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Finovate Global Spain: Talking AI and Wealth Management with GPTadvisor

Finovate Global Spain: Talking AI and Wealth Management with GPTadvisor
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, GPTadvisor, Revolut, VISA

This week’s edition of Finovate Global features an in-depth interview with Nacho Díaz de Argandoña, Chief Product Officer with Spain-based fintech, GPTAdvisor.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Madrid, GPTadvisor made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope 2024 in London. GPTadvisor offers a Gen AI platform that is specifically built to boost the productivity of financial advisors and wealth managers, as well as enhance client engagement.

This year, GPTadvisor announced that it has successfully completed a capital expansion round that featured support from two major Spanish venture capital firms, Kfund and JME Ventures. The company also announced that has launched a version of its GPTadvisor solution in the GPT Store by OpenAI. This launch made GPTadvisor the first portfolio management app available in the OpenAi store.

We caught up with Nacho to talk about current trends in wealth management and what AI can bring to the industry.

What problem does GPTadvisor solve and who does it solve it for?

Nacho Díaz de Argandoña: GPTadvisor addresses a critical challenge in the wealth management sector: the need for increased efficiency and productivity to remain competitive in an increasingly complex financial landscape. Financial advisors often face time-consuming, repetitive tasks such as investment research, portfolio management, and compliance. These tasks can detract from their prime objective, which is increasingly harder to accomplish: to nurture strong relationships with their clients and provide them with truly personalized and strategic advice.

GPTadvisor solves this context by providing advanced AI-driven tools that automate and streamline many of these processes, in a secure, private and controlled environment. Our wealth management platform uses the latest generative AI technology to assist financial advisors in quickly finding the right investment product, analyzing and comparing portfolios, elaborating comprehensible narratives to excel in client engagements and, ultimately, helping their clients reach their financial goals. By dramatically improving productivity, GPTadvisor allows advisors to focus more on client relationships and strategic decision-making.

The primary beneficiaries of our solutions are wealth management entities, including financial advisory firms and independent financial advisors. We see this product as a truly global proposition, where advisors anywhere around the globe can really start engaging in a new way of working.

How does GPTadvisor solve this problem better than other companies or solutions?

Díaz de Argandoña: GPTadvisor emerged during the generative AI wave with a clear objective: to apply this groundbreaking technology specifically to the wealth management sector. This focus distinguishes us from many other tech companies that, while experienced in general AI, are now struggling to adapt to the fundamentally different approach required by generative AI. Our foundation in this new paradigm allows us to harness its full potential in ways that others find challenging.

Having said that, we take AI very cautiously. We acknowledge there is a lot of noise and over-reliance in the industry where we expect AI to solve all our problems, and that is not the case. We focus on the use cases that provide the biggest gains in productivity, but without putting compliance at risk. This is why we proactively collaborate with regulators – FCA in the UK and CNMV in Spain – to explore the risks this technology involves and frame the guidelines to follow in order to successfully implement these capabilities.

Our core team brings over 40 years of collective experience in the wealth management industry. This deep expertise has enabled us to develop an innovative product from the ground up, in close collaboration with key industry partners. We work closely with numerous wealth management entities worldwide to ensure that our solutions are aligned with industry needs, making them both relevant and impactful.

Who are GPTadvisor’s primary customers. How do you reach them?

Díaz de Argandoña: GPTadvisor’s primary customers range from big commercial banks, private banks, and wealth management firms, to financial advisory entities and independent financial advisors. We work with entities that are seeking innovative solutions to enhance their productivity, streamline their processes, and ultimately provide more value to their clients by leveraging the latest technology in the market.

Interestingly, we’ve been receiving considerable inbound interest from various industry entities, driven in part by the growing enthusiasm for generative AI. As a result, we are actively engaging these entities and incorporating them into our aggressive generative AI product roadmap. This roadmap is designed not only to meet current market demands, but also to anticipate and continuously bring the benefits of this technology that is moving at unprecedented velocity. 

We’ve also had the opportunity to pitch and present our work in numerous industry events, just like what we did with you last February at FinovateEurope in London. These platforms allow us to demonstrate the unique capabilities of our solutions to a wide audience that has generated very interesting conversations for us.

By capitalizing on the current momentum around generative AI and maintaining a strong and cold focus on the needs of wealth management professionals, I think we are successfully positioning GPTadvisor as the go-to solution for entities looking to stay ahead in this rapidly evolving landscape.

Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?

Díaz de Argandoña: One of our most exciting recent implementations is our quick portfolio analysis tool. This innovative function allows advisors to simply take a picture of a client’s portfolio with their phone and receive an instant, comprehensive analysis, thoroughly explained. The analysis includes generated insights on performance, risk, fees, and even comparisons with model portfolios. All in one go. This feature exemplifies the kind of intuitive, productivity-boosting tools we aim to deliver, making sophisticated portfolio analysis as simple as taking a photo.

Another feature we’re particularly proud of is our fund documentation auto-read feature. This tool is going to be a game-changer for GPTadvisor users globally, as they are now going to be able to instantly find and chat about key data and information in the documentation of thousands of investment funds. Whether they need details on fund performance, fees, or any other critical information, this tool streamlines the process, saving valuable time and enhancing decision-making capabilities.

