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Fundica Teams Up with Digital Commerce Bank to Help Businesses Find Funding

Fundica Teams Up with Digital Commerce Bank to Help Businesses Find Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Fundica

One month after making its Finovate debut at FinovateFall in New York, AI-powered funding search engine Fundica has partnered with Digital Commerce Bank. The Bank will host Fundica’s online funding search solution on its website for free, making it easier for businesses to search for and secure information on a wide variety of funding sources, including grants, tax credits, government loans, loan guarantees, and accelerators and incubators.

Users of the search engine can personalize results quickly and choose from among 35+ different search criteria. The solution is updated in real time, helping ensure that companies and business owners have access to the most up-to-date, accurate information on funding opportunities that are relevant to them.

“Digital Commerce Bank is proud to offer Fundica’s funding search technology as part of our commitment to support and promote business in Canada,” Digital Commerce Bank President and CEO Jeffrey Smith said. A privately held, Schedule 1 Canadian chartered bank headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Digital Commerce Bank offers payment and banking experiences, as well as card services, digital wallets, and loan origination and management tools.

The institution is regulated by OSFI (the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions of Canada), is a member of Payments Canada, and is a principle member of Interac, Visa, and Mastercard. Digital Commerce Bank changed its name from DirectCash Bank in November of last year in a move Smith said would allow the institution to “unify (its) branding, technology, and offering. The firm reported total assets of $94 million (C$117 million) this summer.

“We are delighted to partner with an innovative group like DCBank who shares our mutual commitment to make finding and applying for funding easier for entrepreneurs across Canada,” Fundica President and co-founder Mike Lee said.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Fundica leverages machine learning, crowdsourcing, web crawlers, and its own data science team to offer business owners and entrepreneurs dynamic, relevant funding data. In addition to Fundica’s funding search engine for businesses, the company’s white label and API-based solutions enhance the ability of its partners to help its customers better navigate the funding landscape. Companies have successfully leveraged Fundica’s technology to drive traffic to their websites and capture leads in search of funding, better engage customers with a “one-stop-shop” for current and relevant funding information, as well as generate data-driven insights.

In addition to its online white label service, Fundica also offers two other licensed services: AdvisorPro and Automated Funding Alerts. AdvisorPro is designed for financial advisors to use the Fundica database directly to better serve their clients. Automated Funding Alerts service sends funding opportunities to a mailing list of businesses provided by the subscribing firm. For its role in playing “matchmaker” between businesses and funding entities, Fundica has earned the nickname “the eHarmony of the funding world.”

“Fundica is the most useful tool entrepreneurs can use when it comes to funding,” former, eight-year Intuit Canada President and CEO Jeff Cates said. “Having their white-label solution on our website increased signups to Intuit’s products tremendously.”

An award-winning innovator that has earned recognition from the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation, Startup Canada, and CFO Canada, Fundica also organizes and runs the Fundica Roadshow. The annual event is held in cities across both Canada and the U.S., and is geared toward helping business owners understand the range of funding opportunities available to them, as well as help make connections between entrepreneurs seeking funding and the funding sources themselves.

Photo by Andre Furtado from Pexels

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Marqeta Partners with Amount to Help Banks Enter the BNPL Space

Marqeta Partners with Amount to Help Banks Enter the BNPL Space
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Marqueta

Payment processor Marqeta teamed up with buy now, pay later (BNPL) company Amount this week. The two are working together to help banks compete in the BNPL arena. The partnership will integrate Amount’s BNPL solution and Marqeta’s instant virtual card issuance tools to help banks launch their own BNPL offering and virtual card.

“With escalating consumer expectations for simple, digital experiences at every step, banks must compete or continue to lose market share to digital challengers who offer a more flexible way for their customers to pay,” said Amount CEO Adam Hughes. “We continue to develop and expand our platform to give banks the agility and tools they need to create high-value interactions at the point of sale. As a leader in modern payments and innovation, Marqeta shares our vision and is the ideal partner to bring best-in-class solutions to banks.”

Banks have traditionally been left out of BNPL spending, since they lack the tools to provide such offerings to their customers. However, Amount takes a modular approach to BNPL that integrates with legacy platforms. The configurable nature of Amount’s tools gives banks flexibility to provide customers split pay or installment payments across multiple channels and payment vehicles.

