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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
The company will use the funds to enhance its wealth management platform and expand its reach.
Investors include Moneta VC, iAngels, Guy Gamzu, Jonathan Kolber, and Rafi Gidro.
Wealth management platform Vyzerunveiled today it has received $6.3 million in Seed funding. The New York-based company will use the funds to enhance its platform and expand its reach.
Vyzer was founded in 2020 to offer Limited Partnership investors and family offices with complex portfolios– including alternative assets– a single, holistic view across all of their investments. The company helps users track, analyze, and optimize their investments, view and plan their cash flow, and more. Vyzer’s peer benchmarking tool leverages AI capabilities to offer clients insights into investment strategies, fund managers, and activities of similar investors.
“The funds will enable us to enhance our platform’s AI capabilities, develop new features, and broaden our market presence,” said Vyzer Co-Founder and CEO Litan Yahav. “Our ultimate goal is to simplify and streamline complex wealth processes for our customers, equipping each member with greater insights and control. This, in turn, empowers them to maximize their investment potential and foster wealth growth.”
Today’s funding round marks the company’s first investment and includes contributions from Moneta VC, iAngels, Guy Gamzu, Jonathan Kolber, and Rafi Gidro.
Vyzer’s launch comes amid what is expected to be the largest transfer of wealth in history. Analysts expect that, in coming years, baby boomers will shift $68 trillion to their heirs. This tech-savvy group is increasingly investing in alternative assets, some of which can be difficult to digitize. Vyzer’s technology seeks to fill in that visibility gap. As iAngels Founding Partner Shelly Hod Moyal explained, “Vyzer’s solution provides investors with broad and transparent visibility into their portfolios. It allows them to capitalize on the ever-growing investment landscape by making informed and timely decisions, and it enables them to effectively scale their portfolios at an affordable cost.”
Payments-as-a-service platform Rainforest has raised $11.75 million in seed funding.
The round was led by Accel, and included a $3.25 million venture debt facility courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Rainforest helps software companies embed financial products into their solutions.
In a round led by Accel, payments-as-a-service platform Rainforest has secured $11.75 million in seed funding. The round also featured participation from Infinity Ventures, BoxGroup, The Fintech Fund, Tech Square Ventures, and Ardent Venture Partners, as well as strategic angel investors. The funding included $3.25 million in a venture debt facility courtesy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), making the total equity raised in the round $8.5 million.
Rainforest founder and CEO Joshua Silver referenced his own experience as founder of a healthcare software company and as a payments consultant in explaining the “why” behind Rainforest. “I personally experienced the challenges and tradeoffs associated with embedded payments,” Silver said. “I recruited former colleagues and other all-star payments and SaaS veterans, and together we built Rainforest – the embedded payments platform we always wanted but didn’t exist.”
Rainforest offers an embedded payments solution that helps software platforms monetize their money flows. By building a platform specifically for software platforms, Rainforest believes that it has an edge over most payment providers that build solutions primarily for merchants. The company is able to help software platforms deal with both the risk management and compliance issues that accompany payments, while enabling them to take advantage of the growing opportunity to embed and monetize payments.
“Not every software company wants to become a full-fledged fintech,” Silver said, “but nearly all want to embed financial services.”
Rainforest’s embedded components enable companies to build payment rails to facilitate payments from providers such as Visa and Mastercard, as well as same-day ACH and Plaid verification. Rainforest supports next-day payouts, and the company anticipates adding same-day options like RTP and push-to-card soon. The company notes that its open ecosystem encourages integration with alternative payment networks, vertical-specific ledgers, and other financial service providers. “It’s a game changer,” Rainforest VP of Engineering Chris Church said, “and I’m thrilled to see platforms’ response to it.” The company notes that it secured client commitments representing more than $500 million in processing shortly after launch. In addition to financial services, Rainforest acknowledges interest in its technology from companies in verticals ranging from healthcare and professional services to logistics and construction.
Founded in 2022, Rainforest is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The company includes RoadSync, PayGround, and QuoteMachine among its clients.
BHG Financial announced a partnership with financial crime effectiveness testing company Cable.
BHG Financial will leverage Cable’s technology to enhance its own compliance programs.
Founded in 2020, Cable made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2022.
Unsecured business and personal loan specialist BHG Financial announced a partnership with Cable this week. The company will use Cable’s financial crime effectiveness platform to improve its own compliance efforts.
