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Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair Consummate Merger; Rebrand as Zai

Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair Consummate Merger; Rebrand as Zai
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CurrencyFair, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

Announced earlier this year, the merger between cross-border payments marketplace CurrencyFair and payment workflow automation platform Assembly Payments has secured regulatory approval. The merged company has also rebranded as Zai as part of a new focus on providing a wider set of integrated financial services to mid-market businesses and enterprise-level customers within and beyond the Australian market. The CurrencyFair brand will remain intact to serve consumers and small businesses with the kind of fast, affordable foreign exchange the company has offered for nearly a decade.

Paul Byrne, who served as CEO and President of Currencyfair for more than five years, will now serve as CEO and President of the new entity Zai. “Our vision with Zai is to boldly transform the future of financial services,” Byrne said in a statement. “The Australian market is very close to our hearts – both Assembly Payments and CurrencyFair were founded by Australian innovators.”

To underscore this point Byrne added that Zai was first to market with NPP, Australia’s New Payments Platform, and that the company planned to launch its new, real-time digital payments solution, PayTo, in the middle of next year. PayTo will enable merchants and businesses to initiate real-time payments from their customers’ bank accounts.

“Zai will continue our tradition of being customer-centric, solving problems and adding value around our five core capabilities,” Byrne said. These areas – payments, global payment accounts, partner ecosystem, lending and settlement, and services – represent major growth opportunities according to Byrne, in what he described as a “$2 trillion revenue market for payments.” In addition to expanding its presence in Australia, Zai plans to launch in the U.K., the U.S., and Asia in 2022 and to grow its workforce from 170 to 450 by 2025.

“We are already seeing the benefits of expansion as we forecast a second successive year of 60% growth in processing volume to $6.5 billion in 2021,” Byrne said.

Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and launched in 2009, CurrencyFair has been a Finovate alum since 2012. Ahead of the merger with Assembly Payments, the company had securely exchanged the equivalent of €10 billion, enabling its customers to send money to more than 150 countries. The company had raised more than $24 million in funding before acquiring Assembly Payments, picking up an additional $35 million in funding from Standard Chartered afterward.

“By bringing together the complementary strengths of CurrencyFair and Assembly, we are supporting the merged company in offering the full range of payment services,” Standard Chartered group chief executive Bill Winters said earlier this year, “providing retail and corporate clients access to fast, high-volume domestic and cross-border payments.”

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UNest Forges Strategic Partnership with Avibra to Bring Insurance Benefits to Families

UNest Forges Strategic Partnership with Avibra to Bring Insurance Benefits to Families
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, UNest

The business of helping parents provide financial education and savings for their children has been one of the more robust areas of innovation in fintech. One such company, UNest, based out of Hollywood, California, announced this week that it has entered a strategic partnership with Avibra to further its mission of bringing financial planning, saving, and investment solutions to parents and their kids.

“Together with Avibra, we are addressing three key areas for families – financial, insurance, and healthcare,” UNest founder and CEO Ksenia Yudina explained. “As the leading app to help parents save for their kid’s future, we have insight into other focus areas for our customers. Alongside pragmatic saving and investment tools, families need insurance coverage and access to healthcare. Avibra shares our customer-centric philosophy and desire to create solutions that empower underserved communities.”

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in New Jersey, Avibra is an app-based advisor offering free and affordable finance, insurance, and financial well-being benefits. These benefits include a la carte solutions such as increased life and AD&D coverage, telehealth and teletherapy services, as well as phone repair and roadside assistance. Courtesy of the newly announced strategic partnership, UNest customers will get access to a $10,000 complimentary AD&D insurance policy – with the option to earn up to $5,000 more in additional coverage. They will also have the ability to choose from Avibra’s a la carte benefits – via the company’s Dollar Benefits Store – at a cost of just $1 per week.

“We are both mission-driven companies and the close alignment in our ethos makes this collaboration a natural fit,” Avibra founder and CEO Yogesh Shetty said. “Similar to UNest, we believe that everyone deserves access to top-quality healthcare and financial solutions. Avibra’s team is focused on improving the lives of hard-working families. Through this partnership, we hope to inspire parents and their kids to be proactive in preparing for each life stage.”

