Scaling Digital Payments Smarter and Growing Businesses Faster with CSG Forte

Scaling Digital Payments Smarter and Growing Businesses Faster with CSG Forte

From the renewed emphasis on contactless commerce to the promise of real-time payments, the business of facilitating transactions for goods and services is as hot a subsector of fintech as any other. To this end, we caught up with Jeff Kump, Head of Payments for recently rebranded CSG Forte, a unified payments platform based in Allen, Texas, to talk about innovations in payments, the power of enabling technologies, and the role played by companies like CSG Forte.

Since 2006, Kump has been tasked with leading and growing CSG Forte’s operational and cross-functional teams. Additionally, he has proven instrumental in advancing CSG Forte’s corporate development and growth strategy, serving as Forte’s COO and CFO before the company’s acquisition by CSG in 2018. During his tenure at Forte, the company was recognized by the Inc. 5000 as one of America’s Fastest Growing Companies for eight consecutive years. The company is an alum of our developers conference, FinDEVr, having hosted presentations on payment technology at events in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

What problem does CSG Forte solve and who does it solve it for?  

Jeff Kump: To start, we offer one of the most complete and customizable payments solutions in the world, enabling companies to scale digital payments smarter and grow their business faster while also reducing costs.  

Offered as a unified end-to-end payments platform, our technology was purposefully engineered to make it easy for companies and integrated software providers to set up, integrate, quickly adapt to changing needs and scale fast—because speed so often translates to success. We have done this by managing the entire payment lifecycle within a single platform, fueled by modern APIs and RESTful architecture that transforms their payments operations into a competitive business strategy. 

This agile foundation has also helped us to succeed across hundreds of industries. It can be difficult to find a partner both competitive on price and legitimately equipped to provide the custom solutions necessary to succeed. Our team leverages deep yet specific channel expertise to support our customers’ verticals, including security, compliance, and integration. 

Our unique approach to payments has enabled us to grow rapidly – outperforming larger competitors and transforming payments from an expense to a critical growth driver. From 2010 to 2018, Forte was, for example, listed on the Inc. 5000 list as one of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies. Today, we work with over 70,000 merchants across hundreds of industries in North America. 

What impact did the COVID-19 pandemic have on your business? What are some of the biggest takeaways from 2020?  

Kump: When COVID hit, many companies were forced to transform how they interact and support their customers and employees. The pandemic also had a lasting impact on the payments industry, but maybe not in the way that many expected. 

While contactless and mobile payments certainly received their fair share of attention, it was the rapid rally around electric payments that was critical to the success of social distancing, stay-at-home orders and bill payments. Merchants and governments across a range of verticals turned to CSG Forte to get smart in e-commerce – quickly enabling their websites to handle online orders, introducing store-specific apps that allow their customers to shop more easily from home or encouraging pay-by-phone. 

We also saw a surge in self-service payments kiosks and anticipate this interest in these kiosks will increase for businesses and consumers alike who want to arm themselves against future emergencies, rely less on cash, and encourage social distancing habits post-pandemic. Kiosks are a flexible solution, offering a breadth of payment options to support both people using cash (including underbanked populations) and payers who prefer to avoid human interaction. Moving forward, you will see a rise in VR (Voice Response)-enabled and Conversational AI-enabled kiosks that minimize the number of times payers need to touch the screen or keypad. 

Related to the rise of contactless payments, it has not all been hype. As consumers have returned to their normal in-person shopping habits, more and more merchants have turned to CSG Forte in the last year to put in place the point-of-sale infrastructure that supports contactless options and mobile pay.  

Which of the main payment trends – digitalization, tokenization, contactless, the security/fraud challenge etc. – will have the most impact on payments in the near term? What will businesses need to do in order to successfully take advantage of these trends?  

Kump: We think that digitalization is the most important trend for businesses to follow and act on right now – paving the way for the rise in virtual cards, contactless, and other payments advancements.  

Reinforced by COVID, industries are shifting from paper methods to digital processes, and more transactions are taking place online. Digital payment solutions can improve security, accuracy, efficiency and profits, giving businesses a competitive advantage in a digital economy. For instance, ACH payments are more secure and considerably faster than paper checks, cost less to process, and leverage advanced technologies to protect against check fraud, data breaches, and identity theft. 

