BehaviorQuant and Quantlake Forge Strategic Partnership to Enhance Investment Decision-Making

By David Penn Posted on April 24, 2025
Categories: Alumni News, BehaviorQuant

BehavioralQuant, a company that puts behavioral analytics to work helping individuals make better investment decisions, announced a strategic partnership with Quantlake.
The partnership combines BehavioralQuant’s Advisory analytics with Quantlake’s personalized ETF portfolios.
Headquartered in Austria, BehaviorQuant made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023.

A newly announced strategic partnership between BehaviorQuant and Quantlake is designed to bridge the gap between research and investor expectations. The partnership integrates BehaviorQuant’s Advisory analytics into Quantlake’s platform to give individual investors the ability to leverage behavioral intelligence to enhance their investing decisions.

“This collaboration marks the first time that personalized ETF portfolios are generated based on each investor’s actual behavioral risk profile—not just financial data or standard risk scoring,” BehaviorQuant COO and Co-Founder Gerlinde Berghofer wrote on the company’s website. “By embedding BehaviorQuant’s analytics into the Quantlake platform, this partnership introduces a new level of personalization and intelligence into the investment journey.”

BehaviorQuant’s Advisory solution leverages the fact that behavior plays a major role in investment decision-making and success. The technology incorporates how investors think, feel, and act under uncertainty. This allows for investment recommendations that are psychologically aligned with and financially sound for the investor. Once investors complete a short BehaviorQuant assessment, they receive personalized portfolio recommendations that are based on their behavioral risk profile and their financial status.

The partnership will give investors access to scientifically-validated risk profiles, leveraging the same behavioral finance tools used by financial institutions on Wall Street. Investors will also benefit from personalized portfolio selection. The integration between BehaviorQuant and Quantlake will connect investor behavioral assessments with systematic ETF model portfolios to limit emotional decision-making while at the same time ensuring investors remain within their risk preferences. This combination, both firms assert, will help investors remain committed to their investment plans during times of market volatility when the temptation to make emotionally based investing decisions is greatest.

“For too long, research providers have delivered investment insights without considering how they’ll be interpreted and used by actual investors,” Quantlake CEO Romain Gandon said. “This partnership fundamentally changes that approach by starting with the investor’s behavioral profile and connecting the investment strategy with it. We’re not just offering research—we’re creating a complete solution that works with, rather than against, natural human psychology.”

Quantlake helps retail investors access professional-grade, systematic strategies for long-term investing. The platform emphasizes data-driven approaches that enable investors to overcome emotional biases. Quantlake simplifies ETF selection and provides cost-effective investment solutions that make investing in the financial markets more accessible for individual investors.

Headquartered in Austria and founded in 2018, BehaviorQuant made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the event, the company demonstrated how its technology brings behavioral science and machine learning to bear in improving investment decision-making. Check out my Finovate Global interview with BehaviorQuant CEO Thomas Oberlechner in which he discusses how his company’s technology also has helped financial institutions learn more about the financial advisors who guide their investment decisions.

Photo by Hrayr Movsisyan

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AI, Empathy, and Leadership: 5 Questions for Tech Product Manager Bhoomika Ghosh

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 23, 2025
Categories: FinovateSpring 2025, Interview, List series

AI is reshaping not just products but the very way product teams operate. To explore how the rise of AI is changing the role of the product manager, we sat down with Senior Tech Product Lead Bhoomika Ghosh. to get a better idea of the necessary balance between data and human intuition, and what ethical leadership looks like in the AI era.

A passionate technologist with a background spanning engineering, consulting, and product management, Ghosh has led product innovation at the intersection of AI/ML and customer experience. Her fascination with technology’s ability to solve human challenges began early in her career, wherein as an undergraduate, she developed an application that transformed 2D MRI slices into 3D models, helping doctors accurately identify tumor locations and volumes. This early venture sparked Ghosh’s passion for building technology that creates meaningful impact efficiently, and at scale.

We’re thrilled to feature her insights ahead of her appearance at FinovateSpring, where she will speak on the panel exploring gender diversity and responsible AI leadership.

AI is changing how products are built, but how is it changing how product managers operate?

Bhoomika Ghosh: The evolution of product management in this AI era has been nothing short of transformative. While our north star as a product manager (PM) remains unchanged—i.e., solving customer problems and delivering utmost value to customers—what has shifted is how we navigate towards that vision with AI. I see two dimensions of AI transformation within the product management space: first, we see a rise in product managers who leverage AI as a productivity accelerator. Tools like Bolt and Cursor are revolutionizing our prototyping capabilities, reducing prototype development cycles from weeks to mere hours, and initial design times by 35%. This efficiency gain allows PMs to invest more time in understanding deeper emotional user needs and ensuring our products create genuine value. Second, we see AI-enhanced PMs, who are using AI to fundamentally transform customer experiences in ways we never imagined. For example, Microsoft’s 365 Copilot leverages AI to revolutionize customer service interactions, which resulted in a 40% reduction in resolution time through AI-powered insights and recommendations. Looking ahead, I see AI enhancing our ability to make better quality and higher quantity decisions faster and evolve with customers in real time to deliver what matters the most to them.

What role does human intuition play in AI product management?

