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Finovate Global Germany: Investing in Embedded Finance, Open Banking in Payments, N26 in France

Finovate Global Germany: Investing in Embedded Finance, Open Banking in Payments, N26 in France
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BioCatch, Daily news, Envestnet, Finovate Global, Temenos, Yodlee

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features the latest fintech news from Germany, where investors are backing innovations in embedded finance, payments companies are taking advantage of open banking, and the green shoots of crypto spring are growing ever more apparent.

Solaris secures funding

Germany’s embedded finance platform Solaris secured $103 million (€96 million) in a Series F round this week. The investment was led by SBI, one of Solaris’ earliest investors, with other existing investors also participating. Solaris will use the additional capital, which takes the firm’s total funding to more than $486 million (€450 million), to onboard its ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club) credit card program, strengthen its core capital, and invest further in its platform.

“This is a significant milestone for Solaris on our path to sustainable, profitable growth,” Solaris CEO Carsten Höltkemeyer said. “The funding underlines the high level of confidence our investors have in the transformation of our company.”

In addition to the investment, the Series F also included a financial guarantee of up to $108 million (€100 million) capital equivalent.

A pioneer in the banking-as-a-service business for nearly a decade, Solaris has grown into a major banking and technology provider with more than 750 employees at ten locations in both Europe and India. The company’s BaaS solution enables businesses to embed digital banking services – including payments, lending, and identity verification – directly into their platform. In addition to making it easier for companies to launch customized financial products and services, Solaris has secured the requisite licensing – including an e-money license for both the UK and EEA – to help companies navigate the regulatory complexities of doing business across the region.

Headquartered in Berlin, Solaris realized net revenues of $140 million (€130 million) in 2022. Last fall, the company issued a study – Disrupting the value chain for financial services – How to drive revenue growth with embedded finance – that highlighted “easier access to services” as a major driver of demand for embedded financial solutions.

Micropayment partners with Tink for Pay by Bank

Berlin-based payment processor Micropayment has turned to open banking platform Tink to add Pay by Bank to its payments offering. Live in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Micropayment’s Pay by Bank enables consumers to initiate payments directly from their bank account to the seller’s account when purchasing goods and services. A growing preference for both merchants and consumers, account-to-account (A2A) payments provide a secure and streamlined experience for customers and lower costs for merchants.

“The DACH region is a key market for us, and Tink’s dedication to serving merchants across various industries has been invaluable,” Micropayment CSO Thomas Knoth said. “Their payment method offers consumers the speed, reliability, and security they expect, making it a seamless experience for both merchants and consumers.” In a statement, Micropayment noted that it plans to take further advantage of Tink’s pan-Europe connectivity in the future.

Founded in 2005, Micropayment is a full-service payment provider that provides its customers with software implementation, payment processing, detailed analysis, and more. The company offers nine different payment options designed specifically for e-commerce and paid content services. Micropayment customers can integrate the technology via ready-made payment windows and preconfigured shop logins, as well as white-label APIs and interfaces.

“Collaboration with Micropayment has got off to an excellent start and we are gaining traction in a highly competitive landscape, by offering merchants a payment method that offers everything a consumer has come to expect – familiarity, speed, reliability, and convenience,” Tink DACH Payments Director Thomas Gmelch said.

A Finovate alum since its Best of Show winning debut in 2014 at FinovateEurope, Tink returned to the Finovate stage three years later to earn its second Best of Show award. Most recently, the Sweden-based company announced a partnership with German modern mobility sharing services provider Deutsche Bahn. The company will deploy Tink’s Account Check solution to enable instant, secure account onboarding.

Berlin’s N26 launches cryptocurrency product N26 Crypto

Crypto spring is alive and well in Europe as the region’s most prominent digital bank, N26, announced that its first cryptocurrency product, N26 Crypto, will be available to its customers in France. N26 began the year with the unveiling of its new Stock and ETF trading product – and the bank’s crypto solution already has been available in seven of N26’s 24 European markets. This week’s announcement adds French traders and investors to the ranks of those N26 customers who will be able to transact in nearly 200 cryptocurrencies on the N26 app.

N26 Crypto will be available to all eligible customers in France, or at least with a French or a German IBAN. All membership tiers will be able to access the technology, including customers using free accounts. There will be no additional charge for using N26 Crypto, which the bank says will offer the broadest range of cryptocurrencies for trading and investing compared to all other European banking apps.

