Finovate Global

Emerging Markets Lender Tala Scores $145 Million in Series E Funding

Emerging Markets Lender Tala Scores $145 Million in Series E Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

In a round led by Upstart, and featuring participation from DeFi network Stellar Enterprise Foundation and new investors Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group, emerging markets digital lender Tala has raised $145 million in funding. The Series E round takes the company’s total capital raised to more than $350 million. The investment also gives the company a valuation estimated at more than $800 million.

The new capital will help the company continue to offer lending services to both consumers and small businesses. The additional funding will also enable Tala to “accelerate the rollout” of a new offering: a financial account designed to make it easier for its customers to “grow, save, and manage” their money. Tala currently provides loans between $10 and $500 and noted in a blog post that more than six million people have used its app since inception. The company has customers in Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India who have borrowed a total of $2.7 billion. Tala added that more than 12,000 new users are signing up for the service every day.

Tala is also looking to expand into the digital asset business, as well. “We’ll also work to develop one of the first mass-market crypto products for emerging markets to help make crypto solutions more affordable and equitable for those who need them most,” the company added. Tala will use its new relationship with the Stellar Network to pursue this project.

Tala evolved from InVenture, a company launched by Tala founder and CEO Shivani Siroya to help micro-entrepreneurs in Africa and India build credit histories. The rebrand was an effort to move “beyond building just credit scores to become a company that will also take the first risk on our customers and lend to them directly.” Tala leverages applicant phone data and activity (such as the timeliness of bill payments) to establish creditworthiness and to determine appropriate lending amounts. Via the Tala app, borrowers can apply for funding in minutes and, once approved, can have funds deposited in their accounts or sent to a preferred cash out location in seconds.

This week’s investment also featured participation from existing investors including IVP, Revolution Group, PayPal Ventures, and Lowercase Capital. Launched in Nairobi, Kenya, Tala is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

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Cryptocurrencies, Financial Inclusion, and a Look at El Salvador’s Big Bitcoin Bet

Cryptocurrencies, Financial Inclusion, and a Look at El Salvador’s Big Bitcoin Bet
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: BioCatch, Finovate Global, MasterCard, Nordigen, Scalable Capital

One of the biggest experiments in bringing cryptocurrencies to the mainstream is taking place in the small Central American nation of El Salvador. Earlier this summer, the country’s legislative assembly authorized granting Bitcoin status as legal tender inside El Salvador beginning September 7th. One month after Bitcoin joined the U.S. dollar as the second official currency in the country, what can be said of the project so far?

This morning, Reuters took up the question of Bitcoin adoption in the country and discovered that the initiative has boosted use of the cryptocurrency, but that increase in use has come with more than a few “headaches” for many Salvadorans who have attempted to withdraw cash from Bitcoin wallets or make other transactions with the digital asset.

On the adoption front, Forbes reported late this week that the Bitcoin project has resulted in more Salvadorans having digital, Bitcoin wallets than traditional bank accounts. According to the article, approximately three million Salvadorans have downloaded Chivo, the new, government-sponsored digital wallet to facilitate Bitcoin transactions. This adds up to 46% of the country’s 6.8 million population. “By contrast,” Forbes noted, “as of 2017, only 29% of Salvadorans had bank accounts.” The Forbes account also observed that Chivo is not the only option available to those seeking to transact in the cryptocurrency; the availability of other digital wallets suggests that the estimates on early Bitcoin adoption by El Salvador’s citizens could be significantly higher.

El Salvador president and long-time Bitcoin backer Nayib Bukele boasted recently of negotiations with the country’s largest gas stations to offer reduced prices for those paying for gasoline using the Chivo app. But widespread adoption by the country’s retailers will still be one of the initiative’s biggest hurdles. Part of this issue is likely timing- a Reuters story reported that, according to the Salvadoran Foundation for Economic and Social Development, 12% of consumers have used Bitcoin in the month since the Bitcoin Law was implemented, and that 93% of the 233 companies it surveyed were reporting no payments in Bitcoin over the same time period. But another part of the issue may be easily explained by Chivo itself, which provides instant conversion from Bitcoin to dollars – meaning Salvadorans who own Bitcoin can still readily pay for transactions in dollars if they choose to.

