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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Digitally or in-person, the live fintech demos continue to be one of the most popular and worthwhile features of our fintech conferences. This year was no different. FinovateFall Digital featured fewer demoing companies than in years past to better accommodate our COVID-induced, all-digital format. But, as always, the quality of demos was absolutely on point.
With that, let’s take a look at the companies that our attendees have awarded with Best of Show trophies at this year’s event.
Finzly with its BankOS open banking platform that helps banks innovate at speed by transitioning away from legacy technology. Video.
Horizn for its ability to help financial institutions accelerate digital adoption with customers and employees. Video.
Lendsmart for its AI-driven technology that solves for the lack of automation, transparency, and communication in the lending process. Video.
Monit for its finance application that gives small business leaders the insights and personalized guidance they need to manage their businesses successfully. Video.
Q2 for its online digital marketplace that makes collaboration between fintechs and financial institutions easier and more efficient. Video.
Thanks to all the companies that participated in FinovateFall Digital! And thank you, our FinovateFall Digital attendees, for making your voices heard and for being part of a very special event this year. We look forward to seeing many of you in a few months for FinovateWest!
Notes on methodology:
1. Only audience members NOT associated with demoing companies were eligible to vote. Finovate employees did not vote.
2. Attendees were encouraged to note their favorites during each day. At the end of the last demo, they chose their five favorites.
3. The exact written instructions given to attendees: “Please rate (the companies) on the basis of demo quality and potential impact of the innovation demoed.”
4. The five companies appearing on the highest percentage of submitted ballots were named “Best of Show.”
5. Go here for a list of previous Best of Show winners through 2014. Best of Show winners from our 2015 through 2020 conferences are below:
We opened Day Four of FinovateFall Digital with a panel looking at the future of innovation in a post-COVID world. Among the highlights of the conversation was a discussion of the challenge in distinguishing between permanent and temporary shifts in customer behavior as a result of the pandemic. Our Deep Dive also discussed the positives, negatives, and uncertainties about the rise of platforms as players on the fintech scene. Lastly, the group emphasized how the rise of borderlessness creates new challenges and opportunities for companies looking for both new customers and new markets.
Our second panel on Day Four looked at the phenomenon of Open Banking. Here our panelists considered open banking as a subset of open finance, and noted that while open banking began in many ways as a regulatory initiative, progress increasingly has been driven by consumer behavior. This last point was especially relevant for fans of open banking in the United States, where any effort to encourage cooperation between banks and third party financial services and fintech providers is more likely to come about via customer demand rather than by legislation from Washington.
Day Four also marked the beginning of our Discussion Days content which offered a variety of special, themed tracks covering topics in banking, financial crime, payments and digitization, wealthtech, and futuretech. With an eye toward how technology is shaping innovation in these areas, our Discussion Days tracks looked at the rise of banking-as-a-service, the role of biometrics and identity in an increasingly digitized society, and the latest applications of cutting edge technologies like conversational AI and natural language processing in fintech and financial services.
The fourth day of FinovateFall Digital also featured our Best of Show awards. Our attendees selected five companies – Finzly, Horizn, Lendsmart, Monit, and Q2 – to receive Finovate’s highest honor. Read more about our FinovateFall Digital Best of Show winners in our announcement post.
And, of course, we started the day with our Meet in the Cafe interactive morning hangout – sponsored by Google Cloud. This morning featured a number of interesting insights and observations from cafe visitors including the idea of data itself as being as important as any enabling technology like AI or the blockchain when it comes to fintech. Those gathered also discussed the idea of the pandemic as a Black Swan event that has helped smaller financial institutions, such as credit unions, get back in the business banking game.
Sound interesting? Join us tomorrow morning at 9:30am Eastern for our final installment at Meet at the Cafe!
Secure messaging company Striataannounced this week it has been acquired by Doxim, a customer communications management (CCM) software company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Doxim will use Striata’s technology to expand its CCM platform and provide personalized digital interactive experiences in a secure manner. Doxim CEO Mike Rogalski expressed that the global pandemic has accelerated the need for communications technologies. “Especially with the impact of COVID-19, which has meant fewer face-to-face meetings,” noted Rogalski, “organizations need to find scalable ways to orchestrate and distribute multi-channel communications that are both personalized and legally compliant.”
“The joint strength of Striata and Doxim will power a world-class digital CCM platform and expert team for enterprises and small to mid-sized businesses,” said Striata CEO Michael Wright (pictured). “We look forward to working with Doxim to integrate our technology, systems and culture. The value proposition of the combined organization promises to be a formidable force in the market.”
