Revolut to Add New Telecom Service

Revolut to Add New Telecom Service
  • Revolut has partnered with 1Global to offer telecom services to its users.
  • Starting this week, Revolut will offer eSIMs to customers in all five membership tiers.
  • Users in Revolut’s Ultra membership tier will benefit from 3GB of data they can use across international borders. Members in other tiers can pay to top up their data.

In an exclusive announcement with CNBC, global financial services innovator Revolut revealed it plans to begin offering telecom services in the U.K. The move, which is made possible via a partnership with 1Global, will make Revolut one of the only fintechs to offer telecom services.

Starting this week, Revolut will begin rolling out eSIMs, which are small, programmable chips embedded directly into a smartphone, tablet, or wearable device. While eSIMs serve the same purpose as a traditional, physical SIM card, the eSIM is permanently embedded into the device and cannot be removed or swapped out.

While the new eSIM service is available to Revolut members under any of the company’s five plans, customers that pay for the Ultra membership tier will receive 3GB of data they can use across the globe, with no roaming charges. The company launched the Ultra membership option last year. For $69.47 (£55) per month, users will benefit from a platinum-plated payment card and “top-of-the-line experiences” such as airport lounge access, up to 10% cashback on travel accommodations, and more.

Users that fall into the other four Revolut membership categories will receive the standard eSIM plan, which allows them to access the Revolut app at any time and top up their Revolut phone plan if they run out of data with their current provider. The company is offering its non-Ultra members 100MB of free data if they sign up before May 1.

Adding telecom services will bolster the company’s robust travel benefit offerings. Revolut’s Premium, Metal, and Ultra subscribers receive cashback on accommodations, global medical insurance, winter sports insurance, fee-free currency exchange, and more. Adding a benefit as essential as communication is a logical next step, and may convince the company’s Standard and Plus members to pay the extra money to level up their memberships.

The London-based company made it clear that the eSIM benefit is about more than just an added travel reward. As Revolut GM of Premium Products Tara Massoudi explained to CNBC, “Our ambition is very much to be the financial super app. This is really in that direction.”

Since the company was founded in 2015 it has received $1.7 billion in funding and has expanded to serve 35+ million personal customers and more than 500,000 business customers.

Interestingly, not many fintechs have made similar moves into the telecom space. India-based credit card fintech Zolve began offering eSIM and SIM services last August in packages ranging from $30 per month to $60 per month.


Photo by Andrey Matveev

Finastra and Tesselate Team Up to Power Trade Finance Digitization

Finastra and Tesselate Team Up to Power Trade Finance Digitization
  • Finastra and Tesselate announced a partnership to facilitate faster and easier trade finance digitization.
  • The two companies launched Tegula Trade Finance as a Service which enables banks to automate manual processes, increase efficiencies, and reduce processing times.
  • Finastra was formed in 2017 from a merger between Finovate alum Misys and D+H.

A partnership between Finastra and digital transformation consultancy Tesselate will facilitate faster and easier trade finance digitization courtesy of a new end-to-end pre-packaged service. Launched today, Tegula Trade Finance as a Service empowers banks in the U.S. to automate manual processes and adapt to emerging events with a faster time to market and value. Banks can also leverage Finastra FusionFabric.cloud to integrate fintech applications and take advantage of enabling technologies such as AI and the blockchain.

“Our combined service with Tesselate delivers the automation and intelligence needed to increase efficiencies and decrease processing times, risk, errors, and total cost of ownership,” Finastra Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Sales and Strategic Partnerships, Americas, Jim McMahon said. “Importantly, the all-in-one solution promotes interoperability of trade finance processes to reduce friction and complexity, while giving banks the agility to enhance existing or launch new services.”

The new offering is powered by Finastra Trade Innovation and Corporate Channels. Finastra Trade Innovation is an end-to-end solution that facilitates frictionless trade and supply chain finance via straight-through processing, digitization, and data analytics to support growth and agility. Corporate Channels is a digital banking platform that gives banks a unified portal for trade, cash, supply-chain finance, lending, and treasury services for corporates. These technologies, and easy integration, help make Tegula Trade Finance as a Service a tool banks can use in order to boost revenue, take advantage of new market opportunities, enhance security, and future-proof their business.