Headquartered in the San Francisco, California, Cable gives banks, financial services firms, fintechs, and other organizations the tools they need to enhance their compliance programs. These tools include automated risk assessments, automated assurance, quality assurance, management information, and reporting. BHG Financial’s Director of Financial Crime & BSA Officer Bryan Holloway, stated that the partnership underscored the company’s commitment to regulatory compliance by providing “advanced tooling” for “greater efficiency, visibility, and insights across our business.”
BHG Financial has established one of the largest community bank loan and product networks in the U.S. The company has originated more than $16 billion in loan solutions since its founding in 2001.
“We’re delighted to partner with BHG Financial to bolster their automated financial crime assurance and testing capabilities,” Cable CEO Natasha Vernier said. “With increasing regulatory scrutiny on banking and fintech compliance, it’s a privilege to partner with innovative companies like BHG Financial (that are) taking compliance very seriously and embracing the best tooling available to protect their business.”
Cable made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall 2022. At the conference, the company demonstrated its Automated Assurance solution. This technology enables banks and fintechs to automate their compliance assurance and effectiveness testing. Automated Assurance also allows organizations to discover breaches and control failures in the moment. Additionally, Cable’s technology streamlines a number of manual processes including quality control, stakeholder reporting, and record management.
Founded in 2020, the company raised $11 million in Series A funding in May of this year. Stage 2 Capital and Jump Capital participated, along with existing investor CRV. More recently, Cable announced a partnership with Grasshopper Bank, joined the Banking-as-a-Service Association, and introduced new Chief Revenue Officer Candace Sjogren. Sjogren comes to Cable after serving most recently as SVP, Global Head of Sales at crypto-as-a-service provider Zero Hash.
Want to feel good about the spread of real-time payments? Alabama-based Exchange Bank, a financial institution that has been serving customers since 1909, has turned to Pidgin to bring instant payments to its account holders.
The partnership between Pidgin and Exchange Bank will give the bank’s customers the ability to access faster payments to transfer funds between accounts, as well as pay employees, vendors, and more. Direct payment routing from financial institution to financial institution means that funds are settled and available in the recipient’s account almost immediately as soon as the transaction is completed.
“Banking has changed drastically since 1909, but our long-standing history is a testament to our bank’s dedication to keeping up with our customer’s needs,” Exchange Bank chairman and CEO Ricky Ray said. Ray referred to the partnership with Pidgin as an example of the bank’s ability to evolve and offer new ways to help its customers “thrive financially.”
Added Pidgin founder and CEO Abhishek Veeraghanta: “Today’s customers are looking for instant payment options to gain more flexibility and control over their transactions. We look forward to empowering Exchange Bank and their customers with more efficient payment options.”
Pidgin leverages its status as a central connection point to the Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service as well as faster payment networks such as The Clearing House’s Real-Time Payment Network. Founded in 2022, the company made its Finovate debut last year at FinovateFall. At the conference, Pidgin demoed its faster payments ecosystem, which enables FIs to send and receive faster payments almost instantly, while providing greater security compared to virtual wallet alternatives.
Pidgin founder and CEO Abhishek Veeraghanta demoing the company’s faster payments technology at FinovateFall 2022.
Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Pidgin was among the first fintechs to secure certification for the FedNow instant payments service launched by the Federal Reserve earlier this year. Also this year, Pidgin announced a new partnership with U.S. Century Bank, a Miami-based institution with more than $2.1 billion in assets. The bank will leverage its new relationship with Pidgin to provide instant payments to its growing customer base of small business owners, professionals, and entrepreneurs based in south Florida.
Other partnerships forged this year by Pidgin include the company’s work with fraud and compliance platform Effectiv (also a Finovate alum) and Community Bankers’ Bank.
paymints.io has partnered with Cross River Bank, which will facilitate a connection to The Clearing House’s RTP network.
Through the partnership, title insurance companies and real estate brokerages can send and receive digital payments in and out of escrow accounts in real time using paymints.io’s platform.
The RTP network will be available in addition to the payment rails that paymints.io already offers, including ACH and wire.
