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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Float, a Canada-based startup that offers a corporate card and spend management solution, landed $30 million (C$37 million) in funding this week. The Series A round was led by Tiger Global and brings the company’s total funding to $34 million (C$42 million).
The funding will help Float with its mission to deliver an end-to-end spend management platform for SMBs. “We want this platform to enable businesses and teams to focus on investing in their growth and eliminate the need to use different banking and software tools to make day-to-day payments… Float’s mission is to simplify spending for companies and teams,” the company explained in a blog post.
Float was founded in 2019 to offer Canadian SMBs a high-limit, no personal guarantee corporate card that is available in three business days or less. This turnaround is impressive when compared to the average four+ week wait time most businesses face to receive their corporate spending cards. Businesses can set custom spending limits, assign cards to employees, and review and approve transactions in real time.
In addition to the card capabilities, Float also offers spend management software that natively integrates with accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero. The dashboard helps employers track real-time spending and provides an overview of individual, departmental, and categorical spending.
The investment comes at a good time for Float, which has seen significant growth since launching to the public in March of this year. The company now has hundreds of small business clients and continues to experience increased engagement. Float’s total payment volume has increased ~20x since June and its average monthly customer spend has increased more than 6x since March.
Float offers a freemium pricing model with varying features. All tiers come with 1% cashback, 0% FX fees, unlimited users, automatic top-ups, and a $100,000 spending limit. The paid tiers provide custom integrations, team management, and more.
BM Technologies (formerly known as Bank Mobile) has agreed to merge with Seattle-based community lender First Sound Bank for $23 million. The combined entity will be called BMTX Bank and will serve customers across the country digitally while maintaining a community banking division that will continue serving customers in the greater Seattle market.
“This is a thrilling milestone for BM Technologies and is a major step forward in executing our vision to create a disruptive FinTech bank that combines the best of financial technology with a strong and compliant FDIC-insured institution,” BM Technologies, Chair, Founder, and CEO Luvleen Sidhu said.
BMTX will pay up to $7.22 in cash for each share of First Sound Bank common stock, which amounts to approximately $23 million. Subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, the strategic merger is slated to close in the second half of 2022. The deal is expected to add significantly to the combined company’s revenue, EBITDA, and earnings trajectory over the next one to three years. Sidhu said that the strategic merger will enable BMTX Bank to offer a variety of new services including direct to consumer and small business operations, marketplace lending, robo-advisory, and blockchain-based payment systems.
“As one of the largest digital banking platforms in the country with approximately 2 million accounts, this merger allows BMTX to lead a new wave of financial innovation by enhancing its focus on technology, inclusion, easy-to-use products, and customer education with the mission of creating ‘customers for life,'” Sidhu explained.
Sidhu will serve as Chair and CEO of BMTX Bank, and will be directly responsible for digital banking initiatives. First Sound Bank President and CEO Marty Steele will serve as COO of BMTX Bank and will lead the company’s community banking division.
“As a local bank, we remain committed to our community and are excited about the opportunity to leverage BMTX’s innovative digital banking technology, Banking-as-a-Service business model, low-cost deposit funding, and better access to the capital markets in order to scale our SBA, commercial and private banking, mortgage, and other business lines,” Steele said.
Founded in 2004 with the largest initial capital base of any de novo bank in the Pacific Northwest at the time, First Sound Bank provides commercial banking services for SMEs, not-for-profit organizations, entrepreneurs, and professional service firms in the Puget Sound region. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, First Sound Bank has approximately $150 million in assets.
Formerly known as Bank Mobile, BM Technologies was launched in 2015 with a goal of providing a simple, affordable, and financially empowering, digital-first banking experience. The company went public via SPAC at the beginning of the year, listing on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BMTX. BM Technologies currently has a market capitalization of $145 million.
The company’s strategic merger announcement comes on the heels of BM Technologies’ Q3 results. Among the quarter’s highlights, BM Technologies reported that serviced deposits topped $2 billion for the first time. The company also earned recognition in the 2021 Finovate Awards in September, winning Best Fintech Partnership courtesy of its collaboration with T-Mobile.
To learn more about BM Technologies, check out our Fireside Chat with Luvleen Sidhu from FinovateFall 2021 in New York.
Mexico-based Storilanded $200 million this week in combined debt and equity. The investment, which bring the company’s total funding to almost $250 million, will help the fintech provide financial services to its region’s underserved customers.