“Last summer, we installed our local French Iban to be able to accelerate the deployment of the global banking offer that we want to provide to our approximately 3 million customers in France,” N26 General Manager France & Benelux, Jérémie Rosselli explained. “With this, customers can go beyond managing their money simply and intuitively on their smartphone to also invest within the N26 ecosystem,” Rosselli said.

The new offering is made possible via a partnership with Bitpanda GmbH, which manages the execution of trades as well as the custody of coins. With only €1 to get started, N26 Crypto users pay 1.5% in fees on Bitcoin and 2.5% on other cryptocurrencies. Users can upgrade to N26 Metal to take advantage of reduced transaction fees, as well as other perks.

Founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal, N26 has eight million customers and operates in 24 different markets. The bank’s crypto product announcement follows a slew of recent headlines from the German bank. These include the launch of its Instant Savings solution in 13 new markets, and the appointment of Mayur Kamat as new Chief Product Officer.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • German challenger bank N26 launched new cryptocurrency trading product N26 Crypto.
  • Flowpay, a Czech-based fintech that provides financing for small businesses, raised $2.3 million (€2.1 million) in seed funding.
  • German embedded finance platform Solaris raised $103 million (€96 million) in a Series F round led by SBI Group.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Israel-based BioCatch and Google Cloud partner to bring fraud prevention solutions to expanding markets.
  • UAE-based Tungsten secured a license from the FSRA to operate at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
  • Bahrain’s Eazy Financial Services joined forces with Tabby to provide BNPL services via its EazyPay POS terminals network.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Business Recorder’s Syed Yousuf Raza looked at how Pakistan’s banking and fintech industry is dealing with evolving fraud threats.
  • The Indian government signed a $23 million loan agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to enhance access to fintech education, research, and innovation at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City.
  • FinTech Alliance Nepal joined the Asia FinTech Alliance.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Colombian fintech Addi secured $86 million in a combination of equity and debt financing.
  • Uruguayan digital payments firm dLocal anticipates record total payment volumes in 2024.
  • Nubank Brazil CEO Livia Chanes talked with Bloomberg News about the state of fintech in Latin America.

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based cross-border payments company Thunes expanded its strategic partnership with Visa.
  • Australia’s HeirWealth integrated with Envestnet | Yodlee to bring open banking data sharing to its wealth register for high net-worth families.
  • HSBC and the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks startup hub announced the first “public-private cooperation between the city’s largest innovation and technology ecosystem and leading global bank.”

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Ethiopia’s Cooperative Bank of Oromia partnered with Temenos to launch its CoopApp and CoopApp Aluhuda for both conventional and Islamic digital banking experiences.
  • dLocal teamed up with Ebury to bring African customers optimized payment solutions.
  • Safaricom, a telecom based in Kenya, partnered with Onafriq to offer remittance services to Ethiopia.

Photo by Kai Pilger

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Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation

Envestnet | Yodlee Taps Ocrolus for Financial Document Automation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Envestnet, Ocrolus, Yodlee

Document automation platform Ocrolus announced it has teamed up with financial data aggregation and account verification expert Envestnet | Yodlee this week.

Under the agreement, Envestnet | Yodlee will leverage Ocrolus’ technology to enhance digital document capabilities for its clients. Specifically, Envestnet | Yodlee’s 47 million customers will be able to improve their user experiences by offering their end-users the option to either submit documents or digitally connect bank accounts. Customers will also be able to automate the extraction of financial data from the documents that the end consumer uploads.

“While the financial services industry has undergone significant digital transformation, documents are still a critical source of data,” said Ocrolus Co-founder and CEO Sam Bobley. “We are thrilled to partner with Envestnet | Yodlee to provide a more comprehensive and smoother customer experience across a variety of financial services use cases.”

New York-based Ocrolus leverages AI to capture and analyze data from 1,000 different types of documents and digital forms and boasts an accuracy rate of more than 99%. The company counts more than 400 clients, including Enova, PayPal, Brex, CrossCountry Mortgage, Plaid, and SoFi, who use the solution to detect fraud, analyze cash flows and income, and streamline decisions.

With these capabilities Envestnet | Yodlee anticipates its clients will benefit from more efficient and confident decision-making. “With added document automation capabilities, Envestnet | Yodlee will improve and streamline the onboarding process for credit and lending use cases,” explained company Chief Operating Officer Arun Anur.

Envestnet | Yodlee’s client list includes more than 1,300 financial services and fintech companies, including 17 of the top 20 U.S. banks. The company was founded in 1999 as Yodlee, and changed its name to Envestnet | Yodlee after Envestnet acquired Yodlee for $660 million.

