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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Thanks for reading Finovate’s Fintech Rundown! We’ve got a new administration in Washington, D.C. and a new week of fintech news and announcements. We’re starting off the holiday-shortened week with a funding in the payments space and a handful of new product launches in insurtech and crypto.
We will update Fintech Rundown all week long with the latest in fintech news.
Payments
Egyptian payment orchestration platform MoneyHashsecures $5.2 million in Pre-Series A funding.
Worldline and Wixteam up to boost online commerce and payments solutions for businesses throughout Europe and Asia Pacific.
Gala TechnologylaunchesSOTpay Connect, a comprehensive payments gateway that supports open banking, direct debits, omni-channel payments, and more.
Insurtech
U.K.-based insurance intelligence platform Percayso Informunveils updated version of its Quote Intelligence platform.
Digital risk processing platform Cytorapartners with property data solutions provider Smarty to enhance property risk evaluation for insurers.
Partnerships in digital banking, identity management, and payments lead off the fintech news headlines as July begins in earnest. Be sure to check back all week long for updates and fresh announcements on the latest industry happenings.
Payments infrastructure solution for software companies Payablisecures $20 million in Series A funding.
Instant payments solutions company Zimplerannounced a new technical partnership with Swedish payments app, Swish.
Lending
ClearScoresecures $4.4 million (£3.4 million) in funding from Fair4All Finance to develop debt consolidation loan technology for the financially vulnerable.
Ireland’s CreditLogicraises $3.8 million (EUR 3.5 million) from Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC).
Crypto / DeFi / Web3
Crypto payments company Kulipapartners with cryptocurrency wallet provider Argent and Mastercard to launch its new crypto-based payment card.
MoonPay and Meshink an exclusive partnership to ease the process of depositing and transferring crypto from exchanges.
Swiss layer-1 blockchain Shardeumpartners with Web3 security services platform Immunefi to launch bug bounty program.
Fraud and identity management
Fraud prevention specialist GBGunveils its KYB solution, GBG Detected.
Germany’s IDnow unveils a pair of new e-signature solutions, InstantSign and eID eSign.
NatWest partners with digital identity identity solutions provider OneID.
iDenfy and UAE-based SIMPal forge strategic partnership to enhance security in the telecom industry.
Insurtech
AutoRekpartners with JP Morgan Payments to enhance premium processing for insurance companies.
Digital banking
U.K.-based digital bank and BaaS platform Griffinreceives B Corp certification.
First Federal Bank of Kansas turns to Jack Henry for its hosted core processing solution.
In this latest venture, the two companies are advancing their partnership to offer core banking and payment solutions to financial institutions. Mastercard is integrating its network and digital solutions with Thought Machine’s cloud-native core banking platform to help banks transition from their legacy core banking and payment technologies to cloud-native ones. Ultimately, the two hope the move will increase their efficiency, reduce costs, and create more integrated, personalized, and customer-centric experiences.
“As we expand our partnership with Mastercard, we plan to leverage their global presence and payment expertise to deliver our core banking and payment platforms to banks worldwide,” said Thought Machine CEO and founder Paul Taylor. “We are excited to simplify and enhance the modernization experience for complex banks worldwide and make it even easier for them to deliver sophisticated customer experiences.”
Today’s partnership also focuses on pay-now solutions. Specifically, the two will help financial institutions digitize debit cards linked to current accounts.
“We’ve had a longstanding relationship with Thought Machine, and they’re now our first strategic, end-to-end partner in the core banking space,” said Mastercard Europe President Mark Barnett. “We’re providing leading banks and financial institutions with a comprehensive core banking and card issuing solution that meets tomorrow’s payment needs, and we look forward to scaling our joint capabilities.”
Mastercard and Thought Machine first partnered in 2020, when Thought Machine participated in the Mastercard Start Path startup engagement program. In 2022, the two teamed up to develop Vault Payments, an issuer processing solution that leverages Mastercard’s cloud technology. Vault Payments supports various card and non-card use cases, tapping Mastercard’s extensive payment network with Thought Machine’s banking technology.
