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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.
Engage People is a loyalty network that enables program members to pay with points directly at checkout.
Features
Enabling Access Plus through a simple integration:
Converts loyalty points to cash
Increases redemption options
Drives customer acquisition and retention
Why it’s great
Access Plus is the evolution of Engage People’s pay with points payment technology, enabling program members to use their points like any currency directly at checkout or in-store.
Presenter
Len Covello, CTO Covello leads the long-term technology vision of Engage People and is responsible for driving continued technology innovation for customers. LinkedIn
Data analytics and insights platform ForwardLane launched a new generative decision intelligence platform this week.
The new offering, EMERGE, will enable financial professionals to create and interact with client insights while keeping private data private.
ForwardLane made its Finovate debut in 2016. Nathan Stevenson is founder and CEO.
Data analytics and insights platform, ForwardLane launched a new generative decision intelligence platform called EMERGE this week. The technology will help financial services professionals deal with issues of data transparency, privacy, and security within the wealth management and insurance space.
EMERGE gives financial professionals the ability to leverage generative AI to find, create, preview, publish, and interact with new and newly-uncovered insights and data in a manner that is private, secure, and accurate. The technology combines ForwardLane’s composite AI, EMERGE-GPT, with its Visual Insight Generator (ViGOR). Visual Insight Generator is a zero-code tool that enables users to create insights from data using natural language – without requiring any technical expertise in LLM. Along with ForwardLane’s Next Best Action platform, EMERGE provides a complete cycle from insight and orchestration to last-mile delivery, usage, and feedback.
ForwardLane founder and CEO Nathan Stevenson noted that his company has been leveraging AI for several years. “EMERGE is an applied Generative AI solution for financial services that brings together the best functionalities of ForwardLane’s ViGOR and privacy-friendly EMERGE-GPT,” he said. “It gives financial services firms the ability to rapidly activate their existing data and data science investments and deliver insights to their frontline advisory and sales professionals.”
EMERGE will enable financial services professionals to:
Identify opportunities and risks across their client base
Review up-to-date client intelligence and analytcs along with recommended Next Best Actions
Receive Next Best Action recommendations that are integrated via API with workflow links
Accelerate daily workflow with 100x increases in document reading ability
Summarize, interact, and extract insights from PDF, DOC, and other files up to 25,000 pages
EMERGE is available on a white label basis. The technology can be deployed on cloud platforms or hosted by ForwardLane. EMERGE is currently in limited beta testing; the company expects to offer wider availability in the second half of 2023.
Founded in 2015, ForwardLane made its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateSpring. The New York-based company has raised more than $8 million in funding from investors including SixThirty and SEI Ventures. ForwardLane began the year teaming up with InterGen Data to offer predictive life-event driven insights.
Chargeflow raised $11 million to build chargeback tools that help merchants automate card disputes.
The funding was led by OpenView and brings Chargeflow’s total funding to $14 million.
Chargeflow will use the funds to accelerate product development, fuel company growth, improve on its customer experience, and ultimately put a halt to fraud and illegitimate chargebacks.
Chargeflow is on a mission to simplify and increase profitability for companies processing online payments. Today, the Israel-based company received a boost toward that goal in the form of $11 million in Seed funding.
The VC funding, which was led by OpenView, brings Chargeflow’s total funding to $14 million. The company will use the investment to accelerate product development, fuel company growth, improve on its customer experience, and ultimately put a halt to fraud and illegitimate chargebacks.
“The funding will also allow us to build new products, just as our newest announcements, ChargeflowAlerts, and our all-new Stripe App, which has already gained amazing momentum and feedback from our customers,” explained Chargeflow Co-Founder, Marketing & Product Avia Chen.
Launched in 2021, the Chargeflow Alerts tool notifies merchants as soon as a customer files a dispute on a transaction, and allows the merchant to proceed with the transaction, offer a refund, or gather evidence for representment. The free Stripe App offers businesses a fully-automated chargeback management service.