In a digital world, sharing documents can be a huge headache. However, automation platforms such as Ocrolus, this process has become much smoother. Today’s collaboration between Envestnet | Yodlee and Ocrolus marks a significant step forward in enhancing the customer experience.

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Experian Teams Up with Envestnet | Yodlee to Bring the Benefits of Open Data to Lenders

Experian Teams Up with Envestnet | Yodlee to Bring the Benefits of Open Data to Lenders
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Envestnet, Experian, Yodlee
  • Experian announced a partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee to help lenders in Australia take advantage of open data.
  • The collaboration will help Experian manifest its open data strategy in the country following its application to be an Accredited Data Recipient.
  • Both Experian and Envestnet | Yodlee have been Finovate alums since 2012 and 2016, respectively.

Information services company Experian has picked a partner as its official Open Data API provider in Australia. The company is teaming up with data aggregation and analytics platform Envestnet | Yodlee in an alliance that will allow Experian to access data under the Consumer Data Right (CDR) from data holders including Australia’s Big Four banks and more than 70 Australian FIs.

“Open Data solutions have the capability to solve two of the biggest challenges for Australian lenders: the accuracy of data to support responsible lending and streamlining the customer experience to get a faster decision,” General Manager of Experian Digital Simone Jemmett explained. “The more consumers that opt in to share data through Open Banking, the faster it will deliver the value it has in more mature data markets spurring innovation and greater competition among lenders,” Jemmett said.

The partnership news comes in the wake of Experian’s application to the Australian Competition ad Consumer Commission (ACCC) to become an Accredited Data Recipient under the CDR back in December. This is key step in becoming a part of Australia’s open banking ecosystem, and enabling Experian to focus on delivering fast and accurate affordability assessments. By leveraging Envestnet | Yodlee’s APIs, Experian will be able to help lenders shift to an emphasis on using Open Data sources rather than the traditional credit application process that requires manual uploads and data entry, as well as other inefficient practices.

“Lending is a valuable use case for Open Data with tangible benefits for lenders and borrowers,” Envestnet | Yodlee A/NZ Country Manager Tim Poskitt said. “With Experian coming into the CDR ecosystem, Australian Open Banking is reaching a tipping point and we’re ready for adoption to accelerate in 2023.”

A Finovate alum for more than a decade, Experian made its most recent appearance on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in 2018. More recently, the company has partnered with fellow Finovate alum Zopa, which integrated Experian Boost into its credit-decisioning process. Experian began the year teaming up with decentralized and secured lending portfolio provider Credefi, and launching a new solution called CreditLock. This new feature enables customers to lock their Experian Credit Report to defend themselves against fraud and identity theft. “Our goal is to create products that help improve people’s financial wellbeing and give them more control over their finances,” Experian Head of Product Management Jayne Sankoh-Beacom said. “With this new feature we can now give our customers that extra layer of protection against identity fraud.”

Making its most recent Finovate appearance at FinovateFall 2021, Envestnet | Yodlee finished 2022 with news of a “deeper integration” between its Redi2 BillFin client billing solution and Schwab Advisor Services. This deeper integration gives advisors on Schwab’s platform who are using BillFin to access capabilities such as flexible billing setup and standardized templates, as well as reminders and alerts. “This deeper level of integration will allow even more data to seamlessly flow back and forth between the BillFin and Schwab platforms,” Envestnet Head of Billing Technology Fermin Garcia explained.

Photo by Catarina Sousa

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Secure Document Exchange Platform FutureVault Teams up with Envestnet | Yodlee

Secure Document Exchange Platform FutureVault Teams up with Envestnet | Yodlee
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, FutureVault, Yodlee
  • Secure document exchange and digital vault platform FutureVault announced a partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee.
  • FutureVault made its Finovate debut in 2016 at FinovateFall in New York.
  • FutureVault CEO Daniel Kenny took the helm of the Toronto, Ontario, Canada-based company in January.

Last week we announced that Envestnet | Yodlee had partnered with fellow Finovate alum Backbase to bring new data aggregation, account verification, and enriched transaction data insights to banks. This week we report that Envestnet | Yodlee has forged a collaboration with another Finovate alum, FutureVault.

