Fraud Prevention Platform Darwinium Secures $18 Million in Series A Funding

Fraud Prevention Platform Darwinium Secures $18 Million in Series A Funding
  • Fraud prevention platform Darwinium raised $18 million in Series A funding this week.
  • The company positions its fraud detection processes on the network perimeter to provide better visibility, coverage, and agility.
  • Recently relocated to San Francisco, California, Darwinium made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year.

Digital security and fraud prevention platform Darwinium raised $18 million in Series A funding this week. The investment was led by U.S. Venture Partners, and featured participation from seed investors Blackbird, Airtree Ventures, and Accomplice. The Series A takes the San Francisco-based company’s total funding to $26 million. Darwinium will use the additional capital to scale its solution globally.

“AI capabilities have given fraudsters the upper hand of speed, scale, and greater efficiency,” Darwinium CEO and co-founder Alisdair Faulkner explained. “This is why we designed Darwinium to deliver the visibility and coverage of a security tool, the context and insight of fraud solutions, with the agility of AI. It’s the platform that will future-proof organizations against the most complex attacks.”

Darwinium offers two innovations to help companies fight fraud. First, Darwinium moves fraud detection processes to the network perimeter, to “the edge,” as the company refers to the strategy. This gives businesses a comprehensive view of the customer journey at every digital touchpoint, making it easier to distinguish trusted from risky behavior. This approach also gives the technology an advantage over API-based fraud protection solutions. These solutions, according to Darwinium, are not sufficiently agile and lack the context to adequately respond to evolving fraud threats.

Second, Darwinium leverages a SaaS approach to data protection, encrypting and anonymizing data on “the edge.” Any customer data that is subjected to analysis is stored within the business’ own infrastructure with their own digital keys. Darwinium’s technology then uses the anonymized version of this customer data. This enables the information to be processed without being exposed to fraudsters. Darwinium’s approach to securing customer data makes it easy for businesses to comply with consumer privacy regulations such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Founded in 2021, Darwinium made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year. At the conference, the company previewed its fraud prevention platform that leverages individual digital signatures to make sure that website visitors and customers are who they say they are. The company introduced its Continuous Customer Protection platform this spring, simultaneously announcing the firm’s expansion to the U.S. and relocation of its corporate headquarters to San Francisco.


Photo by Pixabay

Mahalo Banking Launches Credential Assurance Technology to Combat Credential Stuffing

Mahalo Banking Launches Credential Assurance Technology to Combat Credential Stuffing
  • Mahalo Banking launched a new solution to combat credential stuffing.
  • The new offering, Credential Assurance Technology (CAT), augments the sign-in process to make credential stuffing impossible.
  • Mahalo Banking won Best of Show in its Finovate debut last month at FinovateFall.

Mahalo Banking, a Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) that took home Best of Show honors in its Finovate debut last month, has launched a new tool to fight credential stuffing. Mahalo’s Credential Assurance Technology (CAT) augments the traditional account sign-in process, disrupting bot functioning and rendering credential stuffing impossible. Importantly, the technology does not require the use of friction-creating methods such as CAPTCHAs.

“With CAT, credit unions can confidently safeguard member accounts and help prevent the attacks that come at a high cost,” Mahalo COO Denny Howell said. He referred to CAT as a result of Mahalo’s “unwavering commitment to producing innovations that address the all-too-common obstacles faced by credit unions to redefine the digital banking experience.”

In a study by the Identity Defined Security Alliance, 84% of respondents said their organizations had experienced a data breach, which often leads to compromised credentials. Cybercriminals can direct automated bots to use this data to hack login credentials  – such as those of credit union members.

“If your credit union has not been targeted yet, it’s just a matter of time,” Mahalo President and CEO Jim Stickley said. He noted that it was important that new security measures be as inobtrusive as they are effective. “It was important to use to create a solution that would resolve this issue without adding new barriers or disruption for credit union members,” Stickley said. “What we have created has simply changed the game. When our CAT solution is enabled, credential stuffing simply does not work.”

Founded in 2018, Mahalo made its Finovate debut last month at FinovateFall, earning Best of Show honors from our attendees. At the conference, Mahalo’s Howell and Chief Technology Officer Dan Domek demonstrated how the CUSO had integrated comprehensive neurodiverse functionality directly into its platform. This enables the platform to better serve members that may have unique needs due to autism, dyslexia, epilepsy, color-blindness, or other conditions.

