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Mastering AI Deployment in Banking and Fintech

Mastering AI Deployment in Banking and Fintech
By Lili Nguyen Posted on
Categories: FinovateSpring 2024

As the banking sector stands at the precipice of a new era powered by fintech innovation, mastering the rapid deployment of AI technologies is not just beneficial—it’s imperative. At FinovateSpring 2024, Chris Brown, President of Intelygenz USA, will share pivotal insights during his keynote on “Accelerating Bank-Fintech Fusion: Deep Tech & AI Solutions in Action.” However, the core themes of his talk resonate beyond the conference, offering valuable lessons for all financial institutions navigating the complex terrain of digital transformation.

Chris Brown’s address will confront a stark reality in the fintech space: while many AI projects begin with promise, few successfully bridge the gap from development to production. An overwhelming 85% of these initiatives falter, yet Intelygenz has carved a niche in ensuring projects land within the successful 15%. This capability is not just a differentiator but a strategic imperative that positions banks to lead rather than follow in the digital age.

The keynote will explore three strategic areas where AI can significantly impact banking operations, tailored to both conference attendees and the broader industry audience:

Building Data-Driven Architecture with AI

Leveraging AI to enhance data architectures transforms the foundational operations of banking. By integrating predictive analytics for credit scoring, automated compliance monitoring, and real-time fraud detection systems, banks can enhance decision-making, ensure compliance, and secure transactions, streamlining operations while significantly improving risk management and customer trust.

Streaming AI to Automate Day-to-Day Operations

The deployment of streaming AI moves the technology from a conceptual stage to an operational necessity, automating critical operations such as transaction monitoring and customer interactions. This shift not only boosts operational efficiency but also enhances the quality of customer service, providing real-time, actionable insights that empower banks to make informed decisions swiftly.

Implementing Human Experience-Centric AI Solutions

At the heart of technological advancements lies the need to enhance human interactions. By focusing on AI-driven enhancements in customer service operations and user interfaces, banks can forge deeper connections with their customers, resulting in increased loyalty and satisfaction. From AI-enhanced financial wellness programs to advanced biometric authentication and accessibility improvements, these technologies are reshaping how banks interact with their customers.

These areas underscore Intelygenz’s expertise in rapidly transitioning AI projects from development to deployment, ensuring they not only meet but exceed their intended goals swiftly.

For those attending FinovateSpring, Chris Brown’s session will not only illuminate pathways to leveraging AI but also provide practical insights into overcoming the implementation challenges often encountered by financial institutions. For the broader audience, these themes serve as a blueprint for understanding and deploying AI technologies effectively within their organizations.

For a deeper dive into these transformative strategies, attend Chris Brown’s session at FinovateSpring, or reach out directly via his contact details for more personalized insights and solutions from Intelygenz.

By embracing these insights, banks and Fintechs can ensure they not only participate in the digital revolution but lead it, transforming potential technological disruptions into opportunities for significant growth and customer satisfaction.

About Intelygenz:

Intelygenz is a leading deep tech and AI services consultative company, specializing in delivering tailored solutions that leverage advanced technologies to drive business transformation in the banking and fintech sectors. With over two decades of expertise, Intelygenz specializes in enhancing operational efficiency and elevating customer engagement, thereby delivering measurable returns on investment. As a full-service end-to-end consultancy, Intelygenz collaborates closely with its clients’ internal teams from concept through to deployment, helping to develop, integrate, and maintain customized solutions.

Intelygenz’s key strength is its ability to facilitate rapid deployment, enabling its clients to realize tangible ROI within weeks, not months or years. Banks and fintech companies trust Intelygenz to tackle their most complex challenges, confident in the company’s capacity to support their teams in delivering critical AI-enabled projects on time and within budget.

To learn more about Intelygenz and how we can empower your organization, visit our website at Intelygenz Banking and Fintech Solutions.

About Chris Brown

Chris Brown, President at Intelygenz USA, is a seasoned leader in the AI and tech industry, specializing in transformative solutions for banking and fintech. Leading a team dedicated to innovation, Chris drives the development of tailored Deep Tech solutions to meet evolving client needs. LinkedIn

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Layer Raises $2.3 Million for Embedded Accounting

Layer Raises $2.3 Million for Embedded Accounting
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Layer has raised $2.3 million in pre-seed funding for its embedded accounting solution.
  • The round was led by Better Tomorrow Ventures, with participation from executives at Square, Plaid, Unit, Check, and other SMB software companies.
  • Layer will use the investment to expand its headcount across engineering and business operations.