Ghosh: In today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape, AI adoption has surged from 33% to 65% in just the past year—making the role of human intuition in product management more crucial than ever. While AI excels at processing vast amounts of data and automating routine tasks, our uniquely human capabilities of judgment, critical thinking, and empathy remain irreplaceable. Take the evolution of customer service chatbots, for instance. While AI can handle >50% of routine inquiries, it’s the human product managers who recognize that customers need occasional human intervention for complex emotional situations, leading to hybrid human and AI solutions. This exemplifies what I call the “PM’s AI Trilogy of Responsibility,” where product managers in the AI world are now responsible to safeguard customer trust, ensure scalable efficiency, and measure genuine success beyond just automation metrics. The irony isn’t lost on me that in pursuing “artificial” intelligence, we’ve heightened the importance of “human” intelligence.

Let’s talk leadership. How do you think the rise of AI is reshaping what good leadership looks like in product and technology teams?

Ghosh: In the AI era, product and technical leadership demand a fundamental reimagining of how we guide teams and build products. What’s fascinating is that while 92% of global business leaders report positive ROI from their AI investments, success isn’t purely about technological implementation—it’s about creating an environment where both innovation and ethical considerations flourish. We see that the most successful AI products emerge from teams where leaders have mastered the delicate balance between data-driven decision-making and human empathy. Take Netflix’s AI-powered recommendation system, which generates $1 billion in annual value not just through algorithmic excellence, but through leaders who understood the critical intersection of technical capability and user psychology. This exemplifies how modern tech leadership requires a dual focus: pushing technological boundaries while staying deeply anchored in customer impact and responsible AI practices. As we navigate this transformation, I also see good leadership exuded in a way where teams are taught to watch over their shoulders and think beyond the happy path scenarios. For instance, what happens if AI was to fail? What would be your contingency plans? These tenets will help leaders foster an environment where teams feel empowered to innovate responsibly, ensuring our products genuinely enhance human experiences.

Many industries beyond big tech are leveraging AI. What advice would you give to product teams in a traditional industry like finance who are building their first AI-driven solutions?

Ghosh: The financial sector’s AI transformation offers powerful lessons for product teams embarking on their AI journey. While our brains might be the most sophisticated decision-making system, AI serves as a powerful amplifier of human capabilities, particularly in areas like fraud detection, personalized banking experiences, and risk assessment. In my experience, the key to approaching AI implementation is to solve specific customer pain points, and not solely use it as a technological showcase or a competitive advantage. I suggest AI implementation using a three-pronged approach. First, start with well-defined, high-impact use cases where AI can demonstrably improve customer experience rather than implementing AI for its own sake. Second, build cross-functional teams that blend domain expertise with AI capabilities. For instance, when developing AI-powered fraud detection systems, its combination with financial security expertise and machine learning capabilities enables real-time transaction monitoring and anomaly detection, protecting both customers and institutional integrity. Finally, and most crucially, establish robust feedback loops with your customers early in the development process. I often challenge teams to consider, “How would this feature feel to a user having their worst day?” This perspective is particularly vital in finance, where AI decisions can significantly impact people’s lives. I’ve seen the most successful AI adoption use cases aren’t simply using the technology, but rather building trust through it using transparent, ethical, and user-centric solutions.

Finally, what aspect of FinovateSpring are you most looking forward to?

Ghosh: I’m particularly excited about participating in the gender diversity panel at FinovateSpring, where we’ll explore the crucial intersection of diverse leadership and responsible AI development across industries. As a woman leader in tech, I advocate that diverse voices in product development aren’t just about equity or quotas, but rather about building better, more comprehensive solutions that serve entire customer bases. Beyond the panel, I’m looking forward to engaging with fellow industry leaders about responsible AI implementation in fintech. As we see AI adoption in financial services growing at an unprecedented rate, the conversations around ethical AI development and secure deployment become increasingly critical. I’m eager to both share insights from successful AI implementations I’ve seen and learn from other organizations’ experiences in navigating this complex landscape.

Don’t miss your chance to hear Bhoomika Ghosh, along with a wide range of other thought leaders and experts, on the FinovateSpring stage next month on May 7 through 9. Tickets are now available!

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Leeds Building Society Partners with Mambu to Pilot Digital Savings Offering

By David Penn Posted on April 23, 2025
Categories: Alumni News, Mambu

Leeds Building Society, the fifth largest building society in the UK, has gone live on Mambu’s cloud banking platform.
The financial institution has launched a pilot digital savings solution and expects to add its mortgage offering to the modernization initiative.
Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Mambu has been a Finovate alum since 2013.

After operating on a legacy core system for more than two decades, Leeds Building Society—the fifth largest building society in the UK—has gone live on Mambu’s cloud banking platform. The first step for the institution, in what it is calling a multi-year core modernization project, has been to launch a pilot digital savings solution.

“Our partnership with Mambu continues to go from strength to strength. We’ve spent the past year building the engineering foundations for the complete overhaul of our technology and we are delighted to see the technology being used for live savings accounts,” Leeds Building Society Chief Operating Officer Rob Howse said.

In a statement, Leeds Building Society praised Mambu for the speed with which the institution was able to launch its new savings offering. The building society noted that the savings products launched less than a year after starting the build. Leeds Building Society anticipates eventually adding its mortgage offering to its modernization plan thanks to Mambu’s composable architecture and cloud technology.

