Email

Shopify Brings Embedded Finance to Facebook & Instagram

Shopify Brings Embedded Finance to Facebook & Instagram
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news

As social commerce rises, e-commerce platform Shopify is getting in on where the action is happening. The company announced today it is bringing its Shop Pay checkout and payment processing system to Instagram users and Facebook Shops.

This builds on the existing payment methods available to these Facebook-owned social platforms. Previously, shoppers had the option to either pay with PayPal or manually enter their payment card credentials.

Shop Pay, on the other hand, stores users’ payment card and shipping information to make the embedded payment experience as seamless as possible for the end customer. Prior to today, Shop Pay was only available to Shopify’s e-commerce store clients, including brands such as Allbirds, Kith, Beyond Yoga, and Jonathan Adler.

Shop Pay expands to Facebook and Instagram

Shop Pay has 60 million users and last year helped buyers complete more than 137 million orders. This is small compared to PayPal’s 377 million active users. Shopify, however, is aiming to gain an edge by targeting the millennial customer base by offering carbon offset options that allow merchants and customers to offset the carbon emissions of their deliveries.

“People are embracing social platforms not only for connection, but for commerce,” said Carl Rivera, General Manager of Shop. “Making Shop Pay available outside of Shopify for the first time means even more shoppers can use the fastest and best checkout on the Internet.”

As for what’s next in the Shopify-Facebook tie-up, Rivera said to expect more collaboration in the future. He added, “…we’ll continue to work with Facebook to bring a number of Shopify services and products to these platforms to make social selling so much better”

The ecommerce tools are available for Instagram users today and will be available for U.S. Facebook Shops in the coming weeks.

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Why I Have a Close Eye on DeFi

Why I Have a Close Eye on DeFi
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Julie's Column, Thought Leadership

The decentralized finance (DeFi) conversation started to pick up about a year ago. Today, we’re starting to see this once-fringe topic emerge as a mainstream conversation in fintech.

In fact, now that DeFi has become a reality, it’s not something that’s going away any time soon. The advent of cryptocurrencies enabled consumers to transfer money between parties without relying on a traditional bank. DeFi takes this power the next level.

These added capabilities are what have the potential to take cryptocurrencies from a speculative device to a useful tool. But while this is a reality for some, it is still a concept on paper for most. So why am I paying attention to DeFi now, while it’s still in its infancy?

It’s more than an idea

As mentioned above, DeFi has moved from the concept of “an interesting idea” into a concrete, value-added financial tool. Leveraging the power of smart contracts, DeFi allows users to lend, earn interest, and claim insurance. It can also be used to prove identity, assist with underwriting, AML and KYC compliance, and more.

Because of these capabilities, the use of DeFi is becoming more popular. The following graphic from DeFi Pulse shows the total U.S. dollar value locked in DeFi. The graph shows DeFi starting to take off in July of last year and rise exponentially. Today, the total locked value is more than $35.9 billion.

With this growth, we can expect to see more projects and use cases launch as DeFi emerges from an idea to a new reality.

DeFi will change banking as we know it

Today’s traditional banking system relies on centralized control. But one of the key aspects of DeFi is that it operates without an intermediary. That is, users can complete banking activities without a central governmental authority, a bank, or even a company setting rules, governing, and regulating activity.

Instead of this central control, DeFi leverages smart contracts that use “oracles,” or services that inform smart contracts of external data so that it can execute its purpose based on that data. As an example, a smart contract for flood insurance might rely on rain gauges to determine whether or not to pay out insurance claims to homeowners living in a certain area.

This key difference will change how consumers shop for financial services. Instead of hinging on trusting an institution, the consumer’s decision will rely on how smart they think the smart contract is, and whether or not they trust the oracles the smart contract uses.

It will transform the industry for the better

While DeFi is a little bit intimidating, it has the ability to change the financial world for the better. It is scalable and programmable, and is therefore well-suited for growth. In addition, it is immutable. That is, it is tamper-proof and cannot be changed or hacked. And transaction details are transparent; DeFi protocols are built with open source code and can be viewed by anyone.