When it comes to real estate transactions, buyers and sellers have come to expect a slow process. But while appraisals and due diligence take time, the transfer of funds doesn’t have to. That’s why paymints.io has teamed up with Cross River Bank to help title insurance companies and real estate brokerages send and receive digital payments in and out of escrow accounts in real time.
paymints.io will leverage Cross River’s operating system, which will create a streamlined connection between Cross River and The Clearing House’s (TCH’s) RTP network, offering both businesses and consumers real-time access to funds for transactions under $1 million. By bringing in Cross River, paymints.io will not need to rely on a third-party provider for real-time money movement.
paymints.io was founded in 2020 to offer real estate companies a compliant and modern payments tool that sends funds via ACH and wire. The addition of the RTP network as a payment rail will facilitate the the receipt of money deposits, client and vendor disbursements to third parties, and account-to-account transfers between companies.
In addition to providing real estate professionals, buyers, and sellers with immediate access to funds, the company also expects the new partnership will cut down on the inefficiencies of paper checks, reduce settlement times, and mitigate wire fraud.
As paymnts.io CEO and Co-founder Jason Doshi explained, “… we view adding the RTP instant payment capability as more than the addition of a payment rail but a true evolution of our product offering. Allowing real estate industry participants to move funds instantly and securely while providing real-time visibility drastically improves the real estate transaction experience.”
Cross River and paymints.io have worked together before. The two partnered earlier this year to modernize real estate transactions with ACH and domestic wire capabilities.
“One of the most impactful benefits of our proprietary banking core is the ability to scale with our partners, allowing innovative industry leaders like paymints.io to grow and expand product offerings,” said Cross River Head of Payments Keith Vander Leest. “paymints.io is transforming financial transactions within the real estate industry and we’re proud to power their real-time payment capabilities.”
The use of TCH’s RTP has grown immensely since its launch in 2020. In the third quarter of this year, TCH reported that it facilitated 64 million transactions valued at $34 billion. With the addition of FedNow, which just surpassed 100 participating organizations, as another real-time payments option, consumer expectations will change and we will start seeing real-time payments become the rule, rather than the exception in the U.S.
Fintech software has become a critical component of the financial services industry, allowing customers to readily access financial products on their own terms while also enhancing operational efficiency. Digital technology continues to revolutionize the way financial institutions operate, and developers work hard to create new applications that can manage workloads previously spread across multiple systems and software.
Document viewing and sharing capabilities are among the most important features for fintech applications. While developers can use a variety of document lifecycle solutions to avoid the difficult task of building those features from scratch, the financial industry faces unique security and compatibility requirements when it comes to selecting integration partners. To fully understand these technical challenges, it’s important to understand the role of Java in the development of today’s fintech applications.
How Java Became So Important to the Financial Industry
Financial institutions were early adopters of computerized workflows. The first electronic communication network that made it possible to trade financial products outside the stock market floor was introduced in 1969. Computerized order flows became more widespread in the 1970s, with most institutions developing their own in-house systems. Digitization really took off in the 1980s and early 1990s following the introduction of the Bloomberg terminal and the Financial Information eXhange (FIX) protocol. In the late 1990s, the Nasdaq made it possible to execute securities trades without manual intervention by adopting Island ECN.
Java burst onto the programming language scene in 1995, and its arrival proved to be well-timed. The late 1990s and early 2000s saw extensive mergers and acquisitions in the financial industry, which left many companies struggling to integrate disparate applications and data. Java programming language, with its ability to support multiple platforms (“Write once, run anywhere” was an early slogan used by Sun Microsystems) proved to be an attractive solution to this challenge, and many financial applications were ported into Java. It also helped that Java was easy to use and orders of magnitude faster than legacy code running on outdated platforms.
Within just a few years, Java became the dominant programming language for the financial services industry. Its popularity only accelerated after the release of OpenJDK, a free and open-source implementation of the language, in 2007. By 2011, an Oracle report estimated that over 80% of electronic trading applications and almost all FIX engines were written using Java. Even now, nearly 30 years after its introduction, Java remains the dominant programming language used by financial services, far outpacing other open-source alternatives.
Why the Financial Industry Loves Java
Developers in the financial sector haven’t just stuck with Java for so long out of habit or inertia; Java’s distinctive features make it uniquely suited for the needs of financial applications, both for longstanding enterprise-grade banking systems and innovative new fintech solutions.
Security
It goes without saying that security is always a top consideration in the financial services industry. Banking and trading applications need to have security measures in place to protect financial data and personally identifiable information from unauthorized access. Java makes it easy to restrict data access and offers a variety of memory safety features that mitigate potential vulnerabilities, especially those caused by common programming errors. Oracle also continues to provide regular updates that patch known vulnerabilities and account for the latest cybersecurity threats.