Composable banking enables financial services companies to leverage the fast and flexible assembly of independent, best-for-purpose systems to design and deliver new solutions and services. Composable banking allows firms to apply agile principles to build, test, and release new solutions; select and combine technologies in unique ways to design a competitive advantage; build both off-the-shelf and customized cloud solutions; and avoid the potential delays and dependencies of relying on single vendor partners.

Mambu’s cloud banking platform enables financial institutions to take advantage of these features, empowering firms to offer configurable deposits and lending products, collaborate with third-party technology providers, and more. To date, the platform has delivered 400 successful go-lives, served more than 260 customers and 114 million end users, and provided cost savings of up to 50% on implementation, integration, customization, infrastructure, and maintenance.

“Partnering with Mambu provides us with a solution that brings the best composable architecture and cloud technology coupled with innovative functionality that matches the very best in the industry,” Howse added. “This strategic move will mean we can spend more time improving the lives of our members and less worrying about our legacy technology.”

Established in 1875, Leeds Building Society has one million members across the UK. Operating as a mutual, Leeds Building Society offers mortgage, savings, insurance solutions, as well as financial wellness and financial literacy content. The partnership with Mambu coincides with the institution’s 150th anniversary and the “Year of the Cooperative”—a global effort launched by the United Nations to promote the work of cooperative financial institutions and their contributions to sustainable development.

“Leeds Building Society’s move to Mambu is a landmark moment for both the organization and the building society sector at large, reflecting our strengthening presence in the sector and our strong track record of providing transformative solutions to banks, fintechs, and other financial services organizations across the United Kingdom,” Mambu Chief Revenue Officer Mark Geneste said.

Berlin, Germany-based Mambu made its Finovate debut at FinovateAsia 2013. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage in New York for FinovateFall 2021 and in London at FinovateEurope 2022 (in partnership with Persistent Systems). Mambu began 2025 announcing a partnership with Money DD, a subsidiary of Thailand’s Government Savings Bank (GSB), in support of its new digital lending platform Good Money. The fintech also teamed up with Spain’s Ibercaja Banco, helping the institution launch a dedicated consumer finance entity. Last month, Mambu announced a pair of additions to its C-suite, introducing Ellie Heath as Chief People Officer and Semhal Tarekegn O’Gorman as Chief Customer Success Officer.

Photo by Rodolfo Quirós

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Transforming Emerging Identities Into New Customers

By Lili Nguyen Posted on April 23, 2025
Categories: Sponsored

This article is sponsored by Lexis Nexis.

Across the world, growing numbers of young people, new-to-country immigrants, and other groups are poised to enter the financial system as customers of credit, loans, remittances, and more. By 2030, 75% of consumers in emerging markets will be between the ages of 15 and 34.

Companies that can safely onboard and serve this population of emerging identities can unlock significant growth potential and improve financial inclusion. But for the banking and payments systems of the world, emerging identities often complicate traditional approaches to recognizing trusted customers.

Younger demographics haven’t had as much time to build up a record of working, borrowing and purchasing.
New-to-country immigrants might not have acquired financial products or proof of residence outside of their birth countries.
Older consumers that live communally and don’t have a driver’s license may seem risky.

Identity verification needs to keep pace with all of these changes, and more.

Emerging Identities Provide Superb Camouflage For Synthetic IDs

From the business world’s perspective, emerging identities can seem to appear out of nowhere, often with robust digital profiles but fewer physical identifiers. Unfortunately, these profiles also strongly resemble third-party synthetic identities, cobbled together by fraudsters from real, modified, and fake bits of identity information.

Since first materializing in the US more than 10 years ago, synthetic identities have spread to other major financial economies. Recent analysis found three million high-risk synthetic identities in circulation in the UK alone, with the volume increasing at a rate of over 500% between 2020 and 2023.

With global losses from synthetic identities estimated at up to $40 billion, businesses must be cautious of this rising threat as they attempt to find ways to onboard emerging identities.

It’s bad business to reject low-risk emerging identities. Even flagging them for manual review increases operational costs and degrades the applicant’s onboarding experience, starting the new relationship with an unproductive atmosphere of mistrust.

How Synthetic Identities Cloud The Search For Emerging Identities

There are two types of synthetic identities, broadly speaking. First-party synthetics are alternate identities that consumers create for themselves, for a specific purpose—and not always with malicious intent. However, these identities often collide with the real identity they are augmenting, and do not pass validity checks.

Third-party synthetics are more malicious in nature. These are sometimes referred to as “Frankenstein” identities because a third party cobbles together pieces of identities from legitimate and fictitious sources into one imaginary digital identity they can leverage for cybercrime. These are managed via disposable email addresses and phone numbers, to help maintain anonymity.

Credit bureaus have become an unexpected, but reliable ‘source’ of synthetic identities. It’s hard for criminals to fabricate an identity through credentialed sources like voter registration, a property deed, or a professional certification. On the other hand, it’s relatively easy to submit multiple credit applications to stimulate the creation of a credit profile.