These features are just the tip of the iceberg. We’re seeing new productivity functions like these arise on a weekly basis, as our team is able to move in sync with the fast-paced advancements in generative AI. Our ability to rapidly bring ready-to-use features to the wealth management space is one of the key strengths that sets GPTadvisor apart. It’s incredibly rewarding to see these innovations in action, transforming how wealth managers spend their valuable time and providing them with the tools they need to stay competitive. 

What in your background gave you the confidence to tackle this challenge?

Díaz de Argandoña: The confidence to tackle challenges at GPTadvisor stems from the extensive experience and proven track record of our CEO, Salvador Mas. Before founding GPTadvisor, Salvador served as the Chief Digital Officer at Allfunds for five years, where he played a pivotal role in the company’s digital transformation and its successful public offering. Prior to his tenure at Allfunds, Salvador founded several startups at the forefront of innovation in wealth management. His most recent venture, Finametrix, a portfolio management platform, was eventually acquired by Allfunds.

This entrepreneurial experience, coupled with his leadership in a global financial powerhouse, has provided Salvador with deep insights into the challenges and opportunities within wealth management. It has also equipped him with the expertise to leverage technology in creating innovative solutions that address real-world problems in the sector.

Under Salvador’s leadership, we have fostered a highly talented, agile, and focused team at GPTadvisor, which has successfully grown the product and its capabilities since its inception just over a year ago.

With this strong foundation, we are confident that we are well-positioned to lead the way in bringing cutting-edge generative AI solutions to the industry.

What is the fintech ecosystem in Spain like? What is the relationship between fintechs, banks, and traditional financial services companies in the country?

Díaz de Argandoña: The relationship between fintechs and traditional financial services companies in Spain is characterized by a mix of competition, collaboration, and co-opetition.

In the specific case of wealthtech, traditional institutions have maintained their market share despite some success stories (such as the robo-advisor Indexa Capital and the neobank MyInvestor). However, the majority of advisory services continue to be provided by traditional institutions like Santander, BBVA, or CaixaBank, which have successfully embraced digital transformation.

At GPTadvisor, we are collaborating with both types of entities, introducing generative AI in both traditional and disruptive institutions.

Left to right: Nacho Díaz de Argandoña and GPTadvisor CEO Salvador Mas at FinovateEurope 2024. 

You demoed at FinovateEurope earlier this year. How was your experience?

Díaz de Argandoña: FinovateEurope was an excellent experience for us. The event was professionally and thoughtfully organized, making us, as demo participants, feel like true protagonists. It provided a valuable platform to connect with a wide range of wealth management professionals, investors, and industry stakeholders, which allowed us to test our proposition with real prospects in London—one of the world’s premier fintech hubs.

As we prepare to demo our solution again, this time in New York, it feels like a natural next step in our journey. Entering the U.S. market is a key priority for us, as we believe our solution can significantly enhance the day-to-day operations of financial advisors across the country.

We’ve been steadily growing our platform, adding a host of new features and enhancements, and we can’t wait to showcase these developments on stage. We’re confident that the New York demo will be another great experience for us, helping us to further expand our presence in a critical market.

What are your goals for GPTadvisor? What can we expect to hear from you in the months to come?

Díaz de Argandoña: Over the past year, we’ve focused intensely on refining and validating our proposition in the market. We’ve been building a next-generation AI-native platform from the ground up, one that evolves in tandem with the rapid advancements in AI technology. Our approach has involved close collaboration with leading financial entities worldwide, ensuring that we stay connected to the real-world challenges and opportunities that need solving.

I believe we’re now at a tipping point where the product is ready for greater scale. GPTadvisor is now ready to support thousands of financial advisors work more productively and deliver more value to their clients. Our plan is launching our SaaS model at global scale through the second half of the year to reach more clients and gain more leadership in the market.

As we continue to explore the full potential of generative AI and its applications within our sector, I can’t imagine a more exciting time to be involved in shaping the future with GPTadvisor. We’re just getting started, and there’s much more to come.

We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Nacho. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re making a big deal out of wealthtech next month at FinovateFall. Check out our coverage of keynote speakers and power panelists focusing on top issues in wealthtech and wealth management, our preview of wealthtech-focused demoing companies, and more!

Here is our look at fintech headlines 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

Photo by Alex Azabache

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InvoiceASAP Teams Up with Adyen to Offer Instant Payouts

InvoiceASAP Teams Up with Adyen to Offer Instant Payouts
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, invoiceASAP
  • InvoiceASAP has partnered with global payments platform Adyen to facilitate instant access to deposited funds.
  • The partnership combines InvoiceASAP’s Invoice to Pay solution with Adyen’s Instant Payouts and Cash Out functionality to enable businesses to better manage cash flow.
  • Oakland, California-based InvoiceASAP made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2013.

A partnership between invoicing and payments solutions provider InvoiceASAP and business payments platform Adyen will enable InvoiceASAP to offer its users instant access to deposited funds. This is a critical issue for InvoiceASAP’s small- and medium-sized business customers, who often require quick and ready access to capital to better manage their expenses.

