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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
The first month of summer is upon us! Whether your plans over the next several weeks include time away in exotic locations or sticking to the grindstone, Finovate’s Fintech Rundown is here with the fintech news you need to know. Be sure to check back all week long for the latest updates!
Lending
FinastralaunchesData Insights 2.0, an analytics solution that helps lenders transform complex data into actionable insights.
Baker Hilllaunches one-click loan participation exchange with Participate to help financial institutions scale commercial lending.
Experianbrings personal loan shopping to ChatGPT with new AI-powered experience.
Cross Riverextends $250 million forward-flow commitment for Figure’s crypto-backed loans.
Liliembeds business credit solutions to help small businesses access capital faster.
Embedded finance
Embedded payments and financing solutions provider Adyenteams up with venue management platform ROLLER.
Germany embedded finance fintech Rivertysecures regulatory approval for a Luxembourg banking license and plans to initiate operations in July 2026.
Jack Henrypartners with Woodforest National, a $9 billion, multi-state bank based in The Woodlands, Texas.
Brazil’s Nubankintroduces new offering for customers between 16 and 18 years old called NuCel that combines 5G mobile connectivity with a savings feature.
Payments
European Pay by Bank network TrueLayeracquires Dutch consumer payments company In3.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech headlines from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Aruba.
Credit Assessment Platform CreditYa Launched in Guatemala
Colombia-based financial services company YUMIVI S.A.S has brought its AI-powered credit assessment platform, CreditYa, to Guatemala. CreditYa is a digital microcredit platform designed to provide small, fast, accessible, and reliable financing to individuals and small business owners. Founded by Wingston Oswaldo González Reyes, CreditYa’s entry into the Guatemalan market is the company’s first expansion beyond its native Colombia. The company’s Regional Operations Lead María Gabriela noted in a statement that the launch was “the first step in (the company’s) long-term commitment” toward making financial services more accessible to “every hard-working Guatemalan with a digital footprint.”
Gabriela added: “In Guatemala, business opportunities are often fleeting. Whether it is purchasing materials in advance to meet a sudden surge in orders or repairing store equipment that fails unexpectedly, entrepreneurs need timely access to fast and flexible financial support—not an endless approval process. Our goal is to eliminate delays through technology. Users only need to download the app, complete identity verification, and authorize data access within minutes to receive a preliminary credit assessment and, in most cases, gain access to financial support within 24 hours.”
Using advanced data analytics and AI intelligence, CreditYa delivers fast and convenient digital financial services to individuals and microenterprises in Latin America. The company has established partnerships with local payment gateways and data processing providers to ensure that its operations are compliant with local regulations. CreditYa will also work with community organizations to deliver financial education and boost financial inclusion in the Guatemalan market.
“We are not just a financial app,” Gabriela said. “We aspire to be a trusted partner for users as they pursue a better life and grow their businesses.”
Tether Introduces New Stablecoin Wallet
Digital asset company and issuer of the USDT stablecoin, Tetherlaunchedtether.wallet, the People’s Wallet, this week. Tether.wallet is a self-custodial digital wallet that puts the company’s international financial infrastructure directly into the hands of its users.
“Tether has achieved, without any doubts, the widest financial inclusion success story in the history of humanity,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino boasted. “With more than 570 million people already using Tether’s technology, the next step is making that digital infrastructure even more accessible and usable by the end users. The objective is to remove the complexity that has prevented broader adoption while preserving the properties that make the digital assets technology valuable.”
Until now, Tether operated primarily as part of the underlying layer of the digital economy, enabling liquidity, settlement, and payments across more than 160 countries, with its USDT stablecoin becoming among the most popular digital representations of the US dollar. The launch of tether.wallet puts this entire infrastructure in the hands of end users, enabling them to transact in digital dollars by way of USDT and USAT, gold by way of XAUT, and via Bitcoin. The wallet is built to remove the complexity that tends to limit broader embrace of digital assets, for example, enabling users to send funds with simple, straightforward, human-readable identifiers such as “[email protected]” rather than long, error-prone wallet addresses.
The solution is 100% self-custodial. All transactions are signed locally on the user’s device before being broadcast to the network, and private keys and recovery phrases remain under exclusive control of the end user.
“Tether.wallet is ‘the People’s Wallet’ because it truly reflects the natural evolution of Tether’s role, from building the foundation of the digital asset economy to making it directly usable by anyone, ready for a future in which tens of billions of humans, machines, and trillions of AI agents will transact seamlessly at the speed of light,” Ardoino said.
