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Goldman Sachs and American Express Collaborate on a Cloud-based Corporate Payments

Goldman Sachs and American Express Collaborate on a Cloud-based Corporate Payments
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: American Express, Daily news

A partnership between Goldman Sachs and American Express will give corporate clients the ability to leverage a cloud-based payment service that supports multiple payment options and provides data and analytics in a single, integrated platform.

“A major pain point for our large commercial card clients is managing multiple platforms and myriad time-consuming, costly and complex processes to make, track, and reconcile thousands of payment transactions every day,” American Express EVP of Global Commercial Services Dean Henry explained. He said that the partnership would help drive modernization in B2B payment operations, “setting a new standard in transaction banking for big business by offering access to faster payments and real-time tracking that can increase efficiency and reduce costs.”

The partnership will embed AMEX’s virtual cards into Goldman Sachs’ Transaction Banking platform, TxB, which currently offers ACH, wire, and foreign currency payments. Additionally, the integrated solution will include:

  • A simple “one flow” process that combines both virtual card and non-card payment activity into a holistic set of B2B payment instructions
  • An intelligent payments engine that routes payments into specific payment channels to optimize buyer preferences based on speed and cost
  • Access to spend data and analytics via a dashboard accessible to both buyers and suppliers, including real-time updates on payment status
  • Actionable insights to enable corporate CFOs to make better, more informed decisions

Goldman Sachs launched its Transaction Banking platform in June 2020 in the United States, and extended the service to the U.K. a year later. Since its stateside launch over a year ago, Goldman Sachs has bagged more than 250 clients, realized more than $35 billion in deposits, and processed trillions of dollars through its systems. The TxB platform leverages a set of RESTful APIs to empower clients to create virtual accounts, originate payments and track account activity, as well as review and manage payments from third parties. The technology is geared principally for direct users, such as corporate treasurers, and also serves as a payments and banking-as-a-service platform for Goldman Sachs’ clients to offer their end users.

“As we surveyed our clients we heard consistent feedback that there was scope to improve the cash management and payment processing set of services,” Goldman Sachs Global Co-Head of the Investment Banking Division Jim Esposito said this summer when the technology was launched in the U.K. He underscored the firm’s 150-year track record in financial and risk management experience, adding “we see huge potential to grow this business in the U.K. and globally.”

The new payment service is already available to select clients. General availability is expected in early 2022.

Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels

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Fintech’s First Quantum Computing Startup Secures Seed Funding

Fintech’s First Quantum Computing Startup Secures Seed Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

In a world in which a new enabling technology seems to capture the fintech imagination at least every other year, quantum computing remains relatively elusive. The promise of being able to leverage quantum computations to accomplish tasks that challenge if not overwhelm current, classical computing technologies is one that, in the area of fintech, has yet to be realized.

Is this about to change? Multiverse Computing, which bills itself as the first quantum computing startup focused on finance, announced this week that it has secured $11.55 million (€10 million) in seed funding. The round was led by JME Ventures and featured participation from a sizable number of investors including Quantonation, EASO Ventures, Inveready, CLAVE Capital, Ikerlan, LKS, Penja Strategy, Seed Gipuzkoa, and Ezten Venture Capital Fund.

“We are a unique company in the quantum computing field,” Multiverse Computing co-founder and CEO Enrique Lizaso said. “While other firms are focused on improving the fundamental hardware and software components of quantum computers, we are keenly focused on leveraging the most advanced quantum devices available now to deliver near-term value for the financial sector.”

Multiverse Computing enables financial professionals to manage complex financial problems such as portfolio optimization and fraud detection. Using the company’s solution, Singularity, users can leverage a simple spreadsheet to run quantum algorithms on any quantum computer without requiring any expertise or experience in programming or working with quantum computers.

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Basque Country’s San Sebastián, Multiverse Computing enjoys the support of not only its native government, local startup accelerators, and technology centers; but also of institutions like Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab (CDL). MultiVerse Computing also has forged partnerships with a wide range of technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft, Amazon AWS, Fujitsu, and Quantum Technologies, and said it is collaborating with a number of financial institutions, as well.

“We believe Multiverse Computing will be a global leader in the quantum computing industry,” Lizaso said. “We expect to have annual revenue close to €100 million by 2027 with a staff of 100 people.”

The company plans to use the funding to support its expansion into markets like energy, mobility, and smart manufacturing. The capital will also help fuel Multiverse Computing’s international growth including an office in Toronto and new offices in Paris, France, and Munich, Germany.

