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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Payroll and compliance company Deel is acquiring digital governance platform Capbase.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Deel will leverage Capbase’s expertise to launch a new product dedicated to equity management and issuance.
It has been a week of consolidation in the capitalization table management space. Fidelity announced plans to acquire Shoobx this week, and payroll and compliance company Deel recently unveiled that it is acquiring digital governance platform Capbase.
Deel, which launched as a payroll and compliance platform for international employees and contractors, has acquired one of the biggest players in the capitalization table management arena, Capbase. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Deel will leverage Capbase’s expertise to launch equity management and issuance services that can help businesses operating with legal and tax questions such as taxable events, local laws, required reporting, and more– across 90 different geographic regions.
“We looked at U.S. compliance and realized it was a very, very hard thing to do,” Deel Co-founder Alex Bouaziz told TechCrunch in an interview. “Equity is such an important part of companies, so enabling other companies to grant it across geographies and at scale felt like something we should tackle.”
Capbase was founded in 2018 to help startups manage the complexities of securities transactions. The company’s services range from helping companies with incorporation, setting up their board, purchasing shares, managing their capitalization table, finding funding, and facilitating due diligence for potential investors and buyers. Capbase has raised a total of $6 million in funding.
After the deal closes, Capbase will continue with business as usual, but Deel will leverage the company’s expertise to launch a new product dedicated to equity management and issuance. All of Capbase’s 20 employees will join the Deel team.
San Francisco-based Deel was founded in 2018 and enables companies to hire employees across the globe and pay them in more than 150 currencies. The company was valued at $12 billion last May and has raised a total of $680 million in funding. Deel has made a total of five acquisitions, including this week’s Capbase buy. Deel’s previous acquisitions have focused on payroll, HR, and work visa management.
Robinhood announced that its Robinhood Retirement offering was now available to all eligible customers.
The company, which offered a waitlist for interested customers in December, said that more than one million people have signed up for the new investment service.
Robinhood will provide a 1% match for every eligible dollar customers contribute to their Robinhood Retirement plan.
Robinhood, which gained notoriety in recent years as a platform for traders of meme stocks like AMC and Gamestop, announced this week that it is making its Robinhood Retirement offering available to all eligible customers. Unveiled via waitlist in December, the new IRA product offers a 1% match for every eligible dollar contributed – the first and only individual retirement account to do so, according to Robinhood.
Baiju Bhatt, company co-founder and Chief Creative Officer said in a statement: “Systems are failing to catch up to the needs of how many people live and save (or don’t) … We see an opportunity to be a part of the solution, to build products that adapt to the way work and savings will evolve, and ensure people have the tools to control their financial future – just like the way we started.”
Robinhood claims that more than one million people have signed up for the new service via the company’s waitlist. A significant number of these individuals, according to Robinhood, are freelancers and members of the so-called “gig economy,” who often struggle to find solutions to help them prepare for retirement. Robinhood Retirement will enable customers to open multiple Robinhood brokerage accounts and earn a 1% match from Robinhood on eligible contribution dollars. Customers will be able to grow their earnings in tax-free or tax-deferred accounts, and can invest in both stocks and ETFs. The product’s Portfolio Builder feature helps customers build their own investment portfolio, use a custom recommended portfolio, or a combination of both – all without having to pay a commission. Robinhood added that the company plans to authorize options trading in retirement accounts as well – also with no commission or per-contract fees.
“In 2023, Robinhood remains a company fundamentally focused on the unmet needs of the next generations,” Bhatt noted in a blog post announcing the availability of Robinhood Retirement. “No matter how income is earned, we believe the impact of providing long term savings incentives are just as powerful today as they were for our parents’ generation.”
Founded in 2013 by Bhatt and Vlad Tenev, Robinhood offers commission-free trading of stocks, exchange-traded funds, and cryptocurrencies. With total assets of more than $19.7 billion and revenues of $1.8 billion – both as of 2021 – Robinhood boasts more than 22 million funded accounts and nearly 16 million monthly average users as of the spring of 2022. Robinhood is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker HOOD. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.8 billion.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a tech event that showcases the latest advancements in consumer electronics and technology, is a must-attend conference for those working in the field of tech. But what if you work at a bank?
