How Fintech is Disrupting the Modern Workplace

How Fintech is Disrupting the Modern Workplace

From the way payroll and benefits are administered to the nature of work itself, fintech innovation is helping build the 21st century workplace.

Will “pay day” be a thing of the past? How long until companies across the country are competing on the basis of their ability to help you pay off your student loans?

Technology has done much to change the nature of work in recent years. The same can be said for specific areas like financial technology. Here’s a look at how fintech innovations are making their own contributions to the 21st century “office”.

Getting Paid

Many of us work because we enjoy what we do. But whether you consider getting paid a top priority or just a perk, who wouldn’t love the flexibility of being able to get income when you need the money most – rather than on an arbitrary, twice a month schedule?

Companies like Gusto are among those making this possibility a reality. This summer, the payroll, benefits, and HR technology company introduced Flexible Pay, a new solution that enables employees to get paid on a date other than their employer’s standard pay date. Calling bi-weekly pay schedules a “relic” of the days when payroll taxes were calculated manually, Gusto co-founder and CEO Joshua Reeves has set out to prove that “with modern technology, employees shouldn’t have to wait weeks to get paid.”

The New Workspace

Even the word “telecommute” sounds more like something from a bygone time rather than the way a growing number of Americans are “going to work”. But the reality of remote employment for a growing number of people is here and fintech companies have both encouraged and participated in this trend. “Millennials simply don’t feel they need to be in the office, or at their desk, to get a job done — especially since the evolution of technology has made portability very possible,” Demetrios Gianniris, a director at MG Engineering, wrote for Forbes.com earlier this year in a post called The Millennial Arrival and the Evolution of the Modern Workplace.

To this end, innovations in mobile technology and messaging (consider Eltropy’s innovations in providing secure, compliant communications via popular messaging apps) have helped accelerate the revolution in remote work. There are also fintechs removing friction from some of the more mundane aspects of working outside the office. Expensify, for example, has partnered with Uber to make it easier for workers who use the ride-sharing service to separate business from personal expenses. And speaking of expenses, the tools offered by companies like Ondot empower workers to make necessary purchases while ensuring control and accountability for managers and employers.

Doing the Work

The flip side of the convenience that technologies like chatbots and IVR provide is that, for a growing number of financial professionals, these technologies are virtually co-workers. As machine learning and AI become increasingly commonplace, workers are more likely to rely on interacting with processes than communicating with people when it comes to getting their daily tasks done.

For financial advisors, fintechs are developing a wide variety of tools to make it easier for them to communicate with customers, and build highly personalized investment portfolios and financial plans. Onist, which announced a partnership with Quovo this summer, enables financial advisors to set up a virtual family office to facilitate collaboration between advisors and clients.

Technology also promises to make it easier for workers to leverage the work of other workers more effectively. One of the key insights of New York-based WorkFusion was the way a combination of machine learning and crowdsourcing of human talent could enable smaller businesses to “punch above their weight” when it comes to managing data. The company has since leveraged this technology to produce the first integrated RPA (robot process automation) and cognitive automation platform: Smart Process Automation (SPA) currently deployed in verticals including financial services, healthcare, and insurance.

Managing the Gains

Fintechs are in the lead when it comes to helping workers make better financial decisions. A firm like DoubleNet Pay helps employees manage cash flow by automating their billpay and savings obligations and coordinating payouts around paydays. Wealthucate, a financial wellness specialist out of San Jose, California, provides an automated financial wellness program that helps businesses enhance their own offerings. Wealthucate’s solution leverages gamification and personalization to increase the participation rate in benefit programs and help companies better explain their benefit offerings.

Among the more interesting ways that fintechs are helping workers manage their money is the approach by Student Loan Genius. This company enlists employers in the fight to help Millennial workers in particular pay off their student loans while simultaneously investing in their own employer-based retirement plan as soon as possible.

Fintech and the Work of the Future

It may be only a matter of time before we are able to watch the real-time flow of micropayments into our accounts or a be a part of a workforce in which most of us have both a robot supervisor and a robot subordinate. In any event, it is clear that whatever innovations the workplace of the future holds, fintech companies will be very much a part of making them happen.

Image designed by Freepik

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Eltropy

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Eltropy

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on May 8 through 11, 2018 in Santa Clara, California. Register today and save your spot.

Eltropy empowers financial firms to engage clients across messaging apps such as iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat, to grow revenue rapidly.

Features

  • Offers a messaging-based customer engagement and sales solution
  • Uses AI to predict client buying behavior
  • Provides predictions banks can leverage to follow-up with the right clients at the right time with the right product

Why it’s great
Messaging + AI is the future of customer communication for financial institutions. And that’s where Eltropy comes in – they enable financial firms to engage their clients over messaging.

Presenters

Ashish Garg, CEO and Founder
An MBA graduate from the Wharton School and BITS Pilani, Garg has spent his career in defining and launching technology products that grow revenue.
LinkedIn

Troy Pittock, VP Financial Services
Pittock leverages his deep background in sales and marketing leadership to help customers drive and increase revenues through Eltropy’s messaging-based sales engagement platform.
LinkedIn

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • BeSmartee Integrates with FormFree’s AccountChek Asset Verification Service.
  • 280 CapMarkets Unveils 280 Advisor Services.
  • Quovo Unveils New Solutions for Loan Originators and Servicers.

