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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Coinme, a leading crypto exchange in the U.S., offers an Embedded Crypto Finance product that “crypto-enables” fintechs and traditional FIs to offer digital assets to their customers.
Features
Excite customers by offering crypto
Generate new revenue
Boost platform engagement
Why it’s great
Coinme offers a proven turnkey solution for adding crypto to fintech and FI platforms to increase user engagement and revenues.
Presenter
Sung Choi, SVP Strategy & Business Development Choi leads Coinme’s strategy and business development departments and spearheads the revenue operations of Coinme’s Embedded Crypto Finance product. LinkedIn
The convergence between the complexities of property management and property taxation has produced more than its fair share of headaches for commercial and residential property owners alike. Fortunately, fintech innovation in the form of Ownwell exists to help these property owners save money when it comes to paying property taxes.
“Property owners have a lot to consider when deciding to protest (property tax overpayments),” Ownwell CEO Colton Pace explained. Pace cited the costs in time and money, the complexity, and the access to real estate industry expertise as major hurdles for property owners when contesting property value assessments. “Ownwell handles the entire process of appealing on behalf of property owners and charges the lowest fees currently on the market,” Pace said. “We ensure all property owners, regardless of financial status, have access to the tools, resources, and information they need to manage their property taxes with confidence.”
Formerly known as realAppeal, Ownwell combines industry expertise and machine learning to provide property owners with protection against overpaying on their property tax. Ownwell provides owners with a savings estimate based on current sales and valuation data. If the owner decides to challenge their assessment, locally-based property tax experts leverage proprietary software to build the best case possible for the property owner. With a Savings-or-Free guarantee, Ownwell customers only pay if the process saves them money on their property tax assessment. The company said that its customers save an average of $1,457, and that “nearly” nine of 10 of its challenges are successful.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Ownwell earned a spot in the fintech headlines recently with news of its $5.75 million seed funding round. The investment was led by First Round Capital, and featured participation by Wonder Ventures, Founder Colllective, Long Journey Ventures, and Scott Banister, former board member of PayPal. The company said that it will use the additional capital to hire additional talent – from sales to technology to local tax expertise – across the board. The seed funding comes as the Ownwell reports growing its customer base by 40x over the past nine months, with operations in Texas, California, Washington, and Florida.
“Real estate is often the most valuable asset homeowners and investors own, but it’s difficult to track and manage the rising costs of property taxes, insurance, financing, and more,” First Round Capital partner Bill Trenchard said. “Ownwell is building a platform to help property owners reduce their property taxes and manage the other costs of ownership with confidence.”
American Express and Billtrust announced a partnership that will leverage automation to enhance acceptance of AMEX virtual cards.
The collaboration is designed to meet the accounts receivable (AR) needs of suppliers who are experiencing faster payments and increased cash flow.
A Finovate alum since 2015, American Express recently partnered with i2c to help fintechs and financial institutions develop solutions on its payments network.
The integration, announced late last week, will enable suppliers to automate and accelerate virtual card payments and to benefit from real-time insight into their outstanding invoices and current cash flow. The partnership, according to AMEX President of U.S. Global Merchant Services Colleen Taylor, is designed to help suppliers keep pace with both an increased demand for products and services, as well as a need for faster, more efficient payment processes. This is due, Taylor suggested, in large part to the trend of businesses “moving away from paper-based payments to electronic payments for the greater visibility and speed they provide.”
Unfortunately, this trend of faster payments and larger cash flows also means that many companies have existing AR systems that are often inadequate. The partnership between American Express and Billtrust responds to this challenge by giving suppliers a complete solution that covers all aspects of the AR process, including credit decisioning, ordering, invoicing, payments, cash application, and collections. The partnership also will give suppliers access to Billtrust’s Business Payments Network (BPM), which boosts invoice and digital payment efficiency by connecting them with hundreds of buyers and buyer portals.
“Both Billtrust and American Express recognize the need to support merchants and suppliers in responding to buyer demands for digital payment options,” Billtrust CEO Flint Lane said. “This collaboration brings automation to American Express merchants and suppliers, helping create better outcomes and increased customer satisfaction.”
