Finovate Global

Finovate Global Brazil: Instant Payments, Acquiring AI Tech, and Money for Med Students

Finovate Global Brazil: Instant Payments, Acquiring AI Tech, and Money for Med Students
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global, Temenos

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Brazil.

Brazilian fintech Matera raised $100 million in funding from U.S. investor Warburg Pincus. The investment gives Warburg Pincus a majority stake in the firm, and is designed to help fuel Matera’s expansion into North America.

A key part of Brazil’s PIX instant payments ecosystem, Matera offers core banking, instant payments, and QR code payment technology to more than 250 banks, credit unions, and financial institutions globally. The company includes two of the top three banks in the world and more than one-third of all banks in Brazil as its customers.

This week’s investment arrives as the company reports 2023 revenues of $77 million and 4x growth since 2020. Within a real-time payments system that accounts for more than 40% of all electronic transactions in Brazil, Matera alone processes more than five billion transactions a year.

“PIX set the standard for the digital finance revolution,” Matera CEO Carlos Netto said. “At Matera, we know first-hand the pressure for banks to modernize their infrastructure to keep up with innovative new payment methods such as instant payments and pay-by-bank. We’re honored to leverage our PIX expertise with proven solutions to help financial institutions across North America keep pace with their customers’ digital demands.”

Matera’s flagship solution for the North American market is Digital Twin, a high-performance ledger that sits on top of a bank’s existing core platform. Digital Twin responds to two particular issues: core banking modernization and the ability to create real-time digital user experiences. Additionally, Matera is introducing its QR code payments solution. The technology enables both billers and merchants to offer consumers QR codes to make payments via mobile phone. Matera’s QR code payments offering also enables consumers to generate QR codes from a mobile app in order to make payments.

Matera was founded in 1987 in Sao Paulo. The company also maintains offices in Rio de Janeiro, Maringá, and Campinas in Brazil; as well as in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

One of Finovate’s few Brazilian alums, Nubank, is also one of the biggest fintechs in the country. And while the company has received a great deal of acclaim for its efforts to promote financial inclusion, Nubank is also making inroads when it comes to integrating AI technology into its operations.

To this end, the company has acquired U.S.-based data intelligence start-up Hyperplane. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Nubank said that it will use Hyperplane’s AI technology in multiple ways, generating insights, improving decision-making, and enhancing the customer experience.

“Nubank’s mission since its founding is to fight complexity and empower fanatical customers,” David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, said. “Our early investments in AI, coupled with the impressive infrastructure and talent that (the) Hyperplan team has been able to put together, will accelerate our mission. Consumers globally will access not only the very best financial products but also receive truly customized financial advice that empowers them to live a better life.”

Founded in 2013, Nubank made its Finovate debut at FinDEVrNewYork 2016. The digital banking platform serves more than 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia with solutions for credit and lending, investment, payments, and insurance. Last month, the company launched direct cryptocurrency transfers, and forged partnerships with Lightspark and fellow Finovate alum, Wise.

Alume, a Brazilian fintech that specializes in providing financing for higher education expenses raised $7 million (R$39 million) in funding this week. The round was led by Japan-based Credit Saison.

Helping fund the education of the country’s future medical professionals is Alume’s specialty. The company offers student loans to medical students in Brazil, as well as to newly graduated doctors. To date, the company has more than 4,000 clients and has disbursed $29 million in financing.

“Alume differentiates itself by combining technology with a deep understanding of the medical sector,” Alume Co-founder and CEO Pedro Silveira said. “Our medical-specialized accountants deliver a superior experience and tax savings for professionals.”

Alume offers three different kinds of student loans. The company provides financing of up to 80% of the student’s monthly tuition fees starting with the ninth semester of attendance onwards. Alume also offers an allowance of up to R$1,600 per month (approximately $287) to help pay for housing, food, and transportation expenses. Third, Alume provides financing for medical residency preparatory courses. Monthly interest rates start at 1.99%.

In addition to financing, the company is adding an accounting service to its offering. The service will be designed to assist doctors who serve as legal entities and will help them manage both their accounting and tax reporting.

Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Alume was founded in 2019.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Accelerex, a digital payment services provider based in Nigeria, introduced its “Payment with Fingerprint” system.
  • Stanbic Bank Kenya upgraded its Temenos core in partnership with Temenos regional implementation partner Orion Innovation.
  • Nigerian fintech Fintava unveiled its banking-as-a-service technology.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Estonia-based fintech Mifundo is awarded a $2.7 million (€2.5 million) grant from European Innovation Council.
  • Latvian multi-asset investment platform Mintos announced its entry into the Czech market this week.
  • Digital wallet Kuady has expanded to Bulgaria.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Egyptian fintech unicorn MNT-Halan raised $157.5 million to support expansion outside the country.
  • Jordan Kuwait Bank teamed up with Mastercard and UAE-based fintech FOO to launch new prepaid digital wallet, eliWallet.
  • The Central Bank of Bahrain will require all licensed financial and banking institutions to adhere to the country’s Open Banking regulations by the first of September.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian startup TechFini secured approval from NPCI to facilitate UPI-based payment solutions to banks, financial institutions, and fintechs.
  • Paytech Paysys Labs and Raqami Islamic Digital Bank Pakistan partnered to enhance digital payments in the country.
  • India-based credit card company OneCard announced a collaboration with Razorpay.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Mexican fintech OCN secured $86 million in Series A funding.
  • Brazilian banking software provider Matera raised $100 million in funding from Warbug Pincus.
  • Argentina-based payments processor Tapi secured $22 million to support its expansion into Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore based fintech Qashier launched its payment linked loyalty program, Treats.
  • Financial infrastructure platform Stripe unveiled a new series of products designed for the Japanese market.
  • Hong Kong-based digital bank ZA Bank announced new reserve banking services for stablecoin issuers.

Photo by Florencia Potter

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Finovate Global Mexico: A Fundraising Unicorn and Open Finance’s Contribution to Financial Inclusion

Finovate Global Mexico: A Fundraising Unicorn and Open Finance’s Contribution to Financial Inclusion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Finovate Global, Refine Intelligence

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Mexico.

Mexican digital payments and commerce enablement platform Clip announced a major investment this week. The company, which offers a suite of payments and other financial services solutions to small and medium-sized businesses in Mexico, has raised $100 million in new funding. The capital came courtesy of investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value and an unnamed West Coast mutual fund manager.

In a statement, the company noted that the funds raised value the company “in line” with the company’s Series D round from 2021. That round, led by SoftBank Latin America Fund and Viking Global Investors, added $250 million to Clip’s coffers and gave the Mexican fintech a valuation of “nearly $2 billion.”

Clip Founder and CEO Adolfo Babatz praised this week’s investment as “a testament to Clip’s opportunity to continue to lead the digital transformation of Mexico’s commerce ecosystem.” Babatz continued, “More broadly, (the investment) provides even further validation of our mission to open access to digital payments, financial services, and technology solutions to SMBs in the country. We are excited to leverage this financing round to continue to expand and strengthen our offerings to empower more stakeholders across Mexico’s economy.”

With offices in both Mexico City and Buenos Aires, Argentina, Clip offers a range of solutions to enable SMBs to accept digital payments, sell goods and services online, secure financing, and streamline their operations. The company will use the new capital to accelerate product development and support its efforts to leverage technology to enhance financial inclusion in Mexico. Clip was founded in 2012.

Speaking of financial inclusion in Mexico, Latin American open finance platform Belvo and Citibanamex, the second largest bank in the country, have forged a new partnership designed to put open finance to work in bringing credit access to the unbanked.

Via the collaboration, Citibanamex will extend credit and credit card options to applicants without credit histories. Instead of traditional underwriting, the bank will review factors such as outstanding debt levels and the number of credit applications outstanding, as well as leverage Belvo’s open finance technology to secure income verification for applicants whose data is otherwise difficult to retrieve.

“At Citibanamex, we are continuously seeking financial inclusion solutions to facilitate access to banking products for individuals who have not been able to benefit from current solutions,” Citibanamex Director of Digital Business Development Miguel Lavalle said. “With this new functionality, it will be easier for our customers to verify their income, making credit opening processes more agile.”

Belvo’s open finance and payments platform helps financial institutions and their customers benefit from user-permissioned, secure data sharing. The platform validates employment histories, as recorded by employers, to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). This enables banks, fintechs, and financial services companies to process financial data and initiate payments directly from users’s accounts.

“This is pioneering and exciting work, aligned with our mission to help financial innovators create new, more efficient, and inclusive experiences for their users,” Belvo General Director, Mexico, Federica Gregorini said. “We are excited to see how financial entities in Mexico are betting on open finance models due to their positive impact on reducing the gap in access to financial services.”