How To Tell Synthetic Identities From Emerging Identities

Though synthetic identities can appear very similar to emerging identities, smart analysis backed by robust intelligence can reveal telltale patterns of synthetic fraud. For example, synthetic identities are 7x more likely than emerging identities to have no first-degree relatives, 20x more likely to appear in multiple credit applications in a short time period and 7x more likely to first show up at a credit bureau at an unusually late age.

Businesses Are Finding New Ways To Safely Onboard Emerging Identities

Competing more effectively in the emerging consumer market starts with an accelerated customer acquisition process that speeds approvals for legitimate customers while mitigating fraud threats. Balancing faster approvals with increased confidence demands identity verification that accurately assesses applicant identity and behavior patterns in real time.

Because emerging identities appear without historic data, businesses need more diverse sources of context around risk.

Seek out alternative data sources. For example, education sources can help to verify younger demographics.
Clarify a bigger picture. Robust collaborative intelligence networks help to set an identity’s desired action in the broader context of their past and real-time interactions with other organizations, in different industries and even across borders.
Authenticate documents with liveness checks. More advanced solutions can verify and authenticate valid documentation without much disruption to the user experience.
Layer insights for a more comprehensive view of identity. How is the user behaving? Are they mobile? Are they submitting many applications in a short period of time? Does the email, device or location carry risk signals? The sum of these insights clarifies risk more than any one contributing factor.

Both customers and businesses win when emerging identities can be verified reliably and distinguished from synthetic identities. More legitimate consumers access the financial services they want. Businesses acquire more customers safely while reducing costs and better focusing manual fraud risk assessments.

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Feedzai Acquires Demyst to Enhance Data Orchestration

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 22, 2025
Categories: Daily news, DemystData, Feedzai, Mergers & Acquisitions

Feedzai is acquiring Demyst to unify its AI-powered risk management with external data orchestration, enabling faster, smarter fraud detection and compliance decisions.
The integration of Demyst’s Zonic platform will help financial institutions streamline onboarding, enhance fraud prediction, and reduce friction in real-time risk operations.
As demand grows for dynamic, real-time data in financial services, this deal will enable Feedzai to offer a more comprehensive risk intelligence platform.

Risk management provider Feedzai is acquiring data-as-a-service (DaaS) platform Demyst this week. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Feedzai will use Demyst to unify its risk management solutions with external data orchestration to offer faster, smarter fraud detection.

“There is no shortage of data in our industry—the trick is how to access the right data as quickly as possible so that you can accelerate risk decisions with the fewest consumer friction points,” said Feedzai CEO and Co-founder Nuno Sebastiao. “Demyst is a first mover and leader in accessing necessary data—internal or external—at the critical moment for any part of the user journey. Paired with Feedzai’s market-leading AI, this ensures every data point is fully utilized to drive smarter and faster decisions. More broadly, this acquisition marks a pivotal moment in continuing Feedzai’s evolution from a data consumer to a data provider.”

Feedzai aims to leverage Demyst’s Zonic data workflow orchestration platform, intellectual property, and sophisticated data-integration capabilities to unify data orchestration and risk management into a single platform. Together, the two companies will deliver a data orchestration platform with fraud prevention measures, enhanced account opening capabilities, contextual intelligence for fraud prediction and prevention, better customer experiences, improved risk insights, and operational efficiency.

Founded in 2011, Feedzai is a risk operations platform specializing in identity verification, fraud prevention, and financial crime detection. The company’s AI-powered solutions span KYC, AML, watchlist screening, and transaction fraud monitoring to help financial institutions stop fraud in real time without compromising the customer experience. Today, Feedzai protects over one billion consumers in more than 190 countries and safeguards over $8 billion in transactions annually.

“External data is the next frontier of business impact for financial institutions, yet it is notoriously complex, involving a labyrinth of sources for KYC/AML, identity, fraud, credit checks, and compliance,” said Demyst CEO Mark Hookey. “We’re thrilled to join Feedzai to bring AI and data together at scale for our customers. Together we are building the most advanced solution for customer onboarding, fraud prevention, and risk management.”

Hookey, along with other key members of the Demyst team, will remain with Feedzai.

Demyst was founded in 2010 as an external data platform that enables financial institutions to discover, evaluate, and deploy third-party data quickly and securely. By streamlining access to hundreds of curated data providers across categories like identity, income, business verification, and credit risk, Demyst helps banks and fintechs make smarter decisions faster, without the typical data integration friction.

The deal highlights a growing interest in data orchestration and AI-driven risk management. As financial services companies grapple with increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics and regulatory demands, the ability to access, integrate, and act on real-time data is becoming crucial, especially as the costs of accessing and analyzing the data are increasing. By combining Feedzai’s AI and risk operations platform with Demyst’s external data orchestration capabilities, the deal positions Feedzai to offer a more holistic, end-to-end risk intelligence solution.

Photo by Markus Spiske

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Celebrating Earth Day: Finovate Alums Champion Sustainability

By David Penn Posted on April 22, 2025
Categories: Alumni profile, ClimateTrade, Cloverly, Connect Earth, ecolytiq, Energy Shares, Green Portfolio, Little Blocks

Today is Earth Day. Established in 1970, the holiday is widely recognized as the start of the modern environmental movement. First proposed by peace activist John McConnell in 1969, the holiday has grown into an international commemoration with millions of participants all over the world.