This year, U.S. Bank sent five representatives to walk the floors of CES to scout out what’s new and what’s possible when it comes to banking technology. Among the group attending last week’s technology showcase were U.S. Bank Chief Innovation Officer Don Relyea and Senior Vice President and Head of Applied Foresights Todder Moning.
We caught up with Relyea and Moning to get their thoughts on the show.
You’ve just returned from CES. Tell us about what U.S. Bank was looking for at the show.
Don Relyea: We are looking for several things. We go to get an understanding of how ready for primetime various technology verticals are for mass consumer applications. We also go to detect new disruptive technology trends well in advance of their readiness for consumers, so we can prepare to take advantage of opportunities – as well as avoid (or leverage) a disruption. A good example is how, a decade ago, we detected the early rise of natural language processing and started testing and learning with it, eventually leading to us being ahead of the curve in releasing an industry-leading voice assistant a decade later.
Todder Moning: We think about it like a “tech safari” or a “future safari” – allowing us to see a lot of the new products or emerging R&D work across multiple tech spaces and across multiple industries. It helps us to see what consumers, business owners, and our employees are going to be experiencing in their lives and helps us better understand what financial solutions are going to become most important to them. We look for how the spaces and tech we follow are progressing and for the weird or unexpected. That gives us new ideas that we take back to start work in our innovation labs and business lines.
Was there any tech on display that had the potential to help improve the user experience?
Relyea: More than I could ever tell you about. A big trend we saw in this space was the leveraging of AI for hyper-personalization across every industry. Companies in so many different verticals were converging AI, digital twins, the cloud, and the sensors in your consumer devices to create highly personalized and useful consumer experiences.
A great example is Incheon Airport (Seoul, South Korea) using a digital twin combined with AI, IoT sensors and consumer phones to give travelers a navigational guide like none other: an augmented reality robot avatar that will lead them around the airport wherever they need to go. Another one I loved was an AI scanner that analyzes your face and detects your skin condition in order to recommend skin care products. When the point of sale becomes your bathroom instead of the mall, that will be a gamechanger.
Moning: Yes, a lot of it.
Sustainability and waste tracking
New experiences in the automotive and transportation industries
The broad use of sensors, AI, displays, and wearables that are bringing services, health, and wellness directly to the consumer
Easier interconnectivity in smart homes and smart devices across product brands to finally start making those contexts easier
Continuous advancement in VR/AR glasses for digital and virtual experiences
Automation and autonomy in vehicles, robots, and other appliances/devices that will help assist or do things for people
How about tech for back office operations?
Relyea: Again, I’ll go to the Incheon Airport example. Not only did a friendly little robot provide guided navigation, but also the airport used the digital twin for operational efficiencies as well, helping to manage air traffic, vehicle traffic, foot traffic, and physical plant operations.
Moning: To be candid, the fintech part of the show was pretty sparse. It’s been that way in years past too. CES is typically far less interesting when it comes to technology we might directly implement to our systems, and much more interesting in seeing how we can integrate into the experiences where consumers would want to use their money. Which, we’re seeing more and more – particularly with embedded finance – is kind of everywhere.
When it comes to implementing ideas like these at a bank, is it better to be on the leading edge to gain a first-mover advantage? Or is it better to wait for other firms to jump in first?
Relyea: It really depends on the use case. In some cases, with fintechs and reg tech, it may be better to be an early mover. In others, where the maturity of the technology is not clear, it is better to wait until the technology achieves a good level of maturity.
Moning: It depends. We like building prototypes to try ideas first. We also like collaborating with or investing in startups when it makes sense. We will go first when it makes sense and we’re ready, like when we were first in ApplePay, first in Zelle, first in real time payments networks, and first to have smart chat services with all three major smart-speaker brands. Other times, we’ve seen the first-in-market attempts by others at really new technology fall flat or miss the mark. So first-mover vs. fast-follower really depends on each opportunity.
If U.S. Bank was exhibiting at CES, what would be the newest tech you would showcase?
Relyea: We get so much out of exploring the show floor, and so we find other ways to launch and showcase our own innovations, but we’re rather proud of our Smart Assistant, including the launch of our Spanish language version this year – the nation’s first voice assistant for banking in Spanish. Other candidates would be some of our work within the real time payments space, perhaps some of our blockchain initiatives or the recent launch of our financial education program for college athletes, which we are doing in collaboration with Opendorse. There are a lot of digital innovations happening across U.S. Bank that combine the best of digital with our amazing team members.
