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Finovate Global Netherlands: Insurtech, SME Financing, and Digital Banking

Finovate Global Netherlands: Insurtech, SME Financing, and Digital Banking
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, MasterCard, Nubank, VISA

This week’s edition of Finovate Global reviews recent fintech news from the Netherlands.

Dutch insurtech RISK acquires Amsterdam-based fintech Dyme

Dutch insurtech RISK has acquired Amsterdam-based savings app Dyme. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal will enable Dyme to boost its presence in the Netherlands as well as enter the German market. Courtesy of the agreement, both Dyme’s brand and management team will remain intact.

“From being featured on Dragon’s Den to becoming one of the largest finance apps in Europe and reaching profitability, our mission has always been the same: helping people take control of their money,” Dyme noted on its LinkedIn Page. “This step opens up some great opportunities for Dyme and its customers: expand the product, especially with great insurance packages and service, reach millions more people through the RISK ecosystem, and take Dyme international, beginning with Germany.”

Dyme currently has more than 600,000 consumers who have linked their bank accounts to the Dyme platform. The company’s app serves as a personal financial assistant to help users lower costs, and uses smart algorithms to automate subscription cancellations and provide financial guidance. Dyme announced its first profitable quarter in 2024, and has said that it has helped users save more than €40 million since inception. The acquisition will combine RISK’s market expertise and technological platforms with Dyme’s user-friendly financial solutions that enable users to easily manage their expenses, budgets, and more.

RISK offers an advanced IT platform, SureBase, that assists financial advisors, online labels, and insurers in product comparison and distribution. SureBase, according to RISK CEO Harm Vollmuller, will serve a key base for the new synergy between RISK and Dyme. “By combining that with our platforms and market knowledge, we can reach people at a time when financial breaking space is more important than ever,” Vollmuller said.

Factris raises €100m to power SME financing

A new funding partnership with Brand New Day Bank will enable Factris to expand its ability to provide financial support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Dutch fintech has secured a €100 million facility to support financing SME factoring across Europe. This will enable Factris to finance sellers in nine countries and manage receivables from debtors in 27 countries.

“This new facility is a testament to the trust and confidence Brand New Day Bank has placed in Factris and our vision for SME financing,” Factris CEO Brian Reaves said. “As we continue to scale across Europe, this partnership ensures we can meet the increasing demand for alternative financing and provide SMEs with the liquidity they need to thrive.”

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Amsterdam, North Holland, Factris specializes in invoice factoring for small and medium-sized enterprises. The company offers selective factoring to enable companies to decide which specific invoices to factor, fund availability within 24 hours of invoice submission, credit insurance to protect against customer non-payment or bankruptcy, and debtor management for collections and account receivables.

Brand New Day Bank is a Netherlands-based digital-first, challenger bank and fintech that began operating in 2010. The financial institution serves both individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses with savings accounts, investment and pension products, tax-advantaged savings and investment solutions, and annuity payment services. Brand New Day Bank has more than €8 billion in assets.

Dutch fintech Plumery unveils Canada-based solutions

Digital banking experience platform Plumery announced a suite of new features and integrations designed especially for credit unions in Canada. These new capabilities will give these institutions the ability to provide personalized, compliant, and modern digital banking experiences for their members.

The Amsterdam-based fintech leveraged a collaboration with Aequilibrium, a digital services and technology consultancy headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, to make sure its Canadian-ready platform is built based on the way that Canadian credit union members prefer to bank. This includes not just hyper-personalized, mobile-first, and intuitive digital journeys, but also support for everyday payments and transfers including billpay and Interact e-Transfers, and Canadian savings and lending products like GICs.

Plumery’s move comes as Canadian banks and credit unions face a range of challenges including evolving customer expectations, fintech competition, and the pressure to modernize their legacy systems. More immediately, Canadian credit unions are scrambling in the wake of Central 1 Credit Union’s announcement that it will wind down its digital banking platform Forge (formerly MemberDirect). More than 170 credit unions across Canada had been relying on the technology.

“With Forge winding down, Canadian institutions have a rare opportunity to modernize on their own terms, rather than being tied to outdated systems,” Plumery CEO and Founder Ben Goldin said. “Our platform provides an immediate, future-ready option that puts control back in the hands of credit unions. By working with Aequilibrium, we are combining global banking innovation with local expertise to deliver experiences that meet the unique needs of Canadian credit unions’ members.”

Founded in 2016, Plumery enables financial institutions to offer unique mobile and online experiences on top of either their modern or legacy core banking platforms up to 80% faster. Plumery’s technology features foundations that are pre-integrated into its digital banking journeys that accelerate app development and shorten time-to-market while maintaining complete control over both design and functionality.

Check out my interview with Plumery’s Goldin from earlier this year.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Mastercard teamed up with African fintech Smile ID to introduce new digital identity solutions across the continent.
  • South African mobile payment platform Street Wallet partnered with Plush Car Wash to deliver secure, cashless payments.
  • Visa and digital payments network Onafriq launched Visa Pay in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Lithuania-based identity verification and fraud prevention company iDenfy launched its Criminal Background Check tool.
  • Hungarian payment service provider Barion Payment completed its acquisition of PSC CEE Ltd, the company behind the SmartKassa brand.
  • Turkey’s Türk Ekonomi Bankası (TEB) partnered with Provenir for its AI-powered decisioning platform.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

  • India’s Bank of Baroda launched its eRUPI Person-to-Person (P2P) gifting solution.
  • TBC Uzbekistan extended financial services to non-residents.
  • Indian fintech Kiwi unveiled its interest-backed EMI on UPI.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank has applied for a US national bank charter.
  • Unlimit announced securing Principal Membership with Mastercard and Visa in Peru.
  • Brazi-based proptech Lastro raised $15 million in Series A funding in a round led by Prosus Ventures.

Asia-Pacific

  • Cambodian MSME-focused bank Chief Bank teamed up with payment solutions provider BPC to launch its new Chief Mobile 3.0 mobile app.
  • The People’s Bank of China opened a digital yuan operation center in Shanghai.
  • The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) launched IADS Developer Hackathon to promote bank-fintech collaboration.

Photo by Javier M. on Unsplash

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Mastercard Launches Mastercard Commerce Media to Leverage Consumer Data

Mastercard Launches Mastercard Commerce Media to Leverage Consumer Data
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard
  • Mastercard Commerce Media has launched to leverage consumer-permissioned transaction data, giving 25,000 advertiser partners smarter targeting and delivering up to 22x ROAS across industries like retail, travel, and dining.
  • Mastercard’s partnerships with Citi, American Airlines, Microsoft, and WPP will expand scale, reach, and brand integration.
  • Retail media networks are surging, with spending projected to hit nearly $100 billion by 2028. Chase Media Solutions, which launched in 2024, is an example of how financial institutions are monetizing first-party data to serve personalized offers.

