Daily news

CNote Facilitates $25 Million Investment from Apple

CNote Facilitates $25 Million Investment from Apple
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Apple is using CNote’s platform to invest $25 million in underserved communities.
  • Oakland-based CNote facilitates investments in economic equality, racial justice, gender equity and climate change initiatives.
  • Apple joins other companies using CNote to invest, including Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal, and Netflix.

CNote, a company that facilitates investments in fixed income and time deposit products that advance the social good, revealed its newest investor today. Apple is using the California-based company’s platform to invest $25 million in underserved communities.

“We’re committed to helping ensure that everyone has access to the opportunity to pursue their dreams and create our shared future,” said Apple VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson. “By working with CNote to get funds directly to historically under-resourced communities through their local financial institutions, we can support equity, entrepreneurship and access.”

Apple’s $25 million contribution is part of the company’s Racial Equity and Justice initiative, an effort to address systemic racism and expand opportunities for people of color.

CNote has already deployed some of the funds to an initial round of financial institutions, including:

  • ANECA Federal Credit Union in Louisiana
  • Bank of Cherokee County in Oklahoma
  • Carver State Bank in Georgia
  • Education Credit Union in Texas
  • First Southwest Bank in Colorado
  • Hope Credit Union, which serves Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee
  • Kaua‘i Federal Credit Union in Hawai‘i
  • Latino Community Credit Union in North Carolina
  • Legacy Bank in Missouri
  • Optus Bank in South Carolina
  • Self-Help Federal Credit Union, with locations in California, Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin
  • VCC Bank in Virginia

As Bank of Cherokee County EVP Susannah Plumb Scott explained, the funds invested via the CNote platform can make a real difference in underserved communities. “Partnerships like the one we have with CNote and Apple are essential to our efforts to expand access to capital, as well as to financial products and services, in a historically underserved market,” said Scott, whose institution invests 95% of deposits back into Cherokee County.

Echoing those thoughts is Education Credit Union President and CEO Eric Jenkins, who said deposits like Apple’s “allow ECU to serve more consumers and meet a broader range of needs.”

Founded in 2016, CNote’s platform provides insured deposits to a group of vetted, mission-driven financial institutions, including community development financial institutions (CDFIs), low-income designated (LID) credit unions, and minority depository institutions (MDIs). These financial institutions use the deposits to help promote economic equality, racial justice, gender equity, and climate change initiatives.

CNote investors, a list that includes Mastercard, Patagonia, PayPal, Netflix, and now Apple, receive quarterly impact reports with details on which institutions received deposits and the populations that are benefiting.

CNote was a B Lab “Best for the World” honoree in 2019 and was named “Best Women-Owned Business” by the U.N. Women’s Empowerment Principles program in 2020. The company has raised $43 million.

Photo by Pixabay

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Minna Technologies Launches Merchant Solution for Fight Subscription Cancellations

Minna Technologies Launches Merchant Solution for Fight Subscription Cancellations
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Minna Technologies
  • Minna Technologies has launched a new solution to help merchants recover revenue and re-engage customers who recently canceled subscriptions.
  • The new offering, Merchant Solutions, helps solve a pain point in which bank cards are often blocked during a subscription cancellation.
  • Merchant Solutions tackles the new reality of subscription management in which customers are more proactive toward both signing up for and cancelling subscription-based services.

Sweden-based subscription management infrastructure company Minna Technologies unveiled its new Merchant Solutions late last week. The solution will enable subscription-based businesses to recover revenue from customers who have recently canceled their service and who manage their subscriptions via their retail bank app.

“We are thrilled to allow the 20% of consumers who cancel with Minna to more easily return to the subscription service when it suits them; and to enable subscription businesses to more personally retarget these consumers with suitable offers,” Minna Technologies Chief Product Officer Tiama Hanson-Drury said. “Not every cancellation is a desire to sever ties with the merchant – often it is a call for increased flexibility or personalization. By keeping the channel open, merchants have the chance to evolve the customer relationship and reacquire the consumer.”

