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My Test Drive of the Curve Card in the U.S.

My Test Drive of the Curve Card in the U.S.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column

I’ve had my eye on Curve since it launched in the U.K. in 2015. Curve consolidates users’ payment cards into a single physical card and digital wallet, meaning that users only need to carry one card.

After Curve announced its U.S. launch earlier this year, I signed up for the waitlist and onboarded last week. I’ve only had the card for about a week so far, but overall I’m fairly impressed.

Better than predecessors

The company’s card consolidation technology seems to be winning where other players have failed. Remember COIN, the digital smart card that promised to replace all of the cards in your wallet? The company had a slow and rocky start after its 2013 launch– it didn’t even begin shipping cards until 2015– and then shut its doors in 2017 after being acquired by FitBit in 2016. At that point, some of the company’s backers had not even received their card in the mail even though they fronted $50 for the opportunity to get on COIN’s wait list.

Curve has obviously learned from COIN’s mistakes. To start, the company has a lower customer acquisition cost (CAC) compared to COIN. While COIN shipped a digital, battery-powered card along with a magstripe-reading dongle that customers would use to load all of their payment cards, Curve issues a standard plastic payment card with an EMV chip and NFC-powered contactless payment technology.

The plus side

Curve also comes with a handful of additional benefits including rewards, no foreign exchange fees, an Anti-Embarrassment mode that will allow the payment to go through even if the card is declined (with restrictions), and a Go Back in Time feature that enables users to change which card is used for a transaction up to 30 days after the fact. Unique benefits such as these are typically only found with digital banks. But I like that Curve offers me access to these unique features while I get to keep my primary banking relationship.

The downside

Of course, there are a handful of drawbacks I’ve noticed so far, as well. The biggest downside for me is that Curve is working with Mastercard for its credit card network. This means two things– I can’t use it at Costco and I can currently add only my debit card to the app. That’s because at the moment, Curve users can only add credit cards from Mastercard, Discover, and Diners Club. This limitation negates the main benefit of the Curve card, which shouts the motto, “one card to rule them all.” Curve plans to support Visa credit cards in the future, however, so perhaps this is only an issue for beta testers.

The other drawbacks are fairly minor. The PFM capabilities are lacking, perhaps because they expect users to turn to their bank for money management tools. Additionally, call me shallow, but I wish the card itself wasn’t so ugly. With black, white, and red lines, the card has a masculine, retro vibe.

Curve’s potential trajectory

If the progress Curve has made in the U.K. is any signal of its trajectory in the U.S., there is hope that the company will not go the way of COIN. The biggest indication of this is its business plan. Unlike other consolidated payment cards and even some digital banks, Curve operates on a freemium model with the three paid tiers ranging from just under $6 to just under $18 per month. Benefits offered to users in higher tiers include using the Go Back in Time feature more than three times per month, adding more than two cards, and receiving 1% cashback at a limited number of retailers. And for users worried about the color of their Curve card, Curve also offers U.K. users other card design options and even a metal card for those willing to pay for the top tier.

Photo by Tim Foster on Unsplash

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Kids Finance App GoHenry Acquires Pixpay

Kids Finance App GoHenry Acquires Pixpay
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • U.K.-based GoHenry has acquired France-based Pixpay for an undisclosed sum.
  • The deal will help GoHenry expand further into Europe.
  • GoHenry and Pixpay will operate under their own brands with no change in staffing or headquarters.

Kids money management app GoHenry has acquired France-based Pixpay for an undisclosed amount.

The move will help U.K.-based GoHenry expand further into Europe, taking advantage of Pixpay’s teen mobile banking operations in France, Spain, and eventually Germany and Italy.

“Pixpay is the most developed player in Europe,” said GoHenry CEO Alex Zivoder, “and we’re excited to combine our expertise in financial education to accelerate not only GoHenry’s growth but to accelerate the financial fitness of even more kids and teens globally.”