The partnership will enable FutureVault to leverage Envestnet | Yodlee’s data aggregation and analytics platform to enhance its ability to serve its financial services and advisor clients with advanced document exchange solutions. FutureVault’s platform supports front, middle, and back-office teams with the tools they need to securely access, share, and manage sensitive information and documents. These tools give organizations the ability to aggregate and centralized financial documents and data from multiple institutions into FutureVault’s secure digital vault, provides financial planning professionals with a holistic view of client finances, and enables trusted advisors to build better relationships with their customers.

“The integration with Envestment | Yodlee is another milestone in our aggressive 2022 technology roadmap,” FutureVault CEO Daniel Kenny said. “This integration is driven by our plan to continue building the most comprehensive digital vault solution and will contribute toward our strategic platform vision that brings together Documents, Data, and Digital Assets.”

FutureVault put the partnership in the context of the company’s Personal Life Management initiative. This thesis is based on aggregating financial documents and data in a secure location while giving financial planners and advisors the ability to leverage FutureVault’s technology to provide a “family office” type of service.

“This integration with Envestnet | Yodlee is not only driven by improving the relationship advisors will have with their clients,” FutureVault co-founder and Executive Chairman G. Scott Paterson said. “It is about ultimately providing clients with access to the best tools to manage their financial lives that extend beyond the advisor.”

FutureVault made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2016 in New York. Recently, the company has partnered with companies like PureFacts to facilitate secure and automatic delivery of financial statements, and with enterprise wealth management platform d1g1t. With this collaboration, FutureVault’s secure document exchange technology will help the d1g1t better manage its compliance, document retention, and document sharing responsibilities.

“We know that there is a significant need across the industry for all-encompassing solutions,” Kenny said when the strategic partnership with d1g1t was announced in late March. “By partnering with the exceptional team at d1g1t, we can bring that type of integrated solution to the market that addresses the many workflow challenges firms and advisors face, while elevating the experience for both clients and advisors.”

Founded in 2014, FutureVault has raised $2.3 million in funding. Current CEO Daniel Kenny was appointed to the position in January of this year after serving briefly as the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Previously, Kenny was an executive at HSBC for more than 22 years.

Photo by Tara Winstead

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Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee Partner to Bring Data Aggregation, Account Verification, and Enriched Transaction Data to Banks

Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee Partner to Bring Data Aggregation, Account Verification, and Enriched Transaction Data to Banks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Backbase, Envestnet, Yodlee
  • Two Finovate alums, Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee are teaming up to help financial institutions better serve their customers.
  • The collaboration will offer pre-built integrations with Envestnet | Yodlee’s Data Aggregation, Account Verification, and Transaction Data Enrichment solutions.
  • Both Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee made their most recent Finovate appearances at FinovateFall in New York in September.

A newly announced partnership between Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee will enable financial institutions to offer their customers a holistic view of their finances, as well as an improved customer experience. Specifically, the partnership will bring account data aggregation, account verification, and transaction data enrichment from Envestnet | Yodlee to the Backbase Engagement Banking platform. The move enhances Backbase’s financial wellness capabilities and intuitive customer journeys, and supports the company’s goal of becoming a category leader in the engagement banking platform space.

Backbase CPO Karan Oberoi called the collaboration a “major milestone” in the company’s efforts to “bring value to every step of the full customer lifecycle on a single, unified platform.” Oberoi highlighted the ability of the Backbase Engagement Banking platform to help financial institutions leverage technologies from innovative fintechs like Envestnet | Yodlee “while limiting implementation, procurement, and risk assessment time.”

Adding Account Data Aggregation to the platform will enable customers to combine and maintain all of their financial accounts in a single application. In addition to making it easier for customers to better understand their financial status, the feature also increases stickiness – as well as the potential for cross-selling opportunities – as customers spend more time on the bank’s app. Account Verification allows customers to add and verify their financial accounts in a single app without requiring the use of micro-deposits. Both KYC and AML compliance are also enhanced by the addition of the account verification capability. Lastly, by providing transaction data enrichment, the platform will lower the cost- of-serve for financial institutions and improve customer engagement.

“Entering into this strategic partnership with Backbase is another proof point on how industry leaders are relying on quality data, comprehensive coverage, and intelligent insights from Envestnet | Yodlee to meet fast-growing banking demands,” Envestnet Data and Analytics Group Head Farouk Ferchichi said.

Both multiple-time Finovate Best of Show winners, Backbase and Envestnet | Yodlee made their most recent appearances on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in New York last September. Backbase demoed a customer onboarding solution that consolidates customer finances via direct deposit, billpay auto linking, and debit card account opening. Envestnet | Yodlee showed how Conversational AI technology can be deployed to deliver hyper-personalized financial insights and goals-based micro-savings applications.

