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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and live in London on March 22 and 23, 2022. Register today and save your spot.
Secfense helps banks replace passwords with stronger and better authentication across the entire organization. 81% of attacks come from weak or stolen passwords. With Secfense, this problem is gone.
Features
MFA is great, but implementation is a nightmare. Secfense introduces MFA on any application:
zero integration costs
no burden to end-users
fast and automated way
Why it’s great
It is possible to launch and scale strong authentication within the entire organization with zero integration costs. No matter how big and complex the organization is – it can be protected entirely.
Presenters
Antoni Sikora, Head of Growth, Secfense Sikora has been with Secfense from its early days. His goal is to spread the good news that password days are over and that they can be replaced with a stronger and better alternative. LinkedIn
Patrycja Karwat, IT Security Specialist, BNP Paribas Poland Karwat has been working in cybersecurity for more than five years and has been involved in many cybersecurity projects in banking. LinkedIn
The following is a guest post from Annette Evans, VP of People and Culture, Global Processing Services
This month we at GPS are joining the #BreakTheBias campaign for International Women’s Day 2022 and adding our voice to encourage the fintech community to actively speak up about gender bias in the workplace and outside of it.
Assessing the current status of the fintech industry – given that progressive mind-sets and innovation are the lifeblood of our sector – you may assume fintechs would be pioneers of gender diversity.
Whilst progress is certainly being made, the reality is our sector still has a long way to go.
As the GPS-sponsored Diversity for Growth Report in partnership with Findexable uncovered recently, the representation of women in fintech is not as diverse as one might expect.
Two data points stood out to me in our survey. Firstly, there is a consensus that a lack of gender balance means men’s ideas dominate across every stage of the fintech value chain. Secondly, rapidly scaling companies are struggling to balance diversity commitments with the challenges of building teams in new regions at scale and speed.
On the positive side, fintech firms appear to unanimously agree that a commitment to being fully inclusive makes business sense. They understand that well-managed diverse groups outperform homogenous ones as diversity leads to a higher collective intelligence, better decision-making, and accelerated innovation.
Many also understand that it makes commercial sense as having more women in technical positions leads to more customers because it means creating products which are tailored with women in mind. Women understand how women think and what they need.
It seems strange, therefore, that there is still a gender diversity issue in fintech.
When I speak to leaders across our fast-growing global GPS ecosystem of fintechs, schemes, and banks, I nearly always hear the same thing. The bench of candidates being presented for senior or critical technical roles is rarely diverse, limiting hiring choices.
But recognizing this issue does not solve it. It simply pushes the challenge back to recruiters to try and resolve.
The challenge recruiters face is that the pool of fintech talent we are all recruiting from, whilst growing, is still small compared to other sectors.
We all continue to recruit from the same talent pool, which is problematic, not just from a gender diversity perspective but also for diversity as a whole in all its guises.
This is where I say we all need to apply the #BreakTheBias lens. For recruiters to be successful in providing a more diverse range of talent, leaders need to be more open-minded about where the talent may come from.
Change is happening, but real change takes time. Whilst diverse talent is entering the talent pool at the entry level, it will take time for them to gain their experience and work their way up to bring diversity to more senior levels.
In the immediate term, companies need to review their business culture and ask potentially tough questions around why so few women choose to work for their company. Do you create an environment where talent in all guises can shine? Or does it unconsciously favor those who already fit the mold? If someone thinks or acts differently, how are they treated? Businesses who fail to ask these questions risk losing out.
It is only by shining a mirror on ourselves that we can discover the knowledge we need to take action to try and address diversity challenges. We have to listen to be given the opportunity to change. Change can take a long time, but it will take even longer if it is delayed, ignored, or hidden.
As the organizers of this year’s International Women’s Day state, knowing that bias exists is not enough. Action is needed to level the playing field. Individually, we’re all responsible for our own thoughts and actions – all day, every day.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and live in London on March 22 and 23, 2022. Register today and save your spot.
txtsmarter is a Communications Surveillance Service for messaging and social platforms to capture, encrypt, and archive previously inaccessible data for compliance requirements in the financial space.
Features
Only txtsmarter can archive iMessage, Android SMS/MMS, and WhatsApp
Solution operates in accordance with FINRA, SEC, FDIC, MiFID II, Dodd-Frank, and FCA regulations
Service is permission-based and adheres to privacy regulations
Why it’s great
API-driven Intelligent Communications Surveillance Service: Once activated, requires no user interaction, is OS and device-agnostic with full compliance coverage, and data is directed to eDiscovery platform.
