Daily news

PNC Bank Turns to Blend to Digitally Optimize its Mortgage Application Process

PNC Bank Turns to Blend to Digitally Optimize its Mortgage Application Process
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Blend, Daily news
  • Blend and PNC Bank announced a strategic partnership to help the bank digitally optimize its online mortgage process.
  • The partnership between Blend and PNC Bank comes in the wake of Blend’s Instant Home Equity product, launched in August.
  • Blend made its Finovate debut in 2016 and is also an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr.

A strategic partnership between PNC Bank and cloud banking software company Blend will help the financial institution digitally optimize its online mortgage application process. With its new mortgage application platform, PNC will enable its customers to digitally apply for a mortgage and import information such as bank and payroll data directly into the application simply by providing their credentials. Customers further will benefit from a single portal for tracking the status of their mortgage application, completing any additional tasks, as well as reviewing and electronically signing loan documentation. The portal also allows PNC’s mortgage loan officers to collaborate in real time with customers.

PNC EVP and Head of Mortgage Peter McCarthy called the partnership “an ideal combination of digital self-service technology and support for our customers as they navigate one of the biggest and most important purchases in their lifetimes.”

The strategic partnership announcement comes just over a month after Blend announced the launch of its automated instant home equity product. Integrating a range of recent enhancements to its mortgage suite, the solution provides income and identity verification, title, decisioning, property appraisal, and notarization. Lenders can use Blend Instant Home Equity to provide borrowers with a personalized offer that can be approved instantly and closed within a few days.

“Leveraging all that we’ve built on the Blend platform – for both Mortgage and Consumer Banking solutions – we’re able to deliver an instant home equity experience to help our customers ensure a seamless experience for applicants, grow their home equity businesses, and reduce costs to originate in a challenging marketplace,” Head of Blend Nima Ghamsari said.

Blend demonstrated its Data-Driven Mortgage solution at FinovateSpring 2016 and returned later that year to present its technology at our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Blend enables financial services companies to process an average of more than $5 billion in transactions a day. The company leverages low-code, drag-and-drop design tools to enable developers to build new products quickly. Its platform is integrated with trusted services ranging from eSign to identity verification to help financial institutions deliver seamless customer experiences.

PNC Bank is a part of the PNC Financial Services Group, one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the U.S. Offering retail banking to more than 12 million consumers and small businesses across the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, Southeast, and Southwest, PNC Bank also provides asset management services to affluent and ultra-affluent individuals and families, as well as corporate and institutional banking. As of June of this year, PNC Bank had $320 billion in assets under administration.

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Nova Credit Lands $10 Million from HSBC to Build Borderless, Consumer-Permissioned Credit Data

Nova Credit Lands $10 Million from HSBC to Build Borderless, Consumer-Permissioned Credit Data
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • HSBC has tapped Nova Credit to integrate the company’s Credit Passport, a cross-border credit data product.
  • As part of the partnership, Nova Credit received a $10 million investment, bringing its total funding to more than $79 million.
  • HSBC deployed Nova Credit’s Credit Passport at HSBC Singapore in May and plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to cover more country bureaus.

Consumer-permissioned credit bureau Nova Credit received $10 million in funding this week. The investment, which boosts the California-based company’s total funds to over $79 million, came from HSBC Ventures.

Under the strategic partnership, Nova Credit will provide HSBC with access to Credit Passport, its cross-border credit data product. Credit Passport essentially translates consumer credit across geographical borders, providing residents who are new to a country with access to financial products that require credit, such as loans or mortgages.

By leveraging Credit Passport, HSBC will have access to a customer’s translated credit history, after receiving permission from the customer. This not only increases HSBC’s potential client base, but it also increases the speed of the bank’s decisions.

“Accessing credit in a new market can be a challenge and is something we’ve been helping customers with for years,” said HSBC Group Head of Retail Banking and Strategy, Wealth and Personal Banking Taylan Turan. “We’re excited to be partnering with Nova Credit, to improve our ability to do this even more, with its innovative digital Credit Passport. We’re proud to be the first organization to offer this to customers in Singapore.”

HSBC Singapore integrated Credit Passport in May, enabling its applicants to offer the bank permission to access their global credit record and credit score. HSBC Singapore’s implementation of the tool also marked the first use of Credit Passport outside of the U.S.

