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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
The jury is still out on whether or not January is officially Financial Wellness Month. But savings platform Plinqitisn’t waiting around for any verdict. The Ann Arbor, Michigan-based fintech announced this week that it has partnered with SUMA Federal Credit Union to help give the institution’s 7,000+ members the resources they need to become better savers.
The partnership will enable SUMA FCU’s members to access tools such as Plinqit’s Build Skills solution. Build Skills provides users with content that helps them build their personal finance awareness and savings skills, and then pays them for learning new skills. In turn, the funds earned from learning more about financial wellness can help propel users toward their Plinqit savings goals. SUMA FCU members will be able to access the functionality via SUMA FCU’s digital banking platform, thanks to Plinqit’s integration with Jack Henry’sBanno Digital Toolkit.
SUMA FCU expects the new technology will help attract new members to the credit union as well as enhance the banking experience for existing members. The institution serves communities in Yonkers and Spring Valley, New York, as well as New Haven and Stamford, Connecticut. Both regions feature sizable populations of Ukrainian immigrants and parishioners of St. Michael’s Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church. Established more than 55 years ago, SUMA FCU has more than $400 million in assets today.
“Credit unions are known for having strong relationships with their member base and SUMA Federal Credit Union has exemplified this for decades,” Plinqit CEO and founder Kathleen Craig said. She highlighted SUMA FCU’s support of local institutions, including churches, Ukrainian youth groups, and other cultural organizations. “Plinqit is proud to partner with an institution that consistently strives to make a meaningful impact in its community,” Craig said.
Plinqit made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2019 in New York. At the conference, Plinqit demoed its Build Skills offering – “created by Millennials for Millennials” – which aligns data, behavior, and incentives to make savings goals easier to set and attain. Last year, the company secured $5 million in Series A funding. The round, co-led by Fintop Capital of Nashville, Tennessee, and JAM FINTOP of New York, took Plinqit’s total funding to nearly $10 million.
Plinqit’s partnership announcement comes just a week after the company released its latest State of Savings Report. This survey, which measures top savings priorities for consumers, showed that 43% of consumers are actively contributing to an emergency fund for both short-term and long-term potential expenses. “While the price increases for everyday necessities leave many U.S. households with financial stress, consumers remain focused on building up their emergency savings even in these trying times,” Craig said. “Providing tools to help them be successful in their savings goal is critical for financial institutions.”
LendInvest received increased funding from Lloyds Bank this week, bringing its total warehouse investment to $367 million (£300 million).
The boost in investment will help LendInvest enter the homeowner mortgage market, a $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion) opportunity.
LendInvest now has more than $4.4 billion (£3.6 billion) in funds under management.
U.K.-based property finance asset manager LendInvestscored an increase in warehouse funding from Lloyds Bank totaling $367 million (£300 million) this week. The purpose of the investment is to facilitate LendInvest’s entry into the mortgage market, which the company estimates to be a $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion) opportunity.
LendInvest was founded in 2008 to serve as an online marketplace for property lending and investing, enabling everyday investors to access a wider variety of asset classes, including opportunities to gain exposure to the U.K. property market. The company launched its homeowner mortgage product in beta last month and plans to launch the product to a wider audience this year.
“There are a significant number of people in the U.K. with complex income streams – from barristers to actors to NHS contract workers – who find it harder to get a mortgage because of multiple income sources or less regular pay cheques,” explained LendInvest CEO Rod Lockhart. “Our offering is tailored to their needs, providing access to the finance they require to buy the home of their dreams, and without all the stress and hassle.”
The new homeowner mortgage product targets borrowers with multiple sources of income, those who are self-employed, and those who are small-business owners. The company’s technology simplifies complex mortgage cases to improve and streamline the process of closing on a home loan.
“The complexity of this part of the U.K. mortgage market makes it ripe for disruption by our purpose-built technology and is a natural evolution for us following our launch into buy-to-let mortgages in 2017,” added Lockhart.
With more than $4.4 billion (£3.6 billion) in funds under management, LendInvest is headquartered in London. The company’s funders and investors include pension funds, insurers, and global institutions including HSBC, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and National Australia Bank. LendInvest went public in 2021 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker LSE. The company has a market capitalization of $141 million (£115 million).
KYC/KYB specialist Kyckr has agreed to be acquired by tech entrepreneur and billionaire Richard White.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Kyckr is an alum of our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016, where the company presented “Corporate Identity on the Blockchain.”