“By delivering our all-in-one joint solution as a highly secure managed service, banks do not need to invest in significant amounts of additional resources or take them away from their core business to pursue digitization,” Tesselate Chief Revenue Officer and Managing Partner Alexandre Arnoux said. “Banks can take a modular approach to implementation for better cost and resource control, and we provide the ongoing updates, enhancements, and new capabilities at speed.”

A digital transformation consultancy and integrator headquartered in Paris, France, Tesselate advises FIs on digital strategy and supports them in their digital transformation journeys. This includes helping them implement and integrate enabling technologies and software solutions from Tesselate’s partners to improve operational efficiency and support growth. Founded in 2010, the company last month announced a partnership with Swiss fintech MITech.

Formed via a merger between Finovate alum Misys and D+H in 2017, Finastra serves financial institutions of all sizes with a wide variety of solutions and services across lending, payments, treasury and capital markets, as well as universal banking. The company’s offerings help FIs develop and grow banking relationships via channels such as embedded finance and Banking as a Service. More than 8,000 institutions – including 45 of the top 50 banks in the world – use Finastra’s technology to support open banking and fuel collaboration.

Headquartered in London, Finastra began the year announcing an upgraded partnership with Allied Banking Corporation and a new collaboration with Vietnam-based LPBank. The company also announced last month that it has teamed up with data and AI company Databricks. The partnership will enable Finastra to further leverage its data and to deliver value-added solutions with Generative AI capabilities. Finastra has also used Databricks to set up a data platform, Secure Zone, for its developers. Simon Paris is Finastra’s CEO.


Photo by Pixabay

Finovate Global: Fintechs Representing More than 15 Countries to Demo at FinovateEurope 2024

Finovate Global: Fintechs Representing More than 15 Countries to Demo at FinovateEurope 2024

FinovateEurope 2024 will have its fair share of local talent demoing live on the Finovate stage on 27 February in London. And while we’re looking forward to the return of FinovateEurope 2023 Best of Show winner NayaOne, we’re also excited to meet a whole bunch of U.K.-based fintechs that are making their Finovate debuts:

FinovateEurope 2024 will also feature one of our most geographically diverse lineups to date. Companies from 15 different countries plus the U.K. will be on hand in just a few weeks to demo their latest fintech innovations at our annual European fintech conference.

See for yourself! Here’s a look at the range of countries our demoing companies are coming from:

Visit our FinovateEurope hub today and save your seat. Register by 16 February and take advantage of big, early-bird savings!


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Segura Bank International (SBI), a financial institution based in Puerto Rico, tapped Temenos to power its new digital bank.
  • Contxto showcased the Chilean Fintech Law, Ley Fintec, that went into effect last weekend.
  • TechRound profiled 10 Bolivian startups including POS management software provider Vendis, paytech Pagame, and inclusive finance platform Koban,

Asia-Pacific

  • Singapore-based cryptocurrency payments app Oobit secured $25 million in Series A funding.
  • Salmon, a consumer credit and debit product provider, has become a licenced bank in the Philippines.
  • Doxa Holdings, a Singaporean digital procurement platform for the supply chain industry, raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Cento Ventures.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • 10x Banking announced plans to extend its expansion into Africa.
  • Semafor looked at the challenges Nigerian fintechs will face as the country’s central bank tightens regulations to fight fraud.
  • The Kenyan High Court enabled Nigerian fintech Flutterwave to access $3 million in funds frozen since July 2022.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Hungarian fraud prevention platform SEON joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Programme.
  • Germany’s Commerzbank partnered with trade finance solutions provider Surecomp.
  • Estonia-based checkout solutions provider Montonio to offer BNPL services courtesy of a partnership with Inbank.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Commercial Bank of Kuwait teamed up with Network International to upgrade its payment systems.
  • U.S. and Israeli-based fintech Pagaya locked in a five-year, $280 million credit facility with BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase, and other lenders.
  • Emirates NBD turned to anti-crime platform Silent Eight to enhance its compliance operations.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Indian payment services firm PayU teamed up with Thought Machine to power its LazyPay credit service.
  • Nepal Clearing House partnered with ACI Worldwide to support its National Payment Switch (NPS) initiative.
  • India-based fintech CRED agreed to acquire mutual fund and stock investment platform Kuvera.