HSBC elected to launch the use of the product in Singapore because thousands of its Singapore-based clients have recently moved to the country from India, where they have credit history. The bank plans to expand its use of the solution later this year to include customers with a credit history in Australia, the U.K., and the Philippines, and plans to cover more country bureaus in 2023.

Nova Credit launched in 2016 and has since built relationships with credit bureaus in more than 20 countries. Partnering with the credit bureaus has given the company consumer-permissioned access to over one billion credit profiles. Nova Credit also has partnerships with lenders including American Express, SoFi, Yardi, and Verizon.

Photo by Engin Akyurt

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Pinwheel Launches Product to Leverage Real-Time Consumer Earnings Data

Pinwheel Launches Product to Leverage Real-Time Consumer Earnings Data
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Payroll data company Pinwheel launched a tool called the Pinwheel Earnings Stream.
  • The new product offers data on past, current, and projected income.
  • According to Pinwheel, the data is most useful for earned wage access (EWA) offerings, but can also be used for financial wellness tools, underwriting, and more.

Income and employment data innovator Pinwheel announced its newest launch today. The company unveiled the Pinwheel Earnings Stream, a tool that offers up-to-date historical, current, and projected income data.

Pinwheel leverages machine learning and pay stub data to determine net earned wages for any work completed to create an accurate view of accrued and projected earnings. Earnings Stream uses analytics and intelligence to help make sense of this data.

Earnings Stream offers organizations three main benefits: accrued earnings, which shows wages a customer has earned so far in the current pay period; projected earnings, which estimates the earnings a customer will have by the end of the current pay period; and pay dates, a list of a customer’s projected pay dates.

By leveraging the projected earnings information from Earnings Stream, organizations can efficiently deploy an earned wage access (EWA) strategy. According to Pinwheel, Earnings Stream has other use cases, as well, including “financial wellness tools, educational services, cash flow underwriting, and so much more.”

“We developed Earnings Stream to support our customers’ strategies to answer the consumer demand for EWA services, while they have long wanted to offer these products, it’s been nearly impossible to execute at scale throughout the fintech industry at large,” said Pinwheel Co-Founder and CEO Kurtis Lin. “EWA is a unique product because it benefits all parties. Consumers are excited about meaningful liquidity, financial institutions are happy to acquire customers, and employers are pleased to see their workers have less financial stress. I’m proud of our team for developing what we believe will be one of the fintech industry’s keys to building truly impactful EWA products.

Founded in 2018, Pinwheel aims to create a fairer financial system with its API that connects to more than 1,600 payroll platforms and more than 40 time and attendance platforms. In all, the system covers 80% of U.S. workers and more than 1.5 million employers. 

The New York-based company aims to offer fintechs the data needed to create financial tools for underserved populations, without taking on additional risk. “Many of our customers are working on exciting use cases that we’re excited to see hit the market soon,” said Lin.

Photo by Min An

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Bank of America Unveils QR Code Sign-in for CashPro

Bank of America Unveils QR Code Sign-in for CashPro
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bank of America, Daily news
  • Bank of America launched a new QR code sign-in for its CashPro offering.
  • Paired with biometrics, the new sign-in option takes advantage of the trend in favor of QR code technology as a verification and log-in solution.
  • Bank of America’s CashPro has received recognition from Celent, Global Finance magazine, The Asian Banker, and Treasury Management International (TMI).

One of the surprising fintech trends of the past few years has been the deployment of QR codes as an option to facilitate payments in an increasingly wide range of contexts. Today, Bank of America announced that it has launched a new QR code sign-in for its CashPro solution. This will enable Bank of America’s 500,000 CashPro users to scan a QR code with their mobile device and use their biometric information via the CashPro App in order to access the CashPro website. The new option will also alleviate the need for users to manually enter passwords.

“QR sign-in is a technology that’s familiar to our clients from their personal lives, and now they can use it to seamlessly access CashPro,” Global Product Head for CashPro in Global Transaction Services Tom Durkin said. “The technology kicks off a schedule of enhancements we plan to introduce to CashPro over the next 18 months that will further improve the simplicity and security of our award-winning platform.”