“InvoiceASAP is building the most advanced Invoice-to-Pay solution,” company CEO Paul Hoeper said. “Adyen gives us access to the most advanced payment products and tools, including FedNow for Instant Deposits. We are fully focused on providing the fastest velocity of bank deposits for our over 23,000 merchants. By combining Adyen’s Instant Payouts and new Cash Out functionality, we can provide our users with unmatched velocity.”

InvoiceASAP will take advantage of Adyen’s global solution – Adyen for Platforms. The offering enables users to sign up, sell, and get paid through a single solution. The company will also leverage Adyen’s Cash Out feature to provide its users with instant access to pending funds, without having to wait multiple days.

“Our partnership with InvoiceASAP underscores Adyen’s commitment to continued innovation,” Adyen North America President Davi Strazza said. “Our FedNow certification allows for instantly-available deposits and cash advances, enabling InvoiceASAP users to better manage cash flow, scale operations, and invest in the tools they need to thrive.”

With customers ranging from Microsoft and Meta to Uber and H&M, Adyen provides end-to-end payments capabilities, data-driven insights, and financial products to businesses around the world. Headquartered in Amsterdam, Adyen processed more than €970 billion in payment volume in 2023. This month, in addition to its partnership with InvoiceASAP, Adyen announced a collaboration with PayPal to offer its Fastlane product on the Adyen platform. Also in August, Adyen reported that it has extended its partnership with BMW and expanded its operations in India. The publicly traded firm has a market capitalization of $45 billion.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Oakland, California, InvoiceASAP made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring in 2013. In the years since then, the company has grown into a major, fully-integrated mobile invoicing solution provider with more than 400,000 customers in 120+ countries. InvoiceASAP enables merchants to generate and pay invoices on the go using either a smartphone or a tablet. The company’s technology connects with major accounting platforms, including QuickBooks and Xero, to ensure compatibility with the merchant’s accounting software.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio

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FinovateFall 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 6

By Madeline Clines Posted on
Categories: Bud, Eisen, Fin3 Technologies, FinovateFall 2024, FinovateFall 2024 Sneak Peek, ID-Pal, ModernFi, MoneyKit, QuickFi

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 9 and 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Bud Financial

Bud Financial is a transaction intelligence platform transforming raw financial data into rich actionable insights with added customer context and readable outputs for LLMs.

Features

  • Link: Connect consumer debt accounts with a phone number
  • Guide: Provide the best next action to improve financial outcomes
  • Act: Money-saving actions taken in-app by customers

Who’s it for?

Banks and financial institutions

Eisen

Eisen offers account offboarding solutions for financial institutions, streamlining compliance with regulatory outreach, disbursement, and escheatment requirements.

Features

  • Save time on a complex process
  • Stop losing customers
  • Get proactive to reactivate inactives

Who’s it for?

Banks and credit unions.

Fin3 Technologies

Fin3 Technologies is the modern payment solution to physical checks. Fin3 is a trailblazer in the digital payments space and launched a new payment method, Digital Drafts, based on changes to payment law, specifically UCC 12.

Features

Fin3 Digital Drafts:

  • Replaces physical checks
  • Offers all the legal benefits of physical checks but is 100% digital
  • Integrates with core banking software

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, insurance companies, SMBs, and others using physical checks.

ID-Pal

ID-Pal uses 100% AI-powered technology for real-time identity verification and OFAC screening, ensuring seamless customer onboarding, compliance, and zero access to customer data.

Features

  • Provides built-in AI document fraud detection
  • Delivers global coverage and streamlined OFAC compliance
  • Offers seamless integration options and fully customizable

Who’s it for?

Banks, neobanks, community banks, credit unions, payments providers, insurance companies, asset management companies, and financial institutions.

ModernFi

ModernFi helps banks and credit unions grow, retain, and manage their deposits through the ModernFi Deposit Network by enabling extended federal deposit insurance.

Features

  • Delivers first fully integrated and API-driven deposit network available to banks and credit unions
  • Offers first and only credit union focused deposit network
  • Provides powerful digital experience for depositors

Who’s it for?

Banks and credit unions.

MoneyKit

MoneyKit is a superaggregator, a universal API that intelligently aggregates data from multiple sources, maximizing institution coverage, connection success rates, and connection stability over time.

Features

  • Supports data from Akoya, Finicity, MX, Plaid, and Yodlee
  • Offers intelligent routing, data standardization, and enrichment across providers
  • Provides SDKs for the simplest integration of all time

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, community banks, scaled fintechs, wealth management groups, payment providers, and IDV.

QuickFi

QuickFi is the first and only embedded finance platform in the market for secured commercial equipment lending.

Features

  • Offers 100% digital, end-to-end borrower self-service, with 24/7 access
  • Automates credit, contract structuring, business verification, and compliance
  • Completes transactions in minutes vs. days or weeks

Who’s it for?

Banks, equipment manufacturers, and equipment distributors.

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LenderLogix Integrates with Truv to Enhance the Borrower Applicant Verification Process

LenderLogix Integrates with Truv to Enhance the Borrower Applicant Verification Process
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Truv
  • Consumer-permissioned data platform Truv announced an integration with mortgage point-of-sale (POS) and automation software provider LenderLogix.
  • The integration will enable mortgage lenders to more easily verify income and employment data from mortgage applicants.
  • Truv was founded in 2020 and made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022.

