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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Every once in a while, I like to highlight a fintech I’ve never heard of. Today’s candidate is TaskPay.
Founded in May of last year, TaskPay is on a mission to build trust into contracts and talent payouts. What does that mean, exactly? TaskPay has built a platform to allow users to create instant, escrow-like milestone contracts for gig workers or to send peer-to-peer payments.
By serving as a middle-man, TaskPay secures funds from the party making the payment, while waiting to release the funds until the recipient has completed the contract requirements. This protects both parties by ensuring that the payer isn’t receiving work and refusing to pay, and also ensuring that the payee isn’t taking the funds without completing their end of the contract.
Taskpay facilitates payments made using cryptocurrency, debit or credit card, PayPal, ACH transfers, or wire transfers. It also helps users without a bank account to withdraw funds onto a prepaid Mastercard or Visa card.
What’s more, Taskpay members can use the platform to find talent. The company’s AI connects users with the right gig worker for the job by analyzing chat data, disputes, ratings, reviews, job timelines, and more.
TaskPay’s emergence aligns with today’s digital-first era, offering a fundamental solution to solve trust issues in contractual agreements and gig worker payments. In the growing gig economy, TaskPay safeguards both parties from potential exploitation or non-compliance. In a world where digital interactions are commonplace, TaskPay is well-positioned to succeed as a player in the evolving fintech arena.
Taskpay is headquartered in Wyoming and was founded by Aaron Andrew and Kerim Eravci.
U.K.-based digital identity provider OneID has forged a partnership with credit reference agency AperiData.
The collaboration combines OneID’s customer authentication capabilities with AperiData’s financial and risk insights to enhance decision-making for lenders.
Paula Sussex joined OneID as CEO in April of last year.
“A partnership with AperiData is a natural fit for OneID,” company Chief Product Officer Stuart Kempster said. “Bringing the power of bank-verified digital identity together with AI-powered real time credit analysis gives our joint customers a better way to support their customers with their credit decision-making.”
Individuals use OneID by selecting the identity verification option during the online onboarding or signup process. With the individual’s consent, OneID contacts the individual’s bank and verifies their credentials. Upon successful verification, OneID securely confirms the individual’s identity to the online provider within seconds.
Both OneID and AperiData share the goal of blending identity verification with risk insights available via open banking in order to offer better and broader financial opportunities for customers. Notably, the combination of OneID’s customer authentication capabilities and AperiData’s financial and risk insights offers benefits beyond income verification. The partnership will also support use cases ranging from automated direct debit set-up and reinstatement to enhanced employee screening processes.
A U.K.-based FCA authorized credit agency and open banking provider, AperiData leverages insights from financial data and the power of open banking to enhance credit scoring and decision-making. Founded in 2020, the company has partnered with many of the largest banks in the U.K. AperiData most recently announced collaborations and partnerships with Salford Credit Union, financial inclusion software platform Inbest, and payment and retail services company PayPoint. Stephen Ashworth is CEO.
OneID covers 50 million adults in the U.K., is connected with 29 banks, and leverages 37 data sources to provide identity verification in less than 12 seconds. Founded in 2018, OneID raised $1.27 million (£1 million) in funding last fall in a round led by ACF Investors. Paula Sussex, who joined the company as CEO in April 2023, called the investment “a vote of confidence in (its) efforts to make digital identification accessible and available to more U.K. citizens.”
Arc Technologies now counts more than $100 billion in committed capital on its venture lending platform.
Arc Technologies has closed more than 350 transactions since it was founded in 2021.
Last year’s Silicon Valley Bank crisis launched Arc Technologies into a period of growth, with more startups seeking alternative capital sources.
Arc Technologiesrevealed through an exclusive interview with TechCrunch today that it now has more than $100 billion in committed capital on its lending platform.
Founded in 2021, Arc has raised $181 in funding across three rounds of funding– including a $20 million Series A round the company landed in August of 2022. The California-based company’s venture debt marketplace offers startups a capital alternative to equity funds.
Arc’s capital markets debt marketplace enables startups to onboard in as little as 10 minutes and receive debt terms for up to $250 million from the network of participating lenders. After underwriting each borrower using historical financial data, the company pre-qualifies borrowers and matches them to a lender within five days.