Minna Technologies’ new solution also helps merchants deal with an unintended consequence of consumer protection efforts that require banks to support subscription payment management, especially with regard to unidentified or unintended payments. Sometimes, the subscription cancellation process results in the customer’s bank card being blocked to prevent future wrongful payments. Minna Technologies cited a study by Experian Insights that indicated that almost 80% of those who try to re-establish their subscriptions within three months after canceling have found that their bank cards have been blocked. This friction can be enough to cause the customer to abandon the attempt to resubscribe to the service.

To this end, Minna will offer a new “unblock” feature that facilitates communication between banks and subscription businesses to unblock bank cards in instances when banks have confidence that no wrongful payments will be reattempted by the business. This block removal service will help alleviate operational issues and the potential for poor customer service when payments are automatically blocked during subscription cancellation. Minna noted that the Unblock feature is one example of the kind of assistance the company is developing for subscription-based merchants with other solutions, including a way to prevent cancellations in the first place, to be offered in the near future.

Minna Technologies’ new offering also responds to the challenge of what Minna Technologies’ VP of Sales, Partnerships and Solutions Erica Katsambis referred to as the “rise of new subscription personas”. These personas reflect a growing assertiveness on the part of consumers who are more likely to be proactive in expressing their digital preferences than consumers of even a few years ago.

“From the ‘lost, confused, and angry’ who are disengaged and canceling via their bank, to the ‘savvy’ consumers switching subscriptions regularly or those consumers happy to try out many new subscriptions, they all demand more from their subscriptions,” Katsambis explained. “It is more important than ever to diversify and bolster digital channels and functionality to retain users, grow your customer base, and prevent unwanted churn.”

Minna Technologies made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2019. In the time since then, the company has forged partnerships with ING Belgium, Lloyds Bank, and Danske Bank; earned recognition as an Inclusive Fintech 50 member; and raised more than $23 million in funding. Late last year, Minna launched its “1-click” subscription management solution. Early this year, the company announced the appointment of new board chairwoman, Amanda Mesler.

Photo by Pixabay

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Worldline Taps Alogen to Offer Lenders Credit Assessment Tool

Worldline Taps Alogen to Offer Lenders Credit Assessment Tool
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Worldline
  • Payment and transaction services company Worldline and credit decisioning firm Algoan are joining forces.
  • The two are developing a credit assessment tool that will help lenders make better, faster, and more efficient lending decisions.
  • The credit assessment solution will leverage Worldline’s open banking experience as well as Algoan’s credit decisioning expertise.

Payment and transaction services company Worldline announced a partnership with credit decisioning firm Algoan. As part of the agreement, the two firms will work together to develop a credit assessment solution to help lenders and services providers make better credit decisions.

Specifically, the partnership will leverage Worldline’s open banking experience. “At Worldline we look for innovative partners who share our vision and enable us to enrich and expand our open banking services,” said Worldline Managing Director Financial Services Michael Steinbach. “As a lead and one of the largest Open Banking providers in Europe, we are committed to unlocking the full potential of Open Banking. With Algoan, we will be able to offer our customers an end-to-end and cost-efficient white-label solution to assess credit worthiness.”

According to Alogan CEO Michael Diguet, it is an ideal time to launch this solution. “Open Banking credit scoring is experiencing momentum that big players should embrace,” said Diguet.

Another key resource behind the credit assessment solution is Alogen’s four years of credit scoring expertise. Financial institutions can use the new tool to receive more accurate credit scoring and increased processing efficiency. Underwriting use cases include personal finance, consumer lending, auto finance and leasing, retail lending, BNPL, insurance, and utility providers.

The credit assessment solution will also bring benefits to borrowers. The enhanced data means that more borrowers may be approved and will receive their approval faster.

Having won its first contract to facilitate card transactions in 1973, Worldline currently has 20,000 employees in more than 50 countries and counts annual revenue of almost $4 billion. Gilles Grapinet is CEO.

Photo by RODNAE Productions

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Cryptocurrency Accounting Company Tactic Secures $2.6 Million in Seed Funding

Cryptocurrency Accounting Company Tactic Secures $2.6 Million in Seed Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Cryptocurrency accounting firm Tactic raised $2.6 million in funding.
  • Leading the investment round were Founders Fund and finance automation company Ramp.
  • The new capital will help the company add talent and continue to build out its platform.