“This partnership creates a pathway for banks to become more agile and meet customer demand for more flexible ways to pay, including BNPL,” said Marqeta Chief Revenue Officer Darren Mowry.

The new offering comes at a good time; consumer interest in BNPL has been steadily increasing in the past two years. And according to Juniper Research, money spent using BNPL tools is expected to nearly quadruple between 2021 and 2026, amounting to a 274% increase.

Amount was founded in 2019 and has since raised $243 million. The company’s BNPL technology aims to help traditional FIs compete with the rising wave of challenger banks by helping banks go digital in a matter of months. Amount’s white-labeled products help banks with omnichannel digital account opening, fraud prevention, identity verification, loans, deposits, and credit cards. The Chicago-based company is planning to add home equity, auto, and small business loans to its retail banking suite.

Marqeta is a modern card issuing platform that offers banks and fintechs the tools to create customized payment card programs. The company was founded in 2010 and went public earlier this year in an IPO that raised $1.2 billion on the NASDAQ exchange. Marqeta trades under the ticker MQ and has a market capitalization of $16.8 billion.

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Mastercard, Fiserv Team Up with Bakkt to Bring Digital Assets to Loyalty Programs

Mastercard, Fiserv Team Up with Bakkt to Bring Digital Assets to Loyalty Programs
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Fiserv, MasterCard

A partnership between cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt and Mastercard is being heralded as a major breakthrough in bringing digital assets into the mainstream.

“Mastercard is committed to offering a wide range of payment solutions that deliver more choice, value, and impact every day,” Mastercard EVP of Digital Payments Sherri Haymond. “Together with Bakkt and grounded by our principled approach to innovation, we’ll not only empower our partners to offer a dynamic mix of digital assets options, but also deliver differentiated and relevant consumer experiences.”

The collaboration will enable Mastercard partners to leverage the company’s network and Bakkt’s trusted digital asset platform to enable consumers to buy, sell, and hold digital assets using custodial wallets powered by Bakkt’s platform. Additionally, consumers will benefit from streamlined issuance of branded crypto debit and credit cards.

Mastercard will also make cryptocurrencies a bigger part of its loyalty programs. Mastercard partners will be able to offer cryptocurrency as rewards and enable consumers to transfer value between loyalty points and digital assets. This will allow users to effectively use cryptocurrencies for everyday transactions and, perhaps even more significantly, marry cryptocurrencies to their preferred purchases.

“We’re incredibly excited to partner with Mastercard to bring crypto loyalty services to millions of consumers,” Bakkt EVP for Loyalty, Rewards, & Payments Nancy Gordon said. “As brands and merchants look to appeal to younger consumers and their transaction preferences, these new offerings represent a unique opportunity to satisfy increasing demand for crypto, payment, and rewards flexibility.”

In addition to its partnership with Mastercard, Bakkt also announced that it had entered a strategic relationship with Fiserv that will also help support mainstream adoption and use of cryptocurrencies. A major feature of the collaboration will be the integration of Bakkt into Fiserv’s Carat omnichannel ecosystem. This will enable businesses to offer both B2B and B2C cryptocurrency payouts, loyalty programs, and transactions. Fiserv and Bakkt also announced plans to introduce Bakkt technology that enables customers to store and transact with digital assets to Fiserv’s financial institution clients.

Founded in 2018 and based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Bakkt became a publicly traded company only a few days ago, launching on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKKT. The listing came courtesy of a SPAC sponsored by Chicago investment firm Victory Park Capital. In the weeks leading up to the company’s debut as a public company, Bakkt had announced partnerships with other Finovate alums including Finastra, Google, and, earlier this year, Blackhawk Network.

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Why PayPal Actually Should Acquire Pinterest

Why PayPal Actually Should Acquire Pinterest
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column, Thought Leadership

Last week the rumor mill was turning rapidly with news that PayPal was in talks to purchase visual bookmarking tool Pinterest. The purchase would have been a big one, as PayPal was said to have offered $45 billion for Pinterest.

PayPal has been quick to quash the gossip, however. The company issued a release on Sunday stating, “In response to market rumors regarding a potential acquisition of Pinterest by PayPal, PayPal stated that it is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time.”

But there are a few arguments why acquiring Pinterest would actually be good for PayPal. Let’s take a look.