Nevertheless, early indications are that the project may accomplish its most important role of promoting financial inclusion – especially among the country’s poorer, rural-based citizenry. While some in the business community remain skeptical – and more aggressive opponents of the measure have resorted to vandalizing and defacing Chivo ATMs – others point to the possible use of Chivo as a way for expat Salvadorans living in places like the U.S. to send money to family still in El Salvador as a use case that could help drive Bitcoin adoption in the country. Potential cost savings of using Chivo instead of traditional money transfer services – as well as the Salvadoran government’s willingness to incentivize Chivo use with Bitcoin bonuses of up to $30 – could help Bukele’s Bitcoin brainchild sustain the momentum it already has achieved in its first 30 days.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Photo by Diego Madrigal from Pexels

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QisstPay Secures Funding for Pakistan’s Biggest Buy Now Pay Later Offering

QisstPay Secures Funding for Pakistan’s Biggest Buy Now Pay Later Offering
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

Pakistan-based Buy Now Pay Later platform QisstPay has secured $15 million in seed and pre-seed funding. The round was led by MSA Capital and featured institutional investment participation from Global Founders Capital, Fox Ventures, and First Check Ventures – as well as strategic angel investments from Scalapay co-founders Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski.

The capital, a combination of debt and equity financing, will help the company expand both its services and workforce, ideally boosting its team to more than 100 people by year’s end. QisstPay also believes the funding will accelerate its ability to fund transactions and partnerships with traditional financial institutions in Pakistan, as well as expand its services to neighboring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

QisstPay was founded less than a year ago, in November 2020, to solve a very basic problem for consumers in emerging market economies in general and in Pakistan in specific. Many citizens in developing countries do not have the financial means to get approval for credit cards and other forms of consumer financing popular in the West and the more developed economies in Asia. This impacts not only their ability to purchase recreational and luxury goods, but also impairs their access to everyday necessities.

As QisstPay co-founder and CEO Jordan Olivas explained: “After moving here to Pakistan, I noticed how badly the people of this country need a financial tool to help them purchase goods and services that they not only want, but actually need.”

QisstPay offers an installment payment service that responds to this problem by enabling consumers to pay for their purchases in four installments without having to pay interest or worry about late fees. Purchases of between 1,500 and 500,000 PKR (approximately $9 to $3,000 USD) are eligible, and consumers can use both debit and credit cards to make their repayments. The company noted that it plans to enable repayment via digital wallet soon.

The low penetration rate of credit cards and the dominance of cash are some of the reasons why QisstPay has caught on. Add to this the high population of young, digitally-savvy people in countries like Pakistan, and it is easy to see why the company has more than 500 retailers in Pakistan using its service. This includes brands such as Samsung, Diesel, Philips, Xiaomi, and Lenovo, as well as the largest Shopify store in the country.

“Over 60% of Pakistan’s population is under the age of 30, which means that the majority of the country is adopting new technologies,” Olivas said. “Yet so many people still believe that Pakistan isn’t ready to adopt a BNPL system. The rapid growth and use of a platform like QisstPay proves otherwise.”

Tim Chen, General Partner at MSA Capital underscored this point. “Pakistan is one of the most often overlooked countries when it comes to fintech investments,” Chen said. “However, it’s also one of the countries with the most potential.”

For more insight into the fintech ecosystem in Pakistan, check out Tracxn’s highlight of ten of the top fintechs in the country, as well as this list from LocalWriter. One of the most comprehensive looks at the fintech industry in Pakistan in recent times is available in the landscape study by Mohsin Termezy, founder and CEO of Finclude, and Hussam Razi, a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist with Karandaaz Pakistan, published this summer.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Photo by AaDil from Pexels

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FinovateFall’s Best of Show Goes International

FinovateFall’s Best of Show Goes International
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Bambu, Dreams, Finovate Global, Horizn, InfoCorp, Ripple, VeriTran

FinovateFall 2021 wrapped up a little over a week ago. Our return to live fintech conferencing produced one of our largest number of Best of Show winners (nine) to date. The event also gave us the one of the highest percentage of non-U.S. based Best of Show winners for a FinovateFall event.

This week’s Finovate Global Alumni Profile gives us an opportunity to take a closer look at the quartet of international fintechs that wowed our audiences with their latest innovations in New York City last week.