Moning: Some of our voice tech stuff is pretty cool, at the leading edge. We’ve done some really good things with real time payments in auto and some other areas. Our approach tends to be more of one where we work quietly behind the scenes until just the right time to launch it to the public, rather than showcasing our work in prototype or in pilot. I’d love to share more, but we’ll hold some of those cards close to the vest.
Outside of fintech applications, what was the coolest thing you saw at the show?
Relyea: I liked the MPC micro power chip that pulls low amounts of power from dirt and moisture. I haven’t seen anything quite like it before – that can charge a battery array and light an off-grid structure. I’m looking forward to when their tech is commercially available.
Moning: It would have to be the BMW Dee, a concept car that had “e-Ink” panels all over the outside of it, including the windows, and changed color in real-time based on music or your mood. As a sustainability concept, the Under-Ocean Farming that Siemens was showing was amazing. And from Caterpillar, the giant equipment company, they were showing remote autonomy, where you could control a real excavator that was in Peoria, Illinois from a seat at CES in Las Vegas. Pretty incredible.
Our first Five Tales from the Crypto column of 2023 takes a look at cryptocurrency firms receiving funding, launching new payments solutions, and teaming up with e-commerce innovators to help bring cryptocurrencies and digital asset technology into the mainstream.
Tap Global Secures $3.7 Million in Funding
Cryptocurrency firm Tap Globalwent public this week in an IPO that raised $3.7 million (£3.1 million) for the Gibraltar-licensed firm. But don’t go looking on the NASDAQ for shares; the company is trading on a London-based alternative trading platform called the Aquis Stock Exchange. Aquis was founded in 2001 as a primary and secondary market for both equity and debt securities. Approximately 90 primary market securities are listed, with more than 600 names on Aquis’ secondary market.
Tap Global CEO David Carr addressed the controversy surrounding the company’s decision to go public at a time when cryptocurrency-related businesses are under additional scrutiny. “Our decision to list now raised some eyebrows, particularly in the wake of the FTX fallout,” Carr said. “But it is our focus on regulation and customer protection that sets us apart from less responsible operators.”
Tap Global shares were priced at $0.05 (4.5 pence). Nearly 69 million shares were listed. The listing was accomplished via a reverse takeover by Quetzal Capital and the company will trade under the ticker “TAP.”
With more than 100,000 registered users in more than 46 countries, Tap Global offers fiat banking and crypto settlement services. Users can purchase up to 26 different crypto assets on the Tap Global app and store them directly in the customer’s wallet. Fiat currencies such as the British pound, the Euro, and the U.S. dollar can also be stored. Tap Global leverages proprietary AI middleware to help users secure the best execution and pricing in real time.
Africa-based crypto exchange Yellow Cardintroduced a new payment feature this week called Yellow Pay. The new offering enables Yellow Card customers to send and receive money instantly via the Yellow Card crypto exchange platform with only a few taps on their phone. There are no additional charges for the service.
“This is more than just a money transfer service – it’s a powerful tool that will unlock new opportunities for people across Africa,” Yellow Card co-founder and CEO Chris Maurice said. “By enabling instant, low-cost transactions across borders, we are helping to create a more connected and dynamic Africa.”
Yellow Card enables users to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT via bank transfer, mobile money, cards, or cash. In order to send funds, users simply require the recipient’s phone number. Fund recipients, as well as those looking to withdraw sent funds, must enroll in Yellow Pay.
“This new product feature not only makes it easier for family members to support each other across Africa with ease,” Maurice said, “but it also opens up the continent to more investment, access to credit, business grants, and generally will improve the ease of doing business.”
Yellow Card was founded in Nigeria in 2019. The company is currently active in 16 countries and, in September, announced that it had surpassed the one million user mark earlier in the year. Also in September, Yellow Card reported that it had received $40 million in Series B investment. The round was led by Polychain Capital, and featured participation from a number of investors including Valar Ventures, Third Prime, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, and more. The funding took Yellow Card’s total funding to $57 million. Polychain Capital Partner Will Wolf praised the company as having “the best executing team on the continent.”