Presenters
Nuri Otus, CEO and Founder Nuri Otus has built multiple sales organizations from nil to eight figures. He has 20+ years experience in strategic planning, sales, marketing, organizational development, product leadership, and market-making. LinkedIn
Alex Otus, Sr. Project Manager and Co-Founder
Alex Otus works with txtsmarter’s development team, as well as its Directors of Marketing and Sales, to develop new integrations, develop and maintain marketing strategy, and ensure client success. LinkedIn
Finovate Best of Show winner Zeta announced a new partnership with Mastercard.
The five-year collaboration included an investment of $30 million from Mastercard and other investors.
The funding gives Zeta a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Zeta, which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateWest Digital 2020, has announced a five-year global partnership with Mastercard. The collaboration, which also featured an investment of $30 million from Mastercard and other investors, will enable the two companies to jointly launch credit cards via Zeta’s full stack, cloud-based, API-ready card processing platform. The two firms plan to issue between 30 and 40 million debit and credit cards over the course of the partnership and process $60 billion in total payment value.
“With Zeta’s next-gen credit card processing platform, we are fundamentally rewiring how issuers launch credit card programs by offering new paradigms over legacy mainframe systems,” Zeta co-founder and CEO Bhavin Turakhia said. He noted that Zeta enables issuers to increase their lending books, reduce costs with pay-as-you-go SaaS billing, improve customer engagement and satisfaction, and leverage the platform to launch new solutions and iterate faster.
The funding gives the San Francisco, California-based fintech a valuation of $1.5 billion, further solidifying the company’s unicorn status it achieved last May when Zeta scored $240 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
Zeta’s flagship solution, Tachyon, is a modern credit processing stack that provides integrated credit and loan processing. The platform spans the entire credit card lifecycle from issuance, core, and payments to BNPL loans, fraud and risk monitoring, rewards, and more. Zeta’s APIs enable issuers to create new revenue lines as BIN/balance sheet sponsors by providing co-brands, fintechs, and affinity partners with a complete banking-as-a-service and embeddable banking platform. The company also provides a suite of managed services including servicing, collections, and more.
Mastercard EVO for Products and Innovation Sandeep Malhotra underscored the capabilities of Zeta’s platform. “By deploying Zeta’s credit processing stack, issuers will have an opportunity to grow their user base, drive higher usage, and enter new geographical markets while accelerating the cashless revolution around the world.”
The relationship between Zeta and Mastercard extends back to 2018, when Zeta entered Mastercard’s Start Path engagement program. More recently, Zeta joined the Mastercard Developers Partner Network, Engage, which will give the fintech access to the Mastercard network. This will enable Zeta to pre-integrate or bundle solutions such as Mastercard’s Digital First and Fintech Express progams that support customer KYC and verification operations, as well as instant digital card issuance and provisioning.
Founded in 2015, Zeta began this year with the announcement that its card processing business grew to more than 10 million cards with more than 300 million transactions a year globally.
While much of the financial world is united in its efforts to distance itself from Russia as the country’s leader, Vladimir Putin, orders his forces continue their invasion of neighboring Ukraine, many of those in the cryptocurrency world are decidedly more ambivalent.
Is this a function of the underlying libertarian spirit that powers much of the enthusiasm for digital assets? Or is this just a reflection of a relatively young industry that is not yet ready to take on the responsibilities that its growing role in the financial world will eventually demand?
First, the ask. At the beginning of the week, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov took to social media to ask cryptocurrency exchanges to block transactions from Russia. Federov’s request was not just directed at the Russian government, or the country’s notorious oligarchs, but for everyday Russian users of cryptocurrencies, as well.
“It’s crucial to freeze not only the addresses linked to Russian and Belarusian politicians,” Federov wrote on Twitter, “but also to sabotage ordinary users.”
In the same way that some people have criticized the international sanctions regime against Russia for allowing a loophole when it comes to energy – specifically banning oil and gas exports from Russia – Federov and others have warned that not restricting, if not outright eliminating, Russian access to cryptocurrencies is a critical flaw in the effort to financially squeeze the Russian economy.
