Horizn

Showcasing Finovate Alums in Celebration of Financial Literacy Month

Showcasing Finovate Alums in Celebration of Financial Literacy Month
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Cashy, Debbie, Doshi App, HappyNest, Horizn, Plinqit, Zeed

April is Financial Literacy Month. And while we are all getting an intensive course in trade policy these days, a few hours spent shoring up financial literacy (including how to handle market downturns!) is always time well spent.

With this in mind, today we showcase Finovate alums in recent years that have made financial literacy a key part of their mission when it comes to building new fintech solutions.

Cashy

  • Founded in 2021
  • Headquartered in Tampa, Florida
  • Mart Vainu is CEO
  • Last demoed at FinovateFall 2023
  • Offers an interactive financial game with personalized rewards from financial institutions

Debbie

  • Founded in 2021
  • Headquartered in Miami, Florida
  • Frida Leibowitz is CEO
  • Last demoed at FinovateFall 2023
  • Two-time Best of Show winner
  • The Noom for debt payoff, Debbie’s solution leverages behavioral psychology and positive reinforcement to incentivize borrowers to pay down debt

Doshi App

  • Founded in 2021
  • Headquartered in London, England
  • Daniel Rose is CEO
  • Last demoed at FinovateEurope 2025
  • Offers a plug-and-play solution that enables banks to integrate embedded financial learning into their apps and platforms

HappyNest

Horizn

  • Headquartered in Toronto, Canada
  • Founded in 2012
  • Last demoed at FinovateSpring 2023
  • Five-time Best of Show winner
  • Offers self-learning and interactive gamified digital experiences for financial services customers and frontline workers
  • Acquired by US conversational AI firm Inbenta in 2023

Plinqit

Zeed

To learn more about Finovate alums innovating in the area of financial literacy before 2023, check out our previous Financial Literacy content, including Best of Show winners that are innovating in this space!

Photo by Pixabay

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Customer Experience Specialist Inbenta Acquires Digital Adoption Platform Horizn

Customer Experience Specialist Inbenta Acquires Digital Adoption Platform Horizn
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Horizn, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • AI-powered customer experience specialist Inbenta has acquired digital adoption platform Horizn.
  • Inbenta will integrate Horizn’s embeddable interactive product demos into its platform.
  • Horizn has won Finovate’s Best of Show award five times, most recently at FinovateFall last September.

AI-powered customer experience platform Inbenta has acquired digital adoption platform Horizn. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Inbenta CEO Melissa Solis referred to the acquisition as part of the company’s commitment to helping businesses lower customer service costs, grow sales, and enhance the customer experience in general. Inbenta’s platform leverages natural language processing, neuro-symbolic AI, and Generative AI across four digital communications modules – Chatbot, Knowledge, Search, and Messenger. These modules enable the platform to deliver comprehensive, configurable solutions for businesses in verticals from financial services and ecommerce to telecom and utilities.

The integration of Horizn’s technology, in particular the company’s embeddable interactive product demos, will enhance Inbenta’s platform in a number of ways. In addition to making employee training more effective and further enhancing the customer experience, the integration will also help reduce agent escalation. Horizn’s technology has reduced agent escalations in favor of self-service in 80% of cases.

“Everyone knows how helpful and time-saving a tutorial can be when presented in an easy to understand, visual format,” Solis said. “At Inbenta, customer experience is at the center of everything we do – it was only natural that product demo capabilities should be included within our customer experience platform.”

Founded in 2012, Horizn has partnered with more than 40 financial institutions around the world. This includes some of the largest banks like Wells Fargo and RBC, as well as regional and community banks. A Finovate alum since 2017, Horizn has won Best of Show on five different occasions. The Toronto, Canada-based company most recently took home top honors with its demo at FinovateFall last September.

“By acquiring Horizn, Inbenta has expanded the number of customer experience touchpoints that it can offer, setting itself apart from the industry’s text-reliant majority,” Horizn co-founder and CEO Janice Diner said. “The entire Horizn team is excited about this next stage of impact and innovation and looks forward to integrating itself into Inbenta’s leading customer experience platform.”