The final, and perhaps most notable, aspect of DeFi is that it is permissionless. This means that anyone with a crypto wallet and an internet connection can participate in the DeFi economy. There is no minimum balance requirement and, because it doesn’t revolve around a central government, there are no geographic limitations.

Photo by Vladislav Reshetnyak from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

NCR Acquires Terafina to Expand Digital Banking Platform

NCR Acquires Terafina to Expand Digital Banking Platform
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, NCR Corporation

Two weeks after announcing its purchase of Cardtronics, fintech hardware giant NCR is acquiring Terafina, a company known for its digital account opening and onboarding tools.

Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

NCR will tap Terafina’s expertise to expand NCR’s sales and marketing capabilities in its Digital First Banking Platform. The offering, which can be tailored to fit institutions ranging in size from large banks to community banks and credit unions, provides an API-led approach to digital banking that can be hosted or deployed on-premise to help banks lower costs and speed up their innovation cycle.

Last year increased the urgency for financial services companies of all kinds to improve their digital customer experiences. Founded in 2014, Terafina suits this need. The company offers a software-as-a-service solution that offers digital onboarding tools and helps banks and credit unions synchronize their branch, call center, and digital operations to provide a consistent user experience across channels.

At FinovateSpring 2019, Terafina Founder and CEO Meheriar Hasan showcased the company’s digital sales platform that helps banks address the needs of their small business clients.

“Digital Banking is a key aspect of the NCR-as-a-Service strategy we laid out at Investor Day in December,” said NCR CEO Michael D. Hayford. “Terafina has been a partner of ours and is already up and running, integrated with our Digital Banking platform. We know this adds value for our clients by making digital account sales, marketing and onboarding easier, so they can provide a superior experience for customers.”

Today’s deal marks NCR’s 29th acquisition since it was founded in 1884. NCR’s purchase of Terafina fits with the company’s strategy to purchase early stage companies to boost its product capabilities and enhance its leadership.

NCR is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and counts 36,000 employees across the globe. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NCR and has a market capitalization of $4.81 billion.


Photo by Peter Fazekas from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Mambu and Signicat Team Up to Digitize Identity Management in Europe

Mambu and Signicat Team Up to Digitize Identity Management in Europe
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Finovate Global, Mambu, Signicat

A just-announced partnership between two Finovate alums – Mambu and Signicat – will bring digitized identity management services to banks, fintechs, and financial service providers across Europe. The collaboration between the SaaS banking platform and the digital identity company is designed to help institutions in the region leverage innovations in identity management to boost customer acquisition, enhance the customer experience, and defend against identity fraud.

The single-API integration between Signicat’s identity platform and Mambu will enable users to apply a variety of digital identity verification solutions to a range of processes, including onboarding, identity authentication, and e-signatures. In their joint statement, both companies highlighted abandonment as one challenge the new integration will help companies meet. They noted that 63% of consumers in Europe quit at least one financial app in the last year, citing research conducted by Signicat.

At the same time, the integration also will help companies deal with the new environment for cybercrime, particularly identity fraud, which has flourished in the work-from-home, COVID-19 era. “Identity fraud continues to be a major threat to businesses across the globe and damages trust,” Mambu Managing Director for EMEA Eelco-Jan Boonstra said. “And with everyone working from home – the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated this. Therefore financial service providers are relying on customer trust and loyalty more than ever.”

Asger Hattel, who took over as Signicat’s CEO in January of last year, underscored the way the pandemic had accelerated pre-existing trends toward digitization. “Global lockdowns have turned a desire for digital services into an urgent need,” Hattel said. “Our research into consumer attitudes towards onboarding show that financial service providers are struggling to keep up with consumer’s digital demands – and it is costing them customers.”

Mambu’s partnership with Signicat comes in the wake of the Mambu’s $132+ million (€110 million) fundraising last month – which brought the company’s total valuation to more than $2 billion (€1.7 billion). Also last month, Mambu announced the addition of new Chief Financial Officer Langley Eide. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Berlin, Germany, Mambu is an alum of both our Finovate conferences – debuting in 2013 at FinovateAsia – and our event for developers and engineers – FinDEVr New York, in 2016.