Making it easier for lenders to access the data they need in order to provide credit to worthy borrowers is one of the key promises of open finance. A new integration between consumer-permissioned data platform Truv and mortgage point-of-sale (POS) software provider LenderLogix will leverage open finance to enable lenders to more easily and accurately verify income and employment information from mortgage applicants. The integration will enable mortgage lenders to access Truv’s platform via LenderLogix’s point-of-sale system LiteSpeed to secure direct-to-source income and employment verification.

“With the integration of Truv’s verification capabilities and LiteSpeed, lenders can now enjoy a streamlined workflow that reduces administrative tasks and frees up resources for improved customer service,” LenderLogix Co-Founder and CEO Patrick O’Brien said. “This powerful combination eliminates the need for third-party verification services, leading to significant cost savings and lower overall loan processing expenses. Additionally, the automation speeds up loan approvals, allowing lenders to close loans faster and optimize their operational throughput.”

Lenders will benefit from Truv’s coverage of 96% of the U.S. workforce and the immediate access to data through LenderLogix’s LiteSpeed. This will accelerate the mortgage application process by removing manual document collection and by being able to access more data-rich, complete loan files at the point of application. For borrowers, the partnership will provide an application process that is faster and more straightforward, with fewer touchpoints.

“Our integration with LenderLogix marks a significant advancement in our mission to revolutionize the mortgage origination process,” Truv CEO Kirill Klokov said. “By combining our strengths, we are providing mortgage lenders with the tools they need to deliver exceptional service to their clients while improving operational efficiency.”

Founded in 2020, Truv made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its income and employment verification and direct deposit switch technology. The company’s income and employment verification solution delivers verified identity, income, and employment data points within 60 seconds. Truv credits its direct deposit switch solution for enabling institutions to increase direct deposits by up to 65%.

This spring, Truv teamed up with digital mortgage automation solutions provider Floify and with point-of-sale (POS) mortgage lending platform – and fellow Finovate alum – BeSmartee. Truv has raised more than $28 million in funding from investors including Kleiner Perkins and NYCA.

Are you an innovative fintech with new technology that’s ready for prime time? Join us in New York next month for FinovateFall and take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your solution before an audience of 2,000+ decision-makers.

Photo by Pixabay

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PayQuicker Teams Up with Thunes to Boost e-Wallet Payout Capabilities

PayQuicker Teams Up with Thunes to Boost e-Wallet Payout Capabilities
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, PayQuicker, Thunes

International payouts orchestration company, PayQuicker, has forged a partnership with cross-border payment infrastructure firm Thunes to expand its e-Wallet payout capabilities around the world.

The integration is designed to better serve the growing demand for diverse and flexible payout methods. This demand is especially acute in emerging markets, where access to traditional banking is limited and tools like e-Wallets play a major role in helping individuals manage finances and make payments. McKinsey estimates that up to 60% of those in emerging markets prefer to use e-Wallets instead of traditional banks.

Integrating enhanced e-Wallet capabilities into its global payouts solutions mix will help PayQuicker fulfill its objective of providing faster, easier payouts around the world. The company said that it will offer access to more than 120 e-Wallets in key emerging markets, courtesy of the new partnership. Among the e-Wallets that will be accessible are popular e-Wallets such as the Philippines’ GCash, China’s Alipay, and both Orange Money and M-Pesa of Africa.

“Digital wallets are transforming the way people manage their finances, especially in regions where traditional banking infrastructure is lacking,” PayQuicker CEO Paul Beldham said. “By teaming up with Thunes, we’re further enabling millions of people around the world to receive their funds faster and more securely, providing the flexibility of a bank alternative. This not only empowers individuals to better manage their day-to-day finances but also supports the economic growth of emerging markets by facilitating more reliable transactions.”

Headquartered in Rochester, New York, PayQuicker made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demoed its Payouts OS solution, which packages the company’s payments technology into a payouts payment orchestration platform that intelligently determines and facilitates the fastest, most cost-effective payouts across 200+ countries in 40+ currencies.

Thunes was formed in 2019 when Finovate alum TransferTo rebranded as two separate businesses: one, Thunes, focusing on cross-border payments and the other, DT One, focusing on mobile top-up and rewards. Earlier this month, Thunes announced a partnership with Alipay+ to enable merchants in Paris to accept payments from 15 international e-Wallets and mobile partnerships. In July, Thunes added cross-border payment service provider LianLian Global to its global network.

Photo by JÉSHOOTS

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Gridspace Unveils Emotional Intelligence Capabilities for Virtual Voice Agent Grace

Gridspace Unveils Emotional Intelligence Capabilities for Virtual Voice Agent Grace
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Gridspace
  • Conversational AI technology company Gridspace announced new emotional intelligence capabilities for its virtual voice agent Grace.
  • The update enables Grace to respond more swiftly and empathetically, and enhances the agent’s ability to express its own emotional states.
  • Gridspace made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York.