American Express has been a Finovate alum since 2015, when the company presented The role of B2B payments in the evolving commerce ecosystem at our developers conference, FinDEVr Silicon Valley. The company’s partnership news with Billtrust comes in the wake of a collaboration with digital payment and banking technology company i2c that will make it easier for fintechs and financial institutions to develop and scale products on AMEX’s global payments network. American Express trades on the NYSE under the ticker AXP, and has a market capitalization of $127 billion.
“What mmob does is solve the pain points on two sides of an ecosystem. On one side for third party product providers and service providers, we integrate all of their products and services onto our network. Then we also make that seamlessly accessible through to larger distribution channels so their products and services can be integrated natively.”
“(Identity verification) is very challenging, especially when you look at it as a global problem. Every region, every geography has a little bit of a twist. People may not have consistent addresses in some countries, or may not have a track record with a financial institution or a utility compared to some other places. So identity verification is very, very difficult and made much more complicated if you operate in a lot of countries or incorporate a lot of data sources.”
“We are an AI company focused on analyzing billions of articles and messages from the web in real -time using a technology called Natural Language Processing (NLP). We basically process text data and we derive insights that are consumed by financial professionals and corporates. We have the ability to screen an enormous, 20 billion articles and messages and to detect things like environmental, social, and governance risks; early warnings; analyzing competitors; measuring sentiment on companies and on concept.”
“Finshape is a new brand in the digital banking market. It has come about with the merger of two companies: BSC (Banking Software Company) and W.UP. With the combined force of these two companies, Finshape now has about 700 people with a hundred banking clients across the globe as clients and partners across four continents. We’re very proud to have built this digital powerhouse and we’re looking to do a lot more in shaping the future of digital banking.”
Stay tuned for more videos from Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast’s Conversations with Best of Show winners.
The funding will help OneVest, which was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, to grow its team, expand sales, and support product development. The company offers digital wealth management services that can be embedded into consumer-facing products via APIs. The technology integrates well with multiple fintechs and financial institutions, empowering them to combine wealth management and investment functionality into their own financial solutions.
“People are increasingly demanding a more seamless and simple experience where financial products are integrated into their everyday lives,” OneVest co-founder and CEO Amar Ahluwalia said. “Our mission is to make investing more accessible to everyone, and available anytime, anywhere and through any channel.”
The first company to take advantage of the new offering is Neo Financial, which leveraged OneVest’s platform to launch its new actively managed wealth platform, Neo Invest.
Square announced this week that it is bringing its financing solution to business borrowers in Canada. Square Loans leverages transaction data to create and bring customized offers to eligible sellers, giving them a straightforward, paperwork-free application process. Funds are available the next business day and businesses are charged a single, upfront loan fee that is paid back automatically as a set percentage of daily card sales with Square. This arrangement enables borrowers to make larger repayments when sales are strong and smaller repayments when sales are weaker.
“From our earliest days, Square has focused on building easy-to-use tools and services to empower entrepreneurs to succeed on their own terms,” Head of Square Alyssa Henry said. Since Square Loans launched in the U.S. and Australia, the company has provided more than $9 billion in financing to more than 460,000 businesses with an average loan size of $6,750.
For all the interest – an even enthusiasm in some quarters – over CBDCs, not everyone is on board. This week we learned that Pierre Poilievre, leadership candidate for Canada’s Conservative Party is not only unimpressed by the opportunities provided by CBDCs, he also wants to enact a ban on the technology.
But don’t mistake Poilievre for a Luddite. The man considers himself a blockchain backer and has, in fact, pledged to make Canada “the blockchain capital of the world.”
“A Poilievre government would welcome this new, decentralized, bottom-up economy and allow people to take control of their money from bankers and politicians,” the Conservative Party politician said in March. He added that an embrace of blockchain would “expand choice” and “lower the costs of financial products” as well as providing a wealth of tech-oriented jobs and opportunities for entrepreneurs in Canada.
As such, Poilievre’s CBDC skepticism seems to be more related to his attitude toward central banks than his opinion on blockchain technology. He has promised that, in addition to a CBDC ban, he would support an audit of the central bank’s balance sheet – a common commitment from conservative politicians in the post-Global Financial Crisis era. This would include a review of the central bank’s bond buying program during the pandemic. Poilievre has blamed the central bank economic response to COVID for the country’s currently high inflation rate.
