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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
Baker Hill is being acquired by private equity firm Flexpoint Ford.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Company President and CEO John M. Deignan will continue to lead the business.
Lending-as-a-Service provider Baker Hill has agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Flexpoint Ford. Riverside-owned Baker Hill has not released financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close upon the receipt of regulatory approvals.
Baker Hill will tap into the Flexpoint team’s experience and fintech knowledge and will be able to leverage the private equity firm’s capital to fund product developments and acquisitions. The Indiana-based company will also be able to benefit from Flexpoint’s insight into the needs of bank and credit union clients. As Vilas Nair, Flexpoint Principal explained, the firm can “support Baker Hill’s mission of helping banks and credit unions foster more profitable relationships with their customers and drive economic development in their communities.”
“Baker Hill has a long-standing reputation for being a trusted provider of differentiated loan origination and risk management software, which has helped fuel our consistent growth each year. This ongoing market validation is a source of inspiration for our team and by partnering with Flexpoint we can continue to elevate the lending experience for our bank and credit union clients,” said Baker Hill President and CEO John M. Deignan. “Our team is confident this partnership will provide new opportunities to deliver more value for our clients and the communities they serve.”
Deignan, along with the company’s existing leadership team, will continue to lead the business and remain shareholders.
With $7.5 billion of regulatory assets under management, Flexpoint Ford’s portfolio is comprised of companies in the financial services and healthcare industries. The firm has invested in more than 40 companies since 2005.
Founded in 1983, Baker Hill offers banks and credit unions a SaaS solution for commercial, small business, and consumer loan origination, as well as risk management tools. The company, which most recently demoed at FinovateFall 2021, has received numerous awards in recent years. The IndyStar selected it as a top workplace in Central Indiana, Aite-Novarica recognized Baker Hill NextGen as best in class product, and, most recently, the company received a Product Innovation of the Year Mira Award nomination.
Jordan Ahli Bank has tapped Thought Machine to launch its new social payments app.
Qawn, the new app, is built on Thought Machine’s Vault Core cloud-native core banking platform.
Using Vault Core’s Universal Product Engine, Jordan Ahli Bank was able to tailor the new app to its diverse customer base.
Core banking technology provider Thought Machine is helping Jordan Ahli Bank launch Qawn, its new social payments app.
Powering Qawn is Thought Machine’s Vault Core cloud-native core banking platform. The banking technology provider’s Universal Product Engine enabled Jordan Ahli Bank to customize the tool based on its customers’ needs.
“Our aim is to help people prosper by creating a social financial experience that addresses real-life problems with cutting-edge technology,” said Jordan Ahli Bank Chief Innovation Officer Nidal Khalifeh. “Money is inherently social, and we want to reinvent digital money with a social aspect. Our app is designed to be secure, user-friendly, and to offer guidance with a focus on technology.”
With Qawn, Jordan Ahli Bank is helping a diverse group of users to send and receive money, request payments through chat, or scan a QR code for hassle-free money management. The app, which supports both Arabic and English languages, is also aimed at commercial banking users and can function as a payment acceptance tool.
Thought Machine was founded in 2014 and has since raised $563 million in funding. The U.K.-based 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.
“Bringing Qawn to the market is just the start – we look forward to expanding our partnership with Jordan Ahli Bank to bring further innovative financial solutions to Jordan, and elsewhere in the MENA region,” said Thought Machine CEO and Founder Paul Taylor.
Digital customer service provider Glia is enhancing its Glia Interaction Platform with a partnership with voice authentication provider Illuma Labs. Glia has integrated Illuma’s voice authentication technology into its customer service platform to help organizations streamline voice authentication for customer service interactions.
Glia anticipates the new addition will not only prevent fraud, but also enhance the customer experience and improve operational efficiency. “Illuma Shield fits seamlessly with the Glia Interaction Platform, adding more efficiency by making voice authentication effortless,” explained Illuma CEO and Founder Milind Borkar. “Our joint customers are experiencing the real value that the Glia and Illuma partnership delivers.”