Photo by Essow

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Envestnet |Yodlee Forges Data Exchange Agreement with Wells Fargo

Envestnet |Yodlee Forges Data Exchange Agreement with Wells Fargo
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Envestnet, Yodlee

Is this another instance of open banking, American-style?

One of the major topics of discussion at FinovateFall Digital last week was how the open banking phenomenon that is sweeping the globe will manifest itself in the U.S. The consensus was that open banking will not be driven by regulations in the U.S. as it is in many parts of the world. Instead, the ability of U.S. consumers to access third-party financial solutions via their primary banking partner more likely will be driven by consumers themselves. Another key driver will be companies looking to distinguish themselves from rivals by providing better, more diverse solutions from which to choose.

This is very much top of mind as we receive the news that Wells Fargo has entered a data exchange agreement with major financial data aggregation and analytics platform Envestnet | Yodlee. The partnership will enable the bank’s customers to seamlessly and securely share their data with the 1,400 third-party financial apps available on the Envestment | Yodlee Financial Data Aggregation Platform.

The agreement is also a large step for APIs (another major theme at FinovateFall Digital last week). Wells Fargo announced that it will also transition virtually all of its current third-party financial app screen-scraping to API-based data exchange, and added that the partnership with Envestnet | Yodlee represented the bank’s commitment to forge more API-based data exchange agreements with third-parties going forward.

“As we help customers navigate these uncertain times, we want to enable them to seamlessly connect with and use third-party apps that help them manage their finances and do so in as secure a way as possible,” Wells Fargo Strategy, Digital, and Innovation Group SVP Ben Soccorsy said. “Wells Fargo’s agreement with Envestnet | Yodlee does just that. In the future, our customers will be able to share their financial information with Envestnet | Yodlee-supported apps with enhanced ease, security, and control.”

Wells Fargo customers will be able to access third-party services via the bank’s Control Tower digital experience, which sits inside Wells Fargo’s banking app and is also available online. Control Tower enables both consumer and small business banking customers to manage their finances more efficiently, providing a single, unified view of their accounts with Wells Fargo. Importantly, customers will not only be able to turn the data sharing option on and off, they also will be able to designate the specific data they wish to share with third parties.

“API-based connectivity in the United States is leading to an increasingly connected financial ecosystem, spearheaded by the partnerships like the one we now have with Wells Fargo,” SVP of Data Access & Management at Envestnet | Yodlee Chad A. Wiechers said.

With more than 27 million users around the world, Envestnet | Yodlee demonstrated its Insight Solutions at FinovateFall Digital last week. The new offering enables financial services providers to build and scale hyper-personalized financial wellness experiences for their customers. Long-time Finovate alum Yodlee was acquired by Envestnet five years ago for $660 million. Envestnet was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Redwood City, California.

Photo by Stephanie Pombo from Pexels

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Power to the Personalization: Envestnet | Yodlee Launches Insight Solutions

Power to the Personalization: Envestnet | Yodlee Launches Insight Solutions
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Yodlee

The latest offering from Envestnet | Yodlee enables financial service providers to combine actionable insights, peer benchmarking, and personalized views to build digital financial experiences that better serve and engage their customers across channels. Insight Solutions, unveiled today, provides a set of new APIs that will help companies leverage data to improve the quality of their virtual financial assistance offerings.

“Hyper-personalization is the new baseline for success, and financial institutions and FinTechs who have a more advanced understanding of consumers and tailor their offerings accordingly will have a strategic and competitive advantage,” Envestnet | Yodlee SVP of Product Brandon Rembe said. “Through our Insights Solutions, financial service providers will have access to meaningful consumer insights faster and more affordably than by growing their own data science team.”

Users will be able to take advantage of features like predictive cash flow; spending, credit limit, and refund monitoring and alerts. The new tool will also provide transparency into subscription-based and other recurring expenses. The solution puts the power of machine learning and algorithms to work to provide users with a comprehensive overview of their personal finances, enhancing their ability to save for retirement, build an emergency fund, as well as manage their everyday spending.

With more than 26 million users worldwide, more than 1,300 partners (including 16 of the top 20 U.S. banks), and 50+ patents, Envestnet | Yodlee offers data aggregation and analytics technology solutions that support financial wellness and sound wealth management. Envestnet acquired Yodlee, one of Finovate’s oldest alums and a multiple-time Best of Show winner, in 2015 in a deal valued at $660 million.