A Finovate alum since 2016, Bambu has made most of its Finovate appearances at our international shows in Hong Kong, South Africa, Dubai, and Berlin. The company is a multiple-time Best of Show winner, earning its first award in its second Finovate appearance at FinovateAsia in 2017, its second Best of Show award a year later at our conference in Capetown, and its third Best of Show trophy just last week in New York.

Bambu offers a next-generation B2B roboadvisory platform for both financial institutions and fintech disruptors. Powered by the company’s proprietary algorithms and machine learning technology, Bambu’s cloud-based platform has 300,000 end users in ten countries around the world. This summer, the company announced the acquisition of investment management technology provider Tradesocio, a move that will help expand Bambu’s reach internationally.

“After five years of building solid foundations, Bambu is now entering a phase of rapid growth,” Bambu CEO Ned Phillips said when the acquisition was announced in July. “This deal helps us in three key areas: it expands our product offering into stocks and crypto, it gives us a wider global footprint, and enables us to scale our team effectively to match exponential demand. We believe this positions us well for our Series C and ambitions of becoming the global leader in WealthTech.”

Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Dreams earned its second Best of Show award last week at FinovateFall. The company, founded in 2014, is among the more recent Finovate alums, joining our roster last year for our all-digital FinovateEurope conference.

Dreams offers engagement banking solutions that leverage insights from cognitive and behavioral science to enhance financial wellbeing. Launched as a B2C offering, the company has expanded into the B2B2C space, offering its solutions to banks to help them boost digital engagement with their customers. This year at FinovateFall, Dreams demonstrated the savings module of its white-label banking platform, which features debt management and micro-investing functionality, as well as new social/viral features.

Over the past year, Dreams has announced partnerships with Singapore-based financial services software provider Silverlake Symmetri and Ukrainian commercial bank UKRSIBBANK, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas Group.

“Our financial wellbeing platform – which is built upon behavioural science and personal finance management principles – will provide the perfect tool for UKRSIBBANK to help its customers make better financial choices and become more sustainable in the way they handle their finances,” Dreams CEO and founder Henrik Rosvall said when the collaboration was announced. “This partnership will also help UKRSIBBANK safeguard the loyalty of its customers and futureproof its digital banking offering against a growing number of challenger banks and fintechs.”

Hailing from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, digital adoption platform Horizn was launched in 2012. The company is dedicated to helping financial institutions leverage micro-learning, social technology, gamification, and advanced analytics to enhance employee performance, fuel client adoption of new technologies, and boost revenues. With a global reach of more than 40 countries in North and South America, Asia, and Europe, the company has enabled its clients to realize 85% employee adoption rates and a 20% increase in mobile platform usage.

Horizn made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateEurope in London. The company earned its first Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope in Berlin three years later, and picked up its second Best of Show award the following year at our all-digital event FinovateFall 2020. “It’s great to see Finovate recognize the impact that Horizn is having on banks worldwide,” company CEO Janice Diner said last year. “While COVID-19 may have accelerated the shift to digital, Horizn ensures bank customers stay digital.”

In addition to their Best of Show winning technology demonstrations, Horizn has also provided Finovate with some of its most compelling keynote speakers. Both Diner and Senior Vice President for Global Sales Steve Frook have shared their insights during the Conference Days component of our Finovate events. Frook’s FinovateEurope presentation, Landing Your First Bank Customer, was a highlight of our Berlin conference last year. And Janice Diner’s epigrammatic reminder that “if you build it they will come is a myth” remains as a good a piece advice for fledgling fintechs as you’ll ever hear.

The rise of fintech in Latin America has been one of the most impressive developments in global financial services in recent years. This is partly why the Best of Show award won by Uruguayan fintech Infocorp last week at FinovateFall feels so special.

Making its Finovate debut in the spring of 2017, Infocorp demonstrated its IC Campaigns platform that enables financial institutions to coordinate marketing and commercial operations via all available channels to better identify the optimal, next action for each client. The technology takes the omnichannel banking and seamless user experience requirements of modern banks to another level by helping institutions set up shorter-cycled, more agile campaigns that deliver increased conversion rates and higher ROI. Last week at FinovateFall, Infocorp introduced its Mobile Native App, a new solution that brings hyper-personalized experiences for every user in a single bank app.

