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Congrats to the 2023 Finovate Awards Winners!

Congrats to the 2023 Finovate Awards Winners!
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Finovate Awards, Marketing

The financial technology landscape is ever-evolving, with innovation and creativity driving the industry forward. It’s in this dynamic environment that the Finovate Awards stand as a testament to excellence. We are thrilled to present this year’s Finovate Award winners.

The Finovate Awards honor both established institutions and rising stars that have made significant strides in delivering cutting-edge products and services to the financial sector. From breakthrough banking platforms to revolutionary AI-powered solutions, these winners have not only adapted to the demands of the modern financial world but have also set new standards for innovation and customer-centricity. Each winner was selected from the a group of finalists that demonstrated exceptional contributions to society and developed groundbreaking solutions that have reshaped the fintech landscape.

Without further ado, let’s celebrate the visionaries and innovators who have earned their place in the spotlight as this year’s Finovate Award winners.

Best Alternative Investments SolutionCAIS
Best Back-Office/Core Services SolutionArteria AI
Best BNPL SolutionYabx
Best Consumer Lending SolutionLending Point
Best Customer Experience SolutionHometap
Best Digital BankSoFi
Best Embedded Finance SolutionQuickFi
Best Enterprise Payments SolutionEBizCharge
Best Financial Mobile AppANNA
Best Fintech Accelerator/IncubatorMastercard Start Path
Best Fintech PartnershipUS Bank and Submittable
Best ID Management Solution1Kosmos
Best Insurtech SolutionBolt
Best Mobile Payments SolutionZenus Bank
Best RegTech SolutionSentiLink
Best SMB/SME SolutionMercury
Best Use of Robotic Process AutomationKYC Agent by JP Morgan
Best Wealth Management SolutionAtlas Point Edge
Excellence in Decentralized FinanceAmberdata
Excellence in Financial InclusionTricolor
Excellence in SustainabilityImpactGINI by GreenArc
Executive of the YearMike Massaro, Flywire
Innovator of the YearRochelle Nawrocki-Gorey, SpringFour
Top Emerging Fintech CompanyUnion Credit

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Quadient Taps REPAY for Embedded Payment Capabilities

Quadient Taps REPAY for Embedded Payment Capabilities
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Quadient
  • Quadient has integrated REPAY’s embedded payments technology into its Accounts Payable automation solution.
  • The embedded payments capabilities will enable Quadient clients to pay vendor and supplier invoices using digital payment methods.
  • By including embedded payments in the accounts payable process, companies save time, reduce costs, and benefit from increased visibility around their expenses. 

Customer experience expert Quadient has teamed up with payment processing company REPAY to create a better user experience around its Accounts Payable automation solution.

Under the partnership, REPAY’s embedded payments technology will be available to companies using Quadient’s Accounts Payable automation solution. The integration will enable Quadient clients to pay vendor and supplier invoices using digital payment methods, including virtual card, ACH, Enhanced ACH and Real-Time Payments. As a result, companies save time, reduce costs, and benefit from increased visibility around their expenses. 

“Both Quadient and REPAY are committed to the ongoing evolution of embedded payment solutions that drive automation while simplifying and optimizing the accounts payable process,” said REPAY EVP, Business Payments Darin Horrocks. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Quadient and look forward to working together on new ways to optimize payments and integrate our technologies for improved cash flow, streamlined internal processes, and increased customer and vendor satisfaction.”

Quadient, formerly known as GMC Software, was founded in 1924 to offer companies mailing solutions and business supplies. Over time, the company transitioned into the digital world, and now– in addition to paper mailing solutions– offers both accounts payable and accounts receivable automation tools, as well as customer communication technologies.

Atlanta, Georgia-based REPAY was founded in 2006 and offers payment processing tools to its 24,500 clients. The company, which processes $27.2 billion each year, counts clients across a range of industries, including healthcare, banking, education, automotive, and more.

While much of the talk around embedded finance centers around the end consumer, there is a lot of room for embedded finance tools in the enterprise space. Embedded payments solutions, specifically, remove friction, speed up processes around invoice payments, and create a better overall user experience.