Bolster online shopping

Integrating Pinterest into its own app would give PayPal the potential to be an online shopping powerhouse. The curated nature of the images on Pinterest makes the social media company, in effect, a staged showroom for potential ecommerce purchases.

This is thanks to Pinterest’s Product Pins, a tool that essentially helps users purchase items they see in a pin without leaving the Pinterest app, and Shoppable Pins, affiliate links that content creators can add to pins to receive a commission from purchases.

PayPal is already known for offering payments, loyalty programs, money transfer capabilities, and a high-yield savings account. If the company integrated Pinterest within its own app, it could serve as a shopping inspiration app. Pinterest users already spend hours browsing to get ideas for everything from clothing to gifts to vacations. If PayPal could insert these habits into its own app, it could become the app where consumers go before they even think about the transaction.

Compete with Amazon

Buying Pinterest would help PayPal compete even with the likes of Amazon and eBay, PayPal’s own former parent company. While the transaction volume wouldn’t come near that of Amazon’s, PayPal would have a small leg up on the online retail giant.

That’s because Pinterest would bring an addictive, continuous scroll interface with a built-in client base. What’s more, users can plan and purchase almost anything from Pinterest– even travel tickets and experiences. For example, users planning their trip to the Maldives can purchase their hotel stay from within the Pinterest app. In contrast, when an Amazon customer searches “Maldives,” they are directed to purchase a book or a t-shirt.

Bolster its reputation as a superapp

The new release inches PayPal closer toward becoming the first super app in the U.S. Last month, the company launched a new version of its mobile app.

However, the app lacks some elements of more traditional super apps. Even though PayPal has a wide variety of financial tools and capabilities– including a high-yield savings account, loyalty and rewards tools, billpay management tools, a direct deposit feature, gift card management, credit access, buy now, pay later services, and crypto transactions– the app lacks breadth.

As we reported earlier this year, there are 10 key elements to a super app. And even if PayPal successfully integrated Pinterest, it would be missing most of the elements, including food delivery, transportation services, travel services, health services, insurance, and government services.

What’s holding PayPal back?

Why might PayPal be hesitant to acquire Pinterest? A lot of it likely has to do with the price tag. Pinterest has a current market capitalization of around $32.7 billion. The rumored $45 billion acquisition represents about 15% of PayPal’s own market capitalization of $290 billion.

An acquisition of this size wouldn’t be out of the ordinary in the fintech industry. However, the deal would be sizable enough that PayPal would need a very clear value proposition with the integration of Pinterest.

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Denim Social Secures $5 Million to Help Regulated Industries Boost Customer Engagement

Denim Social Secures $5 Million to Help Regulated Industries Boost Customer Engagement
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding, Gremln

One of the most interesting missions in fintech has been the effort to bring the benefits of 21st century communications – from instant messaging to social media – to regulated businesses. In a world in which consumers expect to be able to leverage the familiarity and convenience of WhatsApp and Facebook in their everyday activities, the challenge of incorporating these technologies into industries like finance has been daunting.

Denim Social is one of the many companies that has dedicated itself to solving this problem for consumers and regulated businesses alike. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the company offers a suite of built-in compliance and publishing tools to help financial, insurance, wealth management and other compliance-conscious enterprises run and scale conversion-optimized campaigns across all social media channels.

More than 250 institutions in banking, insurance, wealth management, and real estate have leveraged Denim Social’s technology. And today, the company announced that it has raised $5 million in Series B funding to help support product development and fuel expansion in its marketing and sales efforts. The investment, courtesy of FINTOP Capital and JAM FINTOP BankTech, gives the startup a valuation of $30 million.

“Financial institutions are rapidly accelerating their digital strategies in today’s environment and Denim Social can help them humanize their brand on social media, while staying compliant,” Denim Social CEO Douglas Wilber said. “With increasing demand for our solution, FINTOP’s and JAM FINTOP’s partnership will help us grow to meet the needs of future clients.”

Founded in 2020, Denim Social merged with Finovate alum Gremln Social later that year. Making its Finovate debut in 2013, Gremln was among those companies that, early on, recognized the value in enabling regulated companies to leverage social media to enhance customer engagement in a compliant way. “During times like today, it’s more important than ever for brands to use social media to build deeper, more meaningful relationships with consumers and their communities,” Denim Social noted in a blog post announcing the merger. “But we also recognize that compliance remains a significant barrier in many regulated industries. By merging our technology and expertise, we are providing an industry-leading, all-in-one solution.” The merger announcement was accompanied by a $4 million Series A investment led by Hermann Companies.

