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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
This is the week fintech has been anticipating for years. Klarna filed its F-1 prospectus document late Friday, anticipating it will raise at least $1 billion at a $15 billion valuation with its IPO. We won’t know the official valuation figures until Klarna prices shares, which may take around a month, however. While we wait, let’s dive into this week’s fintech news. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Small Business Financial Management
Small business credit card and spend management platform Capital on Tappartners with bank payment firm GoCardless for Variable Recurring Payments (VRPs).
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news and headlines from Australia.
Digital private equity manager Moonfare goes live in Australia
Eligible investors in Australia stand to benefit from the arrival of digital private equity investing platform Moonfare. The Berlin-based company announced that it is bringing its wealth management technology to what is now its 23rd country. Moonfare Asia Pacific head Adam Banks, who joined Moonfare in October, noted that the firm’s APAC investor relations team is already “in active discussions with potential clients” in Australia.
Founded in 2016, Moonfare enables eligible investors to access a selection of curated funds from managers such as KKR, EQT, and the Carlyle Group. The company’s proprietary portfolio investments provide diversification and low minimums across a range of strategies, including buyout, growth equity, venture, and infrastructure. Investors on the platform can also participate in secondaries, private credit, and co-investments.
“There is clearly a growing appetite for private equity investing in Australia,” Moonfare Founder and Co-CEO Steffen Pauls said. “But so far access has been limited, especially for people wanting exposure to non-domestic managers and strategies. Moonfare’s digital private equity platform plans to fill that gap by providing seamless access to globally leading top-quartile managers.”
Moonfare boasts more than €3.3 billion ($3.4 billion) in assets under management and access to more than 110 funds. The company began the year with the appointment of Heike Hövekamp as Chief Legal & Compliance Officer. Hövekamp joins Moonfare from Société Générale, where she was Head of Compliance.
Australian regtech Nuj raises $4 million in seed funding
Is there any debate that 2025 is shaping up to be the year of regtech? The fact that regtech increasingly seems to provide fertile ground for new fintech startups may be yet another indication of the growing importance of this subsector.
Australia’s Nuj is another fintech startup that is taking advantage of interest in regtech. The company announced that it has raised $4 million in equity and debt financing to develop its superannuation data platform. A superannuation is Australia’s pension program, created to benefit of employees. They are similar in many respects to an individual retirement account (IRA) or a 401(k) in the US.
Mimecast Co-Founder Peter Bauer led a $2 million seed round as part of an overall $4 million equity and debt package. He praised Nuj’s “powerful data platform that addresses an expensive challenge across the super industry — one of staying ahead in compliance with regulations.” Founded in 2020 by Matthew McKenzie, Nuj is a data platform and insights engine that sits between superannuation funds and the regulator. The technology provides real-time insights to superannuation trustees and executives, enabling them to better manage their risk programs. The company’s platform is used by institutions such as MUFG, AMP, and Equity Trustees.
The investment in Nuj comes as regulatory reporting requirements and calls for increased transparency for superannuation funds are growing. McKenzie noted that funding will help “fuel (the platform’s) capabilities for faster data processing and sharper insights, empowering funds to make informed decisions, and driving better financial outcomes.”
Headquartered in Sydney, Nuj was founded in 2020.
Ozone API and ProductCloud team up to help Australian firms meet open banking regulations
A new partnership between Ozone API and ProductCloud will help companies in Australia comply with Open Banking API regulations, specifically Consumer Data Right legislation. The partnership will provide Australian companies with a technology platform that enables them to quickly and securely deliver open APIs aligned to the most recent version of the Australian Consumer Data Standard.
“Our platform is already helping banks and financial institutions around the world to deliver standards compliant with open banking APIs, including in line with the CDR standard,” Ozone API Co-founder and CEO Huw Davies said. “We’re really excited to combine our global expertise in open finance with ProductCloud’s innovative product management platform. Together, our solutions remove the complexity of achieving and maintaining CDR compliance, allowing organizations to focus on their core business.”