Striata was founded in 1999 and, with a focus on security and compliance, has worked heavily in the financial services industry. The company’s services include message design, generation, security, delivery, and storage across multiple channels.
Striata is headquartered in New York City, with operations in London, Johannesburg, Hong Kong, and Sydney and partners in North and South America, Africa, Europe and Asia Pacific.
Finovate came back strong this morning, with excellent keynotes and a solid round of fintech demos.
Sarika Sangwan, Global Head of Strategy and Marketing- Financial Services at Pinterest kicked things off with her keynote on building consumer trust in the age of doubt. She illustrated that the best way to build trust is with intentionality and purpose. Sangwan encouraged banks to put the customer first and allow that to drive every decision they make.
The next keynote of the morning featured Tom Feher, Banking Industry Executive of U.S. Financial Services at Microsoft, who spoke on coming together to respond, recover, and reimagine during COVID-19. Feher showcased a range of solutions to help firms return to in-person operations in the midst of the pandemic. He pointed out that low code and no code solutions can not only help organizations respond to issues faster, but also reduce costs.
Today’s final keynote speaker was Paul Rohan, Head of Business Strategy- Finance at Google Cloud on how open banking is 21st century branch banking. Rohan’s discussion combined technology, sociology, and history to consider how banks can change their belief systems (as well as their computer systems) to move into a more open approach that embraces third parties.
Following this was the last set of demos:
Authoriti showcased the Authoriti Network that helps create new ways of preventing identity theft, fraud, and misuse of data.
Cirrus Secure demoed its cloud-based collaboration hub that impacts a lender’s bottom-line by creating efficiency in place of document chaos.
KioWare presented its touchless kiosk environment that enables kiosks to be converted to touchless operation without expensive new hardware.
Cinchy showed off its real-time Data Collaboration Platform that helps financial service providers solve data integration, data access, data governance, and solutions-delivery challenges.
Lenderfit demoed how it helps lenders close more commercial loans faster.
Glia showcased its digital customer service platform that connects financial institutions to their customers using chat, voice, video, cobrowsing and AI.
Illuma Labs demoed passive voice authentication for call centers to help banks elevate the user experience, enhance security against fraudsters, and improve operational efficiency.
Envestnet |Yodlee presented its data aggregation and analytics platform that provides innovation and insights for financial service providers.
Microsoft showcased tools to help firms protect their workforce during each phase of the return to the workplace — and beyond.
Horizn demoed how it helps financial institutions dramatically accelerate digital adoption with customers and employees.
Wrapping up today’s show were the Mastercard Priceless Pitches, three-minute pitches from Mastercard’s Start Path participants, including:
Previse showed how it leverages AI to power B2B payments and make B2B commerce more efficient.
Doconomy presented how it helps consumers calculate the carbon footprint of every transaction they make and offset and reduce their carbon footprint.
Enveil showed how it protects data-in-use to enable secure and private data sharing, search, and analytics.
vCita presented how it powers small business by offering them tools to manage their money, time, and clients to grow their business.
Tomorrow we’ll kick off our discussion days with another conversation at our interactive networking session, Meet at the Cafe. Afterwards we’ll feature insightful keynote presentations and breakout panels. Stay tuned!
A pair of recent Finovate alums have made the cut for the Fintech Europe Innovation Program sponsored by Plug and Play. Moxtra, most recently appearing on the Finovate stage in 2017, and Subaio, which made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope in Berlin, will join six other startups in the program’s sixth cohort since it was launched two years ago.
“Even though COVID-19 has brought uncertainty to the market, it has also given way to a wide range of opportunities,” Program Director of Plug and Play’s Fintech Europe program Fernando Zornig said. “Embracing innovation in finance is now more important than ever. We are seeing a lot of changes in Europe and I am confident that these solutions will help our corporate partners adapt to these changes faster.”
Companies participating in the program will engage with Plug and Play’s 13-member, financial institution partner community, which includes Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, and Raiffeisen Bank International. The startups will have the opportunity to pursue pilot projects as well as investment opportunities. Joining Moxtra and Subaio at the Frankfurt, Germany-based program are:
ABAKA
CARTO
Delio
Envio Systems
SESAMm
Vizolution
Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Moxtra offers a OneStop Customer Portal that gives businesses a “digital branch” through which they can engage and collaborate with customers. Moxtra’s solution provides an all-in-one suite of services including secure chat and video meetings, document collaboration and task management, video conferencing and transactions, and more. This spring, the company was named to Fintech Global’s second annual Wealthech 100 roster.
