Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Investment and innovation are defining the wealth management space as the week begins. LA-based wealth management platform Altruist enters the week with $169 million more in capital, courtesy of a Series E round led by Iconiq Growth. Meanwhile, JP Morgan Chase announced that it has deployed generative AI to enhance its thematic investment offering.

Be sure to check back all week long for more fintech news!

Crypto

Revolut launches its stand-alone crypto exchange for professional crypto traders, Revolut X.

MoonPay announces collaboration with PayPal to enable MoonPay users in the U.S. to buy crypto via their PayPal accounts.

Nayms partners with Coinbase to leverage on-chain technology for insurance transactions.

Community banking

New Peoples Bank turns to Jack Henry for its core processing technology and Banno Digital Platform.

Spend management

Expensify, the financial management super app for expenses and corporate cards, unveiled its new travel platform, Expensify Travel.

Insurtech

CoverTree, an insurtech specializing in manufactured home insurance, secures $13 million in Series A funding.

U.K.-based digital life insurance and income protection product company Eleos raises $4 million in seed funding.

Embedded insurance company CoverGenius inks partnership with Adyen.

Payments

Keybank introduces virtual account management powered by Qolo.

Checkout.com launches its Payments-as-a-Service solution, Flow.

WaFd Bank selects Fiserv’s CashFlow CentralSM to expand payment capabilities for small businesses.

NAB and Banked team up to launch Pay by Bank for Australian merchants.

YES BANK and EBANX partner to empower cross-border commerce in India.

Crowded launches international currency transfers for nonprofits, enabled by Visa Direct and Cross River.

Fraud prevention

AML and fraud risk mitigation company Unit21 launches ACH Risk Scores and Action Event Rules.

Investing / Wealth management

Life insurance and wealth management solutions provider iPipeline introduces its first Chief Product Officer Katie Kahl.

Wealth management platform Altruist raises $169 million in Series E funding.

JP Morgan Chase introduces its IndexGPT thematic investing tool.

Pure Financial Advisors generates more than $1 billion in new AUM through its SmartAsset partnership.

Data and analytics

Bank personalization engine company Moneythor appoints Martin Frick as its new Chief Executive Officer.

AI

AI Squared acquires open-source reverseETL technology company Multiwoven.

Lending

Planet Home Lending appoints Paul Walker as Chief Financial Officer.

Libro Credit Union seeks to enhance its lending operations via a transition to nCino’s cloud banking platform.

Communication & Virtual Assistants

How Eltropy’s AI-powered conversations platform helps 3 FIs reduce delinquencies.

Wipro collaborates with Microsoft to launch a suite of generative AI-powered virtual assistants for financial services.

Digital banking

Velmie and Unlimit partner to accelerate European Fintech growth.

FIS launches Atelio to provide the building blocks for BaaS and embedded finance.

Small business

Mercury launches new software to help businesses simplify financial workflows: billpay, accounting automations and employee reimbursement tools.

Basware acquires AP Matching. 

KeyBank launches KeyVAM, a virtual account management solution powered by Qolo for treasury management clients who have complex demand deposit account structures.

Regtech

Global RegTech consolidator Corlytics acquires Deloitte UK’s RegTech platform.

Embedded finance

Issuer-processor Paymentology teams up with Diamond Trust Bank to bring embedded finace solutions to customers in Kenya.

Accelerators and incubators

Ally Financial launches its Ally Innovation Challenge to promote solutions leveraging Responsible AI.


Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Qolo to Power Payment Solutions and Virtual Accounts for KeyBank

Qolo to Power Payment Solutions and Virtual Accounts for KeyBank
  • Omnichannel card and payment platform Qolo has partnered with KeyBank.
  • Via the partnership, Qolo will power KeyBank’s payment solutions and virtual accounts.
  • Based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in September 2022.

KeyBank has selected omnichannel card and payment platform Qolo to power its API-based payment solutions and virtual accounts. The partnership will enable KeyBank customers to create advanced virtual accounts instantly. Customers also will be able to connect seamlessly to other payment modalities such as real-time payments, ACH, and wire transfers.

“Qolo’s partnership with KeyBank will bring our leading card issuing, omnichannel payments, and flexible virtual accounts to more fintechs and businesses looking to quickly launch and scale revenue-generating digital banking services,” Qolo co-founder and CEO Patricia Montesi said. “We are excited to power this intrinsic component of KeyBank’s next-generation digital offering.”

Qolo enables banks to leverage advanced digital payments functionality without having to replace their core systems. Via a single API, Qolo offers direct access to all payment rails and account types. The company’s technology also provides program management, processing, platform licensing and more. Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall last September, where it demoed its Companion Core solution.

Head of Commercial Product and Innovation at KeyBank Jon Briggs praised Qolo for its “shared commitment” to helping businesses access innovative new solutions to better serve their customers. “The integration of Qolo into KeyBank’s API is another proof point in our embedded banking strategy, allowing clients to streamline and scale their strategies by utilizing our digital payment tools to power innovation in their platforms.”

Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo was founded in 2018. The company’s partnership announcement with KeyBank follows recent news that Qolo was working with global payouts firm PayQuicker. The collaboration will enable Qolo to provide unified disbursement services to PayQuicker and its customers. Qolo began the year celebrating a major milestone: processing more than $1 billion in total payouts in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Qolo has raised $19 million in equity funding. The company’s most recent fundraising was in August of 2021 when it secured $15 million in a Series A round led by The Raptor Group.


Photo by Blue Arauz

Omnichannel Payments Provider Qolo Inks Partnership with PayQuicker

Omnichannel Payments Provider Qolo Inks Partnership with PayQuicker
  • Qolo announced a partnership with payouts company PayQuicker.
  • The partnership will combine PayQuicker’s Payouts OS platform with Qolo’s card issuing and payments technology.
  • Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFalll 2022.

Omnichannel payments and card issuing processor Qolo has teamed up with global payouts company PayQuicker. The partnership will combine PayQuicker’s Payouts OS platform with Qolo’s card issuing and payments technology. This will enable PayQuicker to issue a more advanced suite of card products, as well as make multi-channel payouts to help its corporate customers meet a wide range of payout needs.

“We chose Qolo as an issuing-processing partner because they offer the most modern, scalable, and flexible platform that will enable us to bring unique and differentiated payment solutions to our customers,” PayQuicker President Charles Rosenblatt said.

Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Qolo made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. At the conference, Qolo demoed its Companion Core, which offers banks low-cost, fintech functionality that runs in tandem with their existing system. Via a single API set, Qolo provides direct access to all payment rails and account types and offers program management, processing, and platform licensing, as well as acquiring, card and non-card payments, and account solutions.

“Qolo and PayQuicker are aligned in our vision to bring the best payments offerings to market,” Qolo CEO Patricia Montesi said. “We are thrilled to work with them and help power their innovative consumer and commercial programs.”

Founded in 2018, Qolo began the year with news that the company had processed more than $1 billion in total payouts in Q4 of 2022. Qolo has raised $19 million in funding, most recently securing $15 million in a Series A round led by The Raptor Group. The investment, in August 2021, came in the wake of a tripling of Qolo’s staff, as well as a pair of C-suite hires, and the launch of a beta version of its Qolo Accelerator program.

“We experienced strong investor interest fueled by our unique value proposition and rapid pace of customer acquisition,” Montesi said when the funding was announced. “The current fintech climate is driving massive growth, and Qolo’s 100% cloud-native omnichannel offering is perfectly positioned to meet the demand. And we have yet to see a payments model we can’t power.”


Photo by Kelly