U.K.-based Thought Machine has raised $563 million in funding since it was founded in 2014. The company offers two main products: Vault Core, a tool that leverages smart contracts to help organizations design and build new financial products; and Vault Payments, a payments processing platform that enables banks to run all payment types for different payment methods, schemes, and regions across the globe. Among Thought Machine’s clients are Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Curve.
FinovateEurope 2024 will have its fair share of local talent demoing live on the Finovate stage on 27 February in London. And while we’re looking forward to the return of FinovateEurope 2023 Best of Show winner NayaOne, we’re also excited to meet a whole bunch of U.K.-based fintechs that are making their Finovate debuts:
FinovateEurope 2024 will also feature one of our most geographically diverse lineups to date. Companies from 15 different countries plus the U.K. will be on hand in just a few weeks to demo their latest fintech innovations at our annual European fintech conference.
See for yourself! Here’s a look at the range of countries our demoing companies are coming from:
This week’s Fintech Rundown features partnership and expansion news from a handful of Finovate alums, as well as some interesting fundings in the cryptocurrency and charitable giving space.
Thought Machine and Flexys announced a new partnership this week.
The partnership wil integrate Flexys Control+ debt management platform with Thought Machine’s core banking solution, Vault Core.
UK-based Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2018.
Core banking platform Thought Machine and debt management and collections company Flexysannounced a new partnership this week. The partnership will integrate Flexys Control+ debt management platform with Thought Machine’s Vault Core.
Rising consumer debt levels and legacy technology in debt management have created processes that are labor-intensive, expensive, and inefficient. To this end, the real-time integration between platforms will enable banks to enhance their debt management capabilities and modernize their banking operations with a new core. Thought Machine’s Vault Core is a cloud-native, cloud-agnostic, API-first core banking platform. It features a Universal Product Engine that gives users a great deal of flexibility in the design of new financial products created by smart contracts. This is in addition to a sizable number of pre-built financial solutions. These range from savings accounts and credit cards to Islamic banking solutions and buy now pay later (BNPL) products.
“Banks can now benefit from a seamless cloud-native ecosystem, leaving behind the constraints of legacy systems to improve efficiency, minimize friction, and vastly improve the experience for customers in arrears,” Flexys CEO James Hill said.
For its part, Control+ automates and digitizes customer engagement. This improves efficiency. But it also makes it possible for agents to offer personalized, positive experiences for customers. Emphasizing engagement over confrontation, Control+’s “intelligent debt resolution” approach empowers collections agents while protecting businesses from reputational and regulatory risk.
“Thought Machine and Flexys are removing unnecessary burden and human error,” Flexys Global Head of Partnerships Randolph McFarlane said. “In turn, this enables banks to better serve their customers, providing a superior experience in a time when customer expectations are higher than ever.”
Bristol-based Flexys was founded in 2016. In recent months, the company has forged partnerships with TSB Bank and Virgin Money. In both instances, Flexys helped the institutions manage Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) repayments and Pay As You Grow (PAYG) options.
Thought Machine finished 2023 with a partnership with Mexico-based fintech Trafalgar. The partnership marked Thought Machine’s first collaboration in Mexico, and is designed to help Trafalgar better serve its SME customers. Additionally, the company plans to launch its new Thought Machine-powered platform in Q2 of this year. Trafalgar will also leverage Thought Machine’s technology to develop and offer additional financial services ranging from virtual cards to point-of-sale (POS) systems.
Founded in 2014, Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in London in 2018. The company has raised more than $562 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Thought Machine includes Temasek Holdings and Intesa Sanpaolo among its investors. Paul Taylor is CEO.
Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced a number of new fintech initiatives this week. Among the more interesting was a plan to bring AI-powered, conversational payments to the country’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface) system.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the platform in 2016. Today, UPI has more than 300 million monthly active users in India. There are also 500 million merchants who use the platform to accept payments. With UPI, users can link multiple bank accounts to a single mobile app, and then make real-time, P2P transactions via mobile device or smartphone. Analysts expect daily transaction volume on UPI to reach one billion by 2026-2027.
