Funding

MoEngage Leverages Personalization to Solve the Engagement Challenge for Brands

MoEngage Leverages Personalization to Solve the Engagement Challenge for Brands
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Funding, MoEngage

Insights-led customer engagement platform MoEngage made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 in New York. Three years later, the company returned to the Finovate stage for FinovateEurope 2022 in London. At this year’s conference, MoEngage demonstrated its full-stack solution featuring customer analytics, automated cross-channel engagement, and AI-driven personalization.

“71% of banking customers expect to receive personalized digital offers yet banks fail to do so because they have data silos,” MoEngage Senior Director Saket Toshniwal said during his demo at FinovateEurope in March. “We are here to solve that (problem), leveraging MoEngage.”

Founded in 2014, MoEngage enables hyper-personalization at scale across multiple channels including mobile, email, SMS, web, on-site and in-app messaging, and more. The MoEngage platform leverages AI-powered automation and optimization to enable brands to analyze behavior and serve consumers with personalized communications at every stage of engagement.

“Using MoEngage technology to create effective campaigns based on customers insight will increase your engagement, increase retention, and definitely increase your revenue,” Toshniwal said.

And while MoEngage’s return to the Finovate stage was certainly a big deal for the company, we’re willing to bet that the $77 million raised at the end of May represents an even bigger deal for the San Francisco, California-based firm. The Series E round, led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and B Capital, represents the third round of funding raised by MoEngage in the past year. The company secured $23.5 million in July 2021 and another $30 million in December of that year.

Also participating in the round were existing investors Steadview Capital, Multiples Alternative Asset Management, Eight Roads Ventures, and Matrix Partners India. MoEngage said in a statement that it would use the new capital to deepen its presence in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as fuel its expansion into new markets in Latin America and Australia. The investment also will give MoEngage the ability to pursue strategic acquisitions that would extend the platform’s capabilities and bring greater value to users.

“Our rapid growth and the leadership position is a validation that consumer brands today are moving beyond campaign-centric tools and adopting an insights-led multi-channel approach to customer engagement,” MoEngage CEO and co-founder Raviteja Dodda said when the Series E was announced. “We now have over 1,200 customers in 35 countries and more than 650 employees across our offices in the U.S., U.K., Germany, UAE, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.”

Photo by Rodolfo Clix

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Singapore’s TurnKey Lender Raises $10 Million in New Equity and Debt Funding

Singapore’s TurnKey Lender Raises $10 Million in New Equity and Debt Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Funding, Turnkey Lender

Lending automation platform and decision management solution and services provider TurnKey Lender has secured $10 million in new funding. The amount raised represents a blend of both equity financing and debt. Led by OTB Ventures, the round featured participation from German development finance institution DEG and Vertex Ventures.

TurnKey Lender will use the additional capital to help expand its operations across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia. This will help the company take advantage of the growing embrace of embedded finance, especially embedded lending.

“We are pleased to have raised our latest level of funding and to continue partnering with great investors,” TurnKey Lender CEO and co-founder Dmitry Voronenko said. “This will turbocharge the next stage of growth. We believe that embedded lending will soon be part of any customer relationship globally.”

In addition to its fundraising news, TurnKey Lender announced that it had appointed a new chair for its board of directors, Christian Morales. Morales, who participated in this week’s funding round, brings 40 years of senior experience in leading technology companies. As chair, he will be involved in supporting a wide range of the company’s initiatives in terms of revenue growth, hiring, as well as both strategic and client relationships.

