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Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Expensify, Featurespace, Feedzai, Finastra, Fintech Rundown, Jack Henry, TreviPay, Zafin

This week brings May Day, a day to celebrate the halfway point between spring and summer, and in the world of fintech, there are also exciting developments to mark the start of a new month. Check back for real-time updates on how the fintech landscape evolves this week.

Youth Banking

SCE Credit Union partners with Los Angeles County on youth access banking program.

Credit Unions

UniWyo Credit Union taps Jack Henry to help with merger with Reliant Federal Credit Union.

Digital Banking

Core banking platform provider Finxact and SaaS core modernization and transformation solution provider for banks Zafin announced a new collaboration.

Expense Management

Financial management superapp for expenses and corporate cards Expensify unveils its New Expensify platform geared toward the global self-employed market.

Payments

Fintech infrastructure solution for branded customer wallets, Ansa, secures $14 million in Series A funding.

TreviPay unveils new self-financing option and enhanced payment application features for B2B net terms program.

Stripe decouples payments from the rest of its products stack.

Till Financial partners with EF Educational Tours and EF Explore America to facilitate cashless payments for traveling students.

FastSpring and EBANX partner to expand Pix payments for digital products in Brazil.

DailyPay to offer earned wage access to small businesses nationwide.

Airwallex to provide faster international payments for BILL.

Kojo expands fintech offering to modernize the payment process for contractors.

Fortech selects Shift4 technology to streamline payments at alternative-fuel service stations across Europe.

Lending

Xplor Technologies launches new financial solution for small businesses.

Cross River marks $200+ million in commercial real estate loan originations in the first quarter of 2024.

Blend Labs lands $150 million investment.

Fraud Prevention

Anti-fraud and financial crime software company Feedzai introduces new Chief Financial Officer David Larson.

Featurespace joins The Knoble, an alliance of financial service professionals, law enforcement, regulators, and NGOs committed to fighting financial crime.

Quavo Fraud & Disputes releases QFD Version 24.01 to reduce assignment volumes and enhance automation.

FinScan launches AI solution for sanctions screening of financial instruments.

Wealth Management

Swedish investment platform SAVR secures investment from Incore Invest.

Financial digital platform FactSet unveils AI-powered portfolio commentary.

Treasury Management

Finastra teams up with OpenFin to enhance the user experience of Finastra Kondor, Finastra’s bank treasury management system

Business Banking

Baselayer raises $6.5 million in a Seed round to redefine business risk with AI risk engine. 

Photo by Social History Archive on Unsplash

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Gen AI, Geopolitics, and the Blue Dot Customer: 3 Conversations from FinovateEurope

Gen AI, Geopolitics, and the Blue Dot Customer: 3 Conversations from FinovateEurope
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: FinovateEurope 2024, Interview, Streamly

Today we’re sharing our final set of conversations from our European fintech conference, FinovateEurope. This round of interviews expands beyond our recent look at embedded finance, open banking, and the customer experience in financial services to cover broader themes like AI, the intersection of geopolitics and finance, and the customer of tomorrow.

The truth about generative AI: What financial institutions really need to know about adoption

Author, Generative AI expert, and founder at Tamang Ventures, Nina Schick discusses the realities facing financial services companies when they adopt generative AI. Schick talks about lessons financial services companies can learn from early adopters of the technology in other industries, and why partnerships are the way forward for most companies in banking and finance to best take advantage of AI.

The geopolitical super cycle and what that means for financial services

CEO at London Politica, Manas Chawla talks about the geopolitical risks facing the financial services sector in 2024 – from Ukraine to Gaza to the upcoming Presidential election in the United States. Chawla also discusses the geopolitical supercycle and the challenge of “grey rhino” threats that leaders in both business and politics need to be aware of.

