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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
While 2021 was a record year for fintech merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, 2022 is off to a great start.
According to FT Partners, there were 1,485 M&A deals in the fintech space totaling $348.5 billion in 2021. As Square’s $29 billion takeover of Afterpay demonstrated, last year’s massive volume is partially thanks to multiple large deals.
This quarter, only eight of the 21 deals initiated disclosed financial details. Of those, the deal volume added up to almost $5 billion.
While experts predict that 2022 M&A activity will likely see momentum from 2021, there are two aspects to watch out for this year. First, we will not see as many SPACs as we saw last year. This may decrease the number of companies choosing to exit this year. Second, fintech valuations are deflating after experiencing huge rises over the course of the past two years. While the loss in value won’t directly impact the number of M&A deals, it will decrease the deal volume.
Day One of FinovateEurope is in the books. The demos are done and, now that the votes of our attendees have been counted, we are happy to introduce the winners of Best of Show for FinovateEurope 2022.
Dreams for its engagement banking platform, rooted in cognitive and behavioral science, that offers a unique way to engage your customers. Demo.
Finshape for its technology that helps banks win the race for digital customers through ready-made digital products and custom delivery services. Demo.
mmob for its technology that makes embedded finance easy and empowers consumer-facing fintechs to supercharge their growth through embedded finance partnerships. Demo.
SESAMm for its technology that leverages big data and artificial intelligence to provide investment signals to investors. Demo.
Trulioo for its global identity verification technology that helps organizations mitigate risk, reduce fraud, and scale compliance programs globally. Demo.
Thanks to all of our demoing companies, our speakers and presenters, our sponsors and partners, and our outstanding audience of both in-person and digital attendees. Be sure to stay connected to the Finovate blog and social media @Finovate to keep up with the latest from our FinovateEurope companies and presenters.
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 five 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 2021 conferences are below:
The digital economy is rapidly growing. With the pandemic accelerating the urgency for agility, adaptability and transformation, traditional business models are being disrupted. It’s estimated that over the next 10 years, 70% of new value created in the economy will be based on digitally-enabled platform business models.
Meanwhile, research regarding global GDP is forecasting that digitally transformed enterprises will reach 53.3 trillion USD by 2023, making them account for more than half of the overall nominal GDP. As the digital economy continues to revolutionize the way we do business, companies are looking to optimize their onboarding workflows for a seamless user experience while continuing to meet Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering and other regulatory and fraud prevention requirements.
With blue ocean opportunities for global growth and prosperity on the horizon, it’s clear that digitally-enabled business models will soon reign supreme in the global economy.
Elevating identity programs with advanced orchestration
By next year, it’s estimated that 75% of organizations will be using a single vendor with strong identity orchestration capabilities for identity proofing and affirmation, which is up from less than 15% in 2021. At a time when securing digital identities is a greater challenge than ever before, this sharp increase in demand for all-in-one vendor solutions is a testament to the pains businesses and their customers are experiencing with current workflows.
Typically, most legacy identity and authentication solutions require companies to cobble together different technologies as their needs and regulations have evolved. As a result of this siloed approach, Frankensteined technology setups put a strain on businesses as they are costly and time-consuming to maintain while also requiring an immense amount of heavy lifting from customers.
Say hello to Trulioo GlobalGateway Orchestration
For the past 10 years, Trulioo, the global leader in identity verification, has been on a mission to build a leading end-to-end identity platform that will enable everyone, in every country, to participate in the digital economy in real-time.
As consumers increasingly interact and transact online, the demand for reliable and robust identity verification services and technology continues to surge.
With this in mind, it only made sense for Trulioo to partner with HelloFlow — an innovative no-code, drag-and-drop builder of client onboarding and monitoring digital workflows.
Through the recent acquisition of HelloFlow, Trulioo is able to bolster its position as a trusted global platform for verifying businesses and individuals while offering advanced orchestration with unmatched capabilities. With a best-in-class, intuitive workflow builder, it will be even easier for customers to customize and deploy its global identity API — Trulioo GlobalGateway.
Backed by advanced orchestration from Trulioo, businesses will be able to seamlessly create multi-product verification workflows and smooth onboarding experiences for their customers, all while keeping their data secure. By bringing together several aspects from the employee and customer journey, businesses can alleviate the pains that are often associated with:
Registrations and logins
Identity verification
Ongoing authentication
With the ability to verify identities, businesses and documents, GlobalGateway Orchestration will combine user onboarding and verification to make it easy to:
Build and launch workflows At the heart of GlobalGateway Orchestration, the flow builder will allow you to build an integrated workflow that connects verification solutions.
