The Finovate Podcast: Talking Best of Show with Remynt, Cascading AI, and Savvi AI

The Finovate Podcast: Talking Best of Show with Remynt, Cascading AI, and Savvi AI

The conversation continues with Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast. Over the past few weeks Greg has interviewed the CEOs and founders of companies that won Best of Show at FinovateSpring in May. Check out Greg’s first round of interviews.

This week we’re sharing the second round of Greg’s interviews with our FinovateSpring Best of Show winners. Enjoy insights on AI in banking, AI in small business lending, and the future of financial wellness, debt collection, and credit-building.


Greg Palmer interviewed Maya Mikhailov, CEO of SAVVI AI, on the importance of bringing concrete value to banks through AI. Episode 222.

“Prior to starting SAVVI, I ran an AI division at Synchrony Financial, where we built AI products for the banking and credit teams. And since leaving Synchrony, I was really on a mission to get AI and to get machine learning into more teams’ hands, to let them use this powerful technology and tool to accomplish their business goals.

Because, frankly, we really saw it working. And now it was a question of ‘we need more people to be using this because it is such a powerful tool to turn data into decisions.’ And that was the genesis behind SAVVI: to be a tool that helps any bank or fintech build and launch their own goal-driven use cases without the need for heavy resources, specialists, or complicated integrations.”

Founded in 2021, SAVVI AI helps banks, credit unions, and fintechs build, launch, and manage AI apps in minutes with its patented Practical AI platform. SAVVI AI’s technology enables financial services companies to innovate in the AI space without needing data scientists, pre-existing data, or a core integration. SAVVI is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Watch Savvi AI’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.


Greg Palmer and Gwyneth Borden, CEO of Remynt discussed the future of debt collection and credit-rebuilding. Episode 221.

“Remynt empowers consumers to rebuild credit while resolving delinquent debt. What does that mean? (We) are a debt-buying collector, buying non-performing charge-offs. We are also collecting on them on contingency from banks, credit unions, and fintechs.

I got into this space in a way you would not expect: I came in from a vantage point of having experienced delinquency and charge-off. (I was) looking at everything that’s wrong with how debt collection works and how the incentives are misaligned between what the creditor of debt buyers would like and what the consumer needs.”

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, Remynt is a digital-first debt and credit recovery company that enables creditors to recover revenue from non-performing delinquencies. At the same time, Remynt gives consumers the opportunity to resolve debt on their own terms using a customer-centric, resiliency-oriented approach.

Watch Remynt’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.


How is AI changing the nature of SMB loan origination? That is the topic that Greg Palmer and Lukas Haffer, CEO and Co-Founder of Cascading AI, discuss in this Finovate Podcast conversation. Episode 220.

“My background is deep in the banking sector. I spent my whole career building, maintaining, and developing core banking systems. That’s not a career I can recommend to anyone; core banking systems are a pain. But it did give me a pretty solid understanding how the underlying IT infrastructure of a bank really works.

You pair that with two years of machine learning and AI research at Stanford and you get a pretty unique combination of skills to go back into the banking sector and automate a lot of the manual repetitive tasks that people used to do on top of our software. Now, with the advent of large language models, you really can automate.”

San Francisco, California-based Cascading AI is the world’s first AI-powered loan origination system that reduces 90% of the manual tasks involved in small business and commercial lending. The company won Best of Show for a demo of its AI Loan Assistant, Sarah, which is capable of doing the work of a 30-person lending team.

Watch Cascading AI’s Best of Show winning demo from FinovateSpring 2024.


Photo by Jonathan Velasquez on Unsplash

FinovateSpring 2024 Best of Show Winners Announced

FinovateSpring 2024 Best of Show Winners Announced

The demos are done. The votes have been counted. And the people have spoken. After two days of live fintech demos here at FinovateSpring 2024, we are proud to introduce the winners of Best of Show.

Bloom Credit for its technology that helps banks and credit unions offer a deposit retention and credit building tool to their client base.

Cascading AI for its platform that improves efficiency in banks by 30x by automating rote tasks, enabling banks to leverage that step-change in efficiency to grow their top and bottom lines.

Kobalt Labs for its solution that helps fintechs and financial institutions accelerate and strengthen their third-party diligence, leading to faster and safer paths to revenue-generating partnerships and operational efficiency that doesn’t increase headcount.