Photo by Tim Samuel

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Paysafe and Eightcap Partner to Launch Embedded Wallet

Paysafe and Eightcap Partner to Launch Embedded Wallet
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Daily news
  • Paysafe and Eightcap are expanding on their partnership to offer an Embedded Trading Wallet solution.
  • The Embedded Trading Wallet brings Paysafe’s digital wallet infrastructure together with Eightcap’s trading technology to create a white-label wallet for their shared partners and merchants.
  • Paysafe and Eightcap first partnered in 2016.

Global payments provider Paysafe has expanded on its partnership with online trading platform Eightcap to launch an Embedded Trading Wallet solution.

Under the agreement, the two will offer an embedded finance solution for Eightcap’s and Paysafe’s shared partners and merchants. The Embedded Trading Wallet combines Paysafe’s digital wallet infrastructure with Eightcap’s trading technology to create a white-label, plug-and-play trading and payment wallet for their retail traders.

“We’re delighted to be embarking on this strategic partnership with Eightcap and facilitating its embedded trading wallet solution through white labelling our products and services,” said Paysafe SVP of Crypto and Digital Assets Micah Kershner. “Embedded finance is the future, and we believe this solution will revolutionize the trader’s experience.”

U.K.-based Paysafe was founded in 1996. The company now offers payment processing, digital wallet, and online cash solutions connecting businesses and consumers across 250 payment types in over 40 currencies around the world. Paysafe has processed $130 billion in transactions. The company is publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker PSFE and has a market capitalization of $816 million.

Eightcap, which first teamed up with Paysafe in 2016, facilitates retail derivatives trading for investors in more than 120 countries. The company’s B2B embedded trading API allows partners to offer over 1,000 tradable instruments in stocks, indices, crypto, FX, and commodities.

“We are extremely excited to be entering into this new phase of our partnership. This solution will enable unparalleled payment capabilities for our global partners and traders,” said Eightcap Director of UK Patrick Murphy.

Photo by Pixabay

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3 Ways Finovate Underpins Sustainability

3 Ways Finovate Underpins Sustainability
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2023, List series, Marketing

Environmental, social, and governance– better known as ESG– initiatives are hot topics across the fintech and banking sectors. And as a fintech and banking conference, we’ve taken a look at our own operations to improve our environmental, social, and governance practices.

Below is a breakdown of each ESG aspect, and what we are doing at FinovateFall this year to support and promote a healthier environment.

Environmental responsibility

Reducing carbon emissions
We’re reducing carbon emissions not only in the way we conduct FinovateFall, but also in how we travel to the event by carpooling and taking public transportation when possible.

Environmental sustainability content
FinovateFall will host dedicated on-stage content on environmental sustainability in fintech. In addition to featuring demos from fintechs supporting sustainability, we’re hosting a keynote by Greg O’Gara, Lead Analyst, Wealth Management at Javelin Strategy & Research on Climate Change, ESG & Financial Services, What Do Wall Street & Your Customers Want?

Sustainable development

Sustainable Fintech Scholarship
With our demo scholarship program, Finovate will spotlight underrepresented founders and startups tackling climate change, diversity, and financial inclusion. The program will also help us expand our demo line ups to include more voices, more perspectives, and more cutting-edge thinking within fintech.

Sustainable development goals
Our aim is for FinovateFall to promote long-term sustainable development – in the way that we run the event but also in how it’s implemented in the market as a whole. We are committing to: 

  • Using our content to support the sustainability of the fintech market
  • Developing close partnerships with charities, companies and associations and giving them a platform to promote their work in the field
  • Facilitating discussions on pertinent topics including diversity and inclusion, gender balance, sustainability trends, the impact on the environment, and more.

Governance

Operation Backpack
We are supporting Operation Backpack, a Volunteers of America non-profit that provides brand new backpacks and grade-specific school supplies to children living in homeless shelters throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Please help us support this important work by making a donation. Even a small contribution will help!

Diversity and inclusion content
We’re hosting a fireside chat on diversity, and one on financial inclusion. Jim Perry, Senior Strategist at Market Insights will discuss why diversity matters and Melissa Koide, CEO of FinRegLab will talk about driving purpose and profit through financial inclusion.

Startup Booster
FinovateFall’s Startup Booster program offers smaller fintechs a voice in front of a large investor audience. The program is limited to fintech and tech startups who are less than five years old and have raised, at most, Seed capital. Participants will attend a 60-minute reception that will offer face time with investors, as well as a dedicated cocktail table and sign at the event.