Nebeus Launches Visa-backed Debit Card
Back in Europe, cryptocurrency app Nebeuswent live with its Visa-backed Nebeus debit card. The Nebeus Card will enable users to spend directly from their Nebeus accounts, and will be available in markets throughout Europe.
“With this, Nebeus reaches another level of integration and offers a solid connection of everyday payments with superior crypto services,” Nebeus COO and Head of Product Michael Stroev said. “It is a significant accomplishment for us and the most recent illustration of the enormous complementarity between the current banking system and digital assets.” Stroev also noted that the company plans to add Apple Pay and Google Pay functionality as part of “upcoming development phases” of the card. Nebeus also plans to launch a line of credit to enable customers to make transactions without having to sell their cryptocurrency holdings. Stroev said the developments are part of the company’s determination to “contribute towards global financial inclusion.”
Headquartered in Barcelona, Nebeus is registered as a cryptocurrency custodian and a Virtual Assets Service Provider by the Bank of Spain. The company was founded in 2014.
Revelator Partners with Stripe on NFT Payments
Does anyone still care about NFTs? Digital IP infrastructure provider to music companies Revelator announced this week that it was teaming up with Stripe to help it launch a new NFT payment infrastructure. The new functionality would reside on top of Revelator’s digital music supply chain management services.
Revelator CEO and founder Bruno Guez said that the partnership between Stripe and Revelator would play a key role in encouraging those in the music industry who are “non-crypto natives” to learn about the opportunities in Web3. “This is a major step toward Revelator’s vision of onboarding more labels, artists, and fans onto Web3, to bring these promising digital assets to the mainstream of music fans,” Guez said.
Guez said that integrations like this are critical in lowering the technical barriers that currently exist between musicians, music fans, and music companies on one side and what Guez called “a thrilling new medium” on the other. The new NFT functionality will give Revelator Pro platform users the ability to create, sell, distribute, and manage NFTs from a single location. The Stripe integration will enable NFT buyers to set up an account and purchase NFTs with a single click.
Coinbase’s Armstrong: “Dark Times Weed Out Bad Companies”
If it’s always darkest before the dawn, then hopefully a new day is indeed ahead for Coinbase. The company struggled with challenging headlines this week as the sentiment around cryptocurrencies continues to be mixed, at best. On Tuesday, the brother of a former Coinbase product manager was sentenced to 10 months in prison for what is believed to be the first case of cryptocurrency-based insider trading. The same day, the company announced that it would reduce operating expenses by 25%, which included laying off approximately 20% of its workforce, representing some 950 employees.
In a blog post addressed to Coinbase employees, company co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong expressed optimism toward the future of cryptocurrencies. Despite the falling prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies – as well as the “fallout from unscrupulous actors in the industry” – Armstrong wrote that he believed “recent events will ultimately end up benefiting Coinbase greatly.” He compared the current challenges faced by the cryptocurrency industry to the early days of the Internet and suggested that “the most important companies not only survive but thrive” in what he called “dark times.”
Coinbase made its Finovate debut in 2014 at FinovateSpring.
Fidelity Investments has acquired equity management company Shoobx, marking Fidelity’s first acquisition since 2015.
Terms of today’s deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition will help Fidelity expand its offerings for startups and early-stage companies.
Fidelity Investmentsannounced this week it has acquired equity management company Shoobx. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed and the deal marks Fidelity’s first acquisition since it purchasedeMoney Advisor in 2015 for $250 million.
Ultimately, the move will help Fidelity expand its offerings for startups and early-stage companies. In fact, today’s acquisition contributes to Fidelity’s growing portfolio of tools that support the startup ecosystem. Fidelity Labs, the organization’s innovation arm, has invested in several startups and fintech companies, and has developed its own technology to improve the investment process.
Fidelity will integrate Shoobx’s technology into its Stock Plan Services business, an arm that offers equity compensation plan recordkeeping and administration services. Part of Fidelity’s Workplace Investing division, the Stock Plan Services is a workplace benefits provider that serves almost 700 companies with 2.5 million end users holding $250 billion in plan value.
