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BioCatch Unveils Age Analysis Capability to Defend Seniors Against Fraud

BioCatch Unveils Age Analysis Capability to Defend Seniors Against Fraud
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, BioCatch, Daily news

Behavioral biometrics innovator BioCatch launched its latest fraud-fighting solution this week. Age Analysis is a new account opening protection capability especially designed to help protect older consumers from fraud and other forms of cybercrime.

“We developed Age Analysis with enhancing customer protection and user experience as our guiding principles,” BioCatch Chief Operating Officer Gadi Mazor explained. “At BioCatch, we work closely with our clients to develop the most forward-thinking behavioral solutions to solve the ever-evolving challenges in combating fraud. Age Analysis empowers financial institutions with the behavioral verification protections most needed to address the growing threat of application fraud.”

The new offering, currently deployed by a number of international organizations as well as a “major credit card issuer,” was developed after noting that 40% of confirmed fraudulent credit card applications involved an applicant above the age of 60. BioCatch also discovered that a significant number of these applications ended up in manual review, increasing both the time spent processing the application as well as diminishing the user experience for older applicants.

Age Analysis works by extracting physical, cognitive, and other behavioral characteristics as the user engages in the account opening process. The technology monitors the activity continuously, predicting what BioCatch refers to as the user’s “approximate behavioral age” and compares it to the applicant’s declared age. If there are significant differences between the two, BioCatch adjusts the user’s risk score to reflect the anomaly.

The technology is based on the finding that certain behavioral characteristics involved in data input tend to change as individuals age. These include factors such as mouse click duration, mobile device orientation preferences, and even actions as specific as the time it takes for a user to shift from the CTRL key to a letter key when inputing data. Learn more about how Age Analysis works, and how it has helped increase company’s ability to detect account opening fraud and boost ROI, in BioCatch’s case study, Top Card Issuers Partner with BioCatch to Protect Senior Citizens from Fraud and Saving Millions.

A Finovate alum since its debut at FinovateFall 2014, BioCatch was founded in 2011 by Avi Turgemen, Benny Rosenbaum, and Uri Rivner to leverage insights derived from Turgemen’s experience in military intelligence to fight online fraud and other cybercrime. Most recently, the company announced joining Alkami Technology’s Gold Partner Program to bring its behavioral biometric technology to Alkami’s bank and credit union customers. In August, BioCatch teamed up with digital financial solution provider MoData to help the company’s clients in Africa better defend themselves against online fraud.

BioCatch has raised more than $213 million in funding from investors including Barclays and HSBC. The company has offices in both New York City and Tel Aviv, Israel.

Photo by Yan Krukov from Pexels

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What’s Next for Holvi

What’s Next for Holvi
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, Holvi

Holvi began a new chapter earlier this year after company founder Tuomas Toivonen purchased the startup back from BBVA in February.

Holvi, which provides banking tools for self-employed entreprenuers, was founded in 2011 and debuted on the Finovate stage in 2012. In 2018 the company sold to BBVA, which later launched Holvi’s banking services in the U.K. Nine months after the U.K. launch, the Spanish bank decided to pull out of the region, citing concerns over Brexit.

Sifted reported this week that after Toivonen purchased Holvi from BBVA earlier this year, the startup lost 60% of its customers and saw its staff drop by 50% from 150 employees to just 75. Now, it is more profitable than ever. The company increased monthly revenues by 40% by charging a monthly fee of $7 to $14 for an account.

The reason for the recent success hinges on Holvi’s newfound dexterity as a smaller company. As Toivonen told Sifted, “When you’re an independent company, you of course have more flexibility. And when you’re team-owned and run there is no inertia in decision making. You can make big decisions fast.”

What will those “big decisions” look like in Holvi’s future?

The company tells Sifted it plans to launch a credit card offering to complement its current debit card product. Holvi also disclosed it will launch a receivables financing tool to help entrepreneurs smooth out cash flow when they receive invoice payments late.