Founded in 2014, Tether named El Salvador as its formal headquarters last year after securing a license under the country’s Digital Asset Issuance Law. The goal was to capitalize on El Salvador’s status as an emerging crypto currency hub and its embrace of Bitcoin. The move gave Tether its first physical headquarters. The firm was previously incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Aruba-based AIB Bank Partners with Finastra for Digital Banking
AIB Bank, an Aruba-based financial institution with nearly $2 billion in assets, has inked a deal with Finastra to deploy its Finastra Essence core banking solution. The deployment is part of AIB Bank’s goal of establishing the first fully digital bank in the country. Finastra Essence will deliver an enhanced core solution that blends broad and deep digital banking functionality with advanced technology to empower banks to offer customers faster transactions, greater reliability and security, and the kind of modern, personalized digital experiences that customers have come to expect.
“Choosing Finastra Essence allows us to position ourselves at the forefront of full-service digital banking innovation in Aruba and across the Caribbean,” AIB Managing Director Frendsel Giel said. “This transformation of our recently acquired commercial bank will not only enhance the way we serve our customers but also establish a solid foundation for accelerated growth and long-term success in Aruba and the region.”
Founded in 1987, AIB Bank is a privately owned financial institution based in Oranjestad, Aruba. The company specializes in loan syndication, agency services, corporate lending, program and project management, as well as advisory services, and has structured large and complex financing through Aruba and the region.
Formed via a merger between D+H Corporation and Finovate alum Misys in 2017, Finastra works with banks and other financial institutions to help them deliver secure and trusted mission-critical financial services technology. Headquartered in the UK, Finastra has more than 7,000 customers around the world using its financial services software, including 80% of the top 50 global banks, and moves $7 trillion in transactions every day. Chris Walters is Finastra’s CEO.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Sub-Saharan Africa
PitchBook looked at the current state of venture capital funding for fintechs in Africa.
South African bank Capitec partnered with Wise Platform, Wise’s international payments infrastructure for banks and enterprises.
Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator reached 100 startups since inception with its fifth cohort.
Central and Eastern Europe
Germany’s Deutsche Börse purchased a 1.%% fully diluted stake in crypto platform Kraken.
Polish fintech PragmaGO, which provides financial services for small and medium-sized businesses, expanded to Croatia.
Cryptonews examined how the recent election in Hungary could rekindle debate on crypto policy and regulation.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Central Bank of the UAE unveiled its e-KYC platform
Trading and investment platform eToroannounced plans to acquire Israel-based crypto wallet Zengo.
Nu Mexico, the Mexican subsidiary of Brazil’s Nubank, topped the 15 million customer milestone, establishing itself as one of Mexico’s three largest financial institutions by customer base.
Uruguay-based cross-border payment platform dLocal partnered with Italy’s NEC to power international remittance payouts.
Aruba’s AIB Bank teamed up with Finastra and will deploy the fintech’s core banking solution Finastra Essence.
Asia-Pacific
Japan’s largest bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, expanded its partnership with Finastra to support ACH payments in the US.
Indonesian bank CIMB Niaga, Google Cloud, and Artefact unveiled enterprise AI agents to bring greater personalization to the banking experience for customers.
Australian Trade and Investment Commission sent a delegation to Vietnam to support deepening fintech ties with the country.
In 2026, some of the most innovative companies in fintech are expected to obtain banking charters in the US. From bunq to Zerohash, challenger banks and crypto infrastructure companies alike have determined that the next best step for their businesses is a license to offer full banking services to customers in the United States.
What’s interesting about the companies that are seeking US banking charters now is how they tend to fall into two broad camps: the neobank challengers and the crypto-insurgents. How do these two camps see the opportunity in the US and does either camp have an advantage in terms of the likelihood of success?
The challengers: From neobank to “real bank”
Many of the fintechs currently seeking US bank charters are some of the best known names in the industry. These include the UK’s Revolut, the EU’s bunq, Brazil’s Nubank—even the US’s PayPal, which sees a bank charter as a way to expand its operations in the States.
“Securing capital remains a significant hurdle for small businesses striving to grow and scale,” former PayPal CEO and President Alex Chriss said in December. “Establishing PayPal Bank will strengthen our business and improve our efficiency, enabling us to better support small business growth and economic opportunities across the US.”