Founded in 2019, Pixpay’s mobile banking app targets a slightly older user base then GoHenry. Pixpay is aimed at pre-teens and teenagers, while GoHenry caters to kids as young as six years old. Both seek to not only help kids spend and save money, but also to teach them responsible money habits at an early age. With almost 200,000 users, Pixpay has raised €11.1 million. Benoit Grassin is co-founder and CEO.

“We are delighted to be joining the GoHenry Group as we prepare to accelerate Pixpay’s expansion across Europe,” said Grassin. “GoHenry’s experience and heritage will only serve to strengthen the already strong proposition offered by Pixpay.”

The acquisition will not impact current operations at either company. Both GoHenry and Pixpay will function under their own brands with no change in staffing or headquarters. The two plan to work together to improve their products and “further transform financial education across the globe.”

GoHenry launched in 2012 and has since raised $66.2 million. The company expanded into the U.S. in 2019 and now counts more than two million members across the U.S. and the U.K.

“So as we expand into Europe, we’re excited to empower even more young people with the money management skills they need to thrive in today’s digital economy,” the company said in its announcement.

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Arcadia Acquires Data Aggregator Urjanet to Help Promote a “Zero-Carbon” Future

Arcadia Acquires Data Aggregator Urjanet to Help Promote a “Zero-Carbon” Future
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Urjanet
  • Utility data aggregator Urjanet has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.
  • Urjanet made its Finovate debut last fall at FinovateSpring 2021.
  • Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Atlanta, Georgia-based Urjanet facilitates access to data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers around the world.

Here’s some big news from a Finovate newcomer that slipped beneath our radar in the wake of FinovateSpring this year. Urjanet, a leading utility data aggregator that made its Finovate debut last May, has been acquired by energy technology company Arcadia.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal will integrate Urjanet’s global data access with Arcadia’s data and API platform, Arc. This will enable Arc to serve as a universal software layer for the “zero-carbon economy.”

“Without data access, it will be impossible to meet the urgency and size of the climate crisis,” Arcadia CEO Kiran Bhatraju said. “Through our combined capabilities, Arc will help companies in every industry plan for and act on their climate responsibilities, pulling forward a zero-carbon future.”

Urjanet, founded in 2010 and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is the world’s leading utility data aggregator. The company enables businesses to securely access consumer-permissioned data from more than 6,500 utility, telecom, and cable providers in 47 countries. Urjanet accesses more than one million utility bills a month and flows $150 billion in utility spend through its platform. With 50,000 connected utility accounts around the world, nearly a third (30%) of the Fortune 500 utility bills are captured with Urjanet’s technology. Bhatraju said that the integration with Arc will enable Arcadia’s platform to include more than 95% of all residential and commercial accounts in the U.S., as well as data from 9,500 electric, water, gas, and waste utilities globally. More than 1.35 million utility accounts around the world will be connected courtesy of the acquisition.

“Urjanet and Arcadia have long known the same secret: that on-demand, high-fidelity energy data is key to rapid decarbonization,” Arcadia’s Bhatraju wrote when the acquisition was announced earlier this year. “By integrating Urjanet’s global data access, Arc, Arcadia’s industry-leading data and API platform, becomes a universal software layer for the zero-carbon economy with the ability to serve all customers – residential and commercial – across the globe.”

At its Finovate appearance last May, Urjanet showed how its technology could be used to boost financial inclusion and expand credit access. The company partnered with Equifax to launch a new Payment Insights solution that enables banks and lenders to use utility payment history to help establish worthiness for loans.

More recently, Urjanet launched its new flagship platform, Utility Cloud, which provides easy and automated access to credentialed utility account information. Unveiled in April, Utility Cloud provides universal access to utility data, delivering sustainability reporting, energy consumption, utility bill data, and bill images on-demand. This allows businesses to become more energy-efficient, reduce energy spending, and produce quality, aggregated data for ESG reporting.

“Going forward, our customers’ data will be available on-demand in one central location, simplifying their utility data access even more. “Urjanet CEO Sanjoy Malik said. “This one-of-a-kind platform will help organizations streamline very manual and expensive business processes associated with organizing bills from all over the world.”