Holvi, which was founded in Helsinki, Finland and operates in Germany, Finland, and Austria, doesn’t plan to enter new geographies at the moment. The company may, however, consider re-entry into the U.K. market.

The renewed focus will likely prove successful for Holvi. When the company first launched in 2011, neobanking was a relatively new concept, especially in the commercial banking space. In today’s environment, however, digital neobanks are commonplace. Not only are consumers accustomed to opening a new bank account with a digital-only bank, regulators are also more comfortable with how they operate.

Photo by Jake Hills on Unsplash

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SumUp Enhances Online Store; Adds New European CEO

SumUp Enhances Online Store; Adds New European CEO
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, SumUp

London-based digital payments innovator SumUp announced the relaunch of its online store and the appointment of a new CEO for Europe: Michael Schrezenmaier.

The decision to enhance the SumUp Online Store is part of a strategic pivot toward online retail, an industry that grew significantly during the pandemic. “E-commerce has completely changed since we first launched the Online Store,” SumUp Vice President of Growth, Mark Wang said. “This shift has meant that an exponentially growing number of people now prefer to shop online.” The SumUp Online Store was initially launched in May 2020.

Among the new features offered are tools to enable business owners to set up a store in minutes due to a simplified signup process, a theme editor to customize storefronts, and a learning hub to support both new and veteran business owners. The upgraded platform also will no longer charge subscription fees, making it that much accessible to more small businesses.

“At SumUp our mission with the new Online Store is to provide a better platform for small businesses to reach customers anywhere in the world,” Wang added. “We are constantly working to build innovations that empower anyone to become an entrepreneur.”

Moving from platforms to people, SumUp also announced today that it has appointed Michael Schrezenmaier as its new CEO of Europe. Schrezenmaier comes to SumUp after serving as Chief Operating Officer and interim co-CEO for CRM platform Pipedrive and nearly seven years as COO at international dating company Spark Networks.

“SumUp is a company known for its entrepreneurial spirit and willingness to embrace change which, combined with its growth journey and continued upward trajectory, makes this an exciting time to join,” Schrezenmaier said, adding praise for the company’s innovation, “dedication to merchants,” and its leadership in the payment space overall.

Marc-Alexander Christ, co-founder of SumUp underscored the “quirks” and regional differences in Europe – and the unique aspects of the average European’s relationship with money – in explaining why Schrezenmaier was the right pick for the CEO spot. Christ called Schrezenmaier “a prime example of the type of person who will drive the company forward as we look to uphold our strong position in Europe – and deliver for our merchants.”

Founded in 2012 and making its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateEurope, SumUp has grown into a global digital commerce enabler and payments company. SumUp supports more than three million merchants around the world and boasts a workforce of 2,600+. The company has raised $1.4 billion in funding, most recently securing $893 million in debt financing in March of this year.

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich from Pexels

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Grab Takes Majority Stake in E-Payment Service OVO

Grab Takes Majority Stake in E-Payment Service OVO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

Southeast Asia’s super app Grab is moving even further into the payment solutions space this week. The company has more than doubled its stake in e-wallet app OVO.

Grab’s stake in Bumi Cakrawala Perkasa, OVO’s parent company, has gone from 39% to 90%. Currently, the remaining 10% of OVO is split equally between two firms, IDE Teknologi Indonesia and Cakra Finansindo Investama, which both claim a 5% stake.

“We are pleased to complete the first part of a wider exercise to restructure our ownership. We welcome a greater commitment from Grab,” said an OVO spokesperson. “We’re working in close consultation with the regulators to complete the ownership restructuring process, and are confident this will allow us to better serve the financial services needs of Indonesians.”

OVO was launched as a corporate rewards system for Lippo Group and in 2017 expanded to e-payments. According to data released last year from Bank Indonesia, OVO processed 37% of all digital wallet transactions in Indonesia, marking the largest share in the nation.