Notably, Arc’s rise in committed capital comes after the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last year, when many startups found themselves scrambling to find sources of alternative capital so that they could meet day-to-day business requirements and make payroll.
The SVB crisis served as a growth period for the company. “In 2023, Arc onboarded more than 4,000 new users, while the deposits managed through our platform grew by a factor of more than 12x,” said company CEO Don Muir. “Specific to capital, we have completed more than 350 transactions and have made available $100B+ in AUM to deploy through our lending partners.”
In the future, Arc plans to build out more banking products into its platform, the first of which can be expected later this year.
An earlier version misidentified a funding source as Zhang Capital Partners.
Some of the more interesting stories in international fintech this week come from the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan. Solva, a Kazakhstani fintech that provides working capital solutions, has secured an investment of $20 million. The funds will help Solva grow from a microfinancier into a SME-based bank. The transition is expected to be completed this year. The investment came courtesy of the Sawiris family of the Egyptian Orascom Group and Zoser Capital Partners (ZCP).
Solva co-founder Boris Batine said that the capital will help drive the company’s “regional strategy and expansion plans.” Batine added that the transition from a nonbanking financial institution to a fully-licensed bank will be that much easier with “a well-known and respected international investor” such as Zoser Capital Partners (ZCP) at Solva’s side.
Founded in 2017, Solva is the first neobank for both MSMEs and consumers in Central Asia. The firm offers revolving credit lines up to $20,000; installment loans up to $30,000 with terms ranging from one to five years; and short-term working capital solutions up to $5,000 for as many as 120 days.
Solva has issued microloans worth 66 billion KZT ($145 million) to more than 50,000 small business owners throughout Kazakhstan. The company notes that 70% of the loans in its portfolio – more than $85 million – go to female-led businesses. Solva is also a supporter of the UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative. The initiative establishes principles involving human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption principles.
Financial literacy is also a priority for the company. Solva has endorsed the Kazakhstan government’s Program for Improving Financial Literacy for 2020-2024 initiative. Approximately 7,000 Kazakhstanis have participated in the Solva’s financial literacy programs over the past two years.
In other Kazazkstan-based fintech news, Kaspi.kz is on track to become the first company from the Republic of Kazakhstan to list in the U.S. A major Kazakhstani fintech, Kaspi.kz offers a payments platform that enables consumers to make payments to merchants and service providers, as well as P2P fund transfers.
The company also has a marketplace platform that connects on- and offline merchants with consumers, and a fintech platform that offers BNPL services. Kaspi.kz is the parent company of the Kasp.kz Super App, which has become among the most widely recognized financial services app in Kazakhstan. Kaspi.kz reports 13.5 million average monthly users on the app, with 65% of them using the app on a daily basis.
That said, Kaspi.kz has objectives beyond both its native Kazakhstan and Ukraine and Azerbaijan, where the company also does business. The firm’s prospectus mentions a goal of growing to 100 million users. And Kaspi.kz co-founder and CEO Mikheil Lomtadze underscored the ability of the listing to stimulate growth.
“Being in Kazakhstan, we do not have the luxury of being able to rely on private equity or venture capital money to fund our operations and growth,” Lomtadze said. “With a U.S. listing, we believe Kaspi.kz can reach a larger and more diverse investor base that will enjoy being with us for the next stage of our development.”
Kaspi.kz is already listed on the London Stock Exchange, where the company boasts a valuation of almost $19 billion.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
ADIB-Egypt launched its personalized, Sharia-compliant private banking services for high net worth clients.
The Jerusalem Post looked at how fintechs are partnering with Israel’s National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing (NBCTF) to deal with terrorism financing.
Saudi Arabian fintech savings platform Hakbah teamed up with MENA-based open banking platform Tarabut.
JazzCash, a fintech platform based in Pakistan, has announced a strategic partnership with Pakistan-based venture capital firm Fatima Gobi Ventures (FGV).
Colaboramed, the fintech arm of AMOL, Agenda Medica online, has locked in $1 million in funding at a valuation of $8.8 million.
