BECU Teams Up with MX to Help Low-Balance Members Save More

BECU Teams Up with MX to Help Low-Balance Members Save More

Financial data platform MX announced a collaboration with 1.2 million-member BECU (Boeing Employees Credit Union) to build a new mobile app feature called Quick Save that will help members boost their savings. Piloted last year with BECU members that had low savings account balances, Quick Save helps increase savings via an easy-to-use “slide to save” module that enables frequent, small dollar amount transfers.

“BECU is continually innovating and leveraging technology to improve our members’ experience and empower them financially,” BECU Director of Digital Strategy Liz Wagner explained. “It’s been inspiring to see Quick Save go from a concept to a fully functioning tool that members in this pilot are using to build their savings.”

The pilot project was conducted – and evaluated – in coordination with the Financial Health Network (FHN). Over the course of five months, FHN determined that BECU members using the new solution had transferred more than $2 million into savings accounts, representing an 18% increase in savings balance for the credit union’s low-balance savers, and a 26% increase in money movement via mobile transfers. Wagner credited the “combined power” of all three parties involved for both helping build and measure the effectiveness of the Quick Save offering, adding that the solution would “meaningfully improve our members’ financial health.”

Quick Save is only the latest example of the relationship that the Utah-based fintech and BECU have cultivated. More than five years ago, BECU went live with Helios by MX, a cross-platform framework that enables device- and platform-agnostic, full-featured digital banking.

“When it comes to mobile banking, every option we looked at functioned about the same,” BECU VP of Digital Banking Howie Wu said after the technology had been implemented. “We saw Helios as a chance to stand out and provide a very different experience.” Wu highlighted digital money management, aggregation, budgeting, and alert notifications among the offerings available via the framework – “all features that would enable our members to be financially strong,” Wu explained. Within 18 months of its deployment, BECU reported a 170% increase in billpay, a 56% increase in money transfers, and a 22% increase in check deposits.

Headquartered in Tukwila, Washington (a suburb of Seattle) and founded in 1935, BECU has assets of more than $26 billion. The institution is the largest credit union in Washington State and the fourth largest credit union in the U.S.

“BECU and MX have been aligned partners for years, both resolute in our determination to help strengthen the financial well-being of BECU members and their community,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner said. He called Quick Save “yet another example of BECU’s wholehearted commitment to financial strength” as well as delivering “intelligent and personalized money experiences for the hundreds of thousands of members they serve.”

A multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX returns to the Finovate stage next month in September for FinovateFall in New York.

MX Integrates with Dwolla; Bambu and Moven Launch Strategic Partnership

MX Integrates with Dwolla; Bambu and Moven Launch Strategic Partnership

From the partnership between Best of Show winners MX and Dwolla that will enhance and automate account verification to the news of a strategic partnership between roboadvisor Bambu and Moven, collaborations between Finovate alums are filling the fintech headlines to start the week.

With MX and Dwolla, the partnership extends instant account verification coverage to 4,000+ institutions, making it easier for MX customers to connect securely to any deposit account. The integration also enables account verification through micro-deposits, which makes it possible for MX to offer verification for “nearly 100 percent” of deposit accounts in the U.S.

Enabling better access to micro-deposits by improving the verification experience is a key component of the integration. MX co-founder and CTO Brandon Dewitt underscored the importance of these deposits and the role they play in financial inclusion and serving the underbanked. “Micro-deposits have gotten a bad reputation in the industry, but the truth is for some of the population who bank with community credit unions or mid-sized institutions, it comes down to either using a micro-deposit or not having the ability to connect them to their accounts,” Dewitt said.

MX most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage two years ago at FinovateFall. The Lehi, Utah-based company won Best of Show for a live demo of its MX Enabled platform that helps financial institutions add to their offerings via connections with fintechs through MX’s API ecosystem. Earlier this month, MX launched a new suite of financial insights APIs and embeddable user interfaces to enable companies to pursue opportunities in open finance.

Dwolla won Best of Show in its Finovate debut in 2011 at FinovateSpring. The company announced just last week that it had raised $21 million in funding in a round led by Foundry Group that will help it continue to innovate in the B2B payments space.