Embedded accounting player Layer raised $2.3 million in a pre-seed round of funding today. The funds mark the first investment round the San Francisco-based company has seen since it was founded last March.

Better Tomorrow Ventures led the round, which also saw participation from executives at Square, Plaid, Unit, Check, and other SMB software companies.

Layer aims to simplify financial management for small businesses by enabling software companies– such as point-of-sale systems, neo-banks, and other software companies catering to small businesses– to embed accounting and bookkeeping solutions directly within their own platforms. This eliminates the need for small businesses to import data between their accounting software, such as Quickbooks, and the small business software provider. Because Layer allows software providers to combine their own data with data from customers’ external financial accounts, it helps offer the customers a more complete picture of their accounting.

“A common burden small businesses face today is keeping their accounting software in sync with their operations,” said Layer Co-founder and CEO Justin Meretab. “We believe our platform will now give SMBs a better solution for their accounting needs by embedding it into systems they use daily. Small businesses already have so much on their plate running and growing their operations, and accounting shouldn’t be another burden.”

Layer makes it possible for software companies to embed Layer through its API and pre-built Javascript UI components. The company will use the funding to expand its headcount across engineering and business operations.

“Accounting and bookkeeping are two of the biggest pain points small business owners face, and yet the existing products in the market are intimidating and can be time-consuming,” said Better Tomorrow Ventures Principal Nihar Bobba. “There are few products in the market that truly address these issues, which is why we’re excited to join Justin and Daniel in their journey to build and provide a powerful embedded accounting platform that enables all sorts of companies to solve the accounting needs of their customers.”

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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Identity Verification Solutions Provider Data Zoo Raises $22.7 Million in Series A Funding

Identity Verification Solutions Provider Data Zoo Raises $22.7 Million in Series A Funding
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Funding
  • Identity verification solutions provider Data Zoo secured $22.7 million (AU$35 million) in Series A funding in a round led by Ellerston JAADE.
  • Data Zoo will use the capital to help foster broader adoption of its identity verification technology.
  • Headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Data Zoo was founded in 2011. Charlie Minutella is CEO.

International identity verification solutions provider Data Zoo has secured $22.7 million (AU$35 million) in Series A funding. The round was led by Ellerston JAADE, an Ellerston Capital fund; Data Zoo will use the capital to help drive broader adoption of its identity verification technology.

“There’s been a long-standing need for a more efficient and secure way to verify identities,” Data Zoo Founder and Chairman Tony Fitzgibbon said. “Data Zoo has spent years refining its solution – the result has been incredible innovation, UX optimization, and growth in a fiercely competitive market, putting us head-to-head with today’s most established identity providers.”

Data Zoo leverages direct access to authoritative data from more than 170 countries and advanced, logic-driven data sequencing to help institutions automatically verify identities based on the next best source. The company’s technology reduces dropout rates, lowers the total cost of ownership, and helps businesses boost customer approval rates and revenue realization. At the same time, Data Zoo prioritizes data protection and privacy by eliminating identity data storage.

Founded in 2011, Data Zoo is headquartered in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The company includes eToro, MoneyGram, and Experian among its partners, and competes in a crowded field of innovators including a number of Finovate alums such as Socure and Jumio. Earlier this year, Data Zoo announced the appointment of former London Stock Exchange executive Charlie Minutella as its new CEO. In a statement, Minutella spoke about the expansion opportunities this week’s investment will enable the company to pursue.

“Data Zoo is well-positioned to expand its footprint because of its patented ability to efficiently onboard a more diverse and global set of customers, meet compliance standards across jurisdictions, and enhance data privacy and protection,” Minutella said. “The investment from Ellerston JAADE will supercharge our capacity to operate in key markets, attract new business, and enter new strategic partnerships.”

For more coverage of fintech innovation around the world, check out our Finovate Global column published every Friday afternoon.

Photo by Nicole Avagliano

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FinovateSpring 2024: Celebrating Finovate’s Asian-American and Pacific Islander Alums

FinovateSpring 2024: Celebrating Finovate’s Asian-American and Pacific Islander Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Anvil - Document SDK, Diversity in Fintech, FinovateSpring 2024, LiquidTrust, List series, Revelata, Tennis Finance

May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. And with FinovateSpring less than a week away, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the Asian-American fintech innovators who will be demonstrating their latest technologies on the Finovate stage live in San Francisco, California on May 21 through 23.