In fintech and financial services, many companies have developed solutions to help banks, financial services firms, and their customers deal with issues such as climate change and environmental sustainability. From carbon tracking to investing in sustainable industries, these innovators are helping companies and individuals better understand the impact of their actions on the environment and, importantly, are showing them specific ways they can take action.

Finovate has been proud to showcase many of these companies in recent years. As part of our Earth Day celebration, we’re featuring below some of these innovators as well as the technologies they have brought to market to promote sustainability and minimize negative impacts on the climate.

ClimateTrade

Headquartered in Valencia, Spain and Miami, Florida, ClimateTrade is a climate tech company that leverages innovative technology—including a blockchain-based climate marketplace—to support large-scale decarbonization.

Founded in 2018, ClimateTrade made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. Francisco Benedito is Co-Founder and CEO.

Cloverly

Cloverly is a climate action platform that provides solutions to help buyers and sellers of carbon credits, connect, transact, and scale their impact. The company’s API enables companies to embed climate action into their own customer’s digital experiences.

Cloverly made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 and returned later that year for FinovateFall. The company was founded in 2018 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia. Jason Rubottom is CEO.

Connect Earth

Connect Earth is an environmental data startup that democratizes access to sustainability data. The company offers carbon tracking API technology, Connect Insights, that financial institutions can embed in their apps to provide customers with a carbon impact estimate for every spend-based transaction.

Headquartered in London, Connect Earth made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 and returned to the Finovate stage in New York later in the year for FinovateFall. The company was founded in 2021. Alexander Lempka is Co-Founder and CEO.

ecolytiq

ecolytiq offers a Sustainability-as-a-Service solution that uses payment transactions to calculate individual environmental impacts, including CO2 footprint.

Berlin, Germany-based ecolytiq participated in Finovate’s developer conference, FinDEVr 2021. The company was founded in 2020. David Lais is Co-Founder and Managing Director.

Energy Shares

Energy Shares is a FINRA-registered, broker-dealer and equity crowdfunding platform for utility-scale, renewable energy projects throughout the US. The company’s platform expands access to investment opportunities in the renewable energy space that have historically been available only to institutional, corporate, and other privileged investors.

Energy Shares made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2022 in New York. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, the company was founded in 2021. Daniel Kim is Founder and CEO.

Green Portfolio

Green Portfolio offers a climate-first, AI-powered scoring system and platform that enables individuals to align their investing and banking decisions with their attitudes toward environmental sustainability and climate change.

Green Portfolio made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. Founded in 2020, the company is headquartered in New York. Bonnie Gurry is Co-Founder and CEO.

Little Blocks

Little Blocks is a fintech platform for micro-, small-, and medium-sized (MSME) manufacturers built around industrial IoT data. The firm helps companies secure access to risk capital for machinery upgrades that make factories more productive while minimizing environmental costs and impacts.

Making its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023, Little Blocks was founded in 2022. Based in Hyderabad, India, the company was co-founded by CEO Hanu Panchakarla.

Photo by Valentin Antonucci

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Trulioo Teams up with Cross-Border Embedded Payment Solutions Provider PingPong

By David Penn Posted on April 22, 2025
Categories: Alumni News, Trulioo

Identity verification platform Trulioo has partnered with cross-border payments solutions company PingPong.
PingPong will deploy Trulioo Business Verification and Watchlist Screening to enhance onboarding and improve payment experiences for customers worldwide.
Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, Trulioo won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022. The company most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023.

Identity platform Trulioo has teamed up with cross-border embedded payment solutions company PingPong. The company has selected Trulioo Business Verification and Watchlist Screening to reduce manual processes during onboarding and to provide fast, compliant payment experiences to customers around the world.

The partnership comes at a time when cross-border payments are expected to grow at 5.9% CAGR, reaching $50 trillion by 2032. At the same time, there are a range of hurdles experienced by businesses when it comes to cross-border payments. These include managing country-specific regulations, dealing with fraud and financial crime, as well as cumbersome onboarding processes. By deploying Trulioo’s advanced Business Verification and Watchlist Screening technology, PingPong will improve its ability to quickly verify individuals and companies worldwide while shortening onboarding time and reducing other operational challenges.

“The digital payments boom creates an abundance of growth opportunities and a broad attack surface for fraud, meaning enterprises can no longer rely on rigid verification methods,” Trulioo CEO Vicky Bindra said. “Fast, flexible, and scalable verification capabilities deliver the trust and security that form the foundation of global commerce. We’re proud to partner with PingPong to help drive growth and compliance in the cross-border payments industry.”

Trulioo’s Business Verification, or Know Your Business (KYB), features many of the same checks as Know Your Customer processes do. Nevertheless, Trulioo’s offering adds a number of additional verification processes due to the complexity of business registration, ownership data, and, at times, business structure. Business Verification offers easy integration, maximized accuracy, minimal to no manual processes, verification in any language, and continuous performance optimization that evolves its data engine and network of interconnected data sources.

The company’s Watchlist Screening checks individuals and businesses against more than 6,000 international watchlists and 20,000+ adverse media sources. Users can deploy the technology to screen against sanctions lists, check for politically exposed persons, and access print, digital, and broadcast media to gain insights into potential customers, including past criminal activity. The technology provides for fewer false positives, continuous monitoring, and simple integration with existing systems.