Shoobx was founded in 2013 and helps private companies streamline compliance related to incorporation, raising capital, and exiting so that they can focus on their business. That’s because Shoobx helps them manage their shareholders, the shares they own, and information such as the share class, the price paid for the shares, and any information on options or warrants.
“Given the success of our commercial relationship with Shoobx and the increasing demand from private companies to support them as they scale and grow, including helping their employees manage their financial well-being, acquiring Shoobx was a natural next step in our relationship,” said Fidelity Workplace Investing Head Kevin Barry. “Together, we will accelerate the development of new and innovative solutions designed to help private companies confidently navigate the complex journey all the way through to an exit or IPO.”
Fidelity and Shoobx first partnered in 2021 to provide an equity management solution to the private market. At the time, Fidelity offered a Shoobx-branded tool that combined Fidelity’s equity compensation and benefits administration with Shoobx’s equity management capabilities, board management tools, and data room solutions.
Spanish fintech Divilo partnered with financial crime prevention specialist ThetaRay.
Divilo will deploy ThetaRay’s SONAR platform, a SaaS-based AML transaction monitoring and sanctions list screening solution.
ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall in New York.
A partnership between Spain-based fintech Divilo and ThetaRay will enable the B2B financial services provider to better defend itself against money laundering, sanctions violations, and other financial crimes. Divilo will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based AML transaction monitoring and sanctions list screening platform, SONAR. The technology is capable of detecting the earliest indications of sophisticated money laundering activity infiltrating the domestic and cross-border payments process.
“Our advanced AI solution also makes the entire process of transaction monitoring much more efficient and effective, while improving customer satisfaction, reducing compliance costs, and increasing risk coverage with safe and secure payments,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said.
SONAR leverages advanced AI, as well as proprietary and patented algorithms, to identify anomalies in data sets to detect potential cases of money laundering. SONAR delivers transaction monitoring with very low (“virtually no”) false positives, giving firms like Divilo the ability to provide trusted and reliable payment services to the SMEs and self-employed professionals it serves.
“Divilo is a fintech leader providing valuable and innovative payment solutions that are growing the global financial system,” Gazit said. “ThetaRay is thrilled to provide Divilo with technology that instills trust into cross-border payments, enabling revenue growth by opening doors to business with new customers and financial partners.”
Founded in 2020, Divilo offers a complete payments, collections, and accounting services for small businesses and freelancers. The company offers payments cards, facilitates money transfers and, offers technology to enable businesses and freelancers to manage payments through mobile devices courtesy of PINs or QR codes. In 2022, Divilo launched a new solution called Diveep that enables charging via mobile device simply by tapping a card or another mobile device.
“Divilo is on a mission to transform payments and collections by providing greater agility, a better user experience, high-security measures, transparency, and simplicity,” Divilo founder and CEO Juan Guruceta said. “Using ThetaRay’s AML solution, we will be able to grow our network of relationships and increase business internationally with the assurance that next-generation AI detection will provide enhanced coverage and highly accurate alerts to allow businesses to focus on what really matters.”
ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015 at FinovateFall. In the years since then, the company has grown to support more than one billion users, and its platform monitors more than $15 trillion in transactions every year. ThetaRay closed out 2022 with a pair of partnership announcements, teaming up with mobile banking solution NOW Money and partnering with fintech platform Ontop, both in December.
Business payments technology company Nuvei will acquire B2B payments company Paya.
Nuvei anticipates the purchase will help it add integrated payment capabilities, diversify its business, and grow in the B2B payments space.
The deal is expected to close for $1.3 billion.
Payment technology solutions provider Nuveiannounced this week it has acquired B2B payments company Paya. The all-cash transaction is expected to close for $9.75 per share for a total value of around $1.3 billion.
Paya’s payment technology helps businesses accept payments and get paid faster and more efficiently. The company’s solutions range from payment acceptance, disbursement, and ACH, to marketing services and developer integrations.
Canada-based Nuvei anticipates the purchase will help it add integrated payment capabilities, diversify its business, and grow in the B2B payments space. Specifically, combining Paya’s integrated payment capabilities into Nuvei’s platform will add value and growth potential. Additionally, Nuvei will be able to leverage Paya’s integrations with 300 independent software vendors and commerce solutions to enter into the software-led market.