Mastercard announced that it will begin leveraging consumer-permissioned data via its new digital media network, Mastercard Commerce Media. The new media network will give Mastercard’s 25,000 advertiser partners access to transaction data from the 500 million enrolled consumers in order to power smarter, personalized commerce.

Through Mastercard’s proprietary Offers platform, advertisers can deliver tailored campaigns, such as cashback, discounts, and incentives, to audiences defined by their business goals. Using insights from consumer-permissioned data, Mastercard identifies the right customers and delivers relevant advertising content. Consumers can then activate offers on their enrolled card and complete the purchase, with Mastercard directly attributing the transaction to the campaign.

Beyond traditional cashback, Mastercard Commerce Media helps publishers strengthen brand loyalty by enabling programs where consumers earn rewards in a brand’s own cash currency, giving shoppers more purchasing power and brands deeper engagement. Looking ahead, Mastercard plans to expand distribution to new channels and deepen integrations across its broader services portfolio beginning in 2026.

Mastercard processed more than 160 billion transactions in 2024, and its new media network will deliver proprietary insights from transactions like these processed by Mastercard. Mastercard Commerce Media currently delivers a return on ad spend (ROAS) of up to 22 times for advertisers across retail, travel, entertainment, dining, and more.

“We understand how to connect advertisers to consumers and consumers to the products, services and experiences they value,” said Mastercard Chief Services Officer Craig Vosburg. “Mastercard Commerce Media is a natural extension of the trusted connections we’re known for and the work we already do across our unique suite of services. That means we’re not just well-positioned to bring a full-scale commerce media network to life—we’re best-positioned.”

Mastercard Commerce Media is launching in partnership with  Citi, which will help the program grow faster, reach more users, and deliver more value. Mastercard already has ongoing ties with Citi, which will give Mastercard’s media network a head start in leveraging Citi’s infrastructure, customer base, and channels. Mastercard is also partnering with American Airlines, Microsoft, and WPP, which will help extend its footprint and connection to brands in the traditional media space.

As the use of consumer-permissioned data gains popularity across fintech subsectors, so too has the adoption of retail media networks. These networks allow institutions to monetize their first-party data by connecting brands with highly targeted audiences through trusted digital channels.

According to eMarketer, retail media networks will expand in the coming years. The firm estimates that retail media network spending will reach nearly $100 billion through 2028, reflecting both advertiser demand and consumer engagement with personalized content. An early trailblazer in the space is Chase Media Solutions, which launched in 2024 to leverage its transaction and cardholder data to serve personalized offers and marketing to its 80 million customers.

Photo by Collis

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Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard

Verification Specialist Argyle Announces Strategic Investment from Mastercard
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Argyle, Funding, MasterCard
  • Verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard, Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire.
  • The investment follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard’s open finance technology earlier this year.
  • New York-based Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022 in San Francisco. Shmulik Fishman is Co-Founder and CEO.

Consumer-powered verification platform Argyle announced a strategic investment round that featured participation from Mastercard as well as existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Checkr, Rockefeller Asset Management, and SignalFire. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

“This investment is more than capital—it’s validation,” Argyle CEO and Co-Founder Shmulik Fishman said. “We’re deepening our ability to serve customers with a comprehensive verification platform built on real-time payroll connections and open finance capabilities. By combining these strengths, we’re eliminating friction from verification workflows and giving lenders, fintechs, and tenant screeners a smarter path to faster, more accurate decisions.”

Argyle’s investment announcement comes a year and a half after the company reported securing $30 million in Series C funding. That round was led by Rockefeller Asset Management’s Fintech Innovation Fund. This week’s investment also follows Argyle’s launch of verification of assets powered by Mastercard open finance technology in June of this year. This new offering enables Argyle customers to access real-time consumer-permissioned payroll connections covering 90% of the US workforce. Customers are also now able to generate GSE-compliant reports—including verification of income (VOI), verification of employment (VOE), verification of assets (VOA), and combined verification of assets/income (VOAI)—from a single platform.

Argyle noted that the investment is a sign of growing demand for consumer-permissioned verifications. In a statement, the company highlighted a series of recent partnership accomplishments, including Checkr’s ability to reduce verification timelines from days to seconds at 90% lower cost compared to legacy solutions, Regional Finance’s success in automating verifications for more than 65% of borrowers, and Mutual of Omaha’s saving of more than $50,000 per month on verification costs.

“Argyle has built critical infrastructure for a category that’s long been overlooked by modern fintech,” Bain Capital Ventures partner Ajay Agarwal said. “We’ve supported the company from the early stages, and this latest round reflects our continued belief in their team, their momentum, and the long-term potential of consumer-permissioned data to transform verifications across financial services.”

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in New York, Argyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Link 4.0 design update, which provides a more transparent and trustworthy experience for customers when linking their accounts.

Photo by Pixabay

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Alloy and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate the Onboarding Process

Alloy and Mastercard Team Up to Accelerate the Onboarding Process
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, MasterCard
  • Identity and fraud prevention solution provider Alloy has teamed up with Mastercard to launch an enhanced customer onboarding solution for financial institutions and fintechs.
  • The joint offering will use both identity verification technology and open finance to streamline onboarding and fight fraud.
  • Founded in 2015, Alloy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.

Identity and fraud prevention platform provider Alloy has inked a global partnership with Mastercard to introduce an enhanced customer onboarding solution for financial institutions and fintechs. The new offering comes as these businesses cited a 60% increase in fraud in 2024, according to Alloy’s 2025 State of Fraud Report. The report further noted that 93% of those financial organizations surveyed planned to invest in ongoing fraud prevention measures this year, with 64% planning to deploy identity risk technology, as well.

“Fraud continues to be a significant challenge for financial institutions and consumers alike, underscoring the urgent need for robust fraud prevention measures,” Mastercard EVP and Global Head of Identity, Dennis Gamiello said. “This joint onboarding solution will be a game-changer in the fight to reduce fraud and deliver a seamless and secure customer experience.”

The joint offering from Alloy and Mastercard will leverage both identity verification and open finance to simultaneously streamline onboarding and fight fraud. The solution provides a consistent identity risk strategy and onboarding experience across channels. Alloy will leverage Mastercard’s global digital identity verification capabilities and suite of open finance-powered account opening solutions to support financial institutions as they manage fraud, identity risk, and secure account funding throughout the customer lifecycle.

At the same time, Mastercard solutions will be integrated and pre-configured in Alloy to enable seamless deployment. Customers will have access to 200+ risk and identity solutions available via Alloy that are designed to help boost customer conversion rates, reduce the amount of manual reviews, and provide comprehensive end-to-end coverage.

