Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World

As Finovate goes increasingly global, so does our coverage of financial technology. Finovate Global: Fintech News from Around the World is our weekly look at fintech innovation in developing economies in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

Asia

  • Flywire and UnionPay International partner to provide Chinese customers with better rates on cross-border payments.
  • Leading southeast Asian digital cross border money transfer firm InstaReM goes live in Europe with new London office.
  • South Korean payments app Toss raises $40 million in funding.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) teams up with Startupbootcamp as part of an effort to boost Dubai’s status as a regional fintech hub.
  • AME Info asks if Saudi women and UAE crypto can alleviate Bahrain’s debt crisis.
  • VentureBurn features Egyptian savings startup Money Fellows.

Africa

  • Elizabeth Rossiello, CEO and founder of Nairobi, Kenya-based BitPesa, talks about leveraging cryptocurrencies to improve global payments in Africa.
  • South Africa’s ITWeb features features Richard Marsden, co-founder of Johannesburg-based FinChatBot on the rise of chatbot technology in the insurance industry.
  • Branch International reports N1 billion ($2.78 million) in loans facilitated to users in Nigeria.

Latin America

  • Brazil’s Nubank reaches milestone of 1.5 million digital account openings in six months.
  • Latin American Regional Conference sponsored by Swift sees collaboration as fundamental for growth of financial services in Latin America.
  • Brazilian insurtech startup Kakau partners with insurance companies American Life and Generali.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Kontomatik appoints CEO Piotr Warsicki as its new CEO.
  • Poland’s Alior Bank partners with solarisBank, Raisin, and Mastercard to launch pan-EU digital bank later this year.
  • The largest bank in the Czech Republic, Česká spořitelna introduces voice biometrics courtesy of partnership with Nuance Communications.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Daon Partners with Tradelink to Bring Biometrics to Dah Sing Bank.
  • AI Foundry Overhauls Agile Mortgages Solution.

Around the web

  •  Klarna partners with EMaC, a U.K. automotive service plan provider, for a drive now, pay later service.
  •  Paysend triples its customer base over the last 6 months.
  • eToro announces that clients can now invest directly in shares on the platform.
  • MX appoints Ben Holzman, a former managing director of Bain Capital Ventures, as new COO.
  • TechCrunch: Coinbase opens its crypto index fund to accredited U.S. investors.
  • Langley FCU to deploy Symitar Episys core processing platform from Jack Henry & Associates.
  • Mambu announces new board member, former SAP CEO, Henning Kagermann.
  • Revolut partners with Cyprus-based telecommunications company, PrimeTel.
  • First Data and Mastercard collaborate on a digital disbursement platform for business customers.
  • Entersekt opens new office in Atlanta, Georgia to support the company’s growth in North America.
  • The Open Bank Project collaborates with Citizens Bank on innovation event.
  • First National Bank Texas ($1.8B Assets) selects Insuritas to power turnkey insurance agency.
  • Prosper resumes operations for Montana residents

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alums Take Top Honors at FinTech Breakthrough Awards

Dedicated to recognizing “the top companies and products in the financial services and technology industry today,” FinTech Breakthrough has announced its FinTech Breakthrough Award Winners for 2018. This marks the second year the independent organization has sponsored the fintech awards event, recognizing fintech startups and veterans from a wide variety of categories including payments, lending, investing, and regtech.

“The FinTech Breakthrough Awards serve as a testament to the passion, skill and vision of individuals and teams that are truly setting the standard for innovation in the global FinTech industry,” Managing Director for FinTech Breakthrough James Johnson said in 2017 during the Awards’ inaugural year. “We are thrilled to recognize all of the FinTech Breakthrough Award winners for their well-deserved industry recognition as they drive the global FinTech market forward.”

This year featured 20 Finovate alums earning top honors from FinTech Breakthrough. The names and Finovate demo dates for each winning alum – as well as the category they won – are featured below. For a complete list of 2018 FinTech Breakthrough Award Winners, visit the company’s awards announcement page.