Photo by Alena Koval

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India Cracks Down on Consumer Lending; Razorpay and Pine Labs Score Payment Licenses

India Cracks Down on Consumer Lending; Razorpay and Pine Labs Score Payment Licenses
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week’s edition of Finovate Global takes a look at recent developments in the fintech industry in India.

Has a “fintech reckoning” come to India? That’s the take shared by the Wall Street Journal recently, which suggested that many of the country’s fintech startups are facing new regulatory scrutiny. TechCrunch joined the alarm, looking specifically at the decision by the Reserve Bank of India to ban the practice of using credit cards to load and top up non-bank prepaid payment instruments (PPIs) such as prepaid cards.

The potential impact of the ruling is broad, with companies that specifically leverage PPI licenses to issue cards and then offer cardholders lines of credit, as well as Buy Now, Pay Later firms, that also use a similar approach to offer loans to consumers, being affected. The former group includes major Indian fintechs such as Slice, OneCard, Jupiter, Uni, and KreditBee.

The decision has drawn criticism from individuals in those businesses, some of whom have spoken to the press only on condition of anonymity to “avoid upsetting RBI officials” as TechCrunch described it. Some of those speaking against the policy have accused the RBI of issuing a ruling that is “very confusing and strange.” Others have hinted that lobbying from banks has played a role and reflects a common practice of incumbents using the system to stymie new entrants and slow innovation.

In fact, one option some of the potentially impacted companies may pursue – moving to PPIs through banks and offering their services inline with RBI guidelines –could actually bolster the position of the banks relative to fintechs.

“Not allowing loading of prepaid instruments through credit is aimed at protecting bank’s lazy credit card business from fintech’s potent BNPL business,” BharatPe co-founder Ashneer Grover tweeted after RBI’s decision was announced. “It’s a flex move by banks – rent seeking.”

In other fintech news from India, we learned this week that Razorpay and Pine Labs both secured approval from the RBI for payment aggregator licenses. The firms are among the first to receive the approvals, which come as the central bank prepares a list of fintechs that will be allowed to operate as payment aggregators in the country. Reportedly more than 185 fintechs have applied for the authorization, which requires companies to have a net worth of $1.9 million as of FY 2021 and a net worth of $3.1 million by the end of FY 2023.

Established in 2020, India’s payment aggregator framework enables only RBI-approved firms to offer payment services to merchants. Among the companies to have applied are major fintechs such as PayU, BharatPe, and FSS, as well as technology companies Google and Amazon.

Founded in 2013, Razorpay is a payment gateway that seeks to improve money management for online businesses by offering clean, developer-friendly APIs and easy integration. With more than 300 million end customers, Razorpay has raised more than $816 million in funding. Harshil Mathur is co-founder and CEO.

Pine Labs is an omnichannel merchant commerce platform that serves businesses in India and Southeast Asia. The company’s solutions offer frictionless online payments for businesses, provide closed-loop gift cards for businesses to boost customer acquisition, and a smart payment app. Founded in 1998, Pine Labs has raised $1.2 billion in funding. Amrish Rau is CEO.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Photo by ritesh arya

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Experian CIO on Digital Identity, Personalization, and Building Trust with Consumer Data

Experian CIO on Digital Identity, Personalization, and Building Trust with Consumer Data
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Experian, Interview, Speaker series

In a digital world, there’s no way around digital identity. The topic touches all corners of fintech and ecommerce, and while it can create a stumbling block, leveraging consumer identity data can also hold great opportunity.

We recently spoke with Experian’s Kathleen Peters for her thoughts on digital identity and how financial services companies can use consumer data to their advantage.

Peters started her career as an engineer at Motorola and later moved into voice and messaging encryption technology. Eventually, she began working in Experian’s global fraud and identity business and now serves as the company’s Chief Innovation Officer.

The fintech industry has always struggled with digital identity. Why is digital identity so difficult to get right?