“Successful fraud prevention starts with a holistic approach to understanding identity. Our partnership with Mastercard will allow more financial institutions and fintechs to evaluate customer identities holistically,” Alloy Chief Product Officer Parilee Wang said. “The end result for those companies will be a better digital experience and less fraud risk, allowing their businesses to grow effectively.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinDEVr SiliconValley 2016, and returned to the Finovate stage six years later for FinovateFall 2022 in New York. More recently, Alloy was included in CNBC World’s Top Fintech Companies roster for 2025 and, in June, the company announced a partnership with IG Group to help the FTSE 250 online trading firm maintain regulatory compliance as it grows.

Photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash

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Finovate Global: Workforce Management and Capacity Planning with Cinareo Solutions’ Karen Elliott

Finovate Global: Workforce Management and Capacity Planning with Cinareo Solutions’ Karen Elliott
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CEO Interview, Cinareo Solutions, Finastra, Finovate Global, Mambu, MasterCard, Nubank

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features an interview with Karen Elliott, CEO and Co-Founder of Cinareo Solutions.

Headquartered in Ontario, Canada and founded in 2022, Cinareo Solutions complements workforce management platforms, helping them streamline contact center operations and mitigate risk by enabling precise resource allocation and decision-making that is driven by data.

Cinareo made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring 2025 in San Diego, demonstrating how its SaaS solution provides scenario-based capacity planning for both contact center agents and support staff. The company’s technology leverages industry-recognized statistical models and simulations to help businesses meet customer demands as well as vital financial KPIs.

We caught up with Karen Elliott recently to learn more about the field of capacity planning, the role of enabling technologies like AI, and how Cinareo Solutions helps contact centers ensure that the right person with the right skills is in the right place at the right time.

What role does capacity planning have in workforce management? What makes it challenging and how does Cinareo help companies better meet those challenges?

Karen Elliott: Capacity planning is the strategic backbone of workforce management. It determines how many people you need with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time, to meet service levels without overspending on labor. In contact centers, capacity planning sits upstream of scheduling—it uses historical data, forecasts, and business assumptions to set headcount and budget requirements weeks, months, or even years in advance. Effective planning ensures customer demand is met efficiently and profitably.

The challenge is that unpredictable demand, scattered data, and outdated tools make planning a constant challenge. Most organizations resort to using Excel spreadsheets and spend hours or even days of manual labor and embedded formulas to try to figure out the optimal plan. Cinareo streamlines the process by ingesting your data and enabling rapid “what-if” scenario modeling and multi-skilling simulation to create optimized plans for both agents and support staff with the click of a button. 

Not only does Cinareo handle planning with ease, but the platform also creates financial budgets and recruitment and training plans so you know who to hire, and when, to ensure you meet your service targets.

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

Elliott: Cinareo is an industry-agnostic platform for all contact centers.  We have customers worldwide in financial institutions, telecom, travel, utilities, retail, and even government.  We partner with CCaaS and WFM solutions to integrate directly into their platforms so that data can flow seamlessly into Cinareo.  Any organization with variable demand, labor-intensive operations and service or cost targets would get huge benefits from using a platform like Cinareo. 

We have a wide network of referral agents and ISV partners that recommend Cinareo to their clients when they see a clear need.  Cinareo offers webinars and monthly product showcases to demonstrate the power behind the platform—or can even arrange custom demos and proof of concepts to make sure potential customers truly understand the benefits of a modern planning platform like Cinareo.

What in your background led you to pursue innovation in this field?

Elliott: I spent 12 years at the IBM Innovation Center earlier in my career within the User Experience group with a key focus on user-centric software solutions.  After leaving IBM, I co-founded a professional consulting firm that specialized in contact center optimization that helped organizations improve their people, processes, technology, and knowledge. 

Years of consulting highlighted a huge gap in the market in regard to capacity planning.  We worked with countless private and public sector organizations that would build these complex spreadsheets to determine their optimal staffing and we decided there needed to be a better way, so we created Cinareo.  It was built to complement any CCaaS or WFM platform in the market and integrate into whatever was the customer’s platform of choice.  If customers switch platforms, they can take Cinareo with them—having a portable, agnostic solution was key to the design. 

Another important goal was designing a platform that was simple and intuitive based on years of experience in user-centric design.  We even have our customers as active members of the planning and design of the solution—this ensures that everything we build is focused on the needs and requirements of the people using the software.

What role do enabling technologies like AI play in developing innovative workforce management solutions?

Elliott: Capacity planning remains relevant in contact centers even if AI is involved, and it can take on a different but crucial role in optimizing the overall performance. While AI can now handle routine queries or simple updates, the reality is much more complex. Cinareo helps determine the right mix of AI-driven processes and human resources to meet the demand efficiently. Our customers are modelling their operations using Cinareo to determine the ideal balance of human agents vs bot and the ROI on an investment in AI as well.  

Incorporating AI into Cinareo is a given—we are already full steam ahead in our strategic plans to ensure that AI-driven capacity planning can make a dramatic difference. But true innovation in customer support isn’t about replacing the people—it is about giving people the ability to work faster and smarter – and we are doing that with Cinareo. 

You recently launched Flexible Monthly Planning. What is the value proposition with this new offering?

Elliott: We initially offered Cinareo as a strategic, long-term capacity planning platform where users could build 12-, 24- or 36-month plans.  However, as we continued to enhance Cinareo, our customers were telling us they wanted more flexibility in their planning, so we built in the capability to do weekly planning up to 52 weeks in order for contact centers to create tactical plans over the short or medium term. 

To continue to expand on Cinareo’s flexible platform, we recently launched more flexibility into our monthly planning as well, so customers can build a plan for any number of months up to 3 years in advance.  These enhancements were all driven by the needs of our clients since our goal is to have our software reflect “the voice of the customer” and truly be user-centric.

You made your Finovate debut at FinovateSpring earlier this year. How was the experience?

Elliott: We had a fantastic debut at FinovateSpring!  We generated a lot of great interest in the solution from the demo we provided. Prior to FinovateSpring, we had recently started onboarding more fintech clients and noticed an uptick in interest from banks, credit unions, and insurance agencies looking for a solution like Cinareo.  We thought FinovateSpring would be a great opportunity to demo Cinareo to a wider audience and get fintech companies to see the realm of the possible with a modern capacity planning solution. There is such a clear need in this sector for a solution that will not only improve CX and EX, but also provide important KPIs like the cost per contact to help with financial management.

What can we look forward to seeing from Cinareo in the months to come?

Elliott: We are excited over some of the new features that are set to launch in the months to come—we have been scaling up significantly to meet customer demand.  A couple new features that are soon to be released are multi-lingual functionality in addition to the ability to compare a plan with your historical data in a quick and easy way.  We will be offering our clients a way to see how their plan performed against their actuals in both performance and staffing—down to the 15-minute interval level.  This new feature will help our customers understand trends and patterns and be able to improve their planning moving forward.