Based in Trondheim, Norway, Signicat specializes in providing identity assurance worldwide, enabling banks to leverage existing customer identity to accelerate onboarding, improve access to services, and connect users, devices, and more across channels and markets. A Finovate alum since 2017, Signicat has raised $8.8 million in funding from investors including Horizon 2020, Viking Venture, and Secure Identity Holding.

Photo by Engin Akyurt from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

CoCoNet Appoints Mark Lohweber as New CEO

CoCoNet Appoints Mark Lohweber as New CEO
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: CoCoNet, Daily news

Digital corporate banking solutions company CoCoNet Software announced a new CEO today. Mark Lohweber is now heading up the company, taking the reins from former CEO Björn Hassing, who will transition to serve as the company’s CTO.

Lohweber will head up CoCoNet’s board of directors, which also consists of Hassing and company CFO and COO Axel B. Wiethoff.

“In corporate banking, many banks have great potential for process and portfolio optimisation through digitalisation”, said Lohweber. “CoCoNet already offers outstanding solutions in this area. That is why I am very happy, together with Axel, Björn and the entire CoCoNet team, to be a strong partner in digitalisation for the banking sector.

Lohweber comes to CoCoNet after leading the banking business unit at IT service management company adesso for 13 years.

Founded in 1984, CoCoNet provides digital banking solutions to banks, with a customer lineup including Citi, GarantiBank, HSBC, ING, JPMorgan, KBC, and UniCredit.

At FinovateWest 2020, the company demonstrated its digital onboarding solution. The solution is tailored to corporate customers and is designed to suit the complex needs of this segment.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Bitcoin and Wealth Building in the Black Community

Bitcoin and Wealth Building in the Black Community
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Diversity in Fintech

Can cryptocurrencies play a role in bringing the benefits of modern – or even post-modern – finance to underserved African American communities? Is it possible that bitcoin could be the key to enabling black Americans to close with wealth gap with their non-black fellow citizens?

Provocative as it sounds, this is the thesis of Isaiah Jackson, co-founder of KRBE Digital Assets Group. Jackson’s book Bitcoin & Black America makes the case that a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin has a number of features that make it an important ingredient in the kind of economic independence he believes would benefit black Americans. In an interview with Forbes’ Jason Brett last summer, Jackson noted that during the golden era of black-owned banking in the United States – the Reconstruction Period after the Civil War – the existence of multiple currencies played a significant part in supporting the development of community-based financial institutions. This, in turn, helped build the first black middle class in the U.S.

Jackson sees Bitcoin playing a similar role today. He approves of both Bitcoin’s deflationary nature, which he says encourages savings over spending, and its “circular economy” which – not unlike the economy of 19th century black banking – exists significantly outside of a traditional banking system Jackson decries as racist.

With a background as a computer scientist, as well as a Bitcoin consultant and trader, Jackson is nevertheless wary about a future in which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are common. To the extent that human nature endures, discriminatory practices like redlining, in his opinion, are likely to follow us into our digital future – with the moral (or immoral) panic of the day incentivizing regulators to monitor and restrict certain digital currency transactions from certain people or communities. And if history is any guide, the negative impacts of these restrictions are most likely to fall on those least able to manage them.

Nevertheless, when it comes to the potential for Bitcoin to make a difference for black Americans, Washington is a believer. “For the first time in history,” Washington told CNBC in an interview last month, “we have a Plan B option to the current financial system which has seen years of redlining, racial discrimination, and other egregious acts by retail banks to the Black community.”

The second edition of Bitcoin and Black America is currently available via pre-order. The new edition features seven additional chapters including information on Bitcoin specifically for small business owners, as well as a roster of more than 200+ black professionals working in the Bitcoin industry.

Photo by Thought Catalog from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Yoco Reaches 120,000 Served Milestone; Five Top Insurtechs in Vietnam

Yoco Reaches 120,000 Served Milestone; Five Top Insurtechs in Vietnam
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Finovate Global, Yoco

The rise of insurtech – entrepreneurs and innovators looking to do for insurance what fintechs have done for financial services – is a global phenomenon. And one of the areas where insurtech is beginning to take hold is Vietnam. The country experienced a fintech mini-boom from 2017 to 2019 which, among other things, helped put the country’s nascent insurtech market on the map. This week’s Finovate Global Lists shares Fintech News Singapore’s roundup of insurtechs operating in the APAC market of Vietnam that are leveraging everything from mobile to machine learning to bring digital insurance to the more than 97 million citizens of the country.