For international firms, expanding operations is a major, though not the only, reason for coming to America. In the case of Nubank, which secured conditional approval from the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in January, the goal is more than just expanding operations. As David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nu Holdings explained, “It’s an opportunity to prove our thesis that a digital-first, customer-centric model is the future of financial services globally.” While insisting that the company’s focus would remain on Latin America, Vélez noted “This step allows us to build the next generation of banking in the United States.”
Revolut also cited bringing a proven customer experience to the US as part of its rationale when it announced that it had applied to the OCC and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation for a US national bank charter. “Filing for a national bank charter is a major milestone toward our vision of building the world’s first truly global banking platform,” Revolut Co-Founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said. “This charter will give us the direct control needed to innovate faster and deliver the Revolut experience to millions more Americans as we move toward our goal of 100 million customers.”
The cryptos: On the road to regulatory maturity
The other major category of aspirants for US bank charters is the crypto community. This includes stablecoin issuers like Circle as well as cryptocurrency exchange companies like Kraken. Circle secured conditional approval from the OCC in December to establish a national trust bank, named First National Digital Currency Bank. The company’s statement announcing the approval shed light on the reason why crypto companies like Circle are seeking bank licenses in the US.
“As a public company, we’re focused on operating under rigorous regulatory oversight and building the infrastructure that allows digital dollars like USDC to become a core part of global finance,” Circle CEO, Co-Founder, and Chairman Jeremy Allaire said. “This important milestone will give the world’s leading institutions greater clarity and confidence to build on Circle’s platform as stablecoins and blockchain technology move rapidly into the mainstream.”
For businesses in this space, the rewards of a US bank charter go beyond the ability to market products and services to a new market—even one as large as the US. For these firms, the chance to build and secure institutional credibility via a US banking license is an opportunity that cannot be missed. Combined with benefits such as direct access to payment rails, reserve backing, digital asset custody, and tokenization, it is little surprise that some of the most innovative companies in DeFi are seeking out US banking licenses. Speaking on behalf of Ripple, which secured conditional approval to establish a national trust bank in December, CEO Brad Garlinghouse emphasized the importance of a bank charter for regulatory compliance and public trust.
“The conditional approval of our trust bank charter represents a massive step forward—setting the highest standard for stablecoin compliance with both federal and state oversight,” Garlinghouse said. “While anti-innovation bank lobbyists may claim otherwise, we are ensuring RLUSD is the most transparent and responsibly managed stablecoin in the market today.”
Risk, opportunity, and cutting out the middleman
However different the reasons may be for neobanks and digital asset companies seeking out US banking licenses right now, there is an interesting commonality between the two camps. In both instances, firms are seeking ways to transition away from the “intermediary model” in which fintechs rely on sponsoring banks. There are myriad reasons why this decade-long paradigm has endured and why it is proving inadequate for many firms, such as growing awareness of risk (including both financial institution and third-party risk), as well as new opportunities (such as the OCC’s 2021 national bank trust policy shift).
But the general takeaway is that some of the most innovative fintechs in our industry are concluding that rather than try to “unbundle” or partner with a bank, it might now be the best strategy to just become one.
Nubank has received conditional approval from the US OCC to form a national bank, marking a major regulatory milestone as it begins the setup phase for entering the US market.
Unlike past challenger bank attempts, Nubank enters the US from a position of strength, with more than 127 million customers, strong engagement, and $783 million in quarterly net income.
Regulators require Nubank to fully fund the bank within 12 months and begin operations within 18 months.
Brazil-based digital bank Nubank (also known as Nu) just achieved a long-standing goal. The fintech received conditional approval from the US OCC for the formation of a de novo national bank, Nubank, N.A.
Announcing the approval, Nu Founder and CEO David Vélez framed the move as a strategic validation of the company’s long-held belief in digital-first banking. “This approval isn’t just an expansion of our operation; it’s an opportunity to prove our thesis that a digital-first, customer-centric model is the future of financial services globally,” said Vélez. “While we remain fully focused on our core markets in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia, this step allows us to build the next generation of banking in the United States.”
The conditional approval, granted about four months after Nu initially submitted its application, places the company in the early setup stage of forming a US national bank. During this period, Nu must meet a series of requirements set by the OCC and secure additional approvals from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Regulators also require the company to fully fund the bank within 12 months and begin operations within 18 months.