Kathleen Peters: A consumer’s identity is personal; every interaction and transaction requires their identity. Consumers expect a seamless and frictionless experience, but also rely on organizations to protect their information. The balance is crucial and challenging.

As an industry, fintech is known for creating compelling and personalized online journeys. But that experience can suffer if the fraud-prevention routines are perceived as burdensome by consumers.

Every year, Experian conducts a survey of consumers and business leaders, asking them about sentiments, trends, and other matters around fraud and identity. Year after year, the number-one consumer concern is online security. When transacting online, people want to know that their information is safe and secure. In striking a balance with consumers to instill trust, industry players need to show some sign of security that reinforces privacy.

Putting this balance into practice, if a consumer or business is performing a large online transaction, they want to see added layers of identity verification. Conversely, if they are performing a simple online purchase, industry players should not over-index with heavy-duty identity resolution (e.g., facial recognition, passcode) on low-risk, low-dollar transactions. In short, we need the right fraud‑prevention treatment for the right transaction; it is not a one-size-fits-all exercise.

It is important to know a customer’s identity for compliance reasons, but are there business use cases for this as well?

Peters: When it comes to KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance, you want to verify that you are dealing with a real person (not a made-up entity) and ensure that you are not dealing with criminals or people on watch lists. This is a basic compliance check and mitigates the risk presented by increasingly resourceful “bad actors” who have become very sophisticated in how they find and exploit vulnerabilities.

For commercial entities, especially small businesses, you want to know that they are a real business. You want to know that the principals involved in the business (the owners, board members) are not criminals or people on watch lists, or that the company itself is not somehow engaged in things that you do not want to deal with. In this sense, KYC applies to consumers and businesses alike in terms of a compliance check. There is a different level of compliance for consumers versus businesses, but the KYC concepts remain similar.

With KYC, businesses can check the box that indicates that “I am compliant.” That does not necessarily grow a bank, fintech, or online merchant’s topline revenues. Compliance is certainly a core element of identity, but so is identifying a potentially fraudulent transaction. For example, recognizing synthetic identity scams can prevent an organization from losing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in fraud losses. 

When the concept of personalization was introduced in fintech, there was a lot of discussion of privacy concerns and fears that consumers would perceive banks’ efforts as “creepy.” Does this still exist today?

Peters: Our annual Global Identity and Fraud Report shows that people hold banks in high regard. They possess an especially strong degree of trust from consumers. Yet, unknown fintechs that may reach consumers through a banner ad or other similar means may not yet possess that same amount of trust. Building trust with consumers is critical, especially for fintechs, and it starts with transparency and reinforcing the value exchange.

What is the best way for banks and fintechs to build trust among their consumers?

Peters: Banks and fintechs need a layered approach to identity resolution that accommodates the balance between fraud detection and the online experience to build consumer trust early in their relationship. Establishing that trust should be a top priority and involves having visible means of security, being transparent about why you are collecting certain types of data, and delivering value for that data exchange (e.g., personalized offers, speed). And that value needs to be immediate and a tangible benefit, not a down-the-road promotion or assurance.

According to our Global Identity and Fraud Report, consumers are willing to give more data if they trust the entity and feel as though they are receiving value.

Once the value exchange is established, those feelings of trust and recognition lead to increased brand loyalty, a holy grail for banks and fintechs.

Given this, what are ways banks and fintechs can leverage consumer data combined with an increase in their trust to better connect with consumers?

Peters: Building relationships with consumers comes down to recognizing them, protecting their information and offering a personalized experience. Consumers want to feel confident that their online accounts are secure, and that they don’t need to jump through hoops to access the resources they need.

It comes down to identifying and understanding consumers and their needs. The best way to do that is with a lot of data. It serves as a vast resource to look at the multitude of behaviors historically and predict the next likely behaviors and intent. Predictive modeling like this can be hard to do, especially if you do not have a lot of historical data. However, with aggregated data, scores, and solutions from a provider like Experian, it can be a very powerful way to drive engagement.