Both a Canadian CBDC and a Poilievre mandate are some ways away, if that. The Canadian central bank has been working on a CBDC for year, with the project still in development stage. Poilievre, while the front runner to become the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, would nevertheless have to wait until 2025 at the earliest to challenge Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Central and Eastern Europe
How has fintech in Russia been impacted by the country’s invasion of Ukraine? Fintech influencer Chris Skinner reviewed the current state of Russian fintech.
We recently caught up with Vivienne Hsu, Chief Communications and Marketing Officer with Sokin, a U.K.-based, global financial service provider and payments company. Originally slated for our Women’s History Month commemoration, our conversation includes both Hsu’s thoughts on “the State of Women in Fintech” and gender diversity in the industry, as well as her insights on Sokin, its contributions to fintech innovation, and what we can expect from the company in the future.
Joining Sokin in 2021, Hsu was previously co-founder and Partner at Anabasis Partners, an international marketing and communications advisory firm. Before that, Hsu spent more than seven years as an executive with Cognito, a London-based PR, marketing, and communications agency.
Can you tell us a little about Sokin and its place in the fintech industry?
Hsu: Sokin is a global payments fintech that is the first to offer a consumer subscription model for unlimited transfers for a fixed fee. We believe in straightforward, transparent currency exchange and money transfers and allowing as many people and businesses to have access to the global payments ecosystem. We are ethically conscious and focused on the positive impact we can have as a business, putting financial inclusivity and eco-friendly innovation centrally to our purpose while working to democratize and simplify the global payments process.
How long have you worked at Sokin? What do you enjoy most about being a part of its leadership team?
Hsu: I’ve been with Sokin since January 2021 and enjoy being part of a very fast-paced business that is constantly growing, innovating, and evolving. I’m surrounded by hard-working and exceptionally talented people where I continue to learn so much. The leadership team is experienced, grounded, and strategic, but also fun which makes being part of it such a privilege.
What are the biggest responsibilities you have as CCMO? Are there any accomplishments as Sokin’s CCMO that you are most proud of?
Hsu: The biggest responsibilities I have as CCMO is to build the Sokin brand and keep our name front-of-mind within the global payments and innovation industry. We have an incredible story to tell – one that really holds people at its heart – and great products and services to get out to market with.
I’m immensely proud of the team we have built and how quickly we have managed to scale the Sokin brand globally. We’ve nurtured our flourishing sports club partnerships very effectively and continue to enter new markets at pace with an extremely exciting proposition.
How has the pandemic impacted the work you do as CCMO?
Hsu: The global pandemic changed how we work, but not what we need to do to deliver it. If anything, the change in working environment has forced us to innovate and collaborate in new and diverse ways. For example, as a global organization with a workforce across the world, we do not let time zones or geographies hold back progress.
Being able to build a good team culture and the creative spark is the only area which has been harder to achieve as our people are not always together. But overall, it’s not negatively impacted my role or the work we do at Sokin.
How would you characterize the “State of Women in Fintech and Financial Services” in 2022?
Hsu: The industry has improved, but there is still a lot of work to do. When I started out, it was not uncommon for only one or two women to have a seat in the boardroom. This, of course, has changed due to a shift in workplace attitudes and, as a result, we are seeing more women than ever moving up the ladder. However, this must only be seen as the beginning. It’s still not an equal men-to-women ratio, but it’s getting better.
Evidently, more attention and emphasis have been placed on supporting women in the finance industry over the years. I have seen more female leaders and experts working in finance and fintech compared to 10 years ago. It’s wonderful to see the glass ceiling starting to crack and I hope it grows in momentum.
What do you think the industry is doing right in terms of promoting gender diversity? What do we need to do better?
Hsu: I think fintech and financial services are having the conversation and pushing the agenda for gender diversity, which is really the first step. We need to get to a point where equality is part of a natural and organic system, not a forced issue as it is now – much like a box to tick.