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, Ozone API is a leading standards-based platform designed to take the complexity out of open banking and help companies meet regulatory and commercial requirements for open APIs. In addition to its partnership with ProductCloud, Ozone API also recently announced its collaboration with FinovateEurope 2024 alum ShareID to, in the words of ShareID CEO and Co-founder Sara Sebti, “enhance the Open Banking ecosystem” and, as Ozone API GM for Europe James Bushby put it, “strengthen trust in open finance.”
Melbourne-based ProductCloud offers a cloud-based, SaaS solution that streamlines product information management for financial institutions. Serving banks, neobanks, mutuals, and non-bank lenders, ProductCloud provides a single tool for both Open Banking Product Reference Data and Design and Distribution Obligation compliance. The company was founded in 2020.
“Since launching ProductCloud back when CDR kicked off, we had our sights on being the go-to Product Information Management and CDR Compliance platform for financial institution product managers,” ProductCloud Co-founder and CEO Mark Evans said. “Partnering with Ozone API is an exciting development because they have also been a pioneer in Open Finance. Collaborating with our respective SaaS platforms and out-of-the-box APIs will provide a unique offering for rapid and cost-effective open banking compliance.”
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
Romanian crowdfunding service provider, Venevo, partnered with regtech solutions hub iDenfy.
Lithuanian fintech ArcaPay agreed to be acquired by UK-based financial services provider Ebury.
International money movement firm TerraPay partnered with airport retailer Dubai Duty Free.
Central and Southern Asia
India-based payments and API banking firm, Cashfree Payments, raised $53 million in funding at a valuation of $700 million.
Egyptian fintech Halan Microfinance Bank expanded into Pakistan with a pledge to invest $10 million in 2025.
Indian fintech Cred became the first fintech platform to provide access to India’s central bank digital currency project.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Payment orchestration provider Yuno to launchMastercard Payment Passkey Service across Latin America.
Kuady teamed up with BridgerPay to enhance payment solutions throughout Latin America.
Latin American ecommerce company MercadoLibre now offers transactions using its payment processors in Argentina via Brazil’s instant payment system, Pix.
The week begins on the Fintech Rundown with news of product launches and new investments, as well as an acquisition in the digital banking space and a handful of partnerships in payments.
Be sure to check back all week long for the latest updates.
It’s a holiday-shortened week here at the Fintech Rundown. But rest assured that we’ll have you covered on the the top fintech news headlines as 2024 moves toward a close.
We’re starting off with a series of stories in the embedded finance front, including an acquisition, a new launch, and a major fundraising.
Digital banking
Data-driven statement provider HC3forges strategic partnership with digital banking solutions company Apiture.
As both a conference producer and a news outlet, we’re always paying close attention to the topics that resonate most with you — our audience of fintech and banking professionals. To wrap up 2024 and brace ourselves of what to expect for 2025, we analyzed readership data to gain valuable insights into the stories, trends, companies, and products that mattered most to the industry this year to create the top 10 posts of 2024.
This list is compiled of posts published in 2024 that garnered the highest number of views and engagement in 2024. From breaking news to big IPOs, these were the stories you found most compelling. So, without further ado, here’s a countdown of the top 10 posts that captured your interest over the past year.
Walmart is partnering with Fiserv to enable pay-by-bank payments for online purchases starting in 2025.
Benefits to Walmart include lower transaction costs, faster settlement, reduced fraud, and fewer payment declines, while customers can avoid stacked pending transactions.
Consumers may face challenges like added friction and lost credit card rewards, but early pilot results have exceeded Walmart’s expectations for pay-by-bank adoption.
Walmart made its latest move in the fintech space this week after announcing it has partnered with Fiserv to offer pay-by-bank for online purchases.