For instance, if a consumer is in-market for a new credit card, banks and fintechs may want to engage their consumers with a personalized offer or increase dollar-value transactions—both ways to build trust.

Photo by cottonbro

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Envestnet to Acquire Redi2 Technologies to Boost Billing & Accounting

Envestnet to Acquire Redi2 Technologies to Boost Billing & Accounting
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Envestnet acquired revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies.
  • Envestnet will use the buy to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities.
  • Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Financial wellness technology firm Envestnet announced its 16th acquisition today. The Chicago-based company announced it has purchased revenue management and hosted fee-billing solutions company Redi2 Technologies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Redi2 offers a revenue management platform tailored to financial services companies. The tool offers fee calculation, invoice creation, payouts and accounting, and billing compliance. Among Redi2’s products are Revenue Manager, which provides client revenue accounting and billing services for asset managers; Wealth Manager, which delivers multi-party billing and payouts for broker-dealers and asset managers; and BillFin, which offers advisory billing and invoicing for financial advisors.

Envestnet will use Redi2’s technology to modernize its billing, accounting, and back office capabilities. The company anticipates the additional expertise will drive client engagement and ultimately boost revenue.

“Redi2 is a pioneer and innovator in the cloud-based delivery of wealth and investment management billing software, making them an ideal partner as we continue to strengthen our financial wellness ecosystem,” said Envestnet Executive Vice President of Business Lines Tom Sipp. “This acquisition enhances our strategic enablement of service and data, and over the next two years will create operating leverage by bringing Envestnet and Redi2’s administrative, revenue, and billing services together.”

Envestnet was founded in 1999. The company’s most noteworthy acquisition was its purchase of Yodlee in 2015. The Yodlee acquisition broadened Envestnet’s wealthtech offerings, launching it into the world of open finance. Envestnet is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ENV and has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich

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GoCardless to Acquire Latvian Open Banking Data Platform Nordigen

GoCardless to Acquire Latvian Open Banking Data Platform Nordigen
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, Nordigen
  • Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire open banking platform Nordigen.
  • The Latvia-based fintech, a Finovate alum since 2018, connects to 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.
  • Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close later this summer, were not disclosed.

Bank payments company GoCardless has announced its intention to acquire Nordigen, an open banking platform based in Latvia. GoCardless will integrate Nordigen’s open banking connectivity into its account-to-account network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close later this summer.

“The Nordigen acquisition will take us to the next level,” GoCardless co-founder and CEO Hiroki Takeuchi said. “By intelligently combining free, state-of-the-art open banking connectivity with deep payment expertise, we can now offer open banking-as-a-service to any developer, partner, or fintech.” Takeuchi added that the acquisition will “lead to experimentation … that will create even more compelling use cases.”

Nordigen leverages open banking to help banks and lenders make more creditworthy loans. The company offers solutions that automate income and liability verification, and provides critical insights into prospective borrowers from account data for scoring models. Nordigen offers high-performance analytics including transaction categorization, feature engineering for credit modeling, and the capacity to generate risk scores from account data. Operating in 13 countries and partnered with more than 50 banks and lenders around the world, Nordigen connects to more than 2,300 banks in Europe and the U.K. via its free API.

“Our mission at Nordigen is to help companies around the world adopt and use Open Banking to enable greater financial transparency and financial inclusion,” Nordigen CEO Rolands Mesters said in a statement. “We share GoCardless’ enthusiasm for the growth of Open Banking and are excited to partner with people who not only share our passion for disruptive innovation in financial services, but who will also help us bring Open Banking freely to a much wider audience.”

Acquisition talk has not slowed down Nordigen, which has forged partnerships at an impressive pace this year alone. In June, Nordigen announced that it was working with Sherpa CRM, Landlord Fusion, HES FinTech, BUNNI, and Acounto. Already this month, Nordigen reported that it has expanded its collaboration with Latvian financial services company AS DelfinGroup.

