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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
How will artificial intelligence – AI – drive innovation in fintech and financial services? This year at FinovateSpring we checked in with our experts to find out how AI will impact everything from the financial services workforce to the way customers interact with their bank or credit union.
Yahoo has acquired social investing platform, Commonstock. Terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition will bring investor insights to the company’s Yahoo Finance brand.
Launched in 1997, Yahoo Finance has more than 150 million monthly users.
Yahoo has acquiredCommonstock, a San Francisco, California-based social investing network. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Yahoo Finance president Tapan Bhat said that the purchase would help create a “singular destination for all our customer’s financial needs.” He praised Commonstock for creating a “trusted community” and for “sharing high-quality insights and knowledge that help everyday investors create wealth.”
Specifically, the acquisition will add investor insights to the Yahoo Finance platform. Commonstock offers a social network, integrated with brokerages, where retail investors and traders can discuss trading and investing strategies, portfolio performance, and more. Commonstock provides features such as real-time alerts to let users know when investors they are following are making trades. This helps facilitate the exchange of investment strategies, fostering a collaborative investing climate. The network has more than $10 billion in connected assets.
David McDonough, Commonstock founder and CEO, said the acquisition was an opportunity to “build community and products on the largest consumer finance stage.” Note that Yahoo Finance currently has more than 150 million monthly users. McDonough added, “This acquisition will allow us to accelerate our mission at scale, emphasizing community-driven knowledge and ensuring the amplification of quality insights to separate signal from noise.”
The acquisition was personal for McDonough, who said that Yahoo Finance made a major impact on his career trajectory. In his statement, he credited the company’s message boards for helping him learn about the stock market during the financial crisis. He said that the combination of Yahoo’s reach and Commonstock’s expertise would be a significant value for investors.
Launched in 2020, Commonstock has raised more than $34 million in funding. The company includes Coatue, QED, Floodgate, Upside Ventures, Resolute Ventures, and Abstract Ventures among its investors. Individual investors ranging from Bill Ackman and Ari Emanuel to Turner Novak and Jill Carson also have backed the startup.
Yahoo Finance offers free stock quotes, timely business news, and portfolio management resources. Additionally, the platform provides mortgage rate data and other information to help individuals better manage their finances. Launched in 1997, Yahoo Finance is among the top 20 largest news and media websites. The platform began covering cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency news in 2017.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Mahalo Banking offers the industry’s first and only online banking solution to fully integrate comprehensive neurodiverse functionality directly into its platform. This inclusive approach allows credit unions to be truly member-centric.
Why it’s great
Mahalo Banking is at the forefront of bringing full inclusivity into digital banking, allowing the 20% of the population with neurodiverse traits who have trouble using banking apps to have a great experience.
Presenters
Denny Howell, Co-Founder & COO Howell is an experienced tech and entrepreneurial professional with a demonstrated 25+ year history of working in technology, services, financial and fintech industries. LinkedIn
Dan Domek, Co-Founder & CTO Domek is an experienced leader in software design, system analysis, problem-solving, and process optimization. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Flybits is an award-winning personalization platform, enabling financial institutions to deliver best-in-class personalized digital banking experiences across mobile, web, and the metaverse.
Features
Deliver hyper-personalized experiences
Bring the person back into personalization by contextualizing digital touchpoints and interactions
Become a leader by creating interactive VR experiences
Why it’s great
The Flybits Cardholder Lifecycle Management Solution is an always-on solution that elevates cardholder experiences at every lifecycle stage, personalized for every moment while driving business results.
Presenters
Hossein Rahnama, CEO & Founder Rahnama is a visiting MIT professor, co-founded the DMZ, and has 40+ publications/patents. LinkedIn
Chris Pinkerton, CGO Pinkerton has over 15 years of experience working with companies like Google, 3M, and Microsoft to apply insight to their acquisition and monetization models. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
DataVisor delivers sophisticated AI-powered solutions to keep companies and their customers safe from fraud and abuse.
Features
DataVisor’s Real-Time Payments Fraud Solution is
Designed for real-time payments fraud scenarios
Provides real-time alerts and mitigates threats without delays
Includes generative AI powered automation
Why it’s great
The only fraud platform with embedded generative AI powered automation.
Presenter
Ryan Nichols, Solutions Engineer Nichols is grounded in software development and cloud solutions architecture. His expertise lies in crafting solutions for Cybersecurity, AML, and Fraud SaaS platforms. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Through its digital banking platform, Bankjoy empowers Panacea Financial, a neobank serving medical professionals, to offer more value for customers.
Features
Enables digital banks and neobanks to target specific markets with a superior digital banking experience
Integrates with a variety of core platforms and third-parties for a feature-rich UX
Why it’s great
Bankjoy’s intuitive digital banking platform, which integrates with a variety of core platforms and third-parties, is an excellent fit for neobanks aiming to offer more value to their customers.