The proposal would enable users to initiate payments from within both chat and messaging apps. “As Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly integrated into the digital economy, conversational instructions hold immense potential in enhancing ease of use, and consequently reach, of the UPI system,” the RBI press release read. “It is, therefore, proposed to launch an innovative payment mode viz., ‘Conversational Payments’ on UPI, that will enable users to engage in a conversation with an AI-powered system to initiate and complete transactions in a safe and secure environment.”
Conversational Payments will be available initially in Hindi and English, with other Indian languages to be added. The technology will be available via smartphones and feature phone-based UPI channels, which the Reserve Bank of India believes will lead to broader adoption and further financial inclusion. To this end, the RBI has also proposed to bring Near Field Communications (NFC) technology to its UPI-Lite on-device wallet. Launched last fall, UPI-Lite is designed to facilitate small value transactions and now processes more than ten million transactions a month.
An investment of $50 million has given Indian debt collection software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Credgenics a valuation of $340 million. Accel, Westbridge Capital, Tanglin Ventures, Beams Fintech Fund, and other strategic investors participated in the Series B round.
Company co-founder and CEO Rishabh Goel said that the capital would do more than just help the firm expand into new markets. “This funding not only accelerates our growth, but also enables us to make a meaningful impact on the economic landscape of countries, unlocking new opportunities for financial well-being,” Goel said.
Founded in 2019, Credgenics currently serves more than 100 private banks, non-bank financial companies, fintechs, and asset reconstruction companies. The company’s debt resolution platform provides a suite of solutions including digital collections, collections analytics, litigation management, agent performance management, and a field collections mobile app. The technology leverages AI-driven intelligent automation and machine learning to bring greater efficiency to the collections process.
Credgenics handles 11 million retail loan accounts and touched an overall loan book worth $60 billion in fiscal year 2023. The company became operationally profitable this spring. This summer, Credegnics announced a partnership with Indonesia-based lender Investree. The company also was recognized as the Best Selling Loan Collections Platform in IBS Intelligence India Sales League Table for the second year in a row.
Minister of State for Corporate Affairs (independent charge) Rao Inderjit Singh provided the report to Parliament as part of the Startup India initiative. Launched by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade in 2016, this initiative establishes the criteria that confers recognition by the Department. These factors include data of incorporation, as well as revenue and profit benchmarks.
Singh pointed to the “Fintech Entity Framework” as an example of one of the actions taken by the government – in this case the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) – to promote the country’s fintech startup ecosystem. This framework includes a comprehensive scheme of grants for startups, sandboxes, proof-of-concepts (PoC), accelerators, and more.
Singh also credited the government for the success of an initiative which streamlined beneficiary account opening and direct benefit transfers, and improved access to multiple financial services applications. The initiative is called the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), meaning “The Prime Minister’s Public Finance Scheme,” and it set a new world record for account openings upon its launch in 2014. This spring, the initiative reached a major milestone of more than $28 billion (₹2 lakh crore) in deposits.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Thought Machine has partnered with SME lending solutions provider Cordada.
Cordada will use the product library of Thought Machine’s Vault Core to offer customized products to SME lenders and fintechs.
Today’s tie-up, along with a recent partnership with C6 Bank in Brazil, strengthens Thought Machine’s presence in Latin America.
Core banking technology provider Thought Machineannounced this week it is partnering with Chile-based Cordada.
Under the partnership, Cordada will use Thought Machine’s core banking platform, Vault Core, to offer Latin American SME lenders and fintechs access to personalized financial tools. More specifically, Cordada will modify and tailor products in Thought Machine’s global product library that contains pre-built, ready-to-use smart contracts. This customization will enable Cordada to offer localized products to its customer base while supporting multi-currency assets.
“Vault Core will enable us to create highly differentiated financing products quickly and effortlessly without depending on the Thought Machine team,” said Cordada Cofounder and CEO Andrés Prats. “This, in turn, will empower the next generation of SME lenders to develop modern solutions as they tackle the great challenge of bridging the $1 trillion financing gap for SMEs in Latin America.”