After Nu receives full regulatory approval for a national bank charter, it will operate under a comprehensive federal framework that allows it to launch deposit accounts, credit cards, lending, and digital asset custody. Nu plans to establish strategic hubs in Miami, San Francisco, Northern Virginia, and the North Carolina Research Triangle.
Cristina Junqueira, Nu’s co-founder and CEO of its emerging US business, highlighted the regulatory milestone as a step toward establishing credibility and competitiveness in a crowded market. “Receiving federal approval for a national bank charter is a significant step in our journey to becoming a solid, compliant, and competitive regulated institution in the US,” said Junqueira. “We look forward to delivering the transparent, efficient financial experiences already trusted by more than 127 million customers around the world to our future customers in the US.”
Founded in 2013, Nu has operated in its home country of Brazil as a fully regulated financial institution since 2016 and announced that it plans to obtain its full banking license this year. The fintech also operates in Colombia and has an expansion plan in Mexico, where it is waiting on approval from the Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores to organize as a banking institution.
While international expansion efforts have been slow, the company’s customer acquisition growth has not. With more than 127 million customers, Nu is known throughout fintech for its high customer engagement level, reaching an activity rate exceeding 83%. In the third quarter of last year, the fintech reached a record revenue of $4.2 billion, which represents a 39% year-over-year growth.
It’s important to note that Nu’s entrance into the US market will likely succeed where other challenger banks have failed. Monzo, N26, and Bunq have all tried and failed to secure a US license from the OCC, while Revolut still does not have a US banking license, either. The difference is that Nu is massively profitable with relatively low customer costs. The company reported $783 million in net income in the last quarter alone.
For Nu, which caters to a largely Hispanic customer base, the US is full of opportunity. There are more than 65 million Hispanics living in the US, many of whom are left out of traditional banks in the US due to high fees, limited access to credit, and legacy onboarding models that fail to reflect their financial realities. Nu’s success in Latin America has been built on designing for inclusion at scale. The fintech boasts transparent pricing, an intuitive digital experience, and unique underwriting. Bringing this successful model to the US while navigating one of the world’s most demanding regulatory environments, would be a huge win for Nu, and perhaps could serve as a model for other overseas challengers seeking to launch in the US.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global features recent fintech news from Canada.
Wealthsimple secures $750 million at valuation of $10 billion
Canadian fintech Wealthsimple has raised CAD $750 million at a post-money valuation of CAD $10 billion. The funding round includes both a CAD $550 million primary offering and a secondary offering of up to CAD $200 million. Dragoneer Investment Group and GIC led the round, which also featured participation from new investor Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) as well as existing investors Power Corporation of Canada, IGM Financial Inc. ICONIQ, Greylock, and Meritech.
“This raise reflects deep confidence from new and returning investors in our mission and our role as a defining Canadian company,” Wealthsimple Co-Founder and CEO Michael Katchen said. “We were intentional in choosing partners committed to the long-term future of Wealthsimple. These are well-respected, global leaders with a proven track record (of) scaling category leaders, and who believe in our vision for the future of financial services.”
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Wealthsimple offers a suite of low-cost financial solutions to help Canadians build wealth. The company’s platform features self-directed investing, managed portfolios, digital asset investing, tax filing, advisor services, and more in a single, integrated experience. Wealthsimple serves three million Canadians and has $100 billion in assets under administration.
“Few companies have achieved what Wealthsimple has in the last few years,” Dragoneer Investment Group Partner Christian Jensen said. “The Wealthsimple team has built an expansive financial platform that millions of Canadians trust. They’re not just participating in Canada’s financial services industry; they’re redefining it.”
Earlier this year, Wealthsimple unveiled a waitlist for its first credit card, which topped 300,000 Canadians in the first six months. The company’s fundraising news follows a profitable 2024 and current profitability in 2025, as well. The capital infusion will help Wealthsimple accelerate its product roadmap in investing, spending, and credit, as well as support the company’s efforts to expand its platform.
Fintech investment slows in H1 ahead of potential rebound in H2
Speaking of investment and Canadian fintech, KPMG’s Canada Fintech Investment Report is a great way to get up to speed on the investment trends that are supporting fintech innovation in Canada. The report was published in August, and focuses on investment trends from the first half of 2025.