Post-acquisition, Diner will take a new position as Inbenta’s Head of Marketing.

Photo by Scott Webb

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FinovateFall Best of Show Winners: Fundraising, Acquisitions, New Partnerships, and More!

FinovateFall Best of Show Winners: Fundraising, Acquisitions, New Partnerships, and More!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Debbie, FinovateFall 2023, Horizn, LemonadeLXP, Quilo, Stratifyd, Themis

The only thing more exciting than being chosen to demo your latest innovation at a Finovate conference is winning the accolades our attendees and taking home a Best of Show award. With FinovateFall right around the corner, we wanted to take a look at the companies that won Best of Show at last year’s event and give you the latest on what they’ve been up to in the year since.

Remember that early bird savings for FinovateFall – September 11 through 13 – end this weekend! Visit our FinovateFall registration hub and save your spot today!

Debbie

  • HQ: Miami, Florida, U.S.
  • Founded: 2021
  • CEO: Frida Leibowitz
Left to right: Frida Leibowitz, CEO | Rachel Lauren, COO

Demoed its technology that leverages behavioral psychology and rewards to help users pay off debt faster. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Secured seed funding from Geek Ventures.

Horizn

  • HQ: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  • Founded: 2012
  • CEO: Janice Diner
Left to right: Horizn’s Colm Bermingham, Sr. Director Sales | Steve Frook, CRO

Demoed its platform that helps financial institutions maximize their investments in digital technology. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Acquired by conversational AI company Inbenta.

LemonadeLXP

  • HQ: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
  • Founded: 2021
  • CEO: John Findlay
 Lemonade CEO John Findlay

Demoed its digital growth platform that helps financial institutions and fintechs turn staff into digital customer service experts. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Partnered with Newburyport Bank to facilitate staff and customer transition to digital banking.

Quilo

  • HQ: New York City, New York, U.S.
  • Founded: 2020
  • CEO: Boris Fuzayloff
Left to right: Don Shafer, Co-founder & Chief Evangelist | Boris Fuzayloff, Co-founder & CEO

Demoed its technology that empowers lenders to syndicate individual personal loans at the time of underwriting. Demo video.

Latest update

Stratyfy

  • HQ: New York City, New York, U.S.
  • Founded: 2017
  • CEO: Laura Kornhauser
Left to right: Dmitry Lesnik, Chief Data Scientist | Laura Kornhauser, CEO and Co-Founder

Demoed its technology that helps FIs leverage AI-based decision making to boost access to financial services. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Teamed up with Beneficial State Foundation to help combat racial disparities in lending.

Themis

  • HQ: New York City, New York, U.S.
  • Founded: 2021
  • CEO: Neepa Patel
Themis’ Founder and CEO Neepa Patel

Demoed its collaboration platform to help support and encourage partnerships between banks and fintechs. Demo video.

Latest update

  • Named a finalist in multiple categories including “Startup of the Year” by the U.S. Fintech Awards.

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Finovate Global: Showcasing International Alums at FinovateSpring

Finovate Global: Showcasing International Alums at FinovateSpring
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 9Spokes, Finovate Global, FinTech Insights by Scientia, FINTEQ & Smart Faktor, Flybits, Fundica, Horizn, Hyperswitch, Kani Payments, Lucinity, Nubank, PayTic, SESAMm

With FinovateSpring only days away (May 23 through May 25), this week’s edition of Finovate Global will showcase those innovators demoing at the event that are headquartered outside the United States.

There’s still time to register and join us in San Francisco, California for our annual Spring fintech conference. Visit our FinovateSpring 2023 hub today and get your ticket today!

9Spokes

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in New Zealand, 9Spokes unlocks open banking and data, giving financial institutions a powerful set of tools to engage SMB customers. LinkedIn.

