Finovate is part of the Informa Connect Division of Informa PLC
This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.
My first introduction to Dave Birch, Director of Innovation and Global Ambassador at Consult Hyperion, was via his book Identity is the New Money, and a conversation we had at a Finovate event a few years ago. He is as synonymous with the issue of digital identity as any fintech analyst; his book Before Babylon, Read more…
Digital money transfer service Azimo announced today that it has partnered with fellow Finovate alum and blockchain payment solutions company Ripple to power cross-border payments to the Philippines. Fueling these payment transfers is Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) solution that uses XRP to source liquidity and complete money transfers within three seconds. This time reduction results Read more…
Global financial platform Revolut has secured its place as the U.K.’s most valuable fintech. The London-based company secured a $500 million investment, bringing its total funding to $836 million. With this, Revolut’s valuation tripled, escalating to $5.5 billion. As a comparison, digital bank Monzo was valued at $2.6 billion last year. Revolut’s funding was led Read more…
With a commitment of $100 million (€92.4 million), Poland-based OTB Ventures will spend the next few years helping back some of the most innovative tech startups in Central and Eastern Europe. The investor, whose funding is backed by the European Investment Fund (EIF) will target “post-product startups” developing solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, AI, Big Data, Read more…
As 2020 begins, there may be no hotter fintech theme, both globally and in Europe, than the rise of the challenger bank. As we reported recently, the race for digital banking licenses in Singapore, for example, has resulted in an increasingly-crowded field of at least two applicants for each available license. In Europe, investment in Read more…
It’s a big week for Flywire. The global payments platform made a dual announcement yesterday that it closed a round of funding and sealed the deal on an acquisition. The $120 million in funding brings Flywire’s total raised to $260 million. Goldman Sachs led the Series E round. The Massachusetts-based company will use the funding Read more…
Why is platformification an important development in financial services? And what will happen to financial services companies when financial decisions are made less by people, than by their trusted, AI-enabled personal assistants? Answers to these questions were among the most compelling content on Day One at FinovateEurope this week. Our morning session, featured a pair Read more…
Top U.K.-based challenger bank Starling Bank raised $77.5 million (£60 million) from existing investors Merian Global Investors and JTC. Today’s investment brings Starling’s total funding to $417 million (£323 million). “The support of our existing investors represents a huge endorsement of our business strategy, as we continue to ramp up our growth,” said Anne Boden, Read more…
Blockchain-powered payments platform Paystand has raised $20 million in Series B funding. The investment, which the company will use to grow its products and services, as well as sales, marketing, and engineering teams, featured the participation of both new and existing investors. “We made a promise to reboot commercial finance because it’s insecure, inefficient, and Read more…
Hong Kong’s first digital bank will use payment technology from Fiserv. The firm, ZA Bank, will use the company’s VisionPLUS global payment software, which supports the entire card payment lifecycle from origination and issuance to settlement and customer service. ZA Bank will leverage Fiserv’s suite of APIs to ensure fast and seamless app development and Read more…
The five-day World Economic Forum wrapped up late last month. The event, based in Davos, Switzerland, hosted some of the brightest minds in the world to speak on some of the biggest issues facing our society today. We combed through the agenda to bring you a view of the discussions through a fintech lens. Here’s Read more…
The combination of Worldline and Ingenico will create the world’s fourth largest payment services provider with 20,000 workers in 50 countries serving nearly one million merchants and 1,200 financial institutions. Worldline announced today that it would acquire Ingenico for $8.6 billion (€7.8 billion) in a stock and cash deal. The combination would give the new Read more…