Our driving force

Overarching all of this is our initiative called FasterForward, our parent company Informa’s program that embeds sustainability into everything we do and aims to help our customers do the same. With FasterFoward, we are striving to achieve nine specific goals:

  1. Become carbon neutral as a business and across our products by 2025
  2. Halve the waste generated through our products and events by 2025
  3. Become zero waste and net zero carbon by 2030 or earlier
  4. Embed sustainability inside 100% of our brands by 2025
  5. Help and promote the achievement of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals through our brands
  6. Enable one million disconnected people to access networks and knowledge by 2025
  7. Contribute $5bn per year in value for our host cities by 2025
  8. Contribute value of at least 1% of profit before tax to community groups by 2025
  9. Save customers more carbon than we emit by 2025

Photo by Google DeepMind on Unsplash

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Temenos Unveils Generative AI Solution to Help Banks Boost Personalization

Temenos Unveils Generative AI Solution to Help Banks Boost Personalization
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Temenos
  • Temenos unveiled a new solution, based on Generative AI, that automatically classifies customers’ banking transactions.
  • The new offering will help banks offer more personalized insights and recommendations to their customers.
  • Temenos’ Generative AI solution is part of the company’s strategic AI roadmap. Other use cases for the technology include chatbots and guiding customer journeys.

How will financial services companies take advantage of Generative AI? One way, courtesy of a new solution from Temenos, will be to leverage the technology to automatically classify customers’ banking transactions. This functionality will make it easier for banks to offer personalized insights and recommendations to their customers.

While traditional AI and machine learning technologies have been deployed by financial services firms in a variety of contexts, generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) offer these companies the ability to enhance both operations and customer experiences even further. This is due to the fact that Generative AI and LLMs outperform traditional AI and machine learning approaches when it comes to understanding language, images, sound, video, and code – and then leveraging these inputs into a variety of solutions for customers.

Temenos’s new Generative AI-based offering enables banks to automatically classify and label customer transactions. The technology has a high degree of accuracy and operates in multiple languages. The automatic customer transaction capability has a number of use cases including cashflow prediction, customer attrition analysis, next best product, and more.

“We have continually invested in embedding Explainable AI and ML capabilities into our banking platform and making available all products through an easy-to-use interface or APIs,” Temenos President of Product and COO Prema Varadhan said. Varadhan referred to the new offering as part of the company’s strategic AI roadmap and underscored the value of transparency and explainability when it comes to deploying AI.

Temenos has deployed explainable AI in a wide variety of use cases ranging from wealth management, AML, credit scoring, smart money management, collection optimization, and more. However, transaction classification is the first instance of leveraging Generative AI in a Temenos product. The company said in a statement that it plans to extend the technology to chatbots and customer interfaces, as well as in guiding customer journeys and responding to customer queries.

A Finovate alum since 2013, Temenos was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The company serves 3,000 customers and its open platform enables more than 1.2 billion individuals to conduct their daily banking activities. Two-thirds of the top 1,000 banks in the world and more than 70 challenger banks in 150+ countries use Temenos’ technology. Max Chuard is CEO.

Photo by Tara Winstead

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FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Payitoff

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Payitoff
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2023, FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek, Payitoff

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Payitoff is a leading provider of embeddable tools designed to help turn consumer debt blockers into business outcomes.

Features

  • Link: Connect consumer debt accounts with a phone number
  • Guide: Provide the best next action to improve their financial outcomes
  • Act: Money-saving actions taken in-app by customers

Why it’s great

This debt guidance technology achieves remarkable outcomes while maintaining an efficient use of developer resources as a no-code solution with options for embeddable and API-first implementations.

Presenter

Bobby Matson, CEO & Founder
Matson turned his student loan frustration into an automated debt management system, providing clarity to millions with the institutions they trust.
LinkedIn

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ThetaRay Lands $57 Million for Financial Crime Detection Technology

ThetaRay Lands $57 Million for Financial Crime Detection Technology
By Julie Muhn (@julieschicktanz) Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Daily news, Funding, ThetaRay
  • ThetaRay raised $57 million in a round led by Portage.
  • The funds bring the company’s total funding to $112 million.
  • ThetaRay will use the funds to fuel global expansion.

Financial crime fighting fintech ThetaRay announced today it has received $57 million. The growth round, which boosts the company’s total funding to $112 million, was led by Portage, with contributions from existing investors JVP, OurCrowd and others.