QuickFi for its technology that enables banks and manufacturers to give their business customers a fully digital, self-service finance experience that’s fast, intuitive, and consistent with how modern business borrowers prefer to do business.

Remynt for its platform that helps creditors achieve higher recoveries and recapture defaulted consumers as customers when their financial position improves.

SAVVI AI for its solution that helps financial services companies step into the age of AI, with faster, more accurate forecasting, without changing their workflow or processes and using their existing teams.

A heartfelt thanks to all of our demoing companies for sharing their latest fintech innovations with our FinovateSpring audience. Be sure to check out the Finovate Podcast featuring Greg Palmer in the weeks to come as he interviews FinovateSpring 2024’s Best of Show winners.


Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their three favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2024 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022
FinovateSpring 2022
FinovateFall 2022
FinovateEurope 2023
FinovateSpring 2023
FinovateFall 2023
FinovateEurope 2024

FinovateSpring 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 21 and 22. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Anvil – Document SDK

Anvil – Document SDK is the fastest way to build software for documents.

Features

From data collection to document generation and e-signatures, Anvil – Document SDK provides a comprehensive solution that prepares organizations for the data-first, AI-driven world.

Who’s it for?

Fintechs, insurtechs, and banks.

BaaSFlow

BaasFlow delivers open-source, cloud native core banking infrastructure and is introducing its Kenu Banking Platform with loan management and BNPL functionality.

Features

  • Utilizes a robust cloud-based Loan Management System
  • Delivers reliable, scalable, and proven BNPL capability
  • Offers a comprehensive front-to-back solution covering all lending and BNPL transactions
  • Provides post-purchase financing

Who’s it for?

Credit unions, community banks, credit union service organizations, neobanks, embedded finance companies, and payment service providers with a need for embedded lending.

FinTech Insights

FinTech Insights is an AI-powered competitive analysis platform for banks and fintechs. By analyzing digital banking offerings, FinTech Insights enables faster UX research, product releases, and innovation.

Features

FinTech Insights GPT allows users to:

  • Receive actual and actionable insights in seconds
  • Streamline product research processes from months to minutes
  • Make faster, bulletproof decisions with accuracy

Who’s it for?

High-street banks, credit unions, community banks, regional banks, challenger banks, fintechs, and digital banking providers.

LiquidTrust

LiquidTrust gives financial institutions a platform to offer their business customers a safer, new global payment method via micro-escrows. Payments can be made to 175+ countries around the world.

Features

  • Attracts new SMBs and makes existing ones stickier
  • Increases non-interest revenue and deposits
  • Offers easy and quick implementation with hosted, white-label option and all-around support
  • Mitigates fraud and loss risk

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, payment providers, and SMBs.

SAVVI AI

SAVVI AI lets teams deploy AI-enabled prediction and recommendation models in hours, no specialists needed. Start with a spreadsheet.

Features

  • Receive AI forecasting and recommendations inside existing Excel spreadsheets
  • Use without core integration
  • Saves time, increases accuracy, and lower risk

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, lenders, and payment providers.

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: SAVVI AI

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: SAVVI AI

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

SAVVI AI is the fastest way for product and data teams to build and deploy AI apps in minutes with their patented Agile AI platform – no data scientists, pre-existing data, or custom infrastructure required.

Features

  • Easy-to-use: No need for data science, or AI expertise
  • Fast to Value: Complete end-to-end solution – launch in days
  • Cold Start AI: Start AI use cases without any historical pre-existing data

Why it’s great

SAVVI’s Agile AI platform is the fastest and easiest way to add the power of machine learning automation to a company’s decision trees, products and workflows – teams can start with just a spreadsheet.

Presenters

Maya Mikhailov, CEO & Co-Founder
Mikhailov’s previous company was acquired by Synchrony, where she led a division building AI products and services. She’s a speaker on AI and former NYU professor.
LinkedIn

Alex Muller, CPO & Co-Founder
Muller is the former CEO at GPShopper (acquired by Synchrony) and was CPO at Synchrony in AI and EIR. He holds dual masters from CMU in Engineering and a MBA and 5 patents.
LinkedIn

Best of Show: The Finovate Podcast’s Greg Palmer Chats with the Faves of FinovateSpring

Best of Show: The Finovate Podcast’s Greg Palmer Chats with the Faves of FinovateSpring

Check out Finovate VP and host of the Finovate Podcast Greg Palmer (@GregPalmer47) as he interviews the innovators that won Best of Show awards at FinovateSpring in May.