Subaio provides a white-label, subscription management platform that enables users to get a complete overview of their existing subscriptions. The technology makes it easy for users to cancel subscriptions they no longer want and keep track of any changes in the subscription services they wish to keep. Headquartered in Denmark and founded in 2016, Subaio has a number of live bank integrations of its solution, including a just-announced partnership with ABN Amro.
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, Plug and Play is a worldwide innovation platform that offers accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and its own in-house venture capital team. More than 30,000 startups have benefitted from Plug and Play’s resources and support, with companies in its ecosystem raising $9+ billion in funding to date.
Since its launch in 2009, Square has always catered to small business owners. The payment services company is best known for offering micro-to-medium sized merchants an easy way to accept payments and today Square is launching two services to make those business’ payrolls even more robust.
Explaining the problem, Square Payroll GM Caroline Hollis said, “The traditional payroll process is slow and rigid, creating cash flow constraints for employees and businesses alike. This is even more pronounced now given the current economic conditions.”
The new features include On-Demand Pay for employees and Instant Payments for employers. On-Demand Pay will allow employers to offer their workers early access to some of the wages they’ve earned, while Instant Payments helps businesses fund payroll faster than the typical time of three-to-four days.
There is a bit of a catch with these services, however. Both offerings hinge on Square’s Cash App, a mobile wallet that effectively serves as a checking account for P2P payments. With On-Demand Pay, employees can transfer up to $200 of their earned wages to Square’s Cash App for free. Transfering the funds to a third party debit card, however, incurs a 1% or $2 fee. As for Instant Payments, employees that elect to be paid via Square’s Cash App receive their pay within minutes, while those paid via direct deposit get paid “as soon as the next business day.”
The new features are not new to the fintech scene. They will, however, help Square compete with new offerings from other third party fintechs and serve as a way to help Square maintain its multi-million user base of sellers.
With welcoming remarks from Finovate VP Greg Palmer, Day Two of FinovateFall Digital got underway on Tuesday with a pair of addresses that looked at ways that fintechs and financial services companies can make the most out of the current health and economic challenges.
In his opening keynote, HSBC Head of Innovation Jeremy Balkin emphasized that understanding how the current environment has changed customer behavior is critical for businesses looking to adapt to both those changing behaviors and the needs they represent. This has been underscored during this quarantine/lockdown/shelter-in-place era. But Balkin is quick to note that these behavioral changes have impacted not only consumers, but workers and employees, also.
“We spend a lot of time thinking about the customer experience. We need to think about the employee experience, as well,” he said.
He also talked about the historical tendency to think of partnerships and “borrowing technology” as an initiative of last resort. Balkin pointed out that successful companies have turned this idea on its head to put collaboration and partnership at the forefront of their efforts to better serve their current clients and engage new potential customers.
Our Mastermind Keynote featured Adam Dell, Head of Product for Marcus by Goldman Sachs. Dell discussed how the adoption of digital tools is accelerating and compared the current moment to other recent instances of rapid technology adoption by the public. He pointed to a “vibrant demand for digital banking services,” and said that the winners will be those that can offer a delightful digital experience, a fair deal for the consumer, and the lowest cost means of delivery.
“Individuals who sit in the value chain and don’t create value really risk being eliminated,” he said.
Dell also discussed the opportunities created by the convergence of banking services and PFM. This comes as Goldman Sachs announces that Marcus will now feature a suite of PFM tools to complement its digital banking functionalities. Marcus Insights, as the new offering has been dubbed, was spearheaded by Dell, founder of PFM innovator Clarity Money which was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2018.
After our noon break for lunch and networking, we began the day’s round of technology demos.
Q2 demonstrated its partner marketplace and app store that solves the challenge of banks and fintechs working together.
Monit presented its mobile predictive cash flow and financial optimization solution that gives small business owners the personalized insights into and guidance on their finances they need to manage their business successfully.
payever demonstrated its solutions that help small businesses access and take advantage of the same technology that big companies do.
Obsecure showcased its technology that authenticates digital actions to ensure that digital experiences are as safe and simple as in-person interactions.
Mostly AI demonstrated its synthetic data platform that enables companies to take advantage of AI and Big Data while maintaining customer privacy protections.
