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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
AI Squaredis a platform for product owners, data scientists, and enterprise leaders. It empowers them to accelerate predictive and generative AI projects, measure their benefits, then iterate and improve them to drive significant revenue growth and cost reduction.
Features
Speed to Market: Faster model LLM integration into business applications driving increased adoption of foundational models and LLMs across the organization
Increased Efficiency: Increased foundation model & LLM accuracy using feedback from end users to auto-tune
Built-In Privacy and Security: Designed with financial services organizations in mind, protecting the data for their organization and customers
Why it’s great
Data is a competitive moat and AI Squared helps users harness it with both predictive and generative AI.
Presenters
Michelle Bonat, CTO Bonat boasts two decades in finserv. Formerly an AI CTO and Head of AI Innovation at JPMC, she’s now shaping the next wave of financial AI innovation. LinkedIn
Andre Llewellyn, Advisory Board Member Llewellyn is an award-winning experienced marketing exec at AI Squared with previous roles at Instagram and P&G. He’s an expert in AI-driven marketing innovation. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Autobooks’Tap to Pay on iPhone enables businesses and non-profits to accept contactless payments, directly from the financial institutions’ existing mobile banking apps.
Features
Contactless payment acceptance
Available directly from financial institutions’ mobile banking apps
Payments deposited directly into customers’ existing accounts at FIs
Why it’s great
To lock in customer deposits and relationships, financial institutions need to offer easy ways for businesses and non-profits to accept online and in-app payments.
Presenters
Steve Robert, CEO & Co-Founder Robert helped found Billhighway, a financial platform for organizations, in 2003. After Billhighway was acquired in 2016, Steve founded Autobooks. LinkedIn
Derik Sutton, CMO Sutton is a product and marketing executive with a track record of helping to build, market, and sell products in the financial industry. Sutton joined Autobooks in 2018. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Synthetic ID fraud is the fastest growing financial crime category. This demo will show how Nuance’sGatekeeper detects artificial voices in real-time.
Features
By combining synthetic speech detection with voice and conversational biometrics, Gatekeeper provides a layered defensive countermeasure against AI-powered fraud attacks.
Why it’s great
Nuance has worked with the Microsoft Cognitive AI research team to detect the tiny differences that distinguish a computer-generated voice from a live human voice.
Presenter
Rachel Muench, Security & Biometrics Lead Muench’s expertise lies in helping FIs leverage biometrics for authentication and fraud prevention while delivering better customer experiences. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
SRM Key Moments are customized experiences that load into existing apps to drive desired outcomes for card portfolios.
Features
Customized moments
Integratabtle into existing mobile apps
Configurable tech stack rules at every level
Why it’s great
SRM Key Moments is paying dividends for bank and CU issuers with 25%+ overall increase in transactions, $20-$40 per card per year in increased payment volume, and increased customer engagement.
Presenters
Chris Boncimino, Global Innovation Partner CEO, Key Moments Boncimino has 20 years leadership in global payments, financial services and product development. He’s an executive member of the Visa Asia Pacific Leadership Team, responsible for global development and solution delivery. LinkedIn
Bob Koehler, Chief Innovation Officer Koehler has 20+ years of experience in card portfolio strategy. He’s successfully led multiple high-value projects for clients negotiating with signature networks and is steeped in revenue growth programs for FIs. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
FinTech Insights is the premier competitive analysis tool for banks and fintechs that provides all the data they need to outsmart their competition in one powerful, user-friendly platform.
Features
See exactly what competitors are doing right now
Identify unmet market needs in a matter of seconds
Find out how product enhancements would change bank market positioning
Why it’s great
Most digital banking teams develop with a limited view of the market, and FinTech Insights allows them to quickly identify unmet customer needs and market opportunities.
Presenters
Nickolas Belesis, VP of Growth Belesis is a fintech growth and digital banking specialist, assisting C-Suite executives in utilizing FinTech Insights to skyrocket their digital banking and maximize their NPS scores. LinkedIn
Konstantine Pappas, Account Executive Pappas is an experienced fintech executive who is empowering digital banking teams to improve their UX and product offerings. LinkedIn
Is the tide turning in favor of crypto? Today’s unanimous, three-judge ruling in favor of Grayscale over the SEC is yet another sign that crypto winter could be transitioning into crypto spring.
What happened? As we’ve been reporting in Tales from the Crypto, there has been a growing movement in favor of an exchange-traded fund based on the price of Bitcoin. A number of major financial institutions – including crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments – have applied to the SEC in order to make this happen. To date, firms pursuing ETFs based on Bitcoin futures have fared better than those companies opting to offer ETFs based on the spot price of the cryptocurrency.