Headquartered in Mexico City, Belvo was founded in 2019. Last month, the company launched its employment data aggregation solution in Colombia. The launch followed Belvo’s partnership with Colombian digital wallet Nequi, a move considered to be a significant advance for the cause of user-permissioned, secure data sharing.

“This connection via API is just the first of many other integrations that will come soon, which portends a promising future in the development of Open Finance in Colombia and in the region,” Belvo’s General Director in Colombia, David Ballesteros, said.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal forged a partnership with Lithuanian gaming marketplace Eneba.
  • Brazil-based fintech Celcoin raised $125 million in funding in a round led by Summit Partners.
  • PayGoal, a fintech based in Argentina, teamed up with Paraguayan acquirer Bancard to launch contactless payments solution Tokefon in Paraguay.

Asia-Pacific

  • Open finance technology provider Brankas and Global Finteq forged a strategic partnership to launch Lending-as-a-Service (LaaS) platforms in the Philippines.
  • South Korean fintech Travel Wallet secured $10 million in funding from U.S.-based VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners.
  • Japan’s Softbank entered a strategic partnership with Gen AI search startup Perplexity.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • African paytech Flutterwave announced plans to build a cyber crime research center in Nigeria.
  • South African fintech Ukheshe rebranded as EFT Corporation.
  • Ethiopia’s cabinet approved a legal framework for CBDCs.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German corporate card platform Pliant inked a partnership with Commerzbank
  • Lithuanian regtech iDenfy launched its AI-enabled Customer Risk Assessment solution.
  • Tietoevry Banking expanded its card personalization services in Riga, Latvia.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Courtesy of a partnership with Revolut, UAE-based fintech GTN will offer bond trading to EEA customers via the Revolut app.
  • Israel-based Refine Intelligence unveiled its new check fraud prevention solution.
  • Innovation Village profiled Egyptian wealth management fintech Bokra.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India’s Pine Labs is considering a $1 billion IPO.
  • The Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) profiled women-founded Nepal-based fintech Aloi.
  • TBC Bank Uzbekistan announces a $10 million line of credit from Switzerland’s responsAbility Investments AG.

Photo by Pixabay

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Finovate Global Egypt: Funding Startups and International Partnerships

Finovate Global Egypt: Funding Startups and International Partnerships
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in Egypt.

Egyptian fintech Sahl raised $6 million in funding

An investment of $6 million will help Cairo-based fintech Sahl pursue its expansion in Saudi Arabia. The funds – courtesy of a Series A round led by Ayady for Investment and Development and featuring participation from existing investors Egypt Pay, Delta Electronic Systems, and E-Finance – will also help support Sahl’s mobile bill payment platform.

Sahl enables users to pay for more than 50 services, including electricity, water, mobile bill payments, and more via NFC-enabled, rechargeable prepaid cards. The firm also offers B2B solutions: the company’s Services Gateway serves as a central hub to aggregate billpay services for other payment processors and digital apps, while Sahl’s Acceptance solution helps businesses accept online payments. Founded in 2020, Sahl is among the few Egyptian companies to directly integrate with government agencies and telecom operators.

Ultimately, the company plans to grow into a more comprehensive financial services provider. For now, Sahl’s growth strategy involves becoming the dominant force in the payments market for utilities companies – a market worth EGP 250 billion a year.

“At Sahl, we are committed to addressing the challenges faced by consumers in utility payments, starting with electricity and expanding to water, gas, telecom, and various other essential services,” Sahl CEO Abdullah Assal said. “Our innovative use of NFC technology eliminates the need for consumers to leave their homes to charge prepaid cards, saving valuable time and effort.”

Sahl serves more than 12 million customers a month and 15 million households in Egypt.

HSBC Egypt to launch $31.5 million fund for SME-based fintechs

You don’t have to be Sahl to feel as if good funding fortunes are coming your way. HSBC Egypt will launch a new $31.5 million (EGP 1.5 billion) fund dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses in the fintech sector. The fund, which will be managed by EFG Holding, has secured approval from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) as well as the backing of financial institutions such as the Suez Canal Bank. The fund is slated to go live in Q3 of 2024.

The focus on fintech is designed to take advantage of the spread of digital banking and payments in the region. But the initiative is part of a grander strategy by HSBC to encourage technological innovation and spur economic growth in Egypt.

Established in 1982, HSBC Bank Egypt supports a network of 100 branches and 20 mini-bank units throughout the country. The largest foreign bank in Egypt, HSBC Bank Egypt has total assets of approximately $7 billion and a market share of 7%.

Banknbox Egypt announced multiple strategic partnerships

Digital services and paytech provider Banknbox Egypt has inked strategic partnerships with banks and fintechs in eight countries so far in 2024. Backed by the Central Bank of Egypt, Banknbox has teamed up with firms and financial institutions in countries ranging from Iraq and Libya to Moldova and a number of African countries.

“We would like to thank the CBE for its continuous support in ensuring that Banknbox achieves its vision of transforming Egypt into a regional hub,” Banknbox Chairperson and Managing Director Bassem Mahmoud said.

Banknbox is a regional payment solutions and processor offering issuing and acquiring services, as well as value-added services such as billpay and fraud management. The company also offers integrated digital banking services, including mobile and internet banking, electronic wallets, eKYC and encoding services, and more. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Cairo, Banknbox began the year partnering with SWFT, a banking and finance platform for SMEs. The strategic partnership will give SMEs a suite of innovative banking solutions and tools for smart cash flow management.

“We believe that by uniting efforts with SWFT, we can revolutionize the way SMEs manage their finances,” Mahmoud said. “It’s a new opportunity for Banknbox to provide more services to the Egyptian market, relying on its regional platform in Egypt to serve companies and banks in the region. This strategic cooperation complements the company’s successes in achieving growth rates in the Egyptian market.”

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • International e-wallet service provider and payment gateway STICPAY integrated with India’s real-time payments system, UPI.
  • Pakistan-based consultancy Dellsons Associates partnered with UAE-based NymCards to expand into Pakistan and the Middle East.
  • Indian digital lending platform Fibe raised $90 million in Series E funding.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • Malaysia-based digital challenger Boost Bank launched its banking app.
  • Talino Venture Studios and Chemonics International unveiled an instant payment system, Higala, in the Philippines.
  • Indonesian B2B fintech Paper.id closed a Series B round led by Square Peg.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Telecommunications and mobile money services provider Airtel Africa teamed up with Network International for payment processing.
  • Central Bank of Kenya to issue payment licenses to fintech startups.
  • Is “passporting” the key to helping advance the growth of fintech in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Payment management solutions provider Paytiko announced expansion to Dubai.
  • ICYMI: Check out our Finovate Global interview with Michal Berdugo of Israel-based Citrusx.
  • Oman Arab Bank launched its direct debit service.

Photo by Tamer Soliman

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Finovate Global UAE: Thndr Expands, Visa Partners, and the CBUAE Backs Open Finance

Finovate Global UAE: Thndr Expands, Visa Partners, and the CBUAE Backs Open Finance
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, DriveWealth, Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent developments in the fintech industry of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Thndr, a digital investment platform based in Egypt, announced an expansion to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week. The expansion comes after the company secured a Category 3A license with retail endorsement from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA). Thndr will initially offer investors in the UAE direct access to U.S.-listed securities, such as stocks, including fractional shares, as well as exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

“We at Thndr are thrilled to announce our official entry into the UAE market,” Thndr UAE General Manager Salah Kaddoura said. “We’d like to express our sincere gratitude to the FSRA for their openness and for welcoming Thndr to the UAE’s dynamic financial landscape.”

Founded in 2020 and a graduate of the Y Combinator accelerator, Thndr got its start as a commission-free, mobile trading platform for stocks, bonds, and funds. That year, Thndr became the first firm to earn a brokerage license in Egypt since 2008. The company went on to launch a new solution to enable trading in mutual funds and, in 2022, raised $20 million to fuel regional expansion.

With more than three million downloads and 500,000 active monthly users, Thndr notes that Egyptians traded $1.8 billion on its platform in 2023. As of this April, Thndr accounted for 8.5% of all retail transactions in the market. The company also reported that 87% of its users are first-time investors. “I take pride in seeing how our commitment to these principles has democratized investing to all Egyptians,” Kaddoura said, “and can’t wait for what we have in store for the UAE.”

du Pay, the digital payments division of UAE-based telecommunications company du, has formalized a partnership with digital payments giant Visa. The partnership will enable du Pay to issue Visa cards, grow its suite of financial solutions, and bring greater versatility to the du Pay platform.