“The proposed acquisition of Paya is a powerful next step in the evolution of Nuvei, creating a preeminent payment technology provider with strong positions in global eCommerce, Integrated Payments and business-to-business,” said Nuvei Chief Executive Officer Philip Fayer. “The proposed transaction will combine two people-first, technology-led, high-growth payment platforms. It will accelerate our integrated payment strategy, diversify our business into key high-growth non-cyclical verticals with large addressable end markets, and enhance the execution of our growth plan.”
Founded in 2003, Nuvei offers global card acquiring services, alternative payment methods, crypto payments, fraud and risk management, analytics and more. The company serves businesses across a range of industries in more than 200 global markets, facilitating 150 currencies. Nuvei went public in 2020 and now has a market capitalization of $5.58 billion.
Today’s buy marks Nuvei’s 6th acquisition. The company acquired Smart2Pay and BaseCommerce in 2020, and purchased Mazooma, Simplex, and Paymentez in 2021.
Tax Status announced a partnership with authID this week.
The partnership will give Tax Status’ customers access to authID’s Human Factor Authentication (HFA) technology to better protect sensitive data and fight fraud.
Based in Texas, Tax Status made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall.
Tax Status, a Texas-based fintech company that offers a digital IRS account monitoring solution, has announced a partnership with identity authentication solutions company authID. The collaboration enables Tax Status to go live with the full range of authID’s identity authentication technologies, including authID’s Human Factor Authentication services (HFA). These resources will enable Tax Status’ enterprise partners to better protect sensitive tax data, as well as prevent password compromise and ensure secure account onboarding for new customers.
“authID’s innovative biometric authentication has proven to be a cut far above other identity management solutions,” Tax Status CEO and founder Charles Almond said. “We are proud to offer the most fortified fraud prevention and enterprise security technology on the market, without compromising on convenience and user experience.”
authID’s Human Factor Authentication enhances the online customer onboarding process by leveraging strong identity and document authentication to eliminate fraud. HFA relies on FIDO2 passwordless authentication that provides seamless login across devices. The technology also offers an unphishable authentication protocol of passkeys and device biometrics for high-risk transactions or transactions that mandate an audit trail.
“Our next-gen Verified platform, which prioritizes ethical, consent-based biometrics, provides Tax Status and their clients with a comprehensive fraud prevention solution and ‘unphishable’ authentication that is more secure than legacy MFA,” authID CEO Tom Thimot explained.
Founded in 2017 and based in Frisco, Texas, Tax Status made its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall. At the conference, the company demoed its Tax Status Platform, a fully-automated IRS account monitoring solution that provides continuous access to official IRS financial data for use in real-time income, account status, and compliance verification. Tax Status works with companies in a wide range of verticals – from wealth management to lending to accounting – providing critical notifications and insights to help them make more informed decisions.
Tax Status ended 2022 with a partnership with Morningstar. The collaboration will enable Morningstar to offer Tax Status to enterprise wealth management firms and fintechs via Morningstar’s Dynamic Services APIs. By automating the collection and maintenance of client tax data – including income, social security tax withheld, and capital gains and losses – companies will be able to better apply this information to not only client onboarding, but also to investment and financial planning, as well.
Challenger bank NorthOne announced a partnership with The Bancorp Bank to launch real-time payments via The Clearing House’s network.
NorthOne customers initially will be able to receive real-time payments. The ability to send real-time payments will come with “future updates” the company said.
With offices in New York and Toronto, NorthOne has raised more than $90 million in funding for its deposit account that helps small businesses and freelancers better manage their finances.
U.S.-based challenger bank NorthOne has teamed up with The Bancorp Bank to launch real-time payments via The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payments network.
NorthOne co-founder and CEO Eytan Bensoussan called the new offering a “huge milestone” for both his company as well as for the fintech industry writ large. Bensoussan also underscored the value of real-time payments to NorthOne’s small business customers. “For small business owners, cash flow and liquidity are paramount,” he said. “By removing payment waiting times, we’re able to free up a frustrating technical bottleneck for our customers, making it easier for them to operate their business efficiently.”