TurnKey Lender offers credit scoring, decision automation, and loan management for non-bank lenders. The company’s cloud-based technology is geared specifically toward small and medium-sized lending operations, enabling them to “compete with big banks without the big investment.” TurnKey Lender’s platform supports all stages of the loan lifecycle – from application processing and automated decision-making to collection and reporting. The solution also can be readily integrated into both internal and external data sources to provide automated data retrieval and processing. TurnKey Lender’s platform is compatible with a wide variety of lending products, including consumer, microfinance, payday, auto, mortgage, SME, and P2P loans.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2016, TurnKey Lender returned to the Finovate stage a year later for FinovateSpring in San Jose, California. In the years since, the company has grown into a leading fintech provider with 180 clients and 50 million end users in more than 50 countries. TurnKey Lender’s customers have enjoyed profitable revenue growth of as much as 50% and net retention rates of 126%. The company was founded in 2014.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Photo by Elle Hughes

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Digital Banking Solutions Provider Apiture Secures $29 Million Investment

Digital Banking Solutions Provider Apiture Secures $29 Million Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Apiture announced an investment of $29 million to help the company meet demand for its digital banking platform. The round was led by Live Oak Bank.
  • The platform, unveiled earlier this year, combined Apiture’s Xpress and Open products into a single, API-based solution.
  • Apiture’s total funding now stands at $69 million.

Digital banking solutions provider Apiture has raised $29 million in new funding in a round led by Live Oak Bank. The company will use the capital to boost sales and marketing, accelerate product development plans, and help meet demand for its flagship solution, the Apiture Digital Banking Platform.

“Our platform is built by bankers, for bankers, which uniquely positions Apiture to deliver best-in-class solutions that help financial institutions of all sizes level the playing field with national brands,” Apiture CEO Chris Babcock said. He added that much of the capital raised in this latest round has “come from investors that are also Apiture clients” and highlighted Live Oak Bank, which led the round, as well as Pinnacle Bank and BHF Financial.

The investment brings Apiture’s total capital raised to $69 million.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, Apiture offers a digital banking platform that is secure, reliable, and core agnostic with more than 40 core integrations. Launched in February of this year, the platform consolidates Apiture’s existing products – Apiture Xpress and Apiture Open – into a singular solution. The platform leverages partnerships with more than 200 fintechs to help banks and credit unions access the technology they need in order to create the kind of digital experiences that are most appropriate for their customers and members. More than 300 banks and credit unions in the U.S. use Apiture’s digital banking platform.

“Financial institutions are keenly aware of the importance of digital channels and the need to elevate the onilne and mobile banking experience for their consumer and business customers,” Live Oak Bank Chief Strategy Officer Stephanie Mann said. “We are thrilled to support Apiture as it accelerates enrichments to its cloud-based, API-first technology platform while scaling to serve a growing number of banks and credit unions.”

This year, Apiture has forged partnerships with Ephrata National Bank and Martha’s Vineyard Bank, both of which will deploy Apiture’s Digital Banking Platform to power both their online and mobile banking solutions. With assets of $1.6 billion, Ephrata National Bank is headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and has served communities in the area since 1881. Martha’s Vineyard Bank, based in Edgartown, Massachusetts, has assets of more than $1.9 billion and operates 10 locations on Martha’s Vineyard and in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

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Berlin Insurtech Wefox Closes $400 Million Funding Round

Berlin Insurtech Wefox Closes $400 Million Funding Round
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Digital insurance agency Wefox raised $400 million in a combined debt and equity round.
  • The funds boost Wefox’s valuation from $3 billion to $4.5 billion.
  • Wefox relies on technology to take a “prediction and prevention” approach, rather than relying on a “repair and replace” mindset.

Digital insurance agency Wefox just raised $400 million in a combined debt and equity round led by Mubadala Investment Company. EDBI, Eurazeo, LGT, Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures, and Target Global also participated. The investment brings Wefox’s total funding to $1.3 billion.

The round boosted Wefox’s valuation from $3 billion to $4.5 billion in 12 months. This increase comes at a time when other fintechs are closing funding in down-rounds, meaning their valuation has decreased.

“This new valuation of $4.5 billion is a clear validation of our business model, which focuses on indirect distribution via agents rather than direct,” said Wefox CEO and Founder Julian Teicke. “This makes our business one of the most credible insurtechs in the market right now.”

According to Teicke, Wefox doubled its revenue, which stood at $320 million last year. Within the first four months of this year, Wefox saw $200+ million in revenues, which positions the company to generate $600 million by the end of this year.