The blue dot consumer: What can financial services learn from Taylor Swift, Red Bull, and United Airlines

A consumer behaviouralist at The King of Customer Experience Ken Hughes introduces the concept of the blue dot consumer in his discussion of what he calls “the customer of tomorrow.” Hughes talks about the relationship between technology and the human experience, how successful brands build loyalty, and what banks and financial institutions can do to foster true loyalty.

Photo by CoWomen

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B2B Payments Consolidates: Paystand to Acquire Teampay

B2B Payments Consolidates: Paystand to Acquire Teampay
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions, PayStand
  • Paystand is acquiring Teampay. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
  • Following the acquisition, Paystand will serve more than one million business customers.
  • Teampay will continue to serve its existing customers under the same brand, and things will be business as usual “in the near term.”

Cloud-based billing and payment platform Paystand announced this week it has agreed to acquire expense management platform Teampay. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The strategic move marks the California-based company’s second acquisition. Paystand purchased procurement platform Yaydoo in 2022. Now, the company services more than one million companies.

Teampay was founded in 2016 to offer spend management, accounts payable automation, purchasing assistant, spend approval tools, accounting automation, and more to help small-to-mid-market businesses and enterprises automate their spending without sacrificing control.

Paystand, which leverages the blockchain and cloud technology to digitize and automate businesses’ cash lifecycle, will use Teampay to scale its services. “With the fusion of Paystand and Teampay we significantly expanded our network, which now touches over one million businesses,” Paystand said in a blog post announcement.

Logistically, Teampay will continue to serve its existing customers under the same brand, and things will be business as usual “in the near term.” The companies did not specify whether Paystand planned to dissolve the Teampay brand and bring the customers under its own platform.

Paystand was founded in 2013 to help businesses digitize receivables, automate processing, reduce time-to-cash, eliminate transaction fees, and enable new revenue. In addition to its B2B payments and billing capabilities, the company also helps businesses leverage the blockchain to securely record their payment history by certifying and notarizing payments on the blockchain. Paystand has raised a total of $98 million. Jeremy Almond is Co-Founder and CEO.

Photo by Alexander Suhorucov

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BMO Unveils Greener Future Financing to Help SMEs Build Climate-Resilience

BMO Unveils Greener Future Financing to Help SMEs Build Climate-Resilience
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Green Banking
  • BMO is bringing its Greener Future Financing program to the U.S.
  • Green Future Financing is BMO’s first climate financing program to help SMEs become climate-resilient.
  • BMO’s program offers both climate resiliency loan discounts and green business advisory.

Canada-based BMO is bringing its Greener Future Financing program to the United States.

The eighth largest bank in North America by assets, BMO announced the launch earlier this week. Greener Future Financing is the financial institution’s first climate financing program designed to help SMEs build climate-resilient operations. Specifically, the program will offer climate resiliency loan discounts and green business advisory to help businesses meet their climate sustainability goals.

BMO’s announcement means that it will commit $30 million in support of SMEs that are investing in technologies to reduce their carbon footprint and mitigate the potential impact of weather-related events.

“Business leaders and our customers are telling us that they value products, services, and incentives that will help reduce their carbon footprint – as well as insights to help them adapt and thrive in this evolving business landscape,” BMO Head of U.S. Business Banking Niamh Kristufek said.

A look at the two main components of the program reveals an emphasis on both financial and human capital. The climate resiliency loan discounts give a rate discount of 0.5% on qualifying lending products including business term loans, business flex loans, owner-occupied commercial estate mortgage loans, and investor-owned real estate mortgage loans ranging from $100,000 to $1,000,000. The loans must be used for program-approved purposes; for example, purchasing renewable energy technologies such as LED lighting, smart meters, flood proofing, and more. An additional 0.25% will be available for customers that set up automatic payments via a BMO business checking account when the loan is closed.

BMO’s green business advisory will help business owners get the information and capital they need to build climate resilient operations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The advisory will help SMEs better understand emerging climate-related policies and regulations, as well as technologies and case studies to help them better manage climate risks.