Bank of America’s CashPro offers a complete digital platform for managing payments, receipts, investments, FX, and trade. The technology enables users to conduct their banking business from anywhere via the CashPro App, viewing balances, approving payments in less than a minute, depositing checks remotely, and making payments. Businesses can leverage the CashPro API to access a wide range of treasury activities including payments, fraud prevention, liquidity optimization, and more. CashPro also has a forecasting feature. Powered by machine learning and predictive analytics, CashPro Forecasting provides visibility across all customer accounts – including accounts at other institutions – and helps firms better manage future cash flows. The technology, embedded in CashPro and unveiled at the beginning of the year, provides customizable, machine-generated, daily, weekly, or monthly forecasts and learns over time to make predictions smarter and increasingly accurate.

“Many companies today rely on manual, repetitive work to forecast their cash needs, leaving little time to analyze the data for making strategic decisions, which is the actual objective of the forecasting exercise,” Co-head of Global Commercial Banking, Global Transaction Services for Bank of America Ken Ullmann said. “With CashPro Forecasting, companies can automate their forecasting process while improving the accuracy of their predictions, all without making any IT investment.”

Among the world’s leading financial institutions, Bank of America serves 67 million consumer and small business clients with 4,000 retail financial centers. Bank of America also provides a digital banking experience with 55 million verified digital users. Serving customers throughout the U.S. and its territories, as well as 35 countries around the world, Bank of America is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BAC. The institution has a market capitalization of $250 billion.

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Square Taps Visa for Instant Transfers in Canada

Square Taps Visa for Instant Transfers in Canada
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, VISA
  • Visa is expanding its integration with Square’s instant transfer feature into Canada.
  • Square’s Canadian merchant clients can access their funds in real time, instead of waiting for the next business day.
  • Instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability that facilitates real-time delivery of funds.

One of the themes at FinovateFall earlier this month was how organizations can leverage real time data. When it comes to the movement of money, timing is everything. So it’s no surprise to see Visa’s announcement this week that it will expand its integration with Square’s instant transfer feature into Canada.

Under the new integration, Square’s Canadian merchant clients can now access their funds faster than the next business day. When they link an eligible debit card, Square’s Canada-based merchant clients can transfer funds instantly to an external bank account.

Used for rapid merchant settlement, Square’s instant transfers are enabled by Visa Direct, a VisaNet processing capability that facilitates real-time funds delivery directly to bank accounts. As a result, businesses experience increased cash flow, which can be a major pain point, especially for small businesses.

“Cash flow management and more immediate access to funds is critical for small businesses to survive and thrive in a rapidly evolving payments ecosystem,” said Visa Canada’s VP and Head of New Payments Jim Filice. “Together with Square, we’re committed to supporting Canadian small businesses and helping to identify solutions that can benefit them by delivering fast, reliable and secure access to funds.”

Photo by Laura Tancredi

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Ethoca and ChargebackZero Team Up to Help Merchants Minimize Chargebacks

Ethoca and ChargebackZero Team Up to Help Merchants Minimize Chargebacks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Ethoca, MasterCard
  • Ethoca announced a partnership with India’s ChargebackZero to help merchants eliminate chargebacks.
  • The collaboration will integrate Ethoca’s chargeback alert technology into ChargebackZero’s Intelligent Dispute Prevention & Management Solution (iDPMS).
  • Ethoca made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall. The company was acquired by Mastercard in 2019 for an undisclosed sum.

Ecommerce fraud and chargeback prevention company Ethoca has teamed up with India-based ChargebackZero to help merchants minimize chargebacks. The partnership will also bring greater transparency to consumer transactions, and make it easier for merchants to share the details of confirmed fraud and dispute incidents.

The collaboration will enable merchants to rely on a chargeback alert system that notifies them in the event of an impending chargeback. Notifications are made via the ChargebackZero dashboard, which combines a variety of alert types from card issuers with ChargebackZero’s dispute management tools. The alerts allow merchants to identify and revolve customer disputes with the customer’s issuing bank in near-real time. By preventing chargebacks, including chargebacks that occur post-authorization, the partnership will make it easier for merchants to accept more orders without increasing their exposure to potentially fraudulent activity.

Ethoca offers a suite of solutions to help merchants and issuers eliminate chargebacks, reduce card not present (CNP) fraud, recover lost revenue, and improve the customer experience with a better dispute resolution process. Ethoca’s Consumer Clarity solution connects issuers to merchant order and account history details in real time. This gives issuer call center agents with the data they need to manage real-time conversations with cardholders when disputes arise. Ethoca also offers its Ethoca Alerts technology, which provides issuers and card-not-present merchants with access to a global collaboration network that enables them to share fraud and customer dispute data in real time, rather than in weeks as is normally the case with chargebacks.

Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Ethoca made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in 2015. In the years since then, the company has inked partnerships with fellow Finovate alum TSYS, as well as Pegasystems, BlueSnap, and Cartes Bancaires. Ethoca agreed to be acquired by Mastercard in the spring of 2019 for an undisclosed sum. Calling Mastercard “a natural home,” Ethoca CEO Andre Edelbrock said the acquisition would “bring our services to more places and more people, ultimately contributing to the beset possible online payment experience.”

Ethoca serves more than 5,400 merchants in 40+ countries and more than 4,000 card issuers in more than 20+ countries. Eight of the top ten North American ecommerce brands, 14 of the top 20 North American card issuers, and six of the top ten U.K. card issuers use Ethoca’s technology to eliminate chargebacks, prevent fraud, and recover lost revenue.

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Taulia and Standard Chartered Team Up to Collaborate on Working Capital Finance

Taulia and Standard Chartered Team Up to Collaborate on Working Capital Finance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Standard Chartered Bank, Taulia
  • Taulia and Standard Chartered signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on working capital finance solutions.
  • The partnership will initially focus on supply chain finance and dynamic discounting.
  • The agreement will offer Taulia access to Standard Chartered’s global client base.

Supply chain finance company Taulia has inked an agreement with Standard Chartered this week. The agreement comes in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate across a range of working capital finance solutions.

The two will begin by focusing on supply chain finance and dynamic discounting, two solutions that Taulia offers to buyers. Taulia will use its expertise in this area, combined with Standard Chartered’s global client base, to help clients build a more resilient and sustainable supply chain.

Ultimately, the partnership aims to enable suppliers to access working capital in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

“We are excited to work with Taulia to explore new and innovative ways to support our clients’ working capital needs, as well as extending the Bank’s leading sustainable trade expertise into their business network,” said Standard Chartered Global Head of Trade & Working Capital Kai Fehr. “Taulia’s footprint also complements that of the Bank, offering greater opportunities for us to support companies in the West with their supply chain flows into Asia, Africa and the Middle East.”

Taulia was founded in 2009 to help businesses improve their supply chains by providing financing options with flexible payment terms. Used by a network of two million organizations, the company’s tools help businesses accelerate payments and free up working capital. Taulia processes over $500 billion every year. Among Taulia’s clients are Airbus, AstraZeneca, Nissan and Vodafone.

Taulia was acquired by SAP earlier this year and today’s agreement marks the first MoU that Taulia has signed with a banking institution post-acquisition. Taulia anticipates that having the backing of SAP will help it access further opportunities across SAP’s ecosystem and deliver a differentiated experience for both buyers and suppliers.

“We believe that all CFOs should focus on their cash strategy to ensure growth during these turbulent times and our partnership with Standard Chartered will deliver cash when and where it is needed, especially in emerging markets,” said SAP Head of Working Capital Management CoE and member of the Taulia Leadership Team Thomas Mehlkopf.

Photo by Tiger Lily

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Stash Launches its New Infrastructure Platform, Stash Core

Stash Launches its New Infrastructure Platform, Stash Core
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Stash
  • Investing and banking services fintech Stash unveiled its new infrastructure platform, Stash Core, this week.
  • Stash’s new banking account experience is the first new solution built on Stash Core. Credit, savings, and lending solutions are expected to be launched in the future.
  • Stash Core features integrations from a wide number of partners including fellow Finovate alums Mastercard, Marqeta, Mambu, and Alloy.

With its latest innovation, investing and banking company Stash is bringing to market a new proprietary infrastructure platform, Stash Core. The offering supports Stash’s new banking account experience now, and will enable new capabilities in credit, savings, and lending in the future.

“Stash Core gives us flexibility and ownership of every customer touchpoint,” Stash co-founder and CEO Brandon Krieg said. “It’s the future of inclusive finance and transformative to our business.”

Stash’s new banking account experience is built on the Stash Core and provides access to an upgraded Stock-Back Debit Mastercard, enhanced customer support, and benefits such as increased rewards. Stash’s Stock-Back Debit Mastercard gives cardholders the ability to invest in stocks every time they spend on gas, groceries, travel, dining, and more. The company notes that it has provided more than 59 million stock rewards to date and, going forward, will allow cardholders to earn up to 4x more with their new upgraded cards.

