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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 22 and 23, 2022 in London. Register today and save your spot.
ForwardAI’sPredict-as-a-Service is a premium cash flow forecasting and planning tool for companies that want to offer predictive cash flow solutions to small business clients.
Features
Offers simple access to historical, real-time, and predictive cash flow data
Creates cash flow projections and comparisons
Provides custom and template business pivot scenario-building
Why it’s great
Predict-as-a-Service provides a premium cash flow experience for a company’s small business clients while also offering opportunities to offer proactive financial support and custom financing.
Presenter
Nick Chandi, CEO and Co-Founder A repeat entrepreneur with multiple successful companies, Chandi is using his prior experience to help bridge the gap between financial institutions and small businesses. LinkedIn
Consolidation in the Buy now, pay later (BNPL) industry continues as Zip agrees to acquire competitor Sezzle.
The deal values Sezzle at $355 million.
After the acquisition is finalized, Sezzle will rebrand to Zip and the company’s CEO Charlie Youakim will lead Zip’s U.S. business.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) player Zip (formerly known as Quadpay) is acquiringSezzle in a deal that values Sezzle at $355 million.
Zip CEO and co-founder Larry Diamond expects the deal will help Zip scale up its operations. “Combining with Sezzle positions us as a leading global BNPL provider and prioritizes our ability to win in the important U.S. market.”
Following the deal, Zip’s customer base will increase from 9.9 million to 13.3 million and the number of merchant partners will grow from 82,000 to 129,000. Additionally, The Financial Review estimates that Zip’s total transaction volume will rise from $8 billion to $10.4 billion, and that almost $6.5 billion of this will be from U.S. users.
After the deal closes, Sezzle will rebrand as Zip and the company’s CEO Charlie Youakim will lead Zip’s U.S. business. “I believe the transaction will position us to win in the U.S. and globally,” Youakim said.
Today’s announcement is yet another indication of consolidation in the increasingly-crowded BNPL space. Industry giant Afterpay sold to Block (formerly Square) on February 2nd. And on February 17th, digital payments firm Latitude agreed to acquire Humm’s BNPL operations.
Australia-based Zip was founded in 2013, seven years before BNPL took off as an alternative payment method. Zip is publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASK) under the ticker ZIP. The company allows users to split their purchase into four installments over the course of six weeks. With Zip’s app, shoppers use their Zip Virtual Card to pay for their purchase in installments anywhere that Visa is accepted, both online and in-store.
Similarly, Sezzle allows shoppers to use their Sezzle Virtual Card to pay for purchases in four installments over the course of six weeks. The company also offers a long-term financing tool in partnership with Ally and Sezzle Up, an alternative credit solution that helps shoppers build their credit.
Minnesota-based Sezzle was founded in 2016 and went public on the ASK in 2019 under the ticker SZL. At the time, Sezzle said it opted to list on the ASX instead of in U.S. markets because, prior to 2020, the BNPL model was more commonplace in Australia, given that Afterpay, a major player in the BNPL arena, is headquartered in Melbourne.
FinovateSpring, the West Coast’s premier fintech showcase, is returning in-person to San Francisco!
Fintech’s biggest innovators have been working harder than ever during the pandemic. So the quality of companies demoing their latest innovations is higher than ever. And they can’t wait to show you their latest technologies live from the Finovate stage.
They’ll have just 7 minutes to show you what they can do. Make sure you’re there to see it for yourself!
Learn more about how their technology can help you spot opportunities for growth in your organization and run with that potential. And discover how you can meet these organizations face-to-face at their booths.
The demoers will zero in on these themes accelerating the transition to a new era of fintech:
This week’s Finovate Global takes a look at developments in the Indian fintech industry. Leading off is news that Indian neobank Niyo has secured $100 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Accel and Lightrock India and also featured investment from Beams Fintech Fund, Prime Venture Partners, and JS Capital, among others. Niyo, founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht, will use the capital to support product innovation, marketing, and branding, as well as increasing its distribution footprint and adding talent.