Inforcorp CEO Ana Inés Echavarren spoke to the importance of “the mobile challenge” in a conversation with fintech analyst and thought leader Jim Marous in the weeks leading up to Infocorp’s return to the Finovate stage in September. “Everywhere the mobile channel is the one of choice now among users,” she explained. “Adoptions have gone up in all the implementations that we have in all the countries that we know of.” As far as Echavarren is concerned, this means that there has been a “mindset shift” in which the mobile experience and the user experience increasingly have become synonymous. To this end, Echavarren said, “we are no longer talking about the bank application, but about the user application.”

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Montevideo, Infocorp has more than 40 successful deployments, 10+ million active users on its platform, and processes more than 120 million transactions a year.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

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Financial Inclusion in Latin America; A Look at Fintech Up ‘n’ Comers in Egypt

Financial Inclusion in Latin America; A Look at Fintech Up ‘n’ Comers in Egypt
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, PayPal, Trulioo

The Road to Greater Financial Inclusion in Latin America

This week’s Finovate Global Reports takes a look at the drive for financial inclusion in Latin America. BN Americas this week featured a research survey conducted by Peruvian financial services company Credicorp and research firm Ipsos. The study queried approximately 8,400 households in seven Latin American countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.

The key takeaways from the study underscored both the need for more aggressive efforts to boost financial inclusion, as well as the concern that those most in need of financial services are also those who are the most marginalized in society overall. The survey highlighted special challenges when it comes to better engaging women, seniors (people over the age of 60), as well as people living in rural locations and those with “limited education and income” in the mainstream financial ecosystem.

Credicorp Head of Corporate Affairs Enrique Pasquel said that promoting financial inclusion was a critical component of improving the business climate in Latin America. “If Latin America continues to have societies where not all enjoy the same benefits,” Pasquel said, “it’s difficult to see how a business can be viable in the long term.”

Education is one of the tools Pasquel sees as especially valuable in driving greater financial inclusion in the region. Many of the study’s respondents who had low levels of engagement with their country’s financial system pointed to a number of issues – from a lack of interest to an inability to see the benefits to a sense that the services available were not necessary to them – as chief obstacles.

Nevertheless, Pasquel believes that the benefits of financial inclusion – such as the increased safety in enabling individuals to reduce their use of cash – are significant enough to overcome many of these reservations. He called on the private sector to play a greater role in financial inclusion efforts.

Checking In on Fintech Innovation in the Middle East

IBS Intelligence took a look at the fintech industry in Egypt and highlighted a quartet of companies – Fawry, MoneyFellows, Paymob, and Yomken – that it believes represent the pinnacle of fintech in North Africa’s most populous country.

The article noted that recent changes in the financial services industry in Egypt are likely responsible for what has made fintech one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country. The Arab republic passed major new banking legislation in 2020 that, in addition to mandating new minimum capital requirements for Egyptian banks, also provided new guidance for both the Egyptian banking sector, as well as for the country’s growing population of e-payments startups, fintech companies, and cryptocurrency firms.

With a tip of the hat to the four major Egyptian fintechs noted by IBS Intelligence, this week’s Finovate Global Lists is sharing eight other fintechs from the country that have made recent Finovate Global headlines. While not as well known as the quartet highlighted above, we think the eight Egypt-based fintechs below are worth keeping an eye on in the months and years to come.

  • Cassbana: Helps underserved communities obtain financial identities via micro-lending and an AI-powered, behavior-based scoring system.
  • Dayra: Provides financial services to un- and underbanked gig economy workers and micro-businesses.
  • Flextock: Offers technology-enabled, fast, and affordable fulfillment solutions for businesses.
  • Hollydesk: Provides a SaaS platform for SMEs that supports daily expense and accounts payable management.
  • Khazna: Serves underbanked communities in Egypt with a solution that provides convenient and secure smartphone-based financial services.
  • MoneyHash: Offers a single platform to enable access to payment and financial services across the Middle East and Africa.
  • Telda: Provides a P2P payment service designed for Egypt’s Millennial and GenZ population.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Photo by Abd Elrahman Elokby from Pexels

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Argentina’s Veritran Earns $225 Million Valuation, Joins Finovate’s Largest Latin American Cohort To Date

Argentina’s Veritran Earns $225 Million Valuation, Joins Finovate’s Largest Latin American Cohort To Date
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Avaloq, Finovate Global, Mambu, Nubank, VeriTran

Low-code fintech platform provider Veritran has secured a strategic growth investment from Trivest Partners, a private equity fund based in Miami, Florida. The specific amount of the investment was not disclosed, but the company did report that funding gives the Buenos Aires, Argentina-based firm a valuation of $225 million.