“With Stash Core and the Stock-Back Debit Mastercard, we are able to deliver the very best in financial tooling, customer service, and AI-powered, personalized wealth-building for those who want to earn stock and invest as they spend,” Krieg said.

Teased at FinovateFall in New York earlier this month, Stash’s new solution benefits from integrations with Mastercard, Stride Bank, Marqeta, Mambu, Alloy, and others. In an extended blog post, the Stash team described the decision-making that went into the development of Stash Core. The discussion highlighted the importance of building an infrastructure that would enable Stash to “more quickly innovate and introduce new products and services faster” to provide the best possible customer experience.

With more than two million customers and nearly $3 billion in assets under management, Stash helps individuals embark upon their investing journey with as little as $3 per month. Offering a suite of financial products ranging from investing and banking to education and advice, Stash reports that its members are 18% more financially literate than the average American. The company experienced $125 million in annualized revenue in the past year, and announced that weekly contributions have climbed by 30% over the past two years.

Founded in 2015, Stash made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017. In the years since then, the company has secured more than $347 million in funding, forged partnerships with companies from Apex Clearing to the San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, and acquired financial literacy app, PayGrade.

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Cinchy Launches Credit Union Edition of its Dataware Platform

Cinchy Launches Credit Union Edition of its Dataware Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cinchy, Daily news
  • Data firm Cinchy unveiled the Credit Union Edition of its Cinchy Dataware Platform today.
  • The solution is made specifically to help credit unions easily access and leverage their data without having to replace their core banking system.
  • Cinchy won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Data access and control firm Cinchy unveiled a credit union-specific solution today. The company is launching The Credit Union Edition of its Cinchy Dataware Platform to help credit unions extend the life of their core systems, avoiding the need to replace their existing core with a new one.

The new solution enables credit unions that are currently constrained by their core banking systems. Many of the outdated systems result in siloed data, which makes it difficult for the credit union to leverage their data to create better systems, an improved user experience, and cost savings.

Cinchy’s calls the capability “liberating data.” Today’s new launch enables credit unions to access their data in three ways. First, with real-time data from core banking system and applications without the need for copy-based integration. Second, with tools including auto-versioning, auto-backup, auto-protection, auto-correction, and auto-tracking. And third, with user accessibility that allows for instant collaboration.

“At Cinchy our goal is to enable organizations to save money by liberating and controlling their data in ways that were not previously possible,” said Cinchy CEO Dan DeMers. “Today we’re making this a reality for credit unions with the introduction of the Cinchy Dataware Platform Credit Union Edition.”

Founded in 2017, Cinchy leverages data fabric to help banks access data from apps and other silos and assemble it within an easy-to-access data network. Among the company’s clients are TD bank, Colliers International, AIS, and Natixis. Cinchy has been named a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Company to Watch and a Top Growing Canadian Company by The Globe and Mail. The company most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2021 and won best of show for its demo at FinovateFall 2019.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Inovatec Partners with Real-Time Risk Decisioning Specialist Provenir

Inovatec Partners with Real-Time Risk Decisioning Specialist Provenir
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Provenir announced a new partnership with Inovatec Systems.
  • The partnership will enable auto lenders on Inovatec’s LOS platform to access Provenir’s risk decisioning solutions
  • Headquartered in New Jersey, Provenir has forged partnerships with TransUnion, Kueski, and Provu in recent months.

Real-time risk decisioning software company Provenir announced a new partner today. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based technology company has inked a deal with Canadian lending software firm Inovatec Systems that will give Inovatec’s roster of automobile lenders new tools to improve the financing process.

“Inovatec’s configurable loan origination and loan management solutions efficiently support third party solutions that improve the speed, reliability, and efficiency of the entire lending process,” Inovatec Head of Business Development Bob Metodiev said. Courtesy of the new relationship, auto financing companies working with Inovatec will be able to leverage open APIs to access Provenir’s AI-powered decisioning solutions – which are embedded into Inovatec’s LOS platform. Combined with Provenir’s technology, the enhanced solution will help lenders make smarter automated decisions while providing an optimal experience for the customer.

“Through the unique combination of universal access to data, simplified AI and world-class decisioning technology, Provenir provides a cohesive risk ecosystem that enables organizations to make smarter decisions instantly across the entire customer lifecycle,” Provenir EVP for North America Kathy Stares said.

