at checkout.

“We want to offer customers payment options that are convenient, easy to use, and secure – and there’s no better time for that than the busy holiday season,” Amazon Worldwide Payments VP Max Bardon said. “Whether it’s paying with cash, buying now and paying later, or now paying via Venmo, our goal is to meet the needs and preferences of every Amazon customer.”

Venmo Purchase Protection is available on all eligible transactions. Amazon’s A-to-Z Guarantee applies as well in the event of an issue with an order. Nearly 90 million consumers in the U.S. actively use Venmo.

Finovate audiences were introduced to Venmo in 2013 by Braintree. The company bought Venmo the previous year for $26 million, and demoed its Venmo Touch solution at FinovateSpring 2013. Braintree was acquired by PayPal later that year for $800 million. PayPal made its own Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2011.

Photo by Brett Jordan

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Marqeta Launches Suite of Banking Products

Marqeta Launches Suite of Banking Products
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Marqeta
  • Card issuance company Marqeta is launching a suite of banking products for its clients to offer their end customers.
  • Marqeta for Banking is comprised of seven banking products made available through Marqeta’s banking partners.
  • The new tools include Demand Deposit Accounts, Direct Deposit with Early Pay, ACH with Plaid Integration, Cash Loads, and Fee-Free ATMs, which are now available to Marqeta’s U.S. customers. Bill Pay and Instant Funding will be available in beta early next year.

Marqeta announced today that it is expanding further into the banking world beyond card issuance. The California-based company unveiled a suite of seven banking products through what it’s calling Marqeta for Banking.

Marqeta for Banking offers the company’s businesses customers access to more than 40 banking APIs that enable them to create customized banking services. The capabilities are made available through Marqeta’s banking partners and include Demand Deposit Accounts, Direct Deposit with Early Pay, ACH with Plaid Integration, Cash Loads, Fee-Free ATMs, Bill Pay, and Instant Funding capabilities.

“Consumers increasingly expect their financial services to be digital-first and mobile friendly, delivered by a brand they trust,” said Marqeta Founder and CEO Jason Gardner. “This is especially true for a rising generation of consumers who are less likely to have visited a physical bank branch or use a plastic card, and will instead begin their banking relationship on a mobile phone, which is doubling as a payment tool. Marqeta for Banking is fully designed to help customers meet the needs of today’s changing behaviors while building products for tomorrow’s consumer.”

Marqeta for Banking includes:

  1. Demand Deposit Accounts are tied to a debit card and are offered by an FDIC-insured institution. These accounts offer higher spend limits and no maximum balances.
  2. Direct Deposit and Early Pay is an earned wage access tool that enables users to receive their paycheck up to two days early.
  3. ACH with Plaid integration enables ACH payments between bank accounts.
  4. Cash Loads allow end users to deposit cash into their account at more than 180,000 retail locations. The deposited funds are available immediately in the user’s account.
  5. Fee-Free ATMs enable Marqeta customers to provide access to fee-free ATMs via the Allpoint and MoneyPass networks.
  6. Bill Pay will enable end users to pay their bills from within the app.
  7. Instant Funding will enable end users to instantly fund their accounts using an external debit or prepaid card.

All but the last two products in the Marqeta for Banking suite are available in the U.S. The beta versions of Bill Pay and Instant Funding will launch early next year. A handful of customers are already leveraging elements of Marqeta for Banking, including Coinbase, Branch, and Fold.

Marqeta’s card issuing platform enables its clients to manage their own card programs by creating configurable and flexible payment tools as well as customizing payment cards for their end customers. The company was founded in 2010 and is a publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker MQ. Marqeta has a market capitalization of $4.14 billion.

Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

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SKU Data Network Company Banyan Secures $43 Million in Series A Funding

SKU Data Network Company Banyan Secures $43 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, BANYAN, Daily news, Funding
  • SKU data network company Banyan raised $43 million in Series A funding.
  • The round consisted of $28 million in equity and $15 million in venture debt, and gives the company a total of $53 million in equity funding.
  • Banyan made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021 in New York, and returned to the Finovate stage this year for FinovateSpring in San Francisco.

In a round led by Fin Capital and M13, SKU data network company Banyan has raised $43 million in funding. The Series A round includes $28 million in equity and $15 million in venture debt, taking the total equity capital raised by Banyan to $53 million. In addition to Fin Capital and M13, the round featured participation from FIS Impact Ventures, Bridge Bank, Interplay, and TTV Capital.