Illuma Shield is Illuma’s flagship voice biometrics product that integrates signal processing, AI, and machine learning. The technology works in the background to authenticate customers during an interaction and prevent account takeover. Meanwhile, the customer service representative doesn’t need to make unnecessary clicks or spend time on data entry during or after the call. And because the user interface shows up on the agent’s existing screen, they don’t have to open up a different window.
The Glia Interaction platform is comprised of digital, phone, and self-service customer service options. The range of solutions not only provides customers a variety of options when seeking out customer service, but it also offers end users a seamless, omni-channel experience in the event they need to change communication channels.
“Authentication, particularly for phone banking, has traditionally been cumbersome and a major source of friction,” said Glia SVP of Alliances Steve Kaish. “By verifying enrolled customers in the first few seconds of natural conversation with the Illuma Shield software, Glia quickly enables an authenticated interaction, reducing fraud and letting customers focus on their immediate need, be it an account balance, mortgage inquiry or loan origination.”
Glia was founded in 2012 as SaleMove. The New York-based company offers digital communication environments, on-screen collaboration, and AI-enabled assistance tools for clients who need to support end customers online, over the phone, in home office environments, and via video. In total, Glia has facilitated more than 10 billion customer interactions. The company has raised $152 million and counts Envestnet, Deutsche Bank, and United Healthcare among its clients. Glia has taken home 10 Finovate Best of Show awards for its live demos and most recently showcased its tools at FinovateSpring 2021.
Founded in 2016, Illuma seeks to help credit unions boost their brand reputation with a modern and seamless member experience and better security. The Texas-based company has raised $2.5 million. Illuma appeared on the FinovateSpring stage last month in San Francisco with a demo of how it brings passive voice authentication to Glia’s customer service interactions.
Payment consultancy and technology provider Icon Solutions announced a strategic partnership with Virtusa Corporation.
The partnership combines Virtusa’s payments implementation expertise with Icon Solutions’ Icon Payments Framework (IPF).
Icon Solutions made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope in 2017.
U.K.-based Icon Solutions announced a strategic partnership with data strategy, data engineering, and IT services and solutions provider Virtusa Corporation. The collaboration will bring Virtusa’s payments implementation expertise to Icon Solutions’ Icon Payments Framework (IPF).
The goal of the partnership is to create an ecosystem in which banks and other financial institutions can achieve their payment transformation objectives. Icon’s IPF offers a low-code, cloud-native, open-source framework that empowers FIs to build their own payment processing solutions. IPF’s software development kit and optional modules give financial institutions the ability to take advantage of Icon’s payment strategy and architecture without the danger of being “locked-in” to a given vendor’s technology.
“Icon is committed to empowering banks to regain control of their payments and transform with confidence,” Icon Solutions Sales Director Liam Jeffs said. “With Virtusa, we are expanding our partner network to provide even more rich, collaborative opportunities to equip global banks with unique infrastructure that both streamlines their payments processing capabilities and helps them grow revenue streams.”
Founded in 2009, Icon Solutions made its Finovate debut in 2017 at FinovateEurope. At the conference, the company showed how its technology helped institutions in the U.K. adopt and deploy instant payments. Via its IPF platform and its team of advisors, Icon Solutions enabled financial institutions that did not have the budgets and platforms of their larger rivals to successfully upgrade their payments technology and transition to instant payments.
Since then, the company has grown 20% year-on-year. The firm also has partnered with financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide, and HSBC. Tier 1 banks around the world use Icon Solutions’ IPF to accelerate their payment transformations and introduce instant payments to their customers.
Last month, Icon Solutions appointed Donal Fleming as its new Chief Technology Officer. Fleming brings more than 25 years of experience in the banking and financial services industry to the company. He previously served as CTO for Credit Benchmark and payments company Modulr.
Virtusa was founded in 1996. The company serves businesses in life sciences and health care, as well as in banking and financial services. Virtusa has more than 220 clients, and operates in more than 25 countries. Baring Private Equity Asia acquired the Massachusetts-based firm in 2020 in an all-cash deal valued at $2 billion. Virtusa co-founder Kris Canekeratne is Chairman and CEO.