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11 of the Newest Insurtechs in the U.S.

11 of the Newest Insurtechs in the U.S.
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series

Insurtech has already taken off across the globe. What’s more, the fintech subsector is finally beginning to heat up in the U.S. as consumers become increasingly comfortable with digital financial services.

According to CB Insights, fintechs in the insurtech subsector raised $7.4 billion in the first half of this year alone. This figure already surpasses the amount insurtechs raised in all of 2020 by more than $300 million.

The number of new insurtechs driving competition in the space is also growing, so we thought we’d look at some of the newly launched insurtechs in the U.S. this year. Here are 11 of the newest insurtech startups in the U.S.:

ArmadaIQ

  • Leverages AI to insure autonomous vehicles
  • Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina

Armadillo

  • Offers home warranty plans designed for digital-first homeowners
  • Headquartered in Clarksville, Indiana

Ascend

  • Provides a modern, all-in-one payments solution that offers a buy now, pay later option for commercial insurance
  • Headquartered in Palo Alto, California
  • Has raised $5.5 million

Limit Financial

  • Operates as a managing general underwriter that specializes in credit insurance and reinsurance solutions
  • Headquartered in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey

Nirvana Insurance

  • Provides fleet insurance that uses an IoT device to reward safe habits
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, California
  • Has raised $3.2 million

OCHO

  • Helps users in underserved communities build credit by paying their auto insurance
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, California

Oyster

  • Provides personal insurance for everything from bicycles to event insurance to travel insurance
  • Headquartered in New York, New York

Risk Advisor

  • Helps insurance agents advise their clients of their true risk
  • Headquartered in Lexington, South Carolina

SALT Insure

  • Offers agents a home and auto insurance application that helps them close more deals
  • Headquartered in Grapevine, Texas
  • Has raised $250k funding

Shepherd

  • Provides commercial insurance for contractors in the construction industry
  • Headquartered in San Francisco, California
  • Has raised $6.2 million

Stere.io

  • Offers a one-stop-shop for businesses to launch, improve, and grow insurance programs
  • Headquartered in Dover, Delaware
  • Has raised $850k

Photo by Kevin Erdvig on Unsplash

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Currencycloud Taps Plaid to Streamline Account Funding

Currencycloud Taps Plaid to Streamline Account Funding
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Currency Cloud, Daily news, Plaid

Global payments platform Currencycloud has teamed up with open finance network Plaid this week. Through the collaboration, the two will offer a joint solution to make it easy for U.K. banks and fintechs to operate in multiple currencies.

The overall objective of the partnership is to reduce friction for Currencycloud customers. Currencycloud will embed Plaid’s Payment Initiation Services (PIS) into its app, allowing customers to pull money directly into their account from any bank without ever leaving the app.

The rollout will begin with customers using the Currencycloud Direct white-label solution, and will later roll out to the entire Currencycloud platform.

“The internet has made business more borderless than ever before, but it is incredibly difficult to move money across countries. Accepting, settling, and converting payments is complicated, expensive, and can take time,” said Plaid Head of European Partnerships Farid Sedjelmaci. “Combining Plaid’s Payment Initiation Services with Currencycloud’s all-inclusive platform for foreign exchange provides a smooth payment experience that obscures all of the complications with online global money movement.”

Prior to the partnership, the only way customers using Currencycloud Direct could top up their account was to leave the app, log into their bank app, and submit the payment. Embedding Plaid’s PIS reduces this friction, streamlining the account funding process.

Currencycloud was founded in 2012 and has since processed more than $100 billion to over 180 countries. The U.K.-based company works with FIs and fintechs including Visa, Dwolla, and Mambu to help them provide cross-border infrastructure solutions to their clients.

Plaid helps 11,000+ FIs offer their customers access to third party financial services via a suite of APIs to connect consumers, financial institutions, and developers. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash

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Zopa Raises $304 Million Ahead of IPO

Zopa Raises $304 Million Ahead of IPO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, Funding, Zopa

Peer-to-peer lending platform and digital bank Zopa landed $304 million (£220 million) this week. The investment marks Zopa’s largest round to-date, and brings the U.K.-based company’s total funding to $792 million.

According to TechCrunch, today’s funding, which follows a $28 million investment received earlier this year, gives Zopa a post-money valuation of $1 billion (£750 million).