More recently, Denim Social launched the first-ever compliant Instagram publishing and advertising solution. In a statement, the company noted that Instagram bested other social networks in terms of both engagement and the ability to influence purchase decisions. The new platform enhancement helps marketers at regulated businesses manage and publish from multiple Instagram business accounts; schedule and publish organic content; maximize reach and lead generation with paid, targeted advertising; review and improve marketing strategies using performance analytics; and monitor all activity via a single streamlined feed. SVP of Goldwater Bank’s mortgage division, Christine Madrid Overbeck, called the new offering “a game changer.”

“A robust social media monitoring platform is a must in the mortgage and banking industry,” Overbeck said. “Denim Social has not only allowed us to remain compliant, their platform allows our sales team to successfully post, utilize a library of approved content, and monitor their engagement.”

Photo by Mica Asato from Pexels

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Envestnet Makes Strategic Investment in YieldX

Envestnet Makes Strategic Investment in YieldX
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Envestnet, Funding

Investment solutions provider Envestnet announced it has made a strategic investment in fixed income investing platform YieldX this week. Illinois-based Envestnet was the lead investor in YieldX’s most recent, Series A funding round.

The round, which totaled $18 million, brings YieldX’s total funding to $36 million. YieldX will use the money to scale its quant, engineering, and analytics teams and to expand its API suite. Specifically, YieldX aims to further personalize its offerings, add new data and integrations, expand existing ESG customization, and execute its go-to-market strategy.

Through the newly formed partnership, Envestnet will distribute YieldX’s products to its nearly 108,000 advisors and 6,000+ enterprise customers. The tie-up will help Envestnet clients offer their end consumers better fixed-income investment outcomes.

“We are fully vested in enhancing our ecosystem to intelligently connect financial lives, and we believe income and protection solutions are critical to helping make financial wellness a reality,” said Envestnet Chief Strategy Officer Rich Aneser. “Through our strategic partnership with YieldX, and investing to expand its capabilities, we are able to bring more income related solutions to market for helping advisors meet a critical client need.”

Founded in 2019, YieldX offers tools for fintechs, wealth managers, broker dealers, and asset managers. Company Cofounder and CEO Adam Green called the partnership a “powerful way to level the fixed income playing field for Envestnet’s broad network of advisors and end investors with solutions that simplify the traditional complexities of sourcing and trading fixed income assets.”

Envestnet was founded in 1999 and has since made 13 acquisitions, including its most notorious buy, Yodlee, in 2015. The company’s purchase of data aggregation firm Yodlee broadened its offerings from advisor technology and launched it into the world of open finance. Envestnet is a publicly-traded company on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker ENV and has a market capitalization of $4.66 billion.

Photo by Allef Vinicius on Unsplash

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Klarna Adds Online Trip Planning with Inspirock Acquisition

Klarna Adds Online Trip Planning with Inspirock Acquisition
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Klarna, Mergers & Acquisitions

Does COVID have you dreaming up your long-awaited vacation? Consumer payment services firm Klarna’s latest acquisition may be of help.

The Sweden-based company snapped up Inspirock, an online trip planning service, for an undisclosed amount. Klarna CEO and Co-Founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski described the addition of travel planning “a natural extension of the benefits Klarna brings to payments and shopping.”

Founded in 2012, Inspirock leverages AI to help its customers explore a destination’s offerings and create personalized itineraries utilizing local expertise. On an annual basis, the California-based company sees 25+ million customers each year.

The integration will allow Klarna’s 90 million customers to use the Klarna app to pay for a trip in installments. In addition to the payment aspect, Klarna will also help users plan for their trip. Inspirock matches travelers’ preferences with over 230 million data points to optimize their travel itinerary and discover hidden gems.

“For customers, this makes the whole journey from inspiration to planning and preparing for a trip simpler, less stressful, and more fun, while enabling our retail partners to better reach and engage with their audiences by offering more personalized content,” said Siemiatkowski.