Asia-Pacific
Singapore-based business lending platform Funding Societies secured an investment from Khazanah Nasional and CGC Digital. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.
Nikkei Asia looked at the competition between fintech startups and financial services incumbents in the Philippines.
Talus Pay has acquired home services fintech infrastructure company Jobox.ai and B2B payment solutions company Clarus Merchant Services.
Combined, the new entity will process more than $9 billion for 22,000+ merchant customers annually.
Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Texas-based Talus Payannounced two major purchases this week. The payments processing company has acquired home services fintech infrastructure company Jobox.ai and B2B payment solutions company Clarus Merchant Services. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Combined with the two new companies, Talus Pay now processes more than $9 billion a year for its more than 22,000 merchant customers. The fintech expects the acquisitions will help it grow its client base within the home and facility services verticals.
“We are excited to welcome both Jobox and Clarus to the Talus Pay team,” said Talus Pay CEO Kim Fitzsimmons. “We have tremendous end-to-end technology infrastructure and sales and service platforms. Adding Jobox and Clarus gives us additional proprietary software and scale in complimentary business-to-business industry verticals.”
Jobox was founded in California in 2016 to offer job matching, scheduling, payments, customer communications, and inventory management technology to U.S. home services professionals. The company currently serves more than 5,000 home services professionals across 39 U.S. states. Talus Pay will leverage its direct and reseller channels to scale Jobox’s open-source architecture across more industries, including auto repair, beauty, hospitality, non-profit, and service retail, among others.
“Jobox is a terrific tool for underserved home and facility services professionals to help them efficiently run their businesses and increase their bottom lines,” said Jobox Co-founder and CEO Shay Bloch. “By joining forces with Talus Pay, we can accelerate our market share in the home services end market while having the opportunity to accelerate entry into new market verticals.”
Maryland-based Clarus, which has been providing payment services since 1999, currently processes more than $2 billion in annual card volume each year for a wide range of businesses, credit unions, wholesale distribution groups, and building materials distribution companies. After the acquisition is finalized, Clarus will be able to offer its merchant clients new solutions from Talus Pay.
Logistically, Clarus President Eric Pottebaum will join Talus Pay’s leadership team, serving as general manager of its Clarus portfolio. Bloch has been named Talus Pay’s chief strategy officer and Jobox Kaushik Pendurthi, also from Jobox, has been named chief technology officer.
Talus Pay, which itself was acquired by private equity firm A&M Capital Partners in 2017, processes 67.8 million transactions on an annual basis via sales agents and its network of financial institutions, independent sales organizations, independent software vendors, and value-added resellers.
Bumper received $48 million in funding for its BNPL tool for vehicle repairs.
The funding round was led by Autotech Ventures and comprised of $18 million in equity and $30 million in debt.
Bumper’s partner dealers have facilitated BNPL payments for more than 250,000 repairs in the past 12 months. The company hopes to double that this year.
Bumper, a payment platform for car dealerships, landed $48 million (£40 million) in Series B funding today. The funds consist of $18 million (£15 million) in equity and $30 million (£25 million) in debt.
Autotech Ventures led the round, which saw contributions from Shell Ventures, JLR’s InMotion Ventures, Porsche Ventures, and Revo Capital. The investment, which boosts the U.K.-based company’s total funding to $64 million, will help Bumper expand the reach of its buy now, pay later (BNPL) platform for car repair bills.
Bumper plans to use today’s funds to expand across Europe, specifically in the U.K., Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ireland.
Bumper was founded in 2013, well before the BNPL boom of 2020. The company is currently partnered with 5,000 car dealerships that offer car repair services. In the past 12 months, these dealerships have provided BNPL payments for more than 250,000 repairs for Volvo, Ford, Nissan, VW Group, JLR, Porsche, and more.
Customers begin engaging with Bumper before they ever enter the dealer. The car owner applies for a credit limit of up to $6,300 (£5,000) at home and receives an instant decision. If they are pre-approved, they receive a unique Bumper Code that they show to their service provider, who then sends the customer a link to set up their payment plan. The customer can select to spread their payment over the course of one month to six months, interest free.