The program is slated to go live in 24 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In two of these states – Michigan and Texas – businesses participating in the program must be located within 100 miles of a BMO full-service retail branch in an adjacent state.

“BMO’s commitment to sustainability is guided by our Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, and our Climate Ambition to be our clients’ lead partner in the transition to a net-zero world,” Kristufek said. “Through our Greener Future Financing program, BMO is meeting these needs to help our customers make progress, advising them of climate-related risks and plans that future-proof businesses.”

Photo by Scott Webb

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Salesforce Launches Transaction Dispute Management Tool for Banks

Salesforce Launches Transaction Dispute Management Tool for Banks
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Salesforce launched two new capabilities within its Einstein 1 platform, Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions.
  • Transaction Dispute Management helps service agents streamline dispute management, while Einstein Copilot Banking Actions serves as a chatbot and AI assistant for bank service agents.
  • Salesforce launched Einstein 1 in 2023 to enable customers to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into customer experiences.

Salesforce announced today it has launched new capabilities to help banks resolve transaction disputes. The new, AI-powered tools streamline the entire dispute process to resolve customer inquiries and requests more efficiently.

The new tools include Transaction Dispute Management and Einstein Copilot Banking Actions. These capabilities are available within one of Salesforce’s tool suites, Einstein 1, which the company launched in 2023 to enable customers to infuse AI, automation, and analytics into customer experiences. The two transaction dispute resolution tools help banks combine consumer transaction data with customer data from Salesforce to automate manual tasks, reduce errors, resolve issues, and improve customer communications.  

The Transaction Dispute Management tool is an AI-powered solution that helps service agents at banks streamline dispute management. Like many dispute management tools on the market, Salesforce’s offering works for the entire dispute process– from the time a dispute is submitted until it is resolved. The tool helps banks maintain communication channels with customers, card networks, merchants, and issuing banks. One of Salesforce’s differentiating factors with the tool, however, is that it allows bank agents to use prebuilt email prompt templates and generative AI to draft personalized customer emails related to dispute activity within their workflow. Transaction Dispute Management also integrates with card networks to provide connected workflows, simplifying coordination with merchants.

The second capability Salesforce launched within Einstein 1 today, Einstein Copilot Banking Actions, is a chatbot and AI assistant for bank service agents. The tool helps agents ask questions and receive relevant responses based in metadata, then automate tasks within their workflow. For example, an agent can ask Einstein Copilot to trigger a fee reversal request for a disputed transaction, issue a provisional credit, or pull a list of recent customer transactions. Because all actions run within the Einstein Trust Layer, they do not compromise data security or privacy standards.

“The current process for managing transaction disputes is complex and cumbersome, leading to decreased productivity for bank service agents,” said Salesforce SVP & GM for Financial Services Eran Agrios. “These new capabilities simplify and streamline the entire transaction dispute cycle, enabling banks to deliver exceptional customer experiences and drive innovation across their business.”

Salesforce was founded in 1999, and in the company’s 25 years of operations, it has expanded well beyond a simple CRM solution. The California-based company currently provides a host of sales and marketing tools, digital storefronts and commerce solutions, data analytics and visualization offerings, collaboration software, and more.

Photo by Kindel Media

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The Finovate Podcast: How Credit Unions Use Technology to Bring New Projects to Life

The Finovate Podcast: How Credit Unions Use Technology to Bring New Projects to Life
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Interview, Podcasting

This week on the Finovate Podcast, Finovate VP and podcast host Greg Palmer sat down with Brian Lee, CEO of Landings Credit Union. Their conversation comes in advance of a special session at FinovateSpring next month, dedicated specifically to the credit union ecosystem.

A part of Landings Credit Union for nearly a decade, Lee has spent the last four years as CEO. He started as CFO of the Arizona-based financial institution and, before that, worked as both a regulator and in public accounting. Founded in 1953 as “Tempe Schools Credit Union,” Landings Credit Union today has more than 15,000 members and assets of more than $238 million.