This week’s edition of Finovate Global looks at recent fintech news from Colombia.
The largest Spanish-speaking country in South America, Colombia is located in the northwest corner of the continent. With a population of more than 52 million, Colombia has the third largest economy in South America and the fourth largest in Latin America. More than 11 million people live in the country’s capital city of Bogota.
Earlier this year, the Colombian government indicated its support for open banking and open finance. Specifically, the government included the establishment of an open banking scheme as part of its National Development Plan. The fact that the current government endorsed an initiative that began with the previous administration was seen as an especially constructive sign for the future of open banking and open finance in Colombia.
One way to keep up with fintech news from Colombia is via Colombia Fintech. With information in both Spanish and English, Colombia Fintech is an association of fintech companies based in Colombia. The association provides news on Colombian fintechs, updates on relevant developments on the government and regulatory front, as well as opportunities for networking. Colombia Fintech counts more than 240 members in its community. The association was formed in 2016.
As for recent Colombian fintech news, Bogota-based payments and data security company Intexusannounced a partnership with security software company Entrust this week. Intexus will use Entrust’s digital card and instant issuance technology to support its card-as-a-service solution. The partnership is designed to enable banks and credit unions in Latin America to benefit from a unified payment card program.
“We have long been in the digital era and today’s consumers are accustomed to having resources at their fingertips instantaneously,” Intexus CEO David Rojas said. “Our partnership with Entrust allows us to simplify payment enablement for our bank and credit union customers throughout Latin America so they can focus on building relationships with their cardholders and members.”
Intexus serves clients in eight Latin American countries and issues more than 100,000 cards a month. The company was founded in 1997. Entrust provides solutions to help businesses offer trusted experiences for identity, payments, and data. Founded in 1969, the company has been a Finovate alum since 2015 when it presented its technology as part of our developers conference, FinDEVr SiliconValley.
Speaking of partnerships between Finovate alums and Colombian financial interests, we also learned this week that Ripple has entered into a new collaboration with the country’s central bank. As reported in CoinDesk, Banco de la República will test the effectiveness of Ripple’s CBDC platform to enhance Colombia’s high-value payments system. The pilot is being conducted in partnership with the country’s Ministry for the Information and Communications Technologies (MinTIC). Spanish blockchain company Peersyst Technology is also participating.
The goal of the project is to demonstrate the platform’s ability to improve the speed and reduce costs for large scale, wholesale payments, RTGS systems and similar operations, Joe Vollono, a director of CBDC business development at Ripple indicated. The project is scheduled to continue through the end of the year, and is being conducted in a controlled environment without compromising public resources.
As noted in The Paypers coverage of the announcement, Ripple previously partnered with Colombia last year to put land titles on the blockchain as part of a land redistribution program. Peersyst Technology was also a part of this initiative to permanently store and authenticate property titles on Ripple’s public blockchain.
Founded in 2012, Ripple made its Finovate debut as OpenCoin at FinovateSpring the following year. Rebranded as Ripple in 2015, the company has since grown into an innovative payment protocol and exchange network. Use cases of the company’s technology range from cross-border payments to crypto liquidity to CBDCs. Ripple’s customers include Novatti, Modulr, and Siam Commercial Bank. Chris Larsen is CEO.
Here is our look at fintech innovation around the world.
Avaloq has received a strategic investment from BlackRock.
The amount of the investment is undisclosed, but it gives BlackRock a minority stake in Avaloq.
BlackRock will integrate Avaloq’s wealth management technology into its Aladdin Wealth product.
BlackRock announced a strategic investment in wealth management technology provider Avaloq this week. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but BlackRock has taken a minority stake in the Switzerland-based company.
“This partnership will help us empower our clients to streamline processes, enhance risk analytics, and make more informed portfolio decisions, ultimately delivering greater value to their clients,” explained Avaloq Co-CEO Martin Greweldinger.