According to Nikkei Asia, Grab will likely bring more Indonesia-based investors to acquire stakes in OVO. That is because the region’s central bank, Bank Indonesia, stipulates that at least 15% of e-payment operators needs to be locally owned. Nikkei Asia cited local media conglomerate Elang Mahkota Teknologi as a potential candidate for the purchase.

To date, Grab has acquired three companies, including B2B2C wealthtech provider Bento, mobile payments solutions provider iKaaz, and ecommerce solutions company Kudo.

After launching as a ride-hailing company, Grab has expanded to offer a wide variety of products and services (hence its classification as a super app). The Southeast Asia-based company now serves consumers, merchants, and drivers with deliveries, financial services, a hotel-booking tool, payment processing and rewards, business financing, and more.

Photo by Jason Miraples on Unsplash

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Digital Insurance Innovator Ladder Raises $100 Million

Digital Insurance Innovator Ladder Raises $100 Million
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

California-based insurtech Ladder has secured $100 million in Series D funding in a round led by Thomvest Ventures and OMERs Growth Equity. The company, which brands itself as the first, fully digital life insurance company in operation, will use the new capital to fuel further innovation in accessible, affordable life insurance solutions. The investment will also enable Ladder to expand its team, with a goal of more than doubling its workforce in 2022.

“I know first hand how life insurance can change a life,” Ladder co-founder and CEO Jamie Hale explained. “With our carrier in operation and this new round of funding, we are in the position to greatly accelerate innovation in service of families and communities. I am so excited to see our original vision continue to materialize.”

Ladder offers insurance customers flexible term coverage that can be set up in minutes and save policyholders up to 40%. With coverage of up to $8 million available in all 50 states, Ladder leverages an all-digital infrastructure and real-time underwriting to innovate at every step of the life insurance experience – from acquisition and product design to UX, instant issue, and policy administration. In its funding announcement, Ladder highlighted the fact that this week’s investment comes on the heels of 4x revenue growth in 2020 and in advance of its goal of issuing $30 billion in LadderLife coverage by the end of this year.

“Jamie Hale and his visionary management team are building Ladder into an innovative, market-leading digital life insurance company,” Saar Pikar, Managing Director and fintech lead at OMERS Growth Equity, said. “We are very pleased to count Ladder as OMERS Growth Equity’s first direct fintech investment – as well as our entry in the insurtech space, expanding on the insurtech presence established by our OMERS Ventures colleagues. We believe that the company offers a truly transformative approach, including through its efficient adjudication of risk and enhanced user experience.”

Founded in 2015, Ladder has raised a total of $194 million in funding. The company was named to Fortune’s Best Workplaces for a second year in a row this year and, this summer, appointed eight-year LinkedIn veteran Sanjeev Kapur to the newly created role of President.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

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Fresh Off the Stage: The Finovate Demo Experience

Fresh Off the Stage: The Finovate Demo Experience
By Charlie Burgess Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2021

FinovateFall returned to America’s financial capital last month, and was able to put the live demos back on the main stage. Over 75 companies took their chance to present their latest innovations to the audience, competing for the coveted Best of Show awards (find out who took home the hardware here).

The demo timer runs down quickly with only 7-minutes on the clock, so we sat down with several demoing companies to hear a little more about their origin story, overcoming the challenges of the past year and their experience as a Finovate demoer. Check out the conversations below!

Marc Corbett, Senior Solutions Engineer, Backbase

Ryan Ruff, Head of Fintech Relationships, ASA Technology

Bolun Li, Founder & CEO, Zogo Finance

Find out more about FinovateFall and stay up-to-date with the latest announcements about 2022!

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Interac Acquires Rights to SecureKey Digital ID Services

Interac Acquires Rights to SecureKey Digital ID Services
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, SecureKey

Two Canadian fintechs have struck a deal this week. Payments network and digital ID provider Interac has agreed to acquire rights to digital ID and authentication provider SecureKey’s digital ID services for Canada.