“Ensuring compliance while providing world-class, digital-first onboarding for businesses is critical to our global payments infrastructure,” PingPong Global Compliance Officer Julia Yao explained. “As we continue to scale and power cross-border payment services for enterprises of all sizes, automation and smart technology are fundamental to delivering fast, secure payment services. Trulioo is a vital partner as we combine our regional expertise and cutting-edge technology to automate business verification around the world.”

Founded in New York in 2015, PingPong is a leading cross-border payments platform, processing more than $250 billion in cumulative transaction volume. The company’s API-first cross-border payments platform integrates with businesses to send, manage, and receive money faster worldwide. PingPong holds more than 60 financial licenses, operates 32 offices in 15 countries, and employs more than 1,500 employees.

A Finovate alum since 2014, Trulioo won Best of Show at FinovateEurope 2022 and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the Vancouver, Canada-based company demonstrated its identity platform for individual and business verification. The technology features a no-code Workflow Studio and an educational resource hub called Navigator.

Trulioo’s business and individual verification platform covers 195 countries. The platform can verify 14,000+ identity documents and 700 million business entities, and access more than 6,000 watchlists. The company’s technology puts hundreds of predictive risk signals, consortium data, and industry-specific machine learning models to work helping businesses fight fraud and financial crime.

Trulioo’s partnership news comes just weeks after the company introduced Vicky Bindra as its new Chief Executive Officer. Bindra succeeds Steve Munford, who served as CEO since 2020. Bindra comes to Trulioo having worked as Chief Operating and Product Officer at Nuvei and, before that, as Group President and Chief Product Officer at FIS.

“My focus will be on accelerating product innovation, enhancing our global reach and delivering best-in-class solutions to the market,” Bindra said in a statement earlier this month. “I look forward to working with the talented team at Trulioo to advance the company’s position as The World’s Identity Platform.”

Photo by nappy

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FinovateSpring 2025 Sneak Peek Series: Part 5

By Madeline Clines Posted on April 22, 2025
Categories: Félix, FinovateSpring 2025, FinovateSpring 2025 Sneak Peek, Herd Security, Intellect Design, Quavo Fraud & Disputes, QuickFi, Quivly AI

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Diego on May 7 – 9. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Félix

Félix enables financial platforms to offer seamless cross-border payments via WhatsApp, combining embedded finance with a fast, familiar, and conversational user experience.

Features

Enables cross-border payments for users directly from banking platform or wallet
Unlocks new revenue streams through remittances
Supports fast, easy, and secure integration with minimal lift

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, community banks, wallets, and digital banks.

Herd Security

Herd Security is a security awareness platform designed to train users on the dangers of deepfakes through modules and AI-based simulations.

Features

Provides engaging, micro-based cyber training
Delivers user metrics proving behavior change
Offers patented voice deepfake defense

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, fintechs, or any other business looking to meet security awareness and compliance needs.

Intellect Design

Intellect Design’s CoDeXa is a no-code platform that empowers banks to quickly create and launch fully functional, role-based digital journeys, streamlining processes without development or IT involvement.

Features

No-code platform: Build digital journeys quickly without coding
End-to-end integration: Seamlessly integrate UI, APIs, and data models
Fast deployment: Launch corporate journeys in days, not months

Who’s it for?

Banks and credit unions.

Quavo Fraud & Disputes

Quavo Fraud & Disputes’s QFD® simplifies fraud and dispute management with end-to-end automation powered by proven AI, helping issuers reduce losses, ensure compliance, and restore financial trust.

Features

Choose from three AI levels to match automation needs
Automate non-actionable customer emails, like auto-replies and withdrawals
Intelligently guide users through merchant representment

Who’s it for?

Issuing banks, fintechs, processors, and credit unions of all sizes — anyone subject to regulation E/Z dispute resolution or serving institutions subject to it.

QuickFi

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

Features

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

Who’s it for?

Banks, equipment manufacturers, and equipment distributors.

Quivly AI

Quivly is an AI0-native revenue management platform. AI agents help post sales teams drive customer value and revenue with customer health insights, expansion, and retention opportunities.

Features

Automates operations workflows with AI agents
Embeds AI fields and tables into existing systems
Consolidates account views across CRM, data warehouse, billing, and customer support systems

Who’s it for?

Fintechs and B2B software companies (mid-market to enterprise).

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8 Key Trends to Watch at FinovateSpring 2025

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 21, 2025
Categories: FinovateSpring 2025

This year at FinovateSpring, we’re seeing a strong convergence of fresh technologies and real-world financial use cases. From embedded finance to AI-powered risk management, the innovation that will be on display during the event, which takes place May 7 through 9 in San Diego, is a signal of the rapidly evolving needs of both financial institutions and their customers. We analyzed the key themes across this year’s 40+ participating demo companies and uncovered eight standout trends shaping the future of fintech.

AI and Machine Learning Are Everywhere

AI is evolving from a nice-to-have feature into a foundational technology. This year, 15 companies are showcasing solutions powered by AI or machine learning to drive personalization, automation, and real-time decision-making. Whether it’s fraud detection, customer engagement, or operational efficiency, companies like APIMatic, Casca, Cinareo Solutions, Cratoflow, Crosswise, Crux Analytics, Illuma, Layerup, Parcha, Quavo Fraud & Disputes, QuickFi, Quivly AI, Solda.ai, Stack AI, and Winnow are showing that AI is the engine behind scalable, modern finance.