“We are committed to making payment processes faster, simpler, and more secure while simultaneously enhancing financial inclusion,” du Pay CEO Nicholas Levi said. “The strategic collaboration is poised to accelerate digital empowerment with a focus on inclusivity and serve the needs of those without traditional banking services, ensuring simplified access to products.” For its part, Visa highlighted the impact of the partnership – and du Pay’s new prepaid Visa card – on the growth of digital commerce in the region.

du launched its du Pay solution earlier this year. The technology, available in six languages, offers international money transfers, P2P transfers, billpay, and a unique IBAN for each customer. The company plans to add a card feature “soon.”

Clarity on the role of Open Finance in the fintech and financial services industry of the UAE has arrived in the form of a new, comprehensive framework issued by the country’s Central Bank (CBUAE). The framework provides guidance on how to regulate licensing, supervision, and operation of Open Finance and has already received positive reviews from industry participants.

The CBUAE earned especially high marks for its emphasis on security and customer consent. One observer, Women in Crypto Arabia founder Zina Ashour said the framework “puts power back in the hands of the consumer.” Others, such as Tarabut Gateway CEO Abdulla Almoayed, were grateful for the regulatory clarity and certainty, adding that the “reduction in ambiguity” will enable his firm “to invest in the UAE with supreme confidence.”

Still further plaudits came for the comprehensive nature of the CBUAE’s decision. The UAE’s Open Finance Regulation includes, for example, both Open Banking and Open Insurance, as Global Ventures partner Said Murad observed. Murad also appreciated the fact that the regulation requires all entities licensed by the CBUAE to comply with its requirements for data sharing and service initiation.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal partners with cross-border money transfer firm Ria Money Transfer.
  • European paytech payabl. expanded its coverage by adding four major local payment methods in Latin America.
  • Brazilian fintech EBANX teamed up with South African instant EFT payments provider Ozow.

Asia-Pacifc

  • DBS Taiwan partnered with Thales to bring bio-source payment cards to Asia.
  • The Business Times profiled Vietnamese unicorn VNLife, parent company of payment solutions company VNPay.
  • Malaysia-based digital challenger bank Boost Bank launched its digital banking app.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • U.S.-based fintech Elevate secured $5 million in pre-Series A funding to support its expansion into South Africa.
  • Stanbic Bank Kenya, a member of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, announced an upgrade of its Temenos core.
  • VGS forged a strategic partnership with Onafriq, the largest payments network in Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Card issuing platform Marqeta announced its expansion into Poland.
  • Deutsche Bank forged a partnership with Bitpanda to help facilitate cash payments for German crypto traders.
  • Boku teamed up with Poland’s instant payment system BLIK to offer it as a payment method at the Google Play store.

Photo by Nextvoyage

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Finovate Global Israel: Citrusx and Empowering Businesses to Build Trust in the Deployment of AI

Finovate Global Israel: Citrusx and Empowering Businesses to Build Trust in the Deployment of AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Citrusx, Finovate Global, Interview

The question of deploying AI technology in fintech and financial services is no longer a question of “if” – or even “when.” As our recent spring fintech conference confirmed, innovators and entrepreneurs across our industry have already decided that the answer to both of those questions is “yes” and “now.”

But there are hurdles and challenges for fintechs and financial services companies as they seek to deploy AI in their products and offerings. Unlike other industries, fintechs and financial services companies operate in a high-risk environment where issues of trust, transparency, and explainability – to say nothing of regulatory oversight – are virtually existential.

Earlier this year at FinovateEurope in London, Israel-based Citrusx demoed its platform that enables all stakeholders in the AI pipeline to remain in the loop and benefit from 100% transparency in their models.

We caught up with Citrusx’s VP of Business Development Michal Berdugo (pictured) to talk about the company, how it helps businesses effectively deploy AI technology, and what we can expect from the company in the near future.

What problem does Citrusx solve and who does it solve it for?

Michal Berdugo: In today’s data-driven world, everyone wants to adopt AI for various use cases, but they often face many roadblocks. In high-risk industries, the primary obstacles are a lack of understanding and trust. When key decision-makers can’t trust their AI systems it can lead to potential reputational and regulatory damages.

Citrusx comes in to help financial institutions and other organizations in highly regulated industries speed up their time to production while ensuring their models are accurate, robust, explainable, fair, and comply with regulatory requirements.

How does Citrusx solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?

Berdugo: High-risk sectors such as banks, loan providers, and credit unions, face unique challenges in adopting AI solutions. The lengthy production timelines and the inherent opacity of AI systems leave these companies vulnerable to liability issues. Without transparency, they are unable to fully understand or explain AI-driven decisions, heightening their exposure to legal and regulatory risks.

Citrusx’s patent-pending technology delivers real-time insights, accurate explanations, and critical validation measurements throughout the development cycle and offers proprietary monitoring and prediction methods, making it model-agnostic and resilient to feature correlation problems. Citrusx empowers businesses to build trust and deploy AI responsibly, unlocking its full potential.

Who are Citrusx’s primary customers? How do you reach them?

Berdugo: Citrusx attracts risk leaders and data science leaders who are actively seeking innovative solutions. These forward-thinkers are constantly on the lookout for ways to mitigate risks and maintain compliance with regulations. Peer recommendations validate Citrusx’s effectiveness, while articles featuring insights about us and thought leadership also spark interest. 

When these leaders search for cutting-edge tools, Citrusx naturally emerges as a preferred option. Additionally, understanding the unique challenges in high-risk industries such as finance and insurance allows us to effectively address their specific pain points. To explore how Citrusx can benefit your organization, reach out to us directly via our website and book a demo.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?

Berdugo: One of the Big Five banks in Canada approached us because they wanted to deploy an AI model, but finding a way to make it explainable while complying with regulations was a challenge. When models become more complex, understanding their decision-making processes and fostering accountability and trust in the outcomes becomes difficult. Additionally, without any transparency of the rationale of the model, it can cause vulnerabilities and biases to slip through the cracks, which could lead to reputational and regulatory damages. 

To help them combat these issues and build a robust, explainable, and fair model, we provided them with a framework to explain the inner workings of their model accurately. Using proprietary explainability methods, we gave them the tools to see the model’s results on a global and local level, yielding a full report of each sample in their dataset. 

With our help, the bank achieved a deeper level of understanding of their model, giving them the trust to finally put them in deployment! All stakeholders, including those who are non-technical, were able to understand the model’s decisions, allowing them to approve it faster with confidence. 

Instead of taking six to nine months to deploy their model, we cut the time in half. We also gave them the assurance that their models remained compliant with regulations.

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Berdugo: Based on my experience, I gained an understanding of the significant gap companies in the financial sector are facing. While organizations want to keep pace, they are falling behind because of regulations. On top of that, there is a lack of transparency and trust in their models. At Citrusx, we had the confidence to take on this problem because we onboarded a global bank as our first main customer. With our combined backgrounds in the financial sector, government, and AI/ML development, we had the tools to build the best solution for our clients and potential clients. 

Above: Citrusx’s Michal Berdugo and Dagan Eshar, VP of Research and Development

What is the fintech ecosystem in Israel like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in the country?

Berdugo: Israel’s fintech ecosystem is thriving, boasting a high number of startups creating innovative financial solutions for a relatively small population. There are roughly 550 fintech startups in Israel, and 20 of those companies are valued at over $1 billion. This makes Israel a major player in fintech on a global scale.

The relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial institutions in Israel is evolving. There’s both competition and collaboration. Banks are partnering with fintechs to improve their digital offerings and reach new customers, while fintechs benefit from the banks’ established infrastructure and customer base. This symbiotic relationship helps both sectors grow and provide better financial services in Israel.

You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?

Berdugo: The experience was great, as it was the first conference we participated in since launching from stealth. We were excited to share more about our product and the crowd was incredibly receptive. We gained many interesting insights about what different stakeholders in the AI pipeline are focused on in the coming quarters. The Finovate team was also very helpful and gave us great feedback in preparation for the demo. 

What are your goals for Citrusx? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?

Berdugo: We are signing new clients and working on growing and expanding our product and team in the coming year. We are working toward a time when Citrusx’s solutions will be a standard practice. 

Photo by Ofir Gafkovich

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Finovate Global France: Lydia Launches New Digital Brand, RockFi Raises Millions, Meet Finovate’s French Alums

Finovate Global France: Lydia Launches New Digital Brand, RockFi Raises Millions, Meet Finovate’s French Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Backbase, Finovate Global, Klarna, MasterCard

This week, Finovate Global looks at recent fintech developments in France.