In response to this request, many nations have taken action. France’s Finance Minister, Bruno le Maire, said that the EU would include cryptocurrencies in its sanctions. The Financial Conduct Authority in the U.K. has reminded its U.K.-based and regulated cryptocurrency companies of their obligations to respect the sanctions policy against Russia. Even those cryptocurrency firms that are not regulated have been encouraged to support the sanctions regime. “We would urge unregulated member(s) to take action to ensure your platforms do not become a loophole for sanctioned Russians,” U.K. cryptocurrency organization Crypto UK said in a statement.
In the U.S., while some lawmakers have encouraged the government to help ensure that Russians are not using cryptocurrencies to skirt sanctions, the Biden Administration appears less concerned about that threat – at least on the large scale. Carol House, director of cybersecurity for the National Security Council said this week that “the scale that the Russian state would need to successfully circumvent all U.S. and partners’ financial sanctions would almost certainly render cryptocurrency as an ineffective primary tool for the state.” If anything, it seems that U.S. authorities are somewhat more concerned about potential theft and cybersecurity issues surrounding cryptocurrency companies than they are of Russians using these firms and exchanges for what would otherwise be legitimate purposes.
The response from cryptocurrency companies – including some of the largest firms like Binance and Kraken – have suggested that while they are comfortable blocking the accounts of sanctioned Russians, banning all Russians from their platforms is, for these companies, a bridge too far. At least for now.
“We are not political, we are against war, but we are here to help the people,” Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao said, explaining his company’s position. “There are a few hundred individuals that are on the international sanctions list in Russia, mostly politicians, and we follow that very, very strictly.” But Zhao added that Binance draws a line “between the Russian politicians who start wars and the normal people, many normal Russians do not agree with war.”
Similarly, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell tweeted, “I understand the rationale for this request (to block Russians from Kraken’s platform) but, despite my deep respect for the Ukrainian people, Kraken cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so.”
That said, Powell noted, “Russians should be aware that such a requirement could be imminent.”
Additionally, it should be added many cryptocurrency companies are not agnostic to the conflict in the Ukraine and have lent their support to the Ukrainian cause. Federov expressed his, and his country’s, appreciation for the efforts of firms like Polkadot, which donated $5 million, as well as Solana and Everstake, which have created a joint effort called Aid for Ukraine in partnership with the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation.
“This will certainly contribute to the Ukrainian victory as well as support civil people,” Federov said on Twitter earlier this week. “We will win – the best people (are) with us.”
FinovateEurope 2022 is only a few weeks away. Register today to save your spot at our annual European fintech conference: March 15 digitally and live in London on March 22 and 23.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
The company will leverage the two purchases to fuel global expansion and to deepen its cryptocurrency roots.
Shift4 expects the acquisitions will contribute $15 billion in payment volume in 2023.
Payments processing technology company Shift4 made two key acquisitions this week. The Pennsylvania-based firm snapped up cross-border ecommerce expert Finaro and cryptocurrency fundraising startup The Giving Block. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Shift4 said the move will position it to pursue growth in eCommerce, gaming, stadiums, restaurants, hospitality, specialty retail, charitable giving, and a new frontier– cryptocurrency enablement. The company expects the acquisitions will contribute $15 billion in payment volume in 2023.
“These two acquisitions… underscore our aggressive efforts to deliver a unified commerce experience across the world,” said Shift4 CEO Jared Isaacman. He also noted that the move gives the company “a real right-to-win additional customers across the nonprofit vertical. It also represents an exciting and responsible step towards further embracing cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.”
Malta-based Finaro was founded in 2007 as Credorax. The company is a global cross-border payments provider with four offices across the world. Finaro serves more than 5,000 merchant clients, 98% of which leverage Finaro for ecommerce capabilities. The company has a diverse team; its 370 employees represent 24 nationalities and speak 12 different languages. Shift4 will leverage Finaro to expand its existing services, notably its next-generation SkyTab POS solution, Shift4Shop eCommerce platform, and VenueNext stadium offering.
The Giving Block was founded in 2018 with a mission to make Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency fundraising easy for nonprofits. The company, which is part of a recent rise in charitable giving-enablement, serves as a donation platform more than 1,300 non-profits ranging from mission-driven organizations, charities, universities, and faith-based organizations. The Giving Block is not just a transaction platform; the company also helps non-profits build community, raise awareness, and create campaigns to support their cause.