Bumper offers a suite of payment options– both digital and physical. Customers can opt to pay using open banking payments, card payments, or at card terminals located in the dealership. All payment methods can be fully integrated into the dealer’s existing infrastructure.
Looking ahead, Bumper wants to double the number of BNPL transactions it has facilitated in the past year. “We want to be the dominant payment platform for car dealers across Europe,” explained company Co-founder and CEO James Jackson. “We’ll do it by providing a no-brainer solution, one that gives their customers the ultimate flexibility in making the necessary payments to keep their cars on the road.”
The timing for this growth objective is favorable. The cost of living crisis is driving up the use of BNPL across sectors. High-ticket auto repairs, which often catch consumers off-guard, are an ideal use case for BNPL. “There has never been a more important time for a business like Bumper, with consumers across Europe feeling the pinch amidst high inflation, rising bills and escalating rent or mortgage costs,” said Jackson. “The need for a flexible way to pay for car repairs is vitally important for drivers, and dealers want to ensure they can provide customers every reason to book them in there and then.”
While the number of merchants offering BNPL options for high-ticket goods has expanded around the globe, there are not many providing the new payment option for services, such as auto repair. That said there are a handful of BNPL companies that specialize in travel experiences and some, including Sunbit, that offer BNPL for medical services, vet bills, as well as auto repair bills.
Aqua Security raised $60 million in follow-on Series E funding this week. The investment boosts the cloud native security platform’s valuation to more than $1 billion.
New investor Evolution Equity Partners led the round. Existing investors Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and StepStone Group also participated.
Founded in 2015, Aqua Security maintains headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and in Israel.
With six of the top 10 banks in North America and six of the top seven banks in Canada among its customers, Aqua Security is the latest security platform to earn unicorn status.
Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts – and in Israel – cloud native security platform Aqua Security has raised $60 million in funding. The round was an extension of the firm’s Series E round, and was led by new investor Evolution Equity Partners. Featuring participation from existing investors Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and StepStone Group, the investment boosts the Aqua Security’s valuation above $1 billion.
“Eight years ago, we envisioned a world where all new applications would be built native to the cloud,” company co-founder and CEO Dror Davidoff said. “Today we are here in a market we pioneered with a purpose-built solution to protect customers’ digital transformations. We are excited for what’s ahead in 2024.”
Founded in 2015, Aqua Security specializes in protecting cloud native environments. The company helps its customers build applications that are, according to Aqua Security co-founder and CTO Amir Jerbi, “secure by design, enabling agile DevOps and hybrid cloud deployment with no compromise on security or compliance.” The company’s Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) secures the full application lifecycle from threat prevention, detection, and response. This includes software supply chain security to ensure code integrity and minimize vectors for attack. The platform also provides vulnerability scanning and management, as well as comprehensive, advanced malware detection.
This week’s investment takes the company’s total equity funding to $325 million. The investment also follows a year in which Aqua Security enjoyed a 65% increase in new business and a sizable amount of industry recognition. Among these accolades were inclusion in the Fortune Cyber 60 and listing among the Gartner Market Guide for Cloud-Native.
A U.S. presidential election with, essentially, two incumbent presidents running for office. An enduring war in Europe. A new war in the Middle East. Economic instability in China. Lingering inflationary concerns and interest rate volatility.
If the fintech industry doesn’t have enough to worry about on its own, the prospect of macro economic and geopolitical events making life even tougher for fintech and financial services is enough to make your head spin. What do banks and fintechs need to know – and do – to effectively manage the current and evolving geopolitical landscape?
To help you better brace yourself for what 2024 may bring, we’ve invited Manas Chawla, founder and CEO of London Politica, to deliver both a fireside chat and keynote address at FinovateEurope in February.
With the theme, The Global Economic & Geopolitical Outlook – What Are the Five Things You Need to Know? Chawla will outline how many of our current challenges could impact the financial services industry – and what they can do about it.
We last caught up with Manas Chawla at FinovateSpring last May. Then, concerns over the impact of inflation and rising interest rates on banks were top of mind. In this interview from the conference, Chawla explained the challenges and opportunities for banks and fintechs that lie not just in black swan events, but in what he called “grey rhino” risks, as well.