Softbank Vision Fund 2 led the round, which saw contributions from existing investors including Silverstripe, Northzone and Augmentum. Zopa anticipates the cash will help bring its banking tools to more U.K. consumers.

Zopa is on track to hit profitability by early next year. If it does, it will be one of the fastest digital banks in the U.K. to do so. Additionally, if Zopa continues on this path of success, the company is likely to IPO at the end of next year.

Founded in 2004, Zopa debuted its peer-to-peer lending platform at FinovateSpring 2008. The company has since evolved as a player in the challenger banking space. Zopa’s differentiator from competitors, however, is that it is not a fully-fleged bank. The company does not offer a checking account or payment card. Instead, it focuses on savings, loans, and credit-building tools.

Zopa received its banking license in June of 2020. Since transitioning from its flagship peer-to-peer lending model, Zopa has reached $931 million (£675 million) in customer deposits for its savings accounts, has issued 150,000 credit cards, and is now a top 10 credit card issuer in the U.K. based on new customers.

The company’s lending products have also seen success. So far this year, Zopa has disbursed over $8.3 billion (£6 billion) in loans. The company lends over $138 million (£100 million) each year in car loans.

Zopa has formed two recent partnerships that centralize on helping users build and access credit. Its partnership with ClearScore helps provide a pre-approved credit card to Zopa customers who have been declined credit, and its integration with CreditLadder enables renters to build credit by reporting their rental payments.

As for what’s next, Zopa says it is “focused on building a sustainable, profitable business model” that benefits both customers and shareholders.

Photo by Visual Stories || Micheile on Unsplash

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India’s CRED Raises $251 Million for Credit Card Management Platform

India’s CRED Raises $251 Million for Credit Card Management Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

CRED, the members-only credit card management platform that rewards users for paying their credit card bills, has landed $251 million in funding this week. The Series E round boosts the India-based company’s total raised to $722 million and increases its valuation to just over $4 billion.

The round was led by existing investors and private equity firms Tiger Global and Falconedge. DST Global, Insight Partners, Coatue, Sofina, RTP, and Dragoneer also contributed. New investors Marshall Wace and Steadfast also joined the round.

CRED, which did not disclose its plans for the investment, launched its online bill payment platform in 2018. The company incentivizes its 7.5 million members to pay their bills on time to improve their credit score. If the user pays on time, CRED sends them CRED Coins they can use to earn rewards or receive access to curated products and experiences.

The Bangalore-based company launched a new product called CRED X IPL last month. The new offering allows members to use their CRED Coins to shop at the CRED Store, book stays on CRED Travel, receive exclusive rewards and cashback, and access offers when they shop online. CRED X IPL also incorporates a competitive aspect; users are pitted against each other on a leaderboard and the one at the top each month receives a jackpot prize.

CRED also counts itself as a fintech investor. The company recently invested $5 million in CredAvenue, a digital platform that helps investors discover, trade, execute, and fulfill debt solutions. CRED is also in talks to invest in Uni, a startup that aims to make credit cards more accessible.

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Facebook Launches Novi Digital Payment App Pilot with Pax Dollar Rather Than Diem

Facebook Launches Novi Digital Payment App Pilot with Pax Dollar Rather Than Diem
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Facebook

Facebook has launched a pilot project for its digital payments app Novi and, courtesy of partnerships with Paxos and Coinbase, will use USDP (Pax Dollar) rather than its Diem stablecoin. The pilot will involve users in Guatemala and the U.S., enabling them to send money to their contacts internationally via the Novi app. The fund transfers are instant, secure, and fee-free.

The decision to use USDP, according to Novi head David Marcus, was not intended as a negative change-of-heart toward Diem. “Our support for Diem has not changed,” Marcus said. “We intend to migrate Novi to the Diem payment network once it (receives) regulatory approval.” He added that using USDP for the pilot project would enable the team to test the technology with a stablecoin that had both a track record of successful operation, as well as “important regulatory and consumer protection attributes.”

First introduced two years ago (as Libra), Diem was initially planned for a 2020 release. However, regulatory concerns emerged almost immediately. For some, the issue was Facebook’s role itself and the potential problems of a for-profit corporation issuing currencies. Others worried about how to classify the technology, as well as how to effectively regulate the Libra platform – especially if the technology was used to help Facebook expand into banking and lending services. These concerns, and Facebook’s apparent inability to respond to them thoroughly, led to a number of high-profile withdrawals from the project, as Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe, and Visa all elected to exit the Libra Association, an organization established to oversee the development of the technology. In November 2020, the project was revised so that Libra would be backed by a single currency, the U.S. dollar, on a one-to-one basis rather than backed by a basket of multiple currencies as previously planned. The project was also rebranded “Diem.”

