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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Setuply is a client onboarding solution that optimizes provider revenue recognition while reducing time to value for customers.
Features
Client IMPACT Control Panel – addresses client transparency and engagement
ScaleUP Onboarding Engine – predictable, scalable, and repeatable
Professional Services Automation – provides improved capacity and throughput
Why it’s great
Onboard faster and live better with Setuply’s complete client onboarding solution.
Presenters
Rachel Lyubovitzky, CEO Lyubovitzky is a successful B2B enterprise tech entrepreneur, accomplished leader, and investor with a passion for effective strategies, successful execution and continued innovation. LinkedIn
Kelly Blackledge, Product Manager As a seasoned B2B Product Manager, Blackledge leverages her expertise in market research, user experience design, and agile development to deliver powerful solutions that drive the business forward. LinkedIn
The Finovate Sustainability and Inclusion Scholarship Program is an opportunity to showcase innovative startups that are embracing strong ESG principles as a key part of their offering. To commemorate Earth Day this weekend – and the importance of the “E” in ESG – we’re highlighting three companies that have earned scholarships in the Environmental/Sustainability category.
Daizy
Founded in 2019, Daizy won the Sustainability category of our Finovate Scholarship program in FinovateFall 2022. The company’s technology leverages AI to help investors access the data-driven stories behind the biggest companies in the U.S. Daizy has combined its expertise in ESG, analytics, data visualization, and natural language processing to offer an app that enables users to link their brokerages accounts, build watchlists, as well as track and search for new investment ideas using Daizy’s NLP portfolio, stock, and crypto search functionality.
Daizy Chief Operating Officer Andrew Peddar at FinovateFall 2022.
Based in the U.K., Daizy has raised $3 million in funding. Deborah Yang is co-founder and CEO. Follow Daizy on Twitter. Connect with Daizy on LinkedIn.
Energy Shares
Energy Shares won the Environmental category of our Finovate Demo Scholarship program for FinovateFall 2022. The company is a FINRA-registered broker-dealer and equity crowdfunding platform for utility-scale renewable energy projects in the U.S. Energy Shares facilitates access to investment opportunities in renewable energy projects, opportunities that were previously only available to institutional, corporate, and select retail investors. Via the Energy Shares platform, investors and developers can connect and collaborate to support renewable energy initiatives and support the growth of the renewable energy industry.
Energy Shares Social Media and Community Manager Chloe Breau and CMO Mark Kapczynski at FinovateFall 2022
Energy Shares was founded in 2020. The company is headquartered in Pasadena, California. Follow Energy Shares on Twitter. Connect with Energy Shares on LinkedIn.
Little Blocks
Hyderabad, India-based Little Blocks won the Environmental category of the Finovate Demo Scholarship program for FinovateEurope 2023. The company leverages industrial IoT sensors and blockchain technology to foster access to risk capital for expenses like machinery purchases. Little Blocks’ technology tokenizes each machine and ownership is distributed among the token holders, each of whom has a stake in the underlying cash flows. This enables manufacturers to pay based on the actual use of the machine rather than a fixed monthly loan repayment.
Little Blocks co-founder and CEO Hanu Panchakarla at FinovateEurope 2023.
Little Blocks was founded in 2022 and is funded by a grant from the Startup India Seed Fund.
Financial advice platform SmartAsset has acquired advisor prospect engagement company DeftSales.
The company has integrated DeftSales into its SmartAdvisor advisor growth solution, renaming the technology DeftSales by SmartAsset.
The new tool helps advisors respond to leads instantly, enabling them to engage warm leads before another advisor follows up first.
Financial advice platform SmartAsset is acquiring prospect engagement company DeftSales this week for an undisclosed amount.
Founded in 2020, DeftSales offers tools that integrate with a range of CRM platforms to automate financial advisors’ business development outreach and provide analytics insights on client engagement. The technology helps advisors respond to leads instantly, enabling them to engage warm leads before another advisor follows up first.
“We are enormously excited to announce the acquisition of DeftSales and we look forward to integrating their solutions with our own SmartAdvisor platform,” said company CEO and Founder Michael Carvin. “The feedback from advisors using DeftSales has been incredibly clear – by automating many tasks, it dramatically decreases the work required to be successful in converting SmartAdvisor prospects into clients.”
SmartAsset has integrated DeftSales into its SmartAdvisor advisor growth solution, renaming the technology DeftSales by SmartAsset. The new solution integrates SmartAsset’s compliant user interface with DeftSales’ automated campaigns and analytics. DeftSales by SmartAsset offers automated emails and text messages, FastCall technology that enables advisors to follow-up on leads while they are busy with a current client, and an analytics dashboard to monitor engagement efforts.