While the report indicates that Canadian fintech investment fell significantly compared to international trends, the report authors suggest that the first half of 2025 represented a normalization in the wake of record high levels of investment in 2024. Areas of investor interest include AI, especially agentic AI, and digital assets, which represent a continuation of trends from 2024. A more positive regulatory tone toward cryptocurrencies—especially stablecoins—in the US has been credited for this rebound in interest in digital assets. The report also noted some interest in quantum computing among insurers.
“Last year was exceptionally strong for fintech investment, thanks to two major take-private deals,” Dubie Cunningham, a Partner in KPMG in Canada’s Banking and Capital Markets Practice, explained. “Since then, investment activity has dropped to more stable levels. In fact, when you consider the economic shifts such as tariffs affecting global trade, investment in the first half was quite robust compared to historical levels. There’s still a lot of dry powder ready to be deployed by investors, but they are demonstrating more selective behavior than in previous years. They’re looking for quality companies and we’re seeing longer tails for maturing mid-to-large stage private equity deals.”
Coming to Canada: Atlanta’s Rainforest and Lebanon’s Whish Money
This week reminds us of how attractive Canada is to a growing number of fintechs around the world. Rainforest, a embedded payments company based in Atlanta, Georgia, announced recently that it is looking to expand to Canada. The company, founded in 2022, secured $29 million in funding in September, taking its total capital raised to $57.5 million. The idea of expanding to Canada, as Rainforest Founder and CEO Joshua Silver explained to Global Atlanta, represents more than a regional expansion for the company itself. The move would also help Rainforest’s platform client expand their offerings in a new market.
Rainforest specializes in payments partnerships with software providers that target businesses in underserved industry sectors. These software providers themselves are an underserved segment of the industry—processing $50 million to $2 billion in annual payments. Rainforest offers an embedded payments solution that enables software platforms to provide a robust payments experience for their end merchants without having to register as a payment facilitator with card networks.
Hailing from even farther away than the Peach State where Rainforest resides is Whish Money. Headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, and regulated by the country’s central bank, Whish Money announced this week that it had secured financial services licenses in Canada. The regulatory approvals are the first for the company outside of the MENA region, and is part of a global expansion that includes entering markets in the US, the UK, the EU, and Australia.
“Securing our Canadian license is a monumental step that validates our compliant, customer-focused model and sets the foundation for our international expansion,” Whish Money board chairman Toufic Koussa said. “This move is about more than just entering a new market; it’s about strategically connecting high-diaspora communities with reliable financial infrastructure, beginning with North America. We are committed to building a regulated, transparent global ecosystem that truly serves our users.”
Whish Money offers a range of digital financial services including payroll, fund transfers, and billpay. Founded in 2019, the company’s e-wallet, money remittance, and e-distribution platform has a user base of more than 1.5 million. The company’s global expansion is being supported by partnerships with companies such as Visa, Mastercard, Ria, and Terrapay.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Southern Asia
Pakistan-based fintech startup ZAR raised $13 million for its technology that enables consumer to convert cash into stablecoins.
Indian fintech infrastructure company Falcon announced a partnership with technology consulting firm Tech Mahindra.
Alipay+ and HUMO, Uzebekistan’s national payment system, teamed up to facilitate cross-border payments.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Blockchain infrastructure and cryptocurrency provider Binance unveiled QR code payments in Argentina
Kueski and dLocal team up to bring Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services to merchants in Mexico.
Nubank and OpenAI partnered to launchChatGPR Go in Brazil to give individuals greater access to ChatGPT’s advanced capabilties at a lower cost.
Asia-Pacific
Remittance provider Viamericas partnered with Dong Phuong Money Transfer to expand access to remittance services throughout Vietnam.
Japanese fintech JPYC launched the country’s first yen-denominated stablecoin.
Malaysian fintech Instapay earned a spot on CB Insights’ Global Fintech 100.
Sub-Saharan Africa
South African fintech SME Snapshot launched updated version of its business management dashboard.
Nigeria’s Flutterwave partnered with Polygon to launch a stablecoin payment network across 34 African countries.
Kenya’s Choice Bank teamed up with Safaricom to power cross-border money transfers.
Central and Eastern Europe
Coinbase and Tinkteamed up to bring Pay by Bank crypto payments to customers in Germany.
Lithuanian regtech IDenfy partnered with Australian remittance service provider J Forex Money Transfer.
Finlayer and Salt Edgeannnounced a partnership to bring open banking to small and medium-sized businesses in Romania.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Saudi Arabian Buy Now Pay Later firm Tabby boosted its valuation to more than $4.5 billion in the wake of a secondary share sale.