Digital Transformation Goes Deeper

As financial institutions continue to modernize, digital transformation is expanding beyond the basic front end changes we saw in 2020. Tools supporting the developer experience, infrastructure, and process redesign are now in the spotlight. Companies like APIMatic, Anonybit, Cinareo Solutions, CollaborationRoom.ai, Illuma, Intellect Design, Kaian, Layerup, Penny Finance, QuickFi, ReSight, Solda.ai, and Stack AI are helping banks shift to cloud-based, API-driven, and future-ready environments.

Consumer Banking is Getting Smarter

Consumer-focused solutions are trending with 10 companies offering innovations in retail banking. From improved digital experiences to smarter customer onboarding, companies such as Anonybit, Bits of Stock, CoHome, Hive Technologies, Instarails, Kaian, Parcha, Penny Finance, SuperMoney, and Winnow are reimagining how consumers interact with their banks.

Embedded Finance Gains Momentum

Embedded finance is enabling a broader range of companies– both financial and non-financial– to provide an increasingly diverse range of financial services. Nine companies, including APIMatic, BankShift, Casca, CoHome, DashDevs, Express Wages, Félix, QuickFi, and TAPP Engine are enabling financial services to be embedded within broader customer journeys in areas ranging from e-commerce to payroll to enterprise tools.

Payments Innovation Is Accelerating

From real-time disbursements to smarter infrastructure, payments remains a top priority. Companies like APIMatic, Cratoflow, DashDevs, Express Wages, Félix, Hive Technologies, Instarails, Intellect Design, and Quavo Fraud & Disputes are focusing on speed, transparency, and compliance across the payments stack.

Customer Acquisition Is Being Reimagined

Nine firms are focusing specifically on helping financial institutions attract, convert, and retain customers more effectively. Expect to see data-driven onboarding tools, personalized product recommendations, and engagement platforms from innovators like BankShift, Cinareo Solutions, CoHome, Covet, Crux Analytics, Layerup, Penny Finance, Solda.ai, and SuperMoney.

Business Banking Is Getting a UX Overhaul

Small and mid-sized businesses have historically been underserved when it comes to having an elegant banking user experience. This year, companies like Anonybit, Casca, Crux Analytics, Instarails, Intellect Design, Parcha, Winnow are presenting tools built to streamline onboarding, lending, and money movement for the business banking segment.

Security, Identity & Compliance Stay Front and Center

As fintech grows more sophisticated, so do fraudsters. Six companies—including Anonybit, DashDevs, Herd Security, Illuma, Solda.ai, Stack AI, CollaborationRoom.ai, Crosswise, Quavo Fraud & Disputes, ReSight, and Winnow—are focusing on identity verification, AML, and regulatory compliance to ensure security doesn’t fall behind innovation.

FinovateSpring is more than a showcase of new technology, it’s a preview of where the industry is headed. These trends reflect the real challenges and opportunities facing financial services, and the companies listed are among the ones leading the way. Register today to see what they bring to the demo stage.

Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash

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Plumery Announces Strategic Partnership with Darien Technology

By David Penn Posted on April 21, 2025
Categories: Alumni News, Plumery

Digital banking platform Plumery has forged a strategic partnership with financial services consulting firm Darien Technology.
The partnership combines Plumery’s technology with Darien Technology’s consulting and software development expertise to empower banks to accelerate their digital transformations.
Headquartered in Amsterdam, Plumery made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London.

Amsterdam-based digital banking platform Plumery announced a strategic partnership with Darien Technology. A consulting and technology firm that specializes in South America and Spain, Darien Technology will combine its consulting, software development, and UX/UI design expertise with Plumery’s developer-friendly, API-driven architecture to help banks and other financial institutions accelerate their digital transformations.

“This partnership allows us to extend Plumery’s reach into markets that are undergoing rapid digital change but are often held back by rigid legacy systems,” Plumery Founder and CEO Ben Goldin said. “Our platform provides the foundation for financial institutions to deliver seamless digital banking journeys that are easy to launch, fully customizable, and designed to scale. Through a focus on speed, cost-efficiency, and customer experience, we’re giving institutions the autonomy to evolve continuously without being tied to expensive vendor lock-ins or slow, professional service-heavy delivery models.”

Combining Plumery’s technology and Darien’s acumen will provide financial institutions with a digital banking stack that integrates seamlessly with existing core systems to enable them to offer digital banking experiences across both online and mobile channels. The collaboration will drive frictionless onboarding, KYC compliance, personalized engagement, and full loan origination journeys. Financial institutions will benefit from real-time responsiveness thanks to Plumery’s event-driven platform architecture and cloud-native infrastructure. At the same time, firms will be able to leverage regional delivery capabilities and expertise in guiding firms through their digital transformation journeys courtesy of Darien.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Plumery,” Luis Salazar, Digital Transformation Director & CDO, EMEA, at Darien Technology, said. “Their flexible, cloud-native, event-driven architecture and developer-friendly approach to digital banking, coupled with their ability to support progressive modernization without the need for large-scale core transformations aligns perfectly with our mission to help financial institutions innovate with speed and confidence.”