To access Avibra, UNest customers use the UNest Rewards section of the company’s app. Founded in 2020, UNest has developed one of the largest collections of rewards partners offered via a savings and investment app. UNest also offers its customers cash back when they enroll and shop with more than 100 different national brands including Disney+, Old Navy, and Nike.

At the company’s Finovate debut in September, Garrett Gilbertson and Peter Mansfield demonstrated the UNest’s financial planning, saving, and investment app for families. UNest offers tax-advantaged investment accounts for children, giving young people an early opportunity to begin saving for higher education, a first car, a first house, or simply to pave the way for better financial security in adulthood. UNest’s gifting program enables parents to enlist the support of extended family members and friends to contribute to their child’s account.

UNest offers a regular account for $2.99 a month and a family account for $5.98 a month. The Family plan adds the ability to include up to five children in the plan, while retaining all the same features – multiple investment options, unlimited gifts from friends and family, cashback from UNest Rewards, and a savings calculator – as the regular plan. Both plans give parents complete visibility and control over how the money is invested and spent until the child reaches adulthood.

Photo by Emma Bauso from Pexels

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Veem Teams Up with Visa, Q2 to Bring Digital Money Management and AR/AP Innovations to SMEs

Veem Teams Up with Visa, Q2 to Bring Digital Money Management and AR/AP Innovations to SMEs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Q2, Veem, VISA


From a collaboration with Visa to a partnership with Q2, new Finovate alum Veem, which made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, continues to offer the kind of solutions to help make business payments easy, efficient, and affordable.

In fact, within one month of the company’s first-ever demo on the Finovate stage – a presentation of Veem’s Partner Connect product – the San Francisco, California-based company inked two major deals with some of the most innovative companies in financial services and digital banking.

Veem’s partnership with Visa, announced in the first half of October, will give the company’s 400,000+ customers access to a new SMB Visa card program, as well as digital money movement capabilities courtesy of Visa’s real-time push payments platform, Visa Direct. The agreement will enable Veem customers to generate and issue virtual Visa payment cards that can be used to cover business costs ranging from payments to suppliers to more general business expenses. The virtual card program, along with Veem’s spend management tools, also provides reconciliation and other financial benefits to help customers further digitize and streamline their operations. Access to Visa Direct will give Veem’s U.S. clients the ability to send money directly to both bank accounts and eligible Visa cards in more than 160 currencies.

“Visa is renowned for having broad network acceptance both domestically and internationally,” Veem CEO Marwan Forzley said. “Our collaboration helps Veem expand digital payment options for our customers, as we continue to build the next generation global solution for businesses.”

Veem also last month announced that it was teaming up with digital banking innovator Q2. The partnership is geared toward taking the friction out of the accounts payable/accounts receivable process for SMEs by making Veem’s AP/AR automation platform available to the 450+ financial institutions and 1.5 million businesses on Q2’s digital banking platform.

“This partnership with Veem gives our Financial institutions the ability to deliver Veem’s modern payment services to SMB customers with agility and reliability,” Q2 Innovation Studio Managing Director Johnny Ola said. “Businesses are looking for embedded solutions that act as a one-stop-shop to conduct all their day-to-day transactions. With our integration with Veem, we are excited to give our financial institution customers the option to offer small businesses innovative technology solutions.”

The two collaborations were only part of a very busy autumn for Veem, which was founded n 2014. Also last month, the company appointed Jeff Revoy as Chief Growth Officer and Travis Green as Vice President of Product Management. Revoy brings 20 years of CEO, President, and C-level experience at a number of public and VC-backed firms. Previous to his joining Veem, Revoy was Chief Operating Officer for SpaceIQ, a real estate workplace management software company he founded in 2016 that was acquired by WeWork in the summer of 2019.

In September, Veem secured $31 million in strategic funding in a round led by Truist Ventures. The company said in a statement that the capital will help it develop a robust channel partner program to broaden the company’s geographic footprint. The investment takes the company’s total equity funding to just over $100 million.