The financing will be used to help accelerate Banyan’s technology and infrastructure growth. Banyan enables retailers and financial institutions to leverage enriched, item-level data capabilities to boost consumer engagement and financial wellness, as well as improve business expense management. The company offers the world’s largest SKU data network, which helps “unlock a new world of valuable information in the form of item-level receipt data,” according to Banyan founder and CEO Jehan Luth. Luth added that the funding was “evidence of market validation for Banyan as the first to deliver the next level of Precise Commerce applications to merchants and financial services.”

Banyan’s network is used by both Fortune 150 corporations as well as convenience stores. The company’s solution suite enables dramatic reductions in the time spent on expense reports by integrating item-level purchase data into banking and expense management apps. Banyan’s technology also provides shopping and loyalty offers that help merchants and their partners better target the offering of incentives, keying on the specific item, category, and aisle-level categories they want to reward. Fin Capital founder and managing partner Logan Allin said that Banyan’s solutions help businesses “re-imagine the experiences they can bring to consumers.”

Banyan demonstrated its Enrich solution at FinovateSpring earlier this year. At the conference, Banyan showed how its technology enables banks, fintechs, and their retail partners to use item level data to drive both everyday spending and top of wallet behavior. Relying on both API calls for individual transactions and batch calls for unlimited records, Banyan’s at-scale network lets retailers share receipt data with banks and fintechs to make financial apps more impactful for the digitally-oriented financial services customer.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey, Banyan has processed more than $400 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), more than 10.3 billion in bank and fintech partner transactions, and more than 10.4 billion in purchase receipts from network retailers. The company also has more than four million UPCs catalogued in its network.

Earlier this year, Banyan introduced new Chief Marketing Officer Andrea Gilman, formerly SVP with Mastercard. This spring, Banyan announced a rebrand – including a new logo and a website refresh – to reflect what Luth called the company’s “defined path to disrupt and change the retail landscape while bringing new benefits to consumers.”

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Digital Bank Nerve’s New Strategic Partnership Comes with Up to $7 Million in New Funds

Digital Bank Nerve’s New Strategic Partnership Comes with Up to $7 Million in New Funds
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Digital bank for creatives, Nerve, is partnering with London-based Talenthouse, a firm that helps artists find work with global brands.
  • Talenthouse’s money management platform, TalentPlus, will leverage Nerve’s embedded banking technology to expand into the U.S.
  • To facilitate TalentPlus’ U.S. launch, Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve.

Digital bank Nerve is furthering its reach this month via a partnership with Talenthouse, a London-based firm that helps creatives find work with global brands. Under the agreement, Talenthouse will leverage Nerve to launch a business banking solution for TalentPlus, its in-house financial app built for creators.

As part of the deal, Talenthouse will invest up to $7 million in cash and shares in Nerve. This partnership and investment will help Talenthouse launch TalentPlus in the U.S. next month and expand into the U.K. and Latin America in 2023.

“This is a significant step into the U.S. market for Talenthouse,” said Talenthouse CEO Clare McKeeve. “We plan to recreate this financial services model across several markets in the near future including the UK and Latin America. We have been incredibly impressed by and have huge confidence in the Nerve team, underlined by our significant strategic investment.”

Money management platform TalentPlus was launched in 2021 from a pilot program called ElloU. The platform seeks to offer participants in the creator economy banking tools that support their needs in ways that banks fall short. The company’s partnership with Nerve will enable it to add personal banking tools to its product lineup.

This aligns closely with Nerve’s offerings. The digital bank was launched in 2020 to serve the unique financial needs of musicians, artists, and other creatives. The Texas-based company’s mission is to help creators build sustainable businesses by lowering the cost for organizations to pay creators. Nerve’s partnership with Talenthouse marks the first time its embedded banking tools will be used on a private-label basis.

“We are super excited about collaborating with Talenthouse and the TalentPlus team to drive innovation for creative businesses and delivering financial services to an underserved community,” said Nerve CEO John Waupsh. “This partnership will expand our payments and banking services to Talenthouse’s U.S.-based creators, dramatically improving the financial services available to the creator economy.”