French start-up Lydia announced the launch of a new digital banking brand this week. Named Sumeria, Lydia plans to invest more than €100 million in the new initiative, as well as hire 400 people over the next three years. Sumeria, according to a post on LinkedIn, offers 4% interest and is designed to be a “simple and accessible banking super app.

“We are convinced that technology (cloud, mobile) is not an end in itself, but a way to simplify life, through everyday details,” the company noted in a statement on its website. Arguing that current accounts should be neither “trendy gadgets” nor make users captive to a given app, system, or institution, the company explained: “It should solve a real problem. This is why Lydia’s choices, with Sumeria, are motivated by common sense and its ambition to be universal: for everyone, for everything.”

Lydia’s brand announcement follows a decision by the company to split its digital banking app into two components. Originally launched in 2013 as a P2P payments app, Lydia’s solution scaled, adding more and more financial services features over the years. It was the launch of its Lydia Accounts offering convinced the company that a change was necessary to keep its early adopters – who relied heavily on the P2P service – onboard. The result was to offer the P2P services separately from Lydia’s digital banking proposition through the Lydia Accounts app. The original Lydia app will become Sumeria, with the new features mentioned above – such as stock trading, savings accounts and loans – to be ported to the new banking brand.

Headquartered in Paris, Lydia has raised more than $259 million in funding. The company’s investors include Accel and Echo Street Capital. In addition to the launch of Sumeria, Lydia is also seeking a credit institution license from the French Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority.

Paris, France-based private wealth management startup RockFi raised €3 million in funding this week. The round was led by Varsity I and featured the participation of numerous business angels in technology and private management. The company plans to use the capital to grow its workforce by 3x by the end of 2024 so as to provide private banking and wealth management expertise to clients throughout France.

“Since the beginning of the year, we have seen strong client traction eager for a new model to manage their wealth,” RockFi Co-Founder and CEO Pierre Marin said. “With a market of €4.8 trillion in assets ahead of us and no tech leader yet in France and Europe, our ambition is very high for the coming years.”

RockFi’s model combines human expertise and technology to offer services including banking, wealth management, life insurance, and pension savings. The firm has a targetable clientele with assets of more than €100,000, representing six million households in France.

“Three months after our official launch this is an important step that anchors a strong momentum and allows us to further accelerate the construction of the new private management,” the company wrote on its LinkedIn page this week. “The ambition remains: to surround ourselves with the best talent and partners in each field and to deploy a tech ecosystem to unleash the potential of independent wealth managers at the service of their clients.”

Meet Finovate’s French Alums!

Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a number of fintech innovators based in France. Here’s a look at some of French fintechs that have demoed their technology on the Finovate stage in recent years.

Dotfile – FinovateEurope 2024 – demo

ShareID – FinovateEurope 2024 – demo

Numeral – FinovateEurope 2023 – demo

SESAMm – FinovateEurope 2023 – demo

Thread – FinovateEurope 2021 – demo

BLECKWEN – FinovateEurope 2020 – demo

Worldline – FinovateEurope 2017 – demo

Ledger – FinovateEurope 2016 – demo

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German B2B payments provider Billie forged a strategic pan-European collaboration with BNP Paribas.
  • Klarna expanded its Pay in 3 service to Slovakia.
  • U.K.-based business financial platform Tide launched in Germany this week.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Emirates NBD and Pine Labs announced a collaboration to bring new payment solutions to businesses in the region.
  • A partnership between NymCard and Dellsons Associates will help bring embedded finance solutions to businesses in the Middle East and Pakistan.
  • Israel-based fintech Kima teamed up with Mastercard’s FinSec Innovation Lab to explore use cases for a “defi credit card.”

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian digital payments company PhonePe partnered with LankaPay to bring UPI payment acceptance to Sri Lanka.
  • Kazakhstan announced the availability to 10+ new CBDC card services since the launch of its digital tenge.
  • U.K.-based startup Fintech Farm raised $32 million in funding to fuel its expansion to India.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • TransNetwork acquired Inswitch to bring cross-border digital payments options to Latin America.
  • Mexico-based BNPL platform Aplazo raised $70 million in new funding.
  • Uruguayan cross-border payments platform dLocal announced the expansion of its partnership with Deel.

Asia-Pacific

  • Backbase, digital enabler SmartOSC, and Vietnam-based OCB partnered to launch the OCB OMNI 4.0 app to enhance digital banking in Vietnam.
  • Philippines-based fintech Skyro teamed up with identity verification company ADVANCE.AI.
  • Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) is facilitating the use of e-CNY wallets, launched this week.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Mastercard partnered with the Cooperative Bank of Oromia to improve financial inclusion in Ethiopia.
  • Payment processing solutions company PayRetailers went live in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
  • The Financial Times recognized Africa’s Moniepoint as the fastest growing fintech in the region.

Photo by Martijn Adegeest

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Finovate Global: Monzo’s Millions, A2A Payments in Australia, FinovateSpring’s International Alums

Finovate Global: Monzo’s Millions, A2A Payments in Australia, FinovateSpring’s International Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: APIMatic, Candour Oy, Cardlay Payment Solutions, Deeployalty, Dynatrek, Finovate Global, FinTech Insights, TRIYO

Challenge Accepted! Monzo Raises Millions

U.K.-based challenger bank Monzo secured an additional $190 million (£150 million) in funding this week, adding to the $426 million (£340 million) raised just a few days ago. The Series I round, totaling $616 million (£490 million) gives the digital bank a valuation of $5.2 billion (£4.1 billion) and represents one of the biggest fundraising rounds for a European fintech since 2023.

The bank’s financial backers included Hedosophia and CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth fund. CNBC’s coverage of the funding notes that Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC was also a participant in the funding, but GIC has yet to confirm the report.

Monzo will use the funds both to build new products as well as move forward with its international expansion plans. Expansion to the U.S. is near the top of the company’s wish list, having resumed efforts to secure a banking license in the country after retreating from a previous attempt three years ago. Monzo hired Conor Walsh, former Head of Product for Cash App, as its U.S. CEO in 2023.

“At the heart of it, we are a mission-oriented company that’s looking to build the single place where people can meet all of their financial needs,” Monzo Co-Founder and CEO TS Anil told CNBC. “What’s exciting to me is that, as we pursue that mission of changing people’s relationship with money, we’ve built a business model that is congruent with that, as well, with this model that is built entirely around the customer.”

Founded in 2015, Monzo has more than nine million retail customers and 400,000 business customers in the U.K. The challenger bank offers current and joint accounts, as well as an app to enable customers to see all their accounts and control spending. The company launched its first business bank accounts for SMEs and self-employed workers in 2020 and, later that year, unveiled its first loan products for its personal current account customers. In 2023, Monzo announced that it had achieved profitability for the first time.

As part of its expansion plans, Monzo is looking to begin offering mortgage and pension products, with the latter being available as early as six to nine months from now. Last year, Monzo launched an investment product, giving customers the ability to invest in a trio of funds offered by BlackRock.

Banked and NAB Promote A2A Payments in Australia

A new partnership between international payments network Banked and National Australia Bank will make it easier for merchants in Australia to adopt account-to-account (A2A) payments solutions. Specifically, the two entities are seeking to encourage the adoption of Pay by Bank technology via Australian Payments Plus (AP+) services.

Pay by Bank enables merchants to send PayTo Agreements to customers, and then initiate payments and refunds based on those agreements – which cover a variety of transaction experiences including online payments, and recurring payments with fixed, variable, or split payment amounts. Partnering with NAB gives Banked a partner with both an established presence in the Australian market, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of merchants in the country.

“The nascent A2A payments industry in Australia presents an incredible opportunity for Banked,” Banked CEO Brad Goodall said. “Local regulators have developed well-constructed mandates and the banking industry is primed for innovation, all of which sets the stage for rapid growth in real-time payments.”

An initial set of NAB business customers from industries such as e-commerce and retail, as well as non-bank lenders, is scheduled go live with A2A payments in the first half of 2024.

With offices in both Palo Alto, California and London, U.K., Banked was founded in 2018. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with FIS to promote use of Pay by Bank.

Meet FinovateSpring 2024’s International Alums

FinovateEurope typically gets top billing as our most international fintech conference. But FinovateSpring has showcased a sizable number of fintech innovators from around the world, as well. And this year’s FinovateSpring is no exception.

Here’s a look at seven companies demoing at FinovateSpring, May 21-23, that hail from outside of the United States.