“This funding round marks an important milestone for the company, putting us in an ideal position to build out our channel partner program and prepare for Veem’s next stage of global growth,” Forzley said when the investment was announced. “Our channel partner network serves as our vehicle to better commercialize our product offering and further expand upon our market development efforts.”

As Veem’s FinovateFall debut showed, the development of its channel partner program has already borne fruit. At the conference, Veem’s Revoy and Connor Grilo demonstrated a new minimal code integration – Partner Connect – that enables banks to offer their clients an all-in-one, global payments platform designed for small and mid-sized businesses that keeps the bank’s branding at the forefront. The solution is integrated with the major accounting platforms so that, with a couple of clicks, users can reconcile what they are sending out from or receiving in Veem with their accounting software.

“There’s no back and forth, there’s no trying to keep two separate systems,” Revoy said from the Finovate stage. “All of this is automated and designed in a way so that, as a business owner, it can be fast, it can save you time, hopefully it will save you money, and will save you a lot of headaches, because everything is tied together.”

Photo by Ariadne Barroso from Pexels

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Prepaid Technologies Raises $96 Million in Growth Financing

Prepaid Technologies Raises $96 Million in Growth Financing
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Birmingham, Alabama-based prepaid digital payment solution provider Prepaid Technologies has scored $96 million in funding. The round was led by Edison Partners and StepStone Group, and also featured participation from Stifel Venture Bank and Top Tier Capital Partners.

The company has enjoyed 15,000% straight-line growth in its load value, as well as revenue gains of 9x over the five years since it last raised capital – $5 million in 2016. Prepaid Technologies currently has 1,700+ customers and 450 active partners including banks, payroll processors, payment providers, as well as digital banking platforms, enterprise technology companies, and merchant services providers. The company’s technology enables its customers to access and customize both B2C and B2B payments for payroll, rewards, purchasing, and disbursement.

“We purpose-built our platform to create a turnkey way for companies to configure payments solutions across their enterprise however they operate,” Prepaid Technologies CEO Stephen Faust explained. “Clients access payments through our dashboard technology or integrate solutions into their workflows through our robust API suite. We’re laser-focused on productization and customization that will help to transition more companies to card-based and digital solutions.”

With financial services clients such as CertiPay, Rocket Mortgage, PNC Bank, and Cornerstone – and boasting customers like Delta, Lowe’s, and Samsung more broadly – Prepaid Technologies was founded in 1998. The company acquired Dash, the purchasing card portfolio and expense management solution from Finovate alum Karmic Labs, in 2019. Prepaid Technologies has leveraged this acquisition to launch its MyDashCard app and dashPerks, a cashback rewards program for cardholders.

Prepaid Technologies will use the new capital to fuel market expansion and to continue to develop both its technology payments platform and its customer-focused prepaid solutions. As part of this week’s investment, Edison Partners Managing Partner Chris Sugden will join Prepaid Technologies’ board of directors.

In a statement, Sugden underscored the unique opportunities available to companies like Prepaid Technologies in the current environment. “Loyalty payments and refund programs present an enormous niche opportunity,” Sugden said. “There is both a programmatic vertical opportunity and underserved community opportunity.” He praised the company’s “incredible load volume and data set” as well as the “deep banking and payments expertise” of Prepaid Technologies’ management team.

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Digital Currency Group’s Valuation Soars to $10 Billion After $700 Million Stock Sell-Off

Digital Currency Group’s Valuation Soars to $10 Billion After $700 Million Stock Sell-Off
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Perhaps the biggest news in crypto today (besides Burger King’s announcement to give away Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin) is that crypto investment firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) sold $700 million in stock, boosting its valuation to $10 billion.

The Wall Street Journal broke the news earlier today, noting that DCG’s sell-off is the second-largest in crypto history and makes DCG one of the highest-valued private companies in the sector.

The private sale was led by SoftBank and saw participation from Google, GIC Capital, and Rabbit Capital, who join previous investors Western Union, Bain Capital Ventures, Mastercard, and OMERS Ventures.