FinTech Insights by Scientia

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in London, U.K., FinTech Insights by Scientia offers a competitive analysis tool for banks and fintechs to help them create compelling digital banking experiences. LinkedIn.

FINTEQ

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Poland, FINTEQ removes credit risk from the supply chain, giving suppliers a healthy and sustainable trade finance alternative. LinkedIn.

Flybits

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Flybits offers a personalization platform that enables financial institutions to deliver best-in-class personalized digital banking experiences. LinkedIn.

Fundica

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Fundica is a government funding platform used by some of the largest financial institutions in North America to acquire clients at scale. LinkedIn.

Horizn

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Horizn helps financial institutions maximize the impact of digital and accelerate returns on digital investments with customers and employees. LinkedIn.

HyperSwitch

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in India, HyperSwitch is an open source payments switch designed to make payments fast, reliable, and affordable. LinkedIn.

Kani

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Newcastle, U.K., Kani offers end-to-end reconciliation and reporting, automating the back office for payments companies and fintechs, and ensuring accuracy and compliance. LinkedIn.

Lucinity

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland, Lucinity combats financial crime with innovative GenAI technology for smarter and faster FinCrime compliance. LinkedIn.

PayTic

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Charlottetown, Canada, PayTic is a SaaS platform that automates and manages all key aspects of program management: network fees, reconciliation, reporting, and fraud. LinkedIn.

SESAMm

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Metz, France, SESAMm specializes in big data and artificial intelligence, providing analytics from more than 20 billion articles and messages using NLP. LinkedIn.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

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FinovateFall 2022 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateFall 2022 Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Best of Show, Debbie, FinovateFall 2022, Horizn, LemonadeLXP, Quilo, Stratyfy, Themis

With hundreds of ballots officially cast and carefully counted – here are the winners of Best of Show for FinovateFall 2022!

Debbie for its technology that leverages behavioral psychology and rewards to help users pay off 3x more debt and help lenders recession-proof members. Demo.

Horizn for its platform that helps financial institutions maximize the impact of digital and accelerate returns on digital investments with customers and employees. Demo.

LemonadeLXP for its digital growth platform that helps financial institutions and fintechs turn staff into digital experts and support digital customers. Demo.

Quilo for its technology that empowers lenders to digitally syndicate an individual personal loan at the time of underwriting, enabling them to provide more loans to more people. Demo.

Stratyfy for its technology that increases access to financial services by bringing true transparency and less risk to critical financial decisions that impact millions. Demo.

Themis for its collaboration platform designed for risk and compliance requirements to help accelerate partnerships between banks and fintechs. Demo.

We are grateful to all of our demoing companies for being a part of our biggest FinovateFall to date. Thanks as well to our sponsors, our partners, and – last but not least – our awesome attendees who continue to make our conferences among the most anticipated events on the fintech calendar each and every year. We look forward to seeing you again next fall!

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their six favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2022 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022
FinovateSpring 2022

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Best of Show: Catching Up with the Favorites of FinovateFall

Best of Show: Catching Up with the Favorites of FinovateFall
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Array, Autobooks, Bambu, Dreams, FinovateFall 2021, FinovateFall 2022, Horizn, InfoCorp, Long Game, Ocrolus, PwC

These nine fintechs wowed our FinovateFall audiences last year with their innovations in embedded finance, payments, wealth management, and more. To whet your appetite for FinovateFall next month, September 12 through 14, here’s a look at what our FinovateFall 2021 Best of Show companies have been up to since taking home Finovate’s top prize last fall.

FinovateFall 2022 is only two weeks away. Register by September 2nd and take advantage of big early-bird savings!

Array

Won Best of Show for its API-based and embedded personalized consumer credit, identity, and financial wellness solutions. Headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2020.

Forged partnerships with fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry Associates and Alkami Technology. Won a second Best of Show award at FinovateSpring 2022.

Autobooks

Won Best of Show for its small business digital invoicing and online payment acceptance solutions. Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 2017.

