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More Than $3.3 Billion Raised by 26 Alums in Q1 of 2021

More Than $3.3 Billion Raised by 26 Alums in Q1 of 2021
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Funding, Fundings, Quarterly Funding

When it comes to the competition for investment dollars, Finovate alums are off to their best start to date. Having raised more than $3.3 billion in funding in the first three months of 2021, companies that have demoed their innovations on the Finovate stage are attracting VC capital at the fastest rate in years.

In fact, Finovate alums in Q1 of 2021 raised more money than in the previous four first quarters combined.

Previous quarterly comparisons

  • Q1 2020: $1.3 billion raised by 14 alums
  • Q1 2019: $468 million raised by 20 alums
  • Q1 2018: $1.3 billion raised by 26 alums
  • Q1 2017: $230 million raised by 20 alums
  • Q1 2016: $656 million raised by 32 alums

This year’s powerful first quarter came courtesy of nearly a dozen, nine-plus figure investments. Global breadth was wide. Among the countries represented by the quarter’s top ten equity investments are Sweden, Brazil, Germany, and the U.K. And within the U.S., innovators from familiar locations in Silicon Valley share our top ten list with fintechs from Boston, New York, and Lehi, Utah.

Top Equity Investments

  • Klarna: $1 billion
  • Nubank: $400 million
  • Blend: $300 million
  • MX: $300 million
  • Feedzai: $200 million
  • Jumio: $150 million
  • OutSystems: $150 million
  • Mambu: $135 million
  • Stash: $125 million
  • Blockchain.com: $120 million

The top ten equity investments of the quarter represented $2.88 billion or 87% of the quarterly total. As large as these investments were, they represented a smaller share of the quarter’s overall total than we’ve seen in the past few years. In 2020, the top ten investments made up more than 99% of the Q1 total. In 2019, the top ten represented more than 91% of the total raised by Finovate alums for the first quarter.

Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q1 2021.

January: More than $1.3 billion raised by 10 alums

February: More than $533 million raised by eight alums

March: More than $1.5 billion raised by eight alums

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

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Alkami Announces IPO

Alkami Announces IPO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alkami Technology, IPO

We reported earlier this year that cloud-based digital banking solutions provider Alkami was heading toward an IPO. Today, the Texas-based company has confirmed rumors.

Alkami will to list on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ALKT, launching 6,000,000 shares of common stock. Shares will be priced between $22 and $25. The company believes it will to raise up to $250 million via its IPO, which would value Alkami at $3 billion.

“We currently expect to use the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing cash and cash equivalents, to finance our growth, develop new or enhanced solutions, and fund capital expenditures,” the company said in a statement.

Alkami offers solutions for both retail and business banking. The subscription-based offerings include tools for money transfer capabilities, financial wellness, customer service, security, and more. And because the company is built on an open platform, banks can leverage third party solutions to customize their offerings even further.

According to Alkami’s S-1 document filed with the SEC, the company saw revenues of $112 million last year, representing a 150% increase over 2019 revenues. Alkami has received more than $385 million from nine investors, including Franklin Templeton Investments, Fidelity Management and Research Company, and D1 Capital partners.

Founded in 2009 as iThryv, Alkami counts 151 bank clients representing 9.7 million end users. Mike Hansen is CEO.

Photo by Meriç Dağlı on Unsplash

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Digital Onboarding Inks Partnership with Small Business Resources

Digital Onboarding Inks Partnership with Small Business Resources
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Digital Onboarding

Digital Onboarding, a company that offers solutions to enable banks and credit unions to better engage their customers, has announced a partnership with Small Business Resources (SBR). The company, which helps banks acquire small business deposits, and provides treasury management and lending services, will use Digital Onboarding’s platform to help its client banks boost engagement and increase revenue.

Specifically, the collaboration will enable Small Business Resources to offer a new branded solution, SBR FullWallet, to better serve the 42% of SMEs that, according to research from Accenture, believe that alternative providers can do a better job than traditional banks when it comes to serving small and medium-sized businesses.

“For banks, small businesses are significantly more profitable than consumers, but a large percentage of small business customers are unengaged and at risk,” Digital Onboarding CEO Ted Brown explained. “I am thrilled to partner with Small Business Resources to help regional and community banks deepen their business relationships and better compete in today’s marketplace.”

The challenge of new rivals was top of mind for Small Business Resources CEO Robert Boorin, as well. “Banks are facing stiff competition from fintechs and Neobank providers that are investing heavily to attract small and medium-sized business banking customers,” Boorin said. “Business banking relationship managers struggle to build deep relationships with all of the customers in their portfolios. SBR FullWallet will enable our Partner Banks to deliver timely and highly personalized communications that make it easier for small businesses to adopt additional products and digital banking services.”