Interac, which is building a network to help Canadians digitally share and verify their identity credentials, will leverage SecureKey’s digital ID services, along with its operations, technology, and innovation. Ultimately, Interac seeks to accelerate secure online service delivery and offer strong privacy and fraud protections for the digital economy in Canada.

“At Interac, we believe that digital ID is the key to empowering all Canadians to participate equally and safely in the future of the digital economy,” said Interac CEO Mark O’Connell. “Through this acquisition, we are proud to increase our investment in leading identification and authentication capabilities as we work to support businesses and governments across Canada in delivering secure and convenient digital ID experiences for Canadians.”

Both companies will continue to operate as separate entities. Interac will implement Verified.Me, a digital ID verification network built on distributed ledger technology, and Government Sign-In by Verified.Me, a secure sign-in tool to access 280+ government services.

“As the pandemic has made abundantly clear, the way Canadians use their identity documents and how they prioritize accessing services digitally has changed forever,” said Chief Officer of Innovation Labs & New Ventures at Interac Debbie Gamble. “The need to accelerate innovation to provide secure and convenient options for people to transact with their identities is critical.”

This announcement follows Interac’s acquisition of Ottawa-based 2Keys, a company focused on creating secure digital experiences, in 2019.

Founded in 2008, SecureKey has made a couple of key partnerships recently. The company partnered with Onfido in March of 2020 to offer real-time photo ID verification and teamed up with Simplii Financial in May of 2020 to offer Simplii clients with secure access to government services.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

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The Conversation Continues: Entrepreneurs, Investors, and the Latest from the Finovate Podcast

The Conversation Continues: Entrepreneurs, Investors, and the Latest from the Finovate Podcast
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Podcasting

Hot on the heels of its 100th Episode, the Finovate Podcast has churned out a quintet of fascinating conversations with fintech’s most innovative and insightful entrepreneurs and investors.

If you’ve not yet caught up with the latest from Finovate VP and program host Greg Palmer, then here’s a sample of what’s waiting for you over at the Finovate Podcast.

Find the Finovate podcast at Soundcloud and follow Greg Palmer on Twitter for the latest in programming news and updates.

Patrick Chun, Founder and Managing Partner, Juxtapose. Host Greg Palmer and Patrick Chun explore an “upside down” VC model and the early-stage startup space.

“Rather than doing a lot of things, rather than investing in pre-existing businesses of first-time entrepreneurs, and then having a high tolerance for companies going under, we actually do very few things: we start them in partnership with experienced executives and we have a business model that’s actually geared toward making sure everything works.”

Sunaiana Sinha Haldea, Managing Partner, Cebile Capital. Host Greg Palmer and Sunaiana Sinha Haldea discuss macroeconomic trends and the fintech VC landscape.

“We’ve been in business for over ten years and have advised on countless transactions across the market in the U.S. and Europe. We are essentially the advisor of choice to growth and venture funds that are looking to catalyze their own fundraises or secondary transactions on their funds or assets.”

Jesse Wedler, Partner, Capital G. Host Greg Palmer and Jesse Wedler talk about the B2B fintech space from the perspective of a seasoned investor – and offer advice for fintechs on finding big opportunities.

“Our approach to the world is investing in a small number of transformative businesses each year, and making large concentrated bets on those companies. And what we mean by transformative is companies that can transform the industries they are operating in: finding the next generation of Googles out there, companies like Stripe, like UiPath, like Crowdstrike …”

David Cheng, Principal, DCM Ventures. Host Greg Palmer and David Cheng talk about fighting bias and discuss fintech’s moral and social obligations.

“A lot of this inherent bias in financial services and traditional financial institutions doesn’t come from a bad place or any bad intention. If you think about financial institutions like banks and credit unions and a lot of these traditional places … it comes the fact that they need to minimize risk and make sure that their checking accounts, their loans aren’t subject to fraud or default. As a result of that, they have to use a lot of older heuristics like FICO.”