Last year Landings CU received the Dementia Friendly business designation, which ensures members that credit union staff are trained to both recognize and support individuals with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. “In Arizona we are the fastest growing state for new cases for Alzheimers,” Lee explained, “so it’s a big deal here for us.”

This year, the financial institution garnered national recognition for its commitment to financial inclusion, earning the Juntos Avanzamos designation. The designation recognizes the work done by credit unions to serve and empower Hispanic, Latino, and immigrant communities. A national network launched in 2015, the Juntos Avanzamos program has a presence in 29 states, serving more than 12 million consumers at 141+ credit unions in the U.S.

In their Finovate podcast conversation, Palmer and Lee talk about using technology to bring new projects to life in the context of these recent successful outreach efforts. “How can we comb through our data and find these new data points that we’re looking for, aggregate (them), and say ‘Let’s be the ones who are going out and reaching out to people’,” Lee explained. “Whether from our own data or community data that’s out there: how do we use that to be able to serve more people?”

Check out Episode 213 of the Finovate Podcast and the rest of Greg Palmer’s conversation with Landings Credit Union CEO Brian Lee.

Photo by Jean Balzan

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FinovateSpring 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 6

By Madeline Clines Posted on
Categories: Atomic FI, FinovateSpring 2024, FinovateSpring 2024 Sneak Peek, ScribeUp, Trice

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 21 and 22. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Atomic

Atomic’s PayLink simplifies subscription management by allowing consumers to efficiently manage, modify, and optimize recurring payments and subscriptions within their financial institutions.

Features

  • Update payment methods and change payment dates
  • Pause or cancel subscriptions and resubscribe without the hassle
  • Upgrade, downgrade or switch plans

Who’s it for?

Banks, fintechs, card networks, credit unions, etc.

ScribeUp

ScribeUp is the best-in-class subscription management solution directly behind a consumer’s card and banking products.

Features

  • 1-Click Cancellation: Cancel subscriptions automatically
  • Subscription Finder: Find subscriptions on third-party consumer cards
  • Subscription Insights: View summary and personalized savings

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, challenger banks, neobanks, etc.

Trice

Trice is a fast, secure platform for instant bank transfers, connecting directly to FedNow and RTP for real-time account-to-account transactions.

Features

  • Ensure irrevocable, instant inbound settlement with Request for Payment feature
  • Reduce fraudulent funding risks associated with ACH and debit card loads
  • Focus on high-impact, real-time payment use cases with seamless API integration

Who’s it for?

Digital wallets, BaaS, fintechs, payment providers, lending institutions, banks, and credit unions.

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Impact Asset Manager Finance in Motion Partners with Financial Crime Regtech Napier AI

Impact Asset Manager Finance in Motion Partners with Financial Crime Regtech Napier AI
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Napier
  • Impact asset manager Finance in Motion has teamed up with financial crime compliance specialist Napier AI.
  • Finance in Motion will deploy Napier AI Continuum as its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) platform.
  • London-based Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018.

Financial crime compliance company Napier AI announced a partnership with impact asset manager Finance in Motion this week. The partnership calls for Finance in Motion to deploy Napier AI Continuum as its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) platform.

Additionally, Napier AI will include its Client Screening solution and Client Risk Assessment module as part of the Napier AI Continuum platform deployment. The objective is to provide Finance in Motion with the tools it needs to continue driving public and private capital toward impact investments in emerging markets – while ensuring that capital does not end up financing illicit or criminal activity.

Finance in Motion Managing Director Sylvia Wisniwski explained: “Like any institution, we have a duty to ensure that the public and private capital raised is used exclusively for the intended objectives, in our case impact investments in emerging markets. Accordingly, regulation requires effective measures to prevent funds from being used to finance criminal activities. The collaboration with Napier AI allows us to efficiently query data through automated processes and integrated systems.”