That is just the tip of the iceberg—we have so many more exciting things planned over the next while. We would love to increase our customer base to have even more voices driving the future of our software! If you want to see how Cinareo can solve your capacity planning challenges, feel free to contact us.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Whish Money teams up with Mastercard to enable cross-border payments to Lebanon.
  • Bank of Algeria joined the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) launched by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
  • Qatar-based AlRayan Bank went live with Finastra Corporate Channels.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India celebrated National Fintech Day earlier this week.
  • Ukrainian fintech Fintech Farm launched its mobile banking service Tezbank in Uzbekistan.
  • The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) announced plans to unveil new Information Systems Audit Standards to enhance audit practices for startups, fintechs, and e-commerce companies.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazil-based digital financial services platform Nubank introduced Armando Herrera as new CEO of its Mexican operations.
  • Uruguayan cross-border payment platform dLocal teamed up with cross-border marketplace platform Tiendamia.
  • Puero Rico-based transaction processor and fintech EVERTEC announced plans to acquire a controlling stake in Brazilian fintech vendor Tecnobank.

Asia-Pacific

  • Japanese fintech JPYC announced plans to launch the first yen-denominated stablecoin this fall.
  • Thailand unveiled a new pilot program to enable visitors to convert cryptocurrencies into the local Thai Baht to facilitate purchases.
  • New Zealand-based small business management platform Xero partners with UAE-based Wio Bank PJSC.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Digital payments provider Peach Payments launched real-time clearance (RTC) payouts for merchants on its platform in South Africa.
  • South African fintech Street Wallet raised $350,000 in new funding.
  • African business bank Absa Business Banking selected Network International as its digital payments technology partner.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • OYAK ANKER Bank GmbH migrated its core banking systems to Berlin, Germany-based Mambu’s platform.
  • Turkish investment platform Midas raised $80 million in Series B funding.
  • Disruption Banking looked at the increasing popularity of crypto in Lithuania.

Photo by Derek Sutton on Unsplash

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: 10x Banking, Fintech Rundown, Intuit, MasterCard, Nubank

The first month of Q3 is in the books, “Crypto Week” was declared in the US last week, and corporate earnings reports are dominating the conversation on Wall Street.

To start off the week of fintech news here on Finovate’s Fintech Rundown, we have word of new C-suite appointments, collaborations in payments and fraud prevention, as well as new solutions for identity protection.

Fraud prevention

Risk management company EverC announces collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Appdome launches customer identity protection solution for mobile apps, IDAnchor.

Mastercard introduces A2A Protect in the UK to help defend consumers against account-to-account payment fraud.

Digital banking

Finovate Best of Show winner 10x Banking introduces new Chief Revenue Officer Tom Bentley.

Nubank appoints Ethan Eismann as its first Chief Design Officer.

Crypto

Blockchain startup Bitzero secures $25 million for its sustainable blockchain and HighPerformance Compute (HPC) data centers.

African paytech Peach Payments and South African crypto payments solution provider MoneyBadger team up to bring crypto payments to South African merchants.

Cyber risk management firm DynaRisk secures $4.7 million in funding.

FIS partners with Circle to unlock stablecoin money movement functionality for financial institution customers.

Payments

dLocal and RizRemit partner to enhance the cross-border remittance process across both Africa and Asia.

Deutsche Bank’s Merchant Solutions business to integrate Wero as a payments option.

Square launches data driven cash advances in the UK.

Lending

iBusiness Funding announces expanded collaboration with Intuit to expand SBA loan access through QuickBooks Capital.

Digital identity

authID launched its digital identity platform, Identity Exchange (IDX), in partnership with NEC Networks and System Integration Corporation.

Photo by Tunafish on Unsplash

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Finovate Global Peru: Digital Wallet Partnerships and Innovations in Payment Services

Finovate Global Peru: Digital Wallet Partnerships and Innovations in Payment Services
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ecolytiq, Finovate Global, MasterCard, Revolut, VISA, WorldPay

This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from the South American nation of Peru.

EBANX partners with Peruvian digital wallet Yape

Brazilian payments company EBANX announced a direct integration with Peruvian digital wallet, Yape. Designed for cross-border commerce and relying on an easy user enrollment process, Yape enables users to pay for purchases on international ecommerce websites using either their Yape wallet balance or a linked card. The wallet supports recurring, one-click and on-file payment solutions and, in 2024, was responsible for the largest share of the volume transacted online through a digital wallet in the country. This is according to research from Payments and Commerce Market Intelligence (PCMI).

“With over 14 million active Peruvian users, Yape empowers millions of consumers with reliable daily transactions,” Yape Head of Payments Claudia Silva said. “This direct integration with EBANX marks a significant step in expanding our reach to global merchants, allowing them to tap into the vast potential of the Peruvian market.”

Digital wallets are a major component of Peru’s payment ecosystem. The fourth most commonly used payment in the country, digital wallets represented 10% of all digital commerce transactions in Peru in 2024. PCMI anticipates a digital wallet annual growth rate of 17% by 2027 and much of this growth, according to Silva, can be credited to Yape. According to the firm’s own data, Yape’s digital wallet delivers a 93% approval rate on transactions, an especially valuable achievement as digital wallets are increasingly becoming the preferred payment method for recurring transactions.

“Through its partnership with Yape, EBANX enables merchants to access a seamless, secure, and high-conversion payment solution that drives immediate results for one-time purchases as well as for subscription-based services and recurring payments,” said Juliana Etcheverry, Director of LatAm Country Growth—South Cone at EBANX. “This partnership goes beyond payments; it’s about fostering scalable, long-term growth for merchants in a rapidly evolving market.”

Founded in 2016, Yape is headquartered in Lima, Peru. The company’s payment app has more than 20 million users and more than 2.5 million affiliated businesses. Yape expanded to Bolivia in 2023, reaching two million users (“Yaperos”) a year later.

Paysafe goes live with PagoEfective ewallet in Peru

As if to underscore the rising popularity of digital wallets in Peru, payments platform Paysafe announced that it is expanding its eCash brand, PagoEfectivo, into a digital wallet. As a brand, PagoEfectivo has been a major force in Latin America’s eCash payment ecosystem, supporting the transactions of millions of online consumers. As a digital wallet, the brand will enable users to load funds instantly, make online transactions, receive payouts from participating merchants, transfer funds to others, and more.

“Our recent survey with Peruvian consumers found that 81% would use a digital wallet from PagoEfectivo,” Paysafe Head of Latin America Estaban Sarubbi said. “With that strong sign, we’re launching a solution that meets consumers’ payment needs.” Paysafe CEO Bruce Lowthers added, “Consumers in Peru already trust PagoEfectivo for everything from iGaming and digital goods to travel and ecommerce. With the launch of our new digital wallet, we’re giving them a more convenient way to pay—one that reflects Paysafe’s commitment to powering the experiential economy.”