Israel-based ThetaRay will use the funds to accelerate global growth. “Guided by the adept leadership of Peter Reynolds, the resolute ThetaRay team stands ready to expand its financial technology footprint across continents – spanning North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia – and venture into uncharted realms of innovation,” said ThetaRay Founder and Chairman of JVP and Chairman of ThetaRay Erel Margalit.

“Global payment infrastructure too often fails to accurately differentiate between perfectly legitimate transactions and ones from bad actors dealing with illicit funds,” said ThetaRay’s recently appointed CEO Peter Reynolds. “We’re proud to be at the forefront of the revolution to make global transactions easier, safer, and cheaper and are keenly aware of the massive vote of confidence this investment is in both our technology and our team.”

Founded in 2013, ThetaRay leverages AI to monitor 11 billion transactions valued at $15 trillion on an annual basis. The company’s AML transaction monitoring and screening solution, SONAR, helps banks and fintechs screen both cross-border and domestic payments for money laundering. When compared to rule-based systems, SONAR results in 99% fewer false positives. Among the company’s clients are ClearBank, Travelex Bank, and Santander.

Photo by Anna Tarazevich

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FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Fyle

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Fyle
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2023, FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek, Fyle

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Fyle’s no-code expense management platform offers a modern fintech-like experience on bank-issued card programs.

Features

  • Real-time card integration with instant transaction data & notifications
  • Direct card enrollment (independent of banks, aggregators)
  • No code platform with no dependency on bank tech stacks

Why it’s great

Real-time card integration with transaction data and instant notifications via SMS.

Presenters

Yashwanth Madhusudan, Co-Founder & CEO
With an extensive background in customer experience, Madhusudan has a passion for product development and solving problems that have a large scale business impact.
LinkedIn

Sivaramakrishnan Narayanan, Co-Founder & CTO
Narayanan has been part of two acquired startups and has authored 15 publications and 9 patents.
LinkedIn

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FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Union Credit

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: Union Credit
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2023, FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek, Union Credit

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

Union Credit is the first marketplace for credit unions to deliver firm credit approval and one-click loan activation to new members embedded within their daily activities.

Features

  • Helping credit unions promote their products to millions of credit-worthy consumers
  • Giving consumers convenient, transparent financing
  • Providing publishers/merchants with a new revenue source

Why it’s great

Union Credit will change the game for credit unions, helping them serve locally while also reaching into new markets with easy, one-click consumer lending.

Presenters

Barry Kirby, Co-Founder & CRO
Prior to Union Credit, Kirby was the SVP and Managing Director of CuneXus. He has an extensive background in fintech and the credit union space.
LinkedIn

Stefan Ionescu, Engineering Lead
Ionescu is the engineering lead at Union Credit, driving the development of the company’s flagship product. Before that, he led the development of the innovative DecisionLender4 loan origination system at TCI.

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Baker Hill Teams up with Oakworth Capital Bank to Enhance Loan Origination and Portfolio Monitoring

Baker Hill Teams up with Oakworth Capital Bank to Enhance Loan Origination and Portfolio Monitoring
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Baker Hill, Daily news
  • Loan origination, risk management, and analytics company Baker Hill forged a new partnership with Oakworth Capital Bank.
  • The bank will leverage Baker Hill NextGen to enhance its loan origination and portfolio monitoring for commercial and private client lending.
  • Baker Hill most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in 2021.

Carmel, Indiana-based Baker Hill announced a new partnership with Oakworth Capital Bank this week. The partnership is the first new alliance from the mortgagetech since private equity firm Flexpoint Ford acquired the company in June. Oakworth Capital Bank will deploy Baker Hill NextGen, a unified solution for loan origination and portfolio monitoring for both commercial and private client lending.

“Our bank’s mission is focused on delivering a personalized experience for our clients, which often means challenging the status quo and reimagining how financial services are delivered,” Oakworth Capital Bank chairman and CEO Scott B. Reed said. “The team is always looking for new, better ways to help our clients achieve their financial aspirations and Baker Hill NextGen will help us continue to do that.”

The new technology will enable Oakworth Capital Bank to enhance its commercial relationships, as well as automate the entire consumer loan origination process. The bank will also leverage Baker Hill NextGen Client Portal. This solution enables clients to submit loan documents online. Applicants also can track the status of their loan all the way to closing, bringing more transparency to the origination process. Additionally, the bank will integrate TruStage (formerly Compliance Solutions) with Baker Hill NextGen in order to automate loan document preparation and ensure compliance.

