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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
VymoBrings AI-Powered Sales Coaching to Insurance Giant Sompo
KlarnaPicks Amazon Web Services as Preferred Cloud Partner
Around the web
Trusted digital identity specialist Signicatpartners with payment information service SurePay.
24sessionsopens doors at its first regional office in Paris, France.
Revolutfor Businessintroduces support for GBP Direct Debits.
eXatejoins the first cohort of the Velocity Birmingham Fintech Hub.
Temenosappoints Michelle Tea as Managing Director for Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific islands.
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.
The nearly-$400 million poured into fintech companies in Nigeria alone this week is being remarked upon as a testament to the growing investor interest in sub-Saharan Africa. The three recipients of the new capital in recent days are OPay ($120 million), Interswitch ($200 million), and PalmPay ($40 million). The investors include Sequoia Capital China and SoftBank Ventures Asia, as well as China’s Transsion and Visa.
For comparison, African fintechs raised $357 million in all of 2018, according to a 2019 report from the GSM Association, The Mobile Economy, Sub-Saharan Africa. Quoted in the Financial Times on the week’s funding news, Guaranty Trust Bank chief executive Segun Agbaje credited the payments industry for the surge in investment, calling the growth in the sector “probably like no other on the continent.”
Finovate made its African debut last year in Cape Town, South Africa. For an in-depth look at recent trends in African fintech, check out Jonathan Gregson’s “Africa’s Fintech Makeover.”
China’s impact on international fintech is also evident in the news that Ant Financial is considering applying for a virtual banking license in Singapore. Successfully securing such a license would enable Ant Financial to compete against Chinese incumbents like DBS Group Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ant Financial secured a license to operate a digital wallet in Hong Kong last year.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Brazil’s digital bank Neon raises $94 million in round led by General Atlantic and Brazil Banco Votorantim.
Biz Latin Hub’s Craig Dempsey makes the case for Mexico as the fintech sector to watch in 2020.
Mexican non-bank wallet service Todito Cash inks partnerships with four financial payment solutions companies.
Asia-Pacific
Ant Financial may be one the hunt for a Singaporean virtual banking license, reports Bloomberg, following the online finance titan’s recent scoring of a license to operate a digital wallet in Hong Kong.
InstaReM rebrands as Nium, announces cross border payments partnership with Cambodian banking group, PhillipBank.
Indonesia’s biggest banking group, Bank Mandiri will use the Avaloq’sBanking Suite to run its wealth management division, which has $14 billion in assets under management.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigeria’s OPay raises $120 million in new funding. The investment adds to the $50 million the mobile payments service raised in June.
Asilimia, a Kenya-based fintech that helps SMEs access more efficient mobile payment solutions, secures $350,000 in funding.
South African digital commerce fintech Vectra wins Seedstars Cape Town competition.
Central and Eastern Europe
Revolutreaches 250,000 users in Hungary and reports an 8x gain in monthly transaction volume since the beginning of the year.
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.
Revolut and Mastercard have teamed up this month to help rebuild schools in Mozambique after they were destroyed by a cyclone this spring. The effort, which is timed with UN’s Universal Children’s Day, aims to raise $207,000 (£160,000) to help get children in Mozambique back to school.
Revolut accountholders are able to show their support by making an in-app donation to Save the Children. Revolut and Mastercard will match donations from Revolut Mastercard customers. The goal is to complete the fundraising by January 2020 so that the schools can be built in time for the school year.
The campaign is made possible by the Donation feature Revolut launched in July. The feel-good feature allows cardholders to set up a recurring payment, make a one-off donation, or round up their purchases to the nearest whole number and donate the spare change. In addition to partnering with Save the Children, Revolut also facilitates donations to WWF and ILGA-Europe.
This campaign is part of a larger philanthropic trend moving through fintech lately. Other fintechs facilitating charity efforts include Meniga, which recently formed a partnership with the UN to allow users to donate their cash-back rewards to fight climate change, and Radius (recently acquired by Kabbage) which launched its Data for Good campaign to help the company’s employees and customers give back to their communities.
Revolut debuted its digital banking technology at FinovateEurope 2015 in London where the company’s CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky showed off the app’s money transfer capabilities that help users avoid banking fees without actually using a bank.
Last month, Revolut launched in Singapore and announced plans to make its products available in the U.S. in the next couple of months. And in early October the company tapped investment bank JP Morgan to conduct a $500 million funding round and issue it a $1 billion convertible loan. The loan will turn into shares if Revolut receives a U.S. banking license.
Truliooappoints Zac Cohen as chief operating officer.
Trustlyreaches 100 live gaming brands with its Pay N Play player registration and verification product.