Portability
As a platform-independent language, Java applications can run on almost any device. This has always been a major advantage in the financial industry, but it has proved even more valuable in the age of cloud computing and mobile applications. Developers can use the same code to deploy software in a virtual environment and make it accessible to end-users from their smartphones, computers, or other devices. Java virtual machines also support other programming languages, which further enhances the language’s flexibility.
Reliability
Since Java has been in continuous use for nearly 30 years and enjoys support from a robust development community, it has become one of the most reliable programming languages in the world. Potential instabilities have long since been addressed and there are many developer tools and documentation available to ensure that software is built upon a strong foundation. This is critically important for banking and financial applications, which require high levels of performance paired with fault tolerance.
The Need for Java-Based Document Viewing & Sharing
As fintech developers continue to build new applications that make life easier for customers and employees within the financial sector, they are increasingly finding that users expect more when it comes to viewing and sharing documents. Nobody wants to waste time and resources processing paper documents by hand, and most organizations want to avoid the security risks that come with relying on external applications for managing digital documents.
Unfortunately, today’s application users expect complex document viewing capabilities that are difficult for most developers to build from scratch. While there are several integrations available that can add document lifecycle features, most of them are not Java based and require additional development work to incorporate them into existing fintech solutions. Without the ability to support viewing, sharing, and editing natively within the Java application, users often turn to workarounds involving external programs, which creates security and version confusion risks.
Implementing Java-based Document Features with VirtualViewer
Accusoft’s VirtualViewer is a powerful HTML5 document viewing solution built from the ground up using Java to ensure maximum compatibility with fintech applications in the financial services industry while also meeting complex functionality and security requirements. With support for diverse document types, such as PDF, TIFF, JPEG, AFP, PCL, and Microsoft Office, VirtualViewer eliminates the need for multiple viewing solutions to create a better user experience within fintech software.
As a Java-based integration, VirtualViewer is compatible with almost any operating system and is both easy to implement and manage. No software needs to be installed on the user’s desktop, which allows fintech developers to roll out a scalable solution that meets their critical security and business continuity requirements within a single, high-speed application. VirtualViewer’s server component quickly renders and delivers individual document pages for local viewing as needed so users can access, view, annotate, redact, and manipulate financial documents on the fly. Since documents are displayed within the web-based viewer, there’s no need to download or transfer files, which enhances both security and efficiency.
When implemented as a replacement for a mortgage lender’s content management system, VirtualViewer made it possible to import and deliver more than half a million documents across the enterprise each day. Documents could be retrieved and viewed in under two seconds, contributing to a 40% improvement in mortgage processing times.
Enhance Your Java Fintech Application with VirtualViewer
Accusoft’s VirtualViewer provides true cross-platform document support for your Java-based applications. Whether you’re deploying your application within the cloud, on-prem, or as part of a hybrid environment, VirtualViewer’s powerful APIs can instantly provide your software with the document viewing and sharing features your customers are looking for. Installing the viewer takes less than ten minutes, and our out-of-the-box connectors make it easy to quickly connect to leading ECM applications, including Alfresco, IBM, and Pegasystems.
To celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, we wanted to recognize some of the contributions Hispanic entrepreneurs have made in the fintech industry. From the start, Hispanic professionals have played a pivotal role in shaping fintech by using their creativity and unique perspective to build and improve solutions that truly make a difference for both retail and commercial users.
Below is a selection of Hispanic-founded fintech companies that continue to make a transformative impact in the worlds of banking and fintech. Join us in celebrating diversity, inclusion, and the achievements from these individuals during this month of recognition and reflection. Please note that this is simply a conversation starter and is not an all-inclusive list of Hispanic-founded fintechs.