Raised $50 million in funding. Named a finalist in the Best SMB/SME Banking Solution category in the 2022 Finovate awards.

Bambu

Won Best of Show for its technology designed to help financial institutions provide wealth management services. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateAsia 2017 in Hong Kong and at FinovateAfrica 2018 in Cape Town. Founded in 2016. Headquartered in Singapore.

Launched docuseries, Behind the Robo. Named a major player in the robo-advisory market by The Business Research Company. Worked with Standard Chartered Bank Kenya to help them launch their new money market fund offering.

Dreams

Won Best of Show for its engagement banking platform that offers a unique way to engage customers and responsibly expand revenues. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2021. Founded in 2014. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden.

Awarded Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022. Partnered with fellow Finovate alum Mastercard to deliver sustainable banking products for financial institutions. Named to The Fintech 250.

Horizn

Won Best of Show for its platform that helps banks accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateFall Digital 2020 and FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada. Founded in 2011.

Partnered with fellow Finovate alum ebankIT to support financial institutions undergoing digital transformation. Powered the new digital learning platform launched by Pacific Western Bank. Awarded Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2022.

Infocorp

Won Best of Show for its Mobile Native app that brings hyper-personalized experiences for every user in one single bank app. Founded in 1994. Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Partnered with TESOBE to help banks in Latin America leverage open banking to build better, more customer-centric apps and services.

Long Game

Won Best of Show for its gamified finance app that helps banks acquire new customers and increase engagement with their Millennial and Gen Z customers. Headquartered in San Francisco, California. Founded in 2015.

Acquired by Truist Financial.

Ocrolus

Won Best of Show for its intelligent automation technology that transforms documents into data analytics, helping lenders make timely, high quality credit decisions. Founded in 2014. Headquartered in New York City.

Raised $80 million at a valuation of $500 million. Partnered with fellow Finovate alum Blend to bring automation to the mortgage process.

PwC

Won Best of Show for its Customer Link solution that turns customer data into smarter action and provides a 360 degree view of your customers. Founded in 1845. Headquartered in New York City.

In partnership with Microsoft, teamed up with Finovate alum FintechOS to build a digital banking solution.

Who will take home the trophies this year at FinovateFall 2022? Join us in New York next month as we showcase upwards of 60 innovative fintech companies – all vying for the title of Best of Show.

Photo by Wendy Wei

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Best of Show: The Finovate Podcast’s Greg Palmer Chats with the Faves from FinovateSpring

Best of Show: The Finovate Podcast’s Greg Palmer Chats with the Faves from FinovateSpring
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Array, Best of Show, FinGoal, FinovateSpring 2022, Horizn, Keep Financial Technology, Podcasting, QuickFi, Spave

Join Finovate VP and Host of the Finovate Podcast Greg Palmer as he shares his video conversations with companies that earned Best of Show honors at FinovateSpring in May.

Greg Palmer talks with Rob Frohwein, co-founder of Keep Financial, which won Best of Show honors at FinovateSpring 2022. Demo video.

“What Keep does is it enables employers to implement what we call ‘investing cash plans’ which is a new compensation technique that enables an employer to issue what’s essentially a retention bonus, but that cash is provided on the front end of some period of time … There’s an ongoing obligation of the employee to stick around the company for whatever the vesting period is and, once they hit that vesting period or vesting periods along the way, that portion, or all of the debt that they owe for getting that retention bonus up front, disappears.”

Greg Palmer chats with Susan Sarensen Langer, CEO of Spave, which won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2022. Demo video.

“Spave is all about helping realize financial wholeness and more balance in their life. You can think of Spave as a number of apps altogether. It’s Mint. It’s Acorns. It’s Digit. It’s United Way. It’s Venmo. All in one. We want people to be able to use their spending, so Spave is all based on people’s spending … (That) spending ignites micro amounts that we call “spavings”. So you can either round up spare change, you can apply a percent, you can spave now and do a one-time donation or one-time savings (set-aside) … We’re helping people decide how they’re going to save for their future, give to the causes that they care about and live a more balanced whole life.”