Monitor and optimize workflows GlobalGateway Orchestration allows for high-level monitoring and testing of workflows by providing in-depth performance metrics including verification rates, country data and even deeper case-by-case reviews of client data.
Are you ready to future-proof your business?
As your business grows and your needs evolve, it’s important to work with a company that can grow alongside you.
No matter the size of your business, where you’re located or where you’re looking to go, Trulioo has the customizability to get you there. With experience in multiple markets and multiple countries, Trulioo has a team of growth specialists ready to help you future-proof your business, this year and beyond.
To find out how your business can begin leveraging an identity verification platform that’s built for change, visit the Trulioo website or you can see them at FinovateEurope 2022 in booth #37.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and live in London on March 22 and 23, 2022. Register today and save your spot.
Trulioo is the global identity verification leader, helping organizations mitigate risk, reduce fraud and scale compliance programs globally.
Features
Easy-to-do business verification
Simple verification of owner identities
World-class orchestration and workflow building
Why it’s great
See just how simple yet effective verification of businesses and people can be with the industry leader in global verification.
Presenters
Hal Lonas, CTO Lonas brings over 25 years of technology leadership and expertise in cloud security and machine learning to his role as Trulioo CTO. LinkedIn
Mikkel Skarnager, SVP Product Skarnager co-founded HelloFlow, the innovative no-code digital workflow and onboarding solution, now a part of Trulioo. He previously led Digital Transformation at Saxo Bank. LinkedIn
Trulioo has acquired HelloFlow, a digital onboarding startup. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
HelloFlow’s no-code, drag-and-drop tools “vastly simplify” the onboarding process and will offer efficiencies to Trulioo’s GlobalGateway customers.
Trulioo will leverage Denmark-based HelloFlow to help expand its global footprint, specifically in Europe. The company plans to double the size of its team by the end of the year.
Trulioo is making an acquisition today that will boost the digital onboarding aspect of its global identity platform. The company announced it has acquired HelloFlow, a startup that enables businesses to build client onboarding, monitoring, and digital workflow solutions using a no-code, drag-and-drop interface. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
HelloFlow was founded in 2020 by Mikkel Skarnager and Ciprian Florescu who set out to disrupt the onboarding process by creating a digital solution with low barriers to digitalization. They came up with a no-code solution that minimizes coding and developer costs. The Denmark-based company has raised $3.3 million.
“We set out to build a platform that businesses could leverage for digital onboarding regardless of company size, resources, market, or jurisdiction,” said Skarnager. “We’re thrilled to be joining Trulioo and continue the journey of digital innovation and inclusion.”
The purchase combines Trulioo’s GlobalGateway data and identity services network built to verify the identity of both business and individuals with HelloFlow’s suite of orchestration, onboarding workflow, and risk management capabilities. By integrating HelloFlow’s technology, Trulioo will offer a single platform that combines Trulioo’s eIDV, KYB and DocV capabilities with the orchestration solution from HelloFlow. According to the press release, HelloFlow will “vastly simplify” the onboarding process, which will offer efficiencies for Trulioo customers.
“Establishing and securing trust online is a foundational step for all digital activity,” said Trulioo President and CEO Steve Munford. “Our ability to verify both businesses and individuals globally combined with HelloFlow’s advanced orchestration delivers unmatched capabilities and helps us accelerate an end-to-end identity platform that meets the evolving needs of our customers.”
Throughout 2022, the company plans to expand its global footprint. As part of this strategy, Trulioo will leverage HelloFlow’s current locations and operations to support its European expansion. By the end of this year, Trulioo anticipates it will have doubled the size of its team.
This purchase is Trulioo’s second acquisition since it was founded in 2011. Last June, the company raised $394 million in funding, boosting its total funding to almost $475 million and increasing its valuation to $1.75 billion.
For a look at the newest technology coming out of Trulioo, check out the company’s live demo at FinovateEurope next month. Trulioo is a Platinum sponsor of the event, which is taking place in person this year on March 22 and 23 at the Intercontinental O2 in London. Book your ticket today to save.