One of the ways that the SEC has pushed back against these latter efforts has been to say that, essentially, spot Bitcoin ETFs are not safe. Specifically, the SEC told Grayscale – which was looking to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a listed Bitcoin ETF – that the planned product was not “designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices.”
In June, Grayscale sued the SEC. And this week, a three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals overturned the ruling. The court directed the SEC to grant Grayscale’s petition for review and to vacate its order to deny the company’s listing application. The succinct, two-sentence judgment does not determine the ultimate fate of Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF. But the successful appeal is a major boon for the effort to make spot Bitcoin ETFs available to traders and investors.
Crypto continues to have an easier path outside the United States than within it. Today’s news about Grayscale and the SEC comes at the same time that Coinbaseannounced a new PayPal integration for its users in the U.K. and Germany. The integration will enable Coinbase users in those countries to easily buy and withdraw cryptocurrencies via debit cards and bank accounts linked to PayPal.
“Coinbase’s mission of increasing economic freedom in the world means making it easier and faster for customers to interact and engage with the cryptoeconomy, reducing the frictions of the legacy banking system,” Coinbase VP and Regional MD, EMEA, Daniel Seifert said.
The process is simple for U.K. and Germany-based customers who already have a PayPal account. They can begin making crypto transactions on Coinbase immediately, the company said in a blog post. Customers also do not have to input their bank account or card number directly to Coinbase; users can continue using PayPal to securely manage their financial data. The company said that it plans to extend the functionality to other EU countries in the months to come.
Speaking of Coinbase, the company recently announced an investment in stablecoin company Circle. Circle is the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. The investment announcement was accompanied by a statement that the two companies will shut down the Centre Consortium, a private governance organization for USDC established by Circle in 2018.
“We believe that stablecoins can advance the real-world utility of crypto and help make the global financial system more open and inclusive,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a joint statement. “Together, we look forward to unlocking additional value by growing the USDC ecosystem, circulation and global adoption.”
Founded in 2018 to help financial consumers in the U.K. access digital assets, cryptocurrency firm Coinpass has agreed to be acquired by OANDA Global Corporation. OANDA acquired a majority interest in Coinpass last week.
OANDA CEO Gavin Bambury said the acquisition would add to the company’s multi-asset offering and its appeal to a broader range of retail investors. He added: “A crypto native, Coinpass will provide OANDA with the technology backbone and trusted experience in the regulated crypto markets we need in order to offer clients globally a fast and secure route to the digital economy.”
Coinpass offers fast, secure, and compliant trading in more than 50 fiat currencies, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. The firm won Best Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform at CityAM’s 2020 CryptoAM Awards. Coinpass launched its crypto trading platform in 2021 – the same year it secured approval from the Financial Conduct Authority – and initiated stablecoin trading in USDC and USDT in 2022.
“We are delighted at Fluency to be part of this exciting and forward-thinking partnership with Mastercard helping CBDC networks seamlessly bridge transactions between different types of CBDC: account and token-based, retail and wholesale, multi-CBDC with tokenized assets and regulated stablecoins,” Fluency CEO Inga Mullins said.
Fluency offers a technology to enable organizations and institutions to deploy, configure, and manage custom CBDC networks. The company has joined CBDC boards around the world in order to assist central banks and governments on CBDC design, implementation strategy, and policy.
“We believe in payment choice and that interoperability across the different ways of making payments is an essential component of a flourishing economy,” Mastercard Head of Digital Assets and Blockchain Raj Dhamodharan said. “As we look ahead toward a digitally driven future, it will be essential that the value held as a CBDC is as easy to use as other forms of money.”
Crypto exchange Bybitintroduced a revamped launchpad this week. The enhanced offering, Bybit Launchpad 3.0, gives early investors the opportunity to invest in new and pre-listed tokens directly from the Bybit platform. The technology connects project developers with potential investors, and provides a token launch process that is more streamlined and features greater transparency.
“Bybit Launchpad 3.0 is bringing innovative blockchain projects to the forefront,” Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Shou said. “We are providing direct access to pre-listing rounds and facilitating the acquisition of new tokens. These tokens then seamlessly transition to trading on Bybit’s trading platform.”
Headquartered in the UAE, Bybit was founded in 2018. With more than 270 assets available via its platform, the company has more than 15 million users around the world.
PhonePe has launched a stock broking app, Share.Market.
The app facilitates intraday trades and allows users to purchase stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and WealthBaskets.
The launch comes as PhonePe is more than three-quarters of the way through its recent $1 billion capital raise target.
Mobile payments app PhonePe announced today that its subsidiary, PhonePe Wealth Broking, has launched a stock broking app called Share.Market.
The new tool, which is available as a mobile app or web platform, enables retail investors and traders to purchase stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs. Share.Market will also offer WealthBaskets– curated collections of stocks/investment products that align with specific themes, sectors, or market trends– and will facilitate intraday trades.