Join us next month at FinovateEurope to hear more from Chawla and other insightful analysts and observers on the impact of macro trends on fintech and financial services.
While many people unplugged from their work computers last week to enjoy holiday festivities, the news in the fintech world didn’t stop moving. As you sift through the backlog of emails, voicemails, and meetings post-vacation, here’s a handy news digest we’ve curated for you.
Dive into the latest in fintech news as we unpack the biggest headlines from the past week, making it easier for you to catch up on what you missed.
1
December 18: Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Spiff Utah-based compensation platform Spiff has agreed to be acquired by Salesforce. Financial terms of the deal were undisclosed. Salesforce will integrate the Spiff team into its Sales Cloud team, a group that aims to enhance Salesforce’s Sales Performance Management solutions.
2
December 19: Walmart Taps Affirm to Offer BNPL Option at Self-checkout Buy now, pay later (BNPL) heavyweight Affirm has extended its partnership with Walmart to offer its BNPL solution at select Walmart self-checkout stands. Shoppers can use Affirm to pay for non-grocery purchases ranging from $144 to $4,000 in monthly installments.
3
December 21: Circle Secures Conditional Digital Asset Service Provider Registration Massachusetts-based Circle received a conditional registration as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) with the French Financial Markets Authority. The company’s goal is to have its European operations brought under comprehensive EU oversight with both a full DASP and Electronic Money Institution license. Circle also appointed Coralie Billmann as head of French operations.
4
December 21: Saudi Arabia-based Tabby Lands $700 Million Credit Facility from JP Morgan Chase Saudi Arabia-based BNPL platform Tabby received a $700 million credit facility from JP Morgan Chase. Since it was founded in 2019, Tabby has brought in a total of $1.7 billion in combined debt and equity funding. The news comes before the company’s planned listing on the Saudi Stock Exchange.
5
December 22: Blackstone Agrees to Acquire Sony Payment Services Private equity group Blackstone has agreed to acquire Sony Payment Services. The firm is acquiring Sony Payment Services from Sony Group’s Sony Bank, which will still support Sony Payment Services as a minority investor. The acquisition marks Blackstone’s first investment in a Japan-based fintech company.
6
December 25: Libyan Islamic Bank taps Backbase to Enhance Customer Experience in Digital Channels Libyan Islamic Bank partnered with Backbase to “streamline its customer service operations and enhance its customers’ digital banking experience.” The move, which is expected to reduce Libyan Islamic Bank’s friction in both onboarding and servicing, will revamp the bank’s existing mobile app for retail customers and introduce new digital apps for business users.
7
December 26: Grayscale Chair Barry Silbert Resigns CEO and Founder of Digital Currency Group Barry Silbert resigned as Grayscale Investments chairman. Digital Currency Group, which is Grayscale Investments’ parent company, is currently caught up in lawsuits from U.S. regulators. Digital Currency Group Chief Financial Officer Mark Shifke is replacing Silbert as chairman.
8
December 27: OakNorth Brings on Lord Adair Turner as New Chairman U.K. neobank OakNorth has appointed Lord Adair Turner as its Chairman. Lord Turner has previously served as Vice-Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe, has been a Board Director of Standard Chartered, was Chair of the Financial Services Authority, and is a founding member of the Financial Policy Committee.
9
December 28: Saudi Fintech Tameed Closes $15 Million Series A Funding Round Small business lending platform Tameed received $15 million in funding. The round was led by Alromaih Group in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia-based Tameed will use the funding to fuel its growth to meet demand for its Shariah-compliant financing products.
10
January 1: HSBC Launches Money Transfer and Currency Conversion App Zing HSBC launched a new money transfer and currency conversion app with companion debit card. The new tool, called Zing, is available for both iOS and Android. With Zing, users can hold up to 10 different currencies and make transactions in local currency, avoiding point of sale currency conversion fees.
Blackstone has agreed to acquire Sony Payment Services.
The firm is acquiring Sony Payment Services from Sony Group’s Sony Bank, which will still support Sony Payment Services as a minority investor.
The acquisition marks Blackstone’s first investment in a Japan-based fintech company.