Combining travel planning with its existing payment capabilities inches Klarna towards becoming more like a super app. Founded in 2005 and with $3.7 billion in funding, Klarna offers buy now, pay later options to help users avoid credit cards while enjoying payment flexibility. Klarna also offers a shopping app to provide users with a holistic shopping experience– from payments to shipment tracking– and a rewards club it describes as the “vibeyest community in shopping.”

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A Look at the Fintech Unicorns of Southeast Asia

A Look at the Fintech Unicorns of Southeast Asia
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week’s Finovate Global List Series feature takes a look at the roster of Southeastern Asia-based technology unicorns compiled by Credit Suisse’s ASEAN research team in a recent report to see how many of these 35 billion-plus valuation companies are fintech firms.

“The number of unicorns in ASEAN has continued to increase over the last two to three years, now adding up to 35 unicorns,” the report authors noted. Scaling New Heights: ASEAN’s 35 Unicorns reveals that Singapore and Indonesia are home to the lion’s share of the region’s unicorns and that fintech represents the most common sector, followed by e-commerce.

In terms of factors fueling the growth of these firms, the report highlights the role of private equity/venture capital funding, strong demographics – particularly populations with a high number of citizens under the age of 34 – and supportive regulations. The report also underscored the role of COVID-19 in stimulating innovation: “Fintech is still relatively nascent given that 25% to 50% of the region’s adult population remains underbanked or unbanked, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital financial services.”

Read the full report here. In the meanwhile, here is our look at the fintech unicorns from Credit Suisse’s ASEAN unicorn roundup.

Indonesia

  • Akulaku: a banking and digital finance platform providing digital banking, consumer credit, digital investment, and insurance brokerage services to underserved consumers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
  • OVO: a digital payment service, headquartered in Jakarta, that offers one of the biggest e-wallets in Indonesia.
  • Xendit: an end-to-end digital payments solution provider for small businesses and large enterprises alike.

The Philippines

  • Mynt: a fintech partnership between Globe Telecom, the Ayala Corporation, and Ant Financial focused on payments, remittances, loans, business solutions, and platforms.

Singapore

  • Advance Intelligence Group: an AI-driven technology parent company offering buy now pay later services, digital lending, and e-commerce products and services.
  • Matrixport: a digital assets and financial services platform that supports investing and trading in cryptocurrencies.
  • NIUM: an international payments platform for cross-border payments, local accounts, and card issuance.

Thailand

  • Ascend Money: a digital payments and financial services company providing wealth management, lending, and insurance products to 50 million users in six countries in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam

  • Vietnam Payment Solution (VNPAY): a Hanoi-based electronic payments solution provider offering mobile banking, phone recharge, and billpay for banks, e-commerce businesses, and telecoms.

Not included in our round-up are a handful of companies characterized by Credit Suisse ASEAN Research as “e-commerce” or “real estate tech.” These firms include Blibli and JD.ID of Indonesia, Carsome of Malaysia, and Carousell, Carro, Lazada, and Moglix of Singapore among the e-commerce unicorns. The region’s real estate technology unicorns featured include Singapore’s JustCo and PropertyGuru.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

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Conversations from FinovateFall: The Road to Collaborative Banking with ASA Head of Fintech Relationships Ryan Ruff

Conversations from FinovateFall: The Road to Collaborative Banking with ASA Head of Fintech Relationships Ryan Ruff
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: ASA, FinovateFall 2021, Speaker series

At FinovateFall we had a number of conversations with fintech professionals on the challenges of forging successful fintech partnerships. One of the more illuminating discussions we had was with Ryan Ruff, Head of Fintech Relationships with ASA Technologies, who discussed his company’s unique approach to helping fintechs and financial institutions build more constructive collaborations.

As both a fintech executive and a fintech founder, Ruff has a unique understanding of the challenges that fintechs and financial institutions often face when trying to work together. In our discussion at FinovateFall, he explained what some of those pain points are and how ASA Technologies’ platform enables both parties – fintechs and financial institutions – to maximize their interaction with each other, minimize inevitable risks, and focus on core competencies.

On the challenges financial institutions and fintechs face when trying to forge meaningful partnerships.

One of the things we’ve noticed is that everyone understands banking-as-a-service. What that really (represents) is a relationship between one fintech and one financial institution. And there’s a lot of risk there. On the financial institution side, they are asking the question: is this fintech really going to succeed? Do they have the capital? Are they PCI compliant? SOC-2 compliant? There’s a lot of risk in that relationship.