In August, the Troy, Michigan-based fintech announced an expansion of its partnership with fellow Finovate alum Larky. That same month, Mahalo partnered with Providence Federal Credit Union to enhance both online and mobile banking experiences for the credit union’s 16,000+ members.


Photo by Toni Cuenca

Nova Credit Lands $45 Million in Funding for Alternative Credit Scoring

Nova Credit Lands $45 Million in Funding for Alternative Credit Scoring
  • Nova Credit has received $45 million in Series C funding in a round led by Canapi Ventures.
  • The investment boosts Nova Credit’s total funding to $79 million.
  • Today’s funds will be used to broaden its product offering and scale its cash flow underwriting and income verification tool Cash Atlas.

Borderless credit data company Nova Credit has brought in $45 million in Series C funding this week. The investment– which was led by Canapi Ventures with participation from Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst, Index Ventures, Y Combinator, Avid Ventures, Geodesic Capital, Harmonic Capital, Radiate Capital, and Socium Ventures– boosts the company’s total raised to $79 million.

The company will use the funds to broaden its product offering beyond cross-border credit reporting and scale its cash flow underwriting and income verification tool Cash Atlas. Along with Cash Atlas, Nova Credit also offers Credit Passport, an API that translates an international credit report into a local-equivalent credit score to allow newcomers to the U.S. to use the credit score of their home country.

To power these two products, Nova Credit leverages open finance to analyze consumer-permissioned transaction data for underwriting purposes. With insight from a prospective borrower’s cash flow, the company can underwrite the more than 60 million new-to-credit, new-to-country, and other thin-file consumers.

“Open finance data has been available for decades, but the industry has failed to assemble it into a suite of products that lenders can easily use to improve their customer onboarding and credit workflows,” said Nova Credit Co-founder and CEO Misha Esipov. “For years, Nova Credit has pioneered the use of consumer-permissioned data to enable the world’s most reputable businesses to approve more customers without compromising their risk and compliance standards.”

Nova Credit has seen growth in terms of revenues, partners, and geography since closing its $50 million Series B round in 2020. In the past three years, the California-based company has grown its revenue 10x and has added HSBC, Verizon, Scotiabank, Earnest, and Yardi to its partner roster, and has expanded its product reach to 20 countries outside the U.S., including Canada, the U.K., the UAE, and Singapore. 

In the future, Nova Credit plans to introduce new solutions ranging from new-to-credit and thin-file underwriting to customized KYC and verification solutions. “While cross-border credit remains critical to our strategy, we’re excited to broaden our offering and tackle a new set of industry challenges long unsolved,” explained Esipov. “This new capital fortifies our position to continue being a dependable partner to the many banks and lenders we serve and accelerates the pace of innovation in an industry very much in need of change.”


Photo by Dany Kurniawan

AI and Generating Alpha in Real Time with aisot

AI and Generating Alpha in Real Time with aisot

Is there a subsector of fintech that is more eager to adopt AI than the world of investing and asset management? From the burden of ever-growing amounts of potentially valuable data to the demands of managing risk to the challenge of generating alpha and producing above market returns, there are many ways that wealth management will benefit from innovations in AI – and the people involved in wealth management know it.

Founded by a team of former ETH Zurich researchers, aisot is one of the companies that is dedicated to helping asset and wealth managers make the most of the AI opportunity. The Swiss startup, launched in 2019 and headquartered in Zurich, leverages generative AI and access to market and alternative data sources, to deliver analytics, forecasts, and actionable insights to traders, business analysts, data scientists, and other financial services professionals.

“Information moves markets,” aisot co-founder and CEO Stefan Klauser said at the beginning of his Finovate demo in 2021. “At aisot we give you specialized market insights and full costs. (Our technology) reduces forecasting errors by up to 50%, and can enhance your returns. Whether you are a machine learning expert, a quant, or someone that has not had a systematic approach to data before, aisot’s services are always easy to use.”

aisot co-founder and CEO Stefan Klauser demoing his company’s technology at FinovateSpring 2021.

aisot launched its AI Insights Platform earlier this month. The cloud-based solution enables asset managers and wealth managers to offer their clients personalized investment portfolios at scale. The platform consists of three components: the AI Insights Dashboard, the Custom Feature Suite, and the Product Launch Pad. Via the Dashboard, users can investigate multiple market scenarios and fine-tune investment strategies. Dashboard features include an integrated portfolio builder, an optimizer to analyze historical data and market trends, and a statistical toolkit to enable users to review and evaluate portfolio performance. The platform’s Custom Features Suite allows users to vote on future platform enhancements and additions. The Product Launch Pad gives users the ability to launch structured notes, transforming investment strategies into tradable and liquid securities.