Voice technology and AI software innovator Gridspace unveiled new emotional intelligence capabilities for its virtual voice agent Grace. The new capabilities enable Gridspace’s voice agent for business to respond faster and more empathetically to the speaker’s emotions. The enhancements also improve Grace’s ability to express its emotional states.

“Grace’s new emotional intelligence capabilities make voice calls with Grace even more natural,” Gridspace CEO Evan Macmillan said. “We are excited to further advance customer satisfaction with voice agents and make it even easier for businesses to deploy them.”

Bringing emotional intelligence capabilities to voice agents is a major advance in spoken dialog systems, according to Gridspace. Because so many contact center interactions involve customers experiencing frustration, being able to respond appropriately is paramount. Grace’s enhancements will enable the voice agent to manage more complex interactions with greater nuance, and also act as a buffer for high-volume contact centers. To this point, human agents working with Grace have reported not only being able to spend more time on complex calls, but also are experiencing less stress, lower burnout rates, greater productivity, and higher job satisfaction.

Founded in 2012, Gridspace made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022. The California-based company was created through a collaboration between SRI Speech Labs – the entity behind Siri – and a diverse team of designers and engineers. Gridspace has been innovating in fields such as high-performance voice telephony, automated speech recognition (ASR), hyper-realistic TTS (text-to-speech), low-latency spoken dialog systems, as well as tools and solutions to help institutions deploy and manage conversational AI.

Gridspace has raised more than $27 million in funding and includes Private Investors and USAA among its investors.

Photo by Vlado Paunovic

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FinovateFall 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 5

By Madeline Clines Posted on
Categories: BankShift, Carrington Labs, Delfi Labs, FinovateFall 2024, FinovateFall 2024 Sneak Peek, Odynn, PointChain, Speakeasy, Zingly.ai

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 9 and 10. Register today using this link and save 20%.

BankShift

BankShift is a brand-on-banking ecosystem for digital banking platforms, crafted by humans with experience in digital-first and data-driven innovations from leading financial institutions and brands.

Features

  • Leverage free API gateway for real-time vendor monitoring
  • Elevate operations and engagement with intuitive web admin portal
  • Scale platform with patent-pending branding technology

Who’s it for?

BankShift harmonizes brands with banking technology, enabling community banks and credit unions to seamlessly embed their digital banking ecosystems within a brand’s app to create new revenue streams.

Carrington Labs

Carrington Labs empowers financial institutions with explainable AI solutions to enhance credit risk scoring and loan limit recommendations, driving more informed and inclusive lending decisions.

Features

  • Enhances credit risk modeling, maximizing loan approvals
  • Reduces loan default risk, leveraging default elasticity analysis
  • Delivers product-specific loan limit recommendations, increasing margins

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, payment providers, and financial institutions focused on unsecured consumer lending.

Delfi Labs

Delfi Labs is a financial technology company that provides an AI-enabled SaaS copilot to help enterprises of all sizes protect themselves from financial market volatility.

Features

  • Non-generative AI, Oracle: provides actionable strategies in minutes
  • Risk analytics, Overwatch: offers advanced simulations for markets, balance sheets, and securities
  • Delivers powerful yet intuitive dashboard

Who’s it for?

Delfi’s initial focus is to serve community banks, credit unions, and financial asset managers in optimizing their balance sheets and structuring risk management strategies in real-time.

Odynn

Odynn is an embedded fintech, AI/ML, loyalty optimization program management platform for travel tech. Odynn has re-imagined customer loyalty while generating significant revenues for its partners.

Features

  • Delivers next-gen program management platform (holistic travel portal)
  • Offers live pricing in points, miles, and cash, for every major travel loyalty program
  • Generates personalized redemption recommendations for end users

Who’s it for?

Banks, FIs, regional banks, credit unions, corporate travel management companies, travel techs, fintechs, and neobanks.

PointChain

PointChain is an intelligent risk management platform designed to bring proactive compliance and risk
controls to the forefront. They are focused on delivering real-time transaction monitoring and regulation filings.

Features

  • Illustrates real-time transaction monitoring
  • Highlights how a bank can deal with a flagged transaction (Request for Information)
  • Includes intelligent SAR/CTR Filings

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, credit card companies, and financial service providers who are required to implement and adhere to stringent BSA and AML policies.

Speakeasy

Speakeasy enables fintechs and financial institutions to grow API user adoption and streamline integrations with auto-updated robust SDKs, Terraform providers, and documentation.

Features

  • Accelerates integrations with SDKs
  • Prevents breaking changes with testing
  • Guarantees consistency with governance

Who’s it for?

Any company working in the financial space that has an API — whether available to the public or for private, internal company use only.

Zingly.ai

Zingly.ai empowers businesses to deliver value across the entire customer journey by seamlessly blending data, GenAI, and humans in persistent digital spaces for personalized, lasting relationships.

Features

  • Creates persistent digital spaces for ongoing, personalized customer interactions
  • Delivers seamless integration of data, GenAI, and human touch
  • Offers goal-oriented GenAI for acquisition through support and upsell

Who’s it for?

Zingly.ai serves businesses from Fortune 500-scale to SMBs in banking and financial services.