The challenge of digitalization is addressing the security concerns it presents. With increasing digitalization, hackers gain more access to sensitive data, leaving individuals and enterprises vulnerable. Over half of U.S. merchants have faced a data breach at some point – in 2017, over 19% reported an incident. About 60% of consumers say they will actively avoid businesses that have experienced a recent data breach, especially when it involves credit card information.  

With that in mind, businesses should invest in technologies such as End to End (E2E) encryption, EMV, and tokenization that can mitigate risk related to fraud and security breaches caused by bad actors. E2E encryption can be used alongside digital platforms that support point-of-sale (POS) transactions and IVR phone payments; the technology hides payment information and converts it into an unreadable code as it is transmitted across the payment network that is decrypted with a private key upon reaching the intended destination. Merchants who have POS devices that accept contactless payments are able to securely transmit payment data using EMV technology that works by generating a one-time transaction code. The code is unique to each purchase, eliminating the fraud risk of duplicate credit cards that often occurs with magstripe cards. Tokenization is used for eCommerce, recurring and automated transactions, and stored cardholder data. Tokens replace the payment data with a randomly generated code that can only be exchanged for real data by the payment processor that stores it. These are often used by merchants that offer automatic/recurring payments like subscription- or membership-based services. Tokens are easy to use and effective for the security they provide. Any cybercriminal that gets their hands on tokenized data will find it unreadable, as only payment processors can exchange tokens for real data, ensuring both external and internal protection. 

Implementing secure technology such as E2E encryption and data tokenization can help protect businesses from enduring the negative and costly impact of fraud and data breaches that can also cause reputational harm to their brand. CSG Forte has several solutions that are out-of-box and/or easy to integrate and can reduce the scope and burden of managing PCI and Nacha compliance requirements. Businesses that do not have these protections in place should engage a trusted payment processor, such as CSG Forte, to assist with implementing these necessary security measures. 

CSG Forte announced a partnership with CivicPlus this spring. This reflects one trend – government modernization – that was accelerated by the pandemic. Can you tell us more about the partnership, including how it came about?   

Kump: Government modernization is a hot topic indeed. With many offices closed to the public in 2020 and into 2021, government agencies turned to CSG Forte to quickly evolve the way they do business. In response to sky-high demand, we doubled down on our partnerships and innovations that empower the government vertical in the last year – joining forces with CivicPlus, gWorks, SeamlessDocs, and Accela, to name a few. In 2020, we were also named a preferred partner by Nacha for Government Agency ACH Payment Gateways. 

CivicPlus and our CSG Forte team have been bumping into each other for a couple of years now, having been involved in similar projects with local municipalities and state governments. After a few of these encounters, and one where we helped them to quickly get some new accounts deployed, the idea of a true partnership truly took root – and is what we announced this spring.  

By partnering with CivicPlus, we can offer over 4,000 local governments a full end-to-end payments solution that accelerates the evolution of traditional payments services and meets the needs of today’s digital-savvy citizens while providing key capabilities needed to drive an industry-leading online payments experience. This includes: 

  • Enhanced security: E2E encryption protects sensitive card data throughout the transaction lifecycle 
  • Seamless payments: Secure, online payments received instantly through an intuitive, easy-to-use platform 
  • Check processing with verification: Gives government agencies the ability to accept checks with confidence, providing checking account validation. Verification capabilities meet new requirements set forth by Nacha 
  • Updated payment status: Automatically records the payments status to keep the system updated in real-time 

What else can we expect from CSG Forte over the balance of 2021?  

Kump: First off, we just rebranded the business. Previously known as Forte Payments Solutions, the holistic CSG Forte rebrand includes a new logo, website, and social pages that position CSG’s payments business for rapid growth into new regions and across the hundreds of verticals it serves.  

As we look at innovation and product enhancements for the remainder of the year, our focus at CSG Forte is to simplify the customer experience and improve their journey. Consumers are increasingly interested in Apple Pay and Android Pay, among others, so we are enhancing our product roadmap to include digital wallet options for merchants. Additionally, we are transforming the way that we manage transaction monitoring to ensure a seamless processing experience for merchants.   