Derik Sutton, Vice President of Marketing, Autobooks. Host Greg Palmer and Derik Sutton explore massive new SMB fintech opportunities.

“We help small businesses get paid directly through their financial institution and, when we do that, we help financial institutions stay ahead of the competition – competition both being traditional banks that they are competing with, and then also the emerging rise of digital-first entities like Square, PayPal, QuickBooks and others that are aggressively targeting the small business space.”

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QisstPay Secures Funding for Pakistan’s Biggest Buy Now Pay Later Offering

QisstPay Secures Funding for Pakistan’s Biggest Buy Now Pay Later Offering
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

Pakistan-based Buy Now Pay Later platform QisstPay has secured $15 million in seed and pre-seed funding. The round was led by MSA Capital and featured institutional investment participation from Global Founders Capital, Fox Ventures, and First Check Ventures – as well as strategic angel investments from Scalapay co-founders Simone Mancini and Johnny Mitrevski.

The capital, a combination of debt and equity financing, will help the company expand both its services and workforce, ideally boosting its team to more than 100 people by year’s end. QisstPay also believes the funding will accelerate its ability to fund transactions and partnerships with traditional financial institutions in Pakistan, as well as expand its services to neighboring Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

QisstPay was founded less than a year ago, in November 2020, to solve a very basic problem for consumers in emerging market economies in general and in Pakistan in specific. Many citizens in developing countries do not have the financial means to get approval for credit cards and other forms of consumer financing popular in the West and the more developed economies in Asia. This impacts not only their ability to purchase recreational and luxury goods, but also impairs their access to everyday necessities.

As QisstPay co-founder and CEO Jordan Olivas explained: “After moving here to Pakistan, I noticed how badly the people of this country need a financial tool to help them purchase goods and services that they not only want, but actually need.”

QisstPay offers an installment payment service that responds to this problem by enabling consumers to pay for their purchases in four installments without having to pay interest or worry about late fees. Purchases of between 1,500 and 500,000 PKR (approximately $9 to $3,000 USD) are eligible, and consumers can use both debit and credit cards to make their repayments. The company noted that it plans to enable repayment via digital wallet soon.

The low penetration rate of credit cards and the dominance of cash are some of the reasons why QisstPay has caught on. Add to this the high population of young, digitally-savvy people in countries like Pakistan, and it is easy to see why the company has more than 500 retailers in Pakistan using its service. This includes brands such as Samsung, Diesel, Philips, Xiaomi, and Lenovo, as well as the largest Shopify store in the country.

“Over 60% of Pakistan’s population is under the age of 30, which means that the majority of the country is adopting new technologies,” Olivas said. “Yet so many people still believe that Pakistan isn’t ready to adopt a BNPL system. The rapid growth and use of a platform like QisstPay proves otherwise.”

Tim Chen, General Partner at MSA Capital underscored this point. “Pakistan is one of the most often overlooked countries when it comes to fintech investments,” Chen said. “However, it’s also one of the countries with the most potential.”

For more insight into the fintech ecosystem in Pakistan, check out Tracxn’s highlight of ten of the top fintechs in the country, as well as this list from LocalWriter. One of the most comprehensive looks at the fintech industry in Pakistan in recent times is available in the landscape study by Mohsin Termezy, founder and CEO of Finclude, and Hussam Razi, a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Specialist with Karandaaz Pakistan, published this summer.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

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Alloy Earns $1.35 Billion Valuation After Securing Series C Investment

Alloy Earns $1.35 Billion Valuation After Securing Series C Investment
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alloy, Alumni News, Daily news, Funding

One year to the month after Alloy closed a $40 million Series B round, the identity decisioning platform – and FinDEVr Silicon Valley alum – has secured a Series C investment of $100 million that brings the company’s valuation to $1.35 billion.