“Partnering with MX will automate the verification experience and make it that much easier to verify a bank account,” Dwolla President and COO Dave Glaser said. “Together with Dwolla, MX has configured a new solution to ensure that millions of payments occur smoothly and easily each day. We couldn’t be more excited about this partnership and the impact it will have on millions of Americans.”


Giving average retail banking customers the kind of support typically available only to high net worth individuals is part of the motive behind the strategic partnership announced early this week between roboadvisor technology solution company Bambu and financial wellness technology platform Moven.

“Adding Bambu’s capabilities to Moven’s mobile-centric experience is well in-line with the needs of banks and fintechs to provide consumers with personalized, automatic investing to their product offerings,” Moven Chief Revenue Officer Bryan Clagett said. He noted that traditional banks still have a major impact and influence on their customers and, as such, they can and should do more – beyond banking – to enable their customers to better manage the entirety of their financial lives.

The new offering is designed to empower bank customers by allowing them to manage and plan their finances and investments more holistically. The goal is to provide customers with the equivalent of a digital CFO to help them better understand their spending patterns in order to increase savings and better manage their investments. This is a critical aspect of the new solution, which moves beyond simple robo-investing to give customers a more comprehensive view – and greater control – over their finances.

“We look forward to working closely with Moven as wealth and digital banking become more seamlessly connected,” Bambu co-founder and CEO Ned Phillips said. “Moven’s long history in digital banking and Bambu’s intelligent wealth APIs will provide a perfect platform for any financial institution focused on digital banking and wealth.”

Singapore-based Bambu made its most recent Finovate appearance last year at FinovateEurope in Berlin where the company demonstrated its BambuGo white label financial roboadvisor platform. Earlier this month, Bambu announced that it had acquired investment management technology company Tradesocio.

Making its Finovate debut more than eight years ago, Moven famously pivoted from a direct-to-consumer/neobank model to a focus on “smart banking and financial wellness” a little over a year ago. The company has teamed up since with fellow Finovate alums Q2 and Digital Onboarding, as well as with intelligent billpay company Blip Labs and digital asset manager NYDIG, to help them better engage their customers with actionable insights to enhance financial health.


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MX Unveils New Financial Insights APIs

MX Unveils New Financial Insights APIs

Connectivity and financial data enhancement innovator MX launched a new suite of financial insights APIs and embeddable user interfaces this week. The APIs will enable developers to quickly and securely bring MX-powered financial data into their solutions, helping companies pursue their open finance initiatives. MX also noted in their announcement that their offering will help firms accelerate time-to-market for financial wellness products – with personalized smart recommendations and insights built into the company’s app or website.

The API integrations and widgets now available enable companies to enjoy the benefits of MX-powered financial data without requiring them to build their own front-end solution. The embedded nature of the offering allows developers to add widgets to mobile banking and shopping apps, for example, without having to make major changes to the overall app or user experience.

“MX APIs and widgets make it easy for any company to embed financial insights and wellness tools into their current products and services,” MX Chief Product Officer Brett Allred said. “We’re making data-driven financial wellness tools more available and scalable than ever before by giving developers an easier and more secure way to connect financial data and help build products that power new money experiences for customers.”

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX began the year with a $300 million Series C funding round that gave the company a valuation of $1.9 billion. Since then, the multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winner has forged partnerships with banks and credit unions including Libro Credit Union, First Hawaiian Bank, and AbbyBank. MX also this year has teamed up with Viva First to help the digital bank promote financial wellness in the Latino community. In April, MX collaborated with Moov to bring faster account verification to fintechs.

MX currently connects more than 16,000 financial institutions and fintechs with its data connectivity network. The company powers 85% of digital banking providers, as well as thousands of banks, credit unions, and fintechs, reaching more than 200 million financial services customers. Ryan Caldwell is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer.

MX and Moov Bring Instant Account Verification to Fintechs

MX and Moov Bring Instant Account Verification to Fintechs

MX, which began the year with a $300 million investment that boosted its valuation to $1.9 billion, is collaborating with developer-first payments platform Moov Financial to give fintechs and other companies instant account verification (IAV) and money movement.