Chen, along with his cofounder Ariel Chen originally launched Chargeflow as a Shopify app in 2021. The two have since added more processors, including Klarna, Braintree, Recharge, Stripe, and others. When integrating with these players, Chargeflow establishes a two-way data connection that facilitates the flow of information between the systems. The app offers merchants an overview of all fraud and disputes and autonomously fight chargebacks, disputes, and fraud with just a few clicks.
Launched in the fall of 2021, Merlin Investor is on a mission democratize access to investment strategies. The fintech offers a while label, multi-asset, educational, strategizing and tracking tool that helps investors accomplish two critical goals: building long-term positive results and limiting potentially catastrophic losses.
Merlin Investor’s technology is compatible with all trading platforms. The technology is suitable for both retail and professional traders, and is available for both the desktop and mobile. Merlin Investor enables users to retrieve market data and sentiment from multiple sources and apply that data to a massive range of tailor-made investment strategies.
With offices in both West Palm Beach, Florida, and Lugano, Switzerland, Merlin Investor made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year. The company returned to the Finovate stage in May for FinovateSpring. We caught up with Merlin Investor founder and CEO Guido Petrelli (pictured) this summer to learn more about the company, its mission to democratize access to investment strategies, and what to expect from the company in 2023 and beyond.
What problem does Merlin Investor solve and who does it solve it for?
Guido Petrelli: Merlin Investor was born as an intelligent protection and conscious guide for a more farsighted management of investments aimed limiting potential catastrophic losses while building long term positive results. Thanks to the Merlin platform, retail investors can educate themselves, study the markets, and create and track their own investment strategies to easily understand, balance and diversify investment risks.
In other words, we help and empower a new generation to invest with strategy in mind. This is the key to becoming successful and is the only factor distinguishing between gambling and investing. As we are on a mission to democratize financial inclusion and investment planning, our technology was built to allow anyone, regardless the level of knowledge or experience, to become independent and the one and only master of their own financial future.
How does Merlin Investor solve this problem better than other companies?
Petrelli: In the retail investor space, we see many companies focusing on execution, meaning focusing on the act of buying and selling assets. But executing without evaluating multiple sources of information first, combined with the lack of a diversified and balanced investment strategy, can lead to uncontrolled and unlimited potential losses because of the market’s ups and downs. While it may imply the chance for quick gains, it’s actually not the norm as wealth is usually built over time by managing a positive-sum game.
That’s why from the very beginning Merlin was designed as a complementary product to a trading platform and not as a substitute solution. Merlin Investor addresses the strategic essence of investing while the majority of the competition just focuses on enhancing the trading experience – which is already well supported by several financial institutions in a pretty similar way.
Who are Merlin Investor’s primary customers. How do you reach them?
Petrelli: Our primary customers are financial institutions focusing on educating a new generation of retail investors and offering the possibility to trade different asset classes through their digital banking platforms. We attend multiple fintech events in several countries that are attended by financial institution decision-makers responsible for delivering an innovative and digitalized experience to their clients. We also analyze the markets to identify those prospect clients we believe to be a fit in terms of services and client base. Then we look for the people focusing on retail digital products and platforms and reach out to them to introduce our company and technology. Last, we work to be featured in fintech-specialized magazines having financial institutions as target audience.
Can you tell us about a favorite implementation or deployment of your technology?
Petrelli: We offer our technology as a white-label solution that financial institutions can easily embed into their own digital platforms through API keys, while having the possibility to customize product’s appearance and features. As result, our product is delivered to the final users in the bank’s name and as a sub-section of the same app/e-banking they are already familiar with. Through our B2B partner’s portal, we grant to financial institutions the flexibility to choose from the full Merlin product those asset classes, sections, features, and contents they intend to integrate based on their own specific needs. In this way, they can design a tailored solution and experience for their own clients, while sticking to the overall structure and design of the banking platform they already offer.
What in your background gave you the confidence to respond to this challenge?