“Identity and its associated risk isn’t something businesses should be figuring out, it should just be something they install,” Alloy co-founder and CEO Tommy Nicholas said. “As Alloy grows into a multi-product platform for the full customer identity lifecycle, we can not only help make risk easier to understand, but also further industry innovation by making fintech products easier to build.”

The Series C round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Justin Overdorff and featured participation from current investors Canapi Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Avid Ventures, and Felicis Ventures. Alloy said that the new capital will enable the firm to “invest” in its team, as well as help expand the company’s product offerings. Over the past year, Alloy’s solution has evolved from a platform that automates onboarding identity decision-making to one that now incorporates transaction monitoring. The company said that it will soon also feature richer data and risk signals to provide FIs with even greater insight into their customers.

Alloy’s API-based platform leverages more than 120 data source products to help companies and banks verify customer identities and monitor transactions. Processing more than 455,000 decisions a day on average, the company’s solution provides both identity verification and risk monitoring functionality in the same place, enabling both developer and product teams to maximize the platform’s resources. The result is a 50% reduction in manual review, and 80% automation rate for new account openings, and an automated customer approval rate of more than 80% for customers such as Novo, Brex, and HMBradley.

Headquartered in New York City and founded in 2015, Alloy was named one of the Best Fintechs to Work for in 2021 by American Banker, and boasts a workforce that is more than 50% female and has ethnic minority representation of nearly 40%. In August, Alloy announced its newest partnership, collaborating with Amerant Bank to automate identity verification in customer onboarding for the $8 billion, Florida-based community bank.

“Providing an exceptional experience for customers, both online and in-person, is at the core of our digital transformation strategy,” Amerant Bank Vice Chairman and CEO Jerry Plush said in a partnership announcement. “With the addition of Alloy, we’ll be able to still meet regulatory requirements, while ensuring a faster and more seamless onboarding and underwriting process that will benefit both customers and Amerant team members.”

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MoneyLion and the Journey to SPAC

MoneyLion and the Journey to SPAC
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Speaker series

After finalizing the deal with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Fusion Acquisition Corp. this week, MoneyLion is now publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol ML.

For additional insight into this milestone, we spoke with MoneyLion CEO and Co-Founder Dee Choubey. Prior to co-founding MoneyLion in 2013, Choubey spent over a decade on Wall Street inside the largest banks learning about the inefficiencies that exist within banking. He built MoneyLion to create a private banking experience for everyday Americans by offering credit, banking, and investing in a single app.

Talk to us about MoneyLion’s journey so far. What has growth been like since the company was founded in 2013?

Dee Choubey: We founded MoneyLion with the goal of rewiring the consumer finance system, giving hardworking Americans access to previously exclusive private banking services. At MoneyLion, we bring consumer finance into the future by combining AI, machine-learning technology, and behavioral science to create a full-service, digital financial platform for our users. Since 2013, we have engaged with over 8.5 million Americans, empowering them with a digital banking platform that helps them better manage their finances today and build wealth for tomorrow.

This has been a historic year for the company. Since announcing we were going public via a SPAC in February, to listing on the NYSE on September 23rd, we’ve continued to see consistent growth and a validation of our business plan. Entering the public markets will enable us to scale our capabilities and reach even more hardworking Americans. Since the start of 2021, we’re up across all key financial and operating metrics, including 100%+ year over year growth in net revenue. Our user growth has also accelerated this year, with total customers increasing almost 60% in the first half of 2021 to 2.3 million.

Earlier this month, we raised our annual revenue guidance for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023 to reflect higher projected user growth, along with expected revenue contribution of planned product launches including our new crypto and Buy Now Pay Later offerings. As a public company, we will remain laser focused on positioning ourselves for optimal execution on our well-defined growth objectives.

How did you know that a SPAC was right for MoneyLion?