DCG has created its own subsidiaries, including digital currency asset manager Grayscale. The company also leverages M&A as part of its strategy, having snapped up blockchain news and research company CoinDesk and crypto exchange platform Luno. Among the many companies in DCG’s investment portfolio are eToro, Kraken, Ripple, and Veem.

DCG was founded in 2015 by Barry Silbert, who said that the deal will allow some early market players to close out their positions in the company and pocket the profits. The new investors are also expected to boost DCG’s technical and operational abilities and broaden its geographic reach. Silbert, who owns around 40% of DCG, has not sold any of his stock.

Before launching DCG, Silbert founded Finovate alum SecondMarket, a firm that enables private companies and investment funds to execute primary and secondary transactions. The company was acquired by Nasdaq in 2015.

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Moven Teams up with Apex Edge to Bring Bill Negotiation to Financial Wellness

Moven Teams up with Apex Edge to Bring Bill Negotiation to Financial Wellness
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Moven

Partner-enablement platform ApexEdge will bring new savings opportunities to Moven’s financial wellness platform courtesy of a partnership announced this week.

“We’re excited to help the financial services industry find new ways to help consumers save, while living within their means,” Moven CRO Bryan Clagett said. “Banks and credit unions particularly, can differentiate by offering services that have immediate impact to consumers’ bottom line, while supporting their brand ambitions of acting as a financial advocate.”

ApexEdge uses actionable intelligence to spot and secure savings opportunities for consumers. Via its BillShark bill negotiation service, ApexEdge enables management and negotiation of a wide range of monthly bills including cable television, Internet, wireless, home security. The company says that it has provided more than 350,000 customers with a savings success rate of 85% and an average savings of $295. The partnership with ApexEdge only enhances the value that Moven offers its clients. The technology helps move financial wellness beyond turning data into actionable insights to tangibly saving customers money via cost savings not traditionally available through banks and credit unions.

“It is exciting to play a role in the financial wellness movement that the retail banking industry is embracing,” ApexEdge CEO Steven McKean said. “By partnering with innovative companies like Moven, banks and credit unions have access to the tools and technology to affect real, meaningful positive change in the daily lives of their customers and members.”

Moven’s bank-in-a-box solution enables banks and fintechs to launch a fully functional digital challenger bank in 90 days. The company’s platform uses both proprietary bank and third-party data to give institutions the ability to offer real-time insights for their digital banking customers. The platform’s features – such as Spend Meter, Savings Stash, and Spend by Category – further help customers get a more holistic view of their finances. The technology leverages open APIs and SDKs to provide scalability, optimize speed to market, and ensure an integration and launch that is both customizable and quick.

Moven founder Brett King joined Q2 VP of Strategic Solutions Rahm McDaniel in a demonstration of CorePro, the core processing platform behind Moven’s digital bank-in-a-box, at FinovateSpring 2021 in May. The technology is geared toward enabling community and regional banks, as well as credit unions, to compete with the digital-native offerings from challenger and neobanks.

Winner of Best Embedded Finance Solution at this year’s 2021 Finovate Awards, ApexEdge was founded in 2020. Earlier this fall, the company announced that a new, financial wellness mobile app Upwise, offered by MetLife, would offer Billshark bill negotiation services among its initial suite of capabilities.

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Standard Bank Taps Flutterwave to Enhance Payments in African Nations

Standard Bank Taps Flutterwave to Enhance Payments in African Nations
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Africa-based Standard Bank announced this week it is partnering with payments technology company Flutterwave. The bank is looking to Flutterwave to help improve the digital payment experience for customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Cote D’Ivoire, and Malawi.

By integrating Flutterwave, Standard Bank aims to help commercial customers– from sole proprietors to large companies– grow their business by leveraging digital payments and ecommerce tools. Specifically, Flutterwave will help Standard Bank’s merchant clients to build e-commerce, card issuing, payments, collections, USSD, lending, and buy-now-pay-later capabilities for end consumers.