Photo by Brett Sayles

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Mitek Launches Biometric ID Technology Combining Face and Voice Authentication

Mitek Launches Biometric ID Technology Combining Face and Voice Authentication
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mitek
  • Mitek launched its new biometric authentication solution, MiPass, that leverages both voice and facial recognition.
  • The new technology provides advantages over both passwords and solutions that rely on on-device stored biometrics.
  • Mitek’s MiPass can be deployed in a range of use cases ranging from simple password resets to high-value transactions.

Could the end of passwords finally be at hand?

Identity verification innovator Mitek has launched a new solution designed to enable individuals to access digital accounts easily and securely by leveraging facial and voice recognition technology together. MiPass, unveiled today, offers a passwordless identity authentication solution that only requires a selfie and a recorded phrase to provide a level of convenience and security greater than that provided by authentication solutions based on face- or voice-recognition alone.

“MiPass provides the highest level of digital security available today,” Mitek CTO Steve Ritter said. “MiPass combines voice and face recognition using sophisticated liveness detection technology to defend against digital and deepfake attacks in real time.”

Using MiPass to authenticate digital identity also poses less risk than other solutions that rely on on-device stored biometrics, which Mitek states can be compromised, shared, or even overwritten. Additionally, MiPass’ algorithms have been tested against balanced and representative data sets to avoid bias. As such, the technology accurately authenticates users regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. Mitek also offers a developer-friendly SDK to make it easy for companies to embed MiPass for use cases ranging from account information updates and password resets to high-risk financial transactions.

“Companies care about their customers’ trust and security more than anything,” Mitek Head of Product Chris Briggs said. “Mitek understands this. That’s why we focus all our attention on bringing products to market that enable trusted online access. People are most loyal to companies that offer both convenience and security. That’s where MiPass excels.”

A Finovate alum for more than a decade, Mitek most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2017. In the years since then, the company has grown into a digital access leader trusted by 99% of U.S. banks for mobile check deposits and 7,500 of the world’s largest organizations.

Earlier this year, Mitek acquired fellow Finovate alum HooYu for $110 million (£‎98 million). The acquisition came a year after Mitek had purchased another fellow Finovate alum, ID R&D, for $49 million. This summer, the company reported record revenues for the fiscal third quarter, with a 24% year over year gain, and announced the launch of its Mitek Verified Identity Platform (MiVIP).

Headquartered in San Diego, California, and founded in 1985, Mitek is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker MITK. The firm has a market capitalization of $456 million.

Photo by Nita

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Envestnet Goes Live with its Wealth Data Platform Powered by Snowflake

Envestnet Goes Live with its Wealth Data Platform Powered by Snowflake
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet
  • Envestnet launched its Wealth Data Platform this week.
  • Powered by Snowflake, Envestnet’s enhanced platform gives financial advisors a more comprehensive view of clients’ finances
  • Envestnet made its Finovate debut in 2016 at FinovateEurope, one year after acquiring Yodlee for $660 million.

With the launch of its Wealth Data Platform this week, Envestnet has enhanced its data and analytics business by providing financial advisors with the ability to connect and enrich data – as well as give clients actionable data at scale – via a single platform. The new offering is powered by data cloud company Snowflake, and will enable Envestnet customers to benefit from a more holistic, comprehensive view of their clients’ financial information.

“Our Wealth Data Platform solves the very real challenge wealth advisors face in connecting, analyzing, and deriving insights from their clients’ various data sources,” Envestnet Data and Analytics Group President Farouk Ferchichi said. “And we know this is important for clients; our research shows that for a majority of Americans, financial technology and apps are key to achieving their financial goals.”

“By partnering with Snowflake, our Wealth Data Platform will become more holistic and allow advisors to better serve their clients,” Ferchichi said.

Envestnet’s enhanced solution improves data access and efficiency, enabling research and analytics teams to access multiple capabilities such as valuation, client aggregations, advisor analytics, and more on one platform. Customers will be able to leverage outside data, as well, combining, normalizing, and enriching that data along with other data sets available on the Envestnet platform. By partnering with Snowflake, the platform “will help transform the way wealth professionals advise and interact with their customers,” according to Snowflake Global Head of Financial Services Rinesh Patel.