Leadership

Consumer Lending

  • Innovation Award for Consumer Lending – Text for Credit by Experian (FF17)

Business Lending

Wealth Management

Payments

Investments

Consumer Banking

Financial Research and Data

Fraud Prevention and Transaction Security

This marks the second time both eMoney Advisor and ThreatMetrix have been honored by the FinTech Breakthrough Awards. Among last year’s winners were a significant number of Finovate alums including: Sindeo, BizFi, DriveWealth, Quovo, Jumio, Trulioo, Qumram, and Xero.

Finovate Alumni News

On the web

  • Smart Launch from NYMBUS Digitizes Your Bank in Under 90 Days.

Around the web

  • IFC and Mastercard expand partnership to drive financial inclusion in emerging markets.
  • Pushfor goes live on the Temenos MarketPlace.
  • Smart Technology Solutions (STS), a U.K.-based payments acceptance software provider, teams with Worldpay to offer enhanced payment capabilities.
  • FactSet and Quantopian to launch financial data analysis platform to help investors capitalize on rapid data growth.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Ephesoft Unveils Mortgage Document Capture Solution.
  • Coinbase Acquires Earn.com; Adds Balaji Srinivasan as First CTO.

Around the web

  • ThreatMetrix introduces its first product integration with LexisNexis since the company was acquired in February.
  • Finastra makes its mortgage lending solutions available via the cloud courtesy of partnership with Microsoft.
  • Ambassador Michael Froman joins Mastercard as vice chairman and president of strategic growth.
  • Moneyhub opens its API to U.K. challenger banks Monzo and Starling.
  • Coinbase acquires Cipher Browser to support its decentralized mobile browser offering.
  • Fortytwo Data appoints Luca Primerano as chief AI officer.
  • Coindesk: Mastercard Eyes Blockchain for Fighting Fake Identities.
  • Infosys to acquire Creative and Consumer Insight Agency, WONGDOODY.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Coinbase Launches Coinbase Ventures to Support Early-Stage Crypto Startups.
  • Kabbage and Ingo Money Team Up to Power Faster Loan Payouts to SMBs.

Around the web

  • Carter Bank & Trust ($4.1 billion in assets) partners with Fiserv as part of strategic, digital transformation.
  • Phillips 66 to offer digital payments at the pump courtesy of integration with Mastercard’s Masterpass.
  • Ephesoft unveils latest version of its smart document capture solution, Transact 4.5.
  • BioCatch wins “Best Innovation in Securing Transactions” at Florin Awards.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Tink Teams Up with BNP Paribas Fortis, Brings PFM, Aggregation, Payments to Belgium Bank’s Mobile App.

Around the web

  • TransferWise selects Wirecard to issue a debit card alongside its digital borderless account offering.
  • Vipera partners with Mastercard to launch new mobile payment service, SME Pay.
  • Thomson Reuters teams up with MarketPsych to introduce sentiment data feed for Bitcoin.
  • Azimo unveils new, improved money transfer service to China.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

Around the web

  • Two-time Best of Show winner Finn.ai launches Spanish-speaking virtual banking assistant with Nicaragua’s biggest bank, Banpro.
  • Fiserv to offer Mastercard’s anti-fraud solution, Decision Intelligence.
  • Former LinkedIn executive, Emilie Choi, joins Coinbase as VP of Corporate and Business Development.
  • Kabbage and Citi commit to new cybersecurity-based consortium for fintechs and data aggregators established by the World Economic Forum.
  • Onboarding friction and security concerns remain as obstacles to wider mobile banking adoption for consumers across age groups according to joint review by Javelin and identify verification specialist Jumio.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Signifyd Partners with Corra to Provide Guaranteed Fraud Protection for E-Commerce Merchants.