Choubey: For us, we’d spent the last eight years focusing on building proprietary technology. As we saw the product market fit of MoneyLion accelerating, we knew it was time to take MoneyLion’s innovative products to more Americans, and a SPAC provided us with an entry point to enhance our public presence as well as capitalize the business. As with everything we do at MoneyLion, it ties back to our mission: to provide top-notch financial access and bespoke advice to every hardworking American.

Listing via a SPAC was the best option for us due to its efficiency in allowing us to strengthen our balance sheet. With the capital we raised through this transaction, we are now able to accelerate the execution of our growth strategy, deliver against our mission, and provide incredible value to our customers and members.

What has been the hardest part of the SPAC process?

Choubey: If anything, our biggest challenge was timing. We announced the merger with Fusion Acquisition Corp in late February, expecting to be public somewhere in June or July. It took longer than anticipated to get through the whole process, in part due to the number of deals coming to the market.

With the merger behind us and our balance sheet fortified, we’re all very excited about this next chapter in the MoneyLion journey. For the past eight years we have been focused on building our proprietary tech stack, and we think we have one of the best platforms, not only here in the United States, but globally. We’re poised to build on that strong foundation and make MoneyLion a daily destination for all hard working Americans, combining our robust financial products and services with highly personalized content and advice to help our customers take control of their finances and achieve their life goals.

What advice would you offer other fintechs considering the SPAC route?

Choubey: Find the right partner with whom to go public. And that usually entails the sponsor’s knowledge of its investor base, their willingness to do whatever it takes to accurately position the company, as well as a specific understanding of the capital markets including the pipe market. At the end of the day, the fintech needs to have public market fit and a good sponsor can help create an efficient framework.

Will anything about MoneyLion change now that the acquisition is finalized?

Choubey: We’re no longer trading under FUSE; we’ve officially taken over the ML ticker on the New York Stock Exchange. For those that remember, ML was Merrill Lynch’s ticker, an iconic American financial institution. Today, we are immensely proud to have that ticker as we grow into our own iconic American brand. As we like to say, the ‘bull has become the lion’.

In terms of what’s happening within MoneyLion, we are going to continue to work hard and deliver against our mission: harnessing the power of technology to empower millions of hardworking Americans to take control of their finances so that they can achieve their life goals.

Photo by Corentin Marzin on Unsplash

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Betterment Raises $160 Million With $1.3 Billion Valuation

Betterment Raises $160 Million With $1.3 Billion Valuation
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Betterment, Daily news

Wealthtech company Betterment has boosted its total funding to $435 million after closing $160 million in growth capital this week. The funds include $60 million in Series F equity and a $100 million credit facility.

The new round values Betterment at $1.3 billion. The equity portion was led by Treasury with participation from existing investors Kinnevik, Bessemer Venture Partners, Francisco Partners, Menlo Ventures, Anthemis Group, Globespan Capital Partners, Citi Ventures, and The Private Shares Fund. New investors Aflac Ventures and ID8 Investments also participated.

The $100 million credit facility comes from ORIX Corporation USA’s Growth Capital group and Runway Growth Capital.

“We are thrilled to have the support of new and existing investors who believe in our business model and are excited by the opportunity to support our growth,” said Betterment CEO Sarah Levy. “We’re using these funds to further cement our category leadership with rapid innovation on top of our already differentiated product suite and unique, multi-pronged distribution model that serves retail investors, advisors and small businesses.”

More specifically, Betterment will use the funds to support its 401(k) offering for small and medium sized businesses.

Founded in 2010, Betterment manages $32 billion in assets for its nearly 700,000 clients. In addition to offering automated 401(k) and IRA options, the company also provides socially responsible investment options, retirement planning services, a checking account, and a high-yield savings account.

Today’s announcement comes after a flurry of news activity for Betterment, after the company appointed Levy as CEO in December of last year. In March, the company acquired the investment advisory business of WealthSimple, partnered with Zenefits to offer 401(k) plans on the Zenefits platform, rolled out a checking account for shared finances, unveiled a co-pilot tool for advisors, and launched pre-packaged tech stack for RIAs.

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