Tickets for FinovateSpring are still available. Visit our registration page today and save your spot. We look forward to seeing you in San Francisco!

Mang-Git Ng

CEO and Co-Founder, Anvil – Document SDK

A former engineer at Dialpad, Dropbox, and Flexport, Ng is CEO and Co-Founder of Anvil. He is also a graduate of the University of Michigan and an alum of the Y Combinator Startup School Online.

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Anvil was founded in 2018.

Saujin Yi

Founder and CEO, LiquidTrust

With experience in angel investments at 79 Studios, as a venture partner at Resolute, and a former I-banker at Chanin & CSFB, Saujin Yi is founder and CEO of LiquidTrust. Yi is a graduate of MIT and earned her MBA from UCLA Anderson, where she is a lecturer.

LiquidTrust was founded in 2019. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California.

Chit-Kwan Lin

CEO, Revelata

A Venture Partner at JAZZ, Lin seeks to make everyone become “bionic” when it comes to investment research and analysis. Founder and CEO of Revelata, Lin is a graduate of Harvard University, earning his A.B. in Biochemical Sciences, as well as his S.M. and Ph.D. in Computer Science, at the institution.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Revelata was founded in 2020.

Gary Chao

Co-Founder and COO, Tennis Finance

Former Head of Operations for Juno Finance and Ownit, Chao is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer with Tennis Finance. Chao earned a B.A. in Economics and Psychology at University of California, Los Angeles.

San Francisco, California-based Tennis Finance was founded in 2022.

Photo by Mikhail Nilov

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Almost 90% of Klarna Staff Use Kiki The Company’s Internal AI

Almost 90% of Klarna Staff Use Kiki The Company’s Internal AI
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news, Klarna
  • Klarna announced that 87% of its staff use its Generative AI engine, Kiki in their daily work activities.
  • Kiki was launched in June 2023 and uses OpenAI’s Large Language Models.
  • Kiki generates responses within one to five seconds and offers answers that are dependent on the user’s role and other context.

Global payments network and shopping platform Klarna announced today that 87% of its staff use Generative AI to complete their daily work activities. The employees are using Kiki, Klarna’s internal AI assistant.

Klarna launched Kiki in June of 2023, leveraging OpenAI’s Large Language Models (LLMs). Since it was released, Kiki has responded to more than 250,000 inquiries, which equates to roughly 2,000 inquiries per day. Today, more than 85% of all Klarna employees use Kiki. 

“We push everyone to test, test, test and explore,” said Klarna CEO and Co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski. “As Klarna continues to discover applications for OpenAI’s tech, there’s the potential to take the business to new heights. We’re aimed at achieving a new level of employee empowerment, enhancing both our team’s performance and the customer experience.”

Overall, Kiki helps manage and distribute internal knowledge at Klarna, which helps to maintain a transparent culture. The AI assistant, which generates responses within one to five seconds, offers answers that are dependent on the user’s role and other context.

How do Klarna staff use Kiki? Employees can use the AI assistant to not only fetch information, but also to solve issues independently. For example, the company’s communications team uses the engine to evaluate whether press articles written about Klarna are positive or negative. The company’s lawyers use the tool to draft common types of contracts. “The big law firms have had a really great business just from providing templates for common types of contract. But ChatGPT is even better than a template because you can create something quite bespoke,” said Klarna Senior Managing Legal Counsel Selma Bogren.

Klarna also uses GenAI for external customer communications. The company states that, after one month, the AI customer service assistant handled 2.3 million conversations, equivalent to two-thirds of Klarna’s customer service chats.

The announcement comes as OpenAI, which powers Kiki, unveiled GPT-4o, the latest iteration of its GenAI chatbot. The new version is faster, has improved its non-English language text, and accepts input of any combination of text, audio, and images, while generating any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. “Because GPT-4o is our first model combining all of these modalities, we are still just scratching the surface of exploring what the model can do and its limitations,” states OpenAI’s announcement page.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto

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N-iX Enhances Partnership with Mitek

N-iX Enhances Partnership with Mitek
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, Mitek

Software solutions and engineering firm N-iX announced today it has enhanced its partnership with digital identity verification tools company Mitek Systems. Under the agreement, N-iX has tapped Mitek to enhance its digital identity verification and fraud prevention efforts.