“We have always strived to offer tangible value and a delightful experience to our customers,” Bagri said in a statement. “In the process we are transforming the way India banks.” Co-founder Bisht highlighted the impact of the pandemic on the pace of digitization of financial services in the country. “We are seeing massive tailwinds for digital products since COVID,” he noted.
Niyo collaborates with banks to offer digital savings accounts and other banking services. The neobank serves four million customers via its banking and wealth management operations and says that it is adding customers to its platform at a rate of 10,000 new users a day. With more than $3 billion in transactions, Niyo claims it is the biggest consumer-based neo-banking platform in India.
Earlier this month Niyo introduced the country’s first, fully digital salary account. Over the next three months, the company plans to offer additional banking products including personal loans, credit cards, and integrated forex.
“We can relate to you when you say – Building a crypto exchange is difficult,” WazirX co-founder and COO Siddharth Menon wrote on the company’s blog earlier this week. “While we have learned it the hard way, we want to simplify it for you.”
WazirX’s BUIDL with WazirX program will enable organizations to build their own crypto exchanges leveraging WazirX. The program includes tools, support, guidance, access to angel and VC investors, and more. The exchanges built via WazirX’s new offering will feature access to 300+ of the highest liquidity markets, and the ability to leverage WazirX’s custody and exchange infrastructure for cryptocurrency withdrawals and deposits.
“To be the world leader, we believe that India should build more for Web3,” Menon added. “This is a billion-dollar opportunity, and that is why we at WazirX are here to support you.”
From neobanks to cryptocurrencies to embedded finance, we now turn to news that Google Pay users in India are now able to apply for and receive personal loans in their bank accounts via the Google Pay app. Loans of up to $1,332 (100,000 rupees) are available and can be repaid over a period of as many as 36 months.
The new service is being offered in partnership with India-based digital finance company DMI Finance, who also will determine eligibility for the financing. The loans will be processed in “near real-time” and are geared toward supporting financial inclusion by helping Indian consumers access short-term credit.
“Our teams have worked closely together to bring transparent and seamless credit to millions of Google Pay users,” DMI Finance co-founder and joint Managing Director Shivashish Chatterjee said. “We look forward to scaling this new partnership in the years to come and make the promise of financial inclusion a reality for many millions more.”
FinovateEurope 2022 is less than one month 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!
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
TransUnion launched Point-of-Sale Suite of Capabilities to provide lenders insight into consumer borrowing habits with point of sale lending and buy now, pay later products.
The new data reporting helps lenders underwrite credit risk.
The reporting methods also benefit the consumer by not penalizing them for using these alternative credit products on a regular basis.
Financial insights firm TransUnionlaunched a new set of tools today that will help shoppers using point-of-sale (POS) loans, including buy now, pay later (BNPL), improve their credit scores while offering lenders a more holistic view of prospective borrowers’ risk.
TransUnion’s Point-of-Sale Suite of Capabilities offers lenders insight into the payment behaviors of consumers using alternative credit tools such as POS lending and BNPL products.
This increased data reporting and visibility helps lenders underwrite credit risk, but also benefits the consumer by not penalizing them for using these alternative credit products on a regular basis. That’s because POS and BNPL loans are underwritten as unsecured installment loans. When these installment products are used frequently, typical credit models could view the borrowing behavior as risky.
“The inclusion of point-of-sale loans including BNPL into credit reports and other risk management tools can help tens of millions of consumers gain access to more credit opportunities and potentially secure better loan terms,” said Liz Pagel, senior vice president and consumer lending business leader at TransUnion. “TransUnion has taken a measured approach in developing our solution suite, working with the top BNPL lenders over the past three years to craft solutions that benefit consumers and do not penalize them for using these products frequently.”
TransUnion’s new toolset aims to offer lenders a single standard to report this alternative borrowing data. In order to minimize unnecessarily negative impact on the consumer credit score while still communicating valuable borrowing and repayment data, POS and BNPL borrowing information will be tagged and filtered into a new section in TransUnion’s core credit file.