Greg Palmer interviews Nathan Gibbons, Chief Operating Officer at QuickFi, one of the companies that won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2022. Demo video.

“QuickFi is a business financing platform that really is meant to serve banks and manufacturers. It enables them to offer their business customers a secure, completely digital way of applying for an consummating lower rate term loans in a matter of minutes instead of days or weeks. (This is) because the platform is 100% digital and self-service. It really allows banks and manufacturers to close more loans and more sales faster and much more cost-effectively.”

Greg Palmer talks with Leigh Gross, SVP of Sales and Revenue with Array. FinovateSpring 2022 Best of Show winner. Demo video.

“We’re an innovation platform that helps banks, credit unions, and other fintechs offer cutting-edge financial tools to their customers. For example, we offer credit and identity protection solutions, personal privacy components that we allow our partners to easily embed within their experience so they can offer these services directly to their customers.”

Greg Palmer chats with Ariam Sium, VP of Product with Fingoal. FinovateSpring 2022 Best of Show winner. Demo video.

“We build insights and data infrastructure for financial institutions. The fintech space has a lot left to be desired when it comes to serving actual human beings. And that’s really where (Fingoal) shines. When it comes to our insights, it’s the personalization that actually makes them worth anything. And when it comes to our technical solutions for our clients … at the end of the day we’re improving the overall user experience. It’s also nice that it happens to save the financial institutions money and time.”

Greg Palmer catches up with Janice Diner, CEO, and Steve Frook, SVP of Global Sales with Horizn, which won Best of Show honors at FinovateSpring 2022. Demo video.

“We solve quite a few business problems (for financial institutions). But the three that Steve probably will talk about a little later is reduce the cost to serve digital customers, increase the number of fully-digital customers, drive mass adoption of new products and features. We do this by educating both customers and employees across the full bank ecosystem: retail banking, business banking, wealth management, insurance, just to name a few.”

Stay tuned for more videos from Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast’s Conversations with Best of Show winners.

Photo by Abet Llacer

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FinovateSpring 2022 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateSpring 2022 Best of Show Winners Announced
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Array, Best of Show, FinGoal, FinovateEurope 2022, Horizn, Keep Financial Technology, QuickFi, Spave

The votes have been cast and counted! Meet the winners of Best of Show for FinovateSpring 2022:

Array for its financial enablement platform, specializing in embeddable tools and white label solutions, used by leading financial institutions. Demo.

FinGoal for its insights platform that cleans, enriches, and analyzes personal financial data to better understand users and provide actionable insights. Demo.

Horizn for its platform that helps banks globally accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption with both customers and employees. Demo.

Keep Financial Technology for its innovation that solves the hiring and retention challenges of companies by introducing a new form of employee compensation called Cash Vesting Plans. Demo.

QuickFi for its 100% digital, self-service, mobile equipment financing platform that enables business equipment financing in minutes. Demo.

Spave for its all-in-one financial wholeness app that allows users to effortlessly save and give as they spend. Demo.

Our thanks to all of our demoing companies, our sponsors, our partners, and – of course – our attendees – for continuing to make FinovateSpring such a success. Thank you for being a part of our annual spring fintech conference. We’ll see you again next year!

Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2022 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022

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FinovateSpring 2022 Sneak Peek: Horizn

FinovateSpring 2022 Sneak Peek: Horizn
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2022, FinovateSpring 2022 Sneak Peek, Horizn

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.

Horizn’s award-winning platform helps banks globally accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption with both customers and employees.

Features

  • Overachieve digital banking customer growth objectives
  • Call center and branch efficiency and profitability through digital
  • Support ongoing agile product/feature launches

Why it’s great

Using Horizn, banks experience a more than 300% increase in product/feature launch effectiveness and success, 20% reduction in volume of digital banking support calls, and 45 second reduction in support call time (average).