Envestnet | Yodlee began this year with the acquisition of financial data aggregation and analytics platform, FinBit.io. This month, the company issued a report looking at income and spending trends during the COVID-19 crisis. In the form of an eBook, the report looks at how retailers in different industries – from restaurants and transportation to barbershops and gaming – were impacted by consumer behavior shifts due to the economic effects of quarantines, lockdowns, and other efforts to fight the pandemic.

Barrons featured Envestnet co-founder and current CEO Bill Crager in an interview last month. Crager took the helm at the company after the tragic death of previous Envestnet CEO Jud Bergman in a 2019 automobile accident. Crager discussed the personal and professional challenges of the succession, as well as plans for 2019 acquisition MoneyGuide, and the company’s strategy for serving its clients during the global pandemic.

Envestnet | Yodlee is a publicly traded company – ENV on the New York Stock Exchange – and has a market capitalization of $4.4 billion.

Photo by João Jesus from Pexels

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Russia Gets a New Tech Billionaire as U.K. Fintechs Get Funded

Russia Gets a New Tech Billionaire as U.K. Fintechs Get Funded
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Azimo, Envestnet, FinBit.io, Finovate Global, MasterCard, Ripple, Yodlee

Russia has a new tech billionaire. The $500 million raised by financial platform Revolut this week not only establishes the U.K.-based business as the country’s most valuable fintech. It also makes its founder and CEO, Moscow-born Nikolay Storonsky, the latest fintech billionaire to come from the Russian Republic.

The investment was led by Technology Crossover Ventures – a U.S. firm – and takes Revolut’s total capital to $836 million. Revolut now sports a valuation of $5.5 billion.

Storonsky’s net worth figure – on paper, at least – is based on a Forbes report from last February in which he noted that his stake in Revolut was being diluted to 30%.

As part of this big week for U.K. fintechs, SME lender iwoca picked up $109 million funding and expansion into Germany. B-Social, a social payments app based in London, raised $10 million ahead of its transformation into a fully-licensed challenger bank later this year. And Azimo partnered with fellow Finovate alum Ripple to facilitate cross-border payments to the Philippines.

This week on Finovate.com, we featured a profile of Innovate Israel founder and CEO Itai Green and his thoughts on open innovation and collaboration between corporates and startups. We also highlighted Finovate newcomer Sonect, a Swiss company that demonstrated its Best of Show winning virtual cash network at FinovateEurope earlier this month.

Here is our weekly look at fintech around the world.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian fintech PhoneParLoan announces new investment from accelerator MOX. The amount of the funding was not disclosed.
  • Bengaluru-based digital billpay company XPay Life goes live in India.
  • Envestnet | Yodlee acquires Indian data aggregator FinBit.io.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • AlphaCredit, a Mexico City-based fintech, raises $125 million in round led by the SoftBank Innovation Fund.
  • Mexico issues its first license – to NVIO Pagos Mexico – under its new fintech law.
  • U.S. Bancorp’s merchant acquirer subsidiary, Elavon, sells its Mexican operations to banking group Santander.

Asia-Pacific

  • Azimo taps Ripple for cross-border payments to the Philippines.
  • Philippines-based Tonik Financial raises $6 million ahead of the launch of its new digital offering.
  • Malaysia’s biggest telecom, Axiata Group, is the latest company in the country to announce plans to pursue a digital banking license.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • South Africa’s Jumo raises $55 million in combined debt and equity funding.
  • Nigeria’s The Nation looks at how fintech empowers startups.
  • Kenyan B2B e-commerce platform Sokowatch locks in $14 million Series A funding.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Mastercard expands its partnership with Rakuten Viber to bring P2P payments to Romania.
  • A new $500 million funding round for Revolut makes the company’s founder and CEO Nikolay Storonsky Russia’s latest tech billionaire.
  • Apple Pay goes live in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Kashat, an Egyptian mobile app that offers short-term loans of up to $95 to the underbanked, goes live in Cairo and Alexandria.
  • Jordanian SME lending marketplace Liwwa raises $5 million in growth funding.
  • A new agreement between Tencent Holdings and Network International will expand WeChat Pay’s presence in the UAE.

Top image designed by Freepik

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Envestnet | Yodlee Acquires Indian Data Aggregator FinBit.io

Envestnet | Yodlee Acquires Indian Data Aggregator FinBit.io
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, FinBit.io, Mergers & Acquisitions, Yodlee
Photo by Yogendra Singh from Pexels

Envestnet | Yodlee has acquired another asset in its strategy to further grow and develop its data aggregation and analytics business.