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From AI to Wealth Management: The Themes of FinovateFall 2024

From AI to Wealth Management: The Themes of FinovateFall 2024
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2024

What themes will dominate the conversation at FinovateFall next month in New York (September 9-11)?

Many of the popular themes in recent years still endure. The customer is still king. Data and personalization matter. And payments, in the words of one clever panelist many Finovates ago, continues to be the “gift that keeps on giving.”

But in some ways these issues have been, if not eclipsed, then perhaps subsumed by enabling technologies like AI, machine learning, and what I call “Automation 2.0” – the leveraging of AI technology to automate a growing range of business operations and manual tasks.

These technologies have brought new energy to sectors such as lending and payments. They have raised the stakes on what it means to provide truly personalized financial services. And when it comes to the customer, these enabling technologies promise new and exciting ways to engage them and deliver digital experiences that would have been hard to imagine even a few years ago.

In fact, I’d argue that some of the themes we see in the word cloud above, such as “compliance,” “security,” and “fraud,” are more prominent than before not simply because of the growing impact of financial crime or fresh concerns over regulatory priorities, but also because of the way that enabling technologies such as AI, machine learning, and automation have given fraud fighters and compliance teams new tools to keep consumers safe and company operations compliant.

If these themes resonate with you, then remember that at Finovate, what you see is what you get. Each of these themes has at least one, if not two or three, innovative companies who will be demoing their response to these challenges and opportunities live on stage next month at FinovateFall in New York. Check out our Finovate Sneak Peek series, as well as our evolving FinovateFall agenda, to learn more.

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SigFig Brings AI to its Financial Advisor Collaboration Platform Engage

SigFig Brings AI to its Financial Advisor Collaboration Platform Engage
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SigFig
  • Wealth management solutions and technology company SigFig has added a number of new capabilities to its financial advisor collaboration platform, Engage.
  • The new capabilities include a range of AI-powered tools and solutions to enhance client engagement and boost efficiency for advisors and their teams.
  • San Francisco-based SigFig has been a Finovate alum since its FinovateFall debut in 2011.

Digital wealth management solutions and technology provider SigFig announced a range of new capabilities for its financial advisor collaboration platform, Engage. These new capabilities include AI-powered tools and solutions that boost the effectiveness of advisors and their teams. SigFig also has added enhanced core integrations with leading industry systems to promote greater efficiency. Together, the new functionalities enhance the digital experiences available via the platform and deepen client engagement.

“AI has the ability to dramatically increase financial advisor productivity and effectiveness,” SigFig founder and CEO Mike Sha said. “We know that advisors need to be able to focus on fostering impactful relationships with their clients, truly understanding their pain points and goals. Engage acts as a hub to drive richer, more personalized client experiences, taking care of those time-consuming, but necessary, administrative tasks, so advisors can do exactly that.”

The new AI capabilities include AI-powered smart tips, including in-meeting prompts and customized recommendations based on real-time conversation analysis. Engage will now also feature proactive surfacing of the right content, tools, paperwork, and workflows, all based on an analysis of real-time discussions. Other new AI-driven additions include automated transcripts, meeting summaries, and post-meeting notes.

Streamlining integration with systems from Salesforce, Docusign, Microsoft, and Google is another major platform enhancement announced by the company late last week. The CRM integration, for example, creates a bi-directional data synch that enables advisors to view client data on the Engage platform as well as sync meeting notes, client details, meetings, and other tasks into Salesforce. This not only helps advisors provide more personalized advice, but also helps advisors accelerate the sales process as well as client conversions.

SigFig made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2011. In the years since then, the company has grown into a comprehensive digital wealth solutions business with nearly 1.5 million customers and 6,000+ advisors on its platform. The firm, founded in 2006 and headquartered in San Francisco, counts financial institutions such as UBS, Wells Fargo, and Scotiabank among its partners.

Are you an innovative fintech with new technology that’s ready for prime time? Join us in New York next month for FinovateFall and take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your solution before an audience of 2,000+ decision-makers.

Photo by AbsolutVision on Unsplash

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, ASA, Eko Investments, Fintech Rundown, Kobalt Labs, Mitek, nCino, PayPal, Trustly, UpSwot, Weekly Alumni News

Finovate’s Fintech Rundown is here with a look at some of the top fintech headlines. From startups emerging from stealth flush with capital to the launch of new AI-powered fraud fighting technologies, we’ve got you covered. Be sure to check back all week long for the latest updates.

E-commerce

E-commerce payments solution provider Klarna acquires New Zealand’s Laybuy.

Regtech

Risk and compliance company Unit21 introduces new anti-fraud technology for ACH transactions.

Payments

Uruguay-based cross-border payment platform dLocal forges strategic partnership with Uphold’s onramp service, Topper.

PayPal integrates with payroll provider UKG to offer early wage access.

Payments company D24 forges a strategic partnership with payments orchestration platform Yuno.

Nigeria-based B2B payments and liquidity platform for emerging markets businesses Waza emerges from stealth with $8 million in funding.

Identity management

Biometric authentication solutions company IDEX Biometrics names Catharina Eklof as its new CEO.

Crypto / DeFi

Romania-based AI and blockchain technology provider Humans.ai acquires TensorChain creator Starfish Technologies.