What we do is (offer) a contractual agreement where one financial institution enters into a partnership with all of the fintechs (on our platform), so that if one of them fails, it’s not that big of a deal because there are more coming and there are others on the platform, so it takes away that risk of partnering.

On the other side, the fintechs, when they get on to our platform, they are now partnering with all of the financial institutions, so they can go and find the ones that are most conducive to their clients and can send all their clients to that institution.

On the importance of building understanding and trust among all parties

It’s important that the technology piece is secure, that it’s being done in a compliant way … that’s very important and we work on that. But it’s also important that the revenue models work for both parties as well. (For example) if a fintech has a lead for a banking service like a home loan or a car loan or a student loan, they can send that back to the ASA platform, where the customer is actually a client for the institution. That institution gets to do that loan and then the referral fee goes back to the fintech that provided the referral. So both sides are making money, and they are able to stay in their core competencies and really work at scaling their core value propositions.

What makes a fintech special is that it’s a niche application. It’s something that’s going to help a specific user. Ironically, when you try to go partner with a financial institution, they are looking at it and saying I don’t know if this is going to affect a big enough segment of our user base, so I don’t know if it’s worth doing the partnership. The very thing that makes your fintech special, is what makes it hard to partner.

Now in (our) model, the financial institution is not just getting this one fintech that gets one sliver, they’re getting all the fintechs (which will) hit a much wider base collectively. So it makes more sense for both parties when you’re doing it “multiple (fintechs) to multiple (financial institutions).”

On the way that the current social and economic climate has impacted the work ASA does

It’s made the need for what we do even greater. People are changing what they need out of a bank, and they’re changing what they need out of a fintech because our world is changing. We’re trying to come into a new normal right now that a lot of people don’t understand, and wonder what the future is going to look like. We’ve got a platform where people can build those user experiences really quickly, get them to scale, and get them to market quicker than ever before. So really this moment brings an opportunity for our institutions and our fintechs to be able to collaborate together quickly to build those experiences that people are going to want in this new environment that we’ve all been thrown into.

Check out the rest of our conversation with Ryan Ruff from FinovateFall 2021 on creating successful fintech partnerships – and the importance of moving beyond open banking to what he calls “collaborative banking.”

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UpEquity Lands $50 Million to Help Home Buyers Make All-Cash Offers

UpEquity Lands $50 Million to Help Home Buyers Make All-Cash Offers
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Mortgagetech player UpEquity landed $50 million this week to help democratize home buying. The investment brings the Texas-based company’s total funding to $76.7 million in combined debt and equity.

The Series B round, which consisted of $20 million in equity and $30 million in debt, was led by 3 Ventures with participation from Next Coast Ventures, BP Capital Management, Alumni Ventures, Gaingels, Launchpad Capital, and Early Light Ventures.

UpEquity was founded in 2019 and, simply put, is a digital mortgage provider. The company offers three main products for potential homebuyers. Buy with Cash helps average homebuyers make all-cash offers on a home, Buy Before You Sell enables buyers to purchase a new home before selling their current one, and UpEquity’s third solution enables homeowners to refinance their existing mortgage.

For the end consumers, the cost of getting a mortgage from UpEquity is similar to costs they would incur with a traditional mortgage lender. UpEquity aims to compete by not only helping buyers make an all-cash offer, but also by doing so quickly. UpEquity’s average time-to-close is 18 days.

“At the end of the day, our vision is to create equal access to the American dream through frictionless, on-demand homebuying, and it starts with bringing technology into the underwriting process,” said UpEquity Co-Founder and CEO Tim Herman. “By removing cost and inefficiencies from the mortgage process, our customers can make all-cash offers at zero cost to them and still get access to competitive interest rates. They get the best of both worlds.”

UpEquity is part of a newly emerging set of companies called Power Buyers that purchase a home on a buyer’s behalf using cash, then sell it back to them using a traditional mortgage. Rivals in this space include Knock, Homeward, Orchard, and Blend. Like these players, UpEquity makes money on interest paid on the mortgage and commissions from reselling loans.

UpEquity’s revenue has grown 500% year-over-year. The company anticipates it will originate more than $1 billion in mortgages over the next 12 months.

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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.

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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.

Photo by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels

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