APIMatic – Auckland, New Zealand

Candour Oy – Oulu, Finland

Cardlay Payment Solutions – Odense, Denmark

Deeployalty – Ukraine

Dynatrek – Tokyo, Japan

FinTech Insights – London, England

TRIYO – Toronto, Canada

There’s still time to pick up your ticket and save your spot for our annual Spring fintech conference in San Francisco, May 21-23. Visit our FinovateSpring hub to register.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian fintech and non-bank credit card issuer O3 Capital partnered with American Express to issue four new AMEX credit cards.
  • South African fintech Lesaka acquired South African payments company Adumo in a deal valued at $85.9 million.
  • SasaPay, a fintech headquartered in Kenya, announced a partnership with investments solutions provider Etica Capital.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Swiss Bitcoin Pay teamed up with Lithuanian regtech iDenfy to enhance its risk management and onboarding processes.
  • Latvian fintech Huntli partnered with U.S.-based Payall to improve security for cross-border payments.
  • Lithuania-based TransferGo secured $10 million in funding from Taiwania Capital Management.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Digital payments company Wink Pay launched in Lebanon in partnership with Visa and Codebase Technologies.
  • United Arab Bank expanded its partnership with Network International.
  • Saudi Arabian insurtech Rasan to sell 30% of its stake in a Riyadh IPO.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Nepal Clearing House inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ant International to enable QR payments via Alipay+ for visitors to Nepal.
  • Finovate Best of Show winner Zeta launched its Digital-Credit-as-a-Service solution for banks in India.
  • Saudi Arabia’s Alraedah Digital Solutions forged a strategic partnership with Pakistan-based fintech ABHI to launch new financial services in the kingdom.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian digital bank Nubank tops 100 million customer mark.
  • Indian private sector bank Yes Bank announced a strategic partnership with payment solutions provider EBANX.
  • Chilean A2A payments startup Fintoc raised $7 million in new funding.

Asia-Pacific

  • Australian fintech Karta secured a multi-year agreement with Visa.
  • Is there a future for a retail CBDC? The Bank of Thailand thinks so.
  • Banked forged a partnership with the National Bank of Australia to boost A2A payment adoption among merchants.

Photo by Deeana Arts

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Finovate Global Denmark: Financing Spend Management Solutions and Small Business Tools

Finovate Global Denmark: Financing Spend Management Solutions and Small Business Tools
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Nubank, Signicat, Temenos

A few days ago, we highlighted the $25.7 million (€24.1 million) investment secured by Danish challenger bank Lunar. Also this week, we noted partnership news from Denmark-based real estate tokenization platform – and FinovateSpring alum – DigiShares.

With all this Danish fintech news, we are devoting this week’s edition of Finovate Global to the fintech scene in Denmark: a Nordic country with a population of nearly six million and a per capita GDP that’s among the top ten in the world. We’ll also highlight some of the Danish fintechs that have demonstrated their innovations on the Finovate stage.

Danish fintech unicorn Pleo raises €40m in debt financing

Pleo, a Danish B2B spend management platform founded in Copenhagen in 2015, secured a $43 million (€40 million) debt financing facility this week. The financing came courtesy of HSBC Innovation Banking UK, a subsidiary of HSBC Group.

Pleo enables companies to centralize their business spending – expenses, reimbursements, invoices, and more. Pleo also offers physical, temporary, virtual, and vendor company cards to help businesses better track and manage spending. Pleo integrates readily with common business tools such as NetSuite, Xero, and Quickbooks, making its solution a viable option for companies ranging from start-ups to enterprises. With more than 30,000 customers using its spend management platform, Pleo notes that its technology saves administrative teams 138 hours every year and has a satisfaction rate of 90%.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with HSBC Innovation Banking. Starting at €40 million, the debt financing available to us can extend based on future requirements – which will expand our existing reach even further into more countries, enable us to increase limits and offer more currencies,” Pleo VP of Credit and Treasury Amit Kahana said. “Beyond this milestone partnership and imminent launch in the Netherlands, Pleo is expecting to see exciting developments over the coming 12 months as Pleo prepare(s) to launch in even more markets.”

Pleo initially earned its unicorn status in the summer of 2021, courtesy of a $150 million investment that drove the company’s valuation to $1.7 billion. Pleo secured an additional $200 million in funding in an extension of its Series C round in December of that year, giving the company a valuation of $4.7 billion.

Pleo announced last summer that it had nearly doubled its revenue and transaction volumes in 2022. The company began this year with a new chief financial officer, Søren Westh Lonning who had been working with the company in an advisory capacity.

Ageras raises €82m in oversubscribed private placement round

From its origins in 2012 as an online marketplace to help small businesses connect with financial professionals like accountants and bookkeepers, Denmark-based fintech Ageras has grown into a more comprehensive financial services provider, offering cloud-based accounting services to more than 300,000 small businesses in Europe.

This week, the company announced that it has raised $88 million (€82 million) in an oversubscribed private placement round led by Investcorp. The round, which also featured participation from Norwegian state pension fund Folketrygdfondet and American fund manager Lazard, was successful enough that Ageras CEO Rico Anderson said that it “reinforced the company’s desire to ‘become a market leader and then go public’.“

“We want to make it easier to be a small business in an increasingly difficult administrative and regulatory landscape by offering a fully integrated platform where companies can manage their banking, accounting, and tax in one financial cockpit,” Anderson said.

The investment takes Ageras’ total equity capital to more than $231 million, according to Crunchbase. The funds will also support Ageras’ plans for new acquisitions, with Anderson admitting that there are a number of potential targets already under consideration.

Ageras operates in more than 100 countries and boasts more than a million users of its technology. Headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Ageras was acquired by Investcorp, which took a minority stake in the company in 2017.

Here come Finovate’s Danish alums

Over the years, Finovate has been proud to showcase a large number of innovative fintechs from Northern Europe, including a handful from Denmark. Here are some of the Danish fintechs that have demoed their innovations on the Finovate stage.

Cardlay Payment Systems – FS24 – Cardlay Payment Systems will make its Finovate debut later this month at FinovateSpring in San Francisco. The company offers a white-label card and expense management solution, Cardlay Expense, that delivers an exceptional, real-time experience for cardholders.

Subaio – FEU22 – Subaio made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany, and returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateEurope 2022 in London. The company helps financial companies generate new revenue streams by identifying recurring payments and insights, and delivering different use cases based on this data.

Aiia – FEU21 – Aiia demoed its technology at FinovateEurope 2021 in London. The leading open banking platform in Northern Europe, the company provides open banking services to a sizable number of financial instituitons including Lunar, Pleo, DNB, and Santander Consumer Bank. Aiia was acquired by Mastercard in 2021.

DigiShares – FS21 – DigiShares introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinovateSpring 2021 in San Francisco. The company offers a white-label tokenization platform for real estate, bringing both automation and liquidity to the property market.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Vietnamese fintech startup M_Service, operator of mobile e-wallet Momo, secured $28 million (£ 19.7 million) in funding.
  • A new inclusive instant payment system (IIPS), Higala, launched in the Philippines.
  • Fintech Australia and the Thai Fintech Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster fintech capabilities between the two countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • The Central Bank of Nigeria paused account opening for new customers at four fintechs: Kuda Bank, Moniepoint, OPay, and Palmpay.
  • Digital financial solutions provider Payless Africa launched in Kenya.
  • FX and cross-border payments provider Crown Agents Bank teamed up with business platform Invest Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Norway-based digital identity solution provider Signicat became the first international aggregator to integrate mojeID Poland into its digital identity portfolio.
  • Romanian fintech Finqware teamed up with FwF to help European companies automate financial operations.
  • Lithuanian fintech Softloans raised $1 million (€1 million) in pre-seed funding.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • National Bank of Iraq (NBI) went live with core banking and payments technology from Temenos.
  • Israel-based fintech Nayax acquired Brazilian payment technology provider VMtecnologia.
  • Egypt’s Bokra raised $4.6 million in pre-seed funding for its platform that offers investment products via asset backed securities.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Bangladesh-based Eastern Bank (EBL) teamed up with Mastercard to launch a dual currency prepaid card for medical tourists in India.
  • Indian cross-border payments platform BriskPE secured $5 million in seed funding.
  • Bank of Thailand launched QR code cross-border payments to India.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazil-based banking-as-a-service company QI Tech became the country’s latest unicorn after securing an extension of its $200 million Series B round from last October.
  • Uruguyan cross-border payment platform dLocal partnered with online English-learning platform Open English.
  • Brazilian fintech Nubank launched its new banking experience Nubank+, offering cashback, streaming video courtesy of a partnership with Max, and more.