“Today marks a major milestone for Veritran’s team, as we embark upon a new chapter of becoming the next fintech unicorn,” Veritran CEO and co-founder Marcelo Gonzalez said, “while continuing to democratize access to the digital economy.” Gonzalez highlighted Trivest Partners’ successful track record of working with “founder-owned businesses” and said the collaboration would help Veritran expand “into new geographies and reach new customers.”

Founded in 2005 and maintaining offices in the U.S., Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Guatemala, Veritran offers a low-code platform that helps companies integrate new, enabling technologies into their legacy systems. Companies looking to enhance customer engagement via digital channels ranging from mobile banking and digital wallets seek out Veritran’s technology to future-proof their retail and corporate banking operations, as well as digital payments and onboarding processes.

With 50 bank clients and 25 million users, Veritran processes 25 billion transactions a year on its platform. In August, the company announced that it had partnered with Visa to promote push payments, tokenization, and Click to Pay projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. The previous month, Veritran teamed up with behavioral biometric-based online fraud detection platform Revelock to help banks reduce fraud losses and call center costs. The partnership with Revelock – a Feedzai company – followed Veritran’s collaboration with another biometric technology company, FaceTec, which brought its facial recognition technology to the Buenos Aires-based firm’s low code platform.

Veritran’s funding announcement comes less than a month before it makes its return to the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in New York. The company will join what may be the largest contingent of Latin America-based fintechs ever assembled at a Finovate event (see below).

FinovateFall 2021 takes place at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City, September 13 through 15. For more information, including how to attend our autumn fintech conference live or on-demand, visit our FinovateFall hub today.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo by Florencia Potter from Pexels

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How the Indian Diaspora Helps Fuel Fintech Innovation in the UAE

How the Indian Diaspora Helps Fuel Fintech Innovation in the UAE
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Coinbase, Finovate Global, Nubank

Recent news headlines have underscored the long-standing relationship between fintechs in India and the UAE.

This week, we learned that Indian payment solution provider PayMate has teamed up with both Visa and Citi to automate business payments in the UAE. The collaboration will involve both accounts payables and receivables, enabling institutions to benefit from end-to-end payment automation.

Access to PayMate’s platform also will give corporations in the UAE the ability to take advantage of longer Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) as purchasers, as well as make supplier payments earlier. The platform, which auto-reconciles both made and received payments in real-time, also allows for settling of corporate card payments directly into the accounts of suppliers.

A Visa-certified Business Payment Solution Provider (BPSP), PayMate is looking to leverage its relationship with Visa into offering both its platform and working capital solutions to other countries in the region. More than 105,000 Indian businesses currently use the PayMate platform.

Also this week we learned of that a partnership between the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and UAE-based Mashreq Bank will bring Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to the UAE to support Indian business and leisure travelers to the country.

Unified Payments Interface is an instant, real-time payment system launched by NPCI that enables multiple accounts to be controlled via a single mobile app. The solution supports a wide range of banking features ranging from money transfers to bill sharing and billpay to merchant payments. Introduced in 2016, UPI currently facilitates 10% of all retail payments in India, and has more than 100 million monthly active users in the country. Last year, $457 billion in value moved on the UPI platform, and analysts believe that UPI will top both Visa and Mastercard in India by 2023.

And while bringing UPI to the UAE will be a major boon for Indian travelers and expats in the country, the UAE stands to benefit as well from the support that additional digital payment activity will provide to the UAE’s digital payments ecosystem.

“We are delighted to collaborate with NIPL (NPCI International Payments) to introduce their mobile-based real-time payment systems to our customers in the UAE,” EVP and Head of Payments for Mashreq Bank Kartik Taneja said. “Given the position of UAE as an international commerce and tourism hub, retail merchants in the Emirates always enable the latest payment methods that are expected by our international clients.”

It is worth pointing out that Indians represent the largest expatriate community in the United Arab Emirates, its more than 3.4 million members representing more than 38% of the UAE population. And while this is no surprise to anyone who has visited the UAE, the impact of this sizable population on the fintech industries of both nations is notable. In the summer of 2019, the Dubai Startup Hub, a project of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, announced its intention to “woo” Indian fintechs to the UAE with a $100 million fund for financial services startups.