Bloomberg unveiled this week that, while the retailer has offered pay-by-bank via Walmart Pay for a few months now, the payments were routed through ACH payment rails and still took days to clear. Beginning in 2025, however, Walmart will leverage Fiserv’s NOW Network, which will route the payments through The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow. Launched in 2014, Fiserv’s NOW Network aims to reach as many banks as possible to provide consumers and businesses the ability to send, receive, and access funds immediately while supporting credit push payments.
Starting next year, customers will be able to make online purchases using pay-by-bank by connecting their bank account through Fiserv’s AllData platform. The platform will facilitate authentication and securely link bank accounts. This will be done through integrations with Plaid, MX, Akoya, and Finicity, ensuring a seamless and secure connection to customer accounts.
Leveraging Fiserv to power real time payments is an important move for Walmart as it enters the pay-by-bank game. As Fiserv Head of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox told Bloomberg, “As an industry we believe we need to create this connectivity. FedNow and RTP, they don’t necessarily talk to one another. The NOW Network can play that role in the industry of bringing all these networks together to enable applications like pay-by-bank.”
Walmart stands to receive multiple benefits when consumers choose to pay-by-bank. The retailer will face lower transaction costs by bypassing credit card networks; increased cash flow, since bank transfers settle faster than card transactions; reduced fraud and fewer declines, since the pay-by-bank payments offers direct access to and will authenticate a customer’s bank account; and the potential to reach more consumers who may not have a credit or debit card.
From a consumer perspective, the benefits of pay-by-bank are more difficult to find. Unlike the merchant, they don’t experience any cost savings for opting for pay-by-bank, there is added friction involved in connecting their bank account to Walmart’s platform, they lose out on credit card rewards, and in the event their account is hacked, fraudsters will have the option to make purchases directly from their account, instead of on a credit card that would offer an extra layer of protection while the customer disputes the transaction.
That said, Walmart is touting the ability for pay-by-bank to help consumers avoid stacked pending transactions. “When the transaction processes as a real time payment, customers get immediate access to see that payment come through, I see it hit my account and I can properly budget,” said Walmart Vice President of Emerging Payments Jamie Henry. “It’s not as if I’ve got this phantom payment out there that’s going to take place a couple days down the road.”
And while I remain skeptical on the mass consumer adoption of pay-by-bank, perhaps Walmart’s customer base is more well suited for these types of transactions. Henry said that the initial pilot of pay-by-bank was surprising. “It’s certainly surpassed our expectations of the amount of customers that have registered and actually use the payment type,” he said.
Fiserv is tapping PayPal to help its merchant clients offer faster checkouts through PayPal’s Fastlane.
Fastlane recognizes returning customers via email, allowing them to autofill payment details and complete purchases in as little as one click.
PayPal estimates Fastlane users convert more than 80% of the time, with a 50% higher conversion rate and a 32% faster checkout process compared to non-users.
After first partnering more than a decade ago, PayPal and Fiserv have furthered their partnership to help Fiserv’s merchant clients leverage PayPal to offer shoppers a faster checkout experience.
Specificaly, Fiserv will allow its merchant clients to connect to PayPal’s Fastlane, which will ultimately help speed up guest checkout flows in the U.S. Fiserv joins BigCommerce, Bold, Adobe, and Salesforce, which also offer PayPal’s Fastlane.
“We’re excited to deepen our collaboration with Fiserv and extend our innovative products and solutions to a broader audience,” said PayPal Executive Vice President and General Manager Large Enterprise and Merchant Platform Group Frank Keller. “This partnership reinforces our commitment to driving excellence in checkout convenience by partnering with leading payment service providers and e-commerce platforms.”
Fastlane, which PayPal first launched in January and then made generally available earlier this month, recognizes customers early in the checkout process by their email. After customers receive a one-time passcode sent via email, Fastlane allows shoppers to access their saved information by autofilling the fields in the checkout flow. Once verified, customers can complete their purchase in as little as one click. If Fastlane does not recognize a shopper by their email, it allows them to create a Fastlane profile by opting in during their purchase process, enabling faster transactions in the future.