Their collaboration will combine Avaloq’s core banking, client relationship management, and mobile banking services with the risk analytics and portfolio management capabilities of BlackRock’s Aladdin Wealth. This combination will empower wealth managers and private banks to offer enhanced, more holistic services.
“BlackRock and Avaloq joining forces will help clients reduce the complexity and friction inherent in many of today’s digital transformations,” said Aladdin Wealth Tech’s Global Head Venu Krishnamurthy. “Our combined offering will make it extremely convenient for clients to implement and adopt Aladdin Wealth’s industry leading capabilities as it will be deeply integrated with Avaloq’s core banking solutions.”
Founded in 1991, Avaloq was acquired by Japan-based NEC in late 2020 for $2.2 billion. Prior to the acquisition, Avaloq had raised $392 million in funding.
Originally a core banking provider, Avaloq has narrowed its focus to serve private banks and wealth managers and now counts more than 150 clients across 35 countries. The company has four main product lines: Avaloq Engage increases client engagement, Avaloq Wealth supports the client journey, Avaloq Insight offers access to data, and Avaloq Banking Operations supports the back office.
What is the role of Generative AI in financial services? It seems as if every week another fintech or financial services company is announcing that it is integrating ChatGPT – among the most popular Generative AI applications – into its products. This week alone Avalara announced that it is launching a sales tax calculator plugin for ChatGPT, and cryptocurrency exchange Bybit reported that it is integrating ChatGPT into its trading tools.
As part of our Streamly Future of Finance Series, we asked Rocio Wu, Principal at F-Prime Capital and a recent speaker at FinovateSpring, for her thoughts on the role of Generative AI in financial services. What unique services will Generative AI make possible? Are banks ready to take advantage of what Generative AI has to offer? And what are the ethical concerns about the use of Generative AI in financial services? Wu discusses all this and more in her Streamly Future of Finance Q&A: “The three main categories of Generative AI innovation in financial services.”
Canadian wealth-as-a-service platform OneVest raised $12.8 million (CAD $17 million) in Series A funding this week.
The company’s technology provides financial institutions with a modular, scalable solution that enables them to launch new wealth management services in weeks.
The funding takes OneVest’s total capital raised to $18 million (CAD $24 million).
OneVest, a wealth-as-a-service platform for financial institutions, raised $12.8 million (CAD $17 million) in Series A funding this week. The investment takes the Calgary, Canada-based company’s total capital raised to $18 million (CAD $24 million). OneVest will use the funding to accelerate growth and expand into the U.S. market. The capital will also enable the company to add to its team in multiple areas, including enterprise sales, business operations, product, and engineering.
OMERS Ventures led the round. Existing investors Luge Capital, Panache Ventures, AAF Management, and FJ Labs participated, as well. The Series A also featured new investors Fin Capital, Pivot Investment Partners, and Deloitte Ventures.
“We’ve built OneVest as a durable, highly scalable platform that can shape the future of wealth management,” OneVest co-founder and CEO Amar Ahluwalia explained. He underscored the challenge of delivering “exceptional” financial experiences while meeting the expectations of customers, financial advisors, and regulators alike. “The ability to implement a modern service with all the required compliance requirements built in, is compelling,” Ahluwalia said.
Financial institutions can integrate and configure the different components of the platform based on the needs of their customers. The solution provides intuitive interfaces for investors and advisors, data aggregation, a reliable book of record, and a comprehensive portfolio management engine. Institutions can leverage the platform to automate and streamline administrative and middle office operations, as well. The technology is designed to enable banks and other FIs to launch customized, wealth management offerings in weeks, rather than years.
Ahluwalia, Jakob Pizzera (COO), and Nathan Di Lucca (CTO) founded OneVest in 2021. The company provides solutions for fintechs, banks and credit unions, wealth managers, insurance companies, dealers and custodians, and asset managers.
Identity verification innovator Sumsub introduced a new full-cycle identity verification solution this week.
The new offering addresses new trends in identity verification – including the rise of deepfakes and synthetic fraud.
Headquartered in London, Sumsub made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany.