German neobank N26 expands its cryptocurrency trading product, N26 Crypto, to five new European nations: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, and Switzerland.

Worldwide Stablecoin Payment Network (WSPN) raises $30 million in seed funding.

Decentralized finance (DeFi) risk management platform Chaos Labs secures $55 million in Series A funding.

Stablecoin-to-fiat money transfer app Sling Money locks in $15 million in funding.

Lending

ABN AMRO forges partnership with nCino to enhance its corporate lending operations.

Embedded finance fintech Amount secures $30 million to fuel its expansion into the credit union industry.

Digital banking

Challenger bank Starling Bank launches its first savings account offering 3.25% interest.

Wealth management

Cloud-based wealth management solution provider FusionIQ partners with wealthtech provider interVal to deliver new technology solutions to financial advisors.

Open banking

Open banking payments company Trustly announces strategic partnership with food delivery service company foodora.

Financial literacy

Northern Trust teams up with Greenlight Financial Technology to give its clients access to Greenlight’s finance app and debit card.

Embedded finance

Regtech Kobalt Labs joins the Treasury Prime Partner Marketplace.

Three Finovate alums – ASA Financial, Eko Investments, and upSWOT – earn finalist spots in the 2024 NXTSTAGE Financial Technology Pilot Competition.

Accounting and taxes

Automated accounting and tax solution for “solopreneurs,” Lettuce, raises $15 million in Series A funding.

Fraud and financial crime prevention

Digital identity and fraud prevention innovator Mitek Systems expands its partnership with Alogent.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

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Finovate Global Ireland: Payments, Regtech, and a Central Bank’s Search for Tech Talent

Finovate Global Ireland: Payments, Regtech, and a Central Bank’s Search for Tech Talent
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Fenergo, Finovate Global, WorldPay

This week’s edition of Finovate Global highlights recent fintech headlines from Ireland.

Dublin-based regtech Fenergo has inked a partnership with Caribbean-based PROVEN Bank. The financial institution will leverage Fenergo’s transaction monitoring solution to enhance and streamline its anti-money laundering (AML) compliance operations.

PROVEN Bank Deputy Chief Executive Officer Nikita Kissoon underscored increasing regulatory pressure on financial institutions as one of the reasons the bank sought the partnership with Fenergo. Kissoon praised the company’s “excellent reputation for expertise in both AML regulations and cutting-edge compliance technology,” and said that enhanced AML compliance “aligns with our commitment to combat financial crime and remain future-proofed against fast-evolving regulatory changes across our offshore locations.”

Fenergo’s technology will help boost operational efficiency for the Caribbean-based financial institution. PROVEN Bank will benefit from the automation of multiple manual AML processes, which will reduce the number of false positives and free up compliance resources to focus on more complex situations and higher-risk customers. The bank will begin deploying the technology at its Cayman Islands location and subsequently expand the solution to its offices in St. Lucia and its affiliate company, PROVEN Wealth, based in Jamaica.

The partnership is especially timely. The Cayman Islands, where PROVEN Bank is based, was only recently removed from the Financial Action Task force’s AML grey list and the European Union’s black list earlier this year.

Fenergo Chief Strategy Officer Stella Clarke pointed out that banks like PROVEN that operate in multiple jurisdictions often struggle to keep up with local regulations with regards to AML. “Our transaction monitoring solutions offers PROVEN Bank the flexibility to seamlessly adapt to fast-evolving regulatory environments, while empowering it to more effectively cross-sell services to existing customers based on rich data insights,” Clarke said.

Fenergo made its Finovate debut 12 years ago at FinovateEurope in London. The company has raised more than $760 million in funding, and includes TLG Capital and Bridgepoint among its investors. Fenergo’s partnership news comes at the same time that the firm announced that it had formed an alliance with Deloitte Ireland to help deliver Fenergo’s CLM solutions to financial institutions throughout EMEA.

The Bank of Ireland wants you!

If you are a technology specialist looking to drive fintech innovation in the Republic, that is.

The Bank of Ireland just announced that it is recruiting for 100 technology roles in a variety of digital projects, including fighting fraud and advanced data analytics. The Bank is specifically looking for talent with experience in data, delivery management, engineering, resilience and cybersecurity. Open banking, cloud computing, APIs, and AI are also among the areas of emphasis.

“We continue to invest in our talent, technology, and infrastructure to ensure customers have the very best banking services,” Bank of Ireland Group Chief Operating Officer Ciarán Coyle said, “We’re currently progressing a range of innovative digital projects across the Group and we want to recruit talented specialists who can enhance the banking experience for our customers.”

The bank’s search for tech talent comes as the institution has increased its investment in financial technology. After making more than 60 enhancements to its mobile banking app, including biometrics and fraud monitoring, the bank saw an 18% year-on-year increase in active digital users. The bank announced the largest single investment in ATMs in the last decade earlier this year, as well as an investment of €15 million on new fraud prevention technology.

“We are looking for the very best talent to join our technology team as we continue to deliver improvements for customers and colleagues across the organization,” Coyle said.

To find out more about the current available roles, visit the Bank of Ireland’s website.