Because the tool does not require users to fill out forms or remember passwords, PayPal estimates that guest shoppers using Fastlane convert more than 80% of the time, have up to 50% higher conversion rates compared to non-Fastlane users, and reduce the time to checkout by 32%.
“Fiserv is committed to simplifying the complexities of commerce, creating value for our clients by making it simple for businesses to enable new, engaging experiences for their customer base,” said Fiserv Head of Merchant Solutions Jennifer LaClair. “Our expanded partnership with PayPal supports our mission to enhance client value by providing simple, cutting-edge solutions to our clients that elevate and accelerate the commerce experience.”
Investment and innovation are defining the wealth management space as the week begins. LA-based wealth management platform Altruist enters the week with $169 million more in capital, courtesy of a Series E round led by Iconiq Growth. Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase announced that it has deployed generative AI to enhance its thematic investment offering.
Be sure to check back all week long for more fintech news!
Crypto
Revolutlaunches its stand-alone crypto exchange for professional crypto traders, Revolut X.
KeyBanklaunchesKeyVAM, a virtual account management solution powered by Qolo for treasury management clients who have complex demand deposit account structures.
Regtech
Global RegTech consolidator Corlyticsacquires Deloitte UK’s RegTech platform.
Embedded finance
Issuer-processor Paymentologyteams up with Diamond Trust Bank to bring embedded finace solutions to customers in Kenya.
Accelerators and incubators
Ally Financiallaunches its Ally Innovation Challenge to promote solutions leveraging Responsible AI.
Digital conversations platform Eltropy has integrated with Fiserv’s account processing platform Portico.
The integration will enable credit unions using Portico to use Eltropy solutions such as advanced Text, Video, and co-browsing.
Eltropy most recently demoed its technology last year at FinovateFall.
Digital conversations platform for community financial institutions (CFIs) Eltropyannounced an integration with Fiserv’s full-service account processing platform Portico today. The integration will enable credit unions using Portico to leverage a variety of Eltropy communications solutions. These include advanced Text, Video, Secure Chat, co-browsing, screen sharing, and chatbots. And all of this functionality is contained within a single platform.
“This partnership with Fiserv allows us to boost efficiency and improve communications capabilities and security – including two-factor authentication – for even more community financial institutions,” Eltropy VP of Strategic Partnerships Jason Smith said. “This integration has the potential to elevate member engagement across all channels, equipping credit unions with the tools they need to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.”
Eltropy’s technology empowers credit unions to sync contacts, send promotional texts, and offer personalized, one-on-one conversations with members. The Portico integration will support communications between departments, facilitating secure and efficient interactions between lending, collections, sales, marketing and other internal sources.
The ability to sync contacts was a particular highlight of the integration. Eltropy’s sync-up feature enables credit unions to integrate member data with Eltropy’s Digital Conversations Platform. Unveiled last month, the Digital Conversations Platform unifies Eltropy’s Video Banking, Enterprise Texting, and Digital Contact Center solutions, and adds AI capabilities, as well. This integration will give credit unions comprehensive member insights that can drive member segmentation and make more personalized products and services possible.
“Integrating Eltropy’s innovative messaging capabilities into our Portico core banking platform allows credit unions to streamline communication and enhance member engagement,” Fiserv VP of Product Management & Strategy for Credit Union Solutions Vanessa Stock said. “Messages can now be sent directly from the application, cutting call center wait times and building stronger member relationships.”
A Finovate alum since 2017, Eltropy made its most recent Finovate appearance last September at FinovateFall. At the event, the company demoed Eltropy One, the firm’s all-in-one omni-channel solution that enables FIs to manage both inbound and outbound communications from a universal console. Eltropy has forged a number of new credit union partnerships this year, including alliances with InRoads Credit Union and Cyprus Credit Union. The company has also partnered with a number of fintechs, including fellow Finovate alums Akuvo, Q2, and Alkami.