From digital transformation and payments to customer experience and the future of finance, the Finovate Podcast is a great way to hear from some of the most innovative talents in fintech.


Finovate VP Greg Palmer talks with Nate Gibbons of QuickFi on reimagining business financing and successfully managing rapid growth. Demo video.


Greg Palmer sits down with Tom Baran of 9Spokes on open banking and personalization in the SMB space. Demo video.


Greg Palmer interviews Jens Hinrichson and Robert MacDonald of 1Kosmos on the future of password-optional authentication. Demo video.


Greg Palmer talks with Deepak Jain of Wink on the future of biometric payments. Demo video.


Greg Palmer chats with Maya Mikhailov of SAVVI AI on on no-code AI solutions you can implement right now. Demo video.


Greg Palmer catches up with Hossein Rahnama of Flybits. Demo video.


Photo by CoWomen

FinovateSpring 2023 Best of Show Winners Announced!

FinovateSpring 2023 Best of Show Winners Announced!

There’s still one more day to enjoy FinovateSpring. But as far as the live demo portion of our program is concerned, the Best of Show celebrations have begun. With that in mind, please join us in congratulating the winners of Best of Show at FinovateSpring 2023.


1Kosmos for its technology that automates user onboarding for workers and customers, protecting against stolen and synthetic identities while eliminating ATO and fraud. Video.

9Spokes for its technology that unlocks the potential of open data, giving financial institutions a powerful set of tools to engage business customers. Video.

Flybits for its personalization platform that enables financial institutions to deliver best-in-class personalized digital banking experiences. Video.

QuickFi for its 100% digital, self-service equipment financing platform that enables business equipment financing in minutes. Video.

SAVVI AI for its technology that helps any FinCo team build and deploy AI apps in minutes. No data scientists, pre-existing data, or custom infrastructure required. Video.

Wink for its biometric payments and identity platform that enables users to say goodbye to passwords and fraud – and say hello to secure and simple authentication. Video.

On behalf of the entire Finovate team, we want to thank all of our demoing companies, our partners, and our sponsors. We also want to express our gratitude toward our attendees in the fintech and financial services industry who bring so much positive energy to our events. We look forward to seeing you again next year right here in San Francisco for FinovateSpring 2024!


Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their six favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The six companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2023 conferences are below:
FinovateEurope 2015
FinovateSpring 2015
FinovateFall 2015
FinovateEurope 2016
FinovateSpring 2016
FinovateFall 2016
FinovateAsia 2016
FinovateEurope 2017
FinovateSpring 2017
FinovateFall 2017
FinovateAsia 2017
FinovateMiddleEast 2018
FinovateEurope 2018
FinovateSpring 2018
FinovateFall 2018
FinovateAsia 2018
FinovateAfrica 2018
FinovateEurope 2019
FinovateSpring 2019
FinovateFall 2019
FinovateAsia 2019
FinovateMiddleEast 2019
FinovateEurope 2020
FinovateFall 2020
FinovateWest 2020
FinovateEurope 2021
FinovateSpring 2021
FinovateFall 2021
FinovateEurope 2022
FinovateSpring 2022
FinovateFall 2022
FinovateEurope 2023

FinovateSpring 2023 Sneak Peek: SAVVI AI

FinovateSpring 2023 Sneak Peek: SAVVI AI

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.

SAVVI AI helps any fintech team build, deploy, and manage AI apps in minutes – no data scientists, pre-existing data, or custom infrastructure required.

Features

  • Easy-to-use tool, no data science experience needed
  • Start AI with or without data – continuously learning
  • Complete audibility, model transparency, and controls

Why it’s great

SAVVI AI is turn-key, easy-to-use, and the fastest way to get AI launched into products with a company’s existing team. See ROI in days.

Presenters

Maya Mikhailov, CEO
Mikhailov is the former SVP/GM of the FinTech AI division at Synchrony. Mikhailov is a second-time founder and expert featured in Bloomberg, The New York Times, CNBC, and Forbes.
LinkedIn