The company has purchased India-based FinBit.io, a data analytics platform that offers a scoring solution, BankScore, designed to help people who struggle to obtain credit due to a poor or insufficient credit history. Both companies are Finovate alums: Envestnet | Yodlee made its last Finovate appearance at FinovateFall in New York back in September; FinBit.io made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia last fall in Singapore.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The deal was completed on February 18th.

Envestnet sees the acquisition as accelerating innovation within the company, fueling the ability of the firm to market compliant solutions to new and existing customers in the region. As part of the deal, FinBit.io founder and CEO Prashant Paliwal will lead Yodlee FinSoft, an Envestnet | Yodlee subsidiary focused on the account aggregation business in India and Asia.

Envestnet | Yodlee Chief Executive for Data and Analytics Stuart DePina called India and Asia strategically important to the company, and highlighted the account aggregator ecosystem in India as one of the more vibrant developments in fintech. “We are delighted to empower millions of consumers in India with state-of-the-art Account Aggregator technology and superior user experiences that will allow them to share consented data seamlessly across platforms enabling speedy solutions such as the real-time processing of personal loan applications,” DePina explained.

“Our vision is to empower consumers with the ability to permit the aggregation of their financial data so that holistic analytics can be made available to valuable services like affordable credit, personal finance management, and even accounting,” FinBit.io’s Paliwal said. Paliwal, who founded the Bangalore-based company in 2017, said the acquisition would enable FinBit.io to expand its product portfolio and scale its offerings. Paliwal is a Yodlee veteran, running the company’s APAC fintech business before launching FinBit.io.

Envestnet acquired multiple Finovate Best of Show winning Yodlee in 2015 for $660 million. Founded in 1999, the company has more than 25 million users around the world and 1,200+ financial institution partners including 15 of the top 20 U.S. banks. The publicly-traded firm, ENV on the New York Stock Exchange, has a market capitalization of $4 billion.

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JPMorgan Chase: More Tokens, Fewer Passwords, Better Security

JPMorgan Chase: More Tokens, Fewer Passwords, Better Security
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Plaid, Yodlee
Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels

According to reporting in the Financial Times, JPMorgan Chase is the latest financial institution to pledge a pivot toward tokenization to make it easier and safer for customers to access third party financial solutions. Tokenization enables FIs to securely send only the limited amount of data necessary to complete transactions, and limits the exposure of customer passwords and other sensitive information. The article, by Laura Noonan, highlights a pair of companies – Envestnet |Yodlee and Plaid – and their agreements to use tokenization in their interactions with Chase and other major FIs.

“Our partnership with Chase will allow further consumer choice, reliability, and insight into how and where their data is being used, along with improved overall financial well-being,” Envestnet | Yodlee CEO Stuart DePina said when his company’s deal was announced last December. “As we move toward API-based connectivity in the United States, relationships like the one we have with Chase are laying the groundwork for this reality by giving consumers greater connectivity across their financial accounts, all accomplished through these types of secure and protected channels.”

The move also represents Chase’s most recent strike against screen scraping, with the FI has long opposed out of concerns that the practice was exploitative of customer data. Noonan’s article notes JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon who decried the way “many third parties sell or trade information in a way customers may not understand, and the third parties, quite often, are doing it for their own economic benefit – not for the customer’s” in a shareholder letter in 2016.

On Finovate.com

  • The CA Consumer Privacy Act Went into Effect While You Were on Vacation – If you’re unfamiliar with the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), you might want to stop catching up on email you missed over the holiday and focus on this new regulation. Here are a few highlights of California’s new law, which went into effect yesterday.
  • Wall Street to Exiting Fintechs: Show Us the Profits – What does the fintech landscape look like for startups in 2020? Among all the forecasts and predictions we’ve been reading and re-reading, is reporting from the Wall Street Journal that suggests that fintech startups seeking successful exits may face tougher challenges in 2020 than in 2019.
  • B-North Lands $2.6 Million Ahead of Launch – E.U.-based alternative lending company B-North announced this week it landed $2.6 million (£2 million) in new funding. The investment comes as part of crowdfunding efforts via Crowdcube and Growthfunders.
  • Finovate Global: Solaris Bank to Secure CryptoCurrencies; Brazilian Fintechs Announce New Funding

Alumni in the News

  • Mastercard snaps up RiskRecon.
  • Lendio recognized as one of the best places to work by Glassdoor.
  • iProov CEO Andrew Bud earns Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) status from Queen Elizabeth as part of his work in driving technology innovation in the U.K.
  • Standard Chartered appoints Rene Keller as CIO of CCIB.
  • Ayondo chairman resigns.