Kyckr, a technology company that provides corporations with authoritative real-time data on potential and existing customers and suppliers, has agreed to be acquired by Richard White, an Australian technology entrepreneur. White, who founded Australian technology company WiseTech Global in 1994, will acquire the company via his personal investment vehicle RealWise KYK AV Pty Ltd. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“The Kyckr team is delighted to have the strategic guidance, support, and vision that successful tech-entrepreneur and founder Richard White provides,” Kyckr CEO Ian Henderson said. “We are embarking upon an exciting evolution of our powerful offering to broaden its scope by building an integrated global software solution to enable businesses to navigate the highly complex and dynamic compliance and counterparty risk challenges that they face in an increasingly interconnected and digital marketplace.”
Kyckr specializes in providing businesses with real-time access to aggregated corporate Know Your Customer/Know Your Business (KYC/KYB) and Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) data from more than 300 company registries and primary sources worldwide. This reach enables Kyckr to conduct real-time due diligence on more than 120 million companies around the globe. White noted that this capacity was especially important in a world with ever-expanding compliance laws and regulations on one hand and innovative financial criminals on the other. He described the contemporary challenge of KYC/KYB compliance as “increasingly high-risk, complex, time-consuming, and costly.”
White’s WiseTech Global bills itself as the “operating system for global logistics.” In a statement, White compared Kyckr’s ability to automate manual processes and aggregate data from real-time sources to the way WiseTech’s CargoWise solution has replaced legacy logistics systems with integrated technology. Both solutions, White indicated, are designed to “drive productivity, reduce compliance risk, and facilitate planning, visualization, and control.”
A Finovate alum since its appearance at our developers conference FinDEVr SiliconValley in 2016, Kyckr has raised more than $18 million in funding to date. The company maintains offices in the U.K., Ireland, and Australia.
The five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) began today. The annual event gathers leaders from across the globe in Davos, Switzerland to discuss the latest economic, social, and political issues. This year’s theme is Cooperation in a Fragmented World and many of the sessions are relevant to the fintech industry.
I combed through the agenda and highlighted the sessions that are most worth watching below. WEF allows the public to watch live via its website or watch the session recordings on its YouTube channel. The meat of the event begins tomorrow, and here’s what I’ll be paying attention to.
January 17
Staying Ahead of a Recession With the risk of a recession in 2023 continuing to loom over major economies, what steps can leaders take to make a potential recession as short and as shallow as possible?
Financial Institutions: Innovating Under Pressure At a time of large-scale macro shocks, how do financial actors respond to ongoing disruptions while keeping pace with technological advancement?
Technology for a More Resilient World In the face of a challenging decade, technology can be a critical tool in the transition to a cleaner, safer and more inclusive world. How should leaders be thinking about the strategic opportunities for technology to be an accelerator of progress in this new context?
Private Equity in the Real Economy Maximizing impact across the risk/return continuum and alternative asset classes has become a fast-growing trend within the investing industry. How does private equity transform the real economy through its increased focus on impact?
Tokenized Economies, Coming Alive Tokenization can allow almost any real world asset to have a digital representation on a blockchain. Given its transformational potential, which sectors will see the biggest influence from tokenization in terms of resilience, innovation and social impact?
Generative AI As artificial intelligence moves from analyzing existing data to creating new text, images, and videos, how will these improvements shift the augmentation versus automation debate and what implications will it have for industries?
January 18
Protecting Cyberspace Amid Exponential Change The confluence of rising cyberattacks and a complex geopolitical backdrop creates an increasingly challenging environment for decision-makers to predict, prioritize, and respond to cyber risks. How can leaders foster a more secure and resilient digital ecosystem to prepare for future cyber shocks?
Tradetech Meets Fintech The digitization of all aspects of international supply chains and transactions is enabling more accessible and reliable trade, financing, and payments. How can the emergence of tradetech be accelerated to meet the world’s needs?
The Quantum Tipping Point Quantum technologies have massive potential in a wide array of domains, from finance to energy. With these technologies holding the promise of unleashing new discoveries, security and performance, how close are we to a true quantum revolution of industries?
Press Conference: Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2023 Geopolitical developments and the implementation of emerging technologies have re-shaped the cyber-threat and increased organized cyber-attackers’ potential for harm. This is exacerbating our interconnected energy, economic, and geopolitical crises.The Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2023 examines the cybersecurity trends that will impact our economies and societies in 2023. The report includes the results of new research on how leaders are responding to cyber threats now and provides recommendations on what leaders can do to secure their organizations in the year to come.
In the Face of Fragility: Central Bank Digital Currencies Over 100 nations are exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and each has a different motive for implementation, now exacerbated by geopolitical fragility and financial instability. What can we learn from countries that have implemented CBDC solutions and can they provide resiliency in the face of global risks and the high-inflation, low-growth, high-debt economy?
The Role of Finance in a Recovery Many global economies are already in, or are projected to enter, recession in the near future. How can the global financial system support corporates and individuals to preserve jobs, maintain livelihoods, and drive further and much-needed innovation?