Founded in 2016, Nordigen made its Finovate debut in 2018 at FinovateFall in New York. The company returned to the Finovate stage the following spring for FinovateEurope in London. Prior to the acquisition announcement, Nordigen had raised $4.2 million in funding from investors including Black Pearls VC and Superangel.

Photo by Mariya Todorova

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5 Goals Driving the CFPB’s New Office

5 Goals Driving the CFPB’s New Office
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series, Thought Leadership

Earlier this spring, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a new effort to promote competition and innovation in consumer finance. Backing this effort, the CFPB is opening a new office, The Office of Competition and Innovation.

The Office of Competition and Innovation will replace the Office of Innovation, which relied on an application-based process to grant companies special regulatory treatment. The new office takes a much broader approach, and will consider obstructions hindering open markets and learn how large players make it difficult for small companies to operate. Ultimately, The Office of Competition and Innovation aims to make it easier for end consumers to switch among financial providers.

In order to pursue its mission to increase competition, the Office of Competition and Innovation will pursue the following four goals:

  1. Make it easy for consumers to switch providers
    When users can switch among financial services providers, there is more pressure on incumbents to offer better services, and new players have a better opportunity to acquire customers.
  2. Research structural problems blocking successes 
    The new office will have access to resources to examine what is creating obstacles to innovation. This could impact, for example, the payment networks market or the credit reporting system, both of which are considered oligopolies.
  3. Understand the advantages big players have over smaller players 
    Larger players have built-in advantages over small newcomers. As an example, big companies benefit from a large marketing reach, multi-faceted teams, and a built-in customer base. As the CFPB points out, this may threaten new competition.
  4. Identify ways around obstacles 
    Obstacles for smaller players include lack of access to talent, capital, or even to customer data. The CFPB is addressing the latter issue via a future open finance rule under Section 1033 of the Consumer Financial Protection Act that will give consumers access to their own data.
  5. Host events to explore barriers to entry and other obstacles 
    The new office will organize events such as open houses, sprints, hackathons, tabletop exercises, and war games to help entrepreneurs, small business owners, and technology professionals to collaborate, explore obstacles, and share frustrations with government regulators.

“Competition is one of the best forms of motivation. It can help companies innovate and make their products better, and their customers happier,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “We will be looking at ways to clear obstacles and pave the path to help people have more options and more easily make choices that are best for their needs.”

In financial services, open finance may be one of the best ways to promote competition. But because the U.S. does not have formal regulation around open banking or open finance, there isn’t enough incentive (yet) for financial services players and third party providers to cooperate when it comes to data sharing. In late 2020, however, the CFPB issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that solicited opinions from stakeholders on how customers’ data should be regulated. This was only a very early step in the process, and industry players still lack a standardized approach to open finance.

Photo by Monstera

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OpenFin Lands Strategic Investment from ING Ventures

OpenFin Lands Strategic Investment from ING Ventures
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures.
  • The amount of the investment was undisclosed, but adds to the company’s $47 million raised since 2010.
  • ING is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy.

Enterprise productivity company OpenFin received a strategic investment from ING Ventures this week. The amount of the investment was undisclosed. The New York-based company plans to use the funds to expand what it calls “the operating system (OS) of enterprise productivity,” or OpenFin OS.

OpenFin OS helps financial services organizations power internal and customer-facing digital experiences. OpenFin counts more than 2,400 banks, wealth management firms in 60+ countries as OpenFin OS users. Clients include 23 of top 25 global banks, including Barclays, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and more. OpenFin is aiming to expand the OpenFin OS “to every user within financial services.”

Today’s investor, ING, is an OpenFin OS client. The company began using OpenFin’s technology last year to accelerate its desktop transformation strategy. As a result of the implementation, ING employees can access intuitive workspace management and automated workflows, and as a result increase their productivity. 

“Our investment in OpenFin further validates our determination and commitment to digital transformation and innovation,” said ING Ventures Co-Head Frederic Hofmann. “We are excited to partner with OpenFin as they have proven to be the best in class app platform in this space, transforming distribution and significantly enhancing end-user productivity across the finance industry.”