Private equity group Blackstone has agreed to take a majority stake in Japan-based Sony Payment Services (SPSV). The firm is acquiring SPSV from Sony Group subsidiary Sony Bank. Sony Bank will continue to support SPSV as a minority investor.
The acquisition marks Blackstone’s first investment in a Japan-based fintech company. The firm’s other Japan-based acquisitions have centered around the pharmaceutical industry. In 2002, Blackstone acquired AYUMI Pharmaceutical and Alinamin Pharmaceutical, a deal that marked the largest healthcare transaction in the market ever.
“We are thrilled to invest in SPSV… and expand our Japan Private Equity portfolio in ‘good neighborhoods’ – sectors with strong secular growth,” said Blackstone Japan Head of Private Equity Atsuhiko Sakamoto. “Digitization of the economy is a key trend around the world including Japan, and SPSV is exceptionally positioned to benefit with its sophisticated technology and robust customer base. We’re committed to bringing our operational and technology expertise and scale to support SPSV’s growth.”
Sony established its payment services group in 1995, and the group became a standalone company when it established SPSV in 2006. Headquartered in Tokyo, SPSV offers infrastructure for online payments processing.
“For the past 30 years, SPSV has led Japan’s cashless evolution, making payments safe and secure for customers,” said Sony Group Chairman and CO Kenichiro Yoshida. “We believe Blackstone, a long-standing partner of Sony Group, can help continue the legacy that SPSV has formed and support its next phase of growth.”
Combining Sony’s legacy and Blackstone’s expertise brings potential for SPSV to further innovate in Japan’s cashless evolution. This collaboration suggests there may be room for more strategic partnerships between traditional industry players and investment firms to foster innovation and drive advancement in the payments industry.
Founded in 1985, Blackstone counts more than $1 trillion in assets under management. The firm serves both institutional and individual investors with a wide range of portfolio companies and investment vehicles including private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, infrastructure, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic, non-investment grade credit, real assets, and secondary funds.
Chase has teamed up with debt advice charity StepChange to build upon its own efforts to support customers with financial challenges.
Courtesy of the partnership, Chase specialists will direct vulnerable customers to StepChange for free, confidential, expert advice on debt management.
Founded in 1993, StepChange is headquartered in Leeds, U.K.
A new partnership between Chase and U.K.-based debt advice charity StepChange extends the bank’s efforts to provide support to vulnerable customers via expert advice on debt management. Chase specialists will now direct these customers to StepChange and its online debt advice solution. The online tool is free to use and will help Chase customers build a budget that will ensure they can meet their financial obligations. Customers can communicate with the tool via webchat or phone and all information submitted to StepChange is confidential.
In a statement, StepChange Director of Client Experience Gail Arkle underscored why it was important for people with debt challenges to seek assistance rather than try to solve the problem on their own. “92% of the people we support say that they wish they’d asked for help earlier,” Arkle said, “and so working closely with leading organizations like Chase is crucial to ensure we can identify and support customers who are experiencing financial difficulty as early as possible.”
According to a 2023 FCA Financial Lives survey, there has been a significant increase in what it calls “low financial resilience” as the cost of living increased in 2023. The survey defines low financial resilience as adults who are experiencing financial challenges due to missed payments on “domestic bills or credit commitments in three or more of the previous six months.” Overall, the survey revealed that just under 13 million in the U.K. have low financial resilience.
Today’s partnership is another example of how banks are becoming more involved in the financial wellness of their customers. “Financial stress can take a toll on a person’s mental wellbeing and be a constant source of worry,” Chase Managing Director for Customer Operations Alexa Collinson said. “Finding free, impartial and trusted advice is often the first step to putting an action in place.”
The largest provider of free debt advice in the U.K., StepChange works with thousands of individuals across the country. A registered charity, the company helps people improve their financial wellness via better budgeting, responsible credit card use, and debt management and repayment. StepChange has partnered with more than 900 banks, retailers, local authorities, and charities since its inception in 1993.
Last month we shared the first round of demoing companies to make the cut for FinovateEurope 2024. With more names on the way, we wanted to take a moment to highlight the return of three alums who will be demoing their latest fintech innovation live on stage in London next month, February 27 through 28.