“Maximizing the financial inclusion impact requires broad usage of this valuable data in more credit decisions. Ultimately, given the prominence of FICO and VantageScore in the market, the biggest impact from the data will not be realized until the data migrates to the core file and these scores take into account consumers’ good behavior,” added Pagel.
The use of BNPL is becoming more commonplace as more retailers and payment companies adopt varying versions of the technology to encourage higher consumer spending. In fact, according to a recent TransUnion study, up to 100 million U.S. adults have used BNPL loans at least once in the past 12 months. As this growth continues, lenders will need to adjust their underwriting models to account for use of alternative lending technologies.
The environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiative is no longer just for niche investment portfolios. Instead, the entire banking and fintech industry is going green, and we’re here for it. With that in mind, we have something exciting to announce.
Sustainability Scholarship Program
New this year, we’re promoting ESG within the industry with our Sustainability Scholarship Program for demoing companies. We launched the program to highlight and help the individuals and companies driving fintech forward through sustainable and equitable practices.
How it works
Starting with FinovateSpring, taking place May 18 through 20 in San Francisco, we’ll be looking for applications from prospective demo companies led by underrepresented founders and startups tackling climate change, diversity, and financial inclusion, and granting them complimentary demo participation. Select companies from that applicant pool will be granted complimentary demo slots in our demo line-up for the show.
We’ve always had an application process for the demos we showcase on stage at Finovate events, but the new Sustainability Scholarship Program will help expand our demo lineup. By offering a scholarship to ESG focused startups, we’ll be able to include more voices, more perspectives, and more cutting-edge thinking within fintech, which is an incredibly important initiative.
How to apply
Each event, starting with FinovateSpring 2022, will have scholarship opportunities for eligible* startups working in the following categories:
Environmental: Available to companies pursuing climate-related, environmental, or green fintech
Social: Available to companies with socially conscious fintech solutions
Governance: Available to companies that emphasize responsible governance and leadership
Person of Color Founded/Owned: Available to companies with person-of-color founders or owners
Female Founded/Owned: Available to companies with female founders or owners
Our team will review submissions in each sustainability area and award complimentary demo packages to each of the winners. As part of the demo package, each winner will also receive special sustainability branding.
Companies working in these areas who are interested in demoing at an upcoming event should apply through Finovate’s traditional application process and note their scholarship interest on the application form.
*To be eligible for the program, startups must have less than $7 million in funding.
New York-based Signal Intent has rebranded as Chimney.
The company won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring last year.
The rebrand announcement accompanied news that Chimney had raised seed funding that “exceeded its investment goals.”
Signal Intent, which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2021, has rebranded as Chimney. The company develops financial calculators for banks, credit unions, insurers, and mortgage companies that are “built for the digital age.” The New York-based fintech’s rebrand, announced last month, was accompanied by a seed investing round with participation from individual investor Anil Aggarwal, as well as investment firms Fin VC, and Converge.
“Banking is fundamentally changing as consumer behaviors shift,” Chimney CEO Matthew Covi said. “To compete, banks must change their digital strategy. It is no longer about providing outstanding products and services. It’s about the value they provide through digital experiences. As consumers increasingly make financial decisions online, they expect experiences that are embedded in their everyday life. Chimney is committed to delivering not just the products consumers want, but the experiences they expect.”
More than 60 financial institutions in 30 states use Chimney’s financial tools and technology to better engage their customers and fund more loans. The company said that its financial institution clients have experienced a 15% boost in conversions since deploying Chimney’s technology that helps connect customers to the right solution at the right time. Chimney also helps FIs reduce acquisition costs while growing their loan portfolios.