Envestnet’s Wealth Data Platform adds to the company’s suite of data, digital solutions, and differentiated experiences known as Envestnet Data and Analytics. Through both APIs and standalone portals, Envestnet’s solutions help its clients – which include financial advisors as well as small and medium-sized businesses and their customers – better grow and manage the financial wellness of their businesses.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Envestnet made its Finovate debut eight years ago at FinovateEurope in London – just one year after the company acquired Finovate alum Yodlee for $660 million. In the years since, Envestnet has provided technology and services to more than 105,000 advisors and more than 6,500 companies. This figure includes 16 of the 20 largest banks in the U.S., 47 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms, more than 500 of the largest registered investment advisors (RIAs) – as well as hundreds of fintechs.

In addition to the launch of its Wealth Data Platform, Envestnet also recently announced a partnership between Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and its Data and Analytics business. The agreement calls for TCS to help Envestnet Data and Analytics scale internationally. Earlier this month, Envestnet unveiled its Intelligent Financial Life Advisor Practice Score, which helps financial advisors learn how effectively they are helping clients “achieve peace of mind and financial security” while on the journey to reach their financial goals.

“Our mission has always been to help advisors make sense of their clients’ overall financial picture and empower them to take the advice they give – and their practice – to the next level,” Envestnet Chief Marketing Officer Mary Ellen Dugan said. “This assessment provides advisors with a way to understand how well they’re positioned to help clients navigate their complex financial lives – through their day-to-day and more long-term financial decisions.”

Photo by Jill Wellington

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N26 Taps Bitpanda to Add In-App Crypto Trading

N26 Taps Bitpanda to Add In-App Crypto Trading
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Challenger bank N26 is launching N26 Crypto, an in-app cryptocurrency trading tool.
  • The company is partnering with Bitpanda for trading and custody of the 194 cryptocurrencies that will be available on its platform by the end of the year.
  • N26 Crypto is launching today in Austria and will be available in more countries in the next six months.

In what N26 is calling the company’s “next step beyond banking,” the Germany-based digital bank is unveiling N26 Crypto, an in-app cryptocurrency trading tool. Launching today in Austria, eligible clients can buy and sell 100 cryptocurrencies using the N26 app.

“The N26 banking experience has always been built around the customers’ needs, with features that make money management easy,” said N26 Chief Product Officer Gilles BianRosa. “With N26 Crypto we have created a simple, intuitive product that integrates seamlessly into N26’s fully-regulated banking experience where one’s bank balance, savings, and investment portfolio sit side by side – with cryptocurrencies being the first asset class we intend to offer.”

Customers can access the new capability from the “Trading” section within the N26 app’s new “Finances” tab. N26 created a drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy for users to instantly buy and sell crypto. After selecting the coin and the amount they would like to trade, N26 deducts the cash equivalent of the trade from their bank balance and the crypto shows up in their N26 Crypto portfolio instantly. Funds from crypto sales also show up in real time.

N26 Crypto is launching with 100 currencies, and plans to scale up to offer 194 by the end of this year. If you’re not impressed with N26 offering 100 cryptocurrencies at launch, you should be. Most fintechs launch with just two or three cryptocurrencies and add more slowly over time. The large number of cryptocurrencies is thanks in large part to N26’s partnership with Bitpanda, which will manage the execution of trades and custody of coins.

The Bitpanda partnership isn’t only helping N26 scale in terms of cryptocurrencies. The investment platform is also helping N26 offer clients competitive rates. N26 Metal customers face a 1% transaction fee when trading Bitcoin and 2% for all other cryptocurrencies. Other N26 customers will see a 1.5% transaction fee for Bitcoin, and a 2.5% fee for other cryptocurrencies.

N26 Crypto is launching in Austria today, and will be made available to eligible customers in more geographical regions over the next six months.

Founded in 2013 and launched in 2015, N26 now counts more than eight million customers in 24 countries. Well-known in the European market, N26 ranks among the top five highest-valued challenger banks wth a valuation of more than $9 billion. In 2019, the digital bank launched in the U.S., but decided to exit the region in order to focus on its European market operations.

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Amazon Launches Insurance Store in the U.K.

Amazon Launches Insurance Store in the U.K.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Amazon is launching an online insurance marketplace in the U.K.
  • The company is partnering with Ageas UK, Co-op, and LV= General Insurance to offer the Amazon Insurance Store, a new tool to help U.K. customers shop for home insurance.
  • The Amazon Insurance Store is now available to “select customers” and will be available to all U.K. customers by the end of the year.