Around the web

  • cyberProductivity joins DBS Accelerator in Hong Kong.
  • PayPal, Safaricom, and TransferTo team up to make it easier for Kenyans to transfer money between their M-PESA and PayPal accounts.
  • Former Goldman Sachs executive, Michelle Gill, named new SoFi CFO.
  • Bpm’online partners with ChessIT for smart CRM and business processes.
  • Dwolla enhances Transport Layer Security.
  • Baker Hill updates NextGen Omni-Channel Marketing to include P2P normative analysis to identify the most profitable cross-sell opportunities.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Eight Finovate Alums Join Plug and Play Accelerator’s 2017 Fintech Class

Eight Finovate Alums Join Plug and Play Accelerator’s 2017 Fintech Class

Accelerator and global innovation platform Plug and Play revealed its incoming Fall 2017 class this week. And within Plug and Play’s Fintech cohort of 24 startups, eight companies are Finovate alums, including three Best of Show winners.

  • Capitali.se
    • Founded in 2014
    • Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel
    • Shahar Rabin is CEO and co-founder
    • FinovateSpring 2017 demoBest of Show
  • Eltropy
    • Founded in 2013
    • Headquartered in Milpitas, California
    • Ashish Garg is CEO and founder
    • FinovateSpring 2017 demo
  • HEDG
    • Founded in 2016
    • Headquartered in San Francisco, California
    • Bob Rutherford is CEO and founder
    • FinovateSpring 2017 demo
  • Hedgeable
    • Founded in 2016
    • Headquartered in New York, New York
    • Matthew Kane is Chief Ninja and co-founder
    • FinovateSpring 2017 demoBest of Show
  • Neener Analytics
    • Founded in 2014
    • Headquartered in San Jose, California
    • Jeff LoCastro is CEO and founder
    • FinovateSpring 2017 demoBest of Show
  • Qumram
    • Founded in 2011
    • Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland
    • Patrick Barnert is CEO
    • FinovateFall 2016 demo
  • True Link Financial
    • Founded in 2013
    • Headquartered in San Francisco, California
    • Kai Stinchcombe is CEO
    • FinovateSpring 2014 demo
  • Voleo
    • Founded in 2015
    • Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
    • Thomas Beattie is CEO
    • FinovateSpring 2017 demo

Fintech is one of six programs run by Plug and Play (the others are Brand & Retail, Energy & Sustainability, Food & Beverage, New Materials & Packaging, and Supply Chain & Logistics). A total of 101 startups across all six programs were selected from an applicant pool of 2,800. The fall program lasts 12 weeks, ending at the Plug and Play Fall Summit in late October, and will provide startups with access to “world-class mentors, tier one VCs, and C-level executives to propel their businesses to success,” said Principal of Plug and Play Ventures, George Damouny. Opportunities for investment are also a feature of the program. “As an investment group,” Damouny added, “we will have a lot of fantastic investment opportunities, and I’m super excited to be working closely with these startups.”

Joining our eight alums in the fall 2017 Fintech cohort are:

  • Blockdaemon
  • Bouxtie
  • CreditStacks
  • HEXANIKA
  • Income&
  • Keyo
  • Koyfin
  • Synswap
  • LifeSite
  • MIRACL
  • Squirro
  • Novo
  • Qanta
  • Responsive AI
  • Scanovate
  • Tomorrow Ideas, Inc.

“Together, with our team members and community, Plug and Play’s goal is to showcase the startups to at least 30 corporate partners and 30 investors per vertical in the next 100 days,” Plug and Play CEO and founder Saeed Amidi said. More than half the companies in the Fall 2017 class are in the seed stage (57%), with 25% early stage, and 18% growth stage. Additionally, more than a fourth of the Fall 2017 startups are from outside of the United States, including companies from Hong Kong, Ghana, and Switzerland.

Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Plug and Play has made more than 500 investments in more than 400 companies since inception. The accelerator provides mentorship, co-working space, and opportunities for investment for both seed and more developed companies. Plug and Play’s sizable list of partners includes financial institutions and financial services firms such as USAA, Credit Suisse, Cathay Financial and US Bank. In addition to FinDEVr alums Google Cloud Platform (FD16) and Plaid (FD14), Plug and Play’s data partners include IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Medici, Dun & Bradstreet, Morningstar, and AWS Activate. Graduates of the Plug and Play accelerator include Finovate alums Dwolla (FS15), Lending Club (FS09), PayPal (FE12), and Trulioo (FF16).

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Eltropy

FinovateSpring Sneak Peek: Eltropy

Eltropy_homepage_April2017

FS2017-Logo(rev)V1A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateSpring on April 26 & 27 in San Jose. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Eltropy’s client engagement platform increases share of wallet, new client acquisition, and productivity of client-facing teams at banks, wealth, insurance, and financial services firms.

Features

  • Easily curate, share, track, and analyze content
  • Use “text messaging” to communicate with clients the way they want to
  • Meet compliance with automated Salesforce updates and archival of text messages

Why it’s great
Embrace the “text messaging” revolution to build deeper, trusted relationships with prospects and clients.

Eltropy_AshishGarg_2Presenters

Ashish Garg, CEO
Garg founded Eltropy with the vision of simplifying the buying experience. A great buyer experience translates into rapid revenue growth by reducing sales cycle times and increasing lead conversion.
LinkedIn

 

Eltropy_TroyPittock_2Troy Pittock, VP Sales
Pittock leverages his background in financial services, solar, and sales leadership to help customers increase sales and reduce costs by creating a phenomenal customer buying experience.
LinkedIn

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Check out our latest FinovateSpring Sneak Peeks featuring Tyro, FUCO & SOLUTION, Eltropy, AFS, cyberProductivity, and Tavant Technologies.
  • Mastercard’s Biometric Payment Card: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Around the web

  • Business Today India features algorithm-based, stock market research platform, MarketsMojo.
  • Tennessee-based SouthEast Bank to deploy DNA core account processing platform from Fiserv.
  • Yorkshire Building Society to leverage technology from Capriza to support transition to mobile.
  • CoverHound to offer insurance quotes for rideshare drivers.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.