The announcement that global identity verification specialist Trulioo has signed up a sextet of cryptocurrency companies as its latest round of customers is a testament to the growing maturity of startups in the digital asset business. The six firms – Centbee, GMO Trust, Omni Matrix, Skilling, Strike Protocols, and Vintech Capital – will use Trulioo’s GlobalGateway to enable them to meet KYC and AML compliance requirements.
“The pandemic democratized the world of financial services, helping casual or novice investors explore financial trading online,” Trulioo CEO Steve Munford explained. “With cryptocurrencies becoming mainstream, digital asset issuers and exchanges understood the need to bolster their identity verification programs to securely and seamlessly onboard a huge uptick in users while meeting compliance obligations.”
Trulioo’s GlobalGateway gives companies access to more than 400 data sources to confidently and securely verify the identities of more than five billion individuals worldwide via a single API. The platform provides identity verification with real time comprehensive match results, ID document verification using intuitive image capture and automated verification technology, and AML (anti-money laundering) watchlists with extensive international coverage. This coverage includes sanction lists from law enforcement and government regulatory entities such as financial and securities commissions.
The solution also provides Business Verification, which Trulioo demonstrated during its most recent appearance on the Finovate stage last year at FinovateEurope in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company demonstrated its GlobalGateway Business Verification technology which provides regulated entities with certainty about their business customers and assures compliance with Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements. Leveraging key company data from government sources in more than 80 countries and from non-government sources in more than 195 countries, GlobalGateway Business Verification automates the complete Know Your Business workflow, enabling companies to verify business entity data, conduct watchlists reviews, and identify and verify a business’ beneficial owners.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Trulioo has raised more than $474 million in funding. The company’s most recent fundraising was a Series D investment in June of this year that added $394 million to the firm’s coffers. The round was led by TCV.
The Road to Greater Financial Inclusion in Latin America
This week’s Finovate Global Reports takes a look at the drive for financial inclusion in Latin America. BN Americas this week featured a research survey conducted by Peruvian financial services company Credicorp and research firm Ipsos. The study queried approximately 8,400 households in seven Latin American countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, and Peru.
The key takeaways from the study underscored both the need for more aggressive efforts to boost financial inclusion, as well as the concern that those most in need of financial services are also those who are the most marginalized in society overall. The survey highlighted special challenges when it comes to better engaging women, seniors (people over the age of 60), as well as people living in rural locations and those with “limited education and income” in the mainstream financial ecosystem.
Credicorp Head of Corporate Affairs Enrique Pasquel said that promoting financial inclusion was a critical component of improving the business climate in Latin America. “If Latin America continues to have societies where not all enjoy the same benefits,” Pasquel said, “it’s difficult to see how a business can be viable in the long term.”
Education is one of the tools Pasquel sees as especially valuable in driving greater financial inclusion in the region. Many of the study’s respondents who had low levels of engagement with their country’s financial system pointed to a number of issues – from a lack of interest to an inability to see the benefits to a sense that the services available were not necessary to them – as chief obstacles.
Nevertheless, Pasquel believes that the benefits of financial inclusion – such as the increased safety in enabling individuals to reduce their use of cash – are significant enough to overcome many of these reservations. He called on the private sector to play a greater role in financial inclusion efforts.
Checking In on Fintech Innovation in the Middle East
IBS Intelligence took a look at the fintech industry in Egypt and highlighted a quartet of companies – Fawry, MoneyFellows, Paymob, and Yomken – that it believes represent the pinnacle of fintech in North Africa’s most populous country.
The article noted that recent changes in the financial services industry in Egypt are likely responsible for what has made fintech one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country. The Arab republic passed major new banking legislation in 2020 that, in addition to mandating new minimum capital requirements for Egyptian banks, also provided new guidance for both the Egyptian banking sector, as well as for the country’s growing population of e-payments startups, fintech companies, and cryptocurrency firms.
With a tip of the hat to the four major Egyptian fintechs noted by IBS Intelligence, this week’s Finovate Global Lists is sharing eight other fintechs from the country that have made recent Finovate Global headlines. While not as well known as the quartet highlighted above, we think the eight Egypt-based fintechs below are worth keeping an eye on in the months and years to come.
Cassbana: Helps underserved communities obtain financial identities via micro-lending and an AI-powered, behavior-based scoring system.
Dayra: Provides financial services to un- and underbanked gig economy workers and micro-businesses.