Cordada, which currently has partnerships in Chile, Peru, and Mexico, will also use Vault Core to expand its services into new Latin American markets. Since it was founded in 2019, Cordada has deployed $3 billion in capital to lenders via 60 lenders and fintechs, ultimately impacting 5,500 SMEs across Latin America.
U.K.-based Thought Machine has raised $563 million in funding since it was founded in 2014. The company offers two main products: Vault Core, a tool that leverages smart contracts to help organizations design and build new financial products; and Vault Payments, a payments processing platform that enables banks to run all payment types for different payment methods, schemes, and regions across the globe.
Among Thought Machine’s clients are Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Curve. Today’s partnership further fuels the company’s presence in the Latin American region, following a recent partnership with C6 Bank in Brazil.
Jordan Ahli Bank has tapped Thought Machine to launch its new social payments app.
Qawn, the new app, is built on Thought Machine’s Vault Core cloud-native core banking platform.
Using Vault Core’s Universal Product Engine, Jordan Ahli Bank was able to tailor the new app to its diverse customer base.
Core banking technology provider Thought Machine is helping Jordan Ahli Bank launch Qawn, its new social payments app.
Powering Qawn is Thought Machine’s Vault Core cloud-native core banking platform. The banking technology provider’s Universal Product Engine enabled Jordan Ahli Bank to customize the tool based on its customers’ needs.
“Our aim is to help people prosper by creating a social financial experience that addresses real-life problems with cutting-edge technology,” said Jordan Ahli Bank Chief Innovation Officer Nidal Khalifeh. “Money is inherently social, and we want to reinvent digital money with a social aspect. Our app is designed to be secure, user-friendly, and to offer guidance with a focus on technology.”
With Qawn, Jordan Ahli Bank is helping a diverse group of users to send and receive money, request payments through chat, or scan a QR code for hassle-free money management. The app, which supports both Arabic and English languages, is also aimed at commercial banking users and can function as a payment acceptance tool.
Thought Machine was founded in 2014 and has since raised $563 million in funding. The U.K.-based company offers two main products: Vault Core, a tool that leverages smart contracts to help organizations design and build new financial products; and Vault Payments, a payments processing platform that enables banks to run all payment types for different payment methods, schemes, and regions across the globe.
“Bringing Qawn to the market is just the start – we look forward to expanding our partnership with Jordan Ahli Bank to bring further innovative financial solutions to Jordan, and elsewhere in the MENA region,” said Thought Machine CEO and Founder Paul Taylor.
Digital banking platform HMBradley forged a strategic partnership with banking technology provider Thought Machine.
HMBradley will leverage Thought Machine’s Vault Core solution to offer new and more personalized financial products to its customers.
U.K.-based Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018.
Fintech platform HMBradley announced a strategic partnership with banking technology provider Thought Machine this week. Courtesy of the collaboration, HMBradley will be able to clear its waitlist and begin opening new accounts for the first time in nearly a year and a half. To this end, HMBradley also has teamed up with New York Community Bank (NYCB), a division of Flagstar Bank, who will maintain the customer deposit accounts.
“With Thought Machine’s cutting-edge technology, we can quickly create and build the products we’ve imagined, and with NYCB’s long-standing reputation as a stable and successful financial institution, we can exceed customer expectations at scale,” HMBradley co-founder and CEO Zach Bruhnke said. “This will result in an unparalleled customer experience with more personalized tools and benefits for our customers.”
The adoption of Thought Machine’s configurable, cloud-native core banking platform Vault Core has enabled HMBradley to transition away from overnight batch transaction processing to real-time ledger capabilities. Features like Thought Machine’s smart contract technology gives HMBradley the ability to respond to market demands in real time, as well as enhance the customer experience with more personalized solutions and actionable insights into their financial status.
“By running on Vault Core,” Thought Machine CEO Paul Taylor said, “HMBradley will undoubtedly grow and improve its service in ways customers never imagined. We look forward to supporting HMBradley as it bakes power and efficiency into its operations and rolls out innovative new features with speed.”