Shift4 will invest in The Giving Block’s existing business while combining crypto donation capabilities with traditional card acceptance and pursuing the non-profit market. Notably, Shift4 will tap The Giving Block’s crypto talent to establish a Crypto Innovation Center and integrate crypto acceptance and settlement capabilities across its own existing verticals.
Shift4 was founded in 1994 and is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FOUR. The company’s market capitalization is $3.69 billion.
Digital marketing solutions provider Segmint is partnering with marketing communications expert Constant Contact.
The partnership will enable Segmint to bring a turnkey email delivery solution to its Marketing Automation platform.
The offering leverages Segmint’s Key Lifestyle Indicators, which offer insight into customer life events and interests.
Digital marketing solutions provider Segmint is partnering with marketing communications expert Constant Contact. The two are working together to bring a turnkey email delivery solution to Segmint’s Marketing Automation platform, a tool that helps financial services companies create personalized, timely engagement campaigns.
By integrating Constant Contact’s capabilities into its Marketing Automation platform, Segmint will help financial institutions leverage customer insights and personalize individualized, targeted messages to their account holders. Constant Contact will offer banks a turnkey email automation tool that unlocks siloed customer data to deliver highly personalized messages.
Segmint’s Marketing Automation solution leverages the company’s KeyLifestyle Indicators (KLIs). Segmint’s KLIs analyze customer data to gain insights into their life events and interests, as well as to identify cross-sell opportunities, product utilization, and more. The company processes the data in real time to keep the insights relevant and up-to-date.
“The email integration into Segmint’s platform enables FIs to align digital marketing efforts with the full suite of media channels, while most importantly utilizing their own account holder data which allows them to produce insights that deliver the highest level of targeting efficiency and relevant messaging,” said Segmint Chief Product Officer Nate Shahan.
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Ohio, Segmint offers financial services companies a range of solutions, including AI-driven predictive models, data cleansing and quality management tools, customer insights, and customer retention tools. Among the company’s recent partnerships are Access Softek, Corelation, and Nymbus.
Shares, a new social investment app based in Paris, has raised $40 million in Series A funding.
The app combines fractional share investing with features that enable users to observe the investing behavior of others, as well as collaborate on investment strategies.
The app is available to investors in the U.K. The company plans to bring the solution to investors in other European countries “in the future.”
In a round led by Valar Ventures, social investment app Shares has raised $40 million in Series A funding. The investment comes as the Paris-based fintech goes live with its app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, and lifts the company’s total capital to $50 million.
Shares’ technology enables investors to buy and sell shares in public companies, and adds the ability for friends and colleagues to collaborate when it comes to investing and building investment strategies. The app allows for fractional share investing, users can open accounts with as little as £1.00, and there are no fees for buying and selling shares. What helps distinguish Shares from other mobile-first investment platforms is the ability to create discussion groups to facilitate information-sharing with other investors and traders on the app. Shares also features an investment activity feed that enables users to see when their friends are buying and selling shares.
The app is currently available only to investors in the U.K.; the company has provided a waitlist for interested individuals in the E.U. Shares is partnered with Alpaca Securities LLC, which is serving as the company’s execution broker.
Headquartered in Paris, France, Shares was co-founded by Benjamin Chemia (CEO), François Ruty (CTO) and Harjas Singh (CPO) and maintains offices in London and Krakow, as well. The goal of the company was to reduce barriers to investing, especially for first-time investors. With fractional share investing and a social component that makes it easy to learn, share, and collaborate, Shares seeks to counter the notion that investing is “boring and lonely” and, instead, show that investing is “something everyone can enjoy.”
“Despite having worked in finance, I know from my own experience as a retail investor how inaccessible the world of investing can be even with today’s lower barrier, commission-free apps,” Singh said last fall. “There is a real consumer demand for a social-first app like Shares designed to level the playing field so anyone can join the conversation and become an investor.”
Joining Valar Ventures in the funding round were existing investors Singular, Global Founders Capital, and Red Sea Ventures.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and on March 22 and 23, 2022, in London. Register today and save your spot.
TeamViewerEngage is a next-gen digital customer engagement platform for providing digital customer service, holding online consultations, and creating online sales opportunities.
Features
Digital customer service
Consultation and advisory engagement
Digital sales engagement
Why it’s great
With TeamViewer Engage, banks turn their digital banking portal and app into an online bank branch experience. It is fully web-based and requires no downloads or installations.