Photo by Pixabay

Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast Showcase Black Voices in Fintech

Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast Showcase Black Voices in Fintech

The stage is not the only place where Finovate celebrates the accomplishments of Black and African-American fintech and financial services professionals.

Since inception, Greg Palmer and the Finovate Podcast have showcased Black and African-American innovators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders in the fintech and financial services space.

As part of our continued commemoration of Black and African-American History Month, today we highlight those conversations. Click the image to access the interview.


Nneka Ukpai – Better

Nate Gibbons – QuickFi

Jacqueline Baker – Author, The Unexpected Leader

Joseph Akintolayo – Deposits

Ariam Sium – FinGoal

William Crowder – Aperture Venture Capital

Sesie Bonsi – Bleu

Sharon Kimathi – Fintech Futures

Adrienne Harris – Superintendent NYS Department of Financial Services

Tosin Agbabiaka – Octopus Ventures

Fonta Gilliam – Invest Sou Sou


Photo by nappy

Entrust Confirms Plans to Acquire Onfido

Entrust Confirms Plans to Acquire Onfido
  • Payments, identities, and data security company Entrust confirmed that it has entered “exclusive discussions” to acquire identity verification technology company Onfido.
  • The acquisition will bring AI/ML-based biometric and document IDV technology to Entrust’s portfolio of identity solutions.
  • Both Entrust and Onfido are Finovate alums. Entrust has twice presented at our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley. Onfido made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018.

Trusted payments, identities, and data security company Entrust may be on the verge of acquiring identity verification (IDV) technology company Onfido. Entrust confirmed this week that it has entered “exclusive discussions” on the potential deal.

The acquisition would add an AI/ML-based biometric and document IDV tech stack to Entrust’s current portfolio of identity solutions. Entrust would also be able to leverage biometric, phishing-resistant authentication for use in high-value transactions.

Entrust President and CEO Todd Wilkinson praised Onfido’s IDV team, capabilities, and tech stack, calling them “best-in-class.” Wilkinson also pointed to the evolution of fraud – driven by new AI capabilities – that have created new challenges for identity verification. “Deepfakes and synthetic identity are driving a global need for a powerful level of identity assurance that facilitates crucial digital journeys in banking, finance, government, travel, and more,” Wilkinson said. “Step-up authentication using biometric-based, AI-driven identity verification will be critical to ensuring security, privacy, and trust in these high-value digital-first interactions.”

Headquartered in London and founded in 2012, Onfido leverages machine learning, AI, and automation to offer a digital identity solution that creates trust at the point of onboarding and beyond. The company’s technology helps businesses acquire new customers and keep costs low, while remaining compliant with regard to both KYC and AML. Onfido made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018 and returned to the Finovate stage months later for FinovateFall in New York.

Most recently, Onfido launched its Compliance Suite. The new offering, unveiled in late January, is an all-in-one identity verification solution that brings qualified electronic signature (QES) and One-time Password (OTP) to Onfido’s Real Identity Platform. The combination enables businesses to customize their onboarding workflows to meet local compliance obligations, increase customer conversions, and keep fraudsters at bay.

Entrust made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley 2015, and returned the following year to participate in FinDEVrSiliconValley 2016 (as “Entrust Datacard”). The company rebranded to “Entrust” in 2020, in a move that Wilkinson called “an evolution of our brand that honors our heritage as we look forward to our critical role in enabling companies to secure identity, payments, and data protection in a rapidly changing world.”

Today, Entrust has issued more than 20 billion payment cards, protects more than 100 million workforce and consumer identities, and encrypts and secures 24+ Swift messages daily. Founded in 1969 as DataCard Corporation, the company acquired Entrust in 2013, and Entrust Datacard was launched the following year.