Headquartered in London, Paysafe processed $152 billion in annualized transactional volume in 2024. A leading payments platform, Paysafe empowers businesses and consumers to connect and transact through its capabilities in payment processing, digital wallets, and online cash solutions. Delivering services across 260 payment types in 48 currencies, Paysafe’s integrated platform is designed for mobile-initiated transactions, real-time analytics, and facilitating the convergence between in-store and online payments.

Do Payment launches pay-in service Do Pay in regional expansion

Peruvian paytech Do Payment has launched its own pay-in service, Do Pay. The new offering is designed bring greater speed, lower costs, and more flexibility to the payments process by enhancing liquidity for clients and reducing reliance on intermediate parties. Do Pay also creates a single provider for both pay-in and pay-out payment solutions thanks to leveraging its own proprietary infrastructure and direct connections with banks, acquirers, and local payment networks.

“In Latin America, companies face a critical challenge: the slowness of fund availability, with delays of 48 to 72 hours and even up to one week, directly impacting their liquidity,” Do Payment Chief Product Officer Valentina Brero said. “Against global solutions poorly adapted to the region, Do Pay emerges as a service specialized in payment collection with the fastest settlement in the market, ideal for operators who need to use the funds for daily operations.”

Do Payment’s new offering enables firms to better manage a range of problems faced by companies in Latin America when it comes to collecting and making payments. These challenges include having to work with multiple partners—often different providers for both collecting and disbursements—as well as multiple technologies, high fees, and long waiting times. Do Pay, in contrast, enables firms to leverage a single platform for both collection and dispersal, which enhances operational liquidity and ensures that funds are credit faster.

Founded in 2022 by CEO Cristian Valderrama, Do Payment is based in Lima, Peru. The company is already active in seven countries—Peru, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Panama, and the US—with its pay-out service. In addition to Peru, Do Payment will go live with its Do Pay pay-in solution in Mexico and Ecuador, with the goal of expanding to both Chile and Colombia subsequently. Do Payment also noted that it plans to grow its footprint in Brazil in the second half of 2025.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Payments platform Paysafe launched its digital wallet, PagoEfectivo, in Peru.
  • Mexican fintech and edtech Mattilda partnered with payment orchestration platform Gr4vy to power its new white-label payments solution, Mattilda Pay.
  • Uruguay-based paytech dLocal announced plans to acquire Kenyan cross-border payments solutions provider AZA Finance.

Asia-Pacific

  • Revolut partnered with Ant International to enable its customers to send money to China.
  • Visa unveiled its Security Roadmap for New Zealand, featuring a three-year plan to leverage AI to fight fraud and other cyberthreats against consumers and businesses in the country.
  • Worldpay went live with domestic acquiring services in Thailand.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange Roqqu acquired Kenyan crypto startup Flitaa as part of its expansion into East Africa.
  • Daily Investor profiled South African entrepreneur Lungisa Matshoba, co-founder of Yoco.
  • South African paytech Stitch acquired Efficacy Payments in order to offer card acquiring services directly to merchants.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Clarity AI acquired Berlin, Germany-based Sustainability-as-a-Service innovator ecolytiq.
  • Azerbaijan-based fintech PashaPay inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mastercard.
  • German online bank N26 announced plans to offer stock trading to customers in Austria and Germany.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Egypt’s Faisal Islamic Bank partnered with Intellect to launch its Shariah-compliant digital transformation.
  • According to research from Mordor Intelligence, the fintech market in the United Arab Emirates is expected to grow to more than $6.4 billion by 2030.
  • Egyptian digital investment platform Thndr raised $15.7 million in a round led by Prosus Ventures.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Pakistan-based ecommerce startup Bazaar Technologies announced that it is nearing profitability following its acquisition of Pakistani paytech Keenu.
  • Indian cross-border investing and financial management platform Belong is now available to non-resident Indians living in the UAE.
  • Central Asian digital banking ecosystem TBC Uzbekistan launched a new insurance vertical, TBC Insurance.

Photo by Aarom Ore on Unsplash

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Payments Startup tapi Acquires Cash-Handling Operations of Mastercard’s Arcus

Payments Startup tapi Acquires Cash-Handling Operations of Mastercard’s Arcus
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, MasterCard, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • tapi is acquiring Arcus’ cash payments operations, including bill pay, top-ups, gift cards, and cash-in/out.
  • tapi will leverage the buy to expand its footprint in Mexico and strengthen its role as a regional payments leader.
  • Backed by Kaszek and Andreessen Horowitz, tapi expects to process over $2B in 2025—5x more than in 2024.

In a move to expand its regional footprint, Argentina-based tapi unveiled it will acquire the cash payments operations of Mastercard-owned Arcus.

Specifically, tapi will acquire Arcus’ service payment operations, mobile top-ups, gift cards, and cash-in/out services. tapi is making the move to expand its presence in Mexico and boost its reputation as a payments partner for banks, fintechs, retailers, and service companies across the region. The acquisition will enable tapi to offer a more seamless payment experience while promoting financial inclusion across Latin America. The company remains focused on expanding its Cash In/Out network to offer direct access to retailers in Mexico through strategic partnerships with OXXO, Chedraui, Finabien, 7-Eleven, SYStienda, and others.

“Integrating Arcus’ service and cash payment capabilities into tapi’s ecosystem marks a turning point in our journey as a company,” said tapi CEO and co-founder Tomás Mindlin. “This integration broadens our reach in Mexico, serving the country’s leading fintechs and banks and significantly expanding our physical footprint with thousands of Cash In/Out points, along with connections to the market’s most relevant service providers. To the cutting-edge technology and customer experience that have fueled our exponential growth in recent years, we now add reliable infrastructure and well-established relationships within the local financial ecosystem. We’re thrilled to become the strategic partner for the financial industry in Mexico and the region.”

For tapi users and clients, the acquisition will offer greater scalability and nationwide physical transaction coverage, access to a broad range of payment services through a single platform, and fast and reliable processing for daily financial needs.

“By integrating this technology with our API-first approach, we’re making it even easier for our partners to launch embedded financial experiences,” said tapi CTO and co-founder Nicolás Andriano.

tapi was founded in 2022 and two years later closed a $22 million Series A funding round led by Kaszek, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz. This brought the company’s total funding to $31 million. tapi expects to surpass $2 billion in annual volume in 2025, which is five times more than in 2024.

Arcus’ ArcusFI platform offers firms access to Mexico’s real-time payment system, allowing them to generate interbank CLABEs to send and receive payments to and from any participating firm in Banxico’s Interbank Electronic Payment System (SPEI). One of the key features of Arcus is Dimo, an electronic transfer service facilitated by Banxico that allows the beneficiary to link their cell phone number to their account through SPEI. Customers can use Dimo to transfer funds from the Arcus platform with just the recipient’s phone number.

With this payment method, you can make electronic money transfers from the Arcus platform using only the beneficiary’s cell phone number.

Logistically, Mastercard will retain the Arcus brand, as well as its capabilities in payment processing, settlement, and reconciliation through Mexico’s real-time payment system (SPEI).