Klauser put the new offering in the context of the company’s overall philosophy as a “digital-first company.” He explained, “We conscientiously push technological boundaries while upholding core principles and stringent controls. Our relentless focus remains on our customer, shaping the platform based on their evolving needs in terms of performance, personalization, and scalability.”

The new product launch comes in the wake of aisot’s rebrand in July. In addition to a preview of the company’s AI Insights Platform and a new website, aisot also shared information about aisot Labs, the firm’s AI engine, as well as the company’s new investment products. These include aisot’s AI Balanced Digital Assets. An Actively Managed Certificate that enables investors to participate in the performance of an underlying investment strategy, AI Balanced Digital Assets is a long only, AI-driven, crypto portfolio built to match the volatility of a Bitcoin or Ethereum tracker while at the same time maximizing performance.

aisot has raised a total of $2.5 million (CHF 2.3 million) in funding, most recently securing $2 million (CHF 1.8 million) in seed capital this spring. The round was led by Haute Capital Partners, with angel investors, including members of the Swiss ICT Investor Club (SICTIC), also participating. The investment will enable aisot to add to its team, drive continued product development, and support the company’s growth projects.

Haute CEO and Chairman Thibault Leroy Bürki praised aisot as “a leading provider of AI solutions for asset and wealth management.” He added, “We chose aisot for their innovative approach to wealth management, advanced AI engine, and ability to generate alpha in real-time … aisot’s AI engine provides clients with the amazing ability to adjust customized portfolios to market trends in real-time while generating alpha.”


Photo by Fede Roveda

When the CFPB States Banks Cannot Charge for “Basic” Customer Service

When the CFPB States Banks Cannot Charge for “Basic” Customer Service

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued its first advisory opinion offering guidance on section 1034(c) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), which originally became effective in 2011. Section 1034(c) requires banks to reply for consumer requests for information and not charge them for customer service responses regarding their bank account. The CFPB calls charges such as these “junk fees.”

The issue stems from instances when the consumer needs to gather basic account information required for them to fix problems with their account or manage their finances. With today’s advisory opinion, the CFPB is seeking to stop large banks for charging their customers for requesting essential information they are entitled to under federal law. These “reasonable requests” include asking for original account agreements or information about recurring withdrawals from an account.

“While small relationship banks pride themselves on customer service, many large banks erect obstacle courses and impose junk fees to answer basic questions,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “While the biggest banks have abandoned the relationship banking model, federal law still requires them to answer certain customer inquiries completely, accurately, and in a timely manner.”

Who is impacted

The opinion applies to insured depository institutions and credit unions that offer or provide consumer financial products or services and that have total assets of more than $10 billion, as well as their affiliates.

What does it require

Banks and credit unions must comply with consumers’ requests for information regarding a financial product or service that they obtained from the institution. This includes supporting written documentation regarding customer accounts.

Why now

Because many households do not have a single, personal banker they can turn to for answers, they are often subject to phone trees and AI-powered chatbots to find information. As more banks attempt to save costs by swapping human agents for generative-AI-powered bots, some consumers may have to spend extra time sorting through irrelevant material and waiting on hold to get the answer they need.

“Large banks and credit unions possess information that is vital to meet these customer needs,” the advisory opinion states. “Too often, however, it can be difficult and time consuming for individual consumers to obtain a clear answer to questions or resolve an account issue.”

What is not included

While consumers have a right to receive information about their account, there are some expections. Banks and credit unions do not need to offer:

  • Confidential information such as an algorithm used to derive credit or risk scores
  • Information collected for the purpose of preventing fraud or money laundering
  • Information required to be kept confidential by law
  • Any nonpublic information, including confidential supervisory information

Photo by MART PRODUCTION

Anodot Unveils CostGPT to Help Businesses Better Manage Cloud Costs

Anodot Unveils CostGPT to Help Businesses Better Manage Cloud Costs
  • Analytics and monitoring solutions company Anodot has launched CostGPT to help businesses monitor cloud costs.
  • Anodot’s CostGPT leverages AI to enable business managers to learn about and manage their cloud costs data conversationally via chat.
  • Headquartered in Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateEurope in London.