Israel-based Viola Credit closed its third credit fund at $2 billion, topping its original target of $1.5 billion.
Lebanon-based fintech Whish Money secured financial services licenses in Canada.
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.
“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.
Digital banking experience platform Plumeryannounced 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.
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.
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 Nubankintroduced 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.
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.
Appdomelaunches customer identity protection solution for mobile apps, IDAnchor.
MastercardintroducesA2A Protect in the UK to help defend consumers against account-to-account payment fraud.
Digital banking
Finovate Best of Show winner 10x Bankingintroduces new Chief Revenue Officer Tom Bentley.
Nubankappoints Ethan Eismann as its first Chief Design Officer.
Crypto
Blockchain startup Bitzerosecures $25 million for its sustainable blockchain and HighPerformance Compute (HPC) data centers.
African paytech Peach Payments and South African crypto payments solution provider MoneyBadgerteam up to bring crypto payments to South African merchants.
This week, Finovate Global travels to Lithuania to talk about payment card optimization with Torus’ Kirill Lisitsyn.
The payment card business is among the most competitive areas of financial services. But are some of the greatest opportunities for companies to profit being overlooked? A growing number of fintechs have developed strategies and technologies to help card issuers and acquirers access millions of dollars in cost savings and missed revenue by better controlling card network fees and enhancing transactional profitability.
Lithuania-based Torus is one such fintech. Founded in 2021 and making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, Torus offers a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and acquirers that enhances profits on card transactions by up to 50%. The company enables card issuers and merchant acquirers to optimize card scheme fees and boost transactional earnings via pricing optimization and profitability analysis at the card and merchant level.
To discuss this field, and the opportunities it presents for card issuers and merchant acquirers, we caught up with Torus Co-Founder and CEO Kirill Lisitsyn (pictured). Lisitsyn brings to bear more than 15 years of experience leading payments consulting projects at firms such as Accenture and Mastercard.
What problem does Torus solve and who does it solve it for?
Kirill Lisitsyn: Torus is a SaaS platform for in-depth analysis and optimization of scheme fees (Visa, Mastercard) for issuers, merchant acquirers, and now large merchants. We automate the collection, forecasting, and reconciliation of both transaction flows and invoice data, so that our clients can see accurate cost and profit metrics at the level of transaction, product, merchant, region—and beyond.
How does Torus solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?
Lisitsyn: We provide nearly 98% fee prediction accuracy, and our plug-and-play setup enables end-to-end analytics with minimum resources needed from the customer side. Torus goes beyond pretty dashboards to deliver optimization recommendations backed by industry benchmarks and detailed “what-if” simulations.
Who are Torus’ primary customers. How do you reach them?
Lisitsyn: Our clients include banks, fintechs, BaaS providers, PSPs, and large merchants across Europe, the UK, Central Asia, and Japan. We reach them through targeted outreach, industry conferences, high-visibility publications, and strategic partnerships with top-tier industry players.
We’re also building a community around card economics. I run a LinkedIn page where I share insights on scheme fee mechanics, analysis pitfalls, and market updates.
Many clients come to us after seeing just one number: $1M+ in annual losses that could be avoided with better visibility.
Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?
Lisitsyn: One EU-based e-commerce acquirer used to assess profitability by portfolio averages—and was losing up to 10% on hidden merchant-level losses. With Torus, they switched to granular analysis, identified low-margin segments, updated pricing, and increased overall portfolio margin by 30%. These are real, realized gains—not slideware.
What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?
Lisitsyn: We have productized over a hundred years of joint team expertise in the card payments industry—coming from different segments of the industry, players like Mastercard, Global Payments, Societe Generale, Worldline, and various other banks. This is our unfair advantage which gives us a deep understanding of where the pain points are. When your team includes former scheme insiders, “scheme fees” stop being scary and start becoming manageable.
What is the fintech ecosystem in Lithuania like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in Lithuania?
Lisitsyn: Lithuania is a magnet for fintech startups: a responsive regulator, fast-track licensing, and tech-forward infrastructure. Banks here are increasingly open to partnerships, and startups are learning to scale responsibly and operate under real-world pressures.
Torus is a great example of how legacy banking know-how and fintech velocity can combine into something powerful. We are proud to both actively contribute to the Lithuanian ecosystem and represent it internationally.
You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?