The $125 million in equity was co-led by GGV Capital and GIC with contributions from General Catalyst, Goodwater Capital, Tresalia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Vision Plus Capital, BAI Capital, and Source Code Capital. The $75 million in debt financing comes from Community Investment Management.
The investment echoes Stori’s success in the region. The company has become one of Mexico’s top issuer of new credit cards since February of this year. In fact, more than 2 million Mexicans have applied for a Stori credit card, and that number has grown by more than 10 times in the last twelve months.
And there is still plenty of room for growth. The broader Latin American region has 400 million underserved consumers. “Our mission – empowering financial inclusion for millions of hard-working people – is amazingly meaningful and challenging at the same time,” said Stori CEO and co-founder, Bin Chen. “We are progressing at an unprecedented pace by combining technology, machine learning, data-driven underwriting and an intuitive mobile-based user experience. A lot more will come in our journey to become a top consumer financial franchise in Latin America.”
Stori plans to use today’s funds to triple in size and broaden its product offerings to better suit customer needs, ultimately providing much-needed financial services to Mexico’s underserved citizens. The fresh capital will also help Stori grow its team and double down on training and development opportunities.
While Stori is focused on the Mexico region, the company boasts a global team with offices in Washington D.C., Mexico, and Asia. “Our success since launch is a direct result of having a team who is passionate about our mission to empower upward financial mobility for the underserved population,” said company Co-founder Marlene Garayzar.
Wealthtech company Atomicannounced its company launch along with a $25 million in a Series A funding round today. The round, which was co-led by QED Investors and Anthemis with participation from Softbank and Y Combinator, will help fuel the company’s investing API that allows fintechs and banks to integrate investing into their existing products.
With Atomic’s API, companies can launch investing experiences such as direct indexing, ESG investing, and multi-currency trading across 60 global markets with no account minimums. The “investing-as-a-service” nature of the new offering means that companies can launch investing tools in a matter of weeks without relying on in-house experiences. In fact, Atomic takes care of not only the investing experience, but also the details around regulations, brokerage operations, and compliance.
“What we see is that fintechs and other consumer-facing companies want to offer savings and investment, but most have come to market with very limited product offerings — only single stock trading or only ETF investing,” said QED Investors Partner Amias Gerety. “Atomic provides cutting edge solutions so that their partners can offer both of these products easily, but also offer advanced features like ESG, direct indexing, and tax loss harvesting that are usually only available for accounts with hundreds of thousands of dollars in them.”
Atomic helps companies retain customers by broadening their existing offerings to include investing– a financial tool that generally creates long-term customer loyalty. “Any fintech or bank that wants to become their end-customers’ primary financial relationship will need to offer investing on their platform to remain competitive,” said Atomic CEO David Dindi. “As an accelerant in the rapidly evolving ecosystem of unbundled financial services, Atomic enables these businesses to offer investing in a frictionless way as a means to deepen their relationships with customers.”
Among Atomic’s client base are fintechs such as Upside, a student loan innovator. Upside is leveraging Atomic’s API to build a wealth management offering that allows its users to refinance their student loans and reinvest the savings.
Dindi, along with the company’s CTO Marco Alban are both Stanford graduates and serial entrepreneurs.
Flexible rent payment platform Xspacedlaunched its digital bank accounts for tenants today. The bank accounts enable Xspaced’s FlexRent product, a tool that helps tenants split their rent payment into two to three installments over the course of a month.
Today’s launch offers Xspaced an important distinction in the online rental payments space– it doesn’t require landlords to register. Instead, tenants can use the virtual bank account independently and landlords can continue using their preferred online rent collection platform.
“Since launching FlexRent last year, we’ve continuously heard from tenants that they would like to have more flexibility when it comes to paying rent and from landlords that they want to keep their current rent collection system,” said Xspaced Cofounder Alex Pelin. “Tenants can save money towards their next rent payment via smaller payments over the month, landlords can keep collecting rent on their preferred payment portal – it’s a win / win for everyone!”
Aimed at gig workers and others with inconsistent income, FlexRent connects to users’ existing bank accounts. Xspaced sends tenants automated payment reminders to help them save money for their upcoming rent payment two to three times each month. At the beginning of the following month they can used the money they saved to pay their landlord using their landlord’s online rental collection platform.
Modern payments platform Dwolla is powering the money movement piece of FlexRent. “Making expense management simpler for anyone on a variable income has been a challenge for a long time,” said Dwolla CEO Brady Harris. “With Virtual Account Numbers, Xspaced is helping make rent easier by helping tenants align their rent payments with their income schedule. We’re proud to power part of their solution.”