In the current project, Novi will use the USDP for transactions, and Coinbase will serve as the custody partner. But as far as Facebook is concerned, the selection of the Pax Dollar over Diem at this point is more of a tactical retreat than a strategic withdrawal. “We believe a purpose-built blockchain for payments, like Diem, is critical to deliver solutions to the problems that people experience with the current payment system,” Marcus explained.

That said, even the new project continues to face criticism, with a handful of senators – including Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – urging Facebook to suspend the project immediately. “Facebook cannot be trusted to manage a payment system or digital currency when its existing ability to manage risk and keep consumers safe has proven wholly insufficient,” the senators said in a statement.

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More Than $1.1 Billion Raised by 14 Alums Q3 2021

More Than $1.1 Billion Raised by 14 Alums Q3 2021
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, David's column, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

For the third Q3 in a row, Finovate alums have raised at least $1 billion in equity funding. This year’s third quarter is consistent with both the amounts raised ($1.1 billion) and the number of alums securing investment (14) from the same quarter last year.

Interestingly, August continues to be a strong month for alum funding during the third quarter; for a third consecutive year, August investment has exceeded that of both July and September for our Finovate alums.

Previous Quarterly Comparisons

  • Q3 2020: More than $1.2 billion raised by 14 alums
  • Q3 2019: More than $1 billion raised by 21 alums
  • Q3 2018: More than $400 million raised by 19 alums
  • Q3 2017: More than $1 billion raised by 31 alums
  • Q3 2016: More than $500 million raised by 30 alums

The third quarter of 2021 also saw one company, DriveWealth, become far and away the biggest recipient of investment dollars, topping the second biggest fundraiser by 3x. Three companies, M1 Finance, Alloy, and AuthenticID, secured triple-digit investments of at least $100 million.

The top ten equity investments, in a quarter with fourteen total alum fundraisings, represented the lion’s share of Q3’s investment total. Approximately 90% of the quarter’s total funding was represented by Q3’s top ten investments.

Top Ten Equity Investments for Q3 2021

  • DriveWealth: $450 million
  • M1 Finance: $150 million
  • Alloy: $100 million
  • AuthenticID: $100 million
  • Ocrolus: $80 million
  • Paystand: $50 million
  • Sezzle: $30 million
  • Dwolla: $21 million
  • Moneyhub: $18 million
  • Capitalise.com: $13.8 million

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q3 2021.

July 2021: More than $469 million raised by seven alums

August 2021: More than $476 million raised by five alums

September 2021: More than $180 million raised by two alums

If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the third quarter of 2021, and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at research@finovate.com. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.

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Pagaya and SoFi Team Up to Broaden Access to Financial Services for Borrowers

Pagaya and SoFi Team Up to Broaden Access to Financial Services for Borrowers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SoFi

A newly announced collaboration between AI-powered credit and analysis technology company Pagaya and personal financial services innovator SoFi will help more eligible consumers find and secure financing. The partnership will enable SoFi members to leverage Pagaya’s AI network to access a wider range of financial solutions in what Pagaya said is the largest deployment of its technology in the fintech space to date.

“We are excited to leverage SoFi’s sophisticated tech platform, strong brand, and consumer appeal to originate loans through Pagaya’s AI network,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said, “extending its business to a broader audience, so more people can access credit and achieve their financial goals.”

Pagaya’s technology and infrastructure enables financial institutions, including lenders and fintechs, to offer their customers access to financial products beyond those available via traditional credit models. Using both AI and machine learning, Pagaya lowers risk for lenders and helps them make better credit decisions. The goal is to provide a better, more positive experience for borrowers, and higher conversion rates for loan providers, as well as improving the overall credit ecosystem.

“As Pagaya grows, it is imperative that we partner with companies that share our vision of providing increased efficiency through our AI network for lenders and access for its customers,” Pagaya CEO and co-founder Gal Krubiner said. “Working with a company such as SoFi, we are able to apply our artificial intelligence in a way to not only help SoFi extend capital to more people, but do so in a way to create less risk for our partner. This creates a symbiotic, win-win-win ecosystem across all parties.”