Tradeshiftmoves Bucharest team to larger office in Tower Center, announces plans to hire more staff next year.
Globitex tapsSalt Edge for strong customer authentication.
After Belfast launch earlier this year, Signifydrecruits 63 people with plans to recruit 150 more over the next three to five years.
Revolut and Mastercardteam up with Save The Children to support Universal Children’s Day.
The San Diego Union-Tribune namesJack Henry & Associates a top place to work in San Diego for the fourth year in a row.
CredoLab, Neener Analytics, and Vymowin finalist spots in the India FinTech Forum’s IFTA 2019 awards.
Cheturanked as the number two of 50 top software development firms in the U.S.
Payments company VoPay teams up with Plaid to offer a new credit card alternative to consumers in North America.
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.
Revolutunveils metal cards in silver and space grey.
Chief Administrative Officer of the Royal Bank of Scotland interviewsBioCatch CEO.
ITSectorinaugurates 6th Software Development Center that will focus on the financial sector, AI, and 5G.
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.
Revolut announced a partnership today that is a direct result of new open banking standards. The U.K.-based challenger bank has integrated with QuickBooks to enable Revolut for Business customers to sync their transactions with the bookkeeping software.
In a blog post, Revolut said that this “demonstrates a huge step forward for U.K. businesses” and it’s the first time the company has collaborated with a third party provider to use the new Open Banking APIs.
“It was only natural that we would team up with QuickBooks for this project, not only is it the world’s largest cloud accounting provider, but we also share the same customer-driven values; to deliver a best in class service through innovation,” said Domenico De Fano, Product Owner at Revolut for Business. “We understand the importance of accurate, secure and fast information to our customers, that’s why we invested the time to get the best connections in place with QuickBooks.”
Merchants that connect their business accounts with Quickbooks will receive real-time updates on payments, expenses, and cash balances to help them manage payroll, invoices, and taxes.
Revolut debuted its digital banking technology at FinovateEurope 2015 in London where the company’s CEO and founder Nikolay Storonsky showed off the app’s money transfer capabilities that help users avoid banking fees without actually using a bank.
Earlier this month the company tapped investment bank JP Morgan to conduct a $500 million funding round and issue it a $1 billion convertible loan, which will turn into shares if Revolut receives a U.S. banking license. Last week, the company launched in Singapore and announced plans to make its products available in the U.S. in the next couple of months.
Experianlaunches a new Open Data solution: Experian Commercial Acumen.
Mambu’s composable banking solution to help new SME bank Recognise enhance the customer experience.
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.
Digital challenger bank Revolut has chosen Singapore as its first entry into the Asian market. And now, after a successful beta period during which the company gained 30,000 new members and learned valuable lessons about the Singapore market and culture, Revolut is ready for business in Asia.
As of this week, Revolut Singapore customers will be able to instantly send and receive funds to and from fellow Revolut customers in Singapore, the U.K., Europe, and Australia for free. Revolut Singapore customers will also benefit from instant spending notifications, access to the real exchange rate in 150+ countries for fairer overseas spending, free international ATM withdrawals, and in-app currency exchange. PFM features like bill-splitting, round up payments, and budgeting and analytics will also be included.
“The journey to Singapore so far has been both exciting and challenging,” Revolut Head of Marketing and Communications Chad West wrote at the company blog. “For every new market into which we expand, there are different rules and regulations. The challenge for us is to build things that work as we, and our customers, want them to, while adhering to official guidelines. Not always easy, as you might imagine.”
The company’s expansion to Asia comes as Revolut fortifies its U.S. business via a partnership with Mastercard that will bring Revolut cards to the U.S. by year’s end. Other big deals for Revolut of late feature the company collaborating with Xero to enable real-time expense monitoring, teaming up with DriveWealth to offer commission-free trades to its cardholders, and working with financial API provider TrueLayer to support secure access of financial data via open banking.
This month Revolut announced that it had hired JP Morgan to manage its $500 million funding round, as well as issue the company a convertible loan for $1 billion. The company currently has more than $336 million in capital from investors including Index Ventures, Balderton Capital, DST Global, TriplePoint Capital, and Mastercard Start Path.
Founded in 2015 by Vlad Yatsenko (CTO) and Nikolay Storonsky (CEO), Revolut demonstrated its platform that same year at FinovateEurope. Since inception, the company has served more than eight million customers, and processed 350+ million transactions valued at more than $44 billion (€40 billion).
Email delivery and analytics specialist SparkPostappoints Sam Holding as Head of International.
RightCapitalforges strategic partnership with Advyzon.
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.
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.
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.