Photo by Sushil Ghimire

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Finovate Global: Digital Banking in Romania, Alternative Lending in Latvia, ESG in the CEE

Finovate Global: Digital Banking in Romania, Alternative Lending in Latvia, ESG in the CEE
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews the latest fintech developments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

This region features a diverse range of countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia. More than 250 million people live in the CEE, which has a combined GDP of $2.6 trillion.

Romania’s Salt goes live with Starling’s SaaS platform

Romania’s Salt Bank launched this month, giving the country its first 100% digital bank. Salt Bank reported that more than 80,000 people signed up in less than three weeks to be a part of the new financial institution.

“By launching Salt, we are not only bringing the first 100% Romanian neobank to the Romanian market, but we are also offering a unique perspective that combines technology and finance,” Salt Bank CEO Gabriela Nistor said.

Salt Bank currently offers 3% yearly interest on current accounts as well as on Spaces, Salt Bank’s savings account offering, as long as customers make payments of 1,000 lei/month or more (equivalent to $215). Customers also get a multi-currency card that enables transactions in 17 currencies around the world. Users of the Salt banking app can take advantage of money management tools, in-app card controls, as well as Apple and Google Pay in-app provisioning.

Headquartered in Bucharest, Salt Bank is owned by the Banca Transilvania Financial Group. The institution also offers its customers the opportunity to become founders of Salt Bank and, ultimately, shareholders in the event that the institution goes public. Salt Bank notes that its Salt Founders Community currently has 2,200 members.

Powering the launch is Starling’s SaaS platform Engine, which helped the digital bank onboard 100,000 customers in the first two weeks of operation. And although AMP Bank in Australia has also announced that it will deploy Engine, the institution is not scheduled to do so until 2025, making Salt Bank the first bank to go live with the technology.

“Our work with Salt Bank shows just what our platform is capable of,” Engine by Starling CEO Sam Everington said, “Starling’s feature rich and highly personalizable banking products can be deployed around the world to attract impressive customer volumes, while our operational experience and cloud-expertise can help build, launch, and run a bank in less than 12 months.”

Latvian fintech inGain raises EUR 650,000

inGain, a no-code SaaS loan management system based in Latvia, has raised $692,000 (EUR 650,000) in funding. Participating in the investment were VC funds Trind VC and Fiedler Capital. The Latvian Business Angels network and other business angels were also involved in the round.

The funding announcement marked the first publicly announced investment in a Latvian startup in 2024. The company will use the capital to complete work on its SaaS-based loan management system that helps facilitate lending for products that banks traditionally have been reluctant to finance. inGain Co-founder and CEO Armands Liseks explained how inGain works, using the example of a family trying to decide whether or not to commit to their child’s efforts to become the next Mozart.

“Some parents are ready to buy a piano, but what happens if they spend several months trying to persuade their kids to play the piano, but their kids still refuse to play it?” Liseks asked. “It is with this kind of situation in mind that the seller would like to offer piano leasing. For parents, this means that the payment for the musical instrument will be higher. However, this also gives them two options: either the piano is eventually purchased in full or can be returned to the seller at any time.”

Liseks added that inGain’s solution even benefits those who know they are ready to buy. “How can the bank offer leasing for the piano?” he said. “Most likely it will advise the customer to use a credit card or take out a consumer loan with 20% interest, which makes no sense whatsoever.”

inGain is headquartered in Riga. The company was founded in 2011.

Bulgaria’s Paynetics acquires UK neobank Novus

Here is some CEE-based acquisition news in the payments space that slipped beneath our radar this spring. Bulgaria’s Paynetics has acquired Novus, a neobank based in the U.K., for an undisclosed sum.

A B-corp certified digital bank – and self-described “impact neobank” – Novus enables customers to monitor their carbon footprint and get cashback when they make sustainable purchases via the app. Additionally, Novus automatically directs a portion of revenue from every transaction to an NGO of the customer’s choice.

For Paynetics, the acquisition will enable the company to offer carbon- and climate-conscious solutions to customers as well as expand “the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ecosystem across Europe.” Paynetics will also leverage the acquisition to help its clients achieve their social and environmental goals via its own embedded finance solution.

“This deal not only reinforces our dedication to ESG but also marks a significant leap forward in revolutionizing the financial sector with our cutting-edge embedded finance suite,” Paynetics noted in a post on LinkedIn.

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, Paynetics acquisition news comes a year after the firm was granted an electronic money institution (EMI) license from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Last month, the company announced that it had promoted Hana Rolles from Chief Revenue Officer to U.K. Chief Executive Officer.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • U.S.-based payments provider Nium officially registered as a Financial Services Provider in New Zealand.
  • South Korea joined seven-nation, cross-border payments tokenization initiative.
  • Ant International announced plans to set up a new digital business center in Malaysia.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Pan-African payments provider Onafriq partnered with Mastercard to bring payment options to consumers and SMEs in Africa.
  • TechCrunch profiled Nigerian fintech LemFi, which provides money transfer services to African migrants.
  • South African fintech Float secured a $11 million funding facility from Standard Bank.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Core banking software provider Tuum announced its expansion to the Middle East and the establishment of a regional headquarters at ADGM.
  • Israel’s central bank reported that it will launch a sandbox to enable private sector entities to experiment with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
  • UAE-based digital fintech infrastructure firm Fils teamed up with digital banking solutions company Aion to advanced ESG in the MENA region.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Amazon Pay introduced credit services to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform in partnership with the National Payments Corporation of India.
  • Separate from Google Pay, Google Wallet readied to go live in India.
  • Indian home financing company Altum Credo raised $40 million in Series C funding.

Photo by Eduard Balan

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Finovate Global Nigeria: Payments, Supply Chain Financing, and a Look at our African Alums

Finovate Global Nigeria: Payments, Supply Chain Financing, and a Look at our African Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news from Africa’s most populous nation: Nigeria.

Nigerian blockchain network Zone secures investment

Last week in Finovate Global we noted the news that Nigerian blockchain network Zone had raised $8.5 million in seed funding. This week we’re filling in some of the details of the investment – and of the company.

Flourish Ventures and TLcom Capital led the oversubscribed seed funding round for Zone. Also participating in the funding were VC firms Digital Currency Group, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, and Alter Global.

Zone split from its parent firm Appzone to become a standalone business – as well as the first regulated blockchain network for payments on the continent – in 2022. Zone’s network facilitates direct transactions between financial service providers without the participation of an intermediary, and automates settlement, reconciliation, and dispute management. Zone’s technology digitizes fiat payments and enables the transition to digital currencies.

Zone co-founder and CEO Obi Emetarom highlighted the fact the Zone was able to secure funding during the current investment drought, calling it a “sign of trust in the Zone brand and investor excitement about the opportunity to redefine payment infrastructure in Africa.”

The company will leverage the new capital to expand its network’s coverage. Zone currently has more than 15 of Africa’s largest banks and fintechs using its network to process payments.

Afreximbank and Sterling Bank Promote Innovation in Supply Chain Financing

A newly announced partnership between African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and Sterling Bank will enable the African financial institution to offer an increasingly popular supply chain financing solution, Payables Finance, in Nigeria. The solution will be branded, Afreximbank Tradelink, and will be made available as part of the Africa Trade Gateway (ATG). ATG provides digital solutions to help businesses access market data, network with buyers and sellers, promote trade payments between African markets in local currencies, and more.

One of the fastest growing trade finance solutions worldwide, Payables Finance helps suppliers access funding by securing early payment on those invoices that have already been approved for payment by corporate buyers. Buyers receive trade credit from suppliers. Suppliers finance their working capital via the early payment they received. The cost of financing is based on the credit rating of the buyers, which can be a significant benefit for smaller suppliers that struggle to secure financing at affordable prices.

“Afreximbank identified supply chain finance as a solution for improving access to trade finance in Africa and embarked on a journey to increase penetration through financial intervention and capacity building,” Afreximbank Global Trade Bank EVP Haytham ElMaayergi said.

Nigeria-based Payments Solution Thepeer Closes Down

Some unfortunate news in the world of Nigerian fintech: Nigeria-based startup Theeper has shut down and is returning all remaining capital to investors. Theeper leverages APIs to give fintechs and other businesses an alternative network where they can promote easy money movement for customers via different solutions they can embed into their apps and websites. The company had hoped to connect digital wallets across 400 fintechs across Africa to facilitate payments.

Thepeeer had secured $2.1 million in seed funding in June 2022. But as the company’s founders acknowledged in a statement earlier this week, Thepeer was struggling to scale and, despite its “unique service” and technology, “the overall acceptance of wallets as a viable payment option didn’t grow as rapidly as we had hoped.”

“A big thank you to our customers, employees past and present, our investors, the tech community and everyone who believed in us and contributed to our journey,” Thepeer co-founders Michael “Trojan” Okoh and Chike Ononye wrote on the company blog. “In our bid to chase the stars, we must realign and focus on what matters.”