I hope in the coming years we will not have to talk about gender diversity in the same way we do now, but instead it becomes something that’s actioned without question.
What can you do in your role as CCMO to help advance gender diversity?
Hsu: I think I can help in my role as a CCMO – and also as a senior female leader – by setting a good example, supporting, and mentoring others and driving a strong DE&I team and agenda at Sokin. Being part of a progressive and innovative company helps immensely, but also we have a culture where everyone’s opinion matters and can be shared which really can drive quick and necessary change.
It’s also about giving women the opportunities they need to succeed. The best way to create a rope ladder for other people to climb is to include them in your own journey. I’ve been exceedingly lucky to work with lots of incredible people over the years who did just that. By doing so, they pulled the best out of me which I did not see in myself. Before I knew it, I was involved in activities which, to me, seemed impossible, but those around me saw things differently. I will always be grateful for this, and I hope I can support the talent of today in the same way.
It may sound simple, but by doing so you naturally open opportunities and further responsibilities for those in your team. Providing an accessible platform to learn is fundamental in supporting others through their professional careers, especially in fast-paced industries such as fintech in which there are an plenty of chances opening every day. It’s about giving people both the confidence and, most importantly, access to pursue them.
Sokin is involved in multiple new initiatives. What excites you most about the direction of the company right now?
Hsu: I’m most excited about how the company is innovating and the way we are building our ecosystem and partnerships. It’s unlike any other organization I have worked! Sokin is at the forefront of several innovations such as taking payments into the metaverse and web 3.0, alongside what we can do with our existing and new partners.
Having only launched our Global Currency Account in August 2021, Sokin has rapidly expanded into 32 territories, and welcomed more than 120,000 Sokin customers with a further 175,000 currently on the global waiting list. At the end of 2021, we had transferred over $100 million around the world, delivered a multilingual app with five accessible languages, doubled the size of Sokin’s global workforce, partnered with five top-class football clubs including our first NFL team, and launched our exclusive sponsorship community, Sokin – Money Goals. To achieve this in a matter of months is astounding.
In short, we are leveling up global payments with the ambition to become the provider of choice for global transfers and currency exchange around the world. And I wholeheartedly believe we can and we will achieve this.
Accessing and leveraging enterprise data in a timely fashion has become one of the most definitive ways to outpace the competition in the business world. In the financial services industry, financial firms must be able to use data to generate a complete view of the business and the customer at many levels of the organization.
Until recently, data-driven insights were the sole purview of leaders, stakeholders, and team members with the right technical expertise. Now, financial organizations are searching for ways to deliver insights across their organizations, from the board room to one-on-one interactions between customers and customer service representatives.
This is what’s known as data democratization, and it will be key to driving innovation in the financial services industry moving forward.
According to a recent study sponsored by InterSystems entitled “Empowering Line of Business Users Through Data Democratization,” one of the most important steps in democratizing the enterprise’s data is breaking down data siloes. The study, produced by WBR Insights and published by the Financial Information Management (FIMA) conference series, engaged 250 leaders from the financial industry to learn just how they intend to improve access to data over the next 12 months.
Data Access, Compliance, and Analytics Are Key Projects for the Future
Researchers concluded that any company that isn’t satisfied with its current ability to democratize data may need new data technologies. They may also need to consult with third-party experts to deploy enterprise-wide data governance processes and manage changes among staff members.
Indeed, 62% of the respondents said that providing improved access to siloed distributed data is among their top data priorities for the next 12 months.
Data Siloes Are the Biggest Barrier to Innovation
Innovation in the financial services industry has taken on a variety of forms. Self-service solutions for customers have become particularly attractive to organizations recently, as customers are demanding more ways to connect with their financial companies from home. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are also making inroads among financial firms due to their ability to make predictions and offer strategic insights.
But the most important asset for all these innovations is data. Without accessible and usable data, the organization can’t make use of advanced technologies or develop innovative applications for them. Too often, enterprise data is locked in silos due to systems that don’t communicate with each other.
According to the respondents to the FIMA and WBR Insights study, data siloes were among their top three biggest barriers to innovation.