Our customer-centric approach is also focused on developing solutions that minimize compliance burdens such as Nacha’s “Supplementing Fraud Detection Standard” mandate, which impacts many of our merchants who leverage ACH services, as well as accelerating value delivery to merchants by reducing onboarding time so they can begin processing transactions faster. We will continue to evolve our payments platform to align with the voice of the customer and ensure we are not only meeting but exceeding their expectations, making ordinary customer experiences extraordinary. 

Jeff Kump is Head of Payments at CSG and leads the newly rebranded CSG Forte business, where he oversees go-to-market strategy and new opportunities in the global payments market. Kump previously served as Head of Operations for Forte, focusing on continuous business process improvement, risk and fraud management and providing an unparalleled customer experience.


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Capitalise.com Secures New Funding to Power Risk Management Service

Capitalise.com Secures New Funding to Power Risk Management Service

London-based digital “super platform” Capitalise.com has raised $13.8 million (£10 million) to support a new, integrated risk management service to provide credit insights beyond traditional credit reports. Investors in the round include Experian, QED Investors, Gauss Ventures, Hambro Perks, and Post Finance.

Capitalise.com helps SMEs secure the financing they need in order to grow their business. The company leverages its accountant-as-adviser approach to ensure that small businesses access smarter, more appropriate funding sources and avoid the kind of short-term, ill-fitting financing solutions that often result in high rates and high fees.

Paul Surtees, company CEO and co-founder, pointed to the COVID pandemic as the impetus – at least in part – for the new offering. “Everybody has had to think differently during the pandemic, including us, so we created a virtuous circle in which SMEs and their advisors are shielded from risk and helped to grow.”

With its new risk management service, Capital Reports, Capitalise.com empowers accountants to defend their small business clients from potential and unforeseen risks to their client’s or their supplier’s credit positions. These risks may come in the form of potential defaults, or a company’s need or propensity to borrow, and gives them real-time access to a curated panel of both mainstream and alternative lenders. The service, available as both a paid and a free subscription and powered by credit data from Experian, will be available to approximately 500,000 small businesses through their accountant partners. Capitalise.com stated that an additional 500,000 SMEs will be able to access Capital Reports via API and Open Banking partnerships.

“Managing credit risk is central to lender activity but SME owners typically overlook it,” Capitalise.com co-founder and Chief Product Officer Ollie Maitlaind explained. “This restricts their growth and jeopardizes their survival.” He emphasized the fragility of supply chains as exposed by the global health crisis and noted that, as businesses emerge from the worst of the pandemic, “their ability to recover and protect capital … will be crucial.” Maitlaind added that upon successful launch in the U.K., Capitalise.com plans to bring the service to the South African market later this year “with more countries to follow.”

Founded in 2014, Capitalise.com made its Finovate debut two years later at our fintech conference in London. The company’s total equity funding now stands at more than $18 million.


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FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Zogo Finance

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Zogo Finance

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Zogo is excited to unveil a gamified, customizable rewards platform integrated into an FI’s mobile banking app with a focus on increased digital customer engagement.

Features

  • Reward customers for logging into your mobile banking app daily, completing education modules, swiping their cards, savings, etc.
  • Increase digital customer engagement
  • Gain customer loyalty

Why it’s great
Zogo is changing the way FIs distribute rewards, allowing them to reward customers for activities that build loyalty and add value to the FI.

Presenter

Bolun Li, CEO
Li is the Co-Founder and CEO of Zogo, and has led the Zogo team from an idea in his college dorm room to over 125 financial institution customers nationwide.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Array

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Array

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Array provides fintechs and financial institutions with personalized consumer credit, identity protection, and financial wellness tools through its API and library of embeddable components.

Features

  • Embeddable tools that are easily customizable and create white-label solutions
  • Access to data from major credit bureaus
  • Tools that capture actionable customer insights for marketing efficiencies

Why it’s great
Fintechs and financial institutions use Array’s embeddable tools to quickly deploy personalized credit solutions that improve customer experience and increase engagement with their platform.

Presenter

Martin Toha, CEO & Founder
Toha is a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience utilizing and modifying existing technology to create new markets and develop new businesses.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Unblu

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Unblu

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Unblu‘s Conversational Platform solves communication and collaboration challenges in digital channels by offering features to advise and support your customers across the omnichannel, anytime and anywhere.