Provenir offers a data, AI, and decisioning platform that leverages the cloud and no-code technology to enable businesses to build advanced decisioning workflows, integrate any data source, and deploy AI and machine learning models. The technology is applicable to a wide variety of contexts – from BNPL, SME lending, and auto financing, to retail POS lending, digital merchant onboarding, and bank loan origination.

Founded in 2004, Provenir was a Gold sponsor of FinovateEurope earlier this year, where the company’s Carol Hamilton, SVP of Global Solutions, spoke as part of a panel on “Achieving Digital Acceleration – What Do Incumbents Need to Do?” In the months since then, the company has announced partnerships with TransUnion, Mexico-based lender Kueski, and its first Brazilian customer, payments and personal credit fintech Provu. Provenir also announced today that it is expanding its presence in Spain. Join Provenir’s Corinne Llelti next week for a special digital presentation exclusive to Finovate – “Driving World Class SME Lending Experiences.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Agora Data Receives $100 Million Credit Facility

Agora Data Receives $100 Million Credit Facility
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Agora Data received a $100 million revolving credit facility from Credit Suisse.
  • The company anticipates the funds will help it expand how it delivers capital to loan originators who offer in-house financing.
  • The news comes just under a year after Agora Data unveiled its reducing rate line of credit.

Auto lending technology company Agora Data announced today it received $100 million in financing. The funds come in the form of a revolving credit facility from Credit Suisse.

Agora Data, which helps non-prime borrowers obtain credit, anticipates the funds will help it expand how it delivers capital to loan originators who offer in-house financing solutions. The company offers auto dealers competitive financing and tools such as AI and machine learning modeling. Ultimately, Agora Data helps lenders build loan portfolios with high predictability and improved performance when lending to non-prime customers.

The company also offers AgoraInsights, a product that helps dealers maximize portfolio performance, reduce risk, and manage cashflow.

“This $100 million credit facility adds to Agora’s other capital strategies and is the latest of many strategic steps that support the expansion of our core mission to provide highly accurate loan performance data and low-cost capital to auto dealers who serve the non-prime buyer,” said Agora Data CEO Steve Burke.

Since the company was founded in 2017, Agora Data has closed multiple crowdsourced securitizations using its AI and machine learning algorithms. Last year, the company launched a reducing rate line of credit offering. The interest rate on this credit offering reduces over time, provides the borrower with the flexibility to draw cash as they need it, and does not charge origination or unused line fees.

Photo by Sarmad Mughal

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CNote Raises $7.25 Million in Series A Funding Round to Help Boost ESG Investing

CNote Raises $7.25 Million in Series A Funding Round to Help Boost ESG Investing
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • CNote closed $7.25 million in Series A funding.
  • The round was led by American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact.
  • The investment brings CNote’s total funding to almost $15.5 million.

Investment platform CNote raised $7.25 million today in a round that boosted the company’s total funds to almost $15.5 million.

The Series A round was led by American Family Insurance Institute for Corporate and Social Impact. Astia Fund, BankTech Ventures, Commerce Ventures, CityRock Venture Partners, and other investors also contributed. 

The company plans to use the funds to advance its technology, expand its sales team, and deepen its network of community financial institutions.

CNote was founded in 2016 to close the wealth gap by enabling investors to invest in an economy that works for all populations, especially those in underserved communities. Using the CNote platform, corporations, institutions, and individuals can invest in fixed-income and time deposit products that are vetted to help advance economic equality, racial justice, gender equity, and climate change adaptation. When an investor places funds into CNote, the company directs the money into deposit and loan products through its network of over 2,000 ESG-focused community financial institutions.

“We’re addressing a massive systemic problem with a market-friendly platform that has already been adopted by forward-thinking corporations and other institutions,” said CNote CEO and Founder Catherine Berman. “By pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into undercapitalized communities, CNote is activating corporate dollars for systemic change while minimizing risk.”

Seeing an investment in an ESG-focused company is not surprising, despite the current funding dry spell taking place across the fintech industry. End consumers are more hungry for ESG-related products than ever, and the industry has been struggling to keep up with demand in this arena. We can expect to see more funding go toward companies touting ESG missions in the latter half of this year.

Photo by David Alberto Carmona Coto

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