“Our partnership with Standard Bank demonstrates that fintechs and banks are not competitors but trusted partners with the key focus being the customer,” said Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga GB Agboola. “We plan to grow financial and digital inclusion through this partnership and in the long run, we expect to generate more jobs in the digital economy and enable rapid business growth across the continent.”

Flutterwave was founded in 2016 and has since processed over 140 million transactions worth over $9 billion. The company aims to create a flexible and affordable way for Africans to pay in the digital era. In addition to its payments technology, the company also offers invoicing technology, business loans, and analytics tools.

Standard Bank’s Chief Executive of Africa Regions Yinka Sanni anticipates the benefits of today’s partnership will transcend the bank’s merchant clients. “Coupled with the innovation offered by Flutterwave, we can deliver real impact and growth opportunities to clients across the continent,” he explained. “We believe when our clients grow, Africa grows.”

Earlier this year Flutterwave teamed up with PayPal to connect its African merchant clients with PayPal’s 377 million accountholders, making it easier for them to navigate the complex payments infrastructure in Africa. Flutterwave has raised $235 million and is headquartered in California.

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Visa Invests in Deserve to Boost Access to its Credit Card-as-a-Service Product

Visa Invests in Deserve to Boost Access to its Credit Card-as-a-Service Product
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Deserve, Funding, VISA

Credit card innovator Deserve is getting a boost this week. That’s because Visa invested an undisclosed amount into the credit card company, which already counts $287 million in total funding.

The two have also formed a strategic partnership with an aim to expand access to Deserve’s credit-card-as-a-service for financial institutions, fintechs, and brands. This comes after the two parties collaborated in Visa’s Fintech Fast Track program to launch a credit card with crypto rewards in partnership with BlockFi.

“Visa’s Crypto team collaborated with BlockFi and Deserve to launch a crypto rewards credit card that would appeal to crypto enthusiasts and introduce crypto to the masses,” said Visa’s Vice President of Crypto AJ Shanley. “The BlockFi Bitcoin rewards credit card has been an immediate success. We are excited about our partnership and new investment in Deserve and are looking forward to continuing to drive the adoption of crypto powered card programs together.”

Founded in 2013, Deserve rebranded from SelfScore in 2017. The company has re-imagined traditional credit cards, thinking outside of the 3.37 inch by 2.125 inch plastic square. Deserve is bringing credit cards into the digital era by transforming the application and onboarding processes, as well as the credit card itself.

The company’s products include a co-branded credit card program to help firms create and launch their own credit card, a credit card-as-a-service offering that provides a turnkey card solution, and a direct-to-consumer digital-first card with a tandem mobile app. As Deserve Co-Founder and CEO Kalpesh Kapadia explains, “We’re transforming credit cards into software that lives on mobile devices not in wallets.”

Part of operating in today’s digital-first world includes helping firms compete with fintechs. Deserve offers commercial customers tools that go beyond traditional credit card rewards. For example, the company delivers additional capabilities to include Buy Now Pay Later, installment loans, and even payroll advance. Deserve’s clients include Sallie Mae, BlockFi, OppFi, Seneca Women, and Notre Dame.

Photo by Ruthson Zimmerman on Unsplash

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OurCrowd Raises $25 Million to Democratize Access to VC Funds

OurCrowd Raises $25 Million to Democratize Access to VC Funds
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, OurCrowd

Venture investing platform OurCrowd announced today it landed $25 million in funding. The convertible equity investment comes from SoftBank Vision Fund 2, a subsidiary of Softbank Group that specializes in growth capital and social impact investments.

Since it launched in 2013, OurCrowd’s platform has helped 140,000 accredited investors from more than 195 countries invest in over 280 companies and 30 funds. OurCrowd will use today’s round to build its investor base and more quickly identify high-potential, tech-enabled private companies.

“We are excited to be working with SoftBank Investment Advisers, one of the world’s largest technology-focused investors,” said CEO Jon Medved. “As a strategic investor with a global reach and a network of market-leading technology companies, they will be a pivotal partner in helping OurCrowd realize our vision of democratizing access to venture capital.”