Headquartered in Panama, Darien Technology is a digital transformation and technology consulting firm that specializes in accelerating innovation, modernizing legacy systems, and delivering digital experiences for banks and financial services companies. The company’s capabilities include software development, systems integration, UX/UI design, cloud infrastructure, digital onboarding, document management, identity verification, and AI-driven data insights. Daniel Sepe is CEO.

Founded as a private consultancy in 2016, Plumery grew into an independent product company in 2022. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2025 in London, where it demoed its Super App Accelerator, which empowers financial institutions to launch a comprehensive Super App in weeks rather than years. The solution helps financial institutions transition from traditional banking apps to lifestyle-integrated platforms that serve a wider range of consumer financial demands.

Learn more about Plumery in my conversation with Ben Goldin from earlier this year. We discuss the growth of lifestyle banking as well as trends such as AI and hyper-personalization in banking.

Photo by Luis Quintero

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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 21, 2025
Categories: Fintech Rundown

After a turbulent couple of weeks in fintech, we’re starting this week with the news that Capital One’s $35 billion deal to acquire Discover has gained approval. This comes after last week’s positive news that Global Payments has agreed to acquire Worldpay. All of this proves that while fintech may be down, it is certainly not out. Here’s a look at more of this week’s fintech news. We’ll continue adding news to this post throughout the week, so stay tuned!

Payments

Blackhawk Network (BHN) has partnered with Monadnock Paper Mills to introduce Renovo, a new sustainable, fiber-based gift card substrate.

Toku raises $48 million Series A to grow its payments solutions in Latin America.

Digital banking

BrightStar Credit Union selects Jack Henry’s Symitar platform and complementary products to support its growth and deliver better member experiences.

Regulators approve Capital One’s $35.3 billion acquisition of Discover, minting the 8th largest US bank.

Velmie powers Sierra Leone’s first digital banking super app.

Lending

SoFi secures $3.2 billion expansion to its loan platform business across agreements with Fortress and Edge Focus.

Wealth management & investing

Sharia-compliant wealth creation platform Vennre introduces new Chief Product Officer Ahmed El-Sharkasy.

Clearwater Analytics finalizes acquisition of Enfusion.

Small business financial management

FundThrough acquires working capital platform Ampla.

DeFi

CompoSecure integrates Arculus with MoneyGram, marking the first hardware wallet to provide global cash in/cash out through Stellar.

Photo by Pixabay

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ValidiFI Adds Authoritative Bank Account Verification to its vAccount+ Suite

By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on April 18, 2025
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, ValidiFI

ValidiFI has expanded its vAccount+ suite to include authoritative bank account verification, enabling real-time validation of account status and ownership using direct-source financial data.
The new tools include vAccount+ Verify and vAccount+ Coverage, which will help firms onboard customers, initiate ACH payments, and detect fraud with higher accuracy.
Built with AI and machine learning, the enhanced suite supports compliance with NACHA regulations and helps banks, lenders, and fintechs make smarter, faster decisions at scale.

Bank account and payment intelligence company ValidiFI recently unveiled enhancements to its vAccount+ suite. This week’s release will add new capabilities for authoritative bank account verification that firms can use when onboarding new customers, initiating ACH transactions, verifying payouts, and ensuring compliance with NACHA and anti-fraud regulations.

Authoritative bank account verification refers to the process of confirming a retail or commercial customer’s bank account ownership and status using official, direct-source data that is obtained from banks, core processors, or authoritative financial institutions. This is in contrast to traditional verification methods that rely on information supplied by the user, manual document uploads, or even micro-deposits. Instead, authoritative bank account verification leverages real-time data to confirm that an account exists, is open and active, and that the person or business claiming the account is indeed the rightful owner.

ValidiFI can leverage the new capabilities to validate up to 85% of accounts based on authoritative data and known transaction history. ValidiFI’s new authoritative bank account verification tool leverages AI and machine learning to analyze bank account and routing number patterns and relationships, which extends coverage to provide insights on 96% of accounts.

“Expanding the vAccount+ suite to include authoritative bank account verification empowers organizations in the B2B payments space to make informed decisions, optimize workflows, and improve risk management strategies,” said ValidiFI CEO John Gordon. “This addition reflects our commitment to delivering actionable insights that drive smarter, more efficient business operations.”

The two authoritative bank account verification tools include vAccount+ Verify, which verifies with authoritative sources for higher accuracy; and vAccount+ Coverage, which maximzes verification using all available data, including authoritative sources.

The tools verify the accuracy of the customer’s bank account and routing number, and offer the option to authenticate bank account ownership by matching the applicant’s details with the account owner’s information. The ownership details help organizations detect discrepancies and potential fraud.

Founded in 2014, ValidiFI offers real-time bank account verification and payment intelligence solutions for both retail and commercial customers. Its tools help lenders, banks, and fintechs improve credit decisioning, prevent fraud, and manage risk with more precision. ValidiFI’s platform is particularly effective in spotting suspicious patterns, such as synthetic identities or mule accounts, and in supporting compliance with account verification mandates such as NACHA’s WEB Debit Rule. By delivering actionable insights instantly, ValidiFI enables its clients to make confident, data-driven decisions at scale.

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