Thought Machine’s partnership with HMBradley comes less than a month after the company announced that U.S.-based Arvest Bank was launching a new loan offering using Thought Machine’s core banking technology. Thought Machine and Arvest Bank have worked together since the fall of 2021, when the $26 billion financial institution brought Thought Machine on board to help drive its digital transformation strategy. Laura Merling, the bank’s chief transformation and operations officer, praised Thought Machine’s Vault Core for its ability to enable the bank to “build, launch, and manage any financial product through its Universal Product Engine” which offers “highly personalized, targeted products to specific customer segments.”
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in London, U.K., Thought Machine made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018. The company has raised more than $562 million in funding according to Crunchbase, from investors including Temasek Holdings, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Nyca Partners.
We may have missed an alum or two. But with the second quarter of 2022 in the books, here’s a look at our Finovate alumni funding for April, May, and June of this year.
As of our current count, eight Finovate alums have raised more than $984 million in Q2 of 2022. Of the eight alums that received funding in the quarter just ended, two – Allied Payment Network and Chekk – did not disclose the total amount of their investments.
Two of the quarter’s biggest investments were received in June, giving that month the lion’s share of capital raised by Finovate alums in the second quarter of the year.
Previous quarterly comparisons
Q2 2021: More than $2.8 billion raised by 14 alums
Q2 2020: More than $975 million raised by 15 alums
Q2 2019: More than $1.8 billion raised by 29 alums
Q2 2018: More than $1.5 billion raised by 25 alums
Q2 2017: More than $726 million raised by 25 alums
As we noted last year around this time, it is not unusual for second quarters to produce more moderate funding numbers compared to other quarters. And, as with last year, April proved to be an especially “cruel” month for fintech funding – at least as measured by our alums – with only FinovateEurope alum and relative newcomer Crowdz reporting funding that month.
That said, this year’s Q2 haul surpassed that of two of the previous five second quarters – and with significantly fewer alums participating.
Top Equity Investments
SumUp: $624 million
ThoughtMachine: $160 million
Backbase: $122 million
The top equity investment for the quarter was far and away the $624 million raised by London-based e-commerce innovator SumUp. In fact, all three of the top equity investments in Q2 of 2022 were greater than the largest investment in the previous quarter. SumUp’s massive capital infusion rivals all Finovate alum investments since NuBank raised $750 million in the second quarter of 2021.
If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2022 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.
Core banking expert Thought Machine raised $160 million in Series D funding.
The investment was led by Temasek and saw participation from Intesa Sanpaolo, Morgan Stanley, Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, and SEB.
Thought Machine’s valuation now totals $2.7 million, double the valuation it held last fall.
Core banking innovator Thought Machinelanded $160 million in a Series D funding round which values the company at $2.7 billion. This number is two times than the valuation the company received at the close of its Series C round in November of last year.
Today’s investment was led by Temasek and saw participation from Intesa Sanpaolo and Morgan Stanley, as well as existing investors Eurazeo, ING, JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, and SEB. As part of today’s agreement, Lloyds Banking Group has extended its license agreement with Thought Machine until 2029.
“This new round of funding bringing Temasek, Morgan Stanley, and Intesa Sanpaolo into the business is our statement of intent: we intend to become the leader in core banking technology, and are being deployed by the biggest, most successful banks around the world,” said Thought Machine Founder and CEO Paul Taylor.
Thought Machine already operates in New York, Singapore, and Australia, and will soon be available in Latin America. The company will use the funding to fuel further global expansion into the Asia Pacific region, as well. Specifically, Thought Machine is scoping out Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
The company will also use a portion of today’s investment to expand on the capabilities of its existing core banking offering and explore new product lines. “We will use this new capital to accelerate our expansion plans, serve more clients around the world, and continuously refine the capabilities of our core banking platform and other products,” explained Taylor.
With 500 employees and $563 million in funding, U.K.-based Thought Machine has been working to transform the core banking space since 2014. Among the company’s clients are Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, Atom bank, Monese, SEB, and JP Morgan Chase.