DeftSales Co-Founder and COO James Fason will join the SmartAsset team as Director of Engineering.
SmartAsset has a mission to help people make smart financial decisions. The company’s educational content, calculators, and tools reach 75 million people each month. In 2021, the New York-based company raised $110 million in funding, boosting its total funding to more than $161 million. And the company is still growing. SmartAsset has brought on 27 new hires so far this year.
“We are thrilled to have been selected for this prestigious opportunity to collaborate with the FCA on driving innovation in financial services,” NayaOne CEO Karan Jain said. “We believe that our digital transformation platform and synthetic data technology will be a valuable asset in helping fintech companies to develop and test their products more efficiently and effectively.”
The FCA’s decision comes in the wake of a pair of pilot projects, in 2020 and again in 2022. The initiatives gave startups access to synthetic and publicly available data in order to test and develop their solutions. The FCA announced that it would make the digital sandbox permanent in the summer of 2023. NayaOne has built a business of creating digital sandboxes for financial institutions, such as Lloyds Banking Group and FinTech North. And it is this experience – according to FCA Chief Data, Information, and Intelligence Officer Jessica Rusu – that makes the company well-positioned to help the FCA fulfill its goal of “promoting solutions to complex regulatory challenges like APP fraud, greenwashing, and scam detection.”
NayaOne demoed its Digital Sandbox in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope. The company’s platform helps make innovation, integration, and partnership an easier – and faster – process for banks. NayaOne offers single key access to more than 200 technology vendors; a secure, digital sandbox environment; and 2.5 billion data points to support tech evaluation. The company reports that it has enabled banks to accelerate their proof-of-concept timeline from 12 months to only two months. This saves banks up to 80% in costs and significantly increases productivity.
NayaOne’s Digital Sandbox announcement comes as the company reports that Bambuis now available via the NayaOne Marketplace. Bambu is a Singapore-based B2B roboadvisor and fellow Finovate alum. A three-time Best of Show winner, the company most recently demoed at FinovateFall in 2021. “We recognize NayaOne’s commitment to enable banks and financial institutions to take advantage of revolutionary innovations in financial technology by bringing banks and fintechs together for innovation,” Bambu founder and CEO Ned Phillips said. “As a wealth technology provider, we at Bambu want to bring our award-winning financial solutions to the forefront, and we look forward to doing so on the NayaOne Digital Transformation Platform.”
The past few years have been turbulent, and there’s reason to believe more turbulence is on its way. Technological innovation might be the answer to challenges that arise in the finance industry, but it’s important to take a moment to talk about the human side of this industry. Ultimately, everything in fintech is for the benefit of the people using our products, and right now that thought needs to be at the forefront of everything we do.
The companies that will succeed in this time of uncertainty are the ones that excel at understanding their customers, and who give them good experiences, and, of course, help them lead richer, more productive financial lives.
Download this Finovate eMagazine and get an overview of the upcoming challenges of 2023. Find out more about:
Generative AI, the metaverse in the finance sector, and other technology trends emerging in 2023
Exclusive interviews from FinovateEurope addressing the challenges of the fintech landscape, the future of customer experience, and coopetition in the industry and how to turn it into successful partnerships
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
1Kosmos‘ BlockID provides workers and customers with convenient, passwordless multi-factor authentication with the added security of identity verification to prevent identity fraud and account takeover.
Features
Self-service, KYC-compliant identity proofing with tailorable onboarding journeys
Reusable, NIST certified IAL3/AA3 MFA
GDPR-compliant privacy-by-design with immutable audit trail
Why it’s great
1Kosmos’ Software-as-a-Service platform is certified to NIST, FIDO2 and iBeta PAD2 specifications and supports identity proofing and passwordless multi-factor authentication for workers and customers.
Presenters
Jens Hinrichsen, SVP, North American Sales Hinrichsen is a career business growth leader, having held a variety of sales and marketing roles across the cybersecurity, fraud, and digital user experience space. LinkedIn
Robert MacDonald, VP Product Marketing MacDonald has more than 15 years of global marketing experience with leading B2B and B2C identity software companies. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Pangea Technologies provides predictable, simplified FX management powered by AI. With an intuitive UX, world-class automation, and cutting-edge AI trading engine, Pangea is democratizing global FX hedging.
Features
Pangea provides Hedging-as-a-Service:
Up to 10x less expensive than alternatives
AI enables powerful performance off the shelf
Up and running in two weeks or less
Why it’s great
Implementing a hedging strategy today is complicated, costly and time consuming. Pangea is the first end-to-end solution to hedge FX risk, making it simple and intuitive.