The fintech industry loves to talk about Amazon’s weight as a competitor in the financial world. This week, the online retail giant is offering more points to that discussion with the launch of an online insurance comparison website for the U.K. market.

The Amazon Insurance Store serves as a way for U.K. customers to shop for home insurance by helping consumers compare quotes, select a plan, and pay for it using a checkout experience integrated with Amazon.co.uk. The element Amazon is seeking to differentiate its service with is the questionnaire experience. The company has simplified the process by only asking essential questions insurers require to issue a quote.

After the Amazon Insurance Store gains some traction, the company will integrate elements consumers expect from Amazon, such as customer reviews, star ratings, and even claims acceptance rates. The company expects the user-submitted data will help customers make more informed selections surrounding insurance companies and policies.

After finalizing their purchase, customers can use the Amazon website or mobile app to view their policies, change their payment method, and view renewal information.

“Finding the right home insurance policy can be a time-consuming and confusing task, with quotes that often leave out essential coverage in order to lead with the lowest price,” said Amazon European Payment Products General Manager Jonathan Feifs. “When we set out to create the Amazon Insurance Store, we wanted to improve the experience for customers shopping for home insurance so they could easily compare options and make an informed, objective decision—just like shopping on Amazon.”

At launch, Amazon is partnering with Ageas UK, Co-op, and LV= General Insurance. The company plans to add more insurers early next year. Amazon’s comparison website competes directly with Moneysupermarket, Uswitch, Compare the Market and GoCompare.

This isn’t Amazon’s first foray into the insurance market. Last year, the company partnered with Superscript to offer members of its Business Prime program contents insurance, cyber insurance, and professional indemnity insurance.

“Shopping online for home insurance is a well-established experience, and our goal is to exceed customers’ expectations when it comes to the Amazon Insurance Store,” said Amazon European Payment Products General Manager Jonathan Feifs. “This initial launch is just the beginning—we’ll continue to innovate and make refinements, all with the aim of delighting customers and providing the most convenient shopping experience possible.”

Amazon said that its Amazon Insurance Store is now available to “select customers,” and that it will be available to all U.K. customers by the end of the year.

Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

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Global Processing Services Turns to Featurespace for Enhanced Real-Time Fraud Protection

Global Processing Services Turns to Featurespace for Enhanced Real-Time Fraud Protection
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Featurespace
  • Global Processing Services (GPS) has partnered with Featurespace to launch a new issuer processing fraud mitigation solution.
  • The new offering, GPS Fraud Advantage, will leverage Featurespace’s ARIC Risk Hub to provide real-time fraud threat protection.
  • Featurespace made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2016. The Cambridge, U.K.-based company was founded in 2008.

Global Processing Services (GPS) announced a partnership with Finovate alum Featurespace to create a new issuer processing fraud mitigation solution. GPS will integrate Featurespace’s ARIC Risk Hub into its suite of fraud and risk management services.

The new solution will manage fraud threats in real-time, boosting fraud detection rates by more than 70%, and reducing false positives by 80%. Named GPS Fraud Advantage and powered by Featurespace, the technology is expected to go live in mid-2023. The new offering will benefit from the expansion of GPS’ Fraud Prevention Team, providing comprehensive monitoring and management of fraud alerts throughout the payments process.

“Our technology and the results our customers achieve are recognized as industry leading by those committed to fighting fraud and financial crime,” Featurespace CEO Martina King said. “Through this partnership, GPS will be able to provide an enhanced level of customer experience and increased security assurances, enabling their clients to focus on continued innovation and growth.”

Featurespace’s technology provides real-time fraud prevention for cards and payments businesses against emerging fraud challenges. The company’s ARIC Risk Hub leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to learn from and adapt to the cardholders’ historical transactions to provide risk assessments and alerts when potentially fraudulent activity is suspected. The solution helps businesses achieve higher approval rates while simultaneously minimizing false positives.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Cambridge, U.K., Featurespace made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2016. Of late, the company announced that it was embedding its fraud prevention technology in the platform of U.K.-based payments services provider Equals. Featurespace also reported recently that it was helping regtech Vital4 with enhanced watchlist screening. Since inception, Featurespace has protected 500 million consumers, processed more than 50 billion events a year, and blocked 75% of fraud attacks in real-time, with a false positive ratio of 5:1.

With investors including Insight Partners, Future Fifty, and TTV Capital, Featurespace has raised more than $107 million in funding.

Photo by NastyaSense

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