Features

  • Meeting Scheduling: pre-schedule a digital meeting
  • Conversation Recording: archive the entire engagement – audio/video and screen sharing.
  • Ecosystem Integration: store all engagement elements in CRM

Why it’s great
As financial decision-making isn’t easy, and self-service often falls short, Unblu enables financial institutions to deliver both automated and humanized customer service across all channels.

Presenters

Jens Rabe, COO
Rabe has held commercial functions in high tech companies (VP Product Marketing & VP Business Strategy at OpenText, CMO at Obtree) and graduated with an MBA from Edinburgh Business School.
LinkedIn

Jeremy Barnes, Regional VP Services, North America
Barnes’ career has spanned 20 years in various leadership roles in world class organizations, including OpenText. He works closely with clients to realize their business transformation objectives.
Linked

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Sontiq

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Sontiq

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Sontiq‘s BreachIQ technology uses artificial intelligence to turn identity fraud risk into a consumer financial health app that drives improved customer engagement, loyalty, and trust.

Features

  • Determines the unique identity risks of each consumer
  • Provides tailored guidance to improve security
  • Available via API or as part of Sontiq’s IIS platform

Why it’s great
BreachIQ is the only solution that analyzes each consumer’s entire breach history, looking beyond the ‘Dark Web’, to help fight identity theft, scams, and fraud.

Presenters

Jim Van Dyke, SVP Innovation
Van Dyke is SVP Innovation and one of the country’s foremost experts in data breaches as well as fintech. He is a Co-Founder of Breach Clarity and Javelin Strategy & Research.
LinkedIn

Al Pascual, SVP Data Breach Solutions
Pascual is SVP Data Breach Solutions. A recognized expert in cybercrime, he co-founded Breach Clarity and is the former Head of Fraud & Security at Javelin.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Finalytics.ai

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: Finalytics.ai

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

Finalytics.ai is a data platform for credit unions that uses machine learning to dynamically generate segment of one digital experiences.

Features

  • Personalization at scale for credit unions
  • Big data
  • AI/ML automated

Why it’s great
People think that digital banks are winning because of superior user experiences. In reality, they are winning because they use data to acquire new customers. Finalytics.ai brings that to CUs.

Presenters

Craig McLaughlin, CEO
McLaughlin is the CEO of Finalytics.ai. Over the last two decades, he has driven segment-of-one experiences for large-scale FIs, community banks, credit unions, and fintech start-ups.
LinkedIn

Mark Ryan, Chief Analytics Officer
Ryan leads the data team at Finalytics.ai to set and achieve ROI goals, data strategies, digital channel reporting, and establish processes for data analysis for customers.
LinkedIn

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: FinGoal

FinovateFall 2021 Sneak Peek: FinGoal

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall on September 13-15, 2021. Register today and save your spot.

FinGoal‘s Link Money connects and uniformly formats your users’ off bank data to the digital banking core enabling secure, universal access for developers to the data at a fraction of legacy costs.

Features

  • Simplifies and elevates the user experience
  • More 360 data available for more developers
  • 3x to 5x better economics

Why it’s great
Platform banking meets data aggregation the right way.

Presenter

David Nohe, CEO
Nohe is CEO at FinGoal. He is ex-Wellfit founder (acquired), ex-Apple, a recovering lawyer, and is based in Colorado.
LinkedIn

Sensibill and FreeAgent Team Up to Bring Automation to Small Business Expense Management

Sensibill and FreeAgent Team Up to Bring Automation to Small Business Expense Management

A collaboration announced late last week between a pair of Finovate alums will give small businesses new options when it comes to digital receipt and expense management.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s Sensibill, which won Best of Show for its FinovateFall demo of its digital receipt insights solution, has partnered with FreeAgent. The U.K.-based cloud accounting software company will combine Sensibill’s technology within its own new Auto Extract feature to help SMEs transition from manual expense management and receipt tracking to a modern, automated process.

“By joining forces with FreeAgent, we’re eliminating the time and money businesses have traditionally spent manually entering data into clunky and cumbersome spreadsheets and systems,” Sensibill Chief Technology Officer Danny Piangerelli said. “Instead, we’re delivering item-level details that enable faster, better expense management.”