Presenter

Steve Frook, SVP of Sales
As SVP of Sales at Horizn, Frook works closely with financial institutions to significantly increase adoption and awareness of new and existing innovations.
LinkedIn

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Finovate Best of Show Winners Champion Financial Literacy

Finovate Best of Show Winners Champion Financial Literacy
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Banzai, FamZoo, Horizn, Kasasa, Launchfire, List series, Long Game, Zogo Finance

We recently took a look at Finovate alums that have put financial literacy at the top of their agendas. We also noted that our baker’s dozen of alums had more than its share of Best of Show winners. More than half of those alums featured won top honors from our Finovate audiences at least once.

Today, as we near the end of our Financial Literacy Month commemoration, we’re highlighting those Best of Show winning fintech innovators and the work they do in making financial education available to a broadening range of communities.

Provo, Utah-based Banzai made its one-and-only Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2018 in New York. At the event, the company won Best of Show for its offering that helps banks and credit unions boost customer engagement and ROI while providing financial education for their customers and members.

FamZoo demoed its technology on the Finovate stage twice – in 2011 and again in 2013 – winning Best of Show on both occasions. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California and founded in 2006, the two-time Best of Show winner offers a prepaid card and financial education for kids in a single family finance app.

When it comes to financial literacy, companies like Horizn help the financial services community help itself. Making its Finovate debut in 2017, Horizn earned a pair of Best of Show awards in its two most recent appearances in 2020 and 2021. The company offers a platform that helps financial institutions accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption for both customers and employees. Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Horizn was founded in 2011.

Not many companies can boast of winning a Finovate Best of Show award in two different decades, but Kasasa (formerly known as BancVue) has done that and then some. The financial and marketing technology provider, based in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2004, won Best of Show in its Finovate debut in 2009. Nearly ten years later, the company picked up its third Best of Show award at FinovateSpring in 2018 (Kasasa also won Best of Show in 2011 in San Francisco). In addition to offering a variety of innovative fintech products – such as its “take-back loan” – Kasasa also launched an online game called MoneyIsland that helps instruct kids on the importance of sound money management.

One of two Best of Show winning Canadian companies with a commitment to financial literacy, Ottawa, Ontario-based Launchfire won Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2019 in its second Finovate appearance. The company specializes in game-based employee and customer engagement for financial institutions. Most notably, Launchfire offers an employee engagement solution, Lemonade, that blends gamification with micro-learning, AI, and “surgical analytics” to educate financial services employees.

Long Game is one of Finovate’s newest alums and one of our more recent Best of Show winners, as well. The company, founded in 2015 and based in San Francisco, California, won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2021 last September. Long Game offers a bank-branded mobile app that combines the best practices of prize-linked savings and mobile gaming to help banks and credit unions acquire new customers, increase customer engagement, and boost financial literacy.

Earning a Best of Show award in its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019, Zogo Finance leverages behavioral economic research developed at Duke University to help improve financial literacy for young people. The company’s app transforms tricky financial concepts into smaller, easier-to-understand lessons, and offers rewards and incentives to users who complete them. The company announced 31 new financial institution partnerships in Q1 of 2022 alone, bringing its total partnership tally to more than 180 banks and credit unions.

Photo by Pixabay

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Women First: Finovate Celebrates Fintech’s Female Leadership

Women First: Finovate Celebrates Fintech’s Female Leadership
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Amplify Life Insurance, Coconut Software, Diversity in Fintech, Horizn, Icon Savings Plan, InfoCorp, List series, Long Game, UNest, Vymo, Women in Fintech

As part of Finovate’s continued celebration of Women’s History Month and female-led fintech, we are taking a moment to showcase the women whose companies demoed their latest innovations at our Finovate conferences last year.

Hanna Wu

CEO and Co-Founder, Amplify Life Insurance, FinovateFall. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2019, Amplify helps people build wealth through permanent life insurance.