Digital Finance Holding: Supports and promotes fintech innovation in Egypt’s non-banking financial services industry
Flextock: Offers technology-enabled, fast, and affordable fulfillment solutions for businesses.
Hollydesk: Provides a SaaS platform for SMEs that supports daily expense and accounts payable management.
Khazna: Serves underbanked communities in Egypt with a solution that provides convenient and secure smartphone-based financial services.
MoneyHash: Offers a single platform to enable access to payment and financial services across the Middle East and Africa.
Telda: Provides a P2P payment service designed for Egypt’s Millennial and GenZ population.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Identity verification company Trulioo just closed a $394 million funding round. Investors include TCV, which led the round, with participation from existing investors Amex Ventures, Citi Ventures, Blumberg Capital and Mouro Capital.
Today’s investment brings Trulioo’s total funding to almost $475 million and boosts its valuation to $1.75 billion, bringing it into unicorn status.
The funds come at a time of rapid growth for not only Trulioo, but the online security sector in general. That’s in major thanks to the pandemic, which accelerated digital transformation and in turn created more opportunities for fraudsters. In fact, One World Identity estimates that the U.S. digital identity market will increase to over $30 billion by 2023. This spike has prompted Trulioo to expand into new verticals, bolster its leadership team, and add offices in Dublin, Austin, and San Diego over the course of the past year.
Trulioo’s large fundraise follows in the footsteps of competitors. Jumiopulled in $150 million earlier this year and Socure landed two investments– a $100 million round in March and an undisclosed amount last week from Capital One Ventures.
“The shift to online has brought digital identity to the forefront,” said Trulioo President and CEO Steve Munford. “This new round of funding will enable us to accelerate our goal to become an end-to-end identity platform. Our vision is to break down fragmented data silos caused by disparate identity networks, and we will work in partnership with TCV to expand our investments in product innovation, build out artificial intelligence/machine learning capabilities and accelerate our global go-to-market strategy.”
Canada-based Trulioo was founded in 2011 and offers identity verification, document authentication, business verification, and an AML watchlist tool. The company maintains a Digital Identity Network that provides developers access to an API that runs identity verification checks on five billion consumers and 330 million businesses worldwide.
What’s to like about FinovateFall Digital, our all-digital fintech conference starting Monday, September 14th and continuing through Friday, the 18th? A CEO from one of our demoing companies pointed out that one of the special things about this fall’s conference is that because the FinovateFall is all-digital, it enables people all over the world to participate as virtual attendees.
With this in mind, we wanted to use this week’s Finovate Global to highlight those companies from outside the United States that will be demonstrating their latest fintech innovations as part of our annual autumn event. Here’s hoping they bring a few friends from across the border – or from over the sea – to digitally join us!
Cinchy – Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Provides a real-time data collaboration platform to solve data integration, access, governance, and solution-delivery challenges. Finovate Best of Show Winner. Founded in 2014.
DQ Labs – Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Offers a unified suite of modules that enables companies to unlock the value in their data to gain new insights. Founded in 2019.
Horizn – Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Helps banks and financial institutions dramatically increase digital adoption. Finovate Best of Show winner. Founded in 2012.
Mostly AI– Vienna, Wien, Austria. Enables companies to unlock privacy-sensitive data assets while protecting privacy. Founded in 2017.
Payever – Hamburg, Germany. Offers a Commerce Operating System to help entrepreneurs start, run, and grow their businesses. Founded in 2013.
ScientiaConsulting – London, U.K. Leading fintech consulting and development firm in Europe. Founded in 2010.
Join us next week for Finovate’s latest all-digital fintech conference. Visit our registration page today and save your spot at our live and On Demand event.
Digital Currency Comeback?
Back in January Finovate Global took a look at the growing case for national digital currencies. We highlighted initiatives in countries as different as India and Japan, and underscored observations from Christine Lagarde (former head of the IMF and current president of the European Central Bank) in her address, “The Case for New Digital Currency”.
Now Ms. Lagarde is back in the news hinting at a near-term resolution to the question of a digital euro. In a speech this week at the Bundesbank’s conference on digital banking and payments, Lagarde argued that Europe must be wary of falling behind when it comes to the development of digital payment options, and that consideration of a national digital currency needs to be a part of that conversation.