Selected for the 2022 ICBA ThinkTECH Accelerator program, Chimney plans to add to its team, including multiple “key positions” over the next several months. The company’s co-founders include Chief Technology Officer Ryan F. Salerno, former Technical Co-founder of equity management platform Finta (previously Equity Token); and Chief Revenue Officer Chase Neinken, former VP of Global Sales at B2B media company Industry Dive.
“We created Chimney to build the future of financial guidance,” Neinken said. “We believe in a world where people are empowered to make better financial decisions through technology – it’s about confidence and understanding. The demand so far has exceeded expectations and we’re thankful to our clients, partners and investors. Big things are coming ahead.”
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope on March 22 and 23, 2022 in London. Register today and save your spot.
See how true digitization and virtual collaboration can transform corporate online banking. Discover CoCoNet’s interactive, thrilling showcase of its new digital bank-customer collaboration portfolio.
Features
Improved banking processes between banks and their customers – anytime and anywhere
Convenient digital signature processes
Quick customer data overview
Central touchpoint for documents and messages
Why it’s great
The digital collaboration product portfolio helps banks to bridge the digital gap between them and their customers to generate cost savings, accelerate processes and make them convenient for both sides.
Presenters
Dennis Rochel, Head of Innovation Rochel is Head of Innovation of CoCoNet. LinkedIn
Mark Lohweber, CEO Lohweber is new CEO of CoCoNet and sets focus on continued growth. He is an expert in the digitalization of banks. LinkedIn
FinovateEurope 2022 is less than a month away, and innovative fintechs from all around the world are gearing up to demonstrate their latest technologies live on the Finovate stage. Find out more about our annual European fintech conference, including how to register and save your spot as Finovate returns to live events in Europe for the first time since 2020 next month on March 22 and 23.
One of the goals of every company demoing their solutions at Finovate is to win a coveted Best of Show award. This honor is granted exclusively by our Finovate attendees who evaluate every company on stage and select only those innovators whose technology is most impressive and, potentially, impactful. To give you a sense of the kind of companies to win this award, here’s a look at the FinovateEurope Best of Show winners from the previous two years – as well as an update on what they’ve accomplished since winning their award.
2021
Dbilia earned a Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2021 for its platform that enables creatives and influencers to sell digital memorabilia. The New York-based company was featured in the July edition of MarTech in a look at the rising NFT trend.
Property investment platform Proptee, also a Best of Show winner in its Finovate debut last year at FinovateEurope, raised more than $57,000 in seed funding in December from Lebenheim Capital and Steep VC.
Continuous product design innovator Quantum Metric was among the Finovate newcomers to earn a Best of Show award at FinovateEurope 2021 last March. Since then, the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based company has announced the availability of its solution on Salesforce AppExchange, and forged partnerships with Korea Air, iGaming operator BetVictor, luxury fashion brand La Perla, experience management software company Qualtrics, and video-based human insight innovator UserTesting.
2020
If 2021 was the year Finovate audiences showed their appreciation for conference newcomers, 2020 marked the year when veteran Finovate alums earned their place in the spotlight. Four of the companies that won Best of Show at FinovateEurope in that pre-pandemic year – Dorsum, Glia, iProov, and W.UP – picked up their second awards in a row (or more) having taken home Best of Show honors at the previous year’s conference in 2019.
Digital customer service innovator Glia has been one of Finovate’s most popular demoing companies in recent years, with multiple Best of Show wins in Europe and in the U.S. Earlier this month, the company announced a partnership with insurtech leader Sureify, integrating its capabilities into Sureify’s Lifetime platform. In 2021, Glia reeled in $78 million in funding, and earned recognition from Deloitte with a spot on the firm’s Technology Fast 500 for the second consecutive year. Among the company’s new partnerships forged in 2021 were collaborations with Kasisto, Posh, Apiture, Liberty Bank, fellow Finovate alum Clinc, and Zensar.
Horizn, which specializes in helping financial institutions and their employees maximize and accelerate their digital transformation efforts, earned the first of its Best of Show awards at FinovateEurope in Berlin in 2020. The company announced a partnership with Pacific Western Bank at the beginning of this month, powering the Los Angeles, California-based financial institution’s newly launched digital learning platform.