Launched in 1998, SBR was founded to bring small business marketing solutions to institutions in financial services, insurance, and other strategic industries. With services ranging from customer acquisition and engagement to cross-selling and onboarding, SBR blends traditional and digital media services to ensure that financial institutions have multi-channel access to SMEs.

Digital Onboarding most recently demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall in 2018. At the event, the company showed how its platform gives banks and credit unions the email and marketing automation resources to create personalized digital journeys that educate and engage their customers. More recently, Digital Onboarding has announced partnerships with a sizable number of regional banks and credit unions including American Bank of Commerce, New York University FCU, Pacific Service Credit Union, Spirit FCU, and Southwest Financial FCU – all in the first quarter of 2021.

Digital Onboarding has also been a ready partner to its fellow fintechs – including some fellow Finovate alums. In March, Digital Onboarding partnered with both Moven to support user adoption of a turnkey digital bank-in-a-box, as well as with StrategyCorps to help financial institutions “maximize the profitability of checking account relationships.”

Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Digital Onboarding was founded in 2015. The company has raised more than four million dollars in funding from investors including FINTOP Capital, Detroit Venture Partners, and Jack Henry & Associates. Digital Onboarding’s most recent financing came in August of last year; the amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Photo by Jayden Burdick from Pexels

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Fintech Innovation and Open Banking in the Nordics

Fintech Innovation and Open Banking in the Nordics
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global

This week we learned that Norway-based Finovate alum Signicat has teamed up with a German software company Cryptshare to market a new B2B identity verification solution. The technology combines email encryption and secure file transfer with trusted sender and recipient identities to make business communications safer and more accountable.

In other fintech news from the Nordics, Santander Consumer Bank in Norway went live with a new PFM app that leverages open banking solutions from Nordic API Gateway. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, Nordic API Gateway made its Finovate debut last month at our all-digital fintech conference, FinovateEurope.

At the event, co-founder and CTO Gudmundur Hreidarsson demonstrated how the company’s platform simplified open banking payments and access to financial data, offering powerful account-to-account payment services through a single API. More than 40 financial institutions in Europe – including Lunar, Danske Bank, OP Financial Group, and Checkout Finland – rely on Nordic API Gateway’s open banking services.

“Current payment rails such as cards are very expensive for businesses and and increasingly inconvenient for consumers,” Hreidarsson said during his presentation last month. “Open banking changes that. It enables payments with low fixed fees per transaction rather than the high percentage fees of cards which can mean very significant cost savings for businesses – and is very convenient for consumers.”

“But getting into open banking and using open banking is hard,” he added. “It’s really hard. The APIs of the banks are slow to mature and there is still quite some way to go. Businesses are just starting to realize what kind of use cases can be solved with open banking. And consumers are only now discovering the convenience of paying with their accounts. That’s why we built Aiia, to offer an open banking platform that simply works.”

Companies from the Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Greenland) have been well represented at FinovateEurope of late. This year alone featured – in addition to Nordic API Gateway – two companies from Sweden: Stockholm’s Dreams and Gothenburg’s Econans. Our most recent in-person FinovateEurope conference – held in Berlin, Germany – featured three companies from the region, as well: ReceiptHero and NordCheck of Finland, and Subaio of Denmark. Other Nordic fintechs that have demonstrated their technologies live on the FinovateEurope stage over the years include BehavioSec, Tink, and Klarna (Sweden); Encap Security, EVRY, Monobank, and Spiff (Norway); Meniga and Trustev (Iceland/U.K. and Iceland); and Mistral Mobile (Finland).

“It certainly seems that Schumpeterian destruction, where creating new markets is preceded by old ones being challenged or even destroyed, applies in the Nordics,” the team of Frida Jonsdottir, Olli Toivonen, Visa Jaatinen, Arttu Utti, and Richard Lindqvist wrote in the introduction to their FinTech in the Nordics: A Deloitte Review. “The Nordic FinTech market is rapidly growing and diversifying, with more companies and new technologies being created. This is happening regardless of the fact that the incumbent financial institutions are challenged by the lagging economic growth rates and ever changing regulatory burden, both of which afflict those who are looking to enter the market.”

Read the rest of the Deloitte report on fintech in the Nordics. For more about fintech in the region, check out:

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Photo by Valdemaras D. from Pexels

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Next Insurance Raises $250 Million for Small Business Insurance

Next Insurance Raises $250 Million for Small Business Insurance
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

Online insurance company for the self-employed Next Insurance just closed a $250 million investment round. The funding marks the company’s second $250 million investment received in the past seven months.