Petrelli: In a nutshell, it was the combination of my knowledge around investing and the problem I personally experienced as a retail investor that led to Merlin Investor. In fact, I was just a teenager when I first started to trade. Then I quickly realized that executing trades “per-se” – meaning the simple action of buying and selling assets – is the less strategic and relevant part to achieve long term positive results. Instead, studying different market sources, and then designing a diversified and balanced investment strategy, are what make the difference in the end. Still, (available) banking and trading platforms were not enough to educate me about investing, or to (help me) design and analyze my own investment strategies.
As a result, for years I was forced to create time-consuming and unfriendly spreadsheets to the point where I couldn’t accept it anymore – not in a world like today’s where we have an app for everything we do! At the same time with trading platforms booming basically everywhere, it became more and more clear that a new generation wants to invest autonomously and in the right way. As I couldn’t find any product in the market like the one I envisioned, I decided to create it. And that’s how Merlin Investor was born.
Merlin Investor founder and CEO Guido Petrelli demoing the company’s technology at FinovateEurope this year.
You recently demoed at FinovateSpring and will be demoing your technology at FinovateFall in September. What brings you back?
Petrelli: This year I’ve demoed the Merlin platform at FinovateEurope and FinovateSpring, so FinovateFall will be my third appearance. So far the experience has been great. We have been able to show our cutting-edge technology to major financial institutions in Europe and North America, while receiving much interest and establishing meaningful connections with decision-makers within the banking industry. The high visibility and key connections with prospect clients are the two main factors which bring us back to FinovateFall. The well-organized events and the team at Finovate are also a plus.
What are your goals for Merlin Investor?
Petrelli: Our goal is to be recognized by the major global banks as the innovative partner to work with when it comes to educating and empowering a new generation of retail investors. We focus on establishing solid and strategic partnerships with a limited numbers of players in the banking industry to achieve our mission of democratizing financial inclusion and strategic planning globally, while helping young investors to reach financial independence and to become the masters of their own financial futures.
What can we expect from Merlin Investor over the balance of 2023 and into next year?
Petrelli: We’ll continue to prioritize continuous and never-ending improvement of our technology by looking to upgrade the experience we offer either to financial institutions and to the final users to whom our product is deployed. We will also continue to work to boost our market presence to make the Merlin platform known to more financial institutions serving retail clients in several countries. We will eventually concentrate on scaling the team and operations to be able to manage expectations. We will accomplish all of this without forgetting our mission to make conscious and strategic investing accessible to anyone through strategic partnerships with financial institutions.
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Connect Earth supports financial institutions in offering its retail and SME customers insights into the climate impact of their spending.
Features
Provides carbon footprint estimates based on spending
Includes CO2 analytics and chart breakdowns to better understand one’s carbon footprint
Delivers educational insights to enable action and engagement
Why it’s great
Financed emissions are 700 times greater than a bank’s direct emissions. By funding and investing in other businesses, indirect emissions become attributable to the financial institution.
Presenter
Alexander Lempka, Co-Founder & CEO Lempka co-founded Connect Earth by combining his experience in fintech with a passion for sustainability. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Ocrolus plans to demo how a lender would use their full suite of capabilities end-to-end in an optimal way to be “the best SMB lender ever.”
Features
Delivers highly-accurate document capture data
Provides fraud detection with visual and programmatic identification of suspicious document edits
Includes cash flow analytics
Why it’s great
Ocrolus empowers lenders to digitize and automate their lending processes while making smarter decisions. Businesses can become “the best lender ever” with the company’s end-to-end capabilities.
Presenter
David Snitkof, SVP of Growth Snitkof is an accomplished technology entrepreneur and data/analytics leader who leads Ocrolus’ growth team, overseeing the company’s product, growth and brand marketing efforts. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
Nymbus SMB is a solution designed to augment the interactions between financial institutions and small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Features
Fill the gap in self-service capabilities and integrated digital banking tools
Launch alongside existing banking systems, minimize disruptions and maximize efficiency
Fully support SMB growth goals
Why it’s great
Unlock SMB success with Nymbus SMB, seamlessly deploying tailored solutions alongside existing operations, optimizing efficiency and positioning businesses as a strategic partner for their clients.