Photo By: Kaboompics.com

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Mastercard Taps MoonPay to Bring Stablecoin Payments Mainstream

Mastercard Taps MoonPay to Bring Stablecoin Payments Mainstream
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard
  • Mastercard and MoonPay are partnering to launch stablecoin-powered cards, enabling users to spend crypto at over 150 million merchants worldwide.
  • MoonPay is leveraging its acquisition of Iron to provide API infrastructure that lets businesses manage stablecoin payouts, disbursements, and cross-border transactions.
  • This move signals growing mainstream adoption of stablecoins, with Mastercard aiming to make crypto wallets function like traditional bank accounts.

Mastercard announced today that it has teamed up with stablecoin infrastructure provider MoonPay to enable people and businesses to pay using stablecoins.

Under the partnership, businesses will leverage Mastercard-branded cards linked to users’ stablecoin balances. Mastercard will allow cardholders to spend their stablecoins, which MoonPay will convert to fiat currency, at the 150+ million locations where Mastercard is accepted.  

MoonPay is using API-driven stablecoin infrastructure from Iron, which it acquired in March of this year. Iron will facilitate stablecoin-powered payments for businesses, which will turn crypto wallets into digital bank accounts for global transactions. The API will allow businesses, neobanks, and payment players to manage payouts, facilitate disbursements, improve cross-border money transfers, and offer stablecoin-based payouts to gig workers, contractors, and creators. 

 “By providing solutions that unlock stablecoin utility and ubiquity, we are redefining how money moves globally and driving a shift in payments as we know it,” said Mastercard EVP of Global Partnerships at Mastercard Scott Abrahams. “Together with MoonPay, we’re building innovative and secure connectivity between crypto and mainstream finance ecosystems, grounded by trust and driven by scale.”

Founded in 2019, MoonPay provides the infrastructure needed to buy cryptocurrencies using traditional payment methods like credit cards, Apple Pay, and bank transfers. It enables individuals around the world to easily convert fiat currency into digital assets without needing to navigate complex exchanges. MoonPay primarily serves consumers new to crypto, as well as fintechs offering wallets, NFT platforms, and decentralized apps seeking to simplify the crypto purchasing experience for their users.

“MoonPay serves the largest crypto wallets in the industry, and with Mastercard, we’re bringing convenient, trusted stablecoin-enabled cards to crypto users around the world,” said MoonPay CEO and Founder Ivan Soto-Wright. “Our acquisition of Iron and long-standing relationship with Mastercard allow us to power a new era of payments made with stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.”

The partnership comes as stablecoins are growing at an incredible rate across the globe. According to the World Economic Forum, global stablecoin transaction volume surpassed $27.6 trillion in 2024, partially because they have emerged as a viable use case to bridge the speed of crypto and the trust of traditional finance. Mastercard’s move into stablecoin spending, backed by MoonPay’s infrastructure, could accelerate mainstream adoption by turning crypto wallets into practical spending tools for real-world purchases.

While Mastercard is leading the charge in stablecoin payments, it is not alone. Visa has been piloting USDC settlement on Solana, and PayPal recently launched its own stablecoin, PYUSD. Mastercard, however, has placed its focus on spendability via legacy rails, which may give it a unique head start in usability.

What remains to be seen, however, is how regulatory bodies will respond. With looser regulatory pressures in the US, now is an ideal time to launch a stablecoin-focused payments tool. However, if and when the regulatory pendulum swings in the other direction, fintechs may find themselves scrambling to sort out the compliance aspects of stablecoins.

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Mastercard Launches Stablecoin Acceptance and Payments Capabilities

Mastercard Launches Stablecoin Acceptance and Payments Capabilities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard
  • Mastercard is enabling global stablecoin payments, allowing consumers and merchants to use stablecoins like cash using Mastercard’s network of merchant locations.
  • The launch is powered by Mastercard Crypto Credential and Mastercard Move, ensuring secure, compliant blockchain transactions and seamless conversion between stablecoins and bank accounts.
  • The new stablecoin payments capabilities are made possible by partnerships with major crypto partners like MetaMask, Binance, and OKX.

Stablecoins are going mainstream, and Mastercard wants to lead the charge. The payments company announced this week that it is launching global stablecoin acceptance and payments capabilities in order to allow consumers and businesses to use stablecoins as easily as the money in their bank accounts.

The new capabilities will allow Mastercard to ensure that people can make and receive stablecoin payments at any time of day, in any geography. Key to this launch is Mastercard Crypto Credential, which ensures secure, compliant, and user-friendly blockchain transactions by verifying user identities and metadata.

“When it comes to blockchain and digital assets, the benefits for mainstream use cases are clear,” said Mastercard Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert. “To realize its potential, we need to make it as easy for merchants to receive stablecoin payments and for consumers to use them. We believe in the potential of stablecoins to streamline payments and commerce across the value chain. Unlocking this is core to how we navigate the rapidly changing world, giving people and businesses the freedom they want by providing the choices they deserve.”

The payments company is leveraging partnerships with MetaMask, Kraken, Gemini, Bybit, Crypto.com, Binance, Monavate, and Bleap to offer consumers many of the same benefits they enjoy when paying with their credit cards. For example, customers in the crypto ecosystem can earn rewards, pay, and spend the stablecoins in their crypto wallets using their traditional payment cards at the over 150 million merchant locations that accept Mastercard payments across the globe. Customers can also withdraw stablecoins into their bank accounts with Mastercard Move.   

Mastercard Move is the company’s comprehensive suite of money movement solutions designed to facilitate fast, secure, and flexible payments across channels. It enables individuals and businesses to send and receive funds globally through methods such as person-to-person transfers, business disbursements, and cross-border payments. Mastercard Move is particularly beneficial for crypto users as it allows them to seamlessly withdraw stablecoins into traditional bank accounts, bridging the gap between digital assets and traditional financial systems.

Mastercard is also partnering with crypto exchange platform OKX to launch the OKX Card, as well as with Nuvei, Circle, and Paxos to give merchants the option to receive their payments in stablecoins.

“OKX is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of digital assets,” said OKX Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique. “Our strategic partnership with Mastercard to launch the OKX Card reflects our commitment to making digital finance more accessible, practical, and relevant to everyday life. Together, we’re taking a significant step toward integrating stablecoins into daily transactions and creating richer experiences—while bringing new users on-chain through OKX’s leadership in crypto trading and our growing Web3 ecosystem.”

The stablecoin scene has been erupting this year. Not only have stablecoins been granted more regulatory clarity in the US, but they have also seen more mainstream institutional adoption, retail integration, and cross-chain interoperability, making them more easily transferrable across ecosystems. Additionally, they are used as a payments rail for smart contracts and tokenized assets, both of which have experienced recent growth.

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Finovate Global Canada: Mitigating Currency Volatility, Earning Banking Licenses, and More!