Investors include FinTLV Ventures and Battery Ventures, which led the round, with participation from CapitalG, Group 11, Zeev Ventures, Founders Circle, and G Squared.

With its total funding now at $881 million, Next Insurance’s valuation now sits at $4 billion. This figure is double the $2 billion valuation assigned to the company last September.

The valuation boost is well-deserved. In the past six months, Next Insurance announced two acquisitions, added new strategic partners, and doubled its gross written premium (for those not in the insurance industry, gross written premium is essentially the total amount customers pay for insurance coverage).

Since it was founded in 2014, Next Insurance has boosted its client base to more than 200,000. The company leverages machine learning and a purely digital approach to drive costs down by up to 30% in comparison to traditional policies.

“This latest round of financing is a validation of our vision which is to make it dramatically easier for small business owners to get the insurance coverage they need by removing friction from the customer experience,” said Next Insurance Co-founder and CEO Guy Goldstein. “It starts with developing a comprehensive digital product portfolio under one roof, continues with leveraging technology that improves the customer experience, and ends with a network of integrated partnerships that bring policy purchasing to the customer within the systems they already use.”

Photo by Alex Nemo Hanse on Unsplash

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FinovateFocus: From Payments and Remittances to Data Technology

FinovateFocus: From Payments and Remittances to Data Technology
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateFocus, Speaker series

This week featured the second of our new, all-digital FinovateFocus conferences. With a theme on payments, remittance, and foreign exchange within the fintech industry, our day-long offering of rapid-fire presentations and live roundtable Q&A sessions provided a fast-paced, no-fluff opportunity for financial services professionals to get up to speed on the latest in fintech – and to make the kind of high-quality connections that will lead to partnerships and collaborations in the weeks and months to come.

Scheduled for the fourth Thursday of every month, FinovateFocus enables like-minded professionals to discuss top issues within fintech, advance business objectives, and grow their networks.

To whet your appetite for our upcoming FinovateFocus in April, which will focus on Data Technology, here’s a look at the speakers and topics from our just-concluded FinovateFocus in March. In the meanwhile, to learn more about our upcoming April FinovateFocus event on April 22nd, visit our FinovateFocus hub today.

  • Millicent Tracey, Digital Payments Advisor, NACHA, on the buy now/pay later phenomenon in e-commerce. LinkedIn
  • Fergal de Clar, Marketing Manager, Fabrick International, on managing subscriptions from your banking app as a value-add for customers and an opportunity for customer engagement. LinkedIn.
  • Josh Stephens, VP of Product, Current, on the rising importance of instant payments. LinkedIn.
  • Matt King, Head of Payments Platform, Brex, on the build it or buy it innovation question with regard to financial partnerships at a time of hypergrowth. LinkedIn.
  • Timothy Chiodo, Director & Lead Analyst: Payments, Processors and Fintech, Credit Suisse, with a selection of key themes and topics on the minds of payments, processors, and fintech investors. LinkedIn.
  • Colin Wynd, Head of Real Time Payments Technology, The Clearing House, on the impact of faster and real-time payments. LinkedIn.
  • Mark Ruddock, CEO, BFS Capital, on how a new generation of small business owners is demanding change. LinkedIn.
  • Christopher Simco, VP, Emerging Payments Product Management, TD Bank, on how payments and innovation tempo are shaping consumer trust in banking. LinkedIn.
  • Gilles Ubaghs, Senior Analyst, Aite Group, on innovation in the payments industry, the familiar versus the new. LinkedIn.

To learn more about our upcoming April FinovateFocus event on April 22nd, visit our FinovateFocus hub today.

Photo by Monica Silvestre from Pexels

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Signicat Teams Up with Cryptshare to Enhance Identity Verification in the Enterprise

Signicat Teams Up with Cryptshare to Enhance Identity Verification in the Enterprise
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Signicat

A partnership between digital identity company Signicat and German software solution provider Cryptshare soon will bring to market a new B2B identity verification solution. The new offering marries platform-independent email encryption and secure file transfer technology with trusted sender and recipient identities to ensure secure business communication as well as legal proof of the sender and recipient. With a broad range of use cases in both retail and enterprise markets, the companies anticipate making the new solution available in the third quarter of 2021.