Napier AI Continuum will provide Finance in Motion with API-enabled, cloud native, automated client screening, and supports transliteration of 22 languages. The platform also offers AI fuzzy matching and secondary scoring capabilities. Finance in Motion will benefit from customizable workflows, a sandbox environment for optimizing screening configurations, and configurable dashboards with no-code rule binding and AI insights to drive efficient decisioning.

“The key to dismantling criminal networks lies in cutting off their sources of revenue entirely by correctly identifying accounts, transactions, and behavioural patterns associated with financial crime,” Napier AI CEO Greg Watson said. “Napier AI’s cutting edge compliance solutions supercharge Finance in Motion’s mission to generate positive change in emerging markets with automated client screening.”

Headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany and founded in 2009, Finance in Motion specializes in development finance. An impact asset manager, the company structures, advises, and manage both private debt and equity investments in emerging markets. The company supports financing of projects ranging from sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, and biodiversity, to micro-finance, natural capital, and affordable housing.

Finance in Motion has $2.8 billion (€3.6 billion) in assets under management or advisory, and has active investments in 39 countries. Last month, the company was featured in the ImpactAssets 50 roster of the top 50 impact managers in the world. The recognition was the eighth consecutive listing for Finance in Motion, which was named “Emeritus Impact Manager.”

Founded in 2015, Napier made its Finovate debut three years later at FinovateEurope 2018. At the conference, the company demonstrated how its Customer Screening and Transaction Monitoring Enhancement tools help improve AML oversight. The technology reduces false positives by up to 80%, and can be used to supplement or replace existing customer screening systems.

Napier began 2024 announcing a partnership with Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) digital banking provider Satchel. The following month, Napier unveiled its Napier Continuum Live and Napier Continuum Flow services to facilitate the deployment of its AML platform. Napier Continuum Live is a plug-and-play hosted offering. Napier Continuum Flow is a headless API service.

Also in February Napier secured $56 million (£45 million) in funding from private equity firm Crestline Investors. The company said that the investment will help power business expansion over the coming years. The funds will also support Napier AI’s development of new NextGen screening and monitoring solutions powered by Explainable AI.

Photo by Felix Mittermeier

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ComplyAdvantage Acquires Knowledge Graph Creator Golden

ComplyAdvantage Acquires Knowledge Graph Creator Golden
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • ComplyAdvantage announced plans to acquire knowledge engine builder Golden Recursion for an undisclosed amount.
  • ComplyAdvantage will implement Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation methods to help financial institutions minimize their risk of financial crime.
  • The deal will also increase ComplyAdvantage’s footprint in the U.S. and will make Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) a top shareholder of ComplyAdvantage.

Fraud and AML risk detection platform ComplyAdvantage announced it has agreed to acquire knowledge engine builder Golden Recursion. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2017, Golden is developing a self-constructing knowledge database used to accelerate discovery and education. The San Francisco-based company combines human effort and machine intelligence to simplify the process of gathering and communicating knowledge. As a result, Golden has created one of the world’s largest knowledge graphs, a diagram that facilitates information analysis by displaying interconnected data points and their relationships.

“By combining our experienced team of AI and large language model (LLM) specialists with ComplyAdvantage’s industry-leading data science team, we are creating a global team of data experts,” said Golden Founder and CEO Jude Gomila. “Together, I’m confident we will transform financial crime risk management for businesses worldwide.” Gomila will join ComplyAdvantage as a board observer and special advisor.

Golden has raised almost $60 million, having Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as one of its top contributors. As part of today’s deal, a16z will become a top ComplyAdvantage shareholder, joining Goldman Sachs, Index Ventures, and Balderton Capital.

“We are excited to welcome their talented team to the ComplyAdvantage family, alongside a16z, who bring powerful expertise as we embark on the next phase of our growth journey,” said ComplyAdvantage CEO Vatsa Narasimha.