Photo by fauxels

FinovateEurope 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 4

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 27. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Corsound AI

Corsound AI utilizes innovative technology to verify customers’ identities for financial institutions, leveraging over 200 patents to detect AI scams and voice fraud.

Features

  • Provides an innovative method to detect deepfakes in call centers, with or without DB
  • Delivers a revolutionary way to prevent identity theft
  • Offers a unique voice-face matching technology

Who’s it for?

Banks, credit unions, payment providers, and small-and-medium-sized businesses.

Dotfile

Dotfile is an end-to-end business verification platform that automates KYB and AML procedures, reduces fraud, and streamlines compliance operations.

Features

  • Verifies businesses and UBOs and maps corporate structures
  • Automates onboarding, from data collection to risk scoring and periodic monitoring
  • Creates flexible risk-scoring models with custom rules

Who’s it for?

Payment service providers, banks, fintechs, forex platforms, private equity firms, crypto brokers, and asset managers.

Eleos

Eleos partners with consumer brands to embed income protection and life insurance into their online journeys.

Features

  • Bridges access and awareness gap that has kept penetration of these products down
  • Adds additional revenue stream for distributors
  • Improves customer retention rate for brands

Who’s it for?

Direct to consumer fintechs.

Finerative

Finerative is a Gen-AI native startup bringing generative technology to the financial space.

Features

  • Improves productivity and operational efficiency while driving revenues
  • Increases client satisfaction
  • Delivers innovation

Who’s it for?

Universal banks, private banks, asset management entities, wealth management institutions, and independent financial advisors.

SkenarioLabs

SkenarioLabs’ predictive data analytics solution integrates an advanced suite of risk assessment and reporting tools to guide sustainable investment and lending decisions in real estate.

Features

  • Minimal data requirements: delivers accurate insights from address-only data
  • Single-platform integration: provides value, risk, & ESG assessments for all asset classes
  • Streamlined compliance: offers flexible analytics

Who’s it for?

Banks and building societies, real estate investment and advisory firms, and insurance providers.

Tuum

Tuum’s next generation core banking software platform removes legacy constraints, transforms existing business models, builds new business models, and unlocks new revenue streams. Core Banking. Without Limits .

Features

  • Delivers a cloud native, modular, API first software – unlimited scalability and flexibility
  • Features Beyond Core – accounts, lending, cards, & payments from a single platform
  • Offers a highly configurable platform – launch new products in minutes

Who’s it for?

Retail and corporate banks, EMIs, fintechs, and financial institutions.

Zeed

Zeed offers a platform for public companies and asset managers to reach, educate, and engage retail investors using AI and video content.

Features

  • Reaches and educates investors where they already are
  • Utilizes AI-generated financial video content
  • Tracks attribution to share price liquidity and AUM

Who’s it for?

Public companies, asset managers, retail investors, and brokerage platforms.

Expense Management Platform Fyle Integrates with American Express

Expense Management Platform Fyle Integrates with American Express
  • Expense management innovator Fyle integrated with American Express this week.
  • The integration will enable U.S. Business and Corporate Card members to issue on-demand virtual cards linked to their physical cards.
  • Fyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall last year.

Expense management platform Fyle has announced an integration with American Express. The partnership will enable U.S. Business and Corporate Card members to issue on-demand virtual cards from the Fyle platform. The virtual cards feature built-in controls, as well as enhanced security. The integration was made possible by Fyle’s participation in the American Express Sync Commercial Partner Program.

The ability to issue unlimited virtual cards linked to existing physical cards provides a number of benefits. Among them are:

  • Card-specific controls including spending limits and expiration dates
  • Real-time transaction data and notifications via text message
  • Automated receipt collection to accelerate reconciliation via Fyle’s expense management platform

The integration will also provide payment flexibility. Companies can leverage virtual cards to pay suppliers and take advantage of their American Express billing cycle to manage cash flow until their card payment is due.

“We are teaming up with American Express to give our customers access to the control, enhanced security, and cash flow management that come with using an American Express virtual card, alongside the ability to automate receipt tracking, credit card reconciliation, and expense accounting with Fyle,” company founder and CEO Yashwanth Madhusudhan said. “The integration helps us provide an elevated user experience and more value to our customers.”

Founded in 2016, Fyle made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2023. At the conference, Madhusudan showed how Fyle’s technology brings a modern, “fintech-like” experience to bank-issued card programs.


Photo by Paul IJsendoorn

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

Fintech Rundown: A Rapid Review of Weekly News

This week’s Fintech Rundown features partnership and expansion news from a handful of Finovate alums, as well as some interesting fundings in the cryptocurrency and charitable giving space.


Wealth Management

Digital wealth and payments company Mogo expands its relationship with data cloud company Snowflake.

U.K.-based wealth app Chip launches its first Cash ISA.

WiseAlpha unveils new wealth management portal and white-label solution.

Digital Banking

Segura Bank International (SBI), an FI based in Puerto Rico, launches a new digital bank powered by Temenos’ core banking platform.

North Carolina-based Mechanics & Farmers Bank has gone live on the nCino Cloud Banking Platform.

Indian payment solutions provider PayU migrates its credit service LazyPay to Thought Machine’s core banking platform.

10x Banking announces expansion to Africa, starting in South Africa.

Core banking provider Tuum raises $26.8 million (EUR 25 million) in Series B financing.

HSBC U.K. introduces its Cash Pod to expand customer access to cash in areas without bank branches.

Mortgagetech

Phoebus launches its SaaS-based mortgage servicing platform.

Raymond James Bank deploys ICE Mortgage Technology’s Encompass lending solution.

Payments

Atlantic Money secures authorization to bring its money transfer service to the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Overflow, a fintech that facilitates charitable giving, raises $20 million in new funding.

Worldpay completes its separation from FIS.

Airwallex forges multi-year partnership with McLaren Formula 1 team to support its treasury management and cross-border payout operations.

MENA-based payment orchestration solution provider PayTabs Group partners with Saudi Arabian payment-infrastructure-as-a-service fintech Nearpay.

Lending

Pagaya secures a five-year, $280 million credit facility led by BlackRock, JPMorgan, and others.

Allica Bank completes more than £2 billion in lending to businesses in the U.K.

Challenger banking

LendingClub moves closer to fulfilling the requirements to launch a new bank.

Open banking / Open finance

MX and Jack Henry announce an expanded agreement to enhance data sharing.

Trustly integrates MX data enhancement as part of its Open Banking product suite.

Norway-based open banking company Neonomics teams up with credit management firm Lowell.

Expense management / BFM

The Boston Celtics name Brex as its corporate card and spend management partner.

Expense management platform Fyle forges new integration with American Express.

Cryptocurrencies / DeFi

Oobit, a cryptocurrency payments app based in Singapore, raised $25 million in Series A funding.

Fnality to bring its blockchain-based payment system to the U.S. following its successful launch in the U.K.

Embedded finance

EY announces an alliance with embedded finance platform MoneyLion.

Identity Verification/Management

Entrust confirms that it is negotiating a potential acquisition of ID verification firm Onfido.


Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Celebrating African-American Voices and Fintech Innovation on the Finovate Stage

Celebrating African-American Voices and Fintech Innovation on the Finovate Stage

To kick off Finovate’s commemoration of Black/African-American History Month this year, we’re highlighting some of the Black and African-American fintech professionals who represented their companies and their fintech innovations at our Finovate conferences in 2023.


Andre Llewellyn – Marketing Consultant/Advisory Board Member with AI Squared

Along with company CTO Michelle Bonat, Andre Llewellyn helped demonstrated the new Generative AI-based features on AI Squared’s platform at FinovateFall last year.

The company’s technology enables financial services companies to leverage Generative AI – and their own data – to maximize their enterprise assets.

A marketing consultant and AI Squared Advisory Board member, Llewellyn is a marketing veteran whose insights helped fuel new product and brand launches for Procter & Gamble, Instagram, Hashflow, and Candy Digital. He is a graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business.

Demo video


Michael Duncan – CEO and Founder of Bankjoy

Michael Duncan’s Bankjoy made its first Finovate appearance in 2016.