INSO. Founded in 2018. Headquartered in Hanoi, INSO offers insurance products online as well as the ability to make claims online. The company was among the first in the country to offer flight delay insurance. Vũ Nguyễn Thuỳ Vân is CEO.

OPES. Founded in 2018. Headquartered in Hanoi, OPES Insurance Joint Stock Company is a pioneer in Vietnam’s digital insurance industry. OPES specializes in providing personalized insurance solutions to empower customers rather than brokers.

Papaya. Founded in 2018. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Papaya offers a one-stop shop for employee benefits to promote health and wellness. Hung Phan is co-founder and CEO.

Save Money. Founded in 2013. Headquartered in Ho Chi Minh City, Save Money is a B2B2C digital insurance platform for banks, hospitals, and telecommunication companies. Trần Quang Ninh is founder and CEO.

Wicare. Founded in 2018. Headquartered in Hanoi, Wicare is a lifestyle insurance company that leverage gamification to boost engagement and encourage customers to exercise. Quang Ngoc Nguyen is founder and CEO.

It’s been more than two years since Finovate launched its first conference on the African continent. In that time, we’ve seen a number of alums from FinovateAfrica in the fintech news headlines: Best of Show-winning digital wealth technology company Bambu raised $10 million, credit decisioning solution provider RISQ teamed up with Aion Digital, and this week, small business solution provider Yoco, headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, reported that it has reached a major milestone: more than 120,000 small businesses served.

“Through our platform and the results of a recent merchant survey, we have seen up to a 90% decrease in in-person transactions since the lockdown began,” Yoco CEO told TechGist Africa last year when it launched a trio of new payment solutions to support online transactions for small businesses. “We knew that the best way to support our merchants was to develop products that would enable them to do business online and keep money coming in through this period.”

This week for Finovate Global Voices we present Bradley Wattrus, Yoco CFO and co-founder, and Clayton Brett, Capital Product Owner, demoing the Yoco Capital solution for SMEs at FinovateAfrica 2018.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

Sub-Saharan Africa

Central and Eastern Europe

Middle East and Northern Africa

Central and Southern Asia

Latin America and the Caribbean

Photo by Arnie Chou from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Stash Raises $125 Million

Stash Raises $125 Million
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding, Stash

Investment platform Stash announced a new round of financing today. The $125 million Series G round boosts the company’s total funding to over $427 million.

Eldridge led the round, which received additional funding from new and existing investors, including Owl Ventures, funds advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Goodwater Capital, Entree Capital, and others.

The funding comes after a year of record growth for Stash, which was founded in 2015. Last year, the New York-based company saw a 100% increase in account openings. It now has five million customers and $2.5 billion in assets under management. Fueling this increase was the boost in automated deposits; Stash reported a 50% increase in the number of customers automating their investments last year.

Stash’s investment platform democratizes long-term investing by making the process easier and more affordable. “We believe in tried and tested principles of regular, long-term, and balanced investing as the key to building wealth. We therefore built Stash to make diversified investing easy, affordable and accessible, backed by personalized advice and accessible education—in order to avoid the pitfalls of short-term speculation and day-trading,” said Stash Co-Founder and CEO Brandon Krieg. “This new round of funding enables us to take this mission to millions more Americans.”

Stash’s newest upcoming product, Smart Portfolios, helps customers build long-term, diversified portfolios that are fully managed by Stash. The new offering is made for users who want to invest, but don’t know where to start. To keep things simple, Stash uses a subscription model instead of charging fees based on portfolio size. The Smart Portfolios product is included in Stash’s Growth and Plus subscription plans, which cost $3 per month and $9 per month, respectively.

Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Dave “The Ambassador” Birch Joins Digital Jersey

Dave “The Ambassador” Birch Joins Digital Jersey
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Speaker series

Consult Hyperion’s Global Ambassador – and frequent Finovate keynote speaker – David Birch is bringing his diplomatic talents to Digital Jersey, where he has been named the Fintech Ambassador for the island-based technology hub.