Founded in 2016, NorthOne specializes in helping small business owners, startups, and freelancers better manage their finances. The company offers a deposit account that enables users to view full account histories and manage receipts, and provides automatic categorization of purchases. Users can connect their NorthOne accounts to their POS or payment processor to get paid faster, as well as leverage the account to pay invoices, manage payroll, and send ACH or wire payments.
With offices in New York and Toronto, Canada, NorthOne sees the introduction of real-time payments as a way to help the 61% of small businesses that it says are struggling because of poor cash management. The update announced this week will enable NorthOne customers to receive instant payments. The ability to send real-time payments will come as part of a separate, future update.
This week’s product launch is the latest news from NorthOne, which most recently made fintech headlines with a $67 million fundraising in October. The Series B investment featured participation from both new and existing investors, and brought the company’s total equity capital to more than $90 million.
“50% of small businesses in America fail over a five-year time horizon,” NorthOne co-founder and COO Justin Adler said when the company’s latest fundraising was announced last fall. “And the majority of those failures are due to financial mismanagement and a lack of financial systems and controls. Our team is proud to be able to de-risk entrepreneurship and make starting and running a successful small business accessible to anyone.”
Allianz Trade, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB), and Two have partnered to launch a new B2B buy now, pay later (BNPL) tool.
The new tool leverages Allianz Trade to protect against the risk of default, Santander CIB for financing, and Two for the BNPL technology.
The launch comes one year after Santander’s digital consumer bank launched Zinia, a customer-facing BNPL solution.
A new three-way partnership is driving fresh innovation in the BNPL space this week. Trade credit insurance firm Allianz Trade, trade finance bank Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB), and B2B ecommerce payments platform Two have teamed up to create a BNPL tool for large multinational corporations.
Combining each firms’ expertise, the group has created a solution for corporations to offer a buy now, pay later (BNPL) tool for business buyers, enabling them to defer payments at checkout. Created by Two, the BNPL tool supports payments in multiple currencies and leverages Santander CIB for financing to offer sellers payment upfront while facilitating credit terms to buyers.
Allianz Trade protects against the risk of default. The firm will leverage its database that contains information on more than 80 million corporations to instantly assess credit requests via its API, helping Santander CIB make financing decisions instantly.
“Our solution will be distributed worldwide and aims to allow large corporates to develop their online sales by offering deferred payments to existing and new customers, without being exposed to non-payment risks, while benefiting from immediate and guaranteed payments,” said Allianz Trade Global Head of e-commerce François Burtin. “It is a turnkey solution combining the very best of our three firms, easy to set up and improving both seller revenue and user experience.”
Today’s launch comes one year after Santander’s digital consumer bank launched Zinia, a customer-facing BNPL solution for customers in Germany and the Netherlands.
Founded in 2020, Two seeks to fix the world of B2B ecommerce by offering a corporate BNPL tool. The Norway-based company has raised $3 million in seed funding. “At Two we are obsessed about delivering seamless ordering and buying for B2B buyers while removing and automating the operational processes for sellers,” said Two Cofounder Stavros Tamvakakis. “Business buying is not a one-size fits all and our product streamlines key steps in the journey (e.g. instant onboarding, ordering, underwriting, invoice distribution, payments, reconciliation) so that sellers do what they do best while we abstract the pain points of drop-offs, working capital tie up, risk, and manual work. Our ambitions are at a global scale, so we decided to take our partnership with Allianz Trade further by collaborating with Santander CIB, combining two powerhouses in insurance and banking to create a unique and innovative solution dedicated to large corporates.”
As the demand for direct-to-consumer BNPL tools increases, so will the demand for B2B BNPL tools. Other players in the B2B BNPL arena include Bespoke Financial, TreviPay, and Tranch. These tools rely on business credit and repayment data to mitigate risk, so partnerships with firms like Allianz Trade will prove to be essential in helping B2B BNPL newcomers ensure repayment.
2023 is only a few days old but the merger and acquisition action in the fintech industry has already begun.
2022 featured a number of major fintech acquisitions – from Vista Equity Partners $8 billion purchase of tax compliance specialist Avalara to Technisys’ $1.1 billion acquisition of SoFi to Fiserv’s$650 million deal with Finxact. As the new year begins amid economic uncertainty and a technology industry that is contracting, will 2023 produce more deal-making activity in fintech or less?