The company, which returned to the Finovate stage in 2022 and 2023 for FinovateFall, helps community banks and credit unions access modern banking technology. Bankjoy’s solutions help FIs better target specific market niches and deliver superior digital banking experiences.

Duncan (CEO) co-founded Bankjoy in 2015. Headquartered in Royal Oak, Michigan, Bankjoy has more than 60 clients, more than 120 integrations, and serves more than 1 million customers and members of banks and credit unions. This week, the company announced a new partner – Oregon State Credit Union – that will deploy Bankjoy’s online account opening and loan application.

Demo video


Ryan Nichols – Solutions Engineer with DataVisor

Mountain View, California-based DataVisor made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2023.

Solutions Engineer Ryan Nichols (shown) joined company CRO Kevin McWey on stage as they demoed DataVisor’s Fraud & Risk Platform. The company’s solution supports the entire fraud workflow in a self-service solution that is single and flexible.

A software developer and solutions architect with experience at firms like CenturyLink and Internet publisher Giant Oak, Nichols joined DataVisor in 2021. As of the spring of 2023, he is both a Cryptocurrency Tracing Certified Examiner (CTCE) and a Certified Cryptocurrency Risk Specialist (CCRS).

Demo video


Nate Gibbons – Chief Experience Officer with QuickFi

Nate Gibbons, QuickFi’s Chief Experience Officer, is no stranger to Finovate audience – nor to the Finovate Best of Show awards.

The company, an innovator in embedded financing for business equipment, has won Best of Show on two occasions: FinovateSpring 2022 and 2023. And Gibbons was part of the winning team both times (along with colleague Jillian Munson, VP of Process & Automation with QuickFi).

An alum of the University of Rochester Simon Business School, Gibbons is also a Certified Lease and Finance Professional (CLFP). Previous to his tenure at QuickFi, he was Project Manager and subsequently Vice President at First American Equipment Finance.

Demo video


Malia Lazu – Founder and CEO of The Lazu Group

Malia Lazu is founder and CEO of The Lazu Group.

The company is an Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion firm that consists of The Urban Labs (services) and Lexicon (products). The Lazu Group made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateSpring, demoing its CULTURL Heritage Calendar that offers “content, ideas, and resources for creating timely communication to promote empathy and curiosity and encourage cross-cultural dialogue.”

Lazu is a speaker, a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an author. Her book, From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, was published this year. Lazu is also a former banking professional, having worked as EVP and Chief Experience and Culture Officer for Berkshire Bank in Boston.

Demo video


Matthew Parker – Founder and CEO of ModernTax

ModernTax founder and CEO Matthew Parker introduced his company to Finovate audiences last year at FinovateSpring. ModernTax is a data company that makes tax and financial data on non-public entities more accessible. The company has created a verification platform that includes more than seven million businesses, and ModernTax has validated tax records for “hundreds of thousands” of them.

Before launching ModernTax, Parker was co-founder and CEO of Rapidly.co, a SaaS platform that connects accountants, enrolled agents, and tax professionals to their clients online. We caught up with him last fall to talk about the founding of ModernTax and what it means to have a more transparent financial ecosystem.

Demo video.


Ariam Sium – VP of Product with FinGoal

FinGoal first introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinovateFall in 2021. But it was the company’s return to the Finovate stage the following spring that earned the Colorado-based fintech its first Best of Show award.

Led by Ariam Sium, VP of Product (shown) and Jenn Underwood, Product Analyst, FinGoal’s demo of its Aggregator Switch Kit showed how developers can readily transition from their current data aggregator to access the most enriched and reliable data available.

Finovate VP and host of the Finovate podcast Greg Palmer sat down with Sium in the wake of FinGoal’s Best of Show win last year. Check out their conversation from last summer.

Demo video


Benjamin Harvey – CEO of AI Squared CEO

AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023. The company, founded in 2019 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., specializes in helping companies integrate AI and machine learning functionality into any web-based application. Leading the company’s demo was founder and CEO Benjamin Harvey.