Finovate’s African alums: From innovations in lending to authentication

Most of our alums based in Africa made their Finovate debuts at our conference in Capetown, South Africa in 2018. Here’s a look at some of the companies headquartered or founded in Africa that have demoed their technologies on the Finovate stage.

Craft Silicon – Founded in 2010. Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Provides fintech services and consulting to facilitate digital transformation, mobile application development, software engineering, and more.

Drive Revenue – Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa. Provides an enterprise grade cloud accounting solution for the legal profession.

Entersekt – Founded in 2008 in Stellenbosch, South Africa. Provides transaction authentication services to help financial institutions defend themselves against fraudsters.

Lidya – Founded in 2016 in Lagos, Nigeria. Offers digital banking services including a receivables-based loan product.

OUTvest – Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Centurion, South Africa. Offers an evidence-based, hybrid robo advisor that helps individuals build and manage their own investment strategy. Won Best of Show.

truID – Founded in 2017. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Offers a data sharing ecosystem to securely share personal financial data between consumers and credit providers.

Yoco Technologies – Founded in 2014. Headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa. Builds tools and offers services to help small businesses get paid, operate more efficiently, and grow.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Central Bank of India (CBI) partnered with Veefin Solutions to support its supply chain finance operations.
  • Saudi Arabian fintech EdfaPay teammed up with Pakistan-based bookkeeping and accounting app Digikhata.
  • Sachin Bansal, who co-founded Flipkart, is reportedly looking to raise between $200 million and $400 million for his new startup Navi.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • FinTech Magazine looked at the rise of Brazil’s Pix payments system and the challenge it brings to the credit card industry.
  • Colombian fintech Addi raised $86 million in a round led by Goldman Sachs and Singapore’s GIC.
  • Fintech Nexus featured Brazilian fintech Nubank and its quest for partners in Mexico.

Asia-Pacific

  • In-app and in-store financial solutions provider UnaFinancial unveiled a new lending app for customers in the Philippines.
  • Industry advocacy group Fintech Australian introduced its new CEO Rehan D’Almeida.
  • The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched a new digital platform, Cosmic, to enable FIs to share customer data to help combat money laundering.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Ghanaian fintech Zeepay completed an equity investment round featuring pan-African investors Africa50, Oikocredit, Injaro, Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund, and I&P.
  • South Africa’s Absa Group encouraged African fintechs to list IPOs on local exchanges.
  • SC Ventures forged a strategic partnership with NEXT176, the investment arm of Pan-African financial services group, Old Mutual.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Digital banking platform N26 launched its Stocks and ETFs trading product in Germany.
  • New licensing rules in Lithuania will likely reduce the number of cryptocurrency firms operating in the country.
  • Commerzbank announced updates to its payment platform in Germany to enhance its cross-border payments operations.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Network International and Souhoola teamed up to provide Buy Now Pay Later capability to Networkpay point of sale terminals in Egypt.
  • UAE-based digital bank Zand Bank partnered with Infosys Finacle Solutions to power its corporate banking operations.
  • Oman Housing Bank selected Temenos to modernize its core banking platform.

Photo by Shelagh Murphy

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Finovate Global Israel: Identity Verification, Data Privacy, and an Introduction to New Alums

Finovate Global Israel: Identity Verification, Data Privacy, and an Introduction to New Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews the latest fintech headlines from Israel. We also introduce you to a quartet of new Finovate alums – all making their Finovate debuts at FinovateEurope last month – all headquartered in Israel.

AU10TIX expands its Digital ID identity verification solution

Israel-based identity verification and management specialist AU10TIX announced the expansion of its Digital ID solution this week. AU10TIX’s technology enables businesses to quickly, accurately, and securely verify a wide variety of types of identification, including physical, digital, eID, verifiable credentials, and more.

Serving as a verification hub for businesses, AU10TIX’s Digital ID solution enables faster and more accurate identity verification. The solution also boosts completion rates, enhances the customer experience, and promotes revenue growth. The company’s technology validates cryptographic signatures to verify digital IDs and cross-checks personal identifiable information (PII) as displayed on the applicant’s ID versus information in government databases. Additional services such as facial and data comparison help reduce the risk of false positives.

Altogether, AU10TIX’s solution provides:

  • Global coverage to validate digital signatures worldwide
  • Digital ID Verification Hub that enables management of all verification processes on one platform, creation of customizable workflows, and rules for streamlined operations
  • Automated verification processes to streamline onboarding by reducing manual processes and enhancing efficiency
  • Data discrepancy analysis to identify potentially fraudulent activities and enhance security measures
  • Continuous regulatory compliance assurance to help businesses stay ahead of emerging and evolving regulations
  • Scalable infrastructure to accommodate businesses from startups to enterprises

“Our Digital ID solution empowers businesses to embrace the global shift to digital identity with confidence,” AU10TIX CEO Dan Yerushalmi said,. “It combines unparalleled accuracy and global reach with robust security measures to streamline onboarding and minimize fraud risk, all while addressing the diverse array of global ID formats.”

Founded in 2005, AU10TIX is headquartered in Hod Hasharon, Israel. Earlier this month, the company released its Q4 Global Identity Fraud Report. The report revealed an “eight-month-long coordinated identity fraud ‘mega attack’ consisting of organized criminals executing more than 22,000 separate fraudulent onboarding efforts using AI-generated variations on a single passport. In February, the AU10TIX announced a series of major, C-suite appointments including Hanna Schindler as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Erez Herschkovitz as Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Amazia Keidar as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).

Data privacy company Mine launches governance solution

Israel-based data privacy innovator Mine unveiled its new AI governance solution this week. The new offering, MineOS AI Asset Discovery, gives firms full visibility and control over enterprise AI systems and data. At a time when more institutions are leveraging AI to incorporate data from a widening variety of sources, solutions like MineOS give teams 360-degree visibility into how AI is retaining and sharing that data. This helps institutions build data policies that are effective as well as compliant with regulations governing AI usage.

“We’ve seen a rapid proliferation of AI technologies and corresponding AI regulations, but a precise and actionable blueprint for how companies can effectively govern AI and comply with regulations has yet to hit the market,” Mine CEO and co-founder Gal Ringel said. “MineOS AI Asset Discovery and Risk Assessment will bridge the gap between the practical and theoretical sides of AI and data governance as companies navigate the complex new business landscape.”

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, and founded in 2019, Mine powers the privacy programs of more than 2,000+ companies worldwide. More than 500 SaaS platforms have integrated to MineOS’ no-code API. Late last year, Mine announced completion of a $30 million Series B funding round led by Battery Ventures and PayPal Ventures. The investment takes the company’s total capital raised to $42.5 million.

Israeli alums represent at FinovateEurope

FinovateEurope 2024 may have featured more demoing companies from the nation of Israel than any other previous Finovate conference. This is an impressive showing, given the challenges of Israel fintech in 2023 and the toll of the country’s current war against Hamas. Here’s a look at our new alums:

CitrusX – Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, CitrusX offers an end-to-end platform for AI transparency and explainability that is trusted by publicly listed companies in regulated industries. Founded in 2021, Noa Srebrnik is co-founder and CEO. Video.

FRNZX – Tel Aviv, Israel-based FRNZX was founded by experts in cryptocurrencies, AML, and intelligence to empower AML compliance in the cryptocurrency sector. At its Finovate debut in February, the company demoed its holistic crypto AML navigator which simplifies the integration of crypto transactions into the AML frameworks of banks. FRNZX was founded in January 2022. Co-founder Nevo Lapidot is CEO. Video.

Corsound AI – Founded in 2022, Corsound AI has earned more than 200 patents for its voice intelligence solutions. The startup has innovated in voice deepfake detection and considers itself the only company that successfully correlates face and voice. In fact, at its Best of Show winning debut at FinovateEurope this year, Corsound AI demonstrated the ability to reconstruct a face image from a short audio sample without relying on a database. Gal Haselkorn is CEO of the Tel Aviv-based company. Video.