Founded in 2015 and with more than two million customers, Wefox is a licensed digital insurance company that sells insurance through intermediaries, not directly to customers. The company relies on technology to take a “prediction and prevention” approach, rather than relying on a “repair and replace” mindset, which many insurance companies take.

Wefox will use today’s funds for product development and to expand across Europe, Asia, the U.S. The company aims to reach three million customers by year-end.

“Wefox is in the strongest position ever,” said the company’s CFO and Founder Fabian Wesemann.  “In successfully closing this funding round we reinforce our strategy and enable faster acceleration on our path to greater revenues and profit.”

Photo by Erik Mclean

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Black-Owned Fintech Kinly Partners with Data Aggregation and Enhancement Platform MX

Black-Owned Fintech Kinly Partners with Data Aggregation and Enhancement Platform MX
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Diversity in Fintech, Funding
  • Black-founded and run fintech Kinly announced a partnership with open finance company MX.
  • The partnership will bring MX’s financial data aggregation and enhancement solutions to Kinly via the Lehi, Utah-based company’s open finance APIs.
  • MX is a multiple-time, Finovate Best of Show winner. Founded in 2020, Atlanta, Georgia-based Kinly has raised $20 million in funding.

Kinly, a digitally-oriented financial services company dedicated to helping African Americans build generational wealth, has teamed up with financial data aggregation and enhancement solutions platform MX to power its custom-built financial tools.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and founded in 2020 by CEO Donald Hawkins, Kinly leverages financial education, savings and wealth building, and other strategies to help improve financial outcomes. The company offers a deposit account, a Visa debit card, early wage access, overdraft protection up to $100, and cash back rewards for purchases made at participating Black-owned businesses as well as thousands of popular retailers. There are no hidden fees, no minimum balance required, and Kinly customers can also take advantage of fee-free ATM withdrawals nationwide. Deposits are FDIC-insured, and Kinly’s banking services are provided by The Bancorp Bank.

Hawkins praised MX for both its mission and its “passion for diversity.” He added, “I’ve been impressed with MX’s world-class financial data platform for years and look forward to partnering with them. MX’s open finance APIs will help fuel our mission to help serve and improve the financial livelihood of our broad community.”

The partnership with Lehi, Utah-based MX – a multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner – will bring valuable data aggregation and enrichment to Kinly courtesy of MX’s open finance APIs. This connectivity will enable Kinly to quickly and securely link to and verify data for a wide variety of financial use cases ranging from account opening and money movement to underwriting.

“Working closely with Kinly to help provide data enhancement and personalized financial advice for the Black community aligns perfectly with our mission to empower the world to be financially strong,” MX Chief Product Officer Brett Allred said. “We’re big fans of Kinly and the underrepresented community it serves and look forward to its continued growth and ongoing partnership into the future.”

Kinly joins a growing ecosystem of Black and African American-based financial institutions, including Greenwood, CapWay, and Guava. The company has raised a total of $20 million in funding courtesy of a $5 million seed round in November of 2020 and a $15 million Series A round in August of 2021. Forerunner Ventures led Kinly’s Series A, which featured participation from Kapor Capital, Anthemis Group, and Point72 Ventures, as well as from individual investors from the world of professional sports such as Marshawn Lynch and Kevin Durant.

Photo by Elijah O’Donnell

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OpenFin Lands Strategic Investment from ING Ventures

OpenFin Lands Strategic Investment from ING Ventures
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures.
  • The amount of the investment was undisclosed, but adds to the company’s $47 million raised since 2010.
  • ING is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy.

Enterprise productivity company OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures this week. The amount of the investment was undisclosed. The New York-based company plans to use the funds to expand what it calls “the operating system (OS) of enterprise productivity,” or OpenFin OS.

OpenFin OS helps financial services organizations power internal and customer-facing digital experiences. OpenFin counts more than 2,400 banks, wealth management firms in 60+ countries as OpenFin OS users. Clients include 23 of top 25 global banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and more. OpenFin is aiming to expand the OpenFin OS “to every user within financial services.”