Sensibill’s customer data platform blends ethically sourced, enriched SKU-level data with real-time, actionable insights to help FIs achieve personalization at scale. Integrated into FreeAgent’s Auto Extract technology, the technology enables businesses to capture, organize, and categorize their receipts digitally and accurately link them with corresponding bank transactions.

“Automation is at the center of our business,” FreeAgent co-founder and CEO Roan Lavery said, “which is why partnering with Sensibill was a natural choice.” Lavery added the collaboration will help increase satisfaction and engagement among customers while relieving SMEs and their accounting team from the “administrative hassles,” costs, and inaccuracies that plague most manual, expense management processes.

Founded in 2007 and making its Finovate debut in Europe in 2013, FreeAgent was acquired by NatWest five years later for $73 million (£53 million). The company currently has more than 110,000 small businesses, freelancers, and contractors in the U.K. using its technology for a variety of key business tasks – from invoice and expense management to project management and sales tax calculation.

With more than 60 million users across 150+ financial institutions in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., Sensibill was founded in 2013 and has raised more than $50 million in equity capital. Founded by current CEO Corey Gross, the company has forged partnerships this year with fellow fintech CAARY, as well as with Maryland-based SkyPoint Federal Credit Union ($182 million in assets) and AbbyBank, a full-service community bank based in Wisconsin with assets of $616 million.


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How the Indian Diaspora Helps Fuel Fintech Innovation in the UAE

How the Indian Diaspora Helps Fuel Fintech Innovation in the UAE

Recent news headlines have underscored the long-standing relationship between fintechs in India and the UAE.

This week, we learned that Indian payment solution provider PayMate has teamed up with both Visa and Citi to automate business payments in the UAE. The collaboration will involve both accounts payables and receivables, enabling institutions to benefit from end-to-end payment automation.

Access to PayMate’s platform also will give corporations in the UAE the ability to take advantage of longer Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) as purchasers, as well as make supplier payments earlier. The platform, which auto-reconciles both made and received payments in real-time, also allows for settling of corporate card payments directly into the accounts of suppliers.

A Visa-certified Business Payment Solution Provider (BPSP), PayMate is looking to leverage its relationship with Visa into offering both its platform and working capital solutions to other countries in the region. More than 105,000 Indian businesses currently use the PayMate platform.

Also this week we learned of that a partnership between the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and UAE-based Mashreq Bank will bring Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to the UAE to support Indian business and leisure travelers to the country.

Unified Payments Interface is an instant, real-time payment system launched by NPCI that enables multiple accounts to be controlled via a single mobile app. The solution supports a wide range of banking features ranging from money transfers to bill sharing and billpay to merchant payments. Introduced in 2016, UPI currently facilitates 10% of all retail payments in India, and has more than 100 million monthly active users in the country. Last year, $457 billion in value moved on the UPI platform, and analysts believe that UPI will top both Visa and Mastercard in India by 2023.

And while bringing UPI to the UAE will be a major boon for Indian travelers and expats in the country, the UAE stands to benefit as well from the support that additional digital payment activity will provide to the UAE’s digital payments ecosystem.

“We are delighted to collaborate with NIPL (NPCI International Payments) to introduce their mobile-based real-time payment systems to our customers in the UAE,” EVP and Head of Payments for Mashreq Bank Kartik Taneja said. “Given the position of UAE as an international commerce and tourism hub, retail merchants in the Emirates always enable the latest payment methods that are expected by our international clients.”

It is worth pointing out that Indians represent the largest expatriate community in the United Arab Emirates, its more than 3.4 million members representing more than 38% of the UAE population. And while this is no surprise to anyone who has visited the UAE, the impact of this sizable population on the fintech industries of both nations is notable. In the summer of 2019, the Dubai Startup Hub, a project of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, announced its intention to “woo” Indian fintechs to the UAE with a $100 million fund for financial services startups.

Underscoring Dubai’s role as a “testbed” for enabling technologies like blockchain and AI,” Manager of the Entrepreneurship Department at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce Natalia Sycheva noted that Indian startups represented more than 30% of the total start-up community in the country. “When we decided to launch the programme of attracting overseas start-ups here,” Sycheva said, “naturally the first choice was India, as 30% co-founders of our Dubai Startup Hub have Indian origin.”