“The Eurosystem has so far not made a decision on whether to introduce a digital euro,” Lagarde said. “But, like many other central banks around the world, we are exploring the benefits, risks, and operation challenges of doing so.” Lagarde added a taskforce on development of a digital euro is expected to release its findings “in the coming weeks.”
Open Banking All Over the World
We recently investigated the prospects for open banking in Australia. This week we share an overview of the state of open banking in Switzerland courtesy of Fintech Zoom’s Jung Min-Seo.
“Europe may moderately declare to be the cradle of open banking,” Min-Seo wrote, “however in contrast to within the E.U. the place members are obliged to implement PSD2, a directive meant to opening up cost transactions to non-banks and promote competitors, Switzerland has no such regulation in place.”
TechWire Asia looks at how Amazon is leveraging its relationship with India to grow its fintech offerings.
Proving that cash is still alive in India, RapiPay, a subsidiary of Capital India Finance, will install 500,000 micro ATMs in the country over the next two years.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Caribbean-based fintech WiPay teams up with Mastercard to expand digital payments in the region.
Austria’s Paysafecard announces expansion into Mexico.
Mexican fintech Ubank, which offers an automated savings solution, plans to expand to the United States.
Asia-Pacific
Revolut goes live in Japan.
Onfidobrings ID verification to migrant worker e-marketplace, MyCash Money, which serves workers in Malaysia and Singapore.
Backbasepartners with Vietnam’s Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank) to speed the institution’s digital transformation.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Nigerian fintechs Opay and PalmPay, along with South African e-payment firm, Yoco, are the only three Africa fintechs to earn spots on CB Insights’ 2020 Fintech Top 250.
Ozow, a digital payments company based in South Africa, launches its new payments platform.
Nigeria’s Sparkle announces plans for digital distribution of insurance solutions.
Central and Eastern Europe
Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis praises Ukraine as the country with the greatest rate of cryptocurrency adoption in a new report.
Hungarian biometric payment startup PeasyPay announces plans to expand to Spain and the U.K.
Balkan Insight reviews the fintech ecosystem in Croatia.
Advanced biometric technologies like facial recognition have their critics. The city of Boston, Massachusetts, just a few weeks ago, became the second community in the world to ban the use of facial recognition technology over concerns of bias against ethnic minorities. And the use of facial recognition in places like China has heightened concerns over the potential privacy-violating aspects of the technology.
Nevertheless, the fact that companies continue to innovate in the biometric authentication space suggests that these issues are more likely to be seen as contemporary challenges rather than permanent obstacles. This is all the more so in a world that is coming more – rather than less – connected, and digital.
Trulioo, a leading global identity verification provider, is one the companies that is helping small businesses take advantage of these technologies. The company announced today that its low-code developer tool, EmbedID, will now feature both facial recognition and document verification functionality. This will enable SMEs to verify new users during the account opening process more efficiently and accurately, and assure that KYC and AML requirements are met.
“Taking a multi-layered approach to identity verification offers businesses the strongest defense against increasingly sophisticated bad actors,” Director of Growth at Trulioo Rutherford Wilson explained. “Adding document verification gives another layer of protection to help reduce risk, especially when combined with reliable identity verification.” Wilson credited the combination of these features for providing businesses with the “increased confidence in knowing the user is tied to a real identity and that they are who they claim to be online.”
Small businesses can use the technology by copying a snippet of code and pasting it on their website. This will automatically generate a stylized registration form that is prewired to Trulioo’s GlobalGateway to provide instant verification of personal identification information. Via the connection to GlobalGateway, small businesses can verify the authenticity of government-issued ID documents and leverage facial recognition technology – equipped with liveness detection – to establish that the individual opening the account is the same person in the photo on the ID document.
“In an age of ongoing digital transformation, it’s essential for SMBs to be able to access the same identity verification solutions used by large organizations to protect their business and scale their company,” Wilson added. He cited cost as the main barrier for most small businesses when it comes to accessing “bank-grade” technology and security. This leaves them more vulnerable to fraudsters than their larger rivals, and makes it more difficult for them to compete.
“We designed EmbedID to help level the playing field to allow for accelerated innovation, customer acquisition, and competition in the marketplace,” Wilson said.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Trulioo has been a Finovate alum since 2014 and most recently demonstrated its technology at our European conference in February. Named to CNBC’s 2020 Disruptor 50 roster in June, Trulioo was featured in our look at Canadian fintech innovators on Canada Day earlier this month.
Six companies that have demonstrated their fintech innovations on the Finovate stage have been recognized this year by CNBC as part of their Disruptor 50 roster for 2020.
This year’s list, the eighth in the series, is marked by the high number of billion-dollar companies, or “unicorns.” Fully 36 of the firms in the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 have reached or surpassed the $1 billion valuation mark. Combined, the 50 companies have raised more than $74 billion in VC funding and achieved an implied market valuation of almost $277 billion.
The companies making the cut range in industry from cybersecurity and healthcare IT to education and, of course, fintech. In fact, the top-ranked company in the 2020 Disruptor 50 is none other than Stripe, the $36 billion payments platform founded in 2010. Stripe earned a #13 ranking in last year’s Disruptor 50 roster, and likely owes its first place appearance this year to a major $600 million funding raising – the company’s largest to date – and the economic and social consequences of the global health crisis.
“With many people throughout the world under lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19,” CNBC’s capsule on the company noted, “the move to shopping online has never been greater. That’s good news for digital payments platform Stripe.”
Stripe was not the only fintech to earn high marks from the 2020 Disruptor 50’s methodology. In addition to the half dozen Finovate alums below, some of the other fintechs on this year’s roster include:
Virtual bank WeLab (Hong Kong)
Digital mortgage company Better.com (New York City)
“Buy now pay later” e-commerce company Affirm (San Francisco, California)
Challenger bank Chime (San Francisco, California)
Banking app Dave (Los Angeles, California)
Microfinancier TALA (Santa Monica, California)
Trading and investing platform Robinhood (Menlo Park, California)
Also earning spots in this year’s list were a pair of insurtech companies, Lemonade and Root Insurance, as well as cybersecurity and biometric authentication firms SentinelOne and CLEAR, respectively.
Here’s a look at the Finovate alums that made this year’s list.
How’s $7 billion for good karma? One of Finovate’s earliest alumsCredit Karma is reportedly the target of what would be Intuit’s biggest acquisition to date. According to The Wall Street Journal, the cash and stock deal could be announced as early as Monday.
Credit Karma will continue to function as an independent company with founder and CEO Kenneth Lin at the helm. The acquisition gives Intuit, maker of online tax filing service TurboTax, another contact point with the online personal finance world. Credit Karma provides its members with access to their credit scores and borrowing histories, helps them monitor their accounts for security breaches and, perhaps most relevantly, has offered a free online tax preparation service since 2017.
If the deal holds up, Intuit will be paying a significant premium for Credit Karma. The personal financial wellness company was last valued at $4 billion, based on a 2018 private market transaction.
With another Finovate conference in the books, our Finovate Best of Show ranks has a new set of members. Congratulations to Dorsum, Glia, Horizn, iProov, Sonect, and W.UP for taking home top honors earlier this month at FinovateEurope!
The victory may have been especially sweet for Sonect, whose Best of Show award-winning demo was also the company’s Finovate debut. The Switzerland-based start-up offers what it calls “the world’s first social cash network” that enables consumers to access cash without having to visit a bank branch or ATM. Sonect offers merchants the ability to grow their business via increased traffic and gives financial institutions a way to extend their ATM networks without the cost of additional hardware.
The Best of Show win was also a first for Horizn. The company, which made its Finovate debut three years ago at FinovateEurope, offers a platform that helps employees and customers maximize the opportunities of digitized financial services. Horizn uses simulator microlearning, as well as gamification and advanced analytics, to promote digital adoption across channels.
And last but not least, a special tip of the hat to Dorsum, Glia, iProov, and W.UP, all of whom won Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope for a second year in a row.
Here’s a round up of recent news from our Finovate alumni.
Larkyenters reseller agreement with Access Softek.
Bison Bank in Lisbon, Portugal selects PSD2-ready software from ndigit.
OurCrowdexpands focus on growing early stage tech companies.
Finovate Alum Features and Profiles
eToro’s Evolution – Social trading and investment platform eToro has never been one to stand still for very long. The company’s development cycle is fast enough to make even the most sprightly fintech jealous.
Lending Club Snaps Up Radius Bank for $185 Million – When Lending Club was founded in 2007, the startup aimed to serve as a place to help borrowers avoid dealing with banks. In a somewhat ironic move today, that same startup is becoming a bank itself.