Lisitsyn: This year we demoed our product for BaaS providers. We showcased how Torus enables these players to accurately calculate scheme fees and interchange per transaction, allocate costs, and build margin-based pricing for their fintech partners.
We demonstrated that BaaS can move beyond volume games and become a margin game.
Finovate is built for showing working products to real decision-makers—and our demo generated several highly relevant inbound requests for our BaaS module.
What are your goals for Torus? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?
Lisitsyn: We’re scaling fast. This year includes multiple product launches and major feature updates. Just a month ago, we released our new product, Merchant Cost Indicator—a tool that estimates transaction costs without needing real data. It predicts interchange and scheme fees based on country, MCC, and channel, giving acquirers and BIN sponsors instant, reliable margin calculations.
Coming next is a dynamic profit-based pricing module, embedded analytics for BaaS, and AI agents to support profitability control, pricing and decision workflows.
We’re shaping a new standard of transparency and profitability controls in card economics. Our strength lies in combining deep industry expertise with true product velocity. We know where the market is heading—and we’re already moving to clear the path.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazilian digital banking company NubankintroducedTap-to-Pay Pix.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand announced deployment of risk and surveillance platforms courtesy of its expanded strategic technology partnership with the Nasdaq.
Adyen selected Fiskil as its data-sharing partner to enhance onboarding and account verification for merchants in Australia.
Vietnam-based securities company Kafi went live with Horizon Trading Solutions.
Sub-Saharan Africa
African proptech Nawy secured $52 million in Series A funding.
Payment solutions provider Cross Switch partnered with Pesawise to bring its services to Kenya.
Fintech was relatively busy last week, and so was the Finovate events team. FinovateSpring makes its San Diego debut next week, kicking off on May 7, and our speaker roster is fabulous! Here’s a look at more of this week’s fintech news. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!
Payoneerinvests $2 million over the next three years to support Endeavor, the Global Network of Trust of, by and for entrepreneurs.
Finzly’s AWS-powered platform Payment Galaxycompletes a benchmarking initiative in collaboration with AWS, validating that it can handle large transaction volumes.
Versapaynames Elizabeth Bramlage as Chief Marketing Officer.
Digital banking
NuMark Credit Union selectsAlkami to power its digital banking platform.
Nubank’s Mexico arm receives regulatory approval from the Mexican National Banking and Securities Commission to begin the process of becoming a full-service bank.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global features the latest fintech news and headlines from Brazil.
Nubank unveils Recomeço to help borrowers renegotiate debt
Brazilian fintech Nubankunveiled its latest and largest campaign to help customers with outstanding payments renegotiate their debts. The program, Recomeço, enables eligible customers to receive discounts of up to 99.9% for a limited time. These customers will be notified via the Nubank app, where they will be provided personalized details about their renegotiation options and next steps.
“At Nubank, our customers and their financial well-being are our priority,” CEO of Nubank in Brazil, Livia Chanes, said. “This was the main reason for creating Nubank: to combat complexity and empower people. We are committed to providing personalized solutions with the best possible conditions, contributing to long-term financial health. We want to support our customers, who have trusted Nubank, to start over.”
Eligible customers will need to have a “generally good credit history” and engagement with Nubank. The fintech hopes that the program will benefit those customers who do not tend to have recurring debts, but may have recently experienced financial difficulties. Recomeço also features resources and tools to support credit recovery and smart financial decision-making. These resources include a blog with tips on financial wellness and education.
Nubank’s Recomeço news comes less than a week after the fintech unveiledNuScore, a credit rating tool for its customers. NuScore provides customers with a score from 0 to 1,000, a classification—very high, high, average, low, and very low—and access to the behavioral and historical factors that guided the scoring. These factors include credit card usage, savings patterns in Nubank’s personalized digital savings accounts called Caixas, the amount of debt in the market, and the customer’s score analysis from credit bureaus. Customers will also benefit from recommendations on how they can improve their credit profile and overall financial health.
“Our goal is to establish a solid partnership with our customers to build a robust credit profile, promoting satisfaction, increasing eligibility and engagement with credit products that meet their needs in a responsible manner,” said Arthur Valadão, general director for Nubank’s Roxinho (credit card) segment.