The utility of Xspaced’s new virtual bank account offering seems inflated. FlexRent simply sends a reminder to users to send their rent payment and serves as an account to hold the payment. It is the renter’s responsibility to transfer the funds to the Xspaced account and to pay their landlord using the funds held in the Xspaced account.
This is not much value in exchange for the cost, which ranges from $2.99 per month for two payment installments to $5.99 per month for three or four payment installments. The FlexRent account requires users to have a bank account already, so renters may as well open a savings account at their bank to which they can set up multiple automatic transfers.
That said, Xspaced must offer at least some value, because the California-based company boasts that, “thousands of renters love Xspaced.”
San Mateo, California-based txtsmarter, an intelligent communications surveillance service for text and social channel communications, has forged a partnership with GuideCX, a client onboarding software company. GuideCX will streamline the onboarding process for txtsmarter customers as the company expands across the country.
“Txtsmarter is growing at such a high rate that transparency and accountability during the onboarding process are a must for their customers,” GuideCX founder and CEO Peter Ord said. “Their one-day onbording has set a new level for GuideCX as we continue to perfect our process and show people everywhere why our technology can make all the difference for their businesses moving forward.”
txtsmarter made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateWest and returned to the Finovate stage this fall for FinovateFall in New York. The company offers a SaaS platform that enables employees and customers in regulated industries to use native communications apps such as iMessage, WhatsApp, Android, and WeChat/WeCom. txtsmarter’s platform provides effective capture, encryption, and archiving of text and social media messages, immediately identifying any inappropriate communication or potentially fraudulent activity.
Founded in 2014, txtsmarter includes one of the largest financial institutions in the world and a major U.S. sports league among its customers. The company began the year with the announcement that it had entered a strategic partnership with compliance technology and data analytics firm, Steeleye. The collaboration will combine txtsmarter’s message capture and archiving service with Steeleye’s advanced communications surveillance solution.
“Via our partnership with SteelEye, we offer our clients a 360-degree archiving and surveillance service, supplying real-time access to previously inaccessible data,” txtsmarter President and CEO Nuri Otus said. “Only txtsmarter can capture native iMessage and Android SMS/MMS messages providing a full view of all communications – which is necessary for full compliance and to avoid huge sanctions. We all know the real conversations happen via text.”
Sometimes at Finovate, the first time is the charm.
Detroit, Michigan-based fintech Autobooks, which helps small businesses send digital invoices and accept online payments via their financial institution partner, took home Best of Show honors in its Finovate debut in September. The company, co-founded by Steve Robert (CEO) and Aaron Schmid (CIO), impressed our audiences with its embedded solution that gives small businesses an e-commerce platform that is fully integrated into their current digital banking system.
Autobooks shared the stage with partner TD Bank, which offers Autobooks’ suite of tools as part of its TD Online Banking solution. TD Bank Head of Corporate Products and Services Jo Jagadish noted that the partnership has “increased relationship depth with our SMBs by 26%” and represented what Jagadish referred to as a complete reimagining of the bank’s small business checking experience.
“Small businesses are an enormous and diverse group with one thing in common,” Robert explained, “how they get paid is in a state of transition. Financial institutions must invest in digital-first experiences to meet SMBs where they, and their customers, are.” One advantage Autobooks provides is the fact that its technology is embedded into the customer’s existing banking channels, helping financial institutions build and fortify their relationships with their small and micro-business customers.
In the weeks since Autobooks’ Best of Show winning demo at FinovateFall, the company has announced a partnership with Central Trust Bank. Headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri, the $20 billion state-chartered trust company will embed Autobooks’ technology into its digital banking platform. In addition to giving the bank’s business customers the ability to send digital invoices and accept online payments, the integration will also provide cash flow management, accounting, and financial reporting tools.
“We’re dedicated to providing innovative solutions to our customers, and the tools to make banking as easy as possible,” Central Trust Bank SVP of Commercial Banking Services Arlene Vogel said. “We believe partnering with Autobooks will allow for business customers to optimize payments for their business, ultimately helping their business succeed.”
Central Trust Bank has more than 250 locations in 78 communities in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Carolina, Colorado, and Iowa. The bank was founded in 1902.
Also last month, Autobooks announced that it had expanded its partnership with TD Bank to add invoicing to TD Bank’s TD Business Simple Checking offering. The bank’s business customers will now be able to accept credit card and electronic payments that settle directly into their TD account. This will enhance cash flow and liquidity, and will make it that much easier for small and micro-businesses to get paid faster. The collaboration marks TD Bank as one of the first major financial institutions to offer integrated invoicing as part of its digital banking solution.