Katherine Regnier

CEO and Founder, Coconut Software, FinovateSpring. Headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and founded in 2007, Coconut Software provides a platform for financial institutions to help them improve customer digital and in-person engagement.

Janice Diner

CEO and Founder, Horizn, FinovateFall (Best of Show winner). Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and founded in 2011, Horizn helps banks accelerate digital banking knowledge, fluency, and adoption for both customers and employees.

Laurie Rowley

CEO, Icon Savings Plan, FinovateFall. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2019, Icon Savings Plan provides portable retirement savings plans, the next generation in workplace savings.

Ana Inés Echavarren

CEO, Infocorp, FinovateFall (Best of Show winner). Headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay, and founded in 1994, Infocorp offers a smart digital platform that provides banks with fast and flexible solutions to deliver superior customer experiences.

Lindsay Holden

CEO, Long Game, FinovateFall (Best of Show winner). Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2015, Long Game is a gamified finance app that helps banks acquire new customers and increase engagement with their current Millennial and Generation Z customers.

Ksenia Yudina

CEO, UNest, FinovateFall. Headquartered in Hollywood, California, and founded in 2020, UNest is the leading provider of financial planning, savings, and investment tools for parents to help their children reach their dreams.

Yamini Bhat

CEO and Co-Founder, Vymo, FinovateSpring, FinovateFall. Headquartered in San Francisco, California, and founded in 2013, Vymo offers a sales acceleration platform for financial services firms like Berkshire Hathaway, AXA, and BNP Paribas.

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Digital Adoption, the Customer Experience, and the Latest from the Finovate Podcast

Digital Adoption, the Customer Experience, and the Latest from the Finovate Podcast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Horizn, InfoCorp, Ocrolus, Podcasting, PwC

The latest round of Finovate Podcasts features four of the companies that won Best of Show awards at FinovateFall in September. A common theme in the conversations with most of these firms is the importance of customer engagement at a time in rapid digital adoption.

Below is a small sample of what Finovate VP and program host Greg Palmer and his guests are talking about. For more, be sure to check in for new episodes of the Finovate podcast every week.

Find the Finovate podcast at Soundcloud and follow Greg Palmer on Twitter for the latest in programming news and updates.

Corey Cederquist, Director of Customer Transformation & Data Science Advisory, and Brian Morris, Partner – Customer Analytics and Marketing, with PwC. Host Greg Palmer talks with Corey Cederquist and Brian Morris about “getting back to the basics” of understanding the customer.

“We often joke internally that we’re not your parent’s PwC and, as a collective customer transformation team, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to be more provocative in the way that we engage with technology, the experiences that we drive for our clients, and the insights that we deliver.”

Janice Diner, founder and CEO, and Steve Frook, Senior Vice President of Global Sales, with Horizn. Host Greg Palmer sits down with Janice Diner and Steve Frook to discuss digital adoption and how to prepare your customers – and yourself – for the wave.

“From a Horizn standpoint, we are absolutely focused on helping financial institutions to be able to achieve three key objectives: the first one is overachieving their digital growth goals, the second is successfully supporting mergers and new platform launches, and then the third component is driving mass adoption of new innovation and capabilities.”

Ana Echavarren, CEO of Infocorp. Host Greg Palmer and Ana Echavarren talk about user experience and “happy customers”.

“We’ve been doing this since 1994 through IC Banking, our digital channel platform that’s already implemented in more than 40 banks in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are helping people love their banks because we give them superior experiences with our digital channels. Today banks need to build loyalty through digital engagement. That’s why you need as a bank to have customers that love going to your application and your bank.”

David Snitkof, Head of Analytics at Ocrolus. Host Greg Palmer and David Snitkof discuss the future of lending.

“How fast could a mortgage be? At some point in the future, you’ll be able to get a mortgage in a couple of days. It’s harder to say when than to say what but, in theory, if you could process all of the information, and it’s all there available, you should be able to get a mortgage in a couple of days versus a month or more – what it takes today.”

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