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Finovate Blog
Tracking fintech, banking & financial services innovations since 1994
FinovateFall 2024 takes place in New York over September 9, 10 and 11. Register to attend by Friday, July 12 and save up to $800.
FinovateFall returns this September where 60+ companies will have just 7 minutes to show why they’re industry leaders and disruptors. Make sure you’re there to see it!
Curated to reflect fintech’s state of play, this year’s demo lineup hits all the high notes for emerging tech from all tiers of organizations. Plus, 80% are first-time demoers at Finovate. Here’s some of what you’ll see in New York:
Modern wealth for the masses
Democratized data access without code or queries
Streamlined account offboarding
Third-party oversight for fintech partners
Cross-selling to declined borrowers
Client investments starting at $1
Here’s a look at who’s demoing so far:
Apply before it’s too late! 75% of the demo lineup has been selected, so if you’re innovating in financial services, learn more now.
The role of AI in financial services is rapidly evolving. Not since the heady days of the Internet boom has an emerging technology so powerfully captured the imagination of companies, investors, workers, and consumers around the world.
As financial services companies search for ways to take advantage of AI to improve efficiency, better understand data, and engage more proactively and personally with their customers, it is all the more worthwhile for us to listen to those entrepreneurs, analysts, and investors who have taken the time to understand both AI’s promise as well as its limitations. Here, in our latest series of Streamly interviews, we present three individuals whose insights into AI are worth hearing and sharing.
Generative AI: Extending the boundaries of what automation can do
In this interview with Sarah Hinkfuss, Partner of Bain Capital Ventures, we learn how generative AI is transforming the way financial institutions leverage unstructured data, streamline processes, improve underwriting, and expand their product offerings. The conversation also touches on the importance of data quality and change management in AI adoption for financial institutions, providing valuable lessons from early adopters.
How can you make AI adoption profitable?
Chris Brown, President of Intelygenz USAA, talks about two decades of optimizing banking and fintech through deep tech and AI solutions, and shares his top takeaways from his keynote address at FinovateSpring earlier this year. Brown discusses some of Intelygenz’s strategies to overcome common AI project pitfalls, and explains the company’s end-to-end approach to client engagement.
Navigating fraud prevention challenges with AI
Intellicheck CEO Bryan Lewis explores contemporary challenges in fraud prevention, the limitations of traditional methods, and the role of AI in enhancing security measures. Lewis discusses how AI can both help and hinder fraud prevention, as well as how you can protect yourself and your business from fraud.
Unified Conversations Platform company Eltropy has introduced a range of new enhancements to its offering.
The enhancements include Skill-Based Routing, new Lobby Management features, and a voice and contact center solution, Voice+
A Finovate alum for more than seven years, Eltropy most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall 2022.
Unified Conversations platform provider Eltropy recently unveiled a set of new enhancements to its offering. The upgrades include Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0), new Lobby Management features, and a modern voice and contact center solution, Voice+.
“These enhancements reaffirm our commitment to quality and mark one of our most significant engineering efforts to date,” Eltropy CEO and Co-founder Ashish Garg said. “We’re excited about the opportunities these improvements will create for credit unions and community banks to elevate their overall member, customer, and employee experience in banking.”
Eltropy Voice+ brings voice functionality to digital channels such as text, video, and chat. Enhanced by an AI layer, Voice+ provides a unified contact center solution for voice, digital, and AI interactions, and gives agents a single interface to support greater efficiency. Skill-Based Routing (SBR 2.0) provides users with several features including the ability to prioritize high-value interactions, match agent proficiency based on language skills, and identify simultaneous channel handling via cross-channel concurrency. Lobby Management, first introduced earlier this year, now combines the best of digital banking with traditional branch services with efficient check-ins, queue management, branch traffic analytics, and resource planning tools.
Howie Meller, President and CEO of People First Federal Credit Union — which was among the early adopters of Eltropy’s Voice+ — praised the enhancements as a benefit for members and credit union employees alike. “Voice+ will make a big difference in how we serve our members,” Meller said. “Our agents can now use voice alongside text, video, co-browsing, and AI help. This means we can solve problems faster and better, all in one place. It’s a real improvement for our members.”
Eltropy made its first Finovate appearance in 2017, and most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2022. In the years since then, the company has partnered with several community financial institutions such as Cyprus Credit Union, InRoads Credit Union, and Magnifi Financial, as well as fellow Finovate alums Jack Henry, Fiserv, and Alkami. In fact, Eltropy began the year celebrating its 600 customer milestone. The company opened the doors to its new headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May.
Cost management platform Anodot has inked a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform.
The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to help clients better manage cloud costs.
Virginia-based Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022.
Cloud-based cost management platform Anodot has forged a strategic partnership with FinOps and TBM platform YäRKEN. The partnership will integrate technology from both firms to enable clients to manage cloud costs – both on-premises and in the private cloud – from a single interface.
“Anodot and YäRKEN are a perfect strategic match,” Anodot CEO and Co-founder David Drai said. “Our technology uses AI to help enterprises discover inefficiencies in their cloud spend, and YäRKEN’s platform helps those same organizations manage cloud spend across on-prem and cloud deployments.”
YäRKEN offers a tech cost management platform that gives users comprehensive cost optimization across cloud, on-premise, and hybrid environments to enhance profitability and reduce tech spend. YäRKEN’s platform features legacy platform TCO, Application TCO, IT planning, and Showback/Chargeback. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, YäRKEN announced earlier this year that the company’s solutions were now available on the AWS Marketplace. This news followed confirmation that YäRKEN had secured FinOps platform certification from the FinOps Foundation, underscoring the firm’s commitment to excellence and industry best practices. Ravi Kuppan is YäRKEN CEO and Co-founder.
For its part, Anodot is a cost management platform that identifies waste, tracks savings, and gives users transparency into both current and future costs. The platform enables users to facilitate strategic financial planning and management of multi-cloud, Kubernetes pods and SaaS tools. The solution also features a multi-tenant, multi-billing platform that optimizes costs across departments, teams, products, and unit economics.
“Anodot’s AI capabilities in cost optimization are a perfect match for YäRKEN, enabling us to cover the full spectrum for Anodot’s and YäRKEN’s existing client base,” Kuppan said. “Together, we extend the power of FinOps to include on-prem tech spend.”
Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Ashburn, Virginia, Anodot made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2022. At the conference, Anodot demoed its payments monitoring tool that leverages AI to constantly monitor and correlate payments activity and business performance to identify revenue-critical issues and provide real-time actionable alerts.
A partnership between data intelligence business Curinos and brand experience company Adrenaline will help banks and credit unions leverage data to make better decisions. The integration of Curinos’ Distribution Optimizer data solution into Adrenaline’s Connected Intelligence offering will also help financial institutions maximize the growth potential of their retail networks.
“We’re excited about incorporating Curinos’ leading-edge data into our already robust analytics offering and making more decision-making tools available to our clients, particularly smaller community banks and credit unions,” Adrenaline Managing Director of Retail Strategy Ben Hopper said. “Now, we’ll be able to quickly and efficiently gather the same data that big banks get and focus our team’s efforts more on translating the information into meaningful insights to drive strategy, for expansion and growth – something that all financial institutions need.”
Curinos’ Distribution Optimizer data tool integrates large volumes of both public bank and proprietary data into a consistent analytical framework that banks and credit unