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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
aisot helps trading and investment professionals make better decisions by providing next generation analytics and forecasts signals.
Features
reduce forecasting errors by up to 50%
adjust to different asset classes, time horizons, and goal functions
dynamically combine different data sources (structured & unstructured) in real-time
Why it’s great aisot builds next generation signals for financial services, cutting forecasting errors by 50% and offering new opportunities for traders, market makers, and asset managers.
Presenter
Stefan Klauser, CEO & Co-Founder Klauser is CEO & Co-Founder of aisot. Before he worked as Project Lead Finance 4.0 at the Chair of Computational Social Science at ETH Zurich. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Agent IQ‘s customer engagement platform provides a unique high-touch, high-tech, omni-channel experience that uses AI to support FIs in being more proactive with their customers and automating mundane tasks.
Features
Increase your customer satisfaction
Drive more loyalty and share of wallet
Support and automate repetitive and mundane tasks with industry leading AI
Why it’s great The platform is supercharged with AI (augmented intelligence) that improves communication and engagement with your customers leading to happier, more loyal, and more profitable customers.
Presenters
Slaven Bilac, CEO Co-Founder with a PhD in AI, Bilac was the Search Lead in the Google Japan Office. Later he led the Cloud Machine Intelligence Group tasked with making Google-internal ML technology available on GCP. LinkedIn
Soren Bested, CRO Prior to Agent IQ, Bested served as COO and Global Head of Product for Monitise and then was part of the formative team at Pivotus Ventures as COO and Chief Product Officer. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Foxit‘s PhantomPDF is a leading end-user productivity software for maximizing efficiencies in document processes across your entire enterprise.
Features
Simple and intuitive UI
Flexible deployment options
Fantastic value
Why it’s great For financial institutions, PhantomPDF is an excellent balance of usability, functionality, and value.
Presenter
Stanley Chow, Sr Product Marketing Manager Chow has a deep interest in forward-looking technology and how it impacts the everyday lives of people. Stanley enjoys learning about mobile payments, blockchain, and NFTs. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
The Equifax Payment Insights solution, powered by Urjanet, empowers lenders to seamlessly integrate consumer-permissioned utility payment history into lending decisions.
Features
SOC 2 and GDPR-compliant data security
Enhanced risk assessment with historical and recurring payment data
API connections to utility and telecom accounts from across the globe
Why it’s great With Payment Insights, consumers can share information to create a more complete financial profile, enabling lenders to better reach 63 million underbanked or unbanked adults.
Presenters
Corrigan Nolan, Director of Product Management Nolan is on a mission to help people and businesses function more efficiently by automating tasks, with a background in product design and product management. LinkedIn
Michael Pecen, VP Alternative Data Product & Strategy, Equifax Pecen leads Alternative Data Product for Equifax, focusing on how consumer-permissioned and alternative data will empower consumers and improve credit lifecycle, screening, and identity processes. LinkedIn
When we think of global corporations and business in general, do we feel pride in how we do things? Beyond Good, a new book by Unconventional Ventures co-founders Theodora Lau and Bradley Leimer, is a call to arms for business leaders to recognize how they can do well by doing good.
Beyond Good showcases how fintech is changing business models and what every industry can learn from it. The leaders in financial services are fostering a thriving ecosystem of incumbents and startups, unlocking new possibilities to make broader financial inclusion a reality.
With a foreword from the Aspen Institute, exclusive interviews with leading B-Corps, policy makers, executives, and case studies from companies like Sunrise Banks, Ant Group, Village Capital, Microsoft, and PayPal, Beyond Good shows how everyone can contribute to a more common good. Finovate readers can also get 20% off their copy of the book, using code Inspire20.
Below are a few excerpts from our conversation with Theo and Brad on the new book and their upcoming appearance at FinovateSpring next month. For the full interview, check out the video above.
On the importance of financial inclusion
Theo Lau: “If we talk about the onset of the so-called fintech revolution, if you will, a lot of the new startups seemed to regurgitate old ideas that have already been around. They make it prettier, they create this bamboo credit card … But it that really changing our behavior, is it really changing how we work? In the West, are we really including more demographics and doing things better for them? I would argue a lot of the time we are not.”