Founded in 2016 and maintaining offices in Tel Aviv, New York, and Los Angeles, Pagaya became a public company earlier this fall in a $9 billion SPAC merger with EJF Acquisition Corporation. Earlier this month, Pagaya appointed former JP Morgan CMO Leslie Gillin to the post of Chief Growth Officer. Gillin arrives at a time when the company is looking to expand into new markets including personal and auto loans, credit cards, point-of-sale financing, single-family residencies, and more.

SoFi is an alum of our developers conference FinDEVrNewYork in 2017, which the company participated in with financial data platform Quovo. In the years since, SoFi has grown into a digital financial services giant with more than $50 billion in funded loans, and more than two million members who have paid off a total of more than $22 billion in debt. Additionally, the company recently has launched solutions such as SoFi Money and SoFi Invest which offer cash management (including early payday) and brokerage services, in a major expansion beyond its roots as online loan financing and refinancing innovator.

SoFi is a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ under the ticker SOFI and has a market capitalization of more than $16 billion. SoFi is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

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Emerging Markets Lender Tala Scores $145 Million in Series E Funding

Emerging Markets Lender Tala Scores $145 Million in Series E Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

In a round led by Upstart, and featuring participation from DeFi network Stellar Enterprise Foundation and new investors Kindred Ventures and the J. Safra Group, emerging markets digital lender Tala has raised $145 million in funding. The Series E round takes the company’s total capital raised to more than $350 million. The investment also gives the company a valuation estimated at more than $800 million.

The new capital will help the company continue to offer lending services to both consumers and small businesses. The additional funding will also enable Tala to “accelerate the rollout” of a new offering: a financial account designed to make it easier for its customers to “grow, save, and manage” their money. Tala currently provides loans between $10 and $500 and noted in a blog post that more than six million people have used its app since inception. The company has customers in Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, and India who have borrowed a total of $2.7 billion. Tala added that more than 12,000 new users are signing up for the service every day.

Tala is also looking to expand into the digital asset business, as well. “We’ll also work to develop one of the first mass-market crypto products for emerging markets to help make crypto solutions more affordable and equitable for those who need them most,” the company added. Tala will use its new relationship with the Stellar Network to pursue this project.

Tala evolved from InVenture, a company launched by Tala founder and CEO Shivani Siroya to help micro-entrepreneurs in Africa and India build credit histories. The rebrand was an effort to move “beyond building just credit scores to become a company that will also take the first risk on our customers and lend to them directly.” Tala leverages applicant phone data and activity (such as the timeliness of bill payments) to establish creditworthiness and to determine appropriate lending amounts. Via the Tala app, borrowers can apply for funding in minutes and, once approved, can have funds deposited in their accounts or sent to a preferred cash out location in seconds.

This week’s investment also featured participation from existing investors including IVP, Revolution Group, PayPal Ventures, and Lowercase Capital. Launched in Nairobi, Kenya, Tala is currently headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

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Pagos Raises $10 Million to Build Payment Structure

Pagos Raises $10 Million to Build Payment Structure
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Pagos, a startup that provides intelligent payment infrastructure for commerce, is placing its stakes in the payment space today. The newly-minted company landed $10 million in a round led by Underscore VC and Point72 Ventures that also included participation from Amit Jhawar, Bill Ready, Billy Chen, and Rich LaBarca.

Pagos will use the funds to build out its team with more engineers.

Company founders Klas Bäck, Albert Drouart, and Daniel Blomberg launched the company earlier this year to help businesses optimize their payment infrastructure by integrating Pagos’ API micro-services into their payments stack.

Pagos offers a range of four products to help understand and build a better payment infrastructure. Offerings include Parrot, which provides enhanced Issuer Identification Number or bank identification number data; Peacock, which connects to business’ processors to provide payment analysis and optimization tools; Canary, which detects patterns and predicts opportunities from customer data; and Toucan, an API to integrate network tokenization into any payment stack.

“The challenge we saw pretty much for every one of our customers was that they didn’t have enough knowledge, not enough data and not enough tools to be able to execute a strategy around payment processing or know how to optimize it,” Bäck told TechCrunch. “This means they are a lot slower and they have a much harder time doing all the things they need to do and producing the results they want.”

Pagos holds a lot of promise, and not only because of consumers’ recent shift to online shopping and digital payments. As Chris Gardner, partner at Boston-based Underscore VC explained, “…their potential market is every e-commerce merchant in the world — and there are millions of them. Those are two potent ingredients in a winning recipe.” Additionally, company Founders Bäck and Drouart have both held senior leadership roles at PayPal for almost a decade, while Blomberg has launched seven startups, five of which were acquired, over his career.