Advanced analytics and monitoring solutions provider Anodot has unveiled its latest solution, CostGPT. The new AI-powered offering enables cloud users to access accurate and personalized analysis of their cloud costs. With CostGPT, users will be able to better address everything from complex pricing models to cloud resource allocation with a simple query.

In addition to being able to ask the platform questions about cloud costs via chat, CostGPT provides optimization recommendations to help users better understand their cloud spending. The technology helps businesses avoid unnecessary costs, optimize resource utilization, and leverages real-time, intuitive data visualizations to make analysis, planning, and decision-making easier.

“This feature enables users to interact with their cloud cost data conversationally, making it more accessible and effortless than ever before,” Anodot Head of Product Limor Tepper said. “It’s all about ensuring that our users have the answers they need at their fingertips. And it doesn’t stop at text responses; it supplies the answers with graphical results that are easy to understand at a glance.”

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the event, the company demoed its Payments Monitoring Tool. The technology leverages AI to monitor and correlate payments activity and business performance. This enables Anodot to spot potential issues and provide users with actionable alerts and forecasts in real-time. Businesses use Anodot to monitor a wide range of operations from front end applications to APIs to payments. Anodot says it has helped companies cut the time-to-detection of revenue-critical issues by up to 80%.

Anodot has raised $64.5 million in funding from investors including Alicorn Venture Capital and Redline Capital. Also last month, Anodot announced a “long-term strategic partnership” with DevOps and FinOps services Automat-IT. The partnership is designed to help consumers maximize their deployments on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Over the summer, Anodot released its annual State of Cloud Cost survey. The report highlighted trends such as the rise of third-party solutions and the challenge of cloud cost transparency.


Photo by Timur Saglambilek

Intuit QuickBooks Launches QuickBooks Bill Pay

Intuit QuickBooks Launches QuickBooks Bill Pay
  • QuickBooks launched QuickBooks Bill Pay to bring accounts payable automation and processes to small business clients.
  • The new product is integrated into the QuickBooks platform and aims to help users manage bill payments to vendors and contractors.
  • The announcement comes after the company ended a long-standing relationship with Bill.com.

Intuit’s QuickBooks unveiled QuickBooks Bill Pay today to bring accounts payable (AP) automation to its business users.

Aimed at small-to-mid-sized businesses, the new bill pay tool will help Quickbooks’ clients track and automate their bill payments within its platform. The new tool also includes a suite of financial and accounting tools such as digitized record-keeping, vendor management, and advanced controls with customizable permissions for teams.

By integrating a bill payment tool into its existing platform, the company makes it easier for business users to manage bill payments to vendors and contractors. Additionally, by bringing AP processes into a single solution, businesses will have better cash flow and money movement visibility and may mitigate missed and late payments.

“Across the QuickBooks platform, we’re revolutionizing money movement to improve the number-one problem small businesses face – cash flow – which impacts their success rates,” said Intuit Senior Vice President of the QuickBooks Money Platform David Talach.

With Bill Pay, businesses can:

  • Set permissions and rules to customize the bill approval process for different team members
  • Import vendor invoices and to automatically create a bill
  • Keep digital records of bills and payments in one place
  • Send electronic payments or paper checks without issuing and mailing them
  • View and file 1099s for vendors

“QuickBooks Bill Pay is a key addition to our ecosystem as we aim to deliver a singular, end-to-end financial solution for small businesses to manage their money. Integrating Bill Pay with our other money offerings enables our customers to leverage game-changing automation capabilities and have the visibility and clarity they need when it comes to their finances,” added Talach.

QuickBooks has a three-tiered pricing plan for the Bill Pay tool, ranging from free to $45 per month. The base level includes five free ACH payments per month while the upper tiers include more ACH payments per month, custom bill approval workflows, unlimited 1099s for vendors, and predefined team permissions.

Founded in 1983, QuickBooks is one of the oldest fintech solutions for small businesses. The company has undergone recent friction when it comes to integrated bill pay, having leveraged a partnership with Bill.com for several years, and later ending that relationship in favor of a partnership with Melio.