Biometric authentication company and FinovateEurope veteran iProov earned its third Best of Show award at our European fintech conference in 2020. The company secured $70 million in funding from Sumeru Equity Partners to start this year and, earlier this month, was granted a patent to extend its Genuine Presence technology to include driver’s license and government ID verification. Named to the Deloitte Fast 50 of the fastest growing technology firms in the U.K. last year, iProov reported a record 2021 in which the company achieved revenues that were 3x the previous year’s results.
Sonect demonstrated its global platform for cash transactions during its Finovate debut in Berlin in 2020, winning a Best of Show award. The company, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, enables users of its technology to withdraw cash via smartphone at any one of its 2,500 partnering retailers. Last summer, the company announced that its service would be available to customers in the U.K., following its participation in the U.K. Finance Community Access to Cash Pilots Initiative. In October, Sonect announced that it had raised more than $5 million (EUR 4.65 million) in funding from Italian Angels for Growth to bring its cash access solution to Italy.
Budapest, Hungary-based digital banking solution provider W.UP is another FinovateEurope favorite, having been awarded Best of Show in each of the last three FinovateEurope events. The company offers a personalization platform which leverages data to help institutions offer better banking services. In October of 2021, the company merged with BSC of Czechia to form a new company Finshape that is dedicated to driving digital transformation in banking in Europe.
Challenger bank Nerve is launching banking-as-a-service APIs.
The APIs will enable creator platforms to offer their clients in the creator economy an embedded digital banking experience.
Nerve’s flagship digital bank for musicians helps artists treat their music like a business by providing digital banking and tracking tools.
Nerve, a challenger bank originally designed for musicians, is getting a bit more creative this month. The startup launched a set of public APIs that will help companies serve their clients in the creator economy.
According to Nerve Co-founder John Waupsh, content creators–whether they are individuals or small businesses– have long been underbanked and overcharged. “Every creator deserves financial dignity, and we believe that this begins with a business checking account, and collaboration tools that meet their everyday needs. They are businesses and should be afforded those same benefits,” said Waupsh.
Nerve’s new APIs will offer firms a way to send payouts and royalties at a lower cost to artists such as musicians, authors, entertainers, filmmakers, makers, podcasters, social media content creators, songwriters, and more. The APIs will also enable companies to provide their creator clients with free digital banking tools to help manage their business.
“Companies that pay creators deserve the best, fastest, and least expensive way to pay those they serve, and our APIs open up win-win options for all in the ecosystem,” said Waupsh. “Companies providing distribution, licensing, advances, credit, marketplace, or other services are now able to use Nerve’s APIs to deliver instant, lower-cost payouts to creators.”
Nerve’s flagship product, launched last September, is a niche bank account that helps musicians treat their music like a business. Artists can use the free FDIC-insured debit and savings accounts, powered by Piermont Bank, to manage their business expenses and track and receive royalties and payouts. In addition to digital banking, Nerve also offers tools to help artists collaborate with fellow artists in the music industry, as well as view and track their own stats for Spotify, YouTube, and a range of social media platforms.
Creator platforms that use Nerve’s banking-as-a-service tool will have the opportunity to have access to creators’ transaction and balance information. This data, in turn will benefit the platform by helping them create specialized banking products, such as loans and invoicing tools, to up-sell and better serve their customers.
OCR Labs, an identity verification company founded in Australia and headquartered in London, announced a $30 million Series B round.
The funding takes the company’s total capital to $46 million and will be used to help OCR Labs expand further in North America and EMEA.
Making its Finovate debut in 2016, the company won Best of Show at FinovateAsia a year later.
In a round led by Equable Capital, a New York-based family office, identity verification specialist OCR Labs has raised $30 million in a Series B round. The investment will be used to help the London, U.K.-based company grow its team in North America and EMEA, and gives the firm $46 million in total capital.