PhonePe anticipates that, thanks to PhonePe’s existing reach and distribution, Share.Market will help more Indians build wealth. That’s because PhonePe has around 480 million registered users, accounting for one in four adult Indians.
“We are delighted to launch Share.Marketwhich further enables our vision of driving Financial Inclusion at a population scale,” said Share.Market CEO Ujjwal Jain. “Our goal is to offer the benefits of discount broking while creating lasting value for our customers as they invest and trade.”
The app will embed real-time, value-rich insights into its products and will offer DIY tools that help investors make informed decisions. There is also a Markets section that enables users to track the stock market, indices, individual stocks, and sectors.
“We will continue to invest in advanced technology, data, research, and immersive experiences to offer these benefits at scale and drive this new era of Value led Discount Broking coupling intelligence with Broking,” Jain added.
The launch of Share.Market comes in the midst of PhonePe’s recent capital-raising streak. Since 2021, the company has brought in $850 million from General Atlantic and Walmart, pushing PhonePe close to the $1 billion capital raise target it announced earlier this year.
PhonePe, which launched in 2015, began offering investing tools, mutual fund products, and insurance tools in 2017. In the six years since, the company has launched several mutual funds and insurance products. PhonePe was most recently valued at $12 billion earlier this spring.
“InvoiceCloud’s market-leading solution and seamless integration capabilities made it an easy decision to work together to provide tax organizations with best-in-class, robust payment solutions,” Aumentum Technologies EVP Andrew Wright said. “Together, we remain dedicated to helping our customers save both time and money with our streamlined, joint offering.”
The new joint solution leverages SaaS technology to offer county tax offices the latest functionality in electronic bill presentment and payment processing. The new offering promotes digital payment adoption, discourages taxpayer delinquencies, and lowers customer service calls by an average of 39%. The solution offers a variety modern payment options – including PayPal, Venmo, and Pay by Text – as well as traditional payment methods, and features an intuitive design based on actual customer usage.
“The expansion of InvoiceCloud’s relationship with Aumentum Technologies is a testament to the value our integrated solution is driving, not just to county treasurers and tax collectors, but to taxpayers, as well,” InvoiceCloud VP, Alliances and Business Development, Paul Applegate said.
Founded in 2009, InvoiceCloud specializes in cloud-based electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP). The company’s technology has delivered a 59% average increase in e-payment adoption, a 104% average increase in paperless enrollment, and a 39% average decrease in billing and payment-related customer service calls. The firm was acquired by EngageSmart in 2018.
Earlier this month, InvoiceCloud announced the launch of a new digital payment experience, in partnership with Finovate alum D3. In May, the company unveiled new enhancements to its Online Bank Direct solution. InvoiceCloud began the year with a collaboration with tax core software provider DEVNET. The company is headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts.
Aumentum Technologies has been providing property tax valuation and recording solutions software since 1972. Headquartered in Niagara Falls, New York, the company is an independent business unit within Harris Computer Corporation’s Public Sector Group. A subsidiary of Constellation Software, Harris Computer Systems serves more than 125,000 customers in more than 100 countries.
Bank of America is launching Global Digital Disbursements for commercial clients in Canada.
The launch in the Canadian market is facilitated via a partnership with Canadian interbank network Interac.
Global Digital Disbursements enables fast mobile B2C payments, helping businesses replace cash or check payments.
Bank of America has teamed up with Canadian interbank network Interac today. The bank announced today it is launching its Global Digital Disbursements product for commercial clients in Canada.
Global Digital Disbursements enables fast mobile B2C payments for users in multiple industries, such as insurance, healthcare, and education. The solution, which uses a person’s email address or mobile phone number as their identifier, works for companies seeking to replace cash or check payments.
“This is a milestone for Bank of America in Canada, as we continue to meet the evolving digital needs of our multinational clients, providing them with enhanced speed, flexibility and transparency to manage their payment and receipt flows,” said Bank of America Head of Product for Global Transaction Services, Canada Leslie Konecny.
The solution, which is available to Bank of America’s commercial clients that hold deposit accounts at the bank’s branch in Canada, uses Interac’s e-Transfer service, a solution that moves money across Canada to more than 300 other banks.
Unique to the Canadian market, Bank of America is making the Request for Pay feature available with Global Digital Disbursements. This feature enables businesses to text or email customers an invoice that contains a link to pay the required amount, which ultimately results in faster payments.
“The launch of Global Digital Disbursements in Canada follows the bank’s 75th anniversary in the country,” said Bank of America head of GTS Canada Maureen Jarvis. “This much anticipated launch speaks to our commitment to local innovations in financial services that help our clients realize cost savings and a competitive edge.”