QuickBooks is owned by Intuit, a public company that trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker INTU and has a current market capitalization of $151 billion.


Photo by RDNE Stock project

Stash Secures $40 Million in New Funding, Introduces First Independent Audit Chair

Stash Secures $40 Million in New Funding, Introduces First Independent Audit Chair
  • Investment app Stash announced a $40 million investment on Friday. The investment was led by T. Rowe Price Investment Management.
  • The New York-based company also announced that former New York Stock Exchange CFO Amy Butte was joining the company as its first-ever independent audit chair.
  • Stash made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateFall.

Finishing the week with a bang is investment app Stash, which announced a new $40 million investment and first-ever independent audit chair on Friday.

The investment comes courtesy of T. Rowe Rice Investment Management, as well as a combination of strategic and existing investors including Goodwater Capital and Union Square Ventures. The first-ever independent audit chair comes courtesy of former NYSE Chief Financial Officer Amy Butte.

“The addition of Amy, who is amongst the most accomplished leaders in the financial services space, plus a new round of financing from marquee investors, are clear indicators of the strength of Stash’s business,” Stash CEO Liza Landsman said. “It also signals our widely ambitious future.”

A recognized leader in financial services, Butte has taken companies public as a director, advisor, and CFO, including the IPO of the New York Stock Exchange. Butte currently sits on the boards of Bain Capital Specialty Finance and DigitalOcean, and served on the boards of BNP Paribas and Fidelity Strategic Advisers Funds for seven and six years, respectively. In a statement, Butte underscored Stash’s unique approach to helping individuals get started on the road to investing.

“(Stash) is not a tool – it is a business,” Butte said. “It is not simply replicating a traditional workflow online. Rather, it is encouraging and teaching an underrepresented (traditionally ignored) customer segment about the value of investing through a subscription model. It is leveraging technology to make finance both accessible and also understandable.”

A Finovate alum since 2017, Stash offers an investing app that helps users build long-term wealth. With automated investment plans starting as low as $3 a month, Stash helps users build diversified investment Smart Portfolios – that offer exposure to stocks, ETFs, and even cryptocurrencies. Stash also offers personalized investment advice, automated recurring investing, and dividend reinvestments. Stash’s “Stock-Back” debit card solution enables users to earn up to 3% back in stock from regular purchases like gas and groceries.

In the past year alone, Stash has topped $100 million in annual revenue and now includes two million active subscribers on its platform. These subscribers have set aside nearly $3 billion due to regular, automated deposits averaging just $33.

Stash’s fundraising news comes just a few months after the company introduced new Chief Technology Officer Chien-Liang Chou, as well as launched its Internal Developer Portal (IDP), Elevate. Headquartered in New York, Stash was founded in 2015.


Photo by Steven Arenas

Till Financial Taps Astra to Bring Faster Money Transfers to Families

Till Financial Taps Astra to Bring Faster Money Transfers to Families
  • Till Financial has selected Astra to bring instant money transfers to its users.
  • Till Financial offers a fee-free debit card and savings platform for kids.
  • The two will roll out more features “in the coming months.”

Family-focused financial platform Till Financial is keeping up with the times when it comes to faster payments. The Massachusetts-based company has tapped money movement platform Astra for instant money movement.

The partnership will offer Till users secure and instant fund transfers, meaning they won’t need to wait the traditional three-days for funds to clear. Astra will also remove much of the friction involved in funding the youth accounts.

“We are thrilled to join forces with Astra to bring Till to the next level,” said Till Co-founder Taylor Burton. “This partnership will enable us to deliver on our promise of serving the unique needs of our families through financial literacy and empowering kids to be smarter spenders by offering them the tools they need for instant, secure, and user-friendly fund transfers.”

Till was founded in 2018 to promote financial literacy among kids. The company offers kids a bank account, a debit card, and a goal-based savings account. The parent can set the kid’s allowance, control the card, and receive insight into kids’ spending and savings habits. Unlike other youth-based digital banking tools which generally charge around $5 per month, Till does not charge any fees.

“Our technology complements Till’s vision for free family banking perfectly, and we are empowering families to have greater control and flexibility over their financial activities,” said Astra CEO Gil Akos. “This partnership underscores Astra’s commitment to driving fintech innovation that directly benefits consumers.”