Specifically, N-iX will leverage the Mitek Verified Identity Platform (MiVIP), a tool that allows organizations to aggregate multiple identity verification services using a low-code, no-code approach. MiVIP will help N-iX deploy the identity verification capabilities quickly, and will offer an easy-to-navigate experience for end users to maximize customer onboarding.

“By leveraging Mitek’s technologies, we are better positioned to meet the evolving needs of our clients in secure KYC, onboarding, and fraud prevention tools,” said N-iX Financial Services Client Partner Nataliya Maslak. “This partnership underscores N-iX’s ongoing commitment to fostering innovation and achieving excellence in the financial services domain and the digital security landscape.”

N-iX anticipates that Mitek’s MiVIP will enhance the service for end users while keeping digital transactions secure. With MiVIP, organizations can select a range of identity verification services and build multiple KYC processes with customizable workflows that will suit a range of risk profiles, products, and regulatory requirements. The technology guides end users throughout the onboarding process at their own pace and reengages them if they click out of the flow.

N-iX was founded in 2010 to offer technology to companies across financial services. The Florida-based company has been partnered with Mitek since 2016, using Mitek’s tools to develop customer lifecycle management and know your customer products. N-iX has built a cross-border payment engine for Currencycloud, a peer-to-peer lending platform for a U.K.-based fintech, instant money transfer solutions for Lebara, and a cloud-based Forex trading platform for Finatek.

Mitek was founded in 1986 and offers technology for mobile check deposit, new account opening, identity verification, and more. The company’s solutions are crucial to 99% of U.S. banks for mobile check deposits. Its technology is utilized by over 7,900 organizations, and its mobile check deposit and account opening tools serve more than 80 million consumers. Last year, Mitek formed partnerships with lending solutions company Abrigo and data and analytics company Equifax.

Mitek is publicly listed on the NASDAQ under the ticker MITK and has a current market capitalization of $633 million.

Photo by cottonbro studio

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Romania’s Salt Bank Turns to Regtech Napier AI for Transaction Monitoring

Romania’s Salt Bank Turns to Regtech Napier AI for Transaction Monitoring
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Napier
  • Financial crime compliance company Napier AI has partnered with Romania’s Salt Bank.
  • Salt Bank will deploy Napier AI’s transaction screening solution to protect transactions against a variety of fraud risks.
  • Napier AI made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2018 in London.

Romania’s first neobank, Salt Bank, has teamed up with financial crime compliance company Napier AI. Salt Bank will deploy Napier AI’s Transaction Screening solution to ensure that the hundreds of millions of transactions Salt Bank handles are safe from fraud risks.

“We chose the Napier AI platform because it offered NextGen technology which enables us to strengthen our financial crime controls and matches our drive to offer clients a seamless digital experience, within a robust regulatory environment,” Salt Bank CEO Gabriela Nistor said.

Salt Bank sought out Napier AI’s technology to ensure that it is able to keep pace with evolving money laundering, terrorist financing, and fraud risks on the one hand, and consumer demand for a seamless digital experience on the other. Napier AI’s Transaction Screening product features a user friendly interface with customizable workflows, a cloud-based deployment, a sandbox environment for optimizing screening configurations, and a configurable dashboard with no-code rule building and AI insights.

“Napier AI’s industry-leading Transaction Screening solution is set to help Salt Bank succeed in setting a new standard for banking in Romania,” Napier AI CEO Greg Watson said. “It is an exciting time for the industry and market, and I am excited to see how we work together to bring best-in-class financial crime compliance to the next generation of digital banking users.”

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, U.K., Napier made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2018. At the conference, the company demoed its Customer Screening and Transaction Monitoring Enhancement software. By addressing gaps in current legacy systems’ AML and client screening solutions – and extending their shelf life – Napier’s technology enables organizations to enhance the performance of their current fraud prevention processes.

Napier AI’s partnership news comes one month after the company teamed up with impact asset manager Finance in Motion. Finance in Motion will deploy Napier AI Continuum – including its Client Screening solution and Client Risk Assessment module – as its AML and counter terrorist financing platform. Earlier this year, Napier AI secured an investment of $56.6 million (£45 million) from Crestline Investors.

“We are excited to work with the Napier AI team and believe their market-leading, AI-powered technology platform is well-positioned to help financial institutions and other regulated companies excel in an environment with rapidly expanding transaction volumes and increasing regulatory requirements,” Crestline Managing Director Will Palmer said when the investment was announced in February.

Photo by Adrian Frentescu

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AI, Digital Disruption, and Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities in Insurtech

AI, Digital Disruption, and Climate Change: Challenges and Opportunities in Insurtech
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: David's column, Report series

The week begins with a few research-related announcements in the fintech and financial services space. CB Insights announced the availability of its State of Insurtech report for the first quarter of 2024, and the Federal Reserve Board issued a summary of climate risk resiliences exercises conducted recently by a handful of big banks. While the focus on this column in on the former, the publication of the latter shines some light on potential answers to the problems raised in CB Insights’ report.

With regards to the state of insurtech, there is still a great deal of hesitation among investors. CB Insights noted that quarterly funding for Q1 of this year was only $0.9 billion, the lowest level since 2018. Property & casualty insurtech suffered the most, with a quarter-over-quarter decline of 25%. Q1 2024 was also the first time since 2018 that there were no “mega-round deals” – investments of $100 million or more. There was some good news in Europe, as the number of deals increased slightly, as did the median insurtech deal size. But the overall message continues to be caution when it comes to investor attitudes about investech.

What Ails Insurtech?

Digital disruption: The challenge of digital disruption is one that the insurtechs share with the broader fintech community. The rise of enabling technologies such as AI will both steepen customer expectations as well as accelerate competition between companies to effectively deploy new, innovative solutions.

The insurance business is ripe for innovation. From the massive volume of manual processes and the document-intensive nature of the business to the challenges of underwriting and refining statistical models, the idea that AI will be a powerful ally in the insurance business is a no-brainer. One firm, Zippia, has predicted that as much as 25% of the insurance industry could be automated via AI by 2025.

There are obstacles. The disposition of regulators toward change in the industry is a major concern as new technologies are introduced to enhance operations like underwriting and statistical modeling. A regulatory authority that is indifferent, or hostile, to new technologies or their application in certain use cases can send a powerful signal that innovators are better off deploying their solutions in other industries or other geographies. Looking at the U.S., if the behavior of regulators toward innovators in the crypto space and the Banking-as-a-Service space is any indication, then we can expect to see insurtech and their investors to tread cautiously.

There are also challenges with regard to talent. Now that almost every company in every industry is looking to up their AI game, the fight over top talent in AI and automation has become all the more competitive.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that AI promises to revolutionize many key processes that insurers rely on. And as those processes become more efficient – and as those companies best exploiting those AI-enhanced processes take greater market share – it is easy to see investment dollars returning to insurtech as investors begin making their bets on winners and losers in the space.

Climate change: The impact of climate change is another instance in which challenge and opportunity go hand-in-hand for insurtechs. The growing incidents of extreme weather – from temperature extremes to increasingly powerful hurricanes, floods, and other phenomena – have put a major strain on both property and casualty (P&C) insurers as well as those homeowners and individuals who rely on their protection. Note that CB Insights reported the biggest quarterly drop in funding this year was among P&C insurtechs. And of the top 10 P&C insurtech deals of Q1 2024, only three were U.S. based companies.

While many fintechs involved in climate change and sustainability have focused on helping businesses and institutions measure and better manage their carbon footprints, there is a need for technology companies in the insurance space that can help these firms build the models they need to better anticipate climate change-related risk. I mentioned the Federal Reserve report on climate resiliency earlier. The Fed’s report was a summary of an exploratory pilot Climate Scenario Analysis (CSA) exercise held by six U.S. banks: Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo. Among the conclusions that are especially relevant to this conversation were these two:

The role of insurance in mitigating climate change risks for consumers, businesses, and banks was emphasized, with a call to monitor changes in insurance costs and their impacts on specific markets and segments.

and

Participants expressed the high uncertainty and difficulty in measuring climate-related risks, making it challenging to incorporate them into risk management frameworks on a routine basis.

Insurtechs – and fintechs, for that matter – who are able to help financial institutions resolve these two issues, will find their services in demand as companies seek ways to quantify their own exposure to climate change risk. It is easy to envision other enabling technologies, such as quantum computing, also playing a part. Together, they could provide the kind of powerful modeling that would accurately gauge the risks of climate change and its potential impact on markets, communities, businesses, and families alike.