Presenters
Michael Duncan, Co-Founder & CEO, Bankjoy Before founding Bankjoy, Duncan managed software development for a large credit union in Michigan, including the development of their mobile banking app. LinkedIn
Dr. Ned Palmer, Co-Founder & COO, Panacea Financial In addition to founding Panacea Financial in 2020, Palmer is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School and an Attending Physician at Boston Children’s Hospital. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Pangea Prime by Pangea Technologies gives companies’ one central place to manage global FX operations. With Pangea Prime, users can store foreign currency, send foreign currency, and hedge their FX risk.
Features
Hedge: Hedge over 30+ currencies covering the U.S.’ top trading partners
Store: Over 50 different currencies in Pangea’s FX smart wallets
Send: Over 170+ currencies to 195 countries
Why it’s great
Companies and their clients can manage foreign currency risk at scale on one single platform, protecting themselves against foreign market volatility.
Presenter
Aeron Sullivan, CEO Sullivan led two startups prior to Pangea, one where he was named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Life Benefit by Wysh is an innovative value-add that embeds micro-life insurance into deposit products, providing differentiation, cost management, and financial inclusivity.
Features
Attracts, retains, and differentiates deposits
No opt-in, underwriting, or sign up
Seamless integration in under 30 days
Why it’s great
Life Benefit brings protection to each company’s deposit strategy while also cultivating a way to differentiate among a sea of indistinguishable deposit offerings.
Presenter
Alex Matjanec, CEO & Head of Vision Matjanec has dedicated his career to empowering people to have the full confidence of financial protection. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Uprise empowers financial companies to embed high quality human+AI-powered financial advisory, unlocking new revenue and a higher level of service with holistic financial planning.
Features
Offers a more affordable financial advisory experience (10-30x more in some cases)
Delivers more revenue for partners (4x more per customer in some cases)
Provides cross-selling opportunities with users adopting 1-2 new financial products per plan
Why it’s great
Uprise is making the most affordable financial advising experience ever and embedding with innovative companies to bring it to their users.
Presenters
Chris Goodmacher, Co-Founder Goodmacher is the Co-Founder of Uprise, a platform that empowers companies to embed high quality, AI-powered financial advisory. He was previously an early Justworks employee. LinkedIn
Nantha Muthusamy, Co-Founder & Head of Engineering Muthusamy is the Co-Founder & Head of Engineering for Uprise, which empowers companies to embed high quality, AI-powered financial advisory. He was previously at Facebook. LinkedIn
Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve (Fed) rather quietly released a letter that addresses what it is calling the “creation of novel activities.” Signed by Michael S. Gibson, the Board’s Director of the Division of Supervision and Regulation, the letter is titled, Creation of Novel Activities Supervision Program.
If you’re a fintech or a bank, the contents of the letter will likely apply to you. Here are 7 highlights of the newly created program.
Who is impacted
The letter applies to all banking organizations supervised by the Fed, including those with $10 billion or less in consolidated assets. Organizations will receive a written notice from the Fed if their activities will be subject to examination. Those who are still in the exploration phase will be “routinely monitored” for active engagement.
What is it for
The program will focus on activities related to crypto-assets, distributed ledger technology (DLT), and what the Fed is calling “complex, technology-driven partnerships with nonbanks” that deliver financial services to end customers.
The target
The letter explains that the Fed will “enhance supervision” over the following categories:
Partnerships where a non-bank provides banking products and services to end customers via APIs that provide automated access to the bank’s infrastructure.
Activities such as crypto-asset custody, crypto-collateralized lending, facilitating crypto-asset trading, and stablecoin issuance and distribution.
The exploration or use of DLT for issuing tokens or tokenizing securities or other assets.
Organizations that provide traditional banking services to crypto-related companies.
How will it supervise?
The program will leverage existing supervisory processes and will use the Fed’s existing supervisory teams instead of creating a new portfolio to monitor activity. The supervision will be risk-based, meaning that the intensity of the scrutiny will vary based on each firm’s engagement in novel activities mentioned above.
Why
The Fed is seeking to strengthen its existing oversight of banks’ third party fintech partnerships. In the letter, Gibson reasons that innovation can lead to rapid change in banks and in the financial system in general, and that it has the potential to generate risks that can impact banks’ safety and soundness. “Given the novelty of these activities,” he states, “they may create unique questions around their permissibility, may not be sufficiently addressed by existing supervisory approaches, and may raise concerns for the broader financial system.”
Future plans
The Fed explained that it will continue to “build upon and enhance” its technical expertise to stay abreast of fintech trends, the risk associated with the trends, and appropriate controls to manage risk. In addition to increased supervision, the letter explains that the program will help shape supervisory approaches and create guidance for banking organizations engaging in the use of these “novel” technologies.
So what?