Ireland’s PTSB has extended its agreement with Worldpay, giving the bank’s customers access to an additional range of services from the company, including e-commerce and ePOS. PTSB will also gain access to Worldpay DCC, a dynamic currency conversion solution that allows cardholders to pay in the currency of their choice.

PTSB Head of Personal Banking at PTSB Jeff Harbourne said that the ability to offer “a best-in-class merchant services solution” was key to the bank’s “ambition of becoming Ireland’s best personal and business bank.” Harbourne added, “By partnering with Worldpay, we’re offering a competitive advanced payments solution to our existing and new customers that enables them to grow their businesses and accept payment across all channels.”

With more than 1.2 million customers, PTSB has a presence in 98 locations throughout Ireland. Founded in 1816, the financial institution rebranded from Permanent TSB last fall following its acquisition of a sizable portion of Ulster Bank, including the firm’s Retail, SME, and Asset Finance businesses.

A Finovate alum since 2015, WorldPay today is a major payments technology and solutions company that processes more than 40 billion transactions across 146 countries and 135 currencies. Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, and founded in 1971, WorldPay announced an extension of its strategic partnership with fellow Finovate alum ACI Worldwide in July, and inked a new partnership with another Finovate alum, American Express, in May.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Colombian payment orchestration platform Yuno teamed up with Medellin-based financial services app Nequi.
  • Mexico City-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitso partnered with blockchain company Coincover for its non-custodial disaster recovery service.
  • Peruvian investment and asset management arm of Credicorp, Credicorp Capital, went live with Temenos’ Multifonds accounting and investor servicing solution.

Asia-Pacific

  • Thailand announced plans to launch a regulatory sandbox to test crypto-based services and solutions.
  • Financial Times profiled Kim Beom-su, founder of Kakao and one of the richest men in South Korea, who was recently arrested on stock manipulation charges.
  • Digital identity verification provider ADVANCE.AI signed an agreement with the Credit Information Corporation (CIC) to become the newest credit bureau in the Philippines. Read more about fintech in the Philippines in last week’s edition of Finovate Global.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Singapore’s Prytek bought a controlling stake in Israeli fintech Tip Ranks, giving the company a valuation of $200 million.
  • UAE-based fintech Yuze raised $30 million in funding from Osten Investments to fuel expansion into new markets.
  • Arab Financial Services (AFS) teamed up with Samsung Gulf Electronics to bring Samsung Pay to Oman.

Central and Southern Asia

Photo by Kelly

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FinovateFall to Showcase Innovations in Wealthtech and Wealth Management

FinovateFall to Showcase Innovations in Wealthtech and Wealth Management
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Eko Investments, FinovateFall 2024, illuminote, QuAIL Technologies, TIFIN AG, TradingValley, Wealthtech

For the first time, FinovateFall 2024 (September 9-11) will showcase innovations in wealthtech. From AI-powered analysis and decision-making to embedded technologies that are democratizing the world of investing, now is a great time for asset managers, RIAs, and others looking to leverage technology to boost their wealth management businesses.

“Finovate spotlights cutting-edge technology and finserv themes dominating industry news,” Finovate VP and Demo Director Heather Stowell said. “The Great Wealth Transfer has been at the forefront of conversations, and we’re excited to showcase several startups innovating within wealth management and investing.”

Indeed. In its annual survey of wealth managers, Acuity Knowledge Partners noted that the intergenerational wealth transfer was a major opportunity and challenge facing asset managers. Additionally, survey respondents also expressed a desire for comprehensive solutions for estate, tax, and retirement planning. Growing revenues via customized research offerings was also mentioned as a goal, along with managing costs while embracing digitalization and new, enabling technologies like AI.

Below are six companies offering wealthtech solutions this year at FinovateFall 2024 in New York. For more on our wealthtech offering at FinovateFall next month, check out Wealthtech at FinovateFall: Client Centricity and the Rise of Alternative Assets.

Eko Investments

Offers investments to all clients starting from $10, and not just the top 1% via a financial advisor. Headquartered in New York. Founded in 2021. LinkedIn.

GPTadvisor

Empowers financial institutions with AI tools for optimized decision-making, streamlined workflows, and improved client advisory, driving business growth and operational excellence. Headquartered in Madrid, Spain. Founded in 2023. LinkedIn.

illuminote

Enables financial institutions and advisors to authenticate registered client legal estate records with confidence, providing access to authenticated data without expensive tech integrations. Headquartered in Santa Rosa, California. Founded in 2022. LinkedIn.

QuAIL Technologies

Automates processes and increases productivity so organizations can spend less time managing and more time growing. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 2022. LinkedIn.

TIFIN AG

Uses AI and ML to deliver actionable insights, helping financial advisors make data-driven decisions that boost client acquisition, expansion, and retention, achieving organic growth. Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C. Founded in 2023. LinkedIn.

TradingValley

Empowers companies that adopt its AI investing model that reduces the investing research time for both individual and institutional investors. Headquartered in Taiwan. Founded in 2015. LinkedIn.

Are you an innovative fintech with new technology that’s ready for prime time? Join us in New York next month for FinovateFall and take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your solution before an audience of 2,000+ decision-makers.

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