Investing in AI, With Care As early backers of technology, investors wield great influence over which technologies are more likely to see the light of day. There is an opportunity for investors to work closely with their investee companies to ensure benefits are maximized and risks are mitigated, especially in technologies like AI. What metrics and tools can investors use to guide and shape investments in trusted and responsible technology systems?
Turning Technologies Into the Markets of Tomorrow The promise of new technologies does not always translate into economic progress, while tried and tested technologies can be the key to unlocking growth and transformation. How should policy-makers and businesses balance the role of new and old technologies?
January 19
Financial Inclusion Beyond Access Despite progress over the past decade, 24% of adults remain unbanked and about only half of all adults in developing economies can access funds within 30 days to cover an unexpected expense. What more can technology advancements and cross-sector coordination achieve to increase inclusion for underserved individuals and businesses?
From Mass Data to Mass Insights New technologies to generate insights without exposing the underlying data is ushering in a new era for value creation in the digital economy. From mapping the genome to reducing the carbon footprint, how can business leaders unlock value from data collaboration at scale?
Investing in the Worst of Times The scale of uncertainty in today’s markets is severely disrupting an already challenging investment landscape. How are the world’s largest investors adjusting to this unprecedented context and what effect will their asset allocation decisions have on the economy at large?
Finding the Right Balance for Crypto The boom and bust in the crypto markets, compounded by the dramatic volatility in 2022, has left many with questions about the future of blockchain innovation. What would it take to craft sufficiently robust regulation to realize the benefits of digital currencies while ensuring positive macroeconomic and societal outcomes?
January 20
How to Turbocharge Development Finance The key to scaling up financing for growth-related investments in developing countries lies in reorienting and expanding the role played by international financial institutions to plug potential funding gaps. How can these institutions help scale up financing for the broader economic, environmental, and social agenda?
Global Economic Outlook: Is This the End of an Era? The engines of global growth are slowing and the number of households and businesses facing economic distress is rising. What does the future of growth look like and what policies are needed to stabilize the global economy?
Splitit partnered with Alipay to power the firm’s Pay After Delivery payment option.
Splitit is leveraging Checkout.com’s payment-acquiring capabilities to facilitate Alipay’s Pay After Delivery.
Splitit was founded in 2012 as PayItSimple. The company rebranded in 2015 under its current name.
Installments-as-a-service company Splititannounced a new tie-up with global payments platform Alipay this week. Under the partnership, Splitit will power Alibaba Group-owned AliExpress’ Pay After Delivery.
The new payment option enables shoppers to pay after delivery using their existing credit card. Pay After Delivery leverages Splitit’s Installments-as-a-Service platform that embeds a branded experience within AliExpress’ checkout flow.
Splitit, which leverages Checkout.com’s payment-acquiring capabilities to offer the new installment service, was founded in 2012 as PayItSimple. Splitit’s Installments-as-a-Service tool is similar to well-known buy now, pay later (BNPL) technologies in that it enables consumers to pay for a good or a service in installments, interest-free.
Splitit’s tool differentiates itself from BNPL, however, because it is completely white-labeled and offers customers a merchant-branded experience. Because of this, during the checkout flow, customers are not redirected to a third party. What’s more, because Splitit relies on a consumer’s existing credit card, the company does not require additional credit checks. All of this results in less friction for the customer and better control over customer relationships for the merchant.
“Our work with Alipay is a testament to the flexibility of Splitit’s platform and the strength of our new partnership with Checkout.com. Together we are providing a valuable resource for sellers and shoppers by powering payment after delivery,” said Splitit CEO Nandan Sheth. “We are thrilled to collaborate with two exemplary companies like Alipay and Checkout.com. I look forward to building on this initial launch by expanding into other markets in the future.”
Splitit is based in Atlanta with offices in London and Australia, as well as an R&D center in Israel. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) under ticker code SPT and also trades on the US OTCQX under ticker SPTTY and STTTF. Splitit has partnered with both Stripe and Shopify in recent years to act as an installments-as-a-service option for their merchant clients.
Denmark-based Subaio announced this week that it was teaming up with fellow Danish fintech – and fellow Finovate alum – Aiia. Subaio will leverage its partnership with Aiia to better assess creditworthiness for its new white label offering. The collaboration will streamline creditworthiness assessment through a combination of Aiia’s access to financial data and Subaio’s recurring payments detection technology.
“To create automation and a product that works for solid credit scoring across industries, we need as solid and deep quality of data as possible to label the transactions and categorize them afterwards,” Subaio Chief Commercial Officer Soren Nielsen said. “That’s why we chose Aiia to help us bring this next exciting step in the Subaio journey up to speed.”
In some ways, partnerships like this are being encouraged by regulatory decisions. The EU’s revised Consumer Credit Directive of 2021 mandates that financial services firms document customer income and recurring expenses before offering financing to help lower the number of non-performing loans.
“With Aiia, Subaio will be able to offer their customers a hassle-free, cost-efficient and data-driven solution to assess creditworthiness,” Aiia SMB & Fintech Director Tanya Slavova said. “With our high quality data in mind, this open banking empowerment will grant borrowers better loan assessments based on the accurate overview of the consumer’s actual financial situation.”
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Denmark, Subaio made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin. At the conference, the company demoed its white label subscription management service, which gives customers a comprehensive overview of their recurring payments, helps them cancel unwanted subscriptions, and provides notifications to enable customers to avoid “subscription traps.” The company returned to the Finovate stage two years later for FinovateEurope 2022 in London with a demo of its automatic creditworthiness assessment solution.
Subaio has raised $4.9 million in funding from investors including Global PayTech Ventures. Thomas Laursen is CEO.
Making its Finovate debut at our all-digital FinovateEurope 2021 conference, Copenhagen, Denmark-based Aiia was launched in 2017. A leading open banking platform in Northern Europe, the company demoed its account-to-account payment services at FinovateEurope 2021, showing how the technology facilitates everything from one-off payments for ecommerce to bulk payments for SMEs using a single API. Aiia was acquired by Mastercard in the fall of 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Rune Mai is CEO and co-founder.
In other fintech news from the Nordics, Boost.ai, a Finovate alum from Norway, announced that it will bring its conversational AI technology to Nordic bank DNB. Specifically, DNB will use Boost.ai’s technology to automate more than half of the bank’s chat traffic with its Aino virtual agent. Aino presently automates upwards of 20% of the bank’s customer service requests. According to DNB, more than one million of its customers have interacted with Aino.
Boost.ai VP of EMEA Sanjeev Kumar praised DNB has “one of the many forward-thinking organizations that are reaping the benefits of embracing a conversational AI solution.” Kumar highlighted the fact that conversational AI helps free up staff to enable them to focus on higher-order and more complex customer service tasks. Headquartered in Oslo, DNB is the largest financial services group in Norway. DNB offers a full range of financial services, including loans and savings, insurance and pension products, as well as advisory services for both retail and corporate customers.
“Artificial intelligence is an important part of our digital strategy,” DNB SVP and Head of IT Emerging Technologies Jan Thomas Lerstein said. “In leveraging AI, our aim is to revitalize our value chains, creating better service for our customers and, of course, value for the bank.” Lerstein added that DNB is evaluating other AI-enabled solutions including voice APIs to help the bank reach “higher levels of personalization.”
Boost.ai made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York in 2019, demoing its virtual agent technology. Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Sandnes, Norway, the company introduced a new CEO – Jerry Haywood – in the fall of 2022. Haywood took over the position from founder and previous CEO Lars Selsås, who will focus on product development and innovation going forward.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Middle East and Northern Africa
UAE-based Careem Pay teamed up with Lulu Exchange to offer international remittances.
American Express agreed to acquire Israel-based B2B payments automation company Nipendo.
PayPal-owned Xoom has added international money transfers to its Debit Card Deposit product.
Leveraging a partnership with Visa, U.S. users can send funds directly to recipients’ eligible Visa debit cards.
Debit Card Deposit originally launched domestic transfers in 2020.
PayPal’s international money transfer service Xoomadded a new debit card feature today that will help users send money across international borders. Leveraging a partnership with Visa, Xoom’s Debit Card Deposit product now facilitates international money transfers.
Debit Card Deposit originally launched in 2020 to allow customers to send funds within the U.S. Today’s addition will enable Xoom customers in the U.S. to use the Xoom mobile app or web interface to send money across the international border directly to friends or family using their debit card. Recipients, who will receive the funds on their eligible Visa debit card, will be able to access the funds in real-time.
“We know that getting funds quickly and easily is important for many of our customers, which is especially true around the winter months and the holidays when people are sending money to their friends and family around the globe,” said PayPal Vice President of Remittances Wei-Lin Lee. “This expansion, through our partnership with Visa, will help more customers around the world get a fast and convenient way to access necessary funds needed for everyday essentials.”
Funds can be sent to 25 countries, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Lithuania, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Xoom will add more regions later this year.
Xoom was founded in 2001 and was acquired by PayPal in November of 2015 for $890 million. The company enables peer-to-peer money transfers that can be sent directly to the recipient’s bank account or debit card. Recipients also have the option to pick up physical cash at brick-and-mortar partner locations or receive the cash at their doorstep via a delivery.
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.