Underscoring Dubai’s role as a “testbed” for enabling technologies like blockchain and AI,” Manager of the Entrepreneurship Department at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce Natalia Sycheva noted that Indian startups represented more than 30% of the total start-up community in the country. “When we decided to launch the programme of attracting overseas start-ups here,” Sycheva said, “naturally the first choice was India, as 30% co-founders of our Dubai Startup Hub have Indian origin.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Photo by Sreenadh TC from Pexels

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Wahed Brings Ethical Mobile Wealth Management to South Africa

Wahed Brings Ethical Mobile Wealth Management to South Africa
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Finovate Global

For many, the economic inequality and low financial literacy that plague a country like South Africa are reasons to look elsewhere for fintech opportunities. But for New York-based Wahed, these same features are reason for not only optimism, but for investment and expansion.

The company, parent firm of a leading halal financial investment platform, announced this week that it has been granted a new regulatory license from the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa’s financial markets regulator. The license will enable Wahed to launch its investment app in the sub-Saharan nation, making it easier for South Africans to grow their finances in a manner consistent with their cultural preferences and values.

“We are looking forward to making an impact in South Africa,” Wahed CEO Junaid Wahedna said. “We know we can help bridge the wealth divide in South Africa through our products. We combine fintech and values to create simple, accessible, and halal products – we are honored to be trusted and to launch in South Africa.”

With more than 200,000 customers in the nine different jurisdictions around the world, Wahed brings affordable and accessible investing to populations that are often overlooked and unable to use traditional investment solutions. The company enables individuals and families to invest in stocks and sukuks (Islamic bonds) – as well as in real estate and gold. Wahed offers free portfolio recommendations and the ability to invest in multiple accounts that may represent different investment goals – from saving for higher education to buying a first home. And with low, $100 account minimums, Wahed’s portfolios offer diversification among asset classes; efficiency and low cost; and optimization using modern portfolio theory to maximize returns based on the customer’s risk profile

Founded in 2015 and going live in the U.S. and the U.K. two and three years later, respectively, Wahed launched the first ever Halal equity ETF in 2019. By 2020, the company had topped more than 100,000 customers around the world. With its arrival in South Africa, Wahed looks forward to being able to serve the more than 446 million Muslims and others on the continent who need investment opportunities that are consistent with their faith and values.

“We are delighted to provide financial products that put the customer first,” General Manager for Wahed in South Africa Rashaad Kalla said. “South Africa has a thriving fintech ecosystem, an established banking sector, and a population that is hungry to reap the benefits of a new and better way to invest.”

Wahed has raised $40 million in funding from investors including Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Ventures, Rasameel Investment Company, Dubai Cultiv8, BECO Capital, and Cue Ball. In June, the company announced new U.K. General Manager Umer Suleman.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Photo by Kenex Media sa from Pexels

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Canada’s Latest Fintech Unicorn FreshBooks Scores $130 Million

Canada’s Latest Fintech Unicorn FreshBooks Scores $130 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Mambu, Nubank

From the snap election called by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the country’s recently expressed eagerness to accept refugees in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, there have been more than a few reasons for the Great White North to make news headlines of late.

Now fintech fans in particular have another reason to pay attention to what’s going on in the chronically under-discussed nation. FreshBooks, a cloud accounting software company based in Toronto, Ontario, has raised $130 million in new funding. This gives the firm a valuation of more than $1 billion, becoming Canada’s latest fintech unicorn.

FreshBooks CEO Don Epperson said that the funding, which included $50 million in debt financing, was an “injection of confidence” in the company’s mission to help small businesses digitize their accounting operations. Epperson added that the capital will fuel investment in markets that are experiencing significant increases in regulation and help those small business owners better “manage their finances” by “simplifying workflows.”

The Series E round was led by long-time FreshBooks investor Accomplice. Also participating in the funding were J.P. Morgan, Gaingels, BMO, and Manulife. New investor Barclays, one of FreshBooks’ platform partners, was also involved in the financing.