Today’s investor, ING, is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy. As a result of the implementation, ING employees can access intuitive workspace management and automated workflows, and as a result increase their productivity. 

“Our investment in OpenFin further validates our determination and commitment to digital transformation and innovation,” said ING Ventures Co-Head Frederic Hofmann. “We are excited to partner with OpenFin as they have proven to be the best in class app platform in this space, transforming distribution and significantly enhancing end-user productivity across the finance industry.”

The amount of today’s funding round was undisclosed, and so was the amount of OpenFin’s most recent round it received in December 2020. Despite this, we know that today’s investment brings the company’s total raised to north of $47 million since it was founded in 2010. That’s the amount of the previous eight investments OpenFin received from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Barclays, CME Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, NYCA Partners, Pivot Investment Partners, SC Ventures, and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.

Last April, OpenFin launched Workspace, a tool to help business users consolidate and automate their work across applications and tasks using a single interface. Since then, the company was awarded the “Best Workplace for Change and Transformation” by Harrington Starr.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Location Identity Leader Incognia Secures $15.5 Million to Help Fight Identity Fraud

Location Identity Leader Incognia Secures $15.5 Million to Help Fight Identity Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Incognia
  • Mobile fraud prevention specialist Incognia, which made its Finovate debut in May at FinovateSpring, has raised $15.5 million in Series A funding.
  • The capital will be used to help fuel the company’s growth; Incognia currently has 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries worldwide.
  • Incognia leverages location and motion sensors to create a unique “location footprint” for trusted users that rivals other authentication methods in accuracy.

In a round led by Point72 Ventures, mobile identity company Incognia has secured $15.5 million in Series A funding to help fight identity fraud. The investment will help fuel the Palo Alto, California-based company’s continued growth, building on the 200 million mobile users in more than 20 countries currently protected by Incognia’s technology.

“Today’s authentication and fraud detection solutions aren’t working for the user, or for businesses, and the market is looking for more innovative technologies,” Incognia founder and CEO André Ferraz said. “Incognia is pushing the frontier of identity assurance and authentication to deliver increased security with minimal user friction.”

Incognia leverages location signals and motion sensors on an individual’s mobile device to help combat identity fraud. The technology creates a privacy-first location identity that is unique to each user and acts like a “location fingerprint” that effectively differentiates trusted users from fraudulent ones. The company says that its solution, which can be deployed in industries ranging from fintech and crypto to gaming and social media, is 10x more accurate than FaceID in terms of uniquely identifying users. Further, Incognia notes that the technology has a false acceptance rate of less than 1 in 17 million.

“We’re emerging as the global location identity leader, effectively combating the increasing fraud on mobile around the world,” Ferraz added. “We’re dedicated to enabling our customers to deliver frictionless mobile experiences without compromising security and privacy.”

Incognia made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in May. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its frictionless fraud prevention solution for mobile apps combats identity fraud without bringing additional friction to the authentication process. The technology’s zero-factor authentication requires no action from the user in order to provide a highly accurate risk assessment with low false acceptance rates.

Founded in 2020, Incognia also recently introduced its new location-based liveness spoofing detection solution module. The offering prevents biometric liveness spoofing during the onboarding process. This particular form of fraud is often used by cybercriminals to create “money mule” accounts for money laundering – as innovative fraudsters have turned to liveness spoofing to get around selfie-based liveness detection algorithms. The challenge of liveness spoofing has become even greater with the availability of cheap – or even free – deepfake video technology. Incognia’s location-based liveness spoofing detection module is designed to prevent these deepfake attacks in real-time.

“As fraudsters advance their techniques to trick liveness detection tools, it is critical that there is a solution on the market that can successfully combat the use of deepfakes at onboarding,” Ferraz said.

Photo by Pixabay

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Payments Solution Provider SumUp Raises $624 Million at a Valuation of $8.5 Billion

Payments Solution Provider SumUp Raises $624 Million at a Valuation of $8.5 Billion
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, SumUp
  • E-commerce payments enabler SumUp raised $624 million (€590 million) in a combination of equity and debt financing this week.
  • The funding round was led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities.
  • This week’s investment gives SumUp a valuation of $8.5 billion (€8 billion).