Photo by Vlad Deep on Unsplash

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Temenos Launches Responsible Generative AI Solutions

Temenos Launches Responsible Generative AI Solutions
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Temenos
  • Temenos has launched Responsible Generative AI Solutions for financial services.
  • The GenAI tools allow bank employees to use natural language to query the engine, which will leverage banks’ data to generate unique insights and reports.
  • At launch, the new GenAI tools will be available within Temenos Wealth and Temenos Digital products.

Banking technology provider Temenos launched Responsible Generative AI Solutions for financial services this week. The Switzerland-based company is making the solutions available as part of its AI infused banking platform, starting with its Temenos Wealth and Temenos Digital products.

Temenos’ new offering aims to change the way banks leverage their data, and the company anticipates they will ultimately improve banks’ productivity and profitability. Temenos’ new Responsible Generative AI solutions work similarly to other GenAI engines, such as ChatGPT, in that they allow bank employees to use natural language to query the engine, which will leverage banks’ data to generate unique insights and reports. Banks can use the new tools in processes ranging from managing existing accounts to brainstorming new products and mitigating financial crime.

“We all use AI in our daily lives and benefit from the personalized services and insight,” said Temenos President Product and COO Prema Varadhan. “Temenos Explainable AI offers transparent, auditable insights while our Generative AI infused platform delivers these insights instantly in an intelligent and personalized way. Temenos ensures responsible AI practices by providing explainability, security, safe deployment, and banking-specific capabilities. With our AI platform, banks can rapidly implement real-world use cases that enhance efficiency, boost profitability, and create hyper-personalized customer experiences.”

The “responsible” part of Temenos’ new tools lies in its transparency and explainability. Users and regulators will have visibility into the process and will be able to verify the results produced by the engine. The Responsible Generative AI solutions also have a permissions and access security framework to address data security and privacy concerns.

Banks can deploy the new Responsible Generative AI Solutions as standalone solutions or connect them with their existing core systems on-premise, on public or private clouds, or delivered via Temenos SaaS.

Temenos was founded in 1993 and offers solutions for retail and commercial banking, wealth management, payments, fund administrators, insurance companies, and more. The company has clients in 150 countries and offers solutions that touch 30% of the world’s banking population, equivalent to 1.2 billion people.

Photo by Tara Winstead

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AI Integration Platform AI Squared Acquires Multiwoven

AI Integration Platform AI Squared Acquires Multiwoven
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: AI Squared, Alumni News, Daily news, Mergers & Acquisitions
  • AI integration specialist AI Squared acquired open-source Reverse ETL (rETL) company, Multiwoven. Terms were not disclosed.
  • The acquisition follows AI Squared’s $13.8 million Series A funding round in April.
  • AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023.

AI integration platform AI Squared has acquired open-source Reverse ETL (rETL) company Multiwoven. The transaction fortifies AI Squared’s ability to help organizations more easily move data and AI-based insights into business applications.

In a statement, AI Squared Founder and CEO Benjamin Harvey praised both Multiwoven’s technology as well as its open-source approach to innovation. “From my experiences as a data-science executive at the National Security Agency and as an early employee at Databricks, I recognize and respect the critical role that the open-source community plays in fueling innovation,” Harvey said. “Now as a singular organization, AI Squared and Multiwoven will continue to lead the way in open-source rETL, while simultaneously bringing critical data-movement functionality to our customers.”

Multiwoven is an open-source, reverse ETL platform that facilitates secure data segmentation, synchronization, and activation. The company’s technology makes it easier for firms to deploy this organized data into applications and business tools for sales, marketing, and advertising operations. By integrating Multiwoven’s rETL capabilities into its platform, AI Squared will be able to help organizations efficiently integrate robust data and AI insights into their applications.

“With our new combined team, we will be able to accelerate the development and growth of Multiwoven open-source, which will remain free to use,” Multiwoven Co-Founder and CEO Sojoy Golan said. “We are also excited to now introduce advanced capabilities to activate AI/ML data, together with AI Squared.”