“Moov is transforming the way fintechs enable account verification, money movement, and ACH payments through APIs,” MX cofounder and CTO Brandon Dewitt said. “We align with their mission to help fintechs and organizations focus on building amazing new experiences. Fintechs like Moov are a big reason why a massive digital shift is happening across the banking industry.”

Moov enables platforms, marketplaces, and software companies to embed payment functionality into their solutions, providing seamless money acceptance, storage, and disbursement. The combined, turnkey solution enhances the account verification process, providing a faster, more secure, and reliable experience for customers who are adding banking or payment functionality to their offerings.

“Whether you think of yourself as a fintech or not, every modern company is seeking a way to automate its process to accept, store, and disburse money,” Moov CEO Wade Arnold said. “Developers want the best user experience possible for their application. MX’s ability to provide fast IAV makes the payment experience swift and more seamless than it would have been without the joint solution.”

A multiple time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX provides connectivity and data enhancement for more than 16,000 financial institutions and fintechs – including 85% of digital banking providers. Among the Utah-based firm’s most recent collaborations is its partnership with AbbyBank. The $616 million asset community-owned bank launched its PFM solution – an embeddable digital money management tool powered by MX and offering budgeting, subscription tracking, debt management, and more – in March.

“With MX, AbbyBank is giving its customers across Wisconsin greater clarity into their personal finances,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner said. “(It’s) exactly the kind of innovation, partnership and money experience that MX loves to enable through our powerful data platform.”

Founded in 2010, MX most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2019.

Four Fintechs Crowned Unicorns in the First 3 Weeks of 2021

Four Fintechs Crowned Unicorns in the First 3 Weeks of 2021

There’s not much room in 2021 for 2020-style pessimism. Sure, if you look, you can find plenty of things to be negative about so far this year. However, one aspect of 2021 that’s giving fintechs hope is the recent uptick in valuations across the fintech sector.

Despite last year’s global events, many fintechs received valuations exceeding $1 billion. In fact, in December 2020 alone, four fintechs, including eToro, Creditas, PhonePE, and GoCardless, received unicorn status.

This year seems to be off to a similarly bullish start, with four fintechs becoming unicorns in just the first three weeks of 2021:

Digit Insurance

India-based Digit Insurance became India’s first unicorn of 2021 after the country saw 11 new unicorns in 2020. Just 15 days into the new year, and after raising $18.5 million, Digit Insurance unveiled a new valuation of $1.9 billion.

Divvy

Spend management startup Divvy received a valuation of $1.6 billion after its Series D round on January 5. The $165 million came from new investors PayPal Ventures, Whale Rock, Schonfeld, and previous backers NEA, Insight Venture Partners, Acrew, and Pelion. The pandemic has spurred increased traffic to Utah-based Divvy; the startup has experienced a 500% increase in monthly sign-ups since March 2020.

Mambu

SaaS banking platform Mambu earned its unicorn title after landing a $135 million investment on January 7. The boost gave the Germany-based company a post-money valuation of just over $2 billion. Mambu will use the funds to increase its presence in Brazil, Japan, and the U.S.

MX

The second fintech unicorn to come out of Lehi, Utah is fintech data company MX. Founded in 2010, MX raised $300 million in Series C funding on January 13, bringing the company’s total capital to $505 billion and boosting its valuation to $1.9 billion. Company CEO Ryan Caldwell said that MX will use the funds to hire more staff and improve its data collection and enhancement capabilities.


Photo by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash

MX Raises $300 Million in Series C Funding; Becomes Fintech’s Latest Unicorn

MX Raises $300 Million in Series C Funding; Becomes Fintech’s Latest Unicorn

Some fintech observers may have gotten an inadvertent peek at the news yesterday. But today the big funding rumor has been confirmed: Less than a week after announcing its strategic partnership with fellow Finovate alum Hydrogen, money experience innovator MX is back in the fintech headlines with word of a $300 million fundraising.

TPG Growth led the round with a $150 million commitment. Also participating were existing investors CapitalG, Geodesic Capital, Greycroft, Canapi Ventures, Digital Garage, Point72 Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, and Regions Financial Corporation. The Series C round takes MX’s total capital to $505 million and increases the firm’s valuation to $1.9 billion – making MX fintech’s latest unicorn.