Securitize
Securitize enables digital securities, which are easier to own, simpler to manage, and faster to trade. Founders: Carlos Domingo, Jamie H. Finn, Shay Finkelstein, and Tal Elyashiv
Payjoy
PayJoy is a consumer financing company that allows consumers to buy a smartphone on credit and pay it off in installments. Founders: Doug Ricket, Gib Lopez, Mark Heynen, and Tom Ricket
Finix
Finix develops a payment processing platform for businesses. Founders: Richie Serna and Sean Donovan
Petal
Petal offers three Visa credit card products for underserved consumers. Founders: Andrew Endicott, David Ehrich, Jack Arenas, and Jason Rosen
Flywire
Flywire is a global payments enablement and software company that simplifies complex payments for its clients and their customers. Founder: Iker Marcaide
Octane
Octane offers access to instant financing to fuel their customers lifestyles. Founders: Andre Gregori, Jason Guss, Mark Davidson, Mark Garro, and Michael Fanfant
Origin
Origin is a financial planning platform that manages compensation, benefits, and personal finances for employees. Founders: João de Paula and Matt Watson
Oportun
Oportun is a digital banking platform that puts its 1.9 million members’ financial goals within reach. Founders: Gabriel Manjarrez and James Gutierrez
Brex
Brex is a global spend platform with corporate cards, expense management, reimbursements, and billpay. Founders: Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi
Camino Financial
Camino Financial is an online finance company that offers business loans and wealth-building solutions to help small businesses grow. Founders: Kenneth Salas and Sean Salas
Ontop
Ontop offers streamlined payroll, onboarding, and smooth payments for international teams. Founders: Julian Torres and Santiago Aparicio
Papaya
Papaya develops technology designed to simplify bill payment for consumers. Founders: Jason Meltzer and Patrick Kann
Snowball Wealth
Snowball Wealth offers a mobile app designed to help users tackle debt and build generational wealth. Founders: Pamela Martinez, Pearl Chan, and Tanya Menendez
Paystand
Paystand is a cloud-based billing and payment platform for B2B companies. Founders: Jeremy Almond and Scott Campbell
Listo
Listo offers insurance and loans via retail and mobile experiences. Founders: Alan Chiu and Sam Ulloa
Ripio
Ripio is a bitcoin and digital payments company that provides electronic payment solutions for businesses in Latin America. Founders: Luciana Gruszeczka, Mugur Marculescu, and Sebastian Serrano
InvestCloud
InvestCloud is a global company specializing in digital platforms that enable the development of financial solutions. Founders: Colin Close, John Wise, Julian Bowden, Michael A. Smith, Vincent Sos, and Yaela Shamberg
Novel Capital
Novel Capital provides revenue-based financing to B2B companies. Founders: Carlos Antequera and Keith Harrington
Flow
Flow offers an open architecture that connects investment managers with their limited partners and service providers. Founders: Adrian Ortiz, Brendan Marshall
Milo
Milo is reimagining the way crypto and global consumers access credit and financial solutions. Founder: Josip Rupena
Traive
Traive is a lending platform that connects lenders to farmers to provide financial products and services for the agricultural supply chain. Founders: Aline Pezente and Fabricio Pezente
Finally
Finally helps small and medium-sized businesses automate their accounting and finances. Founders: Edwin Mejia, Felix Rodriguez, and Glennys Rodriguez
Alvva
Alvva offers credit-building loans to pay for immigration expenses. Founders: Jorge Gonzalez and Sergio Torres
Portabl
Portabl offers identity-powered user experiences via a single API. Founder: Nate Soffio
Onyx Private
Onyx offers a modern private bank for the new generation. Founders: Douglas Lopes, Tiago Passinato, and Victor Santos
SMBX
SMBX is a funding portal and public marketplace for issuing and buying U.S. small business bonds. Founders: Benjamin James Lozano, Bhavish Balhotra, Gabrielle Katsnelson, and Jackie Chan
Zoe Financial
Zoe Financial helps its clients find and hire their ideal financial advisor. Founder: Andres Garcia Amaya
OKY
OKY is building technologies that help immigrants to improve their lives by connecting families and sending value home efficiently. Founders: Alejandro Miron, Estuardo Figueroa, Santiago Rossi, and Victor Unda
Caplight
Caplight is a platform that enables institutional investors to buy and sell derivatives of private equity. Founders: Javier Avalos, Justin Moore
Aeropay
Aeropay enables businesses to accept compliant, digital payments. Founder: Daniel Muller
Flourish FI
Flourish FI is a financial wellness and engagement platform for financial institutions. Founders: Jessica Eting, Pedro Moura
Capchase
Capchase provides financial solutions to startups by allowing access to funds as they grow. Founders: Ignacio Moreno Pubul, Luis Basagoiti Marqués, Miguel Fernandez, and Przemek Gotfryd
Chargezoom
Chargezoom is a B2B integrated payments platform. Founders: Matt Dubois and Miguel Avellan
Chipper
Chipper is a student loan app that helps users lower payments, qualify for forgiveness, and chip away debt faster. Founder: Tony Aguilar
Ease
Ease is a corporate card and practice operations software for private practices. Founders: Mario Amaro and Miles Montes
Coinbase has obtained a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore that allows the company to offer digital payment token services to its retail and commercial users in Singapore.