In a round led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities – and featuring participation from funds managed by BlackRock, btov Partners, Centerbridge, Crestline, Fin Capital, and Sentinel Dome Partners – e-commerce payments innovator SumUp has secured an investment of $624 million (€590 million). The funding gives the London-based company a valuation of $8.5 billion (€8 billion). SumUp co-founder Marc-Alexander Christ said in a statement that the capital will “enable us to continue to build out our product ecosystem, expand into new markets, (and) pursue value-adding acquisitions.”

The funding was a 50/50 mix of debt and equity and includes SumUp’s first equity infusion since 2017. The company’s total funding stands at $1.6 billion – most of which is debt financing. SumUp secured €750 million in debt funding in 2021.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Christ called the company’s new valuation “true and fair”. This statement comes months after it was reported that SumUp was seeking an investment that would give the company a significantly higher valuation – to the tune of $21 billion (€20 billion). Christ suggested that the current valuation reflects “the price people put on the company in the worst of markets” and that SumUp’s valuation was unlikely to move any lower in the future.

SumUp won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2013 in London. In the years since, the company has grown to serve more than four million businesses with its payment solutions that range from card readers and point of sale solutions to business accounts and invoicing. The company began this year teaming up with Worldpay from FIS to support its global expansion efforts. SumUp will use Worldpay’s global acquiring services, including authorization, clearing and settlement, dispute management and data insights.

Also this year, SumUp announced a referral deal with Latin American and European e-commerce platform PrestaShop. The partnership gave “hundreds of thousands” of merchants on the PrestaShop platform access to SumUp’s product suite of payment solutions and business tools. Nearly 300,000 websites rely on PrestaShop’s technology, and the company sees its collaboration with SumUp as part of its strategy to enable more merchants to launch and scale their businesses.

“By partnering with PrestaShop, we will continue to expand our support for digital transformation of small businesses, by ensuring their products and services are also available online for their customers,” SumUp Head of Sales and Partnerships James Henry said. “Our partnership will enable merchants with a seamless and secure payment experience for all major credit and debit cards, an important tool in enabling small business success in today’s environment.”

Founded in 2012, SumUp is headquartered in London. Daniel Klein is founder and CEO.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin

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Autobooks Lands $50 Million in Funding to Boost Bank Distribution

Autobooks Lands $50 Million in Funding to Boost Bank Distribution
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Autobooks, Daily news, Funding
  • Autobooks has received $50 million in a Series C funding round led by Macquarie Capital.
  • The investment more than doubles Autobooks’ total funding raised, boosting it to $98 million.
  • Autobooks won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2021.

Payment and accounting platform Autobooks raked in $50 million in a Series C round led by Macquarie Capital with additional support from new and existing investors Baird Capital, Commerce Ventures, Draper Triangle, MissionOG, and TD Bank. The investment more than doubles the Michigan-based company’s total raised, boosting that figure to $98 million.

Autobooks plans to use today’s funding to accelerate distribution into the U.S. banking market.

Autobooks serves more than 60,000 small businesses with a range of tools including digital payment acceptance, online invoicing, online enrollment, accounting, bookkeeping, financial reporting, billpay, and more. The company’s embedded receivables platform for small businesses enables digital invoices, payment acceptance, and automated accounting directly within their mobile banking suite.

To facilitate this, Autobooks integrates its tools with a range of digital banking providers, making its services available to over one third of the U.S. market. Companies that offer Autobooks’ invoicing and payment acceptance tools to their small business clients include Alkami, Bottomline, CSI, FIS, Jack Henry, NCR, and Q2.

In addition to helping small businesses, Autobooks also has the potential to benefit banks. TD Online Accounting, which is a whitelabeled version of Autobooks’ technology, has seen deposits from its 700+ small business clients increase 65%. Simultaneously, the firm has experienced a 2x increase in product usage.