Identity verification specialist Sumsublaunched a new full-cycle identity verification solution this week. The new offering, according to company co-founder and CEO, Andrew Sever, is designed to address accelerating fraud threats. This includes what Sever indicated was “an alarming 70% of fraud activity” taking place after the KYC stage.
Broadly speaking, the new platform is a response to four trends in identity verification: the increase in global fraud, the trend toward non-document verification and digital IDs, tightening regulations in a number of industries, and the democratization of AI technology and innovation. This latter development has created a new challenge in the form of deepfakes and synthetic fraud.
Sumsub’s new offering combines user and business verification, transaction monitoring, fraud prevention, and case management solutions into a single, unified dashboard. The technology enables users to orchestrate identity verification flows and offers unlimited customization. The AI-enabled platform monitors and analyzes data at every stage to identify potentially suspicious behavior.
“The new platform is the unique solution to an equation with three variables, conversion, anti-fraud, and compliance, many leaders in the verification industry struggled to solve until today,” Sumsub co-founder and CTO Vyacheslav Zholudev explained. Zholudev noted that Sumsub provides the highest pass rates across emerging and developed countries, and is among the few providers to openly share conversion rates. “It’s crucial that Sumsub breaks down borders for businesses by bringing top-notch customer experiences customized to different jurisdictions.”
Founded in 2015 and headquartered in London, SumSub stands for “Sum & Substance.” The company made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2020 in Berlin, Germany. At the conference, the company demoed its KYC/AML checks and risk management toolkit. The toolkit helps business convert more customers, verify more customers faster, lower costs, and identify fraud.
SumSub prevents more than 50,000 fraud attempts every month, covering 220+ countries and territories. The company raised $30 million in Series B funding in December of last year. The round was led by Flint Capital.
Navan is launching Navan Connect, a card-linked, automated expense management tool.
Navan Connect is an upgraded version of the company’s expense management product, NavanExpense, which it launched in 2020.
With Navan Connect, businesses can link their existing corporate Visa and Mastercard cards to Navan Expense.
Corporate travel and expense management company Navan (formerly TripActions) is giving its Navan Expense product an upgrade this week. The San Francisco-based company is launchingNavan Connect, a card-linked, automated expense management tool.
Navan first debuted Navan Expense tool in 2020 and has since seen 80x growth in spend volume. The expense tool’s features, such as smart policy controls and auto-itemization, help reduce out-of-policy spend.
Similar to Navan Expense, the Navan Connect program offers a business’ finance team access and control over corporate cards by ensuring the spending lines up with company policy. It also offers visibility into both pending and cleared transactions in real time. Unlike with Navan Expense, however, Navan Connect, allows the company’s business clients to be keep their existing corporate card programs, along with the loyalty rewards, rebates, and banking relationships that come with the program.
“This is a game-changer when it comes to managing expenses,” said Navan Expense EVP and General Manager Michael Sindicich. “It’s a big step forward for finance leaders, who want to keep their employees happy with a modern solution but without the disruption caused by changing corporate card programs. We’re excited about this groundbreaking solution, which helps organizations streamline their processes and focus on what really counts.”
To take advantage of Navan Connect, businesses can link their existing Mastercard or Visa corporate cards to benefit from the Navan Expense corporate card control features. “With Navan Connect, we’re expanding this convenience and efficiency to the corporate cards that our customers prefer, harmonizing personal choice with corporate needs,” said Navan Co-Founder and CEO Ariel Cohen. “It’s not just a product; it’s our pledge to simplify expense management while enhancing flexibility and control for businesses.”
Navan was founded in 2015. The company leveraged AI to create an enhanced user experience around booking corporate travel. Since then, Navan has made four acquisitions and now counts 2,900+ employees across 40 markets. The company expanded into India in April of this year after acquiring Tripeur.
Payments infrastructure company Astra and identity risk management innovator Alloy announced a new partnership this week.
The partnership will combine Astra’s advanced payment transfer technology with Alloy’s identity decisioning platform.
New York-based Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences at FinDEVr Silicon Valley in 2016.
A newly announced partnership combines identity risk management and advanced payment transfer technology to both streamline onboarding and give businesses new ways to send money to their customers.