The official license comes a year after the Monetary Authority of Singapore granted Coinbase initial approval last October.
Coinbase has recently invested heavily in Singapore by launching new region-specific products, boosting relationships with regional groups, and hiring and training at its Singapore tech hub.
Digital currency platform Coinbaseannounced this week that Coinbase Singapore has obtained a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
With its MPI license in Singapore, Coinbase can now offer digital payment token services to its retail and commercial users in the country. Today’s announcement comes a year after the MAS granted Coinbase initial approval for the license last October.
As crypto tolerance and acceptance has developed across the globe in recent years, Singapore has proven an important region for expansion for Coinbase. As the company’s blog states, “… we’ve identified Singapore as a vital market for Coinbase. The nation’s progressive economic strategies and approach to regulation sync well with our global mission and objectives.”
Along with its new MPI license in the region, Coinbase has recently released products tailored specifically for Singapore, to include the addition of new funding options for users. Earlier this year, the company launched the ability for retail customers to fund their accounts using PayNow and FAST bank transfers. Coinbase also introduced no-fee USDC purchases with the Singapore dollar (SGD).
Coinbase has made other investments in Singapore, as well. The company has increased training and hiring at its Singapore tech hub and sparked relationships with industry associations including ACCESS, the Singapore Fintech Association, and the Blockchain Association of Singapore. Additionally, Coinbase’s venture arm has made 15 investments in the region.
“The newly acquired license is not only a validation of Coinbase’s operations but also represents a promise and responsibility to the growing crypto and Web3 community in Singapore,” Coinbase said in its blog post, adding, “As we look ahead, we are enthusiastic about further contributing to and growing alongside the crypto and Web3 community in Singapore.”
This positive news comes after a spate of negative press for Coinbase in recent months. In June, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged the U.S.-based company for operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency; and for failing to register the offer and sale of its crypto asset staking-as-a-service program. That accusation came after company CEO Brian Armstrong petitioned the SEC for clear rules and regulations surrounding crypto.
Founded in 2012, Coinbase currently sees $92 billion in quarterly volume traded and has $128 billion in assets on its platform. The company went public in 2021 and now trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker COIN with a current market capitalization of $18 billion.
AI digital workforce solution provider for banks and FIs, WorkFusion unveiled its latest digital worker, an AI transaction monitoring investigator called Isaac.
Isaac manages transaction monitoring alerts. The technology routes alerts to human investigators or closes them if they are determined to be non-suspicious.
WorkFusion demoed its technology at FinovateFall in 2014.
WorkFusion, an AI digital workforce solution provider for FIs, has launched its latest digital worker, an AI Transaction Monitoring Investigator called Isaac. The new offering leverages machine learning to enhance transaction monitoring alert management. By orchestrating alerts – working first-level alerts, auto-escalating alerts that might require investigation, and auto-closing non-suspicious alerts, Isaac enables anti-fraud analysts to focus on the more complex, higher risk fraud incidents.
“Our new AI Digital Worker, Isaac, reduces the alert review burden by helping to identify which alerts need to be escalated for further review and auto-closes those that it deems as non-suspicious,” WorkFusion VP of Financial Crime Art Mueller said. “Because Isaac creates an easy-to-read dossier with a supporting narrative and documentation, analysts move from authors of reports to editors – saving their time to work on higher-risk and higher value investigations.”
Isaac helps FIs manage transaction monitoring alerts. The technology automates transaction monitoring alert reviews and appropriately routes them to a human investigator, when necessary. If Isaac determines the alerts are not suspicious, it automatically closes them. Additionally, Isaac creates a dossier for each decision with a human-readable justification and supporting documentation. The technology is particularly helpful with transaction monitoring instances that produce a large number of alerts. These scenarios can include structuring, excessive fund transfers, unexpected account activity, as well as other high-risk factors. Note that Isaac is not a transaction monitoring tool itself, and does not initiate alerts on its own.