The amount of today’s funding round was undisclosed, and so was the amount of OpenFin’s most recent round it received in December 2020. Despite this, we know that today’s investment brings the company’s total raised to north of $47 million since it was founded in 2010. That’s the amount of the previous eight investments OpenFin received from investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Barclays, CME Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, NYCA Partners, Pivot Investment Partners, SC Ventures, and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital.

Last April, OpenFin launched Workspace, a tool to help business users consolidate and automate their work across applications and tasks using a single interface. Since then, the company was awarded the “Best Workplace for Change and Transformation” by Harrington Starr.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska

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Brazil’s Travelex Bank Partners with ThetaRay for Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening

Brazil’s Travelex Bank Partners with ThetaRay for Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Screening
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ThetaRay
  • Tel Aviv, Israel-based ThetaRay announced a partnership with Brazil’s Travelex Bank.
  • Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s transaction monitoring and sanctions screening solution, SONAR, to enhance its ability to combat money laundering.
  • ThetaRay made its Finovate debut in 2015. The company has raised more than $112 million in funding.

Transaction monitoring technology provider ThetaRay will help Brazil’s biggest FX specialist, Travelex Bank, enhance its transaction monitoring and sanctions screening capabilities. Travelex Bank will deploy ThetaRay’s SaaS-based anti-money laundering solution, SONAR, to provide both domestic and international transaction monitoring, as well as real-time sanctions screening for international payments.

Travelex Bank Chief Compliance Officer Célia Pizzi highlighted ThetaRay’s ability to meet the institution’s transactions monitoring and sanctions screening needs with a single platform. “ThetaRay’s SONAR will enable us to expand our product services portfolio and improve customer service while improving our overall AML operations,” Pizzi said. “SONAR will provide higher efficiency and secure risk coverage, enabling new businesses and lines of revenue.”

SONAR leverages an advanced type of AI, “artificial intelligence intuition,” that gives banks and financial services institutions a risk-based approach to effectively identify suspicious transactions and individuals. Without bias or thresholds, SONAR provides a comprehensive profile of customer identities across cross-border transaction paths that leads to a quick and accurate identification of money laundering threats. According to ThetaRay, SONAR offers a 95% detection rate and a 99% reduction in false positives when compared to rules-based AML solutions.

“Travelex Bank represents a new generation of global institutions that is readying its money transfer and payment infrastructure for changing conditions,” ThetaRay CEO Mark Gazit said. “Travelex is a provider that looks to the future and prioritizes trust, confidence, and quality.”

Travelex Bank represents international exchange corporation Travelex in Brazil (along with the brokerage Travelex Confidence). The bank provides a wide variety of services including international remittances, imports and exports, crypto exchange transactions, registration services, and more. The firm’s adoption of SONAR, in addition to bolstering its AML capabilities, will also enable Travelex Bank to offer new, compliant products and services.

A Finovate alum since 2015, ThetaRay has spent much of this year forging partnerships with a number of fintechs and banks. In March, ThetaRay announced a partnership with Dubai-based Mashreq Bank and teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Payoneer. Also this spring, the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company reported that it had selected sanctions screening firm Screena as its screening solutions partner, and had partnered with omnichannel money movement platform Qolo to provide transactions monitoring.

With more than $112 million in funding, ThetaRay includes Benhamou Global Ventures, Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), and ABN AMRO Ventures among its investors.

Photo by Burst

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CIBC Bank USA Chooses Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform

CIBC Bank USA Chooses Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Velocity Solutions
  • Chicago, Illinois-based CIBC Bank USA has announced a partnership with Finovate newcomer, Velocity Solutions.
  • CIBC will leverage Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform to lower costs, better manage risk, and increase per-loan profitability.
  • Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut in the fall of 2021. The company acquired the Akouba platform in 2018.