The second round of demos slated for today– including Glia, Illuma Labs, Envestnet | Yodlee, Microsoft, and Horizn— have been rescheduled for tomorrow due to technical difficulties. Stay tuned for more details on timing.
We would be remiss not to mention that Day Two began with our new interactive, networking session, Meet at the Cafe. Sponsored by Google Cloud, our first edition Tuesday morning featured a spirited, interactive conversation on Klarna’s$650 million fundraising, the fate of challenger banks, and the impact of new customer behaviors in the age of COVID-19.
Meet at the Cafe returns Wednesday morning, with a special guest: David Andrzejek, Head of API Ecosystems with Google Cloud. So meet us at the cafe and join in the conversation!
On the day that Goldman Sachs announced that its digital banking solution Marcus would now feature a suite of PFM tools, FinovateFall Digital attendees were busy listening to the architect of this new feature – Adam Dell, Head of Product at Marcus – making the case for, among other things, the union of digital banking and PFM.
Successful digital financial services offerings in the post-COVID era will have three main features, Dell said. They will have a low cost means of delivery, they will represent a fair deal for the consumer, and they will provide what he called “delightful digital experiences.”
The new PFM solution, known as Marcus Insights, is currently available on iOS and will be made available on Android platforms and on the web soon. Marcus Insights aggregates the user’s financial information in a single dashboard, and offers tools and trackers to provide an easy-to-understand overview of their finances. After linking their checking, savings, loans, and/or investment accounts, users can analyze their spending in pre-set categories such as travel, shopping, and dining, as well as get instant insight into their spending and saving patterns, and their investment performance.
Interestingly, due to a restrictive data sharing agreement, users will not be able to link their Apple Cards to Marcus Insights. This is despite the fact that Apple is a Goldman partner. Also partnering with Goldman and Marcus on this initiative is Finovate alum Plaid, which was acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion at the beginning of the year.
Goldman launched Marcus, which was named after the investment bank’s founder Marcus Goldman, in 2016 and, just this year, unveiled a mobile app for the online bank. As of January, Marcus has $60 billion in customer deposits, and $5 billion in loans. CNBC reported that Marcus plans to add a digital checking account and an investing service in 2021.
As the buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) craze explodes, some fintechs are in just the right place to catch the sparks. Payment services company Klarna is one of these players, and it has just landed $650 million in funding.
Today’s round adds to the company’s $1.4 billion in previously raised funds, bringing its total to just over $2 billion. The investment also boosts Klarna’s valuation to $10.6 billion, ranking the company as the highest-valued private fintech in Europe and the fourth highest worldwide.
The round was led by Silver Lake, GIC (Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund), and accounts managed by BlackRock and HMI Capital. Additional funds came from Merian Chrysalis, TCV, Northzone, and Bonnier, which have acquired shares from existing shareholders.
Klarna will use the funds to invest in product development, fuel global expansion, and build on its growth.
“We are at a true inflection point in both retail and finance,” said Klarna CEO and Co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “The shift to online retail is now truly supercharged and there is a very tangible change in the behavior of consumers who are now actively seeking services which offer convenience, flexibility and control in how they pay and an overall superior shopping experience. Klarna’s unique proposition, consumer preference and global retailer network will prove an excellent platform for further growth.”
As consumers seek alternative methods to finance their purchases, Klarna’s BNPL tool that enables users to pay in interest-free installments has gained impressive traction. The company’s shopping app has more than 12 million monthly active users worldwide, with 55,000 daily downloads.
And Klarna’s game is also strong on the merchant side of things, as many retailers have sought to increase online sales during stay-at-home orders. During the first half of 2020, the company added more than 35,000 new retailers to its existing merchant base of more than 200,000 partners including Sephora, The North Face, Timberland, and Ralph Lauren.
As a result of this growth, the company’s volume grew 44% over the first half of this year to more than $22 billion and its revenue increased 36% year-on-year to $466 million over the same period.
Today we’re announcing the winners of the 2020 Finovate Awards, recognizing excellence in fintech across 23 different categories. This is the second year of the Finovate Awards, which aims to highlight strong work done by the companies who are driving fintech innovation forward and the individuals who are bringing new ideas to life.
This year’s Finovate Awards may not come with ballroom gowns, confetti, and cocktails, but that doesn’t make the accomplishments any less compelling. In fact, the opposite is true. To be receive an award in the midst of a global pandemic-turned-economic crisis is often the result of putting the needs of others first.