With this question in mind, here’s a look at recent year-ending and year-beginning M&A activity from a pair of our Finovate alums: TipRanks and TreviPay.
We learned last week TipRanks had agreed to acquire real-time financial news digital provider, The Fly. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Founded in 1998 and headquartered in New Jersey, The Fly is a leading digital publisher that offers a live-streaming subscription service featuring short form stories and content on publicly-traded companies.
“TipRanks is a natural home for The Fly,” company President Ron Etergino said. “Both companies strive to level the playing field for investors and TipRanks’ institutional-grade research tools and data will enhance The Fly’s financial news products.”
With its technology that provides market research tools to retail investors and traders, TipRanks took Finovate audiences by storm in its debut appearance in 2013. The New York-based company won Best of Show at both FinovateSpring in May of that year and again at FinovateFall in September.
More recently, the Tel Aviv, Israel and New York-based company launched a new solution that determined risk factors for publicly traded companies, as well as a tool that analyzes publicly traded companies’ online traffic. In 2021, the company raised $77 million in funding in a round led by Prytek. Last year, TipRanks introduced country-specific websites for Australia, Canada, and the U.K.
TipRanks’ acquisition of The Fly is designed to further the company’s mission of becoming a “one-stop-shop platform for the retail investor,” according to CEO Uri Gruenbaum. “We see a lot of synergy between our companies and are excited that we can expand our offerings to provide breaking news – one of the top requirements of our Enterprise customers and end users,” Gruenbaum said.
Subject to customary closing conditions, the transaction is expected to close in Q1 of this year.
Amid the flurry of year-ending news, one alumni acquisition we missed was TreviPay’s decision to acquire payments platform Apruve early last month. Headquartered in Overland, Kansas, and making its Finovate debut last September at FinovateFall, TreviPay supports B2B commerce with its payments and invoicing network designed to optimize transactions between buyers and sellers. The company’s acquisition of payment platform Apruve is designed to help complement and add to TreviPay’s current order-to-cash technology and merchant invoicing solutions.
“The acquisition of Apruve will accelerate our advancement in the technology manufacturing vertical and expand our geographic reach into key Asian markets,” TreviPay CEO Brandon Spear said.
Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed, but all Apruve employees will be retained post-acquisition. Apruve was TreviPay’s second acquisition of 2022, having purchased B2B invoice payments network company BATON Financial Services in February.
With 90,000 buyers and 80,000 seller locations around the world, TreviPay automates the order-to-cash process via omni-channel checkout options, localized B2B invoicing, managed receivables, and fraud and risk management. The company’s tailored payments and invoicing networks enable merchants and suppliers alike to develop more profitable and enduring trade relationships. TreviPay processes $7 billion in transaction volume across 32 countries and 19 different currencies.
Founded in 1980, TreviPay demoed its Small Business Supplier Network (SBSN) at FinovateFall 2022. The offering gives banks the ability to grow its small business product offerings by enabling them to tap into the small business B2B trade credit market.
Digital banking app for kids and teens, Greenlight, launched a financial literacy game today.
The game, Greenlight Level Up, is designed to teach financial skills to kids from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Only 23 states in the U.S. require schools to offer lessons in personal finance.
Greenlight, a digital banking app for kids and teens, unveiled a financial literacy game today called Greenlight Level Up.
The game aims to teach kids from kindergarten to 12th grade skills that they can use to improve their financial well-being. Many financial skills are not taught in schools. In fact, only 23 U.S. states require schools to teach a personal finance course. Greenlight Level Up offers lessons on earning, spending, saving, investing, managing credit, income, taxes, and more.
The game was crafted by academic and game design experts to keep kids engaged, using coins and stars as rewards.
Schools, teachers, and students can access Greenlight Level Up for free via Greenlight for Classrooms, an online financial literacy library for kids in grades kindergarten through 12. Greenlight for Classrooms will launch later this year.
Greenlight was founded in 2014 and offers a money management platform for families. The company has served five million parents and kids, offering them real-life experience in the financial world with credit and debit cards, along with a tandem mobile app. By using the cards with help from their parents, Greenlight helps kids build skills to manage their earnings, savings, spending, and giving; and empowers kids to learn to invest. In 2021, Greenlight raised $260 million in a round that valued the company at $2.3 billion.