Presenters
Mathias Holzinger, General Manager, Austria Holzinger is the General Manager for TeamViewer Engage. Mathias joined TeamViewer as a result of the company’s acquisition of customer engagement specialist Xaleon. LinkedIn
Horst-Georg Fuchs, Director, Solution Sales Engage As Co-Founder, and more importantly a passionate entrepreneur, marketer, and salesman, Horst-Georg has supported a large number of customers in their digital transformation of customer engagement! LinkedIn
From the very first FinovateEurope, women have led and helped lead live demonstrations of how companies were using new technologies to tackle the financial challenges faced by businesses, families, and communities. As part of that inaugural event in 2012, women from Cardlytics, ETRONIKA, Figlo, Ixaris Systems, Kabbage, Liqpay, Mootwin, Striata, and ValidSoft were on stage delivering the message of fintech innovation.
As Women’s History Month gets underway – and with International Women’s Day, March 8, right around the corner – we wanted to highlight some of the women who will be demoing their company’s latest fintech innovations this month at FinovateEurope 2022. Catch all of our FinovateEurope demoes during our Digital Kickoff on March 15, and on March 22 and March 23 for the live event in London.
Liron Diamant
Fintech Executive, Anodot. A payments expert with more than ten years’ experience in fintech startups, Diamant has a focus on building payments platforms and managing relationships with international banks and payments companies.
Daria Dubinina
CEO and Co-founder, Crassula. A strategist and entrepreneur as well as a CEO and founder, Dubinina has spent more than ten years specializing in payments, e-commerce, and business development.
Patrycja Karwat
IT Security Specialist, BNP Paribas Poland. Presenting in partnership with Secfense, Karwat has more than five years of experience in cybersecurity and banking. Previously, she spent more than four years in various technical roles with Deloitte including as Senior Analyst and Quality Assurance Tester.
Katalin Kauzli
Co-founder, Business Development Director, Partner HUB. With experience on both the principal and advisor side of business operations, Kauzli has 10+ years experience in a variety of roles, including assisting startups seeking equity in Hungary and managing corporate finance assignments.
Mariam Malwand
Product Owner, Topicus.Finance. Educated at Amsterdam’s Hotelschool Den Haag, Malwand brings founding and managing director experience to her work as Product Owner at Topicus Finance.
Yasmina Siadatan
Sales and Marketing Director, Dynamic Planner. With knowledge and experience across core marketing areas from analysis and communication to digital content and sales, Siadatan has helped drive awareness of Dynamic Planner and its brand throughout the retail investment industry.
Ana Luísa Silva
Head of Marketing, ebankIT. Silva brings more than seven years of experience in marketing and communications to her role at Finovate Best of Show winner ebankIT. She holds advanced degrees from the EAE Business School and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya.
FinovateEurope 2022 is only a few weeks away. If you are an innovative fintech company with new technology to show, then there’s no better time than now and no better forum than FinovateEurope. To learn more about how to demo your latest innovation at FinovateEurope 2022 in London, March 22 and 23, visit our FinovateEurope hub today!
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and on March 22 and 23, 2022, in London. Register today and save your spot.
PaxFamilia is an end-to-end wealth planning platform that helps financial advisors serve their clients with a structured and holistic approach to their wealth.
Features
Getting a 360° overview of the client thanks to the collection of data in structured inventories
Detecting and reporting opportunities through planning tools
Providing holistic services
Why it’s great
PaxFamilia provides financial advisors with all the tools and resources they need to turn their punctual services into continuous ones and thus become the trusted advisor of their clients.
Presenter
Guillaume Desclée, CEO Guillaume was product manager at Danone until 2009. Before PaxFamilia, he (co-)founded two other platforms, both dedicated to crowdfunding (Impulso in Brazil in 2009 and Spreds in Belgium in 2010). LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 15 digitally and on March 22 and 23, 2022, in London. Register today and save your spot.
Subaio generates new revenue streams for financial companies by delivering insights on recurring payments.
Features
New revenue streams
Insights on recurring payments
Personalized selling
Why it’s great
Financial companies can generate more revenue, lower their costs, and live up to new EU legislation by using Subaio’s creditworthiness assessment solution that uses PSD2 Open Banking data.
Presenter
Søren Nielson, Chief Commercial Officer Nielsen is a seasoned fintech entrepreneur. He has raised millions of euros with different companies, written books on innovation, and sold solutions to some of the world’s biggest banks. LinkedIn