Presenters
Drew Dizon, EVP of Partnerships Dizon is a fintech expert helping banks and credit unions overcome legacy technology limitations, enabling speed, time to value, accountability, and impactful innovation. LinkedIn
Brian Koenig, VP, Director of Business Solutions Koenig is a fintech professional specializing in digital banking, treasury services, risk management, and payments. He drives success for financial institutions at Nymbus. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
SupraFin offers crypto investment and risk intelligence solutions to help organizations assess and invest confidently in crypto. The company offers a crypto wealthtech platform, crypto ratings, and crypto research.
Features
Recommends crypto-baskets based on intelligent and fundamental crypto algorithms
Delivers crypto ratings that assess the riskiness of each crypto
Provides crypto research to explain the crypto ratings
Why it’s great
SupraFin’s crypto-recommended portfolios have outperformed the market, and their crypto ratings predicted the collapse of Terra/Luna/UST and FTT/FTX.
Presenter
Liliana Reasor, President Reasor is an entrepreneur with 20 years of crypto, risk, and investment management analytics, complex securities analysis and trading, and portfolio management software experience from tier-one financial institutions. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateFall in New York on September 11 and 12. Register today and save your spot.
QuickFi’s latest e-commerce technology allows business borrowers to shop and consummate financing for business equipment – all within minutes, instead of days or weeks.
Features
Embeds easily into lender or manufacturer’s website
Offers 100% digital, borrower self-service, and accessible 24/7
Provides automated credit, contract structuring, and business verification
Why it’s great
With this latest technology, banks and manufacturers can now offer a combined online shopping and financing experience that is 100% digital, fully self-service, and able to be completed in minutes.
Presenters
Nate Gibbons, CXO Gibbons oversees QuickFi’s customer experience strategy, leveraging automation and technology to enable dramatic improvements to the borrower experience. LinkedIn
Jillian Munson, VP, Process & Automation Munson leads core technology projects at QuickFi. She develops seamless user experiences for both internal and external business processes. LinkedIn
Embedded finance solution provider upSWOT announced a pilot partnership with NerdWallet Small Business.
The partnership will combine upSWOT’s embedded finance tools with NerdWallet Smart Business’ financial guidance.
upSWOT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring 2023.
White-label embedded finance innovator upSWOT has teamed up with NerdWallet Small Business. The pilot partnership combines upSWOT’s embedded finance tools with NerdWallet Smart Business’ financial guidance to support small businesses.
“As a platform that provides financial guidance to consumers and small and mid-sized businesses, we recognize the unique challenges small business owners face,” NerdWallet Small Business General Manager Brandon McDonough said. “By partnering with upSWOT through this pilot, we will integrate tools and resources that help simplify small business owners’ financial decisions and fuel their growth and success.”
upSWOT leverages data from more than 200 SaaS business applications and banking platforms to provide its clients with personalized business insights. upSWOT’s embedded finance tools work with banking, ecommerce, payroll, marketing, accounting and other subscription-based technologies typically used by small businesses. The insights derived from these sources enable business leaders to see trends and performance across their customer base. This in turn empowers them to make smart decisions to enhance engagement, build loyalty, and reduce churn.
upSWOT CEO Dmitry Norenko praised Nerdwallet Small Business for its commitment to “transform the way financial services are delivered to small businesses” – a commitment shared by upSWOT. “Together, we will provide small business customers with the tools and resources to thrive in today’s competitive business environment,” he said.
Founded in 2019, upSWOT most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring earlier this year. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company announced partnerships with fellow Finovate alums Alkami and Jack Henry in May. This spring, the company announced that it was teaming up with financial data access network Akoya. The partnership with Akoya will link small businesses via secure API to accounts at large U.S. banks. These financial institutions include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, TD Bank, Fidelity Investments, Truist and more.
upSWOT has raised more than $4 million in funding. Common Ocean Ventures and First Southern National Bank are among the company’s investors.