“Probably the greatest pain point for small businesses is actually getting paid for the services they provide,” Jagadish said. “The new tool will make things easier, faster, and enable our small business customers to get paid, almost immediately in most instances, when the process previously could take up to a week or longer.”
Previous to co-founding Autobooks, both Robert and Schmid were executives with another Finovate alum, Billhighway. Robert served as Chief Information Officer, while Schmid was Chief Product Officer. The company was acquired by BluePay in 2016.
“With this additional capital, we will substantially increase our level of commercial velocity and intensity in solving complex customer and societal problems, while maintaining our Day 0 founder’s mentality and continuing to attract the market’s best product, data science, and engineering minds to join our already incredibly talented team,” Socure founder and CEO Johnny Ayers said.
The Series E was led by Accel – along with funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. New investors Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global joined existing investors Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Sorenson Ventures in the round, as well. Socure’s total equity funding stands at $647 million.
The investment gives Socure the highest valuation of any private company in the identity verification market. The company’s identity verification and fraud-fighting platform Socure ID+ has gained meaningful traction in the enterprise, with four of the five largest banks and seven of the 10 largest credit card issuers embracing the technology. Add to this a host of major fintechs, Buy Now Pay Later firms, investment management companies, and crypto exchanges. Socure has enjoyed 5x year-over-year bookings growth, more than 2x year-over-year customer growth, and five consecutive quarters of record year-over-year revenue growth.
Additionally, Socure achieved a net retention rate of 179% which the company said was due to “near-zero attrition” as Socure’s enterprise customers deployed multiple Socure solutions across divisions at an increasing rate. The result has been to make Socure an all-in-one platform for fraud prevention, KYC, AML, and document verification in the enterprise.
“When you’re a market leader, you move from attacking and replacing the incumbents repeatedly as you earn your seat at the table to truly being a strategic partner to many of the best companies in the world,” Ayers said.
Socure will use the new capital to further invest in product innovation, enter new markets such as telehealth, gaming, e-commerce marketplaces, and the public sector, and add talent to the Socure team – especially in the areas of product development, data science, and engineering. The company also will use the investment to enhance both its customer consortium data and automated ID+ platform to address payment and first party fraud as effectively as it currently combats third party and synthetic fraud.
Founded in 2012 and making its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateFall, Socure has had a busy autumn in 2021, launching new fraud prevention solutions and adding a new Chief People Officer in September, plus reaching a 750 customer milestone early in October. Also in October, Socure announced a major commitment to deliver identity verification solutions to the public sector market, appointing Matt Thompson as its new General Manager of Public Sector Solutions.
“Many agencies lack the industry experience required to effectively manage identity verification and reduce fraud losses in the midst of accelerated digital transformation due to the pandemic,” Thompson explained. “Furthermore, the gaps within legacy identity solutions were exposed leaving numerous eligible people waiting extended periods of time for their benefits while enabling fraudsters to manipulate these same benefits at an unprecedented level. We are committed to solving this challenge for government agencies.”
PayPalannounced this week it is partnering with online retail giant Amazon. Under the agreement, PayPal’s Venmo will be listed as a payment option for U.S. Amazon shoppers online and in the Amazon mobile app. Venmo’s 80 million users will have the option to pay with their Venmo balance or their Venmo-linked bank account.
Venmo SVP and GM Darrell Esch explained that the new integration enhances the versatility of users’ Venmo accounts. “Over the last year, we have focused on giving our Venmo community more ways to use Venmo in their daily lives, including the ability to pay with QR Codes and providing more shopping features like purchase protections,” he said.
The new payment capability will come at a good time for Venmo users. According to the press release, 65% of Venmo users increased their online purchasing behaviors during the pandemic and 47% are interested in paying with Venmo at checkout.
Amazon will also benefit from providing an additional payment option for its customers. “We understand our customers want options and flexibility in how they make purchases on Amazon,” said Amazon’s Director of Global Payment Acceptance Ben Volk. “We’re excited to team-up with Venmo and give our customers the ability to pay by using their Venmo accounts, providing new ways to pay on Amazon.”
The move likely won’t help Venmo win any new users from Amazon’s 300 million active user base, however. That’s because most Amazon shoppers have already entered their preferred payment method into their Amazon Wallet, which currently allows for credit cards, debit cards, store cards, checking accounts, HSAs, FSAs, and EBT. And because Amazon is an expert at making payments disappear into the background of the user experience, most users don’t think about adding a new payment method unless their is an issue with their current one.