Today’s deal also involves a strategic partnership between OurCrowd and SoftBank Investment Advisers (SBIA). Softbank will consider investment opportunities via OurCrowd’s VC platform and the two will work together to evaluate market trends.

“Softbank has been investing ahead of major technology trends for over 40 years and we believe there is huge, embedded potential in the private markets ecosystem,” said Head of SBIA Operations in Israel Yossi Cohen. “In OurCrowd, we have an investment partner with the networks and pedigree to help promising Israeli startups to potentially emerge as international tech champions.”

2021 has been a good year of growth for OurCrowd. The Israel-based company saw new registered subscribers increase from 25,000 last year to 75,000 so far this year– a 300% boost. This uplift is fueled by OurCrowd’s ability to curate a diverse portfolio of startups that are poised for both growth and success. More than 50 companies in OurCrowd’s portfolio have made profitable exits, including Lemonade, Beyond Meat, Kenna, Argus, and Wave.

Photo by Maryna Bohucharska on Unsplash

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Mastercard Launches Touch Card to Support Visually Impaired Consumers

Mastercard Launches Touch Card to Support Visually Impaired Consumers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Diversity in Fintech, MasterCard

Mastercard introduced its latest innovation to help ensure that visually impaired and partially sighted consumers can use its spending and credit solutions as readily as any other cardholder. The company’s Touch Card, announced this week, enables the visually impaired to easily determine whether the Mastercard they are holding is a credit, debit, or prepaid card thanks to a few simple design elements to the physical card itself.

At a time when payment cards are becoming sleeker, eschewing the boldly embossed letters and numbers that have distinguished these cards for decades, the new Touch Card features a new design that, while not bucking the trend toward flatter, thiner cards, provides the kind of tactile cues that visually impaired consumers can use to select and use the right card. With a series of notches on the side of the card – a round notch for credit cards; a broad, square-shaped notch for debit cards; and a triangular notch for prepaid cards – Mastercard’s new Touch Card is another example of what Mastercard Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Raja Rajamannar called innovation “driven by the impulse to include.”

“The Touch Card will provide a greater sense of security, inclusivity, and independence to the 2.2 billion people around the world with visual impairments,” Rajamannar said. “For the visually impaired, identifying their payment cards is a real struggle. This tactile solution allows consumers to correctly orient the card and know which payment card they are using.”

The new cards have been endorsed by The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the U.K. and by VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the U.S. Co-designed by augmented identity specialist IDEMIA, Mastercard’s Touch Card works with bot point-of-scale terminals and ATMs, meaning that the new solution can be readily deployed at scale.

“With one in seven people experiencing some form of disability,” Rajamannar said, “designing these products with accessibility in mind gives them equal opportunity to benefit from the ease and security of a digital world. No one should be left behind.”

It is worth mentioning that the Touch Card is only one of Mastercard’s initiatives to empower those with visual impairments. The company includes its signature melody, which signifies that card transactions have been completed successfully at the checkout counter, among these efforts.

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Fundica Teams Up with Digital Commerce Bank to Help Businesses Find Funding

Fundica Teams Up with Digital Commerce Bank to Help Businesses Find Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fundica

One month after making its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York, AI-powered funding search engine Fundica has partnered with Digital Commerce Bank. The Bank will host Fundica’s online funding search solution on its website for free, making it easier for businesses to search for and secure information on a wide variety of funding sources, including grants, tax credits, government loans, loan guarantees, and accelerators and incubators.

Users of the search engine can personalize results quickly and choose from among 35+ different search criteria. The solution is updated in real time, helping ensure that companies and business owners have access to the most up-to-date, accurate information on funding opportunities that are relevant to them.

“Digital Commerce Bank is proud to offer Fundica’s funding search technology as part of our commitment to support and promote business in Canada,” Digital Commerce Bank President and CEO Jeffrey Smith said. A privately held, Schedule 1 Canadian chartered bank headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Digital Commerce Bank offers payment and banking experiences, as well as card services, digital wallets, and loan origination and management tools.