Thought Machine has partnered with SME lending solutions provider Cordada.
Cordada will use the product library of Thought Machine’s Vault Core to offer customized products to SME lenders and fintechs.
Today’s tie-up, along with a recent partnership with C6 Bank in Brazil, strengthens Thought Machine’s presence in Latin America.
Core banking technology provider Thought Machineannounced this week it is partnering with Chile-based Cordada.
Under the partnership, Cordada will use Thought Machine’s core banking platform, Vault Core, to offer Latin American SME lenders and fintechs access to personalized financial tools. More specifically, Cordada will modify and tailor products in Thought Machine’s global product library that contains pre-built, ready-to-use smart contracts. This customization will enable Cordada to offer localized products to its customer base while supporting multi-currency assets.
“Vault Core will enable us to create highly differentiated financing products quickly and effortlessly without depending on the Thought Machine team,” said Cordada Cofounder and CEO Andrés Prats. “This, in turn, will empower the next generation of SME lenders to develop modern solutions as they tackle the great challenge of bridging the $1 trillion financing gap for SMEs in Latin America.”
Cordada, which currently has partnerships in Chile, Peru, and Mexico, will also use Vault Core to expand its services into new Latin American markets. Since it was founded in 2019, Cordada has deployed $3 billion in capital to lenders via 60 lenders and fintechs, ultimately impacting 5,500 SMEs across Latin America.
U.K.-based Thought Machine has raised $563 million in funding since it was founded in 2014. The company offers two main products: Vault Core, a tool that leverages smart contracts to help organizations design and build new financial products; and Vault Payments, a payments processing platform that enables banks to run all payment types for different payment methods, schemes, and regions across the globe.
Among Thought Machine’s clients are Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and Curve. Today’s partnership further fuels the company’s presence in the Latin American region, following a recent partnership with C6 Bank in Brazil.
Fintech software plays an instrumental role in the financial services industry today, facilitating customer access to financial products in a manner that enhances operational efficiency and suits individual needs. The advent of digital technology continues to transform financial institutions’ operations, pushing developers to innovate new applications that can efficiently handle tasks previously distributed over numerous systems and software.
Among these capabilities, document viewing and sharing features stand out as vital for fintech applications. Developers often resort to a range of document lifecycle solutions to circumvent the complexity of building these functionalities from scratch. However, the financial industry faces unique challenges related to security and compatibility when choosing integration partners. Understanding the critical role Java plays in contemporary fintech application development is imperative to truly grasp these technical hurdles.
Why Java Is a Vital Component of Fintech Applications
As a versatile and robust programming language, Java is renowned for its widespread use across many industries, with the finance sector being one of its prominent areas of application. Its popularity is attributed to several intrinsic features that particularly suit the demands of the finance industry. Among these are its scalability, security, and platform-independent nature. In an industry where data is vast, sensitive, and continually growing, Java’s scalable framework allows for the easy handling of increased data loads and user requests.
The robust security features Java offers are crucial for financial applications that handle high-value data that is frequently targeted by cybercriminals. Java is also a platform-independent language, which ensures that financial applications can function seamlessly across different operating systems, thus enhancing their accessibility and usability. This unique blend of capabilities has made Java the preferred programming language of developers operating in the financial services industry.
Why Financial Applications Need Document Viewing and Sharing Capabilities
Document viewing and sharing capabilities are of paramount importance in the financial services industry due to several reasons. These applications often deal with an array of complex and sensitive information, such as transaction histories, financial reports, regulatory documents, and personal client data. Effective document viewing and sharing capabilities allow for seamless access to this crucial information, enabling users to make informed decisions swiftly.
Viewing and sharing features also foster enhanced collaboration among team members, as they can easily share and discuss relevant documents. Given the sensitive nature of financial data, secure document viewing and sharing is essential to protect this data from unauthorized access. Effective and secure document viewing and sharing capabilities not only enhance the efficiency and productivity within the financial services industry but also play a critical role in maintaining data security and integrity.