With more and more companies seeking to diversify their finances with cryptocurrencies, a new U.S.-based startup has arrived to help these businesses better manage their cryptocurrency holdings.

The company, Tactic, announced today that it has raised $2.3 million in seed funding. The investment was co-led by Founders Fund and Ramp, a finance automation company. Also participating in the funding were individual investors Elad Gil and Dylan Field, co-founder of Figma. Tactic said that, among other needs, the new capital will help the company hire additional talent.

Tactic helps businesses account for their cryptocurrency holdings by aggregating data across disparate sources – often multiple wallets across multiple blockchains – to provide a full treasury view of all balances and account activity. Tactic enables companies to automatically categorize their transactions and apply basic accounting logic and rules to calculate gain/loss and identify taxable events. Accounting teams can also use the platform to reconcile the cryptocurrency subledger to traditional accounting systems such as QuickBooks.

“Tactic solves a real pain point for businesses managing cryptocurrency finances and the product is already saving crypto accounting teams days each month,” Founders Fund Principal Leigh Marie Braswell said. “We believe Tactic has the potential to become a massive player as more companies move into web3.”

Founded by CEO Ann Jaskiw and launched in 2021, Tactic has since reeled in “dozens” of customers, from early stage startup companies to billion-dollar businesses. Jaskiw started Tactic after learning that many companies involved in web3 were using spreadsheets for their accounting because there were no other solutions available for them. By contrast, Tactic has developed its solution in part by teaming up with leading accounting firms to help them apply accounting guidelines to activities common in the DeFi world such as staking, NFT, minting, and airdrops.

Tactic VP of Strategy and Ops John Dempsey put Tactic’s platform in the context of other fintech solutions that leverage automation and other enabling technologies to make operations more efficient. “Businesses have come to expect back-office solutions that help them get started quickly and automate their manual tasks,” Dempsey said. “Tactic makes it easy for businesses to transact in cryptocurrency, knowing they can manage their financial activity in a clean, compliant way.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Neo Financial Lands $145 Million to Build its Canadian Challenger Bank

Neo Financial Lands $145 Million to Build its Canadian Challenger Bank
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Canada’s Neo Financial closed $145 million ($185 million CAD) in funding.
  • The round brings the three-year-old company’s total funding to almost $240 million ($299 CAD) and boosts its valuation past $785 million ($1 billion CAD).
  • Neo is now one of only a few Alberta-based tech companies to become a unicorn.

Canada-based Neo Financial’s newest funding round has boosted the company up to unicorn status in Canadian dollars. The $145 million ($185 million CAD) investment was led by Valar Ventures and saw participation from Tribe Capital, Altos Ventures, Blank Ventures, Gaingels, Maple VC, and Knollwood Advisory.

Today’s investment boosts Alberta-based Neo Financial’s total funding to almost $240 million ($299 CAD). It also marks the company as one of just a few tech companies in the region to become a unicorn.

Founded in 2019, Neo Financial differentiates itself with its user-friendly banking technology. The company boasts one million users of its four main products, which include a credit card, high-interest savings account, and investment tools. Additionally, Neo Financial is slated to launch a mortgage offering by the end of this year.

“We’re constantly challenging the status quo,” the company said in a blog post, “and asking the questions that should be asked: What if you only needed one loyalty card instead of 20? What if your financial services experience was as seamless as Netflix or Spotify? What if getting a mortgage could be a fully digital experience? What if the future of banking wasn’t a bank?”

With 650 employees under its roof, a number that has doubled in the past year, Neo Financial is growing. The company has added more than 11 products and features in the past year alone. To fuel this growth, the company adding 100 people to its workforce in Calgary and Winnipeg.

“The pace at which this team releases new products and grows its customer base is among the fastest we have seen in our careers,” said Valar Ventures Founding Partner Andrew McCormack.

Maple VC’s Andre Charoo echoed those thoughts. In an interview with TechCrunch, he said, “Neo is the fastest growing company I have seen in Canada… I believe Neo has a shot at owning at least 10% of the aggregated $550 billion banking sector in Canada (ie. $50 billion) due to the network effects it has created with its unique merchant loyalty program.”