In their partnership announcement, the companies highlighted both the centrality of email as a communication channel for both personal and business use. Despite the rise of alternative forms of communications including text messaging, email is still embraced by 87% of all citizens in the U.K. Businesses can take advantage of the popularity of email, Signicat and Cryptshare assert, if they are willing to take the necessary steps to ensure both security and traceability. Today’s announcement integrates the two companies’ technologies so that Cryptshare’s services can be accessed using eIDAS-compliant secure authentication.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, Signicat made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017. At the event, the company demonstrated its rapid onboarding and digital signing solutions Signicat Assure and Signicat Sign. Acquired by Nordic Capital in the spring of 2019, the company has since appointed a new CEO in Asger Hattel, acquired Dutch identity verification specialist Connectis, collaborated with fellow Finovate alums like Mambu, and was named one of the fastest growing companies in Europe by The Financial Times.

“We live in a society where now more than ever we must ensure trust between businesses and consumers online,” Hattel said when the announcement in the FT was made. “In Signicat, we are building a progressive digital trust company that both embraces innovation and business needs in this area. We have a decade’s worth of experiencing building the tools, so we are ideally placed to address this growing market opportunity.”

Signicat partner Cryptshare is headquartered in Freiburg im Breisgau in Southern Germany. Founded in 2000, the company has four million users of its technology in 30 countries around the world, including 2,000 corporate customers. Dominik Lehr is CEO.

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Q2 Acquires ClickSWITCH for Digital Account Switching Service

Q2 Acquires ClickSWITCH for Digital Account Switching Service
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: ClickSWITCH, Mergers & Acquisitions, Q2

Digital banking services company Q2 is getting a boost today. The Texas-based company announced it has acquired Minnesota-based ClickSWITCH.

As part of the agreement, Q2 will integrate ClickSWITCH’s account switching software-as-a-service solution into its product offerings. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2014, ClickSWITCH offers its 450 financial institution clients an account switching solution for their end customers. The company leverages direct integrations with thousands of employers, payroll providers, and financial institutions to help users switch their direct deposits and automatic payments to new accounts. The client onboarding process, as a result, is simplified significantly.

Q2 anticipates the purchase will help its bank clients attract and retain new primary account holders. “We also believe that with ClickSWITCH we can help our customers provide their account holders with a more streamlined, frictionless experience, by offering an end-to-end digital customer acquisition, onboarding, and account switching solution,” added Q2 CEO Matt Flake.

Q2 will not only benefit from exposure to ClickSWITCH’s client base, but will also offer its existing banking-as-a-service clients more deposits, decreased client acquisition cost, and the potential for growth from an increase in cross-selling.

“As a combined force, we look forward to solving a fundamental issue that banks, credit unions, and fintech companies face – managing the complexity and administrative burden of account switching – by providing the most comprehensive and differentiated digital account switching solution in the market,” said ClickSWITCH Founder and CEO Cale Johnston. “We are delighted to be joining the Q2 team and look forward to delivering best-in-class financial solutions.”

Both Q2 and ClickSWITCH are Finovate alums, having demoed most recently at FinovateWest 2020 and FinovateSpring 2019, respectively.

Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash

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3 Things to Know About Walgreens’ New Bank Account

3 Things to Know About Walgreens’ New Bank Account
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series

Walgreens announced this week it will launch a new bank account offering. The pharmacy chain, in partnership with InComm, is launching a Mastercard debit card to pair with both a mobile banking app and in-person service.

Here are a few things to know about the new accounts:

Available both on mobile and in-person

Unlike most digital banks that have launched in recent years to challenge incumbent banks, Walgreens’ new account will serve users in person. By the second half of this year, the bank plans to serve its client base at nearly 9,000 stores. As of now, there is no word on what specific services will be available in-store vs. online but it is clear that account onboarding will be available through both channels.

This differentiating factor places the “Bank of Walgreens” at a significant advantage for two major reasons. First, 78% of Americans live within five miles of a Walgreens or Duane Reade store. That makes for easy access, especially in rural communities where banks are closing their doors but cash usage is still prevalent. Second, because of the foot traffic into its stores, Walgreens has a built-in potential client base to whom it can freely advertise.

In addition to in-person services, users will also have the option to manage their account in a mobile app. Walgreens has tapped InComm’s banking-as-a-service platform to create a modern digital experience.

Geared toward an older audience

Because the elderly population tends to need prescription refills on a regular basis, they tend to visit pharmacies more often. Given the demographic of this foot traffic, combined with the fact that 20% of Walgreens’ app users are 55 years of age and older*, Walgreens will likely target a more senior audience as banking clients.

The target market will truly differentiate Walgreens’ bank accounts from the myriad of digital banks that have launched in the past few years, many of which target Generation Z.

Tied into Walgreens’ existing rewards program

Launched last November, the myWalgreens customer loyalty program offers users 1% in-store credit in return for every dollar they spend on typical items and 5% in-store credit for every dollar spent on Walgreens branded products. Walgreens’ new debit card will enable users to more seamlessly earn and spend these rewards.