Around the web

  • Estonian financial group LHV to leverage technology from FICO to fight money laundering.
  • Klarna announces double-digit sales growth thanks to more retailers using the company’s solutions.
  • CNBC quotes MaxMyInterest head of business development and partnerships Michael Halloran on cash strategies for investors during times of market volatility.
  • Dynamics unveils enhanced functionality for its connected Wallet Card. See its latest demo at FinovateEurope next week.
  • TSYS Extends Existing Agreement with Capital One UK.
  • Mastercard to use Facebook Messenger to help small businesses in Africa and Asia drive mobile and electronic payments acceptance.
  • Worldline teams with Total to launch TOTAL eWallet.
  • FutureTech Podcast hosts Capitalise CEO Shahar Rabin on using natural language to automate trading strategies.
  • NopSec Awarded Most Innovative Cybersecurity Company 2018.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

Dream Payments Speeds Up Insurance Payouts with Mastercard Partnership

Dream Payments Speeds Up Insurance Payouts with Mastercard Partnership

Cloud-based payments platform Dream Payments is teaming up with Mastercard this week. The two payments players will leverage Mastercard Send to help insurance policyholders receive payments faster into any account.

Mastercard Send, a global push payments platform, facilitates local and cross-border money delivery in near real-time. Integrating with the Dream Payments Hub will create a scalable way to digitize and automate the disbursement of insurance claims. By removing the need to sort and mail physical checks, the integration ultimately increases the speed and efficiency of digital payouts into the customer’s preferred debit card account.

Piloting this is Northbridge Financial, which will be the first insurance provider in Canada to use the Mastercard Send platform through the Dream Payments Hub. “Our claims experience is the moment of truth when it comes to the promise we make to our customers,” said George Halkiotis, EVP of Claims for Northbridge Financial. “We know that waiting for and depositing checks are key pain points and we’re excited be able to deliver a better, faster claims experience that helps make things right for our customers as quickly as possible.”

“Mastercard and Dream Payments are helping to digitize payments for insurance providers of all sizes,” added Brent Ho-Young, chief executive officer, Dream Payments. “Insurance customers deserve to receive their claims payments quickly, electronically, and into the financial accounts of their choice, whether it be a bank account, debit card, prepaid card, or mobile wallet.”

With operations in Stamford, Connecticut, Dream Payments helps small businesses accept all payment types. In addition to ties with Quickbooks and First Data, the company also counts TD Merchant Solutions and Chase Paymentech in its partnership ecosystem. At FinovateSpring 2015, Dream Payments debuted its mobile POS device. Dream Payments was founded in 2014 and has raised $14.9 million. Brent Ho-Young is CEO.

Founded in 1966, Mastercard demoed its Cash Pick-Up ATM solution at FinovateFall 2017. Cash Pick-Up allows the sender to disburse cash to banked and unbanked consumers without a card at an ATM. Last fall, the company announced it has tested and validated its blockchain and will be opening access to it via a set of three APIs published on the Mastercard Developers website. At FinovateEurope next week, Mastercard, alongside Vipera, will demo SME-Pay, a solution that enables small business owners to make and receive payments anywhere and view and control staff spending on their Mastercard cards.

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • Dream Payments Speeds Up Insurance Payouts with Mastercard Partnership.

Around the web

  • NCR Launches Omni-Commerce Payment Solution for European Retailers and Restaurants.
  • InComm Partners with Kapsch TrafficCom on RiverLink.
  • Sberbank hires robot Anna to answer calls about location of ATMs and Sberbank offices.
  • Baker Hill releases the latest developments for Baker Hill NextGen.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Vipera & Mastercard

FinovateEurope Sneak Peek: Vipera & Mastercard

A look at the companies demoing live at FinovateEurope on the 6 through 9 of March 2018 in London. Pick up your tickets today and save your spot.

Vipera and Mastercard have come together to create SME-Pay, a solution that enables small business owners to make and receive payments anywhere and view and control staff spending on their Mastercard cards.

Features

  • Get paid with the mobile point of sale
  • Control how staff use business cards: online, in-store or ATM. Set different permission profiles for teams.
  • Attach receipts and export transactions for expense management

Why it’s great
SME-Pay from Vipera and Mastercard is a mobile payment solution that helps small business owners view, control and manage their income and expenditure, wherever they, or their staff, are.