Founded in 2003, FreshBooks is active in more than 160 countries, including Croatia, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the U.S. – as well as its native Canada. The company’s technology has helped more than 30 million people better manage their finances, billing operations, and payments, while increasing customer engagement with its ten-time Stevie award-winning customer support. In July, the company announced that it was teaming up with the Ontario government in a data-sharing partnership to help understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses. In May, FreshBooks co-founder Mike McDerment was featured in Profiles in Leadership where he discussed the company’s origins from its humble beginnings in “his parents’ basement” to the 500-employee company that is now among the top cloud accounting software firms in the world.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Photo by Andre Furtado from Pexels

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India and Nigeria Consider CBDCs as Study Shows Strong Consumer Enthusiasm and Trust

India and Nigeria Consider CBDCs as Study Shows Strong Consumer Enthusiasm and Trust
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

Two of their respective regions’ most powerful economies are moving closer to the issuance of Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs. In India, Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Shri T. Rabi Sanker said that the bank is working toward a “phased implementation strategy” that would further the country’s multi-year effort to transition its citizens away from cash. India’s efforts to remove cash from the economy, including innovations like the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the RuPay network have become increasingly accepted by Indian citizens. But both, as far as Sanker are concerned, face challenges from the persistence of cash and the promise of CBDCs.

With regard to the latter, Sanker has encouraged observers to envision a UPI system based on CBDCs rather than bank balances. In such a framework, there would be no need for interbank settlement and payment systems worldwide could benefit from greater cost efficiencies and faster, even real-time, transaction settlement. As far as the persistence of cash is concerned, small value transactions still make up most cash purchases in the country. But even here Sanker believes that with certain guarantees like transaction anonymity, CBDCs could be efficiently used for these transactions, as well.

Meanwhile in Africa, Rakiya Mohammed, Formation Technology Director for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) told an audience recently that the country will launch its CBDC pilot on the first of October. The project, called Giant, has been in development since 2017 and runs on the open source blockchain Hyperledger fabric. The bank hopes that a CBDC will help support macro and growth management – as well as cross-border trade – and facilitate financial inclusion. Mohammed reportedly cited FOMO – fear of missing out – as one reason why the CBN could not risk sitting on the sidelines while other central banks around the world launched CBDC-related projects and initiatives.

The demand for CBDCs remains an open question to some degree. But proponents of the technology can take heart in a recent study conducted by European deep tech company Guardtime. The firm took a look at opinions toward CBDCs in ten countries including countries in Europe and Asia, as well as in the United States and the UAE. The study revealed that a majority of adults (64%) said that they would be likely to use a digital currency offered by their country’s central bank, with 33% saying they would be “very likely” to use a CBDC. Only 10% of respondents said they would “never” use a CBDC. The CBDC favorable position maintained a healthy lead over CBDC rejection both when it came to converting savings to CBDCs (59% support versus 11% “never”) and being paid in CBDCs (57% support versus 12% “never”).

Summing up the positive results for CBDCs suggested by the study, Guardtime Head of Strategy Luukas Ilves observed, “it is fascinating to see that 64% of people would be willing to use CBDCs – even though they have not been launched yet – and are happy to support and trust Central Banks to ensure digital currencies are delivered.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Photo by ritesh arya from Pexels

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Revolut Reigns as UK’s Most Valuable Fintech; Indian Payments Innovators Go Public

Revolut Reigns as UK’s Most Valuable Fintech; Indian Payments Innovators Go Public
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Revolut

Financial superapp Revolut secured $800 million in funding this week. Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global were the investors in the Series E round, which gave the London-based fintech a valuation of $33 billion. Both Softbank Vision Fund 2 and Tiger Global are new investors to the company.

Company founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky said that the investment was an endorsement of Revolut’s goal of building a “global financial superapp” that enables users to meet all of their financial needs via a single platform. “We want our global superapp to offer our customers 10x better value and 10x better service and security than they can achieve anywhere else,” Storonsky said. He emphasized the value of personalization in delivering a superior customer experience, as well as the importance of transparency and keeping costs low.

Storonsky also noted that the investment makes Revolut the most highly-valued fintech in the U.K. which he said “demonstrat(ed) investors confidence that we can deliver products that raise the bar for customers’ expectations across the whole financial services industry.”

Since demonstrating its personal money cloud at FinovateEurope in 2015 and making its name as a money transfer and exchange specialist, Revolut has grown into a multi-service fintech company with more than 16 million personal and business customers around the world. The company offers wealth management, spending, and payments solutions for individuals; and gives business owners tools and services ranging from smart company cards to multi-currency accounts with support for more than 28 different currencies.