London-based fintech and digital wallet HyperJarannounced a partnership with digital gift card network, Tillo. The announcement makes HyperJar the first spending app to integrate instant Cashback Gift Cards. The cards enable customers to earn instant cashback of up to 15% from more than 50 top brands including Ikea and Amazon.
In a statement, HyperJar’s Nicola Longfield underscored that not only was HyperJar the first app to integrate the cashback gift cards with a spending account, but also HyperJar was the first to offer “merchant cashback.” This option enables users to choose a higher cashback rate that is specific to a given merchant.
HyperJar’s partnership news comes one month after the company secured $24 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. More than 500,000 individuals, including more than 100,000 child cardholders, use HyperJar’s digital wallets.
A handful of U.K.-based fintechs secured funding this week. Instant payments company Lopay announced a seed investment of $7.3 million (£6 million). Participating in the round were BackedVC, Portage, The Venture Collective, and angel investors. With 20,000 SMEs signed up since launch, the company offers a app that allows small businesses to accept card payments. The app also enables instant access to cleared funds as soon as transactions are completed. Founded in 2022, Lopay plans to use the capital to expand its operations.
Fellow U.K.-based fintech Kennek was another company that locked in seed funding this week. The firm raised $12.5 million in new capital in a round led by HV Capital. Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One also participated. The investment follows a $4.5 million pre-seed round closed in February.
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in London, Kennek offers an operating system for lending via a platform that supports the entire lending lifecycle from loan origination to servicing. The company will use the funds to further develop its core technology and add employees.
But the big winner of the week for U.K. fintechs in terms of funding was Untangled Finance. The firm, which operates a tokenized real-world asset (RWA) marketplace, secured $13.5 million in strategic funding in a round led by Fasanara Capital. Founded in 2020, Untangled Finance plans to use the capital for product development and to fuel growth.
The London-based company offers a tokenization platform that facilitates placing traditional financial assets on a blockchain. These real-world financial assets can range from bonds to real estate. Untangled Finance is part of a growing field within the digital asset industry that specializes in asset tokenization, a field that could grow as large as $5 trillion within the next five years, according to a recent report. Note that, along with its investment, Fasanara Capital opened two private tokenized credit pools on Untangled Finance’s platform.
Speaking of DeFi, for those who believe that regulation is the path to greater acceptance of cryptocurrencies, this week’s announcement from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) could be considered good news.
Within 24 hours of its new cryptoassets regulatory regime going live, the FCA has issued 146 alerts to non-compliant companies that were promoting cryptoassets to U.K. customers in violation of the new policy, which was announced earlier this year.
In a statement, the FCA urged consumers to check its publicly available “Warning List” before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies. “We take a risk-based approach, so not alll firms of potential concern will be added straightaway,” the FCA explained. At the same time, regulators hope their Warning List will nevertheless help would-be crypto investors “understand where firms’ promotions may be breaking the law and to consider the promotion with the full information available.”
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Asia-Pacific
Coinbasesecured a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Packworks, a Philippines-based fintech, inked a deal to help SMEs secure microfinancing.
Forbes looked at the current challenges facing Chinese fintechs.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigerian startup Haba InsurTech raised $75,000 in pre-seed funding.
Fiserv has partnered with Plaid to offer its bank clients API-based connectivity to third-party applications on Plaid’s network.
The agreement leverages Fiserv’s AllData Connect to allow credential-free data sharing.
Fiserv has signed a similar consumer-permissioned data sharing agreements with Akoya, MX, and Finicity.
Digital banking and payments solutions company Fiserv has partnered with financial infrastructure fintech Plaid this week. The two have formed a data-sharing agreement that will offer Fiserv’s 3,000 bank and credit union clients API-based connectivity to the 8,000+ applications on Plaid’s network.
The data-sharing agreement, which will leverage Fiserv’s AllData Connect, will ultimately benefit the end consumer. The deal will help consumers who bank with Fiserv clients share their financial information with third-party financial apps and services such as Venmo, Chime, SoFi, and Betterment.