Photo by Josue Isai Ramos Figueroa on Unsplash

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How One Fintech Firm is Responding to Promote Financial Health and Inclusion

How One Fintech Firm is Responding to Promote Financial Health and Inclusion
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Experian, Speaker series

When it comes to financial inclusion, it’s easy for some people to turn a blind eye. However, when banks and fintechs help to solve gaps in the current environment, there’s more potential to boost everyone’s financial health.

Lloyd Pitchford, CFO at Experian, is working on promoting financial inclusion via Experian’s Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) program, which helps Experian improve its performance across ESG matters, including supporting financial inclusion and financial health.

We spoke to Pitchford about the program and his view of the current financial inclusion environment and how the industry should respond.

How have you seen financial inclusion awareness evolve into what it is today? What has prompted the increased awareness?

Lloyd Pitchford: The United Nations includes access to financial services, such as credit and microfinance, among its Sustainable Development Goals. Access to affordable credit opens the door to opportunities for people to transform their lives – from homes and healthcare to education and entrepreneurship. This has never been more important than it is today, following the global pandemic.

There are times in most of our lives where we can’t get access to the financial system in a way that we want, be it for a mortgage, a car, or a business loan. We’ve all experienced the frustration when you feel you’re on the outside of the system and you can’t do the things you want for yourself or your family. At Experian, it’s our job to change that. We want to make sure everybody is included and has access to fair and affordable financial products. Financial inclusion is fundamental to our business.

When it comes to financial inclusion, what are some of Experian’s offerings you are most proud of?

Pitchford: As the pandemic took hold in 2020, we stepped in with data and analytics to support governments, health services and national emergency response efforts. Our data and analytics helped them plan ahead and direct health care and financial support to the most vulnerable people through major initiatives such as COVID Radar in Brazil and Experian CORE (COVID Outlook & Response Evaluator) in the USA.

It soon became clear that the impact, not just on physical health, but on financial health, would be far-reaching for people around the world. We looked at how we could mobilize our expertise and resources to help communities through the crisis and focused on financial education as the best way to strengthen their resilience and support their road to recovery.

Through the launch of our United for Financial Health programm we rapidly established 11 NGO partnerships across our biggest consumer markets to deliver targeted financial education for some of the communities hit hardest by COVID-19. By the end of the year, we had reached nearly 35 million people, more than double our original goal of 15 million, and we’re not stopping there. We aim to reach 100 million people by 2024.

Part of our efforts include our member relationships around the world. This year, we surpassed the milestone of 100 million direct relationships with consumers globally and delivered further innovations to support people through our business, such as the launch of products like Experian Boost in the UK and Serasa Score Turbo in Brazil. This, of course, is on top of our ground-breaking Experian Boost launch in the United States a few years ago. Our goal is to have a direct relationship with as many people as possible; to truly become the Consumers’ Credit Bureau and power financial opportunities for all.

What advice would you give other incumbents who are trying to drive financial inclusion within their organizations?

Pitchford: I would point to our culture of innovation. It helps us harness opportunities to drive business growth. We are continually investing in product innovation and new sources of data to address emerging market opportunities that can make a real difference to global communities. In 2020, around 1,000 innovators from across Experian joined our annual Future of Information Conference – which was held virtually because of the pandemic – to encourage them to think differently in their work. Topics included fairness in artificial intelligence, transforming agribusiness, and enhancing the consumer healthcare experience. Teams at our DataLabs in Brazil, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S.A. tap into our culture of innovation to continually create new solutions to global challenges. The result of all this is that our Social Innovation products have now reached 61 million people since 2013. We aim to reach 100 million by 2025.

What challenges exist in serving underbanked communities as an incumbent? Would it be easier as a startup?

Pitchford: Our annual Sustainable Business Report notes that more than a billion people in Asia Pacific lack access to formal financial services, 45 million in the U.S.A. have no credit profile or are unscoreable, 45 million in Brazil are unbanked, and over five million in the U.K. have no credit history. So we know we’ve got more work to do and we remain focused on using our business to make real and sustainable change. With social innovation running so deeply through the core of our culture, and our commitment to improving global financial health front and center of our thinking, we will continue to push to find new solutions to help people, serve communities and protect the environment, helping to create a better future for all.

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