*according to a 2017 study.

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Paysafe’s Public Debut on the NYSE

Paysafe’s Public Debut on the NYSE
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions

Global payments platform Paysafe is making the move to the New York Stock Exchange this week. The London-based company is going public via a merger with Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) set up by billionaire business executive Bill Foley.

After the deal, which values Paysafe at around $9 billion, was approved on March 25, Paysafe began trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under the ticker symbols “PSFE” and “PSFE.WS.” The combined company now operates as Paysafe Limited.

“The closing of this transaction and our listing on the New York Stock Exchange is a huge milestone for Paysafe and getting to this point today is testament to the hard work and dedication of our team around the world,” said Paysafe CEO Philip McHugh. “We’re excited to be embarking on the next stage of our growth journey as a public company.”

Founded in 1996, Paysafe enables businesses and consumers to connect and transact using its payment processing, digital wallet, card issuing, and online cash solutions. The company has completed 11 acquisitions, most recently purchasing Openbucks last July.

Paysafe’s suite of brands includes Income Access, Paysafecard, Skrill, and Neteller. In an interview with CNBC, Foley described Paysafe’s solutions as “ubiquitous,” adding, “It’s just everywhere in terms of the gaming world and digital wallets, e-cash solutions.”

With 3,400 employees in more than 12 offices across the globe, Paysafe helps businesses and consumers transact across 70 payment types in 40+ currencies.

Photo by Gemma Evans on Unsplash

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Spiral Secures $14 Million for its Ethical Banking App

Spiral Secures $14 Million for its Ethical Banking App
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

Digital banking services company Spiral picked up a $14 million investment this week. The New York-based company will use the capital to fund its new app that makes it easy for users to donate to the charity of their choice.

“The future belongs to socially-conscious brands that care as much about giving back to society as they do about generating profits and growth,” Spiral CEO and co-founder Shawn Melamed said. He explained that the company’s goal is to create a new solution to serve an ecosystem of millions of charitable givers and more than one million non-profit businesses.

“People are increasingly supporting brands that align with their values,” Spiral President and co-founder Dan Blumenfeld added. “And they expect a simple and effortless user experience. Spiral will offer customers both a personalized banking experience and a deeper connection to the charities they support.”

Currently in beta, Spiral boasts that it offers account holders 15x more than the national average in savings and cash bonuses. No minimum balance is required and no fees are charged for active accounts or for transferring money by ACH. Spiral provides donation matching of up to $150 per year to more than one million charities and nonprofits ranging from the David Ortiz Children’s Foundation to the Cerebral Palsy Research Alliance Foundation. Automatic donation reports for tax returns are provided, and the company’s deposit accounts are issued by nbkc Bank of Overland, Kansas, and are FDIC-insured up to $250,000.

The funding round was led by Team8 and featured participation from Communitas Capital, Phoenix, Nidoco AB, and MTVO. Melamed and Blumenfeld founded Spiral after Melamed served as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley’s Technology Business Development and Innovation Offices and Blumenfeld served as Head of Product and Growth at Skype.

Photo by Gerritt Tisdale from Pexels

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GoodData Heeds the Call to the Cloud

GoodData Heeds the Call to the Cloud
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni profile, GoodData

Analytics company GoodData may have been founded 10 years ago but, as the company recently explained, it is just now exiting stealth mode.

That’s because GoodData is transitioning from focusing on white-labeled OEM analytics, where companies provide self-service insights to their clients, to focusing on Data-as-a-Service (DaaS). As GoodData Founder and CEO Roman Stanek explained, “It takes 10 years to become an overnight success.”

GoodData’s analytics now power over 140,000 businesses across the globe, and the company has spent the past two years building for the next chapter. Starting April 15, GoodData will expand its focus to offer DaaS. The offering transcends “business intelligence” to enable companies to make every decision a data-driven decision.

“Data-as-a-Service is the future of analytics: real-time, governed, secure, and scalable,” Stanek said. “Within the context of DaaS, we are opening our platform and making our experience with large scale analytics, data privacy, security, and operational excellence available for anyone to leverage to build and scale any of their data use cases; from self-service and embeddable analytics, to machine learning and IoT.”

Unlike GoodData’s initial offering, which was limited to running on Rackspace and Vertica, the DaaS platform will be available to companies of all sizes running on any cloud and cloud database. Additionally, the new build focuses on helping users gain insights from the data instead of simply presenting charts that still required significant interpretation.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, GoodData most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2017. The company has received $151 million in funding from 20 investors including Visa Ventures, General Catalyst, and Andreessen Horowitz.

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels

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