Presenter
Aeron Sullivan, Founder & CEO Prior to Pangea, Sullivan lead two startups, one where he was named to Inc. Magazine’s 30 entrepreneurs under 30. LinkedIn
A look at the companies demoing at FinovateSpring in San Francisco on May 23 and 24. Register today and save your spot.
Fundica‘s funding search engine serves as a powerful business client acquisition tool for FIs and other business-support organizations by enabling them to truly democratize access to funding.
Features
Effortlessly generate new business leads and retain clients with a complementary funding search engine
Gather firmographics and funding needs
Automatically promote diversity, equity, and inclusion
Why it’s great
Fundica’s funding search engine makes business-support organization a more complete one-stop funding destination for SMBs by effortlessly extending their service offering at scale.
Presenter
Mike Lee, CEO & Co-Founder Lee has held leadership roles in technology organizations, secured over $350M in government funding, and holds Engineering, MBA, and CFA designations. LinkedIn
Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank, also known as Techcombank, has tapped data-driven personalization expertPersonetics to facilitate AI-powered money management capabilities for its clients.
Techcombank is leveraging the partnership to help promote financial wellness among its nearly 11 million customers. Personetics’ expertise in providing personalized banking experiences will bring the bank’s customers personalized, automated money management capabilities. For example, Personetics will help Techcombank analyze customers’ financial transactions, aggregate bank accounts, and provide valuable insights about unexpected payments, excessive spending, and insufficient account balances. As a result, customers will receive tailored suggestions on savings, asset growth, and card usage to help achieve their goals.
“At Techcombank, our mission is to revolutionize the way our customers manage their finances to achieve more in life,” said Techcombank Chief Digital Officer Pranav Seth. “We believe that data-led insights and personalized financial solutions are the key to unlocking true financial wellness and will enable our customers to make smarter financial decisions that align with their unique goals and challenges. From identifying new savings opportunities to proactively monitoring spend, our ultimate goal is to empower our customers with unprecedented convenience and control. Our partnership with Personetics marks a significant milestone in our long-term vision of enhancing our customers’ lives by making banking hyper-personal to each and every customer.”
Techcombank has already undergone a beta testing period with Personetics that included 10,000 end customers. After three weeks, the bank saw savings balances increase 9%, had average log-in rates increase from 14.2 times per month to 77.3 times per month, experienced a 43.7% increase in installments volume, and a 32% increase in total installment value.
Headquartered in New York, and with offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Singapore, Personetics counts more than 135 million bank customers across the globe. The fintech was founded in 2010 and strives to help banks create “self-driving finance” experiences for its customers. Under this concept, banks leverage AI to proactively act on behalf of their clients to help them achieve their financial goals.
Last November United Overseas Bank tapped Personetics for its Auto-Save feature that finds “safe-to-save” funds by analyzing a user’s spending habits over time. The fintech partnered with sustainability-as-a-service company Ecolytiq after Earth Day last year to launch Sustainability Insights, a tool that analyzes consumers spending to show them the carbon emissions of their spending and investments.
An alum of FinovateFall 2016, Personetics has raised $178 million from investors including Thoma Bravo, Warburg Pincus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and more. David Sosna is CEO.
The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.
The Instant Payments Manager supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.
Digital banking solutions provider Q2 Holdingsunveiled its Q2 Instant Payments Manager this week. The new tool helps banks manage workflows for instant payment schemes, including Clearing House RTP and Federal Reserve FedNow rails.
The Clearing House has offered its real-time payment (RTP) rails since 2017 and the U.S. Federal Reserve is planning to launch its FedNow RTP solution this summer. The new capabilities have many U.S. firms seeking to integrate real-time payment flows into their systems to not only keep up with competing banks, but also with customer expectations. For both of these instant payment message sets, Q2’s new solution supports multiple functions, including Request for Payment, Request for Information, Credit Transfer, and Receipt Confirmation messages.
“Q2 Instant Payments Manager solves the challenges many businesses face around partial B2B payments and exchanging invoice data between billers and payers,” said Q2 SVP of Product Management Dallas Wells. “The new solution will modernize B2B payment flows and provide a competitive advantage for banks and credit unions striving for operating account deposits in a crowded commercial banking market.”
The Q2 Instant Payments Manager is a part of the company’s Q2 Catalyst, a set of commercial banking solutions. Q2 anticipates today’s offering will help banks improve their accounts receivable and payable processes by reducing the times to post and reconcile B2B payments.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Q2 offers a range of digital financial solutions for consumers, business clients, and fellow fintechs. The company is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QTWO, and has a market capitalization of more than $1.36 billion.