“Businesses are increasingly looking for simple, bundled solutions to get paid and automate their back-office. If the bank can’t offer these services quickly, businesses will (and have) gone elsewhere,” said Autobooks Cofounder and CEO Steve Robert. “To maintain primacy, banks must optimize legacy merchant service programs to include digital payment acceptance tools that feature self-service onboarding. Autobooks makes this possible through our payment facilitation (payfac) model, which can be enabled within days by industry leading partners.”

Autobooks averages more than 10,000 monthly enrollments and has surpassed $40 billion in transaction volume. From 2021 to 2022, the company has experienced 5x revenue growth, 3x employee growth, and 6.5x bank partner growth. Autobooks won Best of Show for its demo at FinovateFall 2021.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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Pure IT Credit Union Services Receives $6.8 Million in Funding to Help CUs Leverage Technology to Compete, Serve Members

Pure IT Credit Union Services Receives $6.8 Million in Funding to Help CUs Leverage Technology to Compete, Serve Members
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • CUSO Pure IT Credit Union Services received an investment of $6.8 million this week from a group of credit unions.
  • The funding will be used to help expand Pure IT’s ability to help credit unions leverage technology to compete with other financial institutions and to better serve their members.
  • The investment comes a few months after Pure IT announced an acquisition of Purity Technology.

Technology-based credit union service organization (CUSO) Pure IT Credit Union Services announced an investment of $6.8 million. The funding came from a coalition of seven credit unions – including Lone Star CU, Union Square CU, DEXSTA CU, People’s Trust CU, Linn Area CU, Ardent CU, and fellow CUSO Envisant.

“What bigger compliment can you have than your own clients investing in your,” Pure IT Credit Union Services co-founder and CEO Jack Smith said. He added that it was part of Pure IT’s mission to “help the industry achieve maturation and evolution to stay relevant and serve even more members.”

The new funding will be used to expand Pure IT’s work in helping credit unions leverage technology to compete for, and better serve, more members.

Headquartered in Texas, Pure IT Credit Services was founded in 2016. Formed initially as a partnership between a credit union and a collection of technology services professionals, the company has grown into a credit union IT services and consulting firm that helps assess a credit union’s IT environment, enabling its clients to focus on business strategy, operations, and serving their members.

Earlier this year, Pure IT Credit Services acquired Texas-based IT services company Purity Technology. The purchase will enable Pure IT to deliver more secure, “modern mobility services” to a greater number of credit unions

“(Purity’s technology) helps smaller institutions and mid-sized institutions that don’t have IT people or don’t have full-time IT resources or are thinking about using ‘Mom and Pop’ down the street for their IT support ” Smith said in an interview with CU Broadcast host Mike Lawson. “This gets them secure and compliant … ‘Mom and Pop’ aren’t going to know what a financial institution needs … (Purity) is a built-in, support service that actually solves that issue for a lot of (different sized) credit unions that don’t have that sophistication internally.”

Photo by Pixabay

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Voice Verification Solution Provider Illuma Labs Secures Investment from NYCUA and UsNet

Voice Verification Solution Provider Illuma Labs Secures Investment from NYCUA and UsNet
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Illuma Labs
  • Illuma Labs, maker of the Illuma Shield voice verification platform, raised new funding this week from NYCUA and UsNet.
  • The amount of the investment was not disclosed. The funding comes one year after Illuma Labs secured $2.5 million in funding from the Curql Fund.
  • This week’s funding comes one month after the company partnered with Posh Technologies to win the “Next Big Thing” award from NACUSO (National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations) and Co-Op Solutions.

Voice authentication innovator llluma Labs secured new funding this week. The company announced that the New York Credit Union Association (NYCUA) and its affiliate UsNet, have teamed up to invest in the Plano, Texas-based company and support further development of its flagship Illuma Shield voice verification solution.