Photo by Andre Furtado

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Robinhood Unveils Stock Lending Feature to Offer Investors a Passive Income Stream

Robinhood Unveils Stock Lending Feature to Offer Investors a Passive Income Stream
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Robinhood unveiled its new stock lending feature, Stock Lending.
  • The new offering enables investors to lend shares and receive passive income from borrowers.
  • Stock Lending democratizes securities lending and provides Robinood with an additional revenue stream.

Stock brokerage app Robinhood announced the launch of Stock Lending today, a new feature that will allow users to lend out stocks in their portfolio to earn passive income from borrowers.

“Robinhood does the work of finding borrowers and managing transactions while customers can add a potential source of passive recurring income to their portfolio,” said Robinhood Chief Brokerage Officer Steve Quirk.

There are no minimum balance requirements in order to take advantage of Stock Lending, but users must have stocks paid in full. Fractional share stocks are not eligible. Once investors authorize Robinhood to lend the funds, Robinhood matches the user with a borrower. After their shares are lent out, users can track earnings, see their positions, and enable or disable Stock Lending at any time.

And while investors are still able to sell the shares they lent out at any point, there are a few potential downsides to Stock Lending. First, users’ loaned securities may not be protected under the Securities Investor Protection Act. Additionally, investors will receive cash payments instead of dividends on securities they loan out, which will likely have tax implications. Also notably, users may lose the right to vote with respect to their loaned securities.

The move democratizes access to fully paid securities lending. It also positions Robinhood to benefit from an additional revenue stream, as the company will pocket a portion of the fees from each loan.

Robinhood is in the process rolling out Stock Lending to its customer base. The company expects the feature to be available to all users by the end of this month.

Photo by Andrew Neel

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LexisNexus Acquires Behavioral Biometrics Pioneer BehavioSec

LexisNexus Acquires Behavioral Biometrics Pioneer BehavioSec
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BehavioSec, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • LexisNexis announced its acquisition of behavioral biometrics innovator BehavioSec. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition adds to LexisNexis’ fraud and identity risk management capability following its 2018 acquisition of ThreatMetrix.
  • Sweden-based BehavioSec won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2012.

Yesterday we shared the news that Finovate newcomer – and recent Best of Show winner – Long Game had been acquired by Truist. Today, we see that the M&A train continues to chug down the tracks with word that another Finovate alum that also won Best of Show in its Finovate debut – has been acquired.

BehavioSec, which won top honors in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2012, has agreed to be acquired by LexisNexis Risk Solutions, a part of RELX. Among the pioneers in advanced behavioral biometrics, Sweden-based BehavioSec leverages behavioral analysis to provide continuous authentication to establish identity and prevent fraud. The company’s technology gives firms a passive method and frictionless approach to identity management, analyzing the complex mobile signals from touchscreens and sensors to seamlessly prevent fraud before it strikes.

“Behavioral biometrics is a valuable component in fraud prevention strategies that layer defenses to tighten the net that stops fraudsters,” LexisNexis Business Services CEO Rick Trainor explained. Complimenting BehavioSec as a “forerunner” in the behavioral biometrics industry that “continues to evolve and innovate,” Trainor added that “our combined customer base will benefit significantly from a blended behavioral biometrics solution within ThreatMetrix that offers more defense for customers without adding friction across the customer journey.”

Terms of the acquisition have not been made available. BehavioSec CEO Dr. Neil Costigan said that he is looking forward to “discovering the next phase in the evolution for behavioral biometrics alongside a successful, innovative company looking to further evolve our advanced capabilities.”

BehavioSec’s acquisition by LexisNexis Risk Solutions comes after a year of major activity for the company. Last summer, BehavioSec unveiled a new compliant, hosted version and a new cloud-native, SaaS version of its platform. The offering made it easier for more organizations to take advantage of BehavioSec’s anti-fraud technology, satisfying compliance requirements and embracing frictionless, multi-factor authentication. In May, the company launched new authentication and fraud detection capabilities via its BehavioSense platform. The platform features accelerated profile training, doppelgänger detection, enhanced mobile fraud detection, and predictive modeling.

“Our newest features respond to customer feedback and, frankly, market demands,” VP of Products at BehavioSec Jordan Blake said when the solution was introduced. “These features add to our platform’s existing anti-fraud capabilities and are designed to solve the COVID-19 era challenge of accelerated digital transformation, online security, and privacy regulation compliance.”