“With Baker Hill NextGen, Oakworth Capital Bank can optimize their entire loan origination process and continue surpassing their clients’ expectations with a world-class borrowing experience,” Baker Hill chairman and CEO John Deignan said.

Founded in 1983, Baker Hill most recently demonstrated its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall in 2021. In the time since, the company has forged partnerships with a sizable number of banks and fintechs. These alliances include partnerships with financial institutions like Arvest Bank, Salem Five Bank, and TowneBank. Also among the company’s recent partners are tax workflow automation software company FlashSpread, and regional financial services company BOK Financial.

Photo by Scott Webb

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Embedded Finance Platform FutureBank Teams Up with Digital ID Verification Firm IDVerse

Embedded Finance Platform FutureBank Teams Up with Digital ID Verification Firm IDVerse
By David Penn Posted on
Categories: Alumni News, Alumni profile, IDVerse, OCR Labs

Digital ID verification company IDVerse will help embedded finance platform FutureBank enhance its onboarding processes with fast and secure digital identity verification (IDV). The new partnership will let FutureBank customers to use IDVerse software and also allow IDVerse customers looking for a middleware platform to connect their API credentials take advantage of FutureBank’s technology.

An integration platform for core banking providers that features embedded financial services, FutureBank operates as a middle layer between banks and third-party providers. As such, the company helps banks and fintechs launch new solutions faster, more efficiently, and more securely. IDVerse brings not only its Identity Service Provider status to FutureBank – status that comes with 20 certifications from the U.K.’s Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF). The identity verification specialist also offers technology to help businesses combat the problem of deepfake accounts, a problem made all the more challenging by the way fraudsters are exploiting tools like generativeAI.

“Generative AI is breeding many different fraud types,” FutureBank CEO Sergio Barbosa said. “With ChatGPT, fraudsters can create very authentic documents and profiles for people at a low cost.” Barbosa called cybercrime “the third biggest economy in the world.”

Adding to Barbosa’s sentiments, IDVerse General Manager EMEA Russ Cohn underscored the challenge of deepfakes. Cohn agreed that “synthetic media is becoming the new tool of choice for fraudsters looking to make money” and added: “Our fully automated identity verification system can offer FutureBank customers a reliable solution to spot deepfake accounts that fraudsters are increasingly trying to create.” Cohn explained that IDVerse’s technology can detect subtle shifts and patterns in a person’s face that the unaided human eye cannot see, such as the way a person’s heartbeat slightly changes the color of their skin. These “natural yet invisible patterns,” Cohn said, enable IDVerse’s technology to distinguish real human images from deepfakes.

IDVerse’s platform also features Zero Bias AI-tested technology that leverages generative AI to train deep neutral networks to resist race, age, and gender-based discrimination.

Introducing itself to Finovate audiences in 2016 as OCR Labs Global, the company rebranded as IDVerse earlier this year. Founded in Australia in 2018, IDVerse is headquartered in London, and maintains offices in North America, Asia, and Europe. The company provides identity verification services in more than 220 countries and territories.

IDVerse has raised $45 million in funding from investors including Equable Capital and OYAK. This year, the company has forged partnerships with fellow Finovate alum Experian, bank verified digital identity service provider OneID, and cryptocurrency platform Coinmetro. John Myers is CEO.

Photo by Mike Bird

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FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: NayaOne

FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek: NayaOne
By Heather Stowell Posted on
Categories: FinovateFall 2023, FinovateFall 2023 Sneak Peek, NayaOne

A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.

NayaOne provides the fastest way for banks to work with tech providers.

Features

  • Find the right partner with 350+ vetted fintechs
  • De-risk integration upfront in 6 weeks
  • Build product propositions for customers with fintechs fast

Why it’s great

NayaOne is the fastest way to go to market with any tech provider.

Presenters

Karan Jain, CEO & Founder
Jain is the former CIO of a multinational bank and a highly regarded technologist and practitioner now solving a problem in the market he experienced firsthand.
LinkedIn

Oli Platt, Product Manager
Platt is a data led product manager with a data science background driving NayaOne’s product development and adoption with some of the largest banks and the best vendors in financial services.
LinkedIn

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