Bank of America serves 68 million retail and small business clients through operations across the United States, its territories, and more than 35 countries. The bank is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BAC and has a current market capitalization of $232 billion.
Lighter Capital raised a $130 million credit facility.
The company will use the facility to continue funding early-stage companies.
Lighter Capital recently surpassed the milestone of distributing $350 million in growth capital via more than 1,000 rounds of financing.
Revenue-based financing fintech Lighter Capital has closed a $130 million credit facility this week. Today’s funds come from ATLAS SP Partners, i80, the Victorian Government, and iPartners.
The credit facility will be used to fund early-stage companies, something Lighter Capital has been doing since its launch in 2010. In fact, the company recently surpassed the milestone of having distributed $350 million in growth capital to more than 500 startups across the U.S., Canada, and Australia through more than 1,000 rounds of financing.
Lighter Capital’s revenue-based financing model helps startups that offer SaaS, technology services, subscription services, and digital media to access up to $4 million in growth capital without selling equity.
“Lighter Capital’s model is so innovative — a debt provider that’s essentially a VC partner,” said Qnary Founder and Chairman Bant Breen. “We get the financial rigor, network, and strategic guidance that a VC would give us, and that’s been incredibly helpful.”
Recently, the Seattle-based company has opened new offices in Australia, unveiled more non-dilutive funding options, and launched an online networking community for startup CEOs.
“After more than a decade in business, 2022 was our best year in the company’s history,” said company CEO Melissa Widner. “It’s a great privilege to help founders achieve their dreams on their terms by providing funding that doesn’t require selling equity or giving up control.”
Lighter Capital and other alternative financing startups are experiencing a moment in the fintech spotlight. That can be attributed to two factors. First, because VC funding is in decline, it is difficult to obtain equity financing. Additionally, banks have started to tighten their lending standards because of economic uncertainty and decreased collateral values.
An early Finovate alum, Lighter Capital’s most recent Finovate demo was at FinovateFall 2013, where then-CEO BJ Lackland demonstrated how the company’s small business lending platform leveraged CRM data to predict a borrower’s future performance.
AI-powered customer experience specialist Inbenta has acquired digital adoption platform Horizn.
Inbenta will integrate Horizn’s embeddable interactive product demos into its platform.
Horizn has won Finovate’s Best of Show award five times, most recently at FinovateFall last September.
AI-powered customer experience platform Inbenta has acquired digital adoption platform Horizn. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Inbenta CEO Melissa Solis referred to the acquisition as part of the company’s commitment to helping businesses lower customer service costs, grow sales, and enhance the customer experience in general. Inbenta’s platform leverages natural language processing, neuro-symbolic AI, and Generative AI across four digital communications modules – Chatbot, Knowledge, Search, and Messenger. These modules enable the platform to deliver comprehensive, configurable solutions for businesses in verticals from financial services and ecommerce to telecom and utilities.
The integration of Horizn’s technology, in particular the company’s embeddable interactive product demos, will enhance Inbenta’s platform in a number of ways. In addition to making employee training more effective and further enhancing the customer experience, the integration will also help reduce agent escalation. Horizn’s technology has reduced agent escalations in favor of self-service in 80% of cases.
“Everyone knows how helpful and time-saving a tutorial can be when presented in an easy to understand, visual format,” Solis said. “At Inbenta, customer experience is at the center of everything we do – it was only natural that product demo capabilities should be included within our customer experience platform.”
Founded in 2012, Horizn has partnered with more than 40 financial institutions around the world. This includes some of the largest banks like Wells Fargo and RBC, as well as regional and community banks. A Finovate alum since 2017, Horizn has won Best of Show on five different occasions. The Toronto, Canada-based company most recently took home top honors with its demo at FinovateFall last September.
“By acquiring Horizn, Inbenta has expanded the number of customer experience touchpoints that it can offer, setting itself apart from the industry’s text-reliant majority,” Horizn co-founder and CEO Janice Diner said. “The entire Horizn team is excited about this next stage of impact and innovation and looks forward to integrating itself into Inbenta’s leading customer experience platform.”
Post-acquisition, Diner will take a new position as Inbenta’s Head of Marketing.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Bud makes financial decisions simple by turning transactional data into rich customer insights. It enables lenders to get an accurate picture of a borrower’s income, expenditure and credit in realtime.
Features
Hyper-personalized insights fueled by generative AI
Strategic, smart segment growth unleashed
Efficient decision-making grounded in realtime data
Why it’s great
Supercharge personalization, deposits and growth with generative AI for financial services.
Presenter
Edward Masaveckas, CEO & Founder Maslaveckas is CEO and Co-Founder at data intelligence fintech Bud Financial (Bud). Under his leadership, Bud has grown to some 120 people and secured more than $100M in investment. LinkedIn