AI Squared also will continue to support development of Multiwoven’s open-source technology. Golan called open-source “a wonderful enabler” that has helped uncover insights not only for Multiwoven’s own users and open-source contributors, but also for “the data practitioners on our Community Slack, and all the other generous people in the open-source community.” As part of the transaction, Multiwoven’s team will join AI Squared. Golan has been named Chief Product Officer; Multiwoven Co-Founders Nagendra Dhanakeerthi and Subin Thattaparambil will serve as Chief Technology Officer and SVP of Engineering, respectively.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., AI Squared made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 and returned to the Finovate stage later that year for FinovateFall in New York. In its most recent appearance, AI Squared demonstrated how adding Generative AI to the platform’s Predictive AI capabilities enables users to build tools such as chatbots to help them more efficiently query their data.

AI Squared was founded in 2019. Learn more about the company in our feature interview with AI Squared’s Benjamin Harvey.

Photo by Lum3n

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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: Backbase, Expensify, Fintech Rundown, Flywire

Last week brought a small uptick in fintech funding and drama ensued when Tabapay renounced its agreement to purchase Synapse’s assets. Stay tuned to this week’s news for updates as this situation– and others– evolve throughout the week.

Payments

Payments enablement and software company Flywire announces expanded availability of its third-party invoicing solution.

Bank payments company GoCardless appoints Jolawn Victor as Chief Growth Officer.

Bankart partners with Diebold Nixdorf to modernize its payment processing platform across southeast Europe.

Tango launches Global Choice Link, to offer its business customers an easy platform to send rewards, incentives, and payouts to recipients across the globe.

REPAY becomes a Certified Integration Partner with Corelation’s KeyStone platform.

Mastercard and Salesforce announce new integration to transform transaction disputes.

Small business banking

Expensify unveils unlimited virtual cards for enhanced spend management.

Core banking

Vietnam-based Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) leverages Backbase’s Engagement Banking Platform to launch its OMNI 4.0 app.

Banque Internationale à Luxembourg selects Temenos‘ core banking and payments to increase agility and efficiency of its retail, corporate, and private banking operations.

Investing

Raisin reports first profit as customer deposits increase.

Lending

SALT granted FCA approval and gears up for summer launch.

London-based automated mobile debt management platform Incredible raises $1 million in pre-seed funding.

Challenger banking

French payments app Lydia launches new challenger bank proposition called Sumeria.

E-commerce

Mexican BNPL platform Aplazo secures $70 million in equity financing.

Fraud prevention

Financial services technology provider Koodoo teams up with Resistant AI to enhance its ability to check documents for fraud.

Digital banking

U.K.-based “greener” digital bank Tandem introduces new Chief Technology Officer Suavek Zajac.

Photo by Armin Rimoldi

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Finovate Global: Monzo’s Millions, A2A Payments in Australia, FinovateSpring’s International Alums

Finovate Global: Monzo’s Millions, A2A Payments in Australia, FinovateSpring’s International Alums
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: APIMatic, Candour Oy, Cardlay Payment Solutions, Deeployalty, Dynatrek, Finovate Global, FinTech Insights, TRIYO

Challenge Accepted! Monzo Raises Millions

U.K.-based challenger bank Monzo secured an additional $190 million (£150 million) in funding this week, adding to the $426 million (£340 million) raised just a few days ago. The Series I round, totaling $616 million (£490 million) gives the digital bank a valuation of $5.2 billion (£4.1 billion) and represents one of the biggest fundraising rounds for a European fintech since 2023.

The bank’s financial backers included Hedosophia and CapitalG, Alphabet’s growth fund. CNBC’s coverage of the funding notes that Singapore-based sovereign wealth fund GIC was also a participant in the funding, but GIC has yet to confirm the report.

Monzo will use the funds both to build new products as well as move forward with its international expansion plans. Expansion to the U.S. is near the top of the company’s wish list, having resumed efforts to secure a banking license in the country after retreating from a previous attempt three years ago. Monzo hired Conor Walsh, former Head of Product for Cash App, as its U.S. CEO in 2023.

“At the heart of it, we are a mission-oriented company that’s looking to build the single place where people can meet all of their financial needs,” Monzo Co-Founder and CEO TS Anil told CNBC. “What’s exciting to me is that, as we pursue that mission of changing people’s relationship with money, we’ve built a business model that is congruent with that, as well, with this model that is built entirely around the customer.”