“I’m delighted to take on this role with Digital Jersey,” Birch said in a statement. “After visiting the island many times over the last few years, I have seen first-hand the opportunities provided by the technology and regulatory infrastructure there. This, combined with its world-class connectivity with an agile, innovative mindset, makes Jersey an interesting proposition in the Fintech space. I’m looking forward to working more closely with the DJ team.”

The largest of the islands in the English Channel between England and France, Jersey is home to Digital Jersey, a state-supported economic development agency and association designed to help grow the island’s digital sector. Established in 2013, Digital Jersey offers a co-working space for technology workers (with both hot and dedicated desks), as well as a lab designed specifically for testing IoT solutions, Digital Jersey Xchange (DJX). In addition to promoting sustainable economic growth on the estimated 107,000-person island and creating a “connected, digital society and enhanced quality of life” there, Digital Jersey also seeks to establish itself as a world-renowned digital center.

“Dave has an excellent reputation built through decades of experience,” Digital Jersey CEO Tony Moretta said. “We know he fully understands the unique advantages we have here in Jersey and will help spread the message off-island that we are open for business in the fintech arena.”

Formally known as the Balliwick of Jersey, the 45 square mile island has been the site of a significant amount of technology innovation compared to its larger, neighboring jurisdictions. Jersey was a pioneer in bringing full-fiber broadband to every home and, in 2016, the Jersey Financial Services Commission, was among the first jurisdictions in the world to implement a virtual currency regime.

Hear David Birch talk more about Jersey and fintech innovation. And check out our most recent conversation with “The Ambassador”, discussing one of his most commonly-requested topics: banks, digital identity, and the challenge of Big Tech.

Photo by Matt Hardy from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

PayKey Unveils New Embedded Banking Solution

PayKey Unveils New Embedded Banking Solution
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: PayKey

Tel Aviv-based fintech PayKey, which won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at our London conference in 2019, announced the availability of its new embedded banking solution this week. The offering leverages PayKey’s smartphone keyboard to enable users to manage investments and apply for personal loans directly without having to leave their WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter app. PayKey’s embedded solution allows users to simply tap on their banks’ logo within the mobile keyboard and get instant access to their investment portfolios – as well as the ability to balance checks, pay bills, and make P2P payments – as seamlessly as a text chat.

“Embedded solutions like PayKey’s keyboard are vital to helping banks engage with customers at the right time and with personalized products,” said company CEO Sheila Kagan. “Investments and personal financing are just the beginning and we’re excited to continue expanding our embedded keyboard solution in the future to help banks support their customers financial health even further.”

The company sees the new functionality as a timely addition given the surge of interest in stock trading, most recently evidenced by the Reddit/Gamestop/Robinhood market frenzy early in the month. The offering also takes advantage of the embedded finance trend of enabling users to access a wider range of functionalities from a singular app or interface. The result is a smoother, more seamless experience, and a way for technology innovators to provide more features that customers want without overly complicating the process to access or use them.

PayKey’s technology has gone live with more than 20 leading banks around the world, including ING and Unicredit. Standard Chartered Bank Korea announced that it was launching the new solution within its SC Mobile Banking app back in August.

Founded in 2014 by Daniel Peled and Offer Markovich, PayKey has raised more than $26 million in funding.

Photo by Sergij from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Six Things to Know About Crypto So Far This Year

Six Things to Know About Crypto So Far This Year
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: List series, Thought Leadership

Though we’re only four weeks into it, 2021 has been a big year for cryptocurrency. While there has been a multitude of news items in the crypto space, there are a handful of items worth highlighting.

Though much of the cryptocurrency news cycle is often quite hyped, it’s important for the traditional financial sector to keep their finger on the pulse of major news pieces in this space, especially as the decentralized finance trend takes off. That said, here are six things you need to know about what’s going on in the cryptocurrency realm:

Elon Musk stands bullish on Bitcoin

The price of Bitcoin hit an all-time high at the beginning of January of this year. A few weeks later, during an interview on Clubhouse, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said, “I do at this point think bitcoin is a good thing. I’m late to the party, but I am a supporter of bitcoin.”