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia


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InComm Teams Up with Doxo to Help Users Pay Bills in Cash

InComm Teams Up with Doxo to Help Users Pay Bills in Cash

Payments technology company InComm and online billpay platform doxo are partnering this week to enable doxo users to pay bills using cash.

doxo is leveraging InComm’s VanillaDirect retailer network that contains more than 60,000 brick-and-mortar locations including chains such as Dollar General, Family Dollar, and participating 7-Eleven stores.

“Our cash payment network is perfectly aligned with doxo’s vision of empowering consumers to improve their financial lives,” said InComm Payments SVP of Business Development Tim Richardson, adding, “and in this instance providing their users with a simple and convenient experience for making cash payments to household billers in an extensive network of retail locations across the United States.”

To pay their household bills using cash, doxo users select the pay with cash button in the app. Cash-paying users will receive a barcode on their mobile app that they scan at the participating retailer’s point of sale, which will charge them the correct amount for their selected bill. Once the customer pays their bill, the biller receives the payment instantly, just as they would with a credit card, debit card, or checking account payment.

The new billpay method not only helps underbanked consumers, it also benefits the billers. Just over 13% of utility bills in the U.S. are paid using cash, which incur more processing costs than digital payments. The added capability will also give doxo a boost by offering utility companies a greater incentive to join doxo’s network of more than 100,000 billers.

Founded in 2008, doxo offers a mobile app that enables its five million users to manage and pay all of their bills from a single place. The company’s doxoPLUS offering provides credit protection and identity theft protection. doxo also offers late fee protection, a feature made possible thanks to a 2019 partnership with Plaid.

Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, doxo has raised $18.8 million in funding from investors including Sigma Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and Mohr Davidow Ventures. Steve Shivers is CEO.

Checking In and Catching Up: Shining a Light on the Best of Show Winners of FinovateFall

Checking In and Catching Up: Shining a Light on  the Best of Show Winners of FinovateFall

What have the companies that have won Best of Show at FinovateFall in recent years been up to since receiving top honors from our Finovate audiences?

With FinovateFall 2021 right around the corner, we thought now would be an excellent time to check in with some of the celebrated alums from our most recent autumn events.

2020

Q2, which won Best of Show honors at FinovateFall 2020 for its online digital marketplace that enables collaboration between fintechs and financial institutions, acquired fellow Finovate alum ClickSWITCH in April of this year.

Also in April, FinovateFall 2020 Best of Show winner Monit secured $5.2 million in seed funding for its finance app that gives small business owners insights and personalized guidance to help them manage their businesses better. The round was led by TTV Capital.

Lendsmart secured pre-seed funding in a round led by INV Fintech in February. The investment came after the company earned a Best of Show award at FinovateFall 2020 for a demo of its AI-driven technology that brings automation and transparency to the lending process.


2019

Zogo, which leverages partnerships with financial institutions to promote financial literacy among the young, raised an undisclosed sum a little over a year after making its Best of Show winning appearance at FinovateFall 2019.

Winning Best of Show in its FinovateFall debut in 2019, digital charitable giving platform Pinkaloo was acquired by philanthropic services firm RenPSG in the spring of 2021.

Multiple-time Best of Show winner MX, which picked up its latest Best of Show trophy at FinovateFall 2019, secured $300 million in Series C funding in January of this year, driving its valuation to $1.9 billion.

Digital customer service innovator Glia, another company that has earned multiple Best of Show trophies from Finovate audiences – including at FinovateFall 2019, raised $78 million in January of this year.

Cinchy not only raised $10 million in Series A funding after a Best of Show winning demo of its data collaboration platform at FinovateFall the previous autumn. The Canada-based company also secured an additional $10 million in funding in May of this year, as well.


2018

White-label digital banking solution provider Meniga, which picked up a Best of Show award at FinovateFall 2018, secured a $11.8 million investment this spring in a round led by Velocity Capita and Frumtak Ventures.

In a Series A round led by Canaan Partners, Bumped raised $10.4 million in new funding last November. Earning a Best of Show award in its debut at FinovateFall in 2018, the company enables brands to give their customers free stock for their purchases, turning shoppers into shareholders.

FinovateFall returns to New York City next month, September 13 through 15. To get your ticket and save your spot, visit our FinovateFall hub today. Register by September 3rd to save up to 12% off your ticket.


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