Founded in 2015, Monzo has more than nine million retail customers and 400,000 business customers in the U.K. The challenger bank offers current and joint accounts, as well as an app to enable customers to see all their accounts and control spending. The company launched its first business bank accounts for SMEs and self-employed workers in 2020 and, later that year, unveiled its first loan products for its personal current account customers. In 2023, Monzo announced that it had achieved profitability for the first time.

As part of its expansion plans, Monzo is looking to begin offering mortgage and pension products, with the latter being available as early as six to nine months from now. Last year, Monzo launched an investment product, giving customers the ability to invest in a trio of funds offered by BlackRock.

Banked and NAB Promote A2A Payments in Australia

A new partnership between international payments network Banked and National Australia Bank will make it easier for merchants in Australia to adopt account-to-account (A2A) payments solutions. Specifically, the two entities are seeking to encourage the adoption of Pay by Bank technology via Australian Payments Plus (AP+) services.

Pay by Bank enables merchants to send PayTo Agreements to customers, and then initiate payments and refunds based on those agreements – which cover a variety of transaction experiences including online payments, and recurring payments with fixed, variable, or split payment amounts. Partnering with NAB gives Banked a partner with both an established presence in the Australian market, as well as a comprehensive knowledge of the needs of merchants in the country.

“The nascent A2A payments industry in Australia presents an incredible opportunity for Banked,” Banked CEO Brad Goodall said. “Local regulators have developed well-constructed mandates and the banking industry is primed for innovation, all of which sets the stage for rapid growth in real-time payments.”

An initial set of NAB business customers from industries such as e-commerce and retail, as well as non-bank lenders, is scheduled go live with A2A payments in the first half of 2024.

With offices in both Palo Alto, California and London, U.K., Banked was founded in 2018. Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with FIS to promote use of Pay by Bank.

Meet FinovateSpring 2024’s International Alums

FinovateEurope typically gets top billing as our most international fintech conference. But FinovateSpring has showcased a sizable number of fintech innovators from around the world, as well. And this year’s FinovateSpring is no exception.

Here’s a look at seven companies demoing at FinovateSpring, May 21-23, that hail from outside of the United States.

APIMatic – Auckland, New Zealand

Candour Oy – Oulu, Finland

Cardlay Payment Solutions – Odense, Denmark

Deeployalty – Ukraine

Dynatrek – Tokyo, Japan

FinTech Insights – London, England

TRIYO – Toronto, Canada

There’s still time to pick up your ticket and save your spot for our annual Spring fintech conference in San Francisco, May 21-23. Visit our FinovateSpring hub to register.

Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian fintech and non-bank credit card issuer O3 Capital partnered with American Express to issue four new AMEX credit cards.
  • South African fintech Lesaka acquired South African payments company Adumo in a deal valued at $85.9 million.
  • SasaPay, a fintech headquartered in Kenya, announced a partnership with investments solutions provider Etica Capital.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Swiss Bitcoin Pay teamed up with Lithuanian regtech iDenfy to enhance its risk management and onboarding processes.
  • Latvian fintech Huntli partnered with U.S.-based Payall to improve security for cross-border payments.
  • Lithuania-based TransferGo secured $10 million in funding from Taiwania Capital Management.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • Digital payments company Wink Pay launched in Lebanon in partnership with Visa and Codebase Technologies.
  • United Arab Bank expanded its partnership with Network International.
  • Saudi Arabian insurtech Rasan to sell 30% of its stake in a Riyadh IPO.

Central and Southern Asia

  • Nepal Clearing House inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ant International to enable QR payments via Alipay+ for visitors to Nepal.
  • Finovate Best of Show winner Zeta launched its Digital-Credit-as-a-Service solution for banks in India.
  • Saudi Arabia’s Alraedah Digital Solutions forged a strategic partnership with Pakistan-based fintech ABHI to launch new financial services in the kingdom.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • Brazilian digital bank Nubank tops 100 million customer mark.
  • Indian private sector bank Yes Bank announced a strategic partnership with payment solutions provider EBANX.
  • Chilean A2A payments startup Fintoc raised $7 million in new funding.

Asia-Pacific

  • Australian fintech Karta secured a multi-year agreement with Visa.
  • Is there a future for a retail CBDC? The Bank of Thailand thinks so.
  • Banked forged a partnership with the National Bank of Australia to boost A2A payment adoption among merchants.

Photo by Deeana Arts

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