In a statement, company CEO Ryan Caldwell said that in addition to hiring more talent, MX will use the capital to boost its platform’s data collection and enhancement capabilities. He specifically mentioned the importance of “scaling and finding additional ways to market” which underscores MX’s recent forays into embedded finance and its just-announced partnership with Hydrogen.

“The financial industry is at an inflection point as organizations look to become not only intermediaries, but true advocates for their customers by offering personalized insights and data-driven money experiences,” Caldwell explained. “Along with incredible partners, we are helping financial institutions and technology companies accelerate their digital roadmaps and launch next generation services and apps that will fundamentally transform how people interact with their money.”

MX helps businesses turn raw, unstructured data into valuable, insight-rich assets. This empowers them to build new solutions and services for their customers, drive growth, and boost brand loyalty. In addition to cleaning and categorizing data, MX’s technology adds key metadata that enables companies to better fight fraud, make faster loan approvals, and help their customers make better financial decisions.

In the funding announcement, Derek Zanutto of CapitalG praised MX’s ability to “leverage data strategically” and favorably compared MX’s potential impact on the financial industry to that of Netflix in the streaming content space and to Amazon in the e-commerce space. TPG Growth’s Mike Zappert noted that his firm was committed to investing in the digital transformation that is sweeping through financial services and sees MX as a big part of it. He called MX’s technology “a clear differentiator” that has delivered “tremendous growth for the Company over the last 12 months.”

MX currently works with more than 2,000 banks, credit unions, fintechs, and other companies, and includes 85% of digital banking providers among its partners. This has given the Lehi, Utah-based company a combined reach of more than 200 million consumers. A multiple Finovate Best of Show winner, MX last demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2019.

MX Announces Integration Partnership with Hydrogen

MX Announces Integration Partnership with Hydrogen

Two of Finovate’s most innovative alums – open finance/Money Experience specialist MX and financial data infrastructure company Hydrogen – have teamed up in an integration partnership that will make it easier for fintech developers to create sophisticated apps in minutes.

With access to account aggregation and enhanced data courtesy of MX’s financial data APIs, Hydrogen’s clients will be able to embed and secure accurate financial data connections into their solutions. The integration, according to Hydrogen, will improve the efficiency and cost savings of the development process by more than 80% – a major goal of the integration.

“We are very excited to formally launch this partnership with MX,” said Mike Kane, co-founder of Hydrogen. “As we tackle the enormous, embedded finance opportunity, our combined years of experience in working with financial institutions and technology companies made this a natural partnership for us.”

As part of the agreement, users of Hydrogen Money and Cards solutions (supporting PFM/BFM and card issuance functionality, respectively) will also be able to access additional MX solutions, including the company’s automated financial management and ML-powered insights, as well as MX’s account connections for money movement.

Calling the partnership a “perfect match on so many levels,” MX EVP of Partnerships Don Parker said that working with Hydrogen will help MX grow in the embedded finance market, which he called “an increasingly important opportunity” for the company. “The partnership opens up MX functionality to even more fintech companies and organizations that are already working to improve financial strength and access to quality financial tools,” Parker said.

Lehi, Utah-based MX most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall in 2019. The multiple-time Best of Show winner showed how its MX Enabled platform helps financial institutions add to their product offerings by linking them with third-party fintechs through MX’s API ecosystem. More recently, MX forged partnerships with VyStar Credit Union and credit education company Borrowell. This spring, the company discussed how it developed a free, open-sourced loan application portal to facilitate PPP funds at the onset of the global health crisis.

Hydrogen made its Finovate debut in London in 2018. Headquartered in New York, the company announced a strategic investment from FINLAB, a new incubator created by EML Payments, back in November. Also last fall, Hydrogen announced that it had been selected for Plug and Play’s 2020 Winter fintech cohort, and unveiled partnerships with fellow Finovate alum Dwolla and market data services provider Barchart.

We featured Hydrogen’s report on the rise of payments-as-a-service in fintech in June.

MX Brings the Benefits of Data Enhancement to VyStar Credit Union

MX Brings the Benefits of Data Enhancement to VyStar Credit Union

With more than $9 billion in assets, VyStar Credit Union is the latest community-based financial institution to partner with open finance money experience innovator MX. VyStar, one of the 20 largest credit unions in the U.S., will leverage MX’s data connectivity APIs, account aggregation, and data enhancement tools to enhance the online experience for its more than 735,000 members in Georgia and northeastern Florida.

“Our strategy is to harness innovation and strategic fintech relationships that provide the best experiences that will improve our members’ financial well-being, and this partnership with an innovative fintech like MX is a big step in furthering that strategy,” Joseph R. Colca, SVP of Digital Experience at VyStar Credit Union, said. “We’ve been impressed not only with MX’s world-class data enhancement tools, but also with the alignment of our missions to empower financial strength through member advocacy.”

The partnership will enable members of VyStar Credit Union to aggregate and view accounts from all of their financial institutions into a single interface. MX’s technology collects, cleanses, and enriches transaction data, providing insights that help users more accurately plan their financial futures, as well as take smarter financial actions in the present. VyStar believes that embracing the technology will enable the Jacksonville, Florida-based credit union to gain wallet share among its customers by removing any need to log in to other apps or websites.

“With MX, VyStar is giving its customers greater clarity into their finances, which is exactly the kind of innovation, partnership, and money experience that MX loves to enable through our powerful data platform,” Chief Customer Officer for MX Nate Gardner said.

A multiple time Finovate Best of Show winner, MX most recently demonstrated its technology last year at FinovateFall. A leading data platform for banks, credit unions, fintechs, and other financial services providers, MX offers solutions to quickly and accurately collect, enhance, analyze, and present financial data. The company enables financial institutions to better understand and serve their customers, and helps them empower their customers to make better, more informed financial decisions.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Lehi, Utah, MX has made headlines in recent months via its partnerships with companies like Borrowell, a leading credit education firm based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Advicent, a SaaS technology solution provider for financial advisors and planners headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Central Pacific Bank , a full-service financial institution based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Named to the 2020 CB Insights Fintech 250 and highlighted as one of the fastest growing companies in Utah, MX unveiled its open finance platform, MX Open, in September. Ryan Caldwell is co-founder and CEO.


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Canada Partners with Swiss, U.S. Fintechs; Neobank Raises Millions in Mexico

Canada Partners with Swiss, U.S. Fintechs; Neobank Raises Millions in Mexico

When it comes to taking advantage of the best that the world’s fintech has to offer, you won’t find financial services companies in Canada sleeping on the job. This week in the country’s payments space, Toronto, Ontario-based Versapay announced its acquisition of Solupay, a contactless payments company based in Ohio. We also learned that FinovateEurope alum unblu, which offers a digital conversational platform for FIs from its headquarters in Basel Switzerland, had teamed up with Calgary, Alberta-based digital technology solutions provider Celero.

By the end of the week, Canada’s largest credit education company, Borrowell, announced that it was partnering with multiple Finovate Best of Show winner MX. Borrowell, the first company in Canada to offer free credit scores via its partnership with Equifax, has launched a new bill tracking feature called Boost on its app. The company will use MX’s data cleansing technology to improve Boost’s analysis of user spending behavior to help users make better financial planning decisions.

“With MX, Borrowell is giving its customers greater clarity into how they can become more financially strong as a means to increasing credit strength,” MX Chief Customer Officer Nate Gardner said. “It is exactly this kind of innovation, partnership and money experience that MX loves to enable through our powerful data platform.”


Last week we featured an extended Q&A with Eric Rosenthal, Vice President and Managing Director for the Americas with Rapyd. If you’re interested in learning more about the fintech ecosystem in one of the most overlooked regions of the world, our conversation with Eric Rosenthal is a great place to start.

With that in mind, congratulations to Mexican challenger bank Klar, which raised $15 million in Series A funding in a round led by Prosus Ventures this week. Founded in 2019, Klar now has approximately $72 million in total debt and equity financing, and noted that the new capital will help the company build its engineering capabilities in its hubs in Berlin and Mexico.