The amount of the investment was not disclosed. The company raised $2.5 million in funding from the Curql Fund just over a year ago

A Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO), Illuma Labs considers credit unions to be its key customers, investors, and partners. The company’s Illuma Shield technology enables call centers to leverage passive voice authentication to improve the user experience, guard against fraudsters, and boost operational efficiency by reducing call handle times, hold times, and abandon rates. A cost-effective, easy to deploy, and simple to use solution for mid-size financial institution call centers, Illuma Shield analyzes the unique aspects of a speaker’s voice and their communication device to create an AudioPrint that can be used to verify identity on subsequent calls. The AudioPrint process happens in the background, during normal conversation, without requiring the speaker to answer security questions or recite passphrases.

“This technology uses state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Voice Biometrics to address three of the top concerns for credit unions today,” Illuma Shield founder and CEO Milind Borkar said. “The platform improves member experience by emulating the warm welcome of a brick-and-mortar visit while offering a very high level of protection against account takeovers. Cutting out the security Q&A process also creates operational efficiency by shortening call times. The infusion of investment from NYCUA and UsNet is highly valued since it helps us expand to serve even more credit unions.”

A Finovate alum since 2019, Illuma Labs announced a partnership with SCE Credit Union, a $1 billion institution with more than 60,000 members in Southern California and Southern Nevada, in May. Also that month, Illuma Labs and Posh Technologies collaborated to win the “Next Big Idea” award from NACUSO and Co-Op Solutions. The partnership combined the passive voice authentication of Illuma Labs’ Illuma Shield and Posh Technologies’ conversational AI IVR to help call centers cope with high call volume and talent shortages.

“Posh’s conversational AI and Illuma’s voice biometrics is a combination that makes sense,” Posh co-founder Karan Kashyap said. “As we do our parts as CUSOs to bring transformative technology to the credit union market, our partnership will enhance member security for credit unions while offering a streamlined authentication experience for the caller – a win-win. We look forward to a bright future with Illuma Labs.”

Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán

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Backbase Secures $128 Million Investment from Motive Partners

Backbase Secures $128 Million Investment from Motive Partners
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Daily news, Funding
  • Backbase raised $128 million (€120 million) in growth equity funding this week.
  • The round was led by private equity firm Motive Partners, and gave the company a valuation of $2.6 billion (€2.5 billion).
  • Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform enables banks and credit unions to leverage a cloud-based platform to offer bank customers seamless digital experiences.

Engagement banking platform Backbase secured $128 million (€120 million) in growth equity funding from private equity firm Motive Partners. The investment gives the company, which made its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2021, a valuation of $2.6 billion (€2.5 billion). The funding also marks Backbase’s first-ever funding event since its founding in 2003.

“Today is a major milestone for more than 2,000 Backbasers and 150 customers around the world, to celebrate the incredible progress we made,” Backbase founder and CEO Jouk Pleiter said in a statement. “With this partnership, we’re even better equipped to drive our Engagement Banking vision to the next level.”

The investment from the “founder-friendly” firm will enable Backbase to commit more resources to its Engagement Banking solution, helping power the company’s mission to “re-architect” banking in a customer-focused way. Backbase’s technology gives banks and credit unions the ability to move away from disconnected, point and channel solutions. Instead, with Backbase’s cloud-based platform, financial institutions can build frictionless customer journeys across all stages of the customer lifecycle from onboarding and servicing to lending and expanding wallet share.

With more than 150 financial institutions around the world using its technology, Backbase gives banks and credit unions the ability to quickly digitize and transform their customer-facing operations to meet the expectations of increasingly digitally-savvy banking customers. At its most recent Finovate appearance last fall, Backbase demonstrated a customer onboarding solution that consolidated a customer’s finances via direct deposit, billl pay auto linking, and debit card account opening. The technology showed how financial institutions can get key insights into their customers and empower them to take more control over their financial lives.

“Backbase’s proven track record of entrepreneurship and organic growth will continue,” Jouk said. “Our formula is simple: focus on the needs of our customers and empower highly skilled teams to deliver. We’re changing a big industry, which is hard work. Having critical mass and market momentum allows us to stay laser-focused. Together we’re making it happen.”

Founded in 2003, three-time Finovate Best of Show winner Backbase maintains a global headquarters in Amsterdam.

Photo by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS

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