The institution is regulated by OSFI (the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada), is a member of Payments Canada, and is a principle member of Interac, Visa, and Mastercard. Digital Commerce Bank changed its name from DirectCash Bank in November of last year in a move Smith said would allow the institution to “unify (its) branding, technology, and offering. The firm reported total assets of $94 million (C$117 million) this summer.

“We are delighted to partner with an innovative group like DCBank who shares our mutual commitment to make finding and applying for funding easier for entrepreneurs across Canada,” Fundica President and co-founder Mike Lee said.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Fundica leverages machine learning, crowdsourcing, web crawlers, and its own data science team to offer business owners and entrepreneurs dynamic, relevant funding data. In addition to Fundica’s funding search engine for businesses, the company’s white label and API-based solutions enhance the ability of its partners to help its customers better navigate the funding landscape. Companies have successfully leveraged Fundica’s technology to drive traffic to their websites and capture leads in search of funding, better engage customers with a “one-stop-shop” for current and relevant funding information, as well as generate data-driven insights.

In addition to its online white label service, Fundica also offers two other licensed services: AdvisorPro and Automated Funding Alerts. AdvisorPro is designed for financial advisors to use the Fundica database directly to better serve their clients. Automated Funding Alerts service sends funding opportunities to a mailing list of businesses provided by the subscribing firm. For its role in playing “matchmaker” between businesses and funding entities, Fundica has earned the nickname “the eHarmony of the funding world.”

“Fundica is the most useful tool entrepreneurs can use when it comes to funding,” former, eight-year Intuit Canada President and CEO Jeff Cates said. “Having their white-label solution on our website increased signups to Intuit’s products tremendously.”

An award-winning innovator that has earned recognition from the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation, Startup Canada, and CFO Canada, Fundica also organizes and runs the Fundica Roadshow. The annual event is held in cities across both Canada and the U.S., and is geared toward helping business owners understand the range of funding opportunities available to them, as well as help make connections between entrepreneurs seeking funding and the funding sources themselves.

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Marqeta Partners with Amount to Help Banks Enter the BNPL Space

Marqeta Partners with Amount to Help Banks Enter the BNPL Space
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Marqueta

Payment processor Marqeta teamed up with buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Amount this week. The two are working together to help banks compete in the BNPL arena. The partnership will integrate Amount’s BNPL solution and Marqeta’s instant virtual card issuance tools to help banks launch their own BNPL offering and virtual card.

“With escalating consumer expectations for simple, digital experiences at every step, banks must compete or continue to lose market share to digital challengers who offer a more flexible way for their customers to pay,” said Amount CEO Adam Hughes. “We continue to develop and expand our platform to give banks the agility and tools they need to create high-value interactions at the point of sale. As a leader in modern payments and innovation, Marqeta shares our vision and is the ideal partner to bring best-in-class solutions to banks.”

Banks have traditionally been left out of BNPL spending, since they lack the tools to provide such offerings to their customers. However, Amount takes a modular approach to BNPL that integrates with legacy platforms. The configurable nature of Amount’s tools gives banks flexibility to provide customers split pay or installment payments across multiple channels and payment vehicles.

“This partnership creates a pathway for banks to become more agile and meet customer demand for more flexible ways to pay, including BNPL,” said Marqeta Chief Revenue Officer Darren Mowry.

The new offering comes at a good time; consumer interest in BNPL has been steadily increasing in the past two years. And according to Juniper Research, money spent using BNPL tools is expected to nearly quadruple between 2021 and 2026, amounting to a 274% increase.

Amount was founded in 2019 and has since raised $243 million. The company’s BNPL technology aims to help traditional FIs compete with the rising wave of challenger banks by helping banks go digital in a matter of months. Amount’s white-labeled products help banks with omnichannel digital account opening, fraud prevention, identity verification, loans, deposits, and credit cards. The Chicago-based company is planning to add home equity, auto, and small business loans to its retail banking suite.

Marqeta is a modern card issuing platform that offers banks and fintechs the tools to create customized payment card programs. The company was founded in 2010 and went public earlier this year in an IPO that raised $1.2 billion on the NASDAQ exchange. Marqeta trades under the ticker MQ and has a market capitalization of $16.8 billion.

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