With a Master’s degree and a Doctor of Science in Computer Science – as well as years spent as both a Research and Assistant Professor – Harvey brings a wealth of academic experience to the challenge of entrepreneurship and innovation in the fintech space.

We discussed this, and other aspects of his background and goals, in a Finovate blog interview back in August of last year.

Demo video


Photo by Christina Morillo

FinovateEurope 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3

FinovateEurope 2024 Sneak Peek Series: Part 3

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateEurope in London on February 27. Register today using this link and save 20%.

Centi

Centi introduces a revolutionary digital finance platform, enabling seamless cash-to-digital-currency conversion and micropayments for unbanked people.

Features

  • Delivers efficient, low-value micropayment processing for everyone
  • Offers simple sign up for easy access, including unbanked individuals
  • Provides advanced, scalable infrastructure that supports global transactions

Who’s it for?

Financial institutions, merchants, and both unbanked and banked individuals.

DashDevs

Fintech Core by DashDevs is a white label, modular banking software solution for the creation and quick launch of digital banking and payment products as apps or on the web.

Features

  • Offers source code based modular fintech solution
  • Accelerates time to launch for digital banks
  • Includes ready to use modules

Who’s it for?

Banks, startups, and small-and-medium-sized businesses.

Delega

Delega makes treasury easy by fully digitizing delegation of authority between corporates and their banks.

Features

  • Offers improved efficiency
  • Improves customer experience
  • Lowers operational risk and hassle of collaboration

Who’s it for?

Mid-and-large-sized corporations and banks.

Kern AI

Kern AI is a German innovation-focused startup crafting specialized generative AI applications for the financial sector.

Features

  • Deploy reliable and secure GenAI applications within days
  • Streamline knowledge-intensive tasks
  • Test safely and rapidly with LLMs

Who’s it for?

Banks, financial institutions, and insurance companies.

NF Innova

NF Innova helps banks, lenders, and microfinance institutions provide state-of-the-art digital banking services to their end-customers, decrease their costs, and increase their level of innovation.

Features

  • Creates unique personalized retail banking experiences
  • Delivers Right User experience (UX) according to dynamic profiling
  • Provides opportunity for micro-segmentation

Who’s it for?

Banks of all sizes, Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), and lenders across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Torus

Torus is a SaaS intelligence platform for banks and payment providers that improves their profits on card transactions by 15-40% by analyzing and predicting Visa and Mastercard fees.

Features

  • Delivers transaction-level scheme fee prediction
  • Offers merchant-level profitability calculation
  • Highlights real IC++ pricing

Who’s it for?

Issuers and acquirers that are principal members of Visa and/or Mastercard (banks, EMIs, PIs).

Tradelite Solutions

Tradelite Solutions’ web3 financial education world, Mogaland, is shaping the future of personal finance with game-based learning, a token economy, and unprecedented data-driven financial personals.

Features

  • Makes finance accessible and fun through game-based learning
  • Empowers everyone to boost financial literacy with web3 incentives
  • Creates a next gen DeFi marketplace with a token and data powered economy

Who’s it for?

Millennials and GenZ individuals who want to improve their personal finance skills and crypto-related product and service providers.

Liberis Teams Up with Identity Risk Management Company Alloy

Liberis Teams Up with Identity Risk Management Company Alloy
  • Embedded finance platform Liberis announced a partnership with identity risk management innovator Alloy.
  • The partnership will enable Liberis to leverage Alloy’s platform to add automated compliance verifications to the funding application process.
  • Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSilicon Valley 2016.

Embedded finance platform Liberis has teamed up with identity risk management innovator Alloy. Courtesy of the newly announced partnership, Liberis will leverage Alloy’s technology to integrate automated compliance verifications directly into the funding application process. The integration enables Liberis to accelerate its international growth and simplify the merchant experience.

“Alloy is designed to help businesses take control of fraud, credit, and compliance risk, while growing with the clearest picture of their customers,” Alloy CEO Tommy Nicholas said. “We’re confident that our partnership will help Liberis achieve its goal and provide its merchants with a seamless onboarding experience.”