There is no exact date as to when Venmo will be integrated into Amazon’s checkout flow, however PayPal said it “will be available in 2022.”
Venmo has been around since 2009 and is known for its popularity among Millennials as a peer-to-peer payment app. Over the past couple of years, however, the New York-based company has proven that it does more than just help 20-year-olds exchange $15 and pizza emojis. Earlier this year, Venmo launched a check cashing feature that enables users to cash paper checks in the Venmo app. The company also offers debit and credit cards, as well as a crypto offering that allows users to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies.
What are the latest signs that fintech is leaning in to support the cause of sustainability?
I’ve always been struck by the lack of optimism in response to the challenge of climate change. One of the Champagne Executive Boardroom sessions at FinovateFall in September discussed the way that financial services companies and fintechs were responding to climate change. And while the beginning of the conversation was predictably focused on constraints (political, social, and cultural), it was heartening to see the second half of the session. That’s because the panelists shifted toward a closer look at the opportunities that many in fintech and financial services firms were beginning to embrace – particularly by empowering customers and members.
With COP26 in the headlines over the past several days, we’ve seen an uptick in this “opportunities-instead-of-constraints” conversation in the fintech community. Here is a look at a few of the more interesting developments of late.
Standard Chartered partners with Starling Bank to help investors go green – Expected to launch next year, Standard Chartered’s Shoal platform will enable customers to financially support the environmental causes they believe in. The shortlist will include projects in areas such as renewable energy, clean water, and community development. Customers will receive both an update on the projects they helped fund as well as a “competitive” rate of return.
SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation arm which is behind Shoal, noted today that the first offering from the platform will be a savings account, and that the platform will be added to the Starling Bank’s Starling Marketplace “in due course.” Courtesy of the partnership between Standard Chartered and Starling Bank, the new platform will be powered by Starling’s BaaS technology and API. This will enable Shoal to emphasize front-end issues like customer acquisition and service, while Starling Bank manages what CEO Anne Boden called “the technical and regulatory demands behind the scenes.”
“Sustainability is one of the high conviction themes for SC Ventures as we explore different business models,” SC Ventures’ Alex Manson said. “With Shoal, we are creating a new venture to address the growing need of all retail clients for sustainable financial and non-financial products, starting with (the) U.K. and expanding to other markets over time.”
It’s also worth pointing out that Starling Bank recently announced a commitment to a one-third reduction in its carbon emissions by 2030. The firm added that it will also offset carbon emissions from its own operations and supply chain annually using March 2021 as a baseline. Starling’s three U.K.-based offices run on renewable energy and, earlier this year, the bank launched the first U.K. Mastercard debit card made from recycled plastic.
“Understanding our carbon emissions enables us to make targeted improvements as we continue to grow,” Starling Bank’s Boden said. “Climate change is one of the biggest challenges that we face globally, and Starling is 100% committed to playing its part in the fight against it, not just in the lead up to 2050, but starting right away.”
Starling Bank is also a founding member of the TechZero Charter. TechZero is a climate action group for technology companies that have committed to leveraging their technology and ingenuity to “accelerate progress to net zero.”
Climate management and accounting platform Persefoni secures $101 million in funding – On the other side of the Atlantic, word that SaaS climate technology company Persefoni has raised more than $100 million in equity capital has people wondering if the Series B round represents the biggest fundraising by a climate-tech company to date. Regardless of whether or not Persefoni is leading that charge, the company is clearly at the front lines of innovators using technology to help businesses calculate their carbon footprint in an auditable and compliant fashion.
The round was led by Prelude Ventures and The Rise Fund, and featured first-time participation from Clearvision Ventures, Parkway Ventures, Bain & Co., EDF Pulse Holding, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Ferrante Group, Alumni Ventures Group, and New Valley Ventures. A number of existing investors also participated in the round. The investment gives the Tempe, Arizona-based company a total equity funding of more than $114 million.
“Carbon and climate disclosures will be the biggest compliance market since the advent of Sarbanes Oxley and GDPR, but with even greater complexity,” Persefoni CEO and co-founder Kentaro Kawamori said. “The market is rife with data and software solutions that create new proprietary methodologies every day, and our customers are exhausted with that approach.” Kawamori added that his company’s extensive work with “industry standards setters and regulators” gives Persefoni an edge over other companies offering solutions in the space. “As disclosure requirements continue to accelerate,” Kawamori said, “every CEO, CFO, and Board Director is looking for a solution they know was purpose-built for the enterprise first – like Persefoni.”