NayaOne: De-risking innovation and facilitating partnership
A Best of Show winner in its Finovate debut last year, NayaOne offers a secure, Digital Sandbox platform that helps banks take the risk out of innovation, integration, and partnership with fintechs. Financial institutions that use NayaOne’s platform gain single key access to more than 350 technology vendors that are being actively evaluated by banks, a secure digital sandbox environment, and 2.5 billion datapoints to facilitate evaluation and review of new technologies.
NayaOne’s approach allows banks to review multiple vendors simultaneously. This helps them get their proofs-of-concept evaluated faster, saving money and enabling greater integration-induced productivity with less integration-related risk.
Among the company’s 2023 highlights are, most recently, its partnership with market network and technology platform PIMFA WealthTech. NayaOne teamed up with the wealthtech firm last fall to launch a client analytics and profiling tech sprint. The goal of the tech sprint was to explore how both unstructured and alternative data can be used to identity and attract potential clients. The sprint also examined use cases for Large Language Models in client services, such as pre-onboarding.
The partnership with PIMFA WealthTech came in the wake of NayaOne’s securing of the Digital Sandbox tender from the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority last spring. “We believe that our digital transformation platform and synthetic data technology will be a valuable asset in helping fintech companies to develop and test their products more efficiently and effectively,” NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said in April.
NayaOne also announced partnerships with Polymesh, which joined the NayaOne Network in June, and Valley National Bank, which deployed its innovation platform – powered by NayaOne – the previous month.
Headquartered in London, U.K., NayaOne was founded in 2019. The company most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in September.
NF Innova: Turning traditional banks into digital leaders
NF Innova will return to the Finovate stage next month at FinovateEurope. The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2014 and was among the alums to participate in FinovateAfrica in Cape Town four years later.
Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, and founded in 2013, NF Innova demoed its FINTENSE Omnichannel Digital Banking Platform at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showcased its innovation in personal finance management, leveraging augmented reality to enable users to see their financial data in a new and compelling way.
In addition to augmented reality, NF Innova’s platform automates a number of customer-facing processes, including account opening. In fact, the company notes that firms using its technology have experienced efficiency increases of up to 600% thanks to NF Innova’s end-to-end automation of five different customer facing digital products.
NF Innova also reports faster times in completing common operations ranging from credit card payments to loans, as well as greater efficiency when it comes to orchestrating digital channels and segmentation.
In August NF Innova announced a strategic partnership with proactive mobile app security company Promon. The alliance will integrate Promon’s state-of-the-art technology to enhance security for users of NF Innova’s FINTENSE platform. NF Innova began 2023 by opening the doors on new offices in Čačak, Serbia, to provide workspace closer to where a number of its employees live.
Realmonitor: Helping banks benefit more from the homebuying process
Proptech innovator Realmonitor offers a white-label, AI-based property discovery mobile app designed to help address the specific pain points of the real estate market in Central and Eastern Europe. Because of the way properties are advertised in the CEE, there are often pricing discrepancies and anomalies that make the market difficult for home sellers, buyers, and agents.
Realmonitor brings transparency to this market by featuring all listings on the market from listing sites, Facebook Marketplace, Groups, and other locations. The technology conducts price comparisons to identify the best offers for advertised properties and provides instant push notifications when opportunities arise.
At the same time, banks benefit from an increase in mortgage loan prospects, as well as early engagement insofar as prospective homebuyers have used their whitelabled solution to find their properties.
Last month, Realmonitor won recognition as the most promising Hungarian fintech and Beyond Banking Solution of the Year at the FinTechShow. In its seventh year in 2023, the FinTechshow is an opportunity for fintechs and financial services companies in the country to “discuss digital transformation directions, new technological trends, and challenges.
“The application helps users throughout the entire journey of searching for, buying and selling real estate, and in relation to renovations and maintenance, with a specialist search engine,” Realmonitor founder Péter Faragó said upon receiving the award. “The greatest value of the application is that it helps save time for the user, who can handle everything related to the purchase, renovation, and maintenance of a home in one place, through one platform.”
Interested in demoing at FinovateEurope in London next month? Applications are still being accepted from innovative companies with new solutions that are ready to show. Visit our FinovateEurope hub today to learn more.