The topic of RTP among banks and fintechs has gained major headway in the U.S. this year. Earlier this week, Plaidunveiled its Instant Payouts solution. The multi-rail payout tool enables a range of financial services firms– including verticals like personal lending, marketplaces, insurance, brokerages, and digital investment platforms– to send funds instantly, 24/7 within Plaid’s Transfer product.
RightCapital launched its new data visualization tool, Cash Flow Maps, this week.
The new offering provides intuitive data visuals to illustrate cash inflows and outflows in financial plans.
Headquartered in Connecticut, RightCapital most recently demoed its technology at FinovateSpring in 2019.
Seeing is believing. And RightCapital is betting that its new Cash Flow Maps will make it easier for financial advisors to collaborate with their clients. The latest addition to RightCapital’s data visualization tools, Cash Flow Maps offers intuitive data visuals to illustrate cash inflows and outflows in financial plans.
“RightCapital has built its reputation on listening to advisor feedback and adding new product features at a fast clip,” co-founder and CEO of RightCapital Shuang Chen said. “The Cash Flow Maps are a good example of that.”
Cash Flow Maps present data in two different formats. The “Waterfall” format is a horizontal Sankey chart in which cash inflows and outflows move from left to right. The “Breakdown” format is a vertical flow chart that allows users to click on each item for greater detail. The new offering is available now to all RightCapital subscribers at all subscription levels. Cash Flow Maps leverage Sankey charting, which emphasizes transfers or flows within a system. Famous examples of early Sankey charts include a visualization of Napolean’s 1812 Russian Campaign created in 1869. Another famous example was the illustration of the efficiency of a steam engine back in 1898.
“My first experience seeing Sankey cash flow charts used in financial planning was in what I called the ‘Beautiful Financial Plan’ that Mike Zung, CFP, created,” Michael Kitces said. Kitces is publisher of The Kitces Report and the financial advisory industry blog, Nerd’s Eye View. “Now that RightCapital has released this new feature that automatically creates cash flow maps, the entire community of advisors can use them in their financial plans with ease,” he added.
Founded in 2015, RightCapital made its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateFall. The Shelton, Connecticut-based fintech last demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateSpring 2019. RightCapital also offers Snapshot, which summarizes financial planning charts and notes into a single personalized document. The company’s Blueprint solution helps organize household financial data and goals using interactive, intuitive visuals.
As someone who is passionate about personal finance, I was excited to see Apple Card unveil its Savings account today, especially during financial literacy month. The launch comes three-and-a-half years after Apple first debuted the Apple Card in partnership with Goldman Sachs in 2019.
Launching today, the new Savings account enables Apple Card users to set up and manage their funds from within their Apple Wallet. With the high-yield savings account, users will earn 4.15% APY with no minimum deposits and no minimum balance requirements.
The accounts build on Apple Card’s Daily Cash, the credit card’s cashback rewards feature. When a user sets up their Savings account in the Apple Wallet, the Daily Cash they earn on purchases is automatically deposited into their Savings account. In addition to saving their Daily Cash, users can deposit funds through a linked bank account or from their balance in Apple Cash.
“Savings helps our users get even more value out of their favorite Apple Card benefit — Daily Cash — while providing them with an easy way to save money every day,” said Apple VP of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet Jennifer Bailey. “Our goal is to build tools that help users lead healthier financial lives, and building Savings into Apple Card in Wallet enables them to spend, send, and save Daily Cash directly and seamlessly — all from one place.”
Apple Card’s Savings account also comes with a dashboard to enable users to track their account balance and the interest they’ve earned over time. The account, which is powered by Goldman Sachs, does not charge fees for account origination, maintenance, or withdraws.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised rates consistently since March 2022. Despite many incumbent banks holding the rates on their savings accounts near zero, it’s nice that a handful of fintechs are passing the positive impacts of the higher rates down to consumers.
But with the rising cost of living, many consumers may not take advantage of such high rates. Credit Karmaissued the results of a survey today that details the impact of Americans’ poor savings habits and inadequate financial literacy. The survey targeted Americans’ knowledge (or lack thereof) of their own net worth, and took a look into their retirement savings. Here’s an overview of some of the survey results:
51% of Americans don’t know how to calculate their net worth
31% of Americans have a net worth of $0 or less
21% of respondents aged 59+ report they have a net worth of $0 or less
30% of Gen Z care more about celebrities’ net worth than their own
27% of respondents (including 25% of Gen X and 27% aged 59+) say they don’t have any money saved for retirement right now.
67% of Americans say they don’t currently track their net worth
22% of Americans believe the term “net worth” only applies to wealthy people
For me, these statistics are eye-opening, and the lack of savings are disheartening. Can fintech fix this? My guess is that, even with enticingly high rates, Americans’ poor savings habits will die hard. And the American Dream may die harder.