Finovate Global Canada: Mitigating Currency Volatility, Earning Banking Licenses, and More!
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Klarna, MasterCard

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

Float Unveils Float FX to Help Canadian Businesses Save on Currency Conversion Costs

Toronto, Ontario-based business finance platform Float unveiled a new solution for Canadian businesses this week. The new offering, Float FX, will enable Canadian companies to instantly convert funds at rates as much as 90% lower than with traditional banks. Float noted that the solution is part of the company’s broader goal to help support businesses that do business in the US as they navigate volatility in both currency markets and US trade policy.

“With the Canadian dollar under pressure and potential trade disruptions looming, we designed Float FX to give Canadian businesses an advantage when operating across the border,” Rob Khazzam, Co-Founder and CEO of Float, said. “Combined with offering high-yield interest on CAD and USD balances, Float provides material opportunities for companies to save on costs and protect margins—at a time when every dollar counts.”

Even before recent trade tensions with the US, businesses in Canada were facing significant challenges when it came to currency exchange. According to a recent survey—The Financial Outlook of SMBs in 2025—Float learned that more than half of the Canadian businesses queried said that they struggled to deal with high fees and poor exchange rates. In their report, Float pointed to legacy banking infrastructure and inefficient processes as the culprit, noting that many companies continued to patronize financial institutions that required time-consuming in-person visits and manual reviews, or long settlement times. This leaves businesses with exposure to fluctuations in potentially volatile exchange rates, as well as increasing their vulnerability to hidden fees.

Float FX will offer fees of 0.25% all-in, a figure that is up to 90% lower than that offered by Canadian banks. Companies will also benefit from seamless, built-in currency conversion within the Float platform, enabling them to convert, hold, and spend USD in a single location.

With more than 4,000 Canadian companies as customers, Float offers a business finance platform that helps businesses spend, save, and scale. Founded in 2019, the company provides corporate cards, automated expense management, next-day billpay, high-yield accounts, and more.

Float began the year securing $70 million CAD in Series B financing in a round led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. OMERS Ventures, FJ Labs, Garage Capital, and Teralys also participated in the investment. The funding brought the company’s total funding to more than $120 million CAD in the past year. Float has used the capital to expand its product offerings and recruit talent.

Banco Santander, Kraken Secure Key Canadian Approvals to Fuel Expansion

Canadian regulators are in a “yes” mood of late when it comes to helping fintechs expand operations in the country. This week we learned that Banco Santander has secured a Canadian banking license as part of the financial institution’s effort to grow its footprint in the Americas. Also this week, crypto exchange Kraken reported that it had obtained a Restricted Dealer registration from the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).

First up, Banco Santander. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), Canada’s banking regulator, authorized Banco Santander’s Santander Consumer Bank to begin operations in March. Banco Santander has been active in the Canadian market since acquiring car financing company Carfinco Financial Group in 2014. The firm applied for a Schedule II banking license in 2019, which allows subsidiaries of foreign banks to offer financial services including deposits, lending, wealth management, and credit cards. Santander Consumer Bank was incorporated as a federally regulated financial institution in 2024 by Canada’s Minister of Finance, with OSFI approval being the final step.

Second, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has secured a Restricted Dealer registration in Canada that will enable the firm to better serve its customers in the country. As part of the announcement, the exchange announced that it would offer free Interac e-Transfer deposits to all of its Canadian clients.

“This achievement marks the culmination of a rigorous pre-registration undertaking (PRU) process, during which Kraken consistently enhanced its governance, security, and compliance protocols to meet the highest industry standards,” the Kraken blog stated this week. “As a result, our Canadian clients now benefit from a solid regulatory foundation, ensuring access to some of the most innovative and secure crypto products in the local ecosystem under the supervision of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC).”

In addition to securing its restricted dealer registration, Kraken also announced the appointment of Cynthia Del Pozo as the company’s new Canadian General Manager. With nearly 15 years of experience in corporate development, operations, and fintech consulting, Del Pozo will guide an operation that has grown significantly in recent years, including surpassing $2 billion CAD in combined client assets under custody and a doubling of both team size and the number of monthly transacting users during the PRU process.

“Canada is at a turning point for crypto adoption, with a growing number of investors and institutions recognizing digital assets as a vital part of the financial future,” Del Pozo said in a statement. “The Restricted Dealer registration is a testament to the high bar Kraken has always set for consumer protection, client service, and robust security.”

Founded in 2011, Kraken enables more than 10 million traders and investors to buy and sell more than 200 digital assets and six different national currencies including USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, CHF, and AUD on its platform. David Ripley and Arjun Sethi are co-CEOs.

Meet Finovate’s Newest Canadian Alums!

Over the past year, Finovate has been proud to host a handful of innovative fintechs headquartered in Canada. Below is a look at four firms, all Canada-based, that have demonstrated their fintech innovations live on the Finovate stage of late.

PromoComply – Montreal, Quebec – FEU 2025: Offers technology that automates compliance for financial promotions, reducing legal risks, and enhancing transparency for consumers in real time.

TRIYO – Toronto, Ontario – FS 2024: Offers a work intelligence platform that integrates with existing systems, processes, and workflows to bring visibility to high-value processes across financial services.

Brim Financial – Toronto, Ontario – FF2024: Works with financial institutions, fintechs, and brands to enable them to offer their customers an end-to-end credit card and payments platform.

ZayZoon – Calgary, Alberta – FF2024: Offers an embedded Earned Wage Access (EWA) solution to enable small and mid-sized businesses to offer EWA directly from their own platforms.

Next month at FinovateSpring, we’re happy to introduce our audience to one more Canadian fintech, Cinareo Solutions (Toronto). For more about our upcoming FinovateSpring conference, visit our FinovateSpring hub today!

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

  • Laybuy by Klarna relaunched in New Zealand this week.
  • Aspire subsidiary ASG2 secured a Capital Markets Services License (CMS) from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
  • Australian digital payment provider Fat Zebra acquired SecurePay from the Australia Post.

Photo by Luis Ruiz

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Finovate Global Israel: Talking Revenue Workforce Solutions with Stav Levi-Neumark of Alta

Finovate Global Israel: Talking Revenue Workforce Solutions with Stav Levi-Neumark of Alta
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: CEO Interview, Finovate Global, MasterCard, Ripple, VISA, Xero

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features an interview with Stav Levi-Neumark, CEO and Co-Founder of revenue workforce solutions provider Alta.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Israel, Alta leverages data and AI to help drive revenue growth at every level for businesses. The company’s AI Revenue Workforce agents ensure that everyone on the team is connected, aligned, and equipped with the data insights and AI automation they need to enable their businesses to scale efficiently and grow faster. Alta’s agents have helped produce a 3x increase in qualified leads, a 15% increase in win rates, and a 80% reduction in costs.