Persefoni also announced that it has entered a strategic corporate partnership with Bain & Co. The “first-of-its-kind” collaboration will have the two firms developing dacarbonization solutions for both the private equity and institutional investing markets. The goal is to enable clients of Bain to “manage their carbon inventory with the same rigor and transparency as their financial metrics,” according to Torsten Lichtenau, global head of Bain & Co.’s Carbon Transition Impact Area.
Digital banking platform Blend and financial document automation platform Ocrolus are partnering this week to embed Ocrolus’ Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) document analysis solution into Blend’s digital mortgage application platform.
Blend expects that Ocrolus’ HITL technology will help accelerate digital mortgage applications for potential home loan borrowers. That’s because the document analysis solution will automate the classification of documents and capture data needed for mortgage applications.
“Blend is simplifying and streamlining the lending experience for consumers and bankers alike,” said Blend’s Manager of Business Development Jeff Braddock. “We’re enhancing the Blend platform with Ocrolus’ automated, accurate document classification and data extraction capabilities. Our partnership with Ocrolus enables us to swiftly deliver time-saving innovations to our customers.”
The partnership aligns well with Blend’s goal to automate all aspects of the loan origination process. The California-based company offers a cloud-based platform that powers end-to-end customer journeys for a range of banking-as-a-service lending products and deposit accounts.
Founded in 2012, Blend’s B2B tools also include a loan officer toolkit, a loan officer mobile app, and an income verification tool. The company enables its customers, including Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and more than 310 other financial services firms, to process an average of more than $5 billion in loans per day.
Ocrolus, which recently won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2021, provides automated document analysis to automate credit decisions across fintech, mortgage, and banking. The company is headquartered in New York and has raised $127 million since it was founded in 2014.
With locations in Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska, Meridian Trust Federal Credit Union has announced a partnership with Scienaptic AI. The collaboration with the AI-powered credit decision platform provider will enable Meridian Trust FCU ($569 million in assets; 31,640 members) to enhance its underwriting capabilities to provide faster lending decisions and boost loan approvals.
“At Meridian Trust, we aim to provide our members and community with the best personal service, the highest quality financial products, and the best overall value for a lifetime,” Meridian Trust FCU Chief Lending Officer Michael Barnhardt Jr. said. “Scienaptic’s AI-driven credit decisioning platform will help ensure that our credit union has access to industry-leading underwriting capabilities to approve more loans for our members and further enhance their financial well-being.”
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in New York City, Scienaptic AI leverages both new data sources and new technologies to enable financial institutions to make more accurate decisions about whether and how much financing to provide to credit applicants. Many banks continue to struggle to systematically manage the growing volume of data required for sound credit decisioning. Moreover, the technology necessary to analyze this data requires complex, quantitative, predictive models (and professionals trained in understanding them). Additionally, many financial institutions lack the kind of scalable infrastructure that can handle the volume of data involved in credit-decisioning – and do so in a timely, compliant fashion.
In response to this challenge, Scienaptic AI offers a platform that enables companies to run multiple champion challengers concurrently; merges credit models and strategies in a single, unified workflow; and supports the rapid deployment of new credit models and strategies. Scienaptic claims that its adaptive AI-based platform and pre-built APIs help deliver 15% to 40% more approvals and 10% to 25% fewer losses compared to traditional underwriting methods based on legacy technology. In addition to credit decisioning, Scienaptic’s technology can be leveraged for fraud prevention, financial forecasting, and collections, as well.
“We are pleased to be working with Meridian Trust to help support and strengthen the financing needs of its members,” Scienaptic President Pankaj Jain said. “Scienaptic’s platform will help Meridian Trust to grow their client base and to support the financial goals of its members by making faster credit decisions while minimizing risk.”
Of late, the Scienaptic AI has forged partnerships with Cooperative Teachers Credit Union, Gesa Credit Union and, earlier this month, Levo Credit Union. All of these credit unions have elected to leverage Scienaptic’s AI-powered credit decisioning platform to, in the words of Levo CU VP of Lending Steven Stofferahn, “enhance credit access for members and improve their financial well-being through smarter, faster credit decisions.”
Scienaptic AI has raised $9 million in funding. The company includes TVS Motor Singapore, Pramod Bhasin, and Salil Punalekar among its investors.