“Klar is making credit accessible to all Mexicans, including those with no credit history,” Klar co-founder and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Autrique said. “We help people build credit by looking at how and where they spend their money, instead of being stuck with traditional credit scores that are backward looking and obsolete.” The company said that, since inception, it has issued more than 25,000 lines of credit among its 200,000 customers.


Here is our look at fintech around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Stripe makes inroads in Africa with acquisition of Paystack.
  • A partnership between Standard Bank, Mastercard, and Google will help SMEs in Africa offer their services online as well as accept digital payments.
  • Trading Technologies teams up with Cape Town-based Applied Derivatives, which will distribute the TT platform from South Africa.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • PayRay, a factoring company based in Lithuania, receives banking license and begins banking operations in its home country.
  • Lithuanian online payments firm Interpaylink partners with iDenfy to provide remote user identification.
  • Advapay, a digital core banking platform provider based in Estonia, teams up with U.K.-based identity verification platform Sumsub.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Cairo, Egypt-based financial wellness platform NowPay raises $2.1 million in seed funding.
  • Central Bank of Bahrain launches the region’s first digital fintech lab, FinHub 973.
  • Commercial Bank of Dubai introduces cards and accounts for low-income consumers courtesy of partnership with Now Money.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian payments processor Razorpay secures $100 million in Series D funding, earning a valuation just over one billion.
  • Mastercard announces partnership with Indian regtech Signzy to bring the company’s video KYC technology to its banking customers.
  • Indian fintech Open partners with Equitas Small Finance Bank and Visa to offer business debit card.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian payment solutions provider Ebanx announces expansion of operations into five countries in Central and South America.
  • Venio, a mobile app that provides financing to the unbanked, goes live in Mexico.
  • Chile’s third largest bank, Banco de Crédito e Inversiones (BCI), partners with Temenos to launch new corporate bank in Peru.

Asia-Pacific

  • The People’s Bank of China holds lottery to distribute millions in digital yuan valued at $1.5 million.
  • Vietnamese online payment portal AppotaPay scores payment intermediary license from State Bank of Vietnam.
  • PayMaya, a mobile payments platform based in the Philippines, launches new mobile payment device PayMaya One Lite, that enables acceptance of a range of digital payment types.

Photo by James Wheeler from Pexels

New York’s Finest: Catching Up with FinovateFall’s Best of Show

New York’s Finest: Catching Up with FinovateFall’s Best of Show

What have the companies that won Best of Show awards at last year’s FinovateFall conference been up to in the months since our New York show? With our autumn event less than a month away, we thought it would be a great time to check in on the nine companies that took home top honors this time last year.


BlytzPayIntegrated its digital payments technology with Dealer Management Systems (DMS) leader ABCoA Deal Pack. Announced strategic partnership with AFS Dealers.

CinchyJoined the 2020 MassChallenge FinTech Program in December 2019 along with five fellow Finovate alums. The program noted that 70% of the participants in its previous cohort launched a pilot or proof of concept within a year. Earned a $500,000 cash prize as one of the winners of the 2019 VentureClash competition. Raised $10 million in funding in May.

College Aid ProPartnered with Horsesmouth, a company that provides educational and marketing solutions for financial advisors and their clients. Announced collaboration with the American Institute of Certified College Financial Consultants. Teamed up with online student loan refinancing marketplace Credible.

ebankITForged North American partnership with fellow Finovate alum Enterprise Engineering this spring. Announced updates to its multichannel banking platform.

GliaWon Best of Show at FinovateEurope for a second year in a row. Integrated its technology with fellow Finovate alum Alkami’s Online Banking Platform. Inked partnerships with 20 credit unions across the U.S.

MXTopped 50,000 direct-to-bank API agreements to major financial institutions and fintechs. Launched data connectivity API, Path by MX. Named one of Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces 2020.

owl.coNamed one of Canada’s Most Innovative Tech Companies by the Canadian Innovation Exchange. Delivered $1 million in revenue within six months of launching.

Pinkaloo TechnologiesRaised $1.25 million in funding. Joined Goldman Sachs-owned Ayco Marketplace for financial counseling and wellness services. Partnered with Eastern Bank to power its Give for Good charitable giving program.