This vote of confidence for the popular cryptocurrency didn’t send the price of bitcoin to the same highs that we saw on January 8. It did, however, offer it a nice boost in price and a stamp of approval that will be beneficial in boosting the cryptocurrency’s legitimacy.

Ethereum hits all-time high

The price of Ethereum reached an all-time high today, this time breaking the $1,600 mark. Fueling the surge is the pending launch of ethereum futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange next week.

While bullish buyers expect to see the price top out around $2,000, others anticipate it will level off.

The Indian government dances around a cryptocurrency ban

India is notorious for its hot/cold relationship with cryptocurrency. In 2018, the country’s central bank banned offering banking services for digital asset firms, but the Supreme Court overturned that ruling last year.

This week, the Indian government revealed that it will likely seek to regulate cryptocurrency, instead of ban it.

Visa announced plans to enable cryptocurrencies trading on its network

In an earnings call, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said that he wants to make cryptocurrencies “more useful and applicable for payments.” To accomplish this, Kelly sees Visa working with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase cryptocurrencies using their Visa card or to cash out onto a Visa card to make a fiat purchase at a traditional merchant.

During the call, Kelly disclosed that the payments giant is already working with a handful of digital currency platforms and wallet providers to serve as their card issuer. This list includes crypto.com, Blockfi, Fold, and Bitpanda.

The OCC OK’d stablecoins

In the first week in January, U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) last week published Interpretive Letter 1174 detailing that banks may use stablecoins and independent node verification networks (INVNs) to facilitate payments for customers. Simply put, banks can transfer stablecoins to other banks.

This development happened under the watch of Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks, who stepped down mid-last month. Taking Brooks’ place is Blake Paulson, whose attitude toward cryptocurrencies is untested.

Gemini began offering a savings account

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini is starting to step on traditional banks’ toes. That’s because the New York-based company is launching a savings account called Earn that allows users to move their crypto holdings into high-yield savings paying as high as 7.4%.

Thanks to Gemini’s business model, it can afford to pay the high rate. That’s because it lends users’ cryptocurrency deposits to other borrowers through its partner, Genesis Global Capital, at a higher interest rate.

Photo by Worldspectrum from Pexels

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook

Digital Banking Innovator Narmi Tops $20 Million in New Funding

Digital Banking Innovator Narmi Tops $20 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding

In a round led by New Enterprise Associates, a featuring the participation of more than twelve investors – including executives from Plaid – digital banking solution provider Narmi has raised $20.4 million in new funding. The investment represents the lion’s share of the New York City-based fintech’s total capital, and will be used to help power Narmi’s mission to enable regional banks and credit unions to compete with big banks and neobanks, alike.

“We started Narmi with the mission to help financial institutions thrive in a digital-first world and that mission hasn’t changed,” company co-founder Nikhil Lakhanpal said. “Since launching over four years ago, we’ve experienced over 100% revenue growth every year, launched four enterprise-grade platforms, and helped our partner financial institutions delivery transformational results.”

Also participating in the Series A round were Patriot Financial Partners, Picus Capital, Contour Ventures, and Firebolt Ventures.

Narmi’s cloud-based, API-powered platform gives financial institutions the ability to leverage its digital account opening, consumer and business digital banking, and administrator console platforms to boost growth, increase deposits, and make operations more efficient. The fintech’s customers have reported a 55% increase in new account applications from non-account holders, a 65% reduction in application time, and a 50% decrease in support volume, helping lower back office costs.

And like many fintechs in the digital banking space, Narmi has seen a dramatic uptick in interest in digital solutions with the onset of the COVID pandemic. The company reported a 70% increase in digital activity and transactions across its customer base.

Partner Radius Bank credited Narmi for helping it launch its online and mobile banking experience “50% to 70% faster” than its competitors. Radius Bank, named one of the Best Online Banks of 2021 by Bankrate, and one of the fastest growing banks in Massachusetts, was acquired by LendingClub a year ago for $185 million. Liz Landsman, General Partner at NEA, further praised Narmi for its “understanding of the challenges that regional banks and credit unions are facing to keep pace with an increasingly digitally-centric customer base in banking today.”

Founded in 2016, Narmi also includes Freedom Credit Union and Berkshire Bank among its customers.

Share this:

Send Post Twitter LinkedIn Facebook