Judges for the awards include media analysts, board members, bankers, fintech founders, and more. Each were given the difficult task of taking a record number of nominations and distilling them down to just a single winner in each category.
Best Alternative Investment Platform: CNote
Best Back Office / Core-Service Provider: MAXEX
Best Consumer Lending Platform: NF Innova and Raiffeisen Bank Serbia
Best Customer Experience: Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Best Digital Bank: STASH
Best Digital Mortgage Platform: LendingHome
Best Enterprise Payments Solution: PaymentGalaxy by Finzly
Best Financial Mobile App: TMRW by United Overseas Bank
Best Fintech Accelerator / Incubator: The Venture Center’s FIS and ICBA Accelerators
Best Fintech Partnership: PPP.bank (Citizens Bank of Edmond and Teslar Software)
Best ID Management Solution: buguroo
Best Insurtech Solution: Spire by Ernst & Young
Best Mobile Payments Solution: Nordic API Gateway
Best RegTech Solution: Facteus
Best SMB/SME Banking Solution: ANNA Money
Best Use of AI/ML: Socure
Best Wealth Management Solution: SoFi Invest
Excellence in Financial Inclusion: Current
Excellence in Sustainability: PayActiv
Executive of the Year: Renaud Laplanche, Upgrade
Fintech Woman of the Year: Lisa Kimball, Finicity
Innovator of the Year: Elena Ionenko, Turnkey Lender
Top Emerging Tech Company: Breach Clarity
While only one company can win each category, it’s also worth recognizing the quality of all of the finalists who made it to the last stage in the process.
We owe a huge thank you to the panel of judges, followers, and everyone who took the time to submit a nomination. Congratulations to the winners!
In a financial world still dealing with near-zero interest rates – and less – word that Spain-based financial resource platform Finect has partnered with savings-as-a-solution innovator Raisin is great news for Finect’s two million plus users.
“Spanish families have accumulated a record figure of almost €900,000 million in bank deposits, but not always with a meaningful return. In fact, in many cases, they don’t even earn interest,” Finect CEO Antonia Botas explained. He called the partnership with Raisin part of Finect’s “broader objective: to bring the best products and services to Spanish savers, following the launch of our fund platform in July.”
Finect offers a way for consumers to shop for a wide variety of financial services and products. More than 10,000 savers have used the platform to find and request a financial advisor, and 100+ national and international investment firms leverage Finect’s platform to connect with clients and grow their businesses. Courtesy of the partnership with Raisin, Finect users will have access to 60+ deposit products from Raisin’s European partner banks, and give users the ability to earn as much as 1.41% on their savings.
“With the increase in savings volume since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, creating access to better savings options with higher yields is more important than ever,” Raisin Spain Country Manager Miguel Freire said. “Finect and Raisin share a mission to use digital technology to provide people in Spain with not only more information, but also more competitive options.”
German fintech Raisin, which began operations in the United States over the summer, began the year with the news that it has topped the €20 billion in deposits mark. Founded in 2012, Raisin has more than 280,000 customers across Europe, and more than 98 partner banks.
A Finovate alum since making its debut at FinovateFall in 2013, Finect was founded a year before, and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.
ABN AMRO is updating its Grip app this week by integrating Subaio’s white label subscription management feature for banks.
The integration comes at a time when users are spending more than ever before on subscriptions, especially digital subscriptions such as movie streaming services and cloud storage products. According to the New York Times, consumers spent an average of $640 on digital subscriptions in 2019, up 7% from 2017.
ABN AMRO’s Grip PFM app now leverages Subaio’s subscription management feature that enables users see all of their recurring payments in one place. The tool alerts users of any changes in subscriptions and even helps them cancel subscriptions from within the app. Subaio relies on an algorithm that uses machine learning to detect patterns in frequency, amount, merchant name, and more.
“Since the launch we’ve already seen tens of thousands of Grip users coming in to see their overview and also cancel subscriptions. It’s fantastic to help people get control of their subscriptions,” said Subaio CEO Thomas Laursen.
Today’s partnership with ABN AMRO is Subaio’s seventh bank partnership. Among the company’s other partners are Nordea and challenger bank Lunar. The company has found that the average user has eight different subscriptions, and that the users are saving $253 (€213) every time they use Subaio’s solution to cancel a subscription.
Founded in 2016, Subaio showcased at FinovateEurope 2020. The company has raised $2.4 million and has 20 employees.