LIberis will gain access and integrations to a global network of more than 190 data sources to streamline KYC, KYB, and AML operations and stop financial crime. The platform will also support the creation of custom, white-label onboarding experiences for partners.

“Alloy’s platform will allow us to enter new markets quickly, optimize our merchants’ fully digitized application for funding and scale to meet our partners’ demand, while also maintaining our high standards for compliance,” Liberis’ Chief Legal & Compliance Officer Alexis Alexander said. Alexander added that one main challenge with compliance checks is that they can increase friction during the onboarding process. To this end, Alloy’s identity risk solution automates and manages onboarding, fraud monitoring, and credit underwriting processes, reducing the amount of paperwork. For those businesses that need more extensive documentation, Liberis will provide a custom, white-label experience tailored to the needs of merchants and partners alike.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York City, Alloy made its Finovate debut at our developers conference, FinDEVrSiliconValley 2016. Today, more than 500 banks and fintechs have partnered with Alloy to manage identity risk at origination as well as throughout the customer lifecycle. Alloy processes millions of identity decisions daily for the world’s top banks and fintechs in 40 countries across North America, EMEA, Latin America, and APAC. The company has raised more than $207 million in funding from investors including Avid Ventures and Felicis.

Just a few days ago, Alloy issued its 2024 State of Fraud Benchmark Report. The report featured some good news on the fight against fraud. According to the 450+ financial industry fraud decision makers who responded to the firm’s survey, the number of reported fraud attacks has begun to “even out – and for some organizations, to decelerate.” Nevertheless, there were devils in the details, including the number of companies reporting an increase in attempted fraud attacks via consumer accounts (61% of companies) and as well as through business accounts (54% of companies).

“It’s encouraging to see companies getting fraud volume under control using the wide array of identity data and technology available on the market,” Nicholas said when the report was release in late January. “But fraud remains a critical problem because bad actors are always finding new tools – such as generative AI – to steal increasingly large amounts of money.” Indeed, Alloy’s report noted that 56% of respondents lost more than EUR 500,000 ($537,000) to fraud in the last 12 months. Over the same time period, a quarter of respondents had lost more than EUR 1 million ($1.7 million).


Photo by SHOCKPhoto by Szoka Sebastian

Privakey Unveils Single Sign-On Solution for Enterprises

Privakey Unveils Single Sign-On Solution for Enterprises
  • Authentication platform Privakey has launched its Single Sign-On (SSO) solution, Privakey SSO.
  • The new offering enables enterprises to leverage passwordless authentication and authorization.
  • Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Privakey made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York.

Passwordless authentication solution provider Privakey launched its Single Sign-On (SSO) solution last week. Designed for enterprises, Privakey SSO responds to the demand for passwordless authentication as cybercriminals leverage social engineering to take advantage of traditional password-based systems.

“Privakey SSO is designed for speed and simplicity in both implementation and user experience,” company CEO Charles Durkin explained. “Small and medium-sized businesses can have Privakey SSO up and running within hours. Large enterprises benefit from a single, highly secure passwordless gateway to authorized applications and services.”

The new offering leverages a strong cryptographic authenticator to incorporate biometric data, PIN, and passkey for both authentication and authorization. Users supply the biometric or PIN, and a device-based secure passkey provides an additional layer of security by verifying the user’s identity as initially registered. Privakey SSO removes the inconvenience of passwords and out-of-band codes. Businesses can deploy the technology as a standalone, company identity platform, or integrate it to enable passwordless login to enterprise identity solutions from companies ranging from Microsoft to Google to Okta.

“We’ve engineered our solution to be fast, easy to use, scalable, and robust, ready to help you eliminate passwords – the primary target of cybercriminals,” Durkin said. He added that the solution was “ideal” for a variety of verticals including financial services, ecommerce, and IT.

Privakey is currently inviting companies interested in its technology to participate in its Privakey SSO Free Beta Test. The beta testing period runs from January 30, 2024 to May 31, 2024.

Headquartered in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and founded in 2016, Privakey made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall 2017 in New York. At the conference, the company demoed its cloud-based, password-free alternative to identity authentication that is consistent, convenient, and secure.


Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem