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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ASA, Eko Investments, Fintech Rundown, Kobalt Labs, Mitek, nCino, PayPal, Trustly, UpSwot, Weekly Alumni News

Finovate’s Fintech Rundown is here with a look at some of the top fintech headlines. From startups emerging from stealth flush with capital to the launch of new AI-powered fraud fighting technologies, we’ve got you covered. Be sure to check back all week long for the latest updates.

E-commerce

E-commerce payments solution provider Klarna acquires New Zealand’s Laybuy.

Regtech

Risk and compliance company Unit21 introduces new anti-fraud technology for ACH transactions.

Payments

Uruguay-based cross-border payment platform dLocal forges strategic partnership with Uphold’s onramp service, Topper.

PayPal integrates with payroll provider UKG to offer early wage access.

Payments company D24 forges a strategic partnership with payments orchestration platform Yuno.

Nigeria-based B2B payments and liquidity platform for emerging markets businesses Waza emerges from stealth with $8 million in funding.

Identity management

Biometric authentication solutions company IDEX Biometrics names Catharina Eklof as its new CEO.

Crypto / DeFi

Romania-based AI and blockchain technology provider Humans.ai acquires TensorChain creator Starfish Technologies.

German neobank N26 expands its cryptocurrency trading product, N26 Crypto, to five new European nations: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, and Switzerland.

Worldwide Stablecoin Payment Network (WSPN) raises $30 million in seed funding.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) risk management platform Chaos Labs secures $55 million in Series A funding.

Stablecoin-to-fiat money transfer app Sling Money locks in $15 million in funding.

Lending

ABN AMRO forges partnership with nCino to enhance its corporate lending operations.

Embedded finance fintech Amount secures $30 million to fuel its expansion into the credit union industry.

Digital banking

Challenger bank Starling Bank launches its first savings account offering 3.25% interest.

Wealth management

Cloud-based wealth management solution provider FusionIQ partners with wealthtech provider interVal to deliver new technology solutions to financial advisors.

Open banking

Open banking payments company Trustly announces strategic partnership with food delivery service company foodora.

Financial literacy

Northern Trust teams up with Greenlight Financial Technology to give its clients access to Greenlight’s finance app and debit card.

Embedded finance

Regtech Kobalt Labs joins the Treasury Prime Partner Marketplace.

Three Finovate alums – ASA Financial, Eko Investments, and upSWOT – earn finalist spots in the 2024 NXTSTAGE Financial Technology Pilot Competition.

Accounting and taxes

Automated accounting and tax solution for “solopreneurs,” Lettuce, raises $15 million in Series A funding.

Fraud and financial crime prevention

Digital identity and fraud prevention innovator Mitek Systems expands its partnership with Alogent.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

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upSWOT and NerdWallet Launch Embedded Finance Pilot for SMEs

upSWOT and NerdWallet Launch Embedded Finance Pilot for SMEs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, UpSwot
  • Embedded finance solution provider upSWOT announced a pilot partnership with NerdWallet Small Business.
  • The partnership will combine upSWOT’s embedded finance tools with NerdWallet Smart Business’ financial guidance.
  • upSWOT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2023.

White-label embedded finance innovator upSWOT has teamed up with NerdWallet Small Business. The pilot partnership combines upSWOT’s embedded finance tools with NerdWallet Smart Business’ financial guidance to support small businesses.

“As a platform that provides financial guidance to consumers and small and mid-sized businesses, we recognize the unique challenges small business owners face,” NerdWallet Small Business General Manager Brandon McDonough said. “By partnering with upSWOT through this pilot, we will integrate tools and resources that help simplify small business owners’ financial decisions and fuel their growth and success.”

upSWOT leverages data from more than 200 SaaS business applications and banking platforms to provide its clients with personalized business insights. upSWOT’s embedded finance tools work with banking, ecommerce, payroll, marketing, accounting and other subscription-based technologies typically used by small businesses. The insights derived from these sources enable business leaders to see trends and performance across their customer base. This in turn empowers them to make smart decisions to enhance engagement, build loyalty, and reduce churn.

upSWOT CEO Dmitry Norenko praised Nerdwallet Small Business for its commitment to “transform the way financial services are delivered to small businesses” – a commitment shared by upSWOT. “Together, we will provide small business customers with the tools and resources to thrive in today’s competitive business environment,” he said.