CIBC Bank USA has chosen Velocity Solutions’ Akouba Digital Lending Platform to support its small business banking division. The Chicago, Illinois-based commercial bank, founded in 1989 as The PrivateBank and Trust Company, will leverage Akouba’s cloud-based SaaS platform to lower the cost, time, and risk associated with the loan origination process. At the same time, the platform will help boost the profitability of every loan made.

“We’ve made tremendous progress with the platform since we acquired Akouba in June 2018,” Velocity Solutions EVP of Product Management Mike Triggiano said. “We’re continually refining the platform and adding new features and functionality. It’s been a thrill to enhance Akouba’s industry-leading technology over the past two years, and the opportunity to add CIBC Bank USA to our growing list of clients is definitely one of the most exciting milestones in Akouba’s history to date.”

Added to Velocity Solution’s product suite four years ago, Akouba is designed to accelerate loan origination for both retail and commercial lending. The only small business loan origination platform endorsed by the American Bankers Association (ABA), Akouba reduces end-to-end time, streamlines operational processes, and helps increase profits. The platform does all this while giving financial institutions the ability to retain control over the decision, pricing, credit policy, risk metrics, and loan amounts, as well as the borrower experience.

“At CIBC, we are building an innovative, relationship-focused bank,” CIBC Bank USA President of Retail and Digital Banking and Head of U.S. Strategy and Administration Brant Ahrens said. “Akouba gives our small business clients the ability to seek financing on any device at any time in any place that is convenient for them.”

Velocity Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York last September, where the company demoed its Akouba platform. In the months since, Velocity Solutions has introduced a number of new solutions including VelocityConnector that enables efficient and secure API connections between banking data systems; its VelocityScore feature, which helps indicate the ability of accountholders to repay loans; and its Consumer Liquidity Engine, which makes a range of flexible overdraft options and affordable short-term loans available to bank and credit union customers and members.

Founded in 1995, Velocity Solutions is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Christopher Leonard is CEO.

Photo by Jonathan Petersson

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Wirex Launches Crypto Line of Credit

Wirex Launches Crypto Line of Credit
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Wirex launched a new line of credit, enabling users to borrow stablecoins against their crypto holdings.
  • The new credit offering enables users to access the value of their crypto holdings without needing to sell off their crypto assets.
  • Users can borrow up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT and NXUSD in exchange for their BTC and ETH holdings.

Cryptocurrency payments platform Wirex introduced a new line of credit this week.

The new offering, Wirex Credit, enables Wirex’s five million customers to instantly borrow up to $100,000 issued in USDC, USDT, and NXUSD. Wirex uses clients’ BTC or ETH (with more crypto options launching soon) as collateral with zero origination or setup fees. Users can borrow up to 80% of the value of their crypto holdings and only pay interest once their credit line goes live.

Wirex Credit helps customers access the value of their crypto holdings without having to sell. This is especially useful in the current crypto environment. Because the value of BTC and ETH is down, users would have to sell their holdings at a loss if they wanted to make a purchase using crypto. By converting their holdings to stablecoins first, Wirex clients can make purchases using crypto without selling at an inopportune time.

Users can take advantage of Wirex Credit within the Wirex app and receive stablecoins immediately, with no affordability or credit checks.

“This is a landmark point in Wirex offering more ways for everyday users to utilise crypto, and we’ve made it as convenient and straightforward as possible for our customers to take a crypto-backed loan,” said Wirex CEO and Cofounder Pavel Matveev. “Wirex’s vast ecosystem of products means there are huge opportunities for using Wirex Credit, from HODLing to debit card purchases, or using the Wirex Wallet to earn in DeFi protocols.”

Founded in 2014, Wirex offers an app linked to a Visa debit card that allows customers to spend their cryptocurrency online and in-store at over 61 million locations. The company offers free domestic and international ATM withdrawals, no annual fee, zero exchange fees, near instant crypto transactions, live transaction notifications, and the ability to instantly top up via their debit card with zero fees. Today’s line of credit launch rounds out this set of financial services tools, bringing the company one step closer to providing a comprehensive financial services offering.

Photo by shutter_speed

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