Zogo FinanceTeamed up with fellow Finovate alum Bankjoy. Announced partnerships with 11 community banks and credit unions across 12 states. Surpassed 1,000,000 financial literacy modules completed.


FinovateFall Digital 2020 kicks off Monday, September 14 and continues through Friday, September 18 with hours of live and on-demand content. Visit our registration page today and join us for Finovate’s biggest, digital-first event to date.


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How One Bank-Fintech Partnership is Working for Small Businesses

How One Bank-Fintech Partnership is Working for Small Businesses

It’s no secret that small businesses have been struggling to secure funds with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Banks have wrestled not only to determine eligibility but also with the clumsy online application process.

After seeing how both banks and businesses were grappling with the application process, digital transformation expert MX stepped in to help. Days after the PPP went live, MX developed and launched a free, open-sourced loan application portal that allows banks and credit unions to offer their SMB clients a way to apply for a PPP loan on their own. By removing one step of the process, the new portal also eliminates the need for banks to manually re-enter the SMBs’ loan applications and ultimately drops the application time from 30 minutes to 30 seconds.

In an interview with Yahoo! Finance (below) MX CEO Ryan Caldwell described how MX’s tool levels the playing field and help smaller banks compete with larger banks in bringing home PPP funds for SMB clients.

This tool sparked the attention of Citizens Bank of Edmond, an Oklahoma-based bank with $260 million in assets. The bank has a front-row seat to the struggle of applying for PPP loans and teamed up with MX to create a self-serve application portal for its small business customers. Citizens Bank is one of 50 financial institutions leveraging MX’s SBA loan portal tool.

“Entrepreneurs and small businesses across the country are struggling due to the devastating impact of COVID-19 and it’s critical that we get stimulus funds into their hands as soon as possible,” said MX CTO and Co-Founder Brandon Dewitt. “Together with Citizens Bank of Edmond, we’re able to speed up the loan application process by providing small business owners with a self-service portal to apply for PPP loans, and providing loan officers a way to quickly approve and automatically submit applications for thousands of small business owners.”

After the money fueling the PPP loans dried up about a week ago, the program’s coffers were refilled yesterday morning with $310 billion in new funds to help keep small businesses afloat. “Speeding up the loan application process for small businesses can mean the difference between these businesses surviving and thriving or closing their doors and laying off employees,” said Jill Castilla, President and CEO of Citizens Bank of Edmond. Castilla emphasized that MX’s portal prepared Citizens Bank to ready its operations and give its SMB clients a leg up. “By partnering with MX, we’ve been able to launch the new SBA portal for round two of stimulus funds, ensuring that our small business customers have the best possible experience as they apply for and get approved for crucial stimulus funds.”

Caldwell expects this second wave of PPP funding will bring banks 10x more loan applications than they saw in the first round. He made it clear that the banks that will be best prepared to serve their customers with this new tranche of PPP funds will be the ones that are putting data to use by aggregating business’ financial data– even without a prior banking relationship– in order to understand their risk. “Banks are realizing that not having access to that data already built into their platform not only limits them on a daily basis but surely limits them in a crisis like this,” Caldwell said.

MX is a longtime Finovate veteran, having won Best of Show for seven of its demos, including one for the company’s most recent appearance at FinovateFall 2019. Check out the award-winning demo below:

Finovate Alumni News

On Finovate.com

  • ti&m and aixigo Partner to Digitize Wealth Management.
  • TransferWise Inks International Payments Deal with EQ Bank.
  • Coinbase’s New Partnership Helps Give Back with Crypto.

Around the web

  • ThetaRay Names Edward Sander as Chief Product Officer.
  • Frontier Communications deploys Neustar Certified Caller STIR/SHAKEN technology across its IP network to digitally certify phone calls.
  • Citi and PayPal expand partnership for institutional clients.
  • Worldline and CashSentinel partner to provide a payment solution to comply with Swiss and European online marketplaces.
  • Alaska USA Federal Credit Union selects MX to power mobile banking platform.
  • Minna Technologies deepens partnership with OP Financial Group.
  • Chetu continues European expansion, opens new UK office.

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.