Founded in 2013, Nubank is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil. The company is an alum of Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr, having participated in the event in New York in 2016. Today, Nubank offers one of the region’s and the world’s biggest digital banking platforms, with more than 100 million customers in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
Brazilian BNPL provider raises $26.7 million in series A funding
Capim, a startup that offers a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) payment option for Brazilians paying for dental services, has secured $25.7 million in Series A funding. The round, which consisted of two parts, featured Valor Capital and QED Investors as co-leads. Existing investors ONEVC, Canary, and NXTP also participated, along with new investors Endeavor, Saison, and Actyus. The Series A takes Capim’s total capital raised to $29 million. Valuation information was not disclosed.
A vertical SaaS company specializing in the dental sector, Capim helps dentists leverage digital technology to better manage their offices. In addition to providing payment options like BNPL, Capim helps dental patients schedule their appointments digitally at connected clinics. The funding will help Capim expand its offerings to include a point-of-sale (POS) terminal that will offer dentists lower merchant discount rates. Terminals will accept credit and debit cards, and payments from Brazil’s real-time payment system, PIX. The terminals will be fully integrated with Capim’s SaaS financial management module.
“At Capim, we know that being a dentist is much more than taking care of smiles—it is transforming lives every day,” the company noted on LinkedIn when the investment was announced. “With our verticalized software, we develop, with our customers, incredible products, ensuring resources and all the support that really make a difference.”
Founded in 2021, Capim is headquartered in São Paulo.
Méliuz proposes expanding bitcoin reserves
Brazilian fintech Méliuz is considering an expansion of its Bitcoin holdings and making the digital asset a strategic asset on the company’s ledger. The company initiated its bitcoin strategy earlier this year, devoting 10% of the company’s cash to purchase 45.7 Bitcoin worth $4.1 million. According to the Brazil Crypto Report, this marks the first time a Brazilian, publicly listed company used cash funds from its treasury to buy Bitcoin for investment purposes.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Belo Horizonte, Méliuz provides digital solutions via a platform that integrates marketplaces and financial services. With more than 800 partner stores, Méliuz promotes discounts, services, and coupons through its website, app, and browser extension. The company also builds special cashback programs for its marketplace and financial services partners.
The final decision on expanding Méliuz’s Bitcoin holdings will be based on a shareholder meeting and vote on May 6, the company noted in a securities filing.
Earlier this year, Méliuz reaffirmed its strategic alliance with Banco Votorantim (banco BV), initially forged in 2022. Also that year, Méliuz announced a partnership with Liqi, a blockchain-based asset tokenization startup.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
Emirates NBD teamed up with Visa to enhance international money transfers.
Egyptian fintechs Basata Holding for Financial Payments and Connect Money launched a new card to boost payment security.
Brazil-based digital bank Nubank is considering moving its legal domicile from the Cayman Islands to the U.K.
The domicile move is pending approval from HM Revenue & Customs, as part of the U.K.’s efforts to attract tech companies.
The potential move involves legal and tax registration changes rather than relocating management or operational offices, offering potential benefits like a favorable tax environment and better access to international markets.
According to a Bloomberg report yesterday, digital bank Nubank is considering moving its legal domicile to the U.K. This would shift the Brazil-based company’s domicile from the Cayman Islands, where its current holding company is based.
If finalized, the move, which is still pending approval from the U.K.’s HM Revenue & Customs authority, would be part of the U.K.’s initiative to bring more tech companies into the country.
“Nubank continuously reviews its corporate legal structure to align with the footprint of its operations,” a Nubank spokesperson said in a statement. “At this time, no decision has been made regarding the redomiciliation of Nu Holdings Ltd. or any other legal entities within our group. As a publicly traded company, we are committed to transparency and will follow standard communication protocols if and when any such decisions are made.”
Relocating a domicile location is different from shifting headquarters location. The latter would mean moving primary executive offices and central operations to the headquarters location. A headquarters change would impact where the company’s management and administrative functions are based, while a domicile change would primarily come with tax implications.
Moving its domicile to the U.K. would involve Nubank changing its legal registration and tax residency to the U.K. This shift would subject the company to U.K. corporate laws and tax regulations, which could potentially come with benefits, such as a more favorable tax environment or enhanced access to international capital markets.
Since it was founded in 2013, Nubank serves 92 million customers in Brazil, over 7 million in Mexico, and close to 1 million in Colombia. The company surpassed 100 million customers earlier this year and has a strong foothold in Brazil, where its app is found on the phones of around 60% of all Brazilian adults. Nubank, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, has a current market capitalization of $65.7 billion.