Bradley Leimer: “Inclusivity goes much broader than just a credit card or just lending or just credit. And that’s a lot of what we discuss. There’s more to a financial relationship than one side of the balance sheet. There’s more to the financial services model than just profitability. There are longer term implications in everything we do every single day and every decision that we make.”
Why fintechs and financial services need to move “beyond good.”
Leimer: “We’ve seen a lot of stakeholder capitalism lately and examples of companies that have tried to mean more for their business model and their communities. That’s what we celebrate in the book, the shift that we can include more people in our communities in society. Especially in financial services and technology, companies we really need to focus how we can serve these larger groups. Everybody in society should be able to be a part of our business models. And that’s why we go “beyond good.”
Lau: “We want to reinforce that this is not a zero-sum game. Just because we are including more demographics and more considerations on how we conduct business doesn’t mean you’re losing. Case in point, one of the things lately we’ve been talking about is student loan debt, $1.7 trillion dollars of debt. Obviously the burden is shared across all demographics, but particularly in communities of color, among first generation college students, and among those in other less advantaged groups.
So our question is: how do we go about solving it? There are a lot of different moving parts. But for financial services, the role isn’t just to offer another loan on top of the pile of deb because that’s not solving the problem. We need to go back further to ask how we create a more equal society, more equal products, and create services to help people rethink their finances and get to a healthier financial situation.”
Join Theo Lau and Bradley Leimer at FinovateSpring May 10 through 13. For more information about our upcoming, all digital, spring fintech conference, visit our FinovateSpring hub today.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Q2 offers CorePro, a light-weight core processing platform, to power its Banking-as-a-Service and Digital Bank-in-a-Box services for fintechs and FIs.
Features
Real-time updates to the core
Low cost basis means increased account profitability
Unlimited sub-account creation
Why it’s great CorePro is proven at scale.
Presenters
Rahm McDaniel, VP Strategic Solutions McDaniel is VP of Strategic Solutions and an entrepreneur. He has been in the technology industry for 22 years. He joined Q2 in 2013. LinkedIn
Brett King, Founder, Moven King is a world-renowned futurist and speaker, bestselling author, and Founder & Executive Chairman of Moven, a start-up, with the world’s first mobile, downloadable bank account. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Secure‘s SecureSave is a purpose-built emergency savings app that makes saving for emergencies easy by providing employees the ability to save automatically and receive an employer match.
Features
Emergency savings is purpose-built within the savings app
Emergency savings is automatic through payroll deductions
Emergency savings is a new financial wellness benefit
Why it’s great The pandemic has greatly accelerated the need and demand for employer-sponsored emergency savings accounts, and SecureSave is set to be the market leading solution.
Presenters
Devin Miller, CEO & Co-Founder Miller is a 15-year fintech veteran, serving as CEO & Co-Founder and Head of Product for TaxACT, Balance Financial, Guidant, and Finsphere. LinkedIn
Bassam Saliba, CTO & Co-Founder Saliba has been building payments and health tech solutions for 30 years as CTO or Head of Engineering at WebMD, Avado, Balance Financial, and Microsoft. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
LoanPro is a SaaS based loan servicing software which empowers tech-forward lenders through automation and data visibility.
Features
Fully built on our own full-featured API
Configurable process wizards
Ability to create multiple user accounts with customizable restrictions
Why it’s great LoanPro is the pioneer software on the market giving customers direct database access. LoanPro is also uniquely built on its own modern REST API.
Presenters
Lloyd Roberts, CRO Roberts is LoanPro’s CRO & Co-Founder and has extensive experience with enterprise lending software and sales. Lloyd has a passion for family, self-improvement, and Hawaii. LinkedIn
Mason Gerrard, Sales Manager Gerrard has 6+ years of experience in lending software and is currently LoanPro’s Sales Manager. If he’s not at work, you can find him outdoors! LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
Signal Intent creates financial calculators for the digital age – purpose built for digital growth.
Features
Win more customers with modern calculators built for digital growth
Improve the digital customer journey with the calculator widget on any web page
Personalize experiences and capture more data
Why it’s great Signal Intent is reimagining the financial calculator. Their solution is purpose built to win you more customers, capture better customer data, and help you move fast in the era of digital transformation.