Till and Astra plan to roll out more features “in the coming months.”


Photo by cottonbro studio

Finovate Global UK: Funding Innovation in Rewards, Payments, Lending, and Crypto

Finovate Global UK: Funding Innovation in Rewards, Payments, Lending, and Crypto

London-based fintech and digital wallet HyperJar announced a partnership with digital gift card network, Tillo. The announcement makes HyperJar the first spending app to integrate instant Cashback Gift Cards. The cards enable customers to earn instant cashback of up to 15% from more than 50 top brands including Ikea and Amazon.

In a statement, HyperJar’s Nicola Longfield underscored that not only was HyperJar the first app to integrate the cashback gift cards with a spending account, but also HyperJar was the first to offer “merchant cashback.” This option enables users to choose a higher cashback rate that is specific to a given merchant.

HyperJar’s partnership news comes one month after the company secured $24 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Susquehanna Private Equity Investments. More than 500,000 individuals, including more than 100,000 child cardholders, use HyperJar’s digital wallets.

HyperJar began the year with the appointment of a new CEO, Morgan Stanley veteran Rob Rooney.


A handful of U.K.-based fintechs secured funding this week. Instant payments company Lopay announced a seed investment of $7.3 million (£6 million). Participating in the round were BackedVC, Portage, The Venture Collective, and angel investors. With 20,000 SMEs signed up since launch, the company offers a app that allows small businesses to accept card payments. The app also enables instant access to cleared funds as soon as transactions are completed. Founded in 2022, Lopay plans to use the capital to expand its operations.

Fellow U.K.-based fintech Kennek was another company that locked in seed funding this week. The firm raised $12.5 million in new capital in a round led by HV Capital. Dutch Founders Fund, AlbionVC, FFVC, Plug & Play Ventures, and Syndicate One also participated. The investment follows a $4.5 million pre-seed round closed in February.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in London, Kennek offers an operating system for lending via a platform that supports the entire lending lifecycle from loan origination to servicing. The company will use the funds to further develop its core technology and add employees.

But the big winner of the week for U.K. fintechs in terms of funding was Untangled Finance. The firm, which operates a tokenized real-world asset (RWA) marketplace, secured $13.5 million in strategic funding in a round led by Fasanara Capital. Founded in 2020, Untangled Finance plans to use the capital for product development and to fuel growth.

The London-based company offers a tokenization platform that facilitates placing traditional financial assets on a blockchain. These real-world financial assets can range from bonds to real estate. Untangled Finance is part of a growing field within the digital asset industry that specializes in asset tokenization, a field that could grow as large as $5 trillion within the next five years, according to a recent report. Note that, along with its investment, Fasanara Capital opened two private tokenized credit pools on Untangled Finance’s platform.


Speaking of DeFi, for those who believe that regulation is the path to greater acceptance of cryptocurrencies, this week’s announcement from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) could be considered good news.

Within 24 hours of its new cryptoassets regulatory regime going live, the FCA has issued 146 alerts to non-compliant companies that were promoting cryptoassets to U.K. customers in violation of the new policy, which was announced earlier this year.

In a statement, the FCA urged consumers to check its publicly available “Warning List” before investing or trading in cryptocurrencies. “We take a risk-based approach, so not alll firms of potential concern will be added straightaway,” the FCA explained. At the same time, regulators hope their Warning List will nevertheless help would-be crypto investors “understand where firms’ promotions may be breaking the law and to consider the promotion with the full information available.”


Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.

Asia-Pacific

  • Coinbase secured a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
  • Packworks, a Philippines-based fintech, inked a deal to help SMEs secure microfinancing.
  • Forbes looked at the current challenges facing Chinese fintechs.

Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Nigerian startup Haba InsurTech raised $75,000 in pre-seed funding.
  • Kenya-based Buy Now, Pay Later fintech Lipa Later announced an investment of $3.4 million.
  • Nigeria’s Paystack announced an expansion into offline payments with the launch of virtual terminals for in-person bank transfers.

Central and Eastern Europe

  • Slovakia-based online payment solutions provider TrustPay launched an instant refunds feature.
  • BlackRock secured a minority stake in German digital wealth managment platform Upvest.
  • AML prevention and compliance solutions provider Savy forged a partnership with Lithuanian regtech AMLYZE.