Photo by Markus Spiske

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India’s Kaleidofin Closes $15 Million Round of Funding

India’s Kaleidofin Closes $15 Million Round of Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • India’s Kaleidofin closed a $15 million investment round this week.
  • The funds bring the company’s total funding to almost $23 million.
  • Kaleidofin will use the capital to launch and scale its lending arm, KaleidoCredit.

India-based financial services provider Kaleidofin announced it has raised an additional $5 million in funding, adding to the $10 million investment the company received in January of this year. The $15 million round brings Kaleidofin’s total funding to just shy of $23 million.

Participating in the round’s latest installment are Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund and angel investors. These investors join previous contributors Omidyar Network, Oikocredit International, and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

“We are delighted to have investors known for their deep focus on informal sector customers and innovation promoting financial health, as partners, said Kaleidofin Co-founder and CEO Sucharita Mukherjee. “The partnership seeks to offer a broad range of financial services to underserved communities with a specific focus on low-income women customers at scale. The new funds will be used to further strengthen all our product lines, but will specifically help us launch and scale our KaleidoCredit business aimed at offer customized credit products for individuals and nano and micro SME customers.”

Founded in 2017, Kaleidofin serves 1.2 million customers across 14 states and 230 districts in semi urban and rural India.

Kaleidofin seeks to serve India’s population of 600 million underbanked consumers in what it calls “the informal economy.” The company’s offerings include KiScore, a credit health analysis tool; KaleidoCredit, its lending arm; and KaleidoPay, a payments tool; and KaleidoGoals, goal-based savings solutions. The savings solutions come in three tiers aimed to help a range of users either begin or start their savings habits.

Today’s news comes at a time of increased interest and activity in Indian fintech. Yesterday, Andreessen Horowitz announced his VC firms has earmarked $500 million to invest in Indian tech startups. India is an area ripe for fintech disruption thanks to its population’s high rate of technological adoption combined with the region’s large number of unbanked and underbanked consumers.

Photo by drmakete lab on Unsplash

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Truist Acquires Finovate Best of Show Winner Long Game

Truist Acquires Finovate Best of Show Winner Long Game
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Long Game, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Truist has acquired mobile savings gamification app, Long Game.
  • Long Game uses strategies from the prize-linked savings and mobile gamification worlds to drive customer engagement and increase brand loyalty for banks.
  • Long Game won Best of Show in its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall 2021 in New York.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But U.S.-based financial services company Truist announced today that it has acquired bank engagement and savings gamification app, Long Game.

“Truist’s commitment to help people build financial wellness is exactly what we are about at Long Game,” company co-founder and CEO Lindsay Holden said. “We’ve revolutionized bank engagement and are eager to apply ourselves to creating disruptive technologies that help Truist deliver a human touch in new ways.”

Long Game won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last year. The company offers a bank-branded mobile app that leverages the best practices from prize-linked savings and mobile gaming to help banks acquire new customers, boost customer engagement, and promote financial literacy – with a particular focus on Millennial and Gen Z customers.

Courtesy of the acquisition, Long Game’s team of engineers, designers, and business leaders will join Truist’s innovation team. Holden will lead a San Francisco, California-based crew of engineers, product managers, and designers as they develop new client-centric solutions.

“At Truist we are laser-focused on shaping the future of finance with innovative people and products – and democratizing entrepreneurial opportunity while we do it,” Vanessa Indriolo Vreeland of Truist Ventures said. “Long Game is a female-led business with a diverse team of incredibly talented innovators creating unique solutions to help people achieve financial confidence.”

The acquisition is designed to help Truist reach a younger demographic. Truist also sees Long Game’s technology as complementary to its workplace financial wellness program, Truist Momentum, that helps employees better manage their finances based on their goals and values. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Truist was formed in 2019 as a result of the merger between BB&T and SunTrust Banks. Truist is a publicly traded company on the NYSE under the ticker symbol TFC. The firm has a market capitalization of $66 billion.

Learn more about Long Game! Check out our interview with company co-founder and CEO Lindsay Holden on the Finovate Podcast with Greg Palmer.

Photo by Pixabay

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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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