If you are a Finovate alum, please send us your news and announcements by Friday noon, Pacific Time, in order to be featured in our weekly Alumni in the News roundup.

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Finovate Alumni News

By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Artivest, DriveWealth, Envestnet, Finastra, PaySend, Revolut, RightCapital, Temenos, Tink, Yodlee

On Finovate.com

  • RightCapital Inks Strategic Partnership with Financial Advisor Association

Around the web

  • Envestnet | Yodlee forges data sharing agreement with JP Morgan Chase.
  • Temenos partners with CWB Financial Group.
  • DriveWealth teams up with SBI Thai Online Securities, bringing access to U.S. stocks to Thai investors.
  • Open banking platform Tink announces expansion to Portugal and Italy.
  • New partnership with Smart Pension will enable Revolut to offer its business customers the ability to automate monthly pension contributions.
  • Artivest announces new partnership with Wellington Management.
  • Paysend introduces worldwide money transfers to Uzbekistan.
  • Jumio takes home top honors in the “Software Security Enterprise Product of the Year” category at the 2019 Best in Biz Awards.
  • Finastra inks deal with Pancreta Bank of Greece to deploy its Fusion Risk solution to help automate regulatory reporting.

This post will be updated throughout the day as news and developments emerge. You can also follow all the alumni news headlines on the Finovate Twitter account.

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Envestnet Adds Yodlee FinApps to MoneyGuide’s MyBlocks

Envestnet Adds Yodlee FinApps to MoneyGuide’s MyBlocks
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Envestnet, Yodlee

Envestnet announced today that it is adding five Yodlee FinApps to MoneyGuide’s MyBlocks client-engagement tool. This will give financial advisors new resources to improve customer engagement as well as their customer’s financial wellness.

An interactive, digital experience, MyBlocks helps advisors engage clients on topics such as social security and retirement compatibility by breaking them into “bite-sized blocks” that are easier to understand, navigate, and manage. By adding Yodlee Finapps, advisors will also be able to offer clients a holistic view of their assets, insurance, and other financial information, as well. “Get clients engaged faster and keep them engaged,” Envestnet | MoneyGuide president Tony Leal said. “That’s the foundation of MyBlocks.”

The new five blocks include:

  • AI Fintech: AI-driven virtual assistant that measures financial health
  • Cash Flow Analysis: financial tracker that forecasts future expenses and income
  • Investment Holdings: portfolio viewer with ability to examine sectors and individual holdings
  • NetWorth Summary: aggregated, continually-updated snapshot of assets and liabilities
  • OK to Spend: cash flow optimizer that provides transparency on future income and expenses

This week’s announcement furthers the initial integration between MyBlocks and Yodlee FinApps announced over the summer. The new blocks are currently available to MoneyGuide customers who are subscribers to MyBlocks and have licensed Yodlee data aggregation. The offering is expected to be extended to all registered investment advisors using the Envestnet | Tamarac platform in 2020.

“This is another step in our journey to create a unified advice network that allows advisors and their clients to build better financial futures,” Envestnet interim CEO Bill Crager said.

Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Envestnet| Yodlee demonstrated its latest financial wellness data offering at FinovateFall in September. The new app enables users to structure their financial data in repositories called “boards” that leverage notifications, alerts, and insights to make it easier for users to manage their finances. Among other recent offerings from the company are its Intelligent APIs, unveiled just weeks ago, which take advantage of data science and machine learning to empower the development of “hyper-personalized” financial solutions.

Envestnet has more than 99,000 advisors and 4,100+ companies using its data aggregation and digital analytics platform and services. The company’s customers include 17 of the 20 largest U.S. banks, 43 of the 50 largest wealth management and brokerage firms, and 500+ of the largest Registered Investment Advisers. Recent partnerships with Envestnet include working with Voya Financial over the summer to help the firm launch a hybrid roboadvisory solution, and announcing a $500 million acquisition of PIEtech – the mother company of MoneyGuide – this spring.

Envestnet acquired multiple-time, Finovate Best of Show winner Yodlee in 2015 for $660 million. The company is publicly-traded on the NYSE under the ticker ENV, and has a market capitalization of $3 billion.

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