Middle East and Northern Africa

  • MENA-based open banking platform Tarabut partnered with digital lending platform FLOOSS to bring digital loans to Bahrain.
  • Israeli fintech Stampli secured $61 million for its AI-powered accounts payable automation platform.
  • Emirates NBD launched its digital wealth platform.

Central and Southern Asia

  • India-based Axis Bank partners with Fibe to launch the country’s first numberless credit card.
  • Uzum Group, and a group of institutional investors, have pledged to invest $300 million in Uzbekistan’s digital economy.
  • Indian fintech Spice Money announced a collaboration with NSDL Payments Bank.

Latin America and the Caribbean

  • U.K.-based TerraPay teamed up with Bancolombia to enhance cross-border remittances in Colombia.
  • Fiserv acquired Brazilian EFT solution Skytef.
  • Chilean fintech Galgo secured $40 million in funding led by Mexico’s Nazca fund.

Photo by Marianna

Wysh Founder Alex Matjanec on How Embedded Life Insurance Can Work for Customers

Wysh Founder Alex Matjanec on How Embedded Life Insurance Can Work for Customers

The life insurance industry is anything but static. Technology has changed what is possible, consumer expectations have evolved, and financial habits have changed. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is that people don’t like thinking about their own mortality.

Wysh is tackling these challenges with its embedded insurance product, a high-yield savings account that currently pays 4% APY and includes an additional life insurance payout of up to $10,000. I spoke with Wysh Founder Alex Matjanec at FinovateFall last month on his Best of Show-winning demo at the show, how Wysh works for customers in today’s interest rate environment, and how he views the future of the insurance industry. Check out our conversation below.


Photo by Einar Storsul on Unsplash

Lendscape Teams up with Lenvi to Enhance Digital Risk Management

Lendscape Teams up with Lenvi to Enhance Digital Risk Management
  • Fraud analytics and risk management company Lenvi has partnered with secured finance technology provider Lendscape.
  • The integrated platform will help lenders identify fraud faster, and provide better, more seamless experiences for customers.
  • Headquartered in Leeds, U.K., Lenvi made its Finovate debut earlier this year at FinovateEurope.

Here’s some news that slipped under the radar in recent days and weeks. Lenvi, a Leeds-based fintech that made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year, has announced a partnership with secured finance technology provider Lendscape. Together, the two companies are offering enhanced digital risk management for lenders. The integrated platform will help lenders identify fraud faster, and provide better, more seamless experiences for customers.

“This collaboration, and the integration of our revolutionary mix of workflow technology and next-level credit risk analytics with Lendscape’s powerful lending technology, represents a major step forward in advancing the commercial finance industry’s capabilities,” Lenvi Chief Executive Officer Richard Carter said.

Lenvi brings an advanced, real-time credit risk analytics solution to the partnership. Combined with Lendscape’s lending technology, the joint offering will help lenders establish creditworthiness faster and more accurately. The collaboration will also support smarter lending decisions throughout the entire loan lifecycle – from application to servicing.

“This partnership allows us to give providers a more holistic view of creditworthiness, empowering them to work smarter, optimize their lending operations, or ultimately unlock more working capital for their SME customers,” Lendscape CEO Kevin Day said.

Lendscape provides 120+ banks and lenders with an end-to-end platform that enables them to offer a wide range of financing products. Both institutional and SME lenders can benefit from the ability to build and deliver innovative financing solutions by using Lendscape’s technology. Lendscape was founded as general IT services provider Hill Price Davison in 1972. The company changed its name to HPD Software in 2000, and rebranded as Lendscape two years later. In July of this year, Lendscape announced that it had secured a “significant investment” from private equity firm Bowmark Capital.

In its Finovate debut in March, Lenvi demonstrated its new loan management platform, PF1. The solution supports a wide range of lending types – from mortgages to unsecured loans. PF1 combines a broad and extendable API-first party support, along with comprehensive lending functionality. This allows for feature toggling along with a fully automated online deployments. At the same time, a React user interface and APIs give users the ability to take advantage of a highly configurable workflow engine while remaining compliant and secure.

Founded in 1988, Lenvi works with more than 150+ lenders, providing lendtech solutions in loan software and risk analytics. The company has managed more than $122 billion (£100 billion) in credit assets on behalf of clients, and processes a new loan application every five seconds on its platform.


Photo by John Escudero