Intrepid Fox – Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, Intrepid Fox is on a mission to enhance KYC for businesses. The company leverages customized Generative AI technology to help bank KYC processes work 10x more effectively. Intrepid Fox’s technology reads and understands documents, recognizes and extracts key data points for analysis, clarifies missing or incomplete information, and consults with the customer on any document requirements. The company’s solution can reduce onboarding costs by 50% and save a week of onboarding time per customer. Roman Zilber founded Intrepid Fox in 2023. Video.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

  • The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) approved Advans Pakistan Microfinance Bank’s acquisition by Egyptian fintech MNT-Halan.
  • The Nepal Clearing House (NCHL) partnered with ACI Worldwide to power its National Payment Switch (NPS) system.
  • The State Bank of India (SBI) inked a six-year agreement with Aurionpro for its iCashpro+ transaction banking platform.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Contxto looked at the way fintechs in Mexico are navigating the volatility of the country’s monetary policy.
  • Brazilian fintech Delend, which offers open finance solutions from SMEs, raised $20 million (100 million reais).
  • Kuadra, a Colombian fintech that leverages AI to help small businesses access microcredits and growth solutions, expanded into Ecuador.

Asia-Pacific

  • Australian digital wallet provider and payments company Stables introduced international remittances, initially focusing on its customers in the Australia-Philippines corridor.
  • The Philippines Central Bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), issued new payment system regulations.
  • Australia-based spend management platform Weel forged a strategic partnership with real-time, cross-border payments company Nium.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian blockchain network Zone secured $8.5 million in seed funding.
  • Tech in Africa looked at the role of South Africa’s fintech industry in driving growth in the sector continent-wide.
  • Global cross-border payments and remittances company PayAngel selected Kenya for expansion, calling the country “the gateway to East Africa.”

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Bulgarian embedded finance company Paynetics has acquired U.K.-based neobank Novus.
  • A partnership between Riverty and Adyen will give Adyen customers in the DACH region a new, 14-day invoice payment solution.
  • Germany fintech NX Technologies raised $24 million in Series B funding in a round led by PayPal Ventures.

Photo by Haley Black

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Finovate Global Germany: Investing in Embedded Finance, Open Banking in Payments, N26 in France

Finovate Global Germany: Investing in Embedded Finance, Open Banking in Payments, N26 in France
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BioCatch, Daily news, Envestnet, Finovate Global, Temenos, Yodlee

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features the latest fintech news from Germany, where investors are backing innovations in embedded finance, payments companies are taking advantage of open banking, and the green shoots of crypto spring are growing ever more apparent.

Solaris secures funding

Germany’s embedded finance platform Solaris secured $103 million (€96 million) in a Series F round this week. The investment was led by SBI, one of Solaris’ earliest investors, with other existing investors also participating. Solaris will use the additional capital, which takes the firm’s total funding to more than $486 million (€450 million), to onboard its ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club) credit card program, strengthen its core capital, and invest further in its platform.

“This is a significant milestone for Solaris on our path to sustainable, profitable growth,” Solaris CEO Carsten Höltkemeyer said. “The funding underlines the high level of confidence our investors have in the transformation of our company.”

In addition to the investment, the Series F also included a financial guarantee of up to $108 million (€100 million) capital equivalent.

A pioneer in the banking-as-a-service business for nearly a decade, Solaris has grown into a major banking and technology provider with more than 750 employees at ten locations in both Europe and India. The company’s BaaS solution enables businesses to embed digital banking services – including payments, lending, and identity verification – directly into their platform. In addition to making it easier for companies to launch customized financial products and services, Solaris has secured the requisite licensing – including an e-money license for both the UK and EEA – to help companies navigate the regulatory complexities of doing business across the region.

Headquartered in Berlin, Solaris realized net revenues of $140 million (€130 million) in 2022. Last fall, the company issued a study – Disrupting the value chain for financial services – How to drive revenue growth with embedded finance – that highlighted “easier access to services” as a major driver of demand for embedded financial solutions.

Micropayment partners with Tink for Pay by Bank

Berlin-based payment processor Micropayment has turned to open banking platform Tink to add Pay by Bank to its payments offering. Live in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Micropayment’s Pay by Bank enables consumers to initiate payments directly from their bank account to the seller’s account when purchasing goods and services. A growing preference for both merchants and consumers, account-to-account (A2A) payments provide a secure and streamlined experience for customers and lower costs for merchants.

“The DACH region is a key market for us, and Tink’s dedication to serving merchants across various industries has been invaluable,” Micropayment CSO Thomas Knoth said. “Their payment method offers consumers the speed, reliability, and security they expect, making it a seamless experience for both merchants and consumers.” In a statement, Micropayment noted that it plans to take further advantage of Tink’s pan-Europe connectivity in the future.

Founded in 2005, Micropayment is a full-service payment provider that provides its customers with software implementation, payment processing, detailed analysis, and more. The company offers nine different payment options designed specifically for e-commerce and paid content services. Micropayment customers can integrate the technology via ready-made payment windows and preconfigured shop logins, as well as white-label APIs and interfaces.

“Collaboration with Micropayment has got off to an excellent start and we are gaining traction in a highly competitive landscape, by offering merchants a payment method that offers everything a consumer has come to expect – familiarity, speed, reliability, and convenience,” Tink DACH Payments Director Thomas Gmelch said.

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut in 2014 at FinovateEurope, Tink returned to the Finovate stage three years later to earn its second Best of Show award. Most recently, the Sweden-based company announced a partnership with German modern mobility sharing services provider Deutsche Bahn. The company will deploy Tink’s Account Check solution to enable instant, secure account onboarding.

Berlin’s N26 launches cryptocurrency product N26 Crypto

Crypto spring is alive and well in Europe as the region’s most prominent digital bank, N26, announced that its first cryptocurrency product, N26 Crypto, will be available to its customers in France. N26 began the year with the unveiling of its new Stock and ETF trading product – and the bank’s crypto solution already has been available in seven of N26’s 24 European markets. This week’s announcement adds French traders and investors to the ranks of those N26 customers who will be able to transact in nearly 200 cryptocurrencies on the N26 app.

N26 Crypto will be available to all eligible customers in France, or at least with a French or a German IBAN. All membership tiers will be able to access the technology, including customers using free accounts. There will be no additional charge for using N26 Crypto, which the bank says will offer the broadest range of cryptocurrencies for trading and investing compared to all other European banking apps.

“Last summer, we installed our local French Iban to be able to accelerate the deployment of the global banking offer that we want to provide to our approximately 3 million customers in France,” N26 General Manager France & Benelux, Jérémie Rosselli explained. “With this, customers can go beyond managing their money simply and intuitively on their smartphone to also invest within the N26 ecosystem,” Rosselli said.

The new offering is made possible via a partnership with Bitpanda GmbH, which manages the execution of trades as well as the custody of coins. With only €1 to get started, N26 Crypto users pay 1.5% in fees on Bitcoin and 2.5% on other cryptocurrencies. Users can upgrade to N26 Metal to take advantage of reduced transaction fees, as well as other perks.

Founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, N26 has eight million customers and operates in 24 different markets. The bank’s crypto product announcement follows a slew of recent headlines from the German bank. These include the launch of its Instant Savings solution in 13 new markets, and the appointment of Mayur Kamat as new Chief Product Officer.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German challenger bank N26 launched new cryptocurrency trading product N26 Crypto.
  • Flowpay, a Czech-based fintech that provides financing for small businesses, raised $2.3 million (€2.1 million) in seed funding.
  • German embedded finance platform Solaris raised $103 million (€96 million) in a Series F round led by SBI Group.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based BioCatch and Google Cloud partner to bring fraud prevention solutions to expanding markets.
  • UAE-based Tungsten secured a license from the FSRA to operate at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
  • Bahrain’s Eazy Financial Services joined forces with Tabby to provide BNPL services via its EazyPay POS terminals network.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Business Recorder’s Syed Yousuf Raza looked at how Pakistan’s banking and fintech industry is dealing with evolving fraud threats.
  • The Indian government signed a $23 million loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to enhance access to fintech education, research, and innovation at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.
  • FinTech Alliance Nepal joined the Asia FinTech Alliance.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Colombian fintech Addi secured $86 million in a combination of equity and debt financing.
  • Uruguayan digital payments firm dLocal anticipates record total payment volumes in 2024.
  • Nubank Brazil CEO Livia Chanes talked with Bloomberg News about the state of fintech in Latin America.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based cross-border payments company Thunes expanded its strategic partnership with Visa.
  • Australia’s HeirWealth integrated with Envestnet | Yodlee to bring open banking data sharing to its wealth register for high net-worth families.
  • HSBC and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks startup hub announced the first “public-private cooperation between the city’s largest innovation and technology ecosystem and leading global bank.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Ethiopia’s Cooperative Bank of Oromia partnered with Temenos to launch its CoopApp and CoopApp Aluhuda for both conventional and Islamic digital banking experiences.
  • dLocal teamed up with Ebury to bring African customers optimized payment solutions.
  • Safaricom, a telecom based in Kenya, partnered with Onafriq to offer remittance services to Ethiopia.

Photo by Kai Pilger

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