Revolut launched its long-awaited expansion to the U.S. last spring.

Indian Payment Rivals Take IPO Plunge

The Indian payments industry continues to be one of the most vibrant aspects of fintech in the country.

This week we learned that two of India’s bigger rivals in the payments space – Paytm and MobiKwik – are taking their businesses to the public markets. MobiKwik will seek to raise $255 million in its initial public offering, while Paytm announced plans to raise $2.2 billion when it offers shares to the public.

Paytm, one of the most highly-valued startups in India, was founded in 2009 to enable consumers to make digital payments from their phones. The company currently operates a payments gateway, an e-commerce marketplace, and also offers products and services like ticket booking, insurance, and digital gold. Led by Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm plans to use the capital from the IPO – and from a pre-IPO round the company is discussing with Goldman Sachs and Fidelity – to add to its payments offering, explore acquisitions, and launch new initiatives.

MobiKwik offers a mobile wallet service that enables users to make digital payments and, like Paytm, also helps consumer secure insurance products and access personal financing. With more than 101 million registered users, MobiKwik also offers credit cards courtesy of a partnership with American Express. Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Gurgaon, India, MobiKwik includes both Sequoia Capital India and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority among its investors.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

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Pleo is Europe’s Latest Fintech Unicorn; Nigeria-based Lidya Scores $8 Million

Pleo is Europe’s Latest Fintech Unicorn; Nigeria-based Lidya Scores $8 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Compass Plus, Daily news, Finovate Global, Lidya

Six years after its launch, Danish fintech Pleo has become Europe’s latest fintech unicorn.

The smart company card provider announced early this week that it had raised $150 million in Series C funding – the largest Series C round for a Danish company to date – earning a valuation of $1.7 billion in the process. The new capital, according to CEO and co-founder Jeppe Rindom, will help scale the business and “ramp up” the company’s product offering. Pleo will also look at opportunities for market expansion, both by entering new markets as well as “doubling down” on the markets that Pleo is already active in.

“While this investment round is taking Pleo to new heights,” Rindom noted in a post on the company’s blog this week, “our core mission remains the same: to make everyone feel valued at work. Since day one, we’ve been committed to creating a spending solution that encourages a work culture built on trust and transparency, instead of overwhelming control and needless bureaucracy.”

More than 17,000 companies from a variety of industries rely on Pleo’s smart company cards that automate expense reports and make company spending easier. Pleo integrates seamlessly with major accounting software packages – including Xero, Sage and Quickbooks – and features three pricing tiers, Essential, Pro, and Premium – to make its technology accessible to small companies as well as bigger firms with larger teams.

The Series C round was co-led by Bain Capital Ventures and Thrive Capital. Existing investors Creandum, Kinnevik, Founders, Stripes, and Seedcamp also contributed.

Our other international fintech funding news story centers on Finovate alum Lidya, a digital bank based in Nigeria that announced receiving an investment of $8.3 million this week. Lidya, which made its Finovate debut at our fall conference in 2016, helps small and medium-sized businesses quickly secure the financing they need in order to grow and expand.

Companies can build a profile in just five minutes, select the type of loan that works best for them, and secure financing within 24 hours. Lidya’s credit scoring technology, Sardis, leverages machine learning, a proprietary algorithmic model, and an analysis of more than 1,000 data points to build a credit profile and establish creditworthiness.

“A customer repeat rate of over 90% in Nigeria and Europe shows that we are providing the services that SMEs need,” Lidya co-founder and CEO Tunde Kehinde explained. “At the height of the pandemic, we started lending in Europe. It was an important means of financial support for multi-sectoral businesses, including care, groceries and other important sectors. Multi-sectoral businesses. When the world began to emerge from this crisis, we were innovative. We are committed to enabling a strong ecosystem of leading SMEs with our products, unlocking their potential and helping the growing economy rebuild better. “

The pre-Series B Funding round was led by Alitheia Capital (by way of the uMunthu Fund) and featured participation from Bamboo Capital Partners, Accion Venture Lab, and Flourish Ventures. Lidya has operations in Poland and the Czech Republic, as well as Nigeria, and manages a technical team in Portugal. The company has raised a total of $16.5 million.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Photo by Alexandr Podvalny from Pexels

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