4 Key Benefits of Java-Based Viewing Integrations
There are a number of reasons why integrating Java-based solutions for document viewing and sharing directly into fintech applications is beneficial for developers and financial services organizations.
1. Enhanced Security
Security is a paramount concern in the development and deployment of financial applications, and leveraging Java-based viewing integrations can play a significant role in enhancing this aspect. The integrations can serve as a safeguard, acting as a centralized location for document viewing and thus offering an extra layer of protection to sensitive information. With financial data typically including a vast range of confidential and highly valuable details, the potential for unauthorized access is a considerable risk.
Java-based viewing integrations can substantially mitigate these threats. By consolidating document viewing into a single, secure platform, it becomes substantially more challenging for unauthorized users to gain access to sensitive documents. Consequently, the application becomes more robust in terms of its security framework, providing users with greater confidence in the protection of their data.
2. Greater Efficiency
Efficiency is a crucial factor in the overall user experience and performance of financial applications, and the implementation of Java-based viewing integrations can significantly enhance this area. The traditional process often requires users to open and close external document viewers, a procedure that can be cumbersome and time-consuming. However, with the integration of a Java-based document viewer, this extra step can be eliminated.
Viewing documents directly within the financial application itself reduces the need for constant switching between different software interfaces. This streamlining of the viewing process saves valuable time, reduces the potential for user errors, and enhances the overall productivity of the end user. Therefore, incorporating Java-based viewing integrations in financial applications not only simplifies the workflow for users but also creates a more streamlined and efficient user interface, leading to improved productivity and a better user experience.
3. Improved Scalability
Scalability is a critical feature that is imperative for the growth and evolution of financial applications, and the incorporation of Java-based viewing integrations can serve as a vital tool to cater to this requirement. Financial organizations continually grow and change, and the amount of data they manage and the number of customers they serve can exponentially increase over time. In such scenarios, it’s crucial that fintech software can scale effectively to meet these expanding demands.
Java-based viewing integrations excel in this area by being inherently scalable. They can be expanded or contracted as needed, ensuring that irrespective of the increasing number of users or the burgeoning quantity of data, users will always have unhindered access to the documents they need. This seamless scalability ensures that the document viewing process remains efficient and effective, thereby contributing to the robustness of the application and supporting the continued growth and success of the financial institution.
4. Smoother Compatibility
Java-based viewing and sharing integrations are invaluable for the financial industry due to their ease of integration with existing Java-based fintech applications. In the evolving world of financial technology, seamless integration is critical to ensure optimal system performance, and to avoid compatibility issues that could disrupt operations. Java’s platform-independent nature, combined with its robust and versatile capabilities, allows for smooth and effective integration with a broad range of applications. This harmonization reduces the technical challenges associated with integrating disparate technologies and contributes to an overall smoother user experience.
Streamlined integrations also enable financial institutions to harness maximum value from their existing fintech applications, reducing the need for significant system overhauls or investments in entirely new platforms. In this area, Java-based viewing integrations contribute to increased operational efficiency, a more streamlined workflow, and ultimately, enhanced service provision in the financial industry.
Implementing Java-based Document Features with VirtualViewer
Accusoft’s VirtualViewer is an advanced, Java-based HTML5 document viewer for fintech applications. It supports various formats, eliminating the need for multiple viewers and enhancing user experience. The viewer operates on any OS, offering flexible viewing without software installation. Rapidly render and access financial documents, boosting security and efficiency. A national mortgage lender achieved a 40% reduction in processing times with VirtualViewer.
VirtualViewer provides comprehensive document support for your Java-integrated applications across platforms. Its robust APIs equip your software with essential viewing and sharing capabilities, whether deployed on the cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid setup. Installation takes less than ten minutes, and ready-to-use connectors facilitate swift integration with leading ECM applications like Alfresco, IBM, and Pegasystems.
Test VirtualViewer today with a free demo to explore all the functionalities for your Java-integrated application.