“Our partnership with Plaid allows banks and credit unions to empower consumers to access their financial information beyond the financial institution, while maintaining their trusted role at the center of people’s financial lives,” said Fiserv President of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox. “By facilitating access to a broad range of capabilities and experiences through third-party apps and services we are charting a course towards an open finance ecosystem that prioritizes data privacy, consumer access, and choice.”
Data sharing via API connectivity instead of an alternative such as screen-scraping offers end users a more seamless way to integrate their financial data into third-party platforms. The API connection also provides consumers more security than screen-scraping, a process that requires them to share their bank login credentials with a third party, which may not have the same level of security as a bank. The data sharing will be secure, transparent, and compliant with the anticipated regulatory guidance outlined by Dodd Frank 1033.
FDX Managing Director Don Cardinal called the relationship between Fiserv and Plaid “a leap forward for direct data sharing and great news for the ecosystem.”
Fiserv’s AllData Connect launched in 2020 and is part of the company’s AllData Aggregation product suite, a set of tools that enables credential-free data sharing. AllData Connect validates the consumer with their respective financial institution and issues a token employed by third parties to access and update that consumer’s data via the AllData Connect platform.
Fiserv signed a similar consumer-permissioned data agreement with Akoya in August and has also partnered with MX and Finicity for data sharing.
Fiserv was founded in 1984 and offers solutions that are used in nearly six million merchant locations and almost 10,000 financial institution clients. The company powers 12,000 financial transactions each second. Fiserv is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $68.8 billion.
Plaid helps 12,000+ financial institutions offer their customers access to its network of 8,000+ third party financial services via a suite of APIs that connects consumers, financial institutions, and developers. The company also offers identity verification, balance checks, risk assessment scoring, transaction analytics, and more. Plaid was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Fiserv and Akoya announced a partnership this week.
Fiserv will have API access to consumer data from Akoya’s network of financial organizations.
Akoya will utilize Fiserv’s AllData Connect to access consumer data held at financial institutions.
Digital banking and payments solutions company Fiserv has partnered with consumer-permissioned data company Akoya this week. Under the agreement, the two will facilitate financial data sharing among banks, their end customers, and the third party apps the customers engage with.
Fiserv will have API access to consumer data from Akoya’s network of financial institutions and brokerage firms, while Akoya will utilize Fiserv’s AllData Connect to access consumer data from more than 2,800 financial institutions.
“Fiserv and Akoya are empowering consumers to share their data by creating a broader and more secure data access network,” said Fiserv President of Digital Payments Matt Wilcox. “Direct access to data facilitates more integrated digital experiences for consumers and improves the security of the financial ecosystem.”
Akoya’s APIs can create secure, permissioned access to consumers’ account data across Fiserv’s client base of banks, fintechs, and merchants. This free flow of information across the network can help reduce risk related to account opening, funding, and account-to-account transfers. On the merchant side, consumers can opt to transact using a Pay by Bank option in which consumers link their bank account to the merchant’s wallet or app to make direct payments to the merchant.
Ultimately, the partnership will help consumers choose what financial data from their bank they want to share with third party providers.
“This will help consumers manage exactly who they give their data to and understand how their data will be accessed and used,” said Akoya CEO Paul LaRusso. “100% of Akoya’s traffic to financial institutions goes through APIs. Akoya doesn’t ask for consumers’ passwords, and it doesn’t screen-scrape. All consumers deserve this protection and control.”
In the U.S., where open banking regulations do not exist, partnerships like these are key to empowering consumers with control over their financial data. In addition to helping end customers, this open structure also creates efficiencies by empowering organizations with more data, reduces fraud by eliminating screen scraping, and reduces errors that come with manual data entry.
Founded in 1984, Fiserv’s solutions are used in nearly six million merchant locations and almost 10,000 financial insitution clients. The company powers 12,000 financial transactions each second. Fiserv is listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker FI and has a market capitalization of $73.6 billion.