U.K.-based ComplyAdvantage offers financial institutions a wide view of their vulnerability to financial crime. The company leverages AI and machine learning to sort through ComplyAdvantage’s database of entities, which is updated continuously to ensure accuracy. The company plans to implement Golden’s data extraction and disambiguation methods that use natural language processing to bring supplementary, disparate data sources into what ComplyAdvantage calls its “data ingestion layer.” These additional data points will offer ComplyAdvantage clients more comprehensive, real-time financial crime risk insights.

“Delivering AI-enriched financial crime insights to our customers through a best-in-class user experience built on the most interconnected data has been our north star at ComplyAdvantage since day one. The acquisition of Golden is a critical milestone on that journey,” said Narasimha.

The acquisition will also help ComplyAdvantage expand its footprint in North America, specifically in the U.S. With its five offices based in New York, London, Singapore, Cluj-Napoca, and Lisbon, the company currently serves more than 1,000 organizations in 75 countries.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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Small Business Lending Platform JUDI.AI Inks a Trio of New Credit Union Customers

Small Business Lending Platform JUDI.AI Inks a Trio of New Credit Union Customers
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Daily news, JUDI.AI

What do Apple Federal Credit Union, Carter Credit Union, and SCE Credit Union all have in common?

All three financial institutions announced this month that they are teaming up with small business lending platform JUDI.AI.

In a series of blog posts at the company’s website, JUDI.AI’s Director of Marketing Kyle Thom welcomed the three credit unions to what he called “our growing group of 35+ forward-thinking community lenders who are on a mission to reinvent small business lending.”

JUDI.AI offers credit unions and community banks an alternative approach to helping small and medium sized businesses secure the funding they need. The company enables financial institutions to digitally transform their credit decisioning and underwriting operations to assess the financial health of their small business customers and members on a continuous basis.

In addition to instant cash flow analysis, automated underwriting, continuous monitoring, and real-time portfolio reporting, JUDI.AI adds automated analysis of current banking data to supplement traditional financial data sources such as credit scores and financial statements.

Here’s a look at JUDI’s new partners:

  • Apple Federal Credit Union. $4.3 billion in assets. 240,000+ members, Twenty-one locations across northern Virginia.
  • Carter Credit Union. $722 million in assets. 55,000+ members. Eleven locations in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Fort Worth, Texas.
  • SCU Credit Union. $1.1 billion in assets. 67,000+ members. Eight locations in southern California and southern Nevada.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, JUDI.AI made its Finovate debut at our all-digital fintech conference, FinovateWest 2020. Most recently, the company demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2022. At the event, Thom and JUDI.AI Chief Product Officer Su Ning Strube, demonstrated how the platform enables lenders to process 50% more SME loan applications without committing any additional resources, and approve 20% more loans with no added risk.

“What makes JUDI.AI unique in that we identify cash flow metrics that are predictive and correlated to future defaults, and we combine that information in our proprietary small business model with traditional credit scores to calculate the creditworthiness of any borrower,” Su Ning Strube explained from the Finovate stage.

In addition to the credit unions signed in April, JUDI.AI this year has also welcomed Canadian alternative lender Glasslake Funding and Hawaii’s Kauai Federal Credit Union to its client roster. Kauai FCU is the first and only certified Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) on the island of Kauai.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

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Betterment to Acquire Marcus’ Digital Investing Accounts

Betterment to Acquire Marcus’ Digital Investing Accounts
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Betterment, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Betterment has agreed to acquire Goldman Sachs’ Marcus Invest.
  • The deal does not apply to Marcus Deposits and does not cover any of Marcus’ technology, employees, or operations.
  • Financial terms of the deal, as well as the number and value of Marcus Invest accounts, were undisclosed.

Automated investing service Betterment signed a deal with Goldman Sachs to acquire the digital investing accounts at Marcus Invest. Marcus Invest, which offers digitally customized investment portfolios to consumers, will transfer these accounts to Betterment in the coming months. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed.