Founded in 2019, upSWOT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring earlier this year. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company announced partnerships with fellow Finovate alums Alkami and Jack Henry in May. This spring, the company announced that it was teaming up with financial data access network Akoya. The partnership with Akoya will link small businesses via secure API to accounts at large U.S. banks. These financial institutions include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, TD Bank, Fidelity Investments, Truist and more.

upSWOT has raised more than $4 million in funding. Common Ocean Ventures and First Southern National Bank are among the company’s investors.

Photo by Pixabay

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FinovateSpring 2023 Sneak Peek: upSWOT

FinovateSpring 2023 Sneak Peek: upSWOT
By Madeline Clines Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2023, FinovateSpring 2023 Sneak Peek, UpSwot

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

upSWOT enhances FI relationships with business clients by offering real-time, actionable insights, personalized suggestions, and relevant financing at the right time during the customer’s journey.

Features

  • Provides real-time actionable insights
  • Offers SMB underwriting data
  • Includes comprehensive health indicators for business clients

Why it’s great

Embedding upSWOT insights will improve outcomes and profitability for both the FI and the SMB.

Presenter

Adam Dolby, SVP Partnerships & Alliances
Dolby has been in the global fintech space for 20+ years and has worked to deliver solutions in partnership with industry leaders, such as Q2, Alkami, NCR, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry, and others.
LinkedIn

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upSWOT Forges Open Banking Partnership with Mastercard

upSWOT Forges Open Banking Partnership with Mastercard
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, MasterCard, UpSwot
  • Mastercard and upSWOT announced an open banking partnership this week.
  • The collaboration will enable upSWOT’s small business customers to access actionable insights and more readily secure financing.
  • upSWOT made its Finovate debut in 2020 and returned to the Finovate stage in 2022 for FinovateFall.

A collaboration between Mastercard and North Carolina-based fintech upSWOT will help banks better serve their small business clients by providing them with actionable insights and easier access to capital. Courtesy of Mastercard’s open banking platform and services delivered via its subsidiary Finicity, the partnership will bring open banking capabilities to upSWOT’s platform. This will enable SMEs on upSWOT’s platform to connect owner-permissioned financial data to 200 API-enabled apps, providing services such as accounting, payroll, e-commerce, CRM, and more.

“SMBs have long been accepted as the engines of economic growth and development but at times are underserved,” upSWOT CEO Dmitry Norenko said. “We believe that fintech innovation can dramatically reshape the success of SMBs.”

In a statement, upSWOT and Mastercard said that they will promote the new joint offering to their customers and to U.S. banks. The new features of the combined solution include:

  • Credit Boost: Enables businesses to share data with credit bureaus to potentially increase credit scores
  • Insights: Analyzes multiple data streams to suggest actions businesses can take to improve operations and profitability
  • Cash Flow Forecasts: Provides visibility into expected cash flows using sensitivity analysis and modeling

Bank reconciliation, cash management, business valuation, funding access, and ecommerce performance are also part of the new solution’s feature set.

“We are excited to partner with upSWOT to make it easier for financial institutions to offer their small business customers the ability to benefit from their financial data to make decisions, demonstrate their ability to manage a loan, and run their businesses more efficiently,” Mastercard EVP of U.S. Open Banking Andy Sheehan said.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Charlotte, upSWOT made its Finovate debut at our all-digital conference in 2020. The company returned to the Finovate stage last September for FinovateFall. Since then, the company has announced partnerships with Standard Chartered (SC) to launch a pilot project in Singapore and with fellow Finovate alum Cion Digital to bring embedded finance tools to more SMEs.

upSWOT has raised more than $5 million in funding from investors including Common Ocean Ventures.

Photo by Joe Caltiere

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Cion Digital and upSWOT Team Up to Bring Embedded Finance Solutions to Commercial Loan Brokers

Cion Digital and upSWOT Team Up to Bring Embedded Finance Solutions to Commercial Loan Brokers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Cion Digital, Daily news, UpSwot
  • Cion Digital and upSWOT have teamed up to bring embedded finance and embedded business management solutions to commercial loan brokers.
  • Courtesy of the partnership, the two companies will enable wealth managers and commercial loan officers the ability to identify ideal financing solutions, as well as broaden their offering with new embedded financial and business management tools.
  • Cion Digital made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateSpring. Making its Finovate debut in 2000, upSWOT returned to the Finovate stage in September for FinovateFall.

Cion Digital, which offers technology to help businesses find the right loan products that suit their needs, has partnered with fintech platform upSWOT. Together, the two Finovate alums will provide wealth managers and commercial loan brokers with embedded finance and embedded business management solutions. These tools will empower these businesses to offer their customers access to a wide variety of tools – including accounting, ERP, payroll, e-commerce, CRM, marketing, and POS business applications – via more than 200 API-enabled apps.