The Fed is making it clear that the lack of regulation for fintechs and the Wild West environment of the crypto realm is a thing of the past. This means that fintechs– especially those engaged in crypto– will need to be ready to answer not only to banks, but also to the Federal Reserve. On the flip side, banks will need to be ready to ask a lot more questions before engaging with fintechs, formalize partnership processes, and document all that they can regarding potential risk.
Questions about the letter can be sent via the Federal Reserve’s website..
Koverly is launching KoverlyPay, a new B2B BNPL tool.
KoverlyPay offers businesses a 30-day extension on FX payments.
Clients can use KoverlyPay to extend payments over four, eight, or 12 fixed weekly installments.
B2B payment tool Koverly is jumping on the buy now, pay later (BNPL) trend this week with the launch of its newest tool. The Massachusetts-based company unveiledKoverlyPay, a new B2B BNPL tool that offers a free, 30-day extension on FX payments.
Koverly clients can use KoverlyPay to extend payments over four, eight, or 12 fixed weekly installments. Businesses can apply for the financing using KoverlyPay, which is integrated into the point-of-sale, at checkout and receive a decision within 24 hours. Once a business is approved, they do not have to repay their purchase for the first 30 days. After the initial 30 days, for both FX and local payments, businesses pay as low as 1.5% interest per month.
“Inventory is the lifeblood for importing businesses, and it is directly impacted by cash flow,” said Koverly CEO Igor Ostrovsky. “Our KoverlyPay offering for FX transactions is designed to give businesses enough extra working capital to unlock at least one additional inventory turn per year. For a typical importing business, this can boost annual profitability by 50% to 100%. This is a game changer for global trade.”
As growth in the B2C BNPL space begins to slow, interest in B2B BNPL has seen growth. Melio, Allianz Trade, Yapily, and others have recently launched B2B BNPL tools. Banks have started implementing stricter small business lending practices, and we can expect to see small businesses pursue working capital via alternatives channels such as BNPL expand.
Koverly combines foreign exchange and credit into its invoicing, billpay, and accounting tools. The company, which currently processes $200 million a year in both domestic and international payments, launched global payment capabilities last summer. Today, global payments account for 50% of the company’s volume.
Since it was founded in 2021, Koverly has received $7.6 million in Seed funding from Vinyl Capital, One Way Ventures, and Accomplice.
A pair of Finovate alums – Backbase and SavvyMoney – have forged a new partnership.
The partnership will integrate SavvyMoney’s Credit Score Insights into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform.
The integration will enable customers to access real-time credit scores from within their banking apps.
Engagement banking company Backbaseannounced a strategic partnership with credit score solutions firm and fellow Finovate alum SavvyMoney. The partnership will integrate SavvyMoney’s credit score solution, Credit Score Insights, into the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. This will give community banks and credit unions the ability to provide their customers with real-time credit scores directly from their banking app.
“There’s a growing demand from consumers for guidance from their banking apps to help them make informed financial decisions,” Backbase VP of Product Management for the U.S. mid-market Brian McNutt said. He added that it was “crucial” that customers and members see community banks and credit unions as “trusted financial advisors,” and that doing so would help these FIs compete with their larger rivals. “That’s the idea behind our Fintech-as-a-Service offering,” he added, “to reduce our customers’ time-to-market and time-to-value, so FIs can focus on innovation.”
SavvyMoney’s Credit Score Insights helps FIs offer tailored financial recommendations and advice to their customers and members. The technology also helps FIs manage their marketing efforts to build hyper-personalized offers and deals. The increased value brought to banking apps courtesy of the Credit Score Insights integration also will help improve stickiness and app usage trends. At the same time, end users will benefit from a deeper understanding of the factors that contribute to their credit score. They will also be able to update their credit report, run credit score simulations, and build an action plan to set and meet credit score goals.
“As a company, we are committed to empowering individuals to achieve their financial goals and improve their overall financial well-being,” SavvyMoney President and CEO JB Orecchia said. “We’re thrilled to collaborate with Backbase to make crucial credit score functionality easily accessible via banking apps.”
Formerly known – and first appearing on the Finovate stage – as DebtGoal, the company rebranded as SavvyMoney in 2011. In the years since then, SavvyMoney has forged partnerships with more than 1,150 financial institutions and driven $3.8 billion in loans for clients courtesy of its SavvyMoney offer engine. The company unveiled its pre-approval marketing solution earlier this year – in partnership with Credit Union of Southern California (CU SoCal). SavvyMoney was named a “2023 Best Place to Work in the Bay Area” by Fintech Finance in May.
A Finovate alum since 2009, Backbase has won Best of Show on four different occasions. Most recently demoing its technology last September at FinovateFall, Backbase serves more than 120 financial institutions around the world. The company’s Engagement Banking Platform gives FIs a unified platform designed to respond to every step of the customer journey – from onboarding and servicing to loyalty and loan origination. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Amsterdam, Backbase also recently announced partnerships with Vietnam’s Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) and business and IT consulting provider Valleysoft.