Headquartered in 2010 and founded in New York, WorkFusion demoed its Active-Learning Automation solution at FinovateFall 2014. Today, the company offers an AI-powered digital workforce that supports teams in operations such as anti-money laundering (AML), sanctions, customer onboarding, Know Your Customer (KYC), and customer service. WorkFusion’s solutions are not bots. Instead, the company’s digital workers leverage a combination of process knowledge and technologies – including AI, machine learning, intelligent document processing, and robotic process automation (RPA) – in order to complete jobs rather than merely rule-based tasks.
This summer the Bank of Asia announced that it would deploy WorkFusion’s AI Digital Worker, Evelyn, as part of its enhanced client onboarding experience. Evelyn provides negative news screening, a component of the KYC process that is especially helpful in combating money laundering, as WorkFusion CEO Adam Famularo explained.
“Adverse media monitoring is one of the most effective tools banks and financial institutions have to protect against money laundering,” Famularo said. “However, there are many news articles, most of which are irrelevant false positive, which consume a lot of time. By automating this laborious task, Bank of Asia will reduce its new client onboarding time and ensure a more positive customer experience.”
Lithuania is one of those countries that punches above its weight in terms of fintech innovation. With a population of less than three million, the country boasts more than 260 fintech companies. It is the largest fintech hub in the EU when it comes to licensed companies. These fintechs, numbering nearly 150, represent the majority of fintechs in the country and are licensed e-money institutions, payment institutions, or specialized banks.
Some of the more widely known Lithuanian fintechs include account-to-account infrastructure company kevin and e-money institution Paysera. Revolut Bank is licensed and regulated by the Bank of Lithuania, the country’s central bank.
Given the country’s strength as a fintech hub, it is no surprise that Lithuania holds its own on the regtech front as well. Two of the country’s more active regtechs are AMLYZE, an automated transaction monitoring and risk assessment solution provider that raised $1 million in funding back in May, and identity verification and fraud prevention company iDenfy. Both companies made significant partnership announcements in recent days.
Lithuanian identity verification and fraud prevention company iDenfy will help ECNG Digital, a virtual currency exchange and payment services firm, enhance its onboarding process. The partnership will enable ECNG Digital to deploy a variety of customized identity verification procedures via a KYC solution that combines high accuracy and an optimized user experience. These procedures range from validating government-issued identification documents to live selfie detection to cross-referencing databases. Additionally, iDenfy’s in-house KYC specialists will provide real-time verifications to enhance the accuracy of the technology.
“In the realm of virtual currency exchange and payment services, the real challenge lies in balancing fraud prevention with swift identity verification,” iDenfy CEO Domantas Ciulde said. “Our mission is to guide ECNG Digital on this path, ensuring precision while accelerating understanding.”
ECNG Digital is not the only company turning to iDenfy for identity verification. German online marketplace Quoka and iDenfy also have announced a partnership this week. iDenfy’s verification technology will help Quoka manage its sizable volume of ID verifications, leveraging both biometrics and document recognition.
Headquartered in Kaunas, Lithuania, iDenfy was founded in 2017.
Lithuanian credit union group KREDA has selected Lithuanian regtech AMLYZ as its compliance software partner. The organization is one of the largest credit union organizations in the country and has 14 member institutions. KREDA will leverage AMLYZE’s transaction monitoring technology as part of a modernization of its compliance standards. The technology will also help KREDA with customer risk assessment, case management, and sanctions screening.
AMLYZE CEO and co-founder Gabrielius Bilkštys said the partnership represented the company’s “commitment to helping organizations like KREDA navigate the complex current regulatory landscape, detect financial crime, and ensure the highest standards of compliance.” Founded in 2018, KREDA has $528 million (€0.5 billion) in assets under management.
AMLYZE also recently announced that it was working with Estonian core banking provider Tuum. The two firms have forged a strategic partnership that will give banks and other financial institutions access to “out-of-the-box” compliance that is integrated into Tuum’s core banking, payments, and card modules. Tuum VP of Global Strategic Partnerships Jean Souto said that the collaboration would allow “banks and financial institutions to free themselves from the burden of legacy applications so they can respond quickly to market challenges and new opportunities whilst ensuring compliance with increasingly evolving stringent regulations.”
Founded in 2019, AMLYZE is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Issuer-processor Paymentology teamed up with Colombia-based expense management firm Tuily to bring Apple Pay to the company’s SME customers.
Uruguay-based digital payments company dLocal announced a pause in its expansion plans.
Asia-Pacific
Cross-border payments infrastructure network Thunes expanded its Acceptance network to five markets in southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Micronotes launched Prescreen Acquire, a tool to help community financial institutions reach and acquire new customers.