“Cion Digital is focused on using data and machine learning to help financial advisors and commercial loan brokers secure financing for their clients that meets their clients’ unique financial objectives and curate high-value relationships for lenders and financial institutions,” Cion Digital Chief Product Officer Taylor Adkins said. Adkins noted that the partnership with upSOT will make available a wealth of data sources and insights that can be used to further help business owners identify the financing solutions they need – as well as add to their offering with embedded finance and business management resources.

“Fintech has incredible power to dramatically reshape the success of SMBs,” upSWOT CEO Dmitry Norenko added. “The institutions that enable SMBs to take advantage of these dramatic shifts in technologies are institutions that care about their customers and ensuring that they will still be here in a decade.”

A Finovate alum since 2000, upSWOT most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage in September as part of FinovateFall. At the conference, upSWOT showed its white-label, digital-banking-embedded solution that connects to more than 200 integrated SaaS applications, delivering actionable insights, cash flow forecasts, and more. Earlier this month, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based fintech announced a partnership with Standard Chartered to launch a pilot project in Singapore that would give Standard Chartered’s SME customers intelligent forecasting capabilities. Founded in 2019, upSWOT has raised more than $5 million in funding.

Cion Digital demoed its Crypto Dealership Platform at FinovateSpring 2022. In October, the company launched its wealth advisor lending platform, which gives wealth management firms and registered investment advisors (RIAs) curated loan offers and a streamlined application approval process. The platform connects firms and advisors directly to banks and other lenders; the new offering supports not only traditional assets and securities but also crypto assets, as well.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, and founded in 2021, Cion Digital has raised $12 million in funding. The company’s investors include 645 Ventures and Green Visor Capital.

Photo by fauxels

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upSWOT Secures $4.3 Million in Seed Funding

upSWOT Secures $4.3 Million in Seed Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, UpSwot

upSWOT, a fintech that helps bring business intel to small business owners, has raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Among Finovate’s newest alums, upSWOT offers a data aggregation and business finance management platform that leverages cash flow predictions and business insights to enable banks, insurance companies, and other institutions to better serve their small business and mid-market customers.

“Managing a portfolio of SMB clients is a challenge for every bank, lender, and servicer,” upSWOT CEO Dmitry Norenko said. “Amidst a global pandemic, the financial industry must find new and innovative ways to support this vital customer segment. Our white-label solution helps leading national and community banks gain granular insights into their SMB customers launched within six weeks, and with minimal strain on internal IT or overlap with legacy systems.”

upSWOT’s funding round was led by Common Ocean, a venture capital firm that specializes in early-stage fintechs that are innovating in the financial wellness space. Also participating in the round were CFV Ventures, ICBA, First Southern National Bank, and SpeedUp Venture Group, as well as previous investors. upSWOT said that it would use the funding to grow its business in the U.S., add talent to support “a growing list of deployments with Tier 1 and Tier 2 financial institutions,” as well as continue to add features and functionality to its data aggregation and BFM platform.

upSWOT leverages APIs to aggregate data from more than 120 widely-used business solutions such as Quickbooks, Salesforce, Amazon, and Shopify and provide business owners with predictive analysis and actionable insights. Via partnerships with financial institutions, upSWOT’s goal is to help SMEs that have been left to “fend for themselves” by giving them “modern day tools” to help support cash flow management, debt funding, financial planning and accurate cash reporting.

Founded in 2019, upSWOT demonstrated its white-label platform at FinovateWest Digital last year. A graduate of the Berkeley SkyDeck accelerator, the company includes Raiffeisen Bank International, Privat Bank, D&B, and Mastercard among its customers.

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FinovateWest Digital 2020 Sneak Peek: UpSwot

FinovateWest Digital 2020 Sneak Peek: UpSwot
By oliver Posted on
Categories: Finovate, FinovateWest 2020, FinovateWest 2020 Sneak Peek, UpSwot

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring Digital on May 10 through 13, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

UpSwot provides an online banking add-on with cash flow predictions and sales and business insights into QuickBooks, Xero, Amazon, and 120 API-enabled apps to help businesses become more efficient.

Features

  • 120 API-enabled apps
  • Marketing automation powered by continuous access to apps businesses regularly use
  • Banks sell their business products 18% more

Why it’s great
The platform delivers sales, marketing, and risk insights to both the banks and their clients.

Presenter

Dmitry Norenko, CEO
Norenko found a huge gap between the needs of the businesses and the ways the financial institutions serve them. Together with his partners, he created an API-enabled solution used by dozens of banks.
LinkedIn

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