Our conversation with Levi-Neumark is also a part of Finovate’s and Finovate Global’s commemoration of Women’s History Month. Be sure to check out her thoughts on gender diversity, current opportunities for women in fintech, as well as her advice for female CEOs.

Can you tell us a little bit about Alta and the revenue workforce solutions business?

Stav Levi-Neumark: AI is impacting almost every industry now. But go-to-market and revenue teams across many vertical markets are struggling to fully harness AI for sustained growth. Choosing the right tools to enhance capabilities of salespeople while also automating relevant tasks is a real challenge.

Alta is an AI revenue workforce that is data-driven. It supports revenue teams, allowing each person to be like a 10x version of themselves.

Alta agents automate repetitive and mundane tasks that require limited human oversight, such as researching potential leads and conducting personalized outreach across multiple channels. The agents also provide actionable insights based on real-time data across all revenue functions. This streamlined workflow helps companies achieve improved revenue growth by working more efficiently, accelerating their sales cycle, and enabling humans to focus on relationship-building opportunities, strategic, and creative work.

Who are Alta’s primary customers and how do you reach them?

Levi-Neumark: Alta has really diverse customers across virtually every business sector, and they range from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies. We’ve been able to ramp up the number of clients we have really quickly as well, adding almost 100 customers in less than six months.

Your latest solution—AI Revenue Workforce—leverages innovations in agentic AI. Can you talk about how this technology and new product empower go-to-market and revenue teams?

Levi-Neumark: Agentic AI has endless potential to dramatically improve efficiency and drive revenue growth. By leaving automated tasks to AI agents, human-led go-to-market and revenue teams can work smarter and faster, focusing their attention where it matters most: developing strategy, building relationships, closing deals, and increasing ROI through creative thought.

AI agents in Alta’s workforce include Katie, a Sales Development Representative (SDR), Luna, an AI RevOps agent, and Alex, an AI Calling agent. The workforce can integrate into more than 50 internal and external marketing, sales, and revenue systems that include CRMs, ERPs, payment, advertising, social media tools, and more.

Alta is a very young company, founded in 2023. There has been a lot of discussion about the current environment for tech startups. How would you characterize the climate for startups today?

Levi-Neumark: The founders who thrive will be those who can harness technological advancements while building businesses with solid foundations that can stand on their own, beyond the AI hype. Here’s the advice I typically share when talking with other tech founders:

  1. Success means your customers attribute significant revenue growth directly to your product. When they look at their business results and can clearly see your impact on their bottom line, that’s when you’ll know you’ve truly succeeded.
  2. Maintaining balanced, healthy growth is key. While it may be tempting to focus more attention on one specific area of your organization, it’s critical to ensure all departments grow at an equal pace.
  3. Be proactive rather than reactive to market shifts to position yourself ahead of certain trends. When deeply focused on product development and customer acquisition, it’s easy to miss emerging signals from the broader ecosystem.

Alta recently secured $7 million in seed funding. What does this investment mean for the company and what will it enable Alta to do?

Levi-Neumark: This funding solidifies Alta’s position as an industry leader in workforce intelligence automation. It will allow Alta to continue developing out-of-the-box solutions that redefine the relationship between AI and sales teams to unlock limitless revenue growth opportunities.

We plan to utilize the investment to expand into new markets, grow operations, scale R&D, and accelerate product development to meet increasing market demand from enterprise and mid-market customers. In fact, we are currently developing our newest AI agent, Greg, a sales assistant for account executives, to further bolster our workforce’s capabilities.

You are one of very few female CEOs in the enterprise AI space. Are there unique challenges to greater gender diversity in enterprise AI compared to other areas of technology, fintech, or financial services?

Levi-Neumark: I don’t feel there are unique challenges specific to the AI space compared to other tech sectors. The gender diversity issues we face in enterprise AI mirror what we see across technology, fintech, and financial services more broadly.

The fundamental challenges remain consistent: representation gaps, unconscious bias in hiring and promotion, and the need for more visible role models.

That said, I prefer to focus on the opportunity. AI is still a relatively young field, and at the end of the day, our success is what will define us. I hope more female founders and women will enter this market and look forward to welcoming them.

What advice would you give to female CEOs, especially those who are new to the role?

Levi-Neumark: I would advise female CEOs, especially those new to the role, to build strong support networks early. Connect with other female founders and executives who understand your specific challenges—these relationships become invaluable resources for candid advice and emotional support that you can’t always find within your company.

Trust your unique leadership style and perspective. There’s often pressure to conform to traditionally masculine leadership traits, but the most effective leaders bring their authentic selves to the role. Your different viewpoint is actually a strategic advantage that can help identify opportunities others might miss.

Be strategic about which battles to fight. As a female CEO, you’ll likely face additional scrutiny and challenges. Learn to distinguish between issues that are worth addressing directly and those where it’s better to let your results speak for themselves.

Prioritize building a diverse leadership team from the start. This not only leads to better decision-making, but also creates a culture where different perspectives are valued.

Finally, remember that your visibility matters. By succeeding in your role, you’re creating pathways for others. Share your journey, mentor upcoming leaders, and when possible, be the voice and representation you wished you had when starting out.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • UK-based open banking payments company Atoa announced an integration with New Zealand-based small business platform Xero.
  • Vietnam-based Buy Now, Pay Later platform Fundiin announced a strategic partnership with Visa to enhance its credit scoring model.
  • Australia’s Bank of Queensland Group teamed up with digital lending technology company Trade Ledger.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • African money movement company Chipper Cash partnered with Ripple to provide crypto-enabled cross-border payments.
  • Payment orchestration platform FinMont announced a partnership with South African online payment gateway Payfast by Network.
  • Ethio Telecom integrated its mobile money platform with Mastercard Africa to enhance finanical inclusion in Ethiopia.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Hamburg-based fintech Flexvelop secured $47.4 million (€44 million) to grow its business equipment financing model.
  • Romanian trading and investing app NAGA announced zero commissions for Romanian stocks on its platofmr
  • Estonian fintech Hoovi raised $8.6 million (€8 million) from Finish Multitude International Bank.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Dubai-based embedded payments company Enza secured $6.75 million in funding.
  • National Bank of Kuwait announced enhancements to its mobile banking app.
  • Australia-based debt resolution company InDebted launched operations in the UAE.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India-based fintech Findi raised $28.4 million (INR 243 Cr) to enhance operations of its majority-owned Indian subsidiary TSI.
  • Mastercard inked an agreement with Dubai-based Mashreq to support its launch as a digital bank in Pakistan.
  • Indian startup OneStack secured $2 million in Series A funding, with another $1 million expected.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Colombian fintech Gold raised $50 million in Series C funding to fuel further development of its e-payment solutions.
  • Uruguayan cross-border payments company dLocal enabled Airtel Mobile Money as a payment method for Google Play in Kenya.
  • UK-based AstroPay expanded access to its multicurrency wallet to users across Latin America.

Photo by davebusiness GT13

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