Specifically, 54% of the respondents listed “data silos” as a top barrier to innovation. These organizations know that they have valuable data locked away in their systems, but because those systems can’t communicate with each other, there is effectively a barrier between the organization, its data, and the insights that data contains.
In the context of the financial services industry, it should be no surprise that unlocking the potential of that data is a top concern. Data is quickly becoming a new currency, and the ability to use customer data for insights is driving competition across the sector.
These are just a few of the insights offered by the new report by WBR Insights and FIMA. If you’d like to gain actionable insights into how you can democratize data at your organization, download the report today.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Solve Financeautomates better borrowing. Its Debt Optimizer combines real-time price transparency and enriched credit data with financial intelligence.
Features
Increase mortgage approval rates by optimizing credit usage (DTI) of potential borrowers
Tailored solutions with live market data
Free, prequalified leads for lenders in marketplace
Why it’s great
Grow customers with customizable roboadvice for borrowing.
Presenter
Sean Hundtofte, CEO & Co-Founder Hundtofte has dedicated his 20+ year career to consumer finance, most recently as an executive at Better Mortgage, in research at the NY Fed, and with a PhD in household finance. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Polymesh’sPolymath Token Studio is an easy-to-use interface to create, issue, and manage securities on the Polymesh blockchain.
Features
Quickly create regulated assets
Easily implement compliance criteria
Enable new financial products for low cost while tapping into global liquidity pools
Why it’s great
Every security will eventually live on a blockchain. Polymesh is an institutional-grade permissioned blockchain building tools that make it easy to create, issue, and manage securities.
Presenter
Graeme Moore, Head of Tokenization Moore is the Head of Tokenization at Polymesh, a blockchain purpose-built for regulated assets. He is also an advisory board member at RedSwan, and the author of B is for Bitcoin. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
FlowPoint unlocks ways to rapidly spot risks for mitigation or opportunities for growth by making it easier to share, process, and analyze the operational performance of private companies.
Features
Time-series ingestion of business performance data
FlowPoint Smart Forms
Early warning system for compliance and risk detection
Why it’s great
FlowPoint helps bring businesses out of the information abyss.
Presenters
Stephen Pollack, CEO Pollack is an author, serial entrepreneur, and technology specialist with strong background in helping companies find their path to success in a variety of sectors and in a variety of roles. LinkedIn
Brad Johnson, Director, Product Johnson has 15+ years of technical leadership experience. His recent role validated how reporting and monitoring can improve risk management thereby validating FlowPoint’s mission. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
Lokyata digitizes and automates credit decisioning for consumer and auto loans. BankAnalyze assesses the applicant’s bank statement and instantly provides a credit decision based on configured rules.
Features
Real-time income & expense analysis results in more accurate scoring
Full financial profile to effectively de-risk and increase eligible applicants
Go live in 10 days
Why it’s great
Allows lenders to see the value of using permission-based data to comfortably lend to all borrowers — especially to “near and sub prime” borrowers. We’ll prime your near and sub prime applicants.
Presenter
Steven Bireley, CTO Bireley is Chief Technology Officer at Lokyata, a company focused on delivering AI-powered digital credit solutions that scale. Bireley has 30 years of enterprise and B2B SaaS product engineer experience. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 18 and 19. Register today and save your spot.
QuickFi is a 100% digital, self-service, mobile equipment financing platform. QuickFi employs facial recognition, drivers’ license authentication, AI/ML, blockchain, and other advanced technologies.
Features
SPEED: QuickFi allows financing in minutes, not days or weeks.
COST: QuickFi costs 2/3 less vs. traditional lending.
TRANSPARENCY: Low, fixed rates without hidden costs.
Why it’s great
QuickFi is available 24/7/365, and QuickFi also offers borrowers live support (via chat or telephone) anytime of the day or night (also 24/7).
Presenters
Nate Gibbons, Chief Operating Officer Gibbons was a VP of Operations at First American Equipment Finance before becoming one of the founders of QuickFi. He oversees the customer experience strategy at QuickFi. LinkedIn
Jillian Munson, Technology Product Manager Munson graduated from Oswego State College with a degree in Computer and Information Science. Prior to joining QuickFi, she was a Systems Analyst at First American Equipment Finance. LinkedIn