Presenter
Matthew Covi, CEO & Co-Founder As CEO of Signal Intent, Covi is responsible for executing the product vision. After 10+ years in marketing, technology, and fintech, he’s passionate about building best-in-class technology. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
DigiShares provides a white-label platform for tokenization of real estate, supplying automation and liquidity for the real estate markets.
Features
Digitizes and automates processes related to financing and ownership structure
Enables investors to trade on the bulletin board marketplace
Enables fractionalization to reach new investors
Why it’s great The real estate developer can get their own platform for investment and trading in their projects using tokenization technology.
Presenters
Adam Blazsek, Product Manager Blazsek has a BSc in computer science and is currently studying for his masters. He is Product Manager for DigiShares and has been with the company for two years. LinkedIn
Claus Skaaning, CEO Skaaning has a PhD in computer science and has been granted seven patents. He’s founded several companies in the AI and blockchain space and is CEO and Co-Founder of DigiShares. LinkedIn
We’re four and a half months into 2021, and we’re already starting to see the fintech and banking industries shake off the 2020 mindset.
That’s not to say that companies have left behind their digital agendas that took precedence last year. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Banks and fintechs have transitioned to apply the lessons they learned amid the massive growth period last year into new initiatives.
So what new frontiers does the industry have its eye on? I took an early look at some of the trends beginning to emerge at our upcoming FinovateSpring conference, taking place digitally May 10 through 13.
Here are the top three themes from the discussion sessions:
Embedded finance and banking-as-a-service These two intertwined trends have exploded in the past year. Embedded finance and the concept’s predecessor, banking-as-a-service, are helping non-banking companies leverage fintech to offer financial services to their clients. Food delivery, ridesharing, and big tech companies have all benefitted from offering their customers a form of banking services.
Increased customer awareness and demand are tipping the scales on these tandem trends this spring, rising them to the top. Thanks to the pandemic driving much of our everyday lives into the online realm, customers have realized the convenience that comes from being able to combine banking tasks with everyday activities.
The ESG initiative Technologies and products that tackle environmental, social, and governance (or ESG) issues are nothing new. However, over the course of the first half of this year we’ve seen more fintech and banking players getting in on the action.
Both new and incumbent players have heard consumers’ cries for a more sustainable approach to managing their financial lives. To meet this demand, companies are doing everything from making carbon neutral pledges, to offering wooden payment cards, to using customer deposits to fund sustainable initiatives and donating profits to reforestation efforts.
CBDCs and digital currencies While central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, should have been on banks’ radars last year, the global pandemic took precedence. Today, while the industry is still working on reimagining the digital experience, there has been more space to think about operating in a future where CBDCs and other digital currencies are commonplace.
There are currently six countries piloting CBDCs, while many others have made key developments in implementing a formal release of CBDCs. The U.S. has stated that it will not race other countries to the finish line of launching its own CBDC. The country has still signaled some progress toward its own digital currency, however, which has turned the attention of many in the fintech space.
In addition to these, experts will be discussing themes from previous years, including customer experience, AI, digital transformation, and faster payments – as well as fringe topics such as quantum computing.
Taking a look at content from the developer-focused track, FinDEVr, we’ll see an in-depth look at the technology behind open banking, customer onboarding, lending-as-a-service, and customer experience and design. FinDEVr will take place on May 13.
Check out more information on how you can save on tickets to both FinovateSpring and FinDEVr, held May 10 through 13 in Central Standard Time.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.
BaseCap Analytics is a software company that makes it easy for organizations to improve the accuracy and quality of their data.
Features
Apply rules dictionary on data sources to monitor failures and root cause trends, before any data is delivered
Analyze data from databases, spreadsheets, document images, etc.
Why it’s great All companies rely on data for intelligence and decision making. BaseCap’s software uses a collaborative approach for companies to fix data issues efficiently.
Presenters
Nicolas Guillen, Co-Founder Guillen is a business strategist and entrepreneur with more than 14 years of experience in finance and technology. He is passionate about data and building teams. He also holds an MBA from Chicago Booth. LinkedIn
Steve Smith, Co-Founder Smith has more than 12 years of experience driving initiatives to build, consolidate, and streamline complex systems to assist organizations with regulation, compliance, and technology needs. LinkedIn