The acquisition does not apply to Marcus Deposits, Goldman Sachs’ neobank that currently serves over three million customers globally and has more than $100 billion in consumer deposits. Goldman Sachs plans to maintain possession of and continue to focus on growing Marcus Deposits. The deal also does not cover any of Marcus’ technology, employees, or operations. Betterment will only acquire Marcus Invest accounts and assets under management.

“As we increase our focus on our growing Marcus Deposits platform, we made the decision to transition away from our digital investment advisor offering and wanted to find a great home for those customers,” said Goldman Sachs Marcus Global Head Marcos Rosenberg. “Betterment was the obvious choice for those accounts as we share a deep commitment to customer satisfaction. We look forward to continuing to serve our Marcus Deposits customers with great products and a great experience.”

The number of Marcus Invest accounts, as well as the funds under management that will be added to Betterment are undisclosed. The clients will join Betterment’s more than 850,000 customers who hold more than $45 billion in assets in the Betterment platform.

Betterment was founded in 2008 to combine technology with personalized support to create a roboadvisor that suits a range of customer preferences. The company provides diversified portfolios, tax-smart tools, a range of account types, planning tools, educational resources, and human advisors. Betterment also offers services that compete with Marcus Deposits, including a high yield cash account, checking account, and debit card.

Under the deal, which is subject to customary closing conditions, Marcus Invest customer accounts will be transitioned to Betterment “on or about” June 29, 2024 unless they opt out of the transfer.

“This acquisition further cements our leadership in the digital investing space,” said Betterment CEO Sarah Levy. “We are excited to welcome these customers to Betterment where our scalable technology platform will continue to support them on their investing journeys.”

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Data Privacy Vault Skyflow Secures $30 Million in New Funding

Data Privacy Vault Skyflow Secures $30 Million in New Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, Fundings, Skyflow
  • Data privacy vault Skyflow has raised $30 million in an extension Series B round led by Khosla Ventures.
  • The investment comes amid growth in the market for sensitive data protection for Large Language Models (LLMs).
  • Founded in 2019, Skyflow made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022.

Data privacy vault Skyflow raised $30 million in an extension of its Series B funding round. The round was led by Khosla Ventures, and featured participation from existing investors Mouro Capital, Foundation Capital, and Canvas Ventures. The investment takes the company’s total equity capital to $100 million, according to Crunchbase. Valuation information was not immediately available.

The investment in Skyflow arrives as the proliferation of Large Language Models (LLMs) raises the stakes when it comes to protecting sensitive data. Skyflow’s global network of data privacy vaults enables businesses to isolate, protect, and manage sensitive customer data across any app, data cloud, or LLM. Skyflow supports nearly a billion records of user data for its customers and processes more than two billion API calls a quarter.

“We see an urgent need for companies to make privacy a core part of their technology stack as LLMs and AI hurdle forward, ingesting more and more personal data,” Skyflow Co-founder and CEO Anshu Sharma said. “Skyflow is the only solution that allows companies to build privacy by design into their technological infrastructure without overhauling anything – anywhere in the world.”

Skyflow credits a proprietary technology – polymorphic encryption – for its ability to protect data without inhibiting its usability for critical business tasks. Skyflow’s technology serves as a “privacy trust layer,” blocking sensitive information from entering AI models, and making adoption of AI technology safer. Companies can personalize their own definition of “sensitive data” as needed, providing additional protection beyond PII, intellectual property, or other categories of critical information.

“With the advent of enterprise applications powered by AI, the need for trust and privacy infrastructure is key to protecting sensitive data,” Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla said. “Skyflow is rethinking how data can be managed and protected across any app, cloud, or LLM, making it a company that will be vital for every enterprise business.”

Founded in 2019, Skyflow made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2022. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helps financial services companies securely orchestrate sensitive data and exchange it with third party providers without having to directly handle the data itself.

Interested in demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco in May? We are happy to read applications from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateSpring hub today to learn more.

Photo by Gotta Be Worth It

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