“2021 was an incredible year for OCR Labs, with continued validation from customers who have chosen us as their provider for online digital identity verification,” OCR Labs CEO John Myers said in a statement. “This investment provides us with the capital to continue our growth while bringing a value-added investor on to our board.”
Boasting a 5x increase in new clients and 3x growth in the size of its team over the past 12 months, OCR Labs offers automated identity verification via ID document validation, facial biometrics and other techniques. OCR Labs’ approach removes the need for human intervention in the customer identification process, and gives companies the tools they need to meet AML and KYC requirements and reduce fraud.
The company made its Finovate debut at our developers conference FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016 and returned one year later to win Best of Show at FinovateAsia in Hong Kong. Securing Series A funding last year, OCR Labs also recently opened a new office in North America, added a direct sales force, and hired a global Chief Revenue Officer.
“Our vision remains unchanged,” Myers said, “we strive to be the leading technology provider of digital identity verification, globally. The market opportunity continues to grow, and with our expansion in the U.S., and investment in our global sales effort, we’re in a phenomenal position to grow our customer base.”
The first private company to earn accreditation as an identity provider under the Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF) of the Australian government, OCR Labs serves customers in a wide variety of verticals including financial services companies, brokerages, insurers, telecoms, and gaming companies.
This is a sponsored post, written by Tracy Schlabach, Director of Marketing at Accusoft.
Fintechs, ISVs, big banking corporations, and SaaS solutions all have immediate needs in common, they all need to bring forth financial technologies that improve both the customer and employee experience. The challenge is building and launching these technologies quickly, efficiently, and within a scalable, sustainable model. Product managers and development teams are all evaluating options to assist with meeting stakeholder demands for quality, while also meeting the need for speed to market. Enter the hidden value of third-party software integrations.
The secret life of APIs
Digital transformation is an ever-increasing priority for all businesses as well as an initiative that is seeing a surge in funding. In a recent State of the API Economy 2021 report by Google, 56% of enterprise leaders say APIs help them to build better digital experiences and products. Leaders are also finding value in focusing on an API-driven strategy and 52% say APIs accelerate innovation by enabling partners to leverage digital assets at scale.
How API integration works
At a very simple level, an API consists of code that allows two separate technology systems to communicate and interact with one another. It functions as a translator and messenger; delivering user requests and data from one system to a completely separate system. This effectively allows an application to utilize the features and data of other applications without having to build out that functionality from scratch.
For example, the Uber ride-sharing app connects customers to available drivers within a specific area. It does this with a combination of smartphone geolocation and accurate maps, but the Uber app doesn’t have mapping capabilities. To get those features, it connects to Google Maps by way of an API that allows it to access the relevant navigational data and use it to connect customers to drivers.
Purchasing new software doesn’t mean throwing out existing tools, which substantially reduces the risks associated with technology investments and upgrades.
Another key function of APIs is their ability to automate key processes and connect legacy infrastructure to newer technology systems. Data can be collected in one system, for instance, and “pushed” into another system automatically. This not only eliminates the complicated (and error-prone) task of manually transferring data between different systems, but also allows users to build a workflow in an application they’re already accustomed to, without having to learn an entirely new system.
More importantly, since APIs allow newer technologies, devices, and legacy applications to talk to each other, they provide firms with substantial flexibility when it comes to adding new platforms. Purchasing new software doesn’t mean throwing out existing tools, which substantially reduces the risks associated with technology investments and upgrades.
The cost savings with API integrations
When you purchase a third-party API integration you’re gaining more than additional functionality for your application. You also gain access to a team of developers and support specialists who are here to assist you from POC to deployment and beyond. Leaning on the specialization of a third-party vendor allows your developers to focus on application enhancements and release your product to market faster. This ultimately saves your company valuable development time and realizes product revenue faster.
Interested in learning more?
Could your business benefit from an API-led digital transformation strategy? Schedule a consultation today to learn more about the document management API integration options available from Accusoft.