Prescreen Acquire’s algorithms leverage big data to find creditworthy customers in geographical areas lenders are seeking to reach.
Prescreen Acquire is added to Micronotes’ other products, including Cross-Sell, and Digital Prescreen.
Digital engagement solutions provider Micronotes has launchedPrescreen Acquire, a platform to help community financial institutions (CFIs) acquire new customers and members.
The new technology provides FCRA-compliant credit offers that are personalized to customers’ financial needs. To come up with the most relevant offers, Prescreen Acquire leverages 230 million consumer credit records, pulling credit, email, and direct mail data and delivery data.
The platform combines this big data set with the CFI’s underwriting criteria, rate sheets, and the geographical region they want to target. Prescreen Acquire’s algorithms are able to use this information to acquire new, creditworthy customers that CFIs are looking to reach.
Boston-based Micronotes was founded in 2008 and is privately held. The company’s technologies leverage AI, big data, and machine learning to help financial institutions use their data to better engage their customers, foster involvement, and ultimately build new revenue.
Micronotes’ other products include Cross-Sell, which helps CFIs leverage bank-held data to cross-sell new products using micro-interviews, and Digital Prescreen, which delivers personalized credit offers to customers who hold debt at a competing institution.
Founded in 2008, the company has raised a total of $23.3 million, including a $2 million Series C extension it closed last month. Devon Kinkead is Founder and CEO.
A new Discover Bank fund aims to increase financial health throughout Delaware while enriching the state’s innovation ecosystem and enhancing Delaware’s reputation as a hub for banking and financial services.
The Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund will support startups and early-stage technology companies that are developing solutions to improve the financial well-being of low- and moderate-income residents, communities, and small businesses statewide. Discover Bank has made an initial capital commitment of $36 million to the Fund, which was announced in June and launches this month.
“We continually explore innovative ways to support our communities in which we operate, and the initial portfolio companies in the Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund have developed technologies that improve the financial health of people with modest means and provide tools to support small businesses growth,” said Matthew Parks, Vice President of Discover Bank. “It is our expectation that these technologies can both be profitable and beneficial to the community.”
By creating a framework to drive capital investments to fintech startups, the Fund ultimately seeks to ensure that affordable and relevant financial products and services are useful and accessible to unserved and underserved individuals and small businesses. Clients for these offerings include the unbanked and the underbanked and those with low credit scores, low savings rates and/or high borrowing costs.
The mission-driven initiative is a collaboration between Discover Bank, the Financial Health Network, ResilienceVC, and Delaware-based Chartline Capital. The Financial Health Network, a leading authority in its field, will help evaluate startups for their potential impact on financial-health improvement. ResilienceVC, a seed-stage domestically focused venture firm investing in embedded fintech startups, will manage Discover’s earlier-stage investments.
Venture capital firm Chartline Capital Partners was formed under the principle that entrepreneurship and venture capital can be leveraged to improve the world. The firm invests in high-growth business-to-business technology companies serving core industries after they have started scaling their go-to-market and helps founders and management teams accelerate growth. Chartline will manage Discover’s later-stage investments.
“Throughout time, new technologies have made people’s lives better,” said Ben duPont, Chartline co-founder and Managing Director. “Chartline is honored to partner with Discover to invest in companies leveraging new financial technologies to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income people, communities and small businesses.”
The Fund has a priority focus on investing in fintech startups that are willing to operate out of the new Financial Technology Building on the STAR Campus of the University of Delaware in Newark. Fund support will then seek to spread to companies that may be located throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Companies outside the region are still eligible for funding, but the venture must be focused on materially improving financial health for consumers and small businesses throughout the State of Delaware and/or the surrounding mid-Atlantic region. Any venture focused on improving financial health – regardless of its product or service’s delivery format or specific financial topic addressed – may apply for funding.
By boosting individual startups, the Discover Financial Health Improvement Fund also will bolster Delaware’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. According to Noah Olson, Director of Innovation at statewide economic development organization Delaware Prosperity Partnership, a legacy strength in financial services, coupled with a nurturing environment for business growth, makes Delaware a great place to grow a fintech company.
“Discover, a global company with a major footprint here in Delaware, is leading by example with this new fund,” Olson said. “Adding further investment resources to a growing startup ecosystem will be beneficial for the state, as well as for the portfolio companies who are focused on financial health improvement.”