Faster payments infrastructure company Astra and identity risk management innovator Alloy shared news of their collaboration today. The two companies will work together to streamline the onboarding process and give customers the ability to deploy Astra’s advanced payment transfer technology in their products.
“With Alloy’s identity risk solutions, businesses can confidently onboard verified customers,” Astra co-founder and CEO Gil Akos said. “Paired with Astra’s best-in-class payment technology, more product owners and consumers can leverage accelerated settlement of funds.”
Astra’s platform helps businesses create and offer debit transfers and Visa Direct payments. Partnering with Alloy will make it easier for businesses to quickly and securely onboard new customers and begin offering debit transfer services, Alloy VP of Strategic Alliances Brian Bender explained, “without taking on additional risk.”
Founded in 2015, Alloy introduced itself to Finovate audiences a year later at FinDEVr SiliconValley. The company’s automated identity decisioning platform provides access to 120+ data sources to enable companies to create automated workflows that verify customer information. The platform monitors transactions among accounts and flags suspicious behavior for further review. The technology also enhances the credit underwriting process, helping businesses make better credit decisions as well as accurate identity and customer information assessments.
Today, Alloy’s platform processes nearly one million identity decisions every day. The company also counts nearly 500 banks and fintechs as its customers. This spring, Alloy teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Kyckr to streamline KYB checks for companies operating outside the United States. In February, the company announced a partnership with loan origination solution provider Baker Hill – also a Finovate alum.
Alloy has raised more than $207 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. The New York-based firm includes Lightspeed Venture Partners and Avenir Growth Capital among its most recent investors.
Keytrade Bank, the first online bank in Belgium, has turned to Infosys Finacle to modernize its core banking system. Courtesy of the partnership, Keytrade Bank will swap out its legacy platform in favor of the Infosys Finacle suite. This will help the financial institution boost efficiency, accelerate time-to-market for products, and provide a superior experience for customers.
Keytrade Bank CEO Thierry Ternier noted in a statement that the new technology would “future-proof” the institution, and enable Keytrade Bank to “tackle the challenges of a fast-moving environment.” Keytrade Bank will subscribe to Infosys Finacle suite in a SaaS mode on the Microsoft Azure public cloud. This will facilitate the bank’s ability to leverage Finacle’s open API repository on the cloud, enabling easy and seamless integration with ecosystem partners.
Keytrade Bank is part of Credit Mutuel Arkea, one of the largest banking groups in France. The institution offers both banking and investment services to its retail customers, stemming from its origins as an online brokerage. The bank offers a current account with a €0.05 bonus for every transaction, as well as a savings account and a trading account. Keytrade also provides investment plans for as little as €25 euros per month, online portfolio management, and an open architecture funds supermarket with more than 660 funds.
The deployment of core banking technology from Infosys Finacle will help further Keytrade Bank’s development into a full-fledged bank. Founded in 1998 as VMS-Keytrade, the institution secured its banking status in 2002 when it acquired RealBank. Keytrade Bank maintains an impressive array of trading tools, including its professional day-trading and trend trading platform, Keytrade Pro. The company’s partnership with Infosys Finacle gives it the opportunity to bring its banking business up to a comparable level of innovation and service.
“With Finacle, Keytrade Bank has a core banking solution that has proven itself around the world for accelerating innovation, driving automation and operational excellence, and helping deepen customer engagements,” Infosys Finacle Chief Business Officer and Global Head Sanat Rao said. “This collaboration marks yet another milestone in our expanding presence in Europe and underlines our commitment to helping European banks stay ahead in the digital age.”
Headquartered in Bangalore, India, Infosys Finacle has been a Finovate alum since 2009. In the years since, the company has grown into a major digital banking solution provider, and is now a part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys. The company offers solutions for a variety of banking needs including core banking, lending, digital engagement, payments, cash management, wealth management, treasury operations, the blockchain, and more. Banks in more than 100 countries use Finacle’s technology to help a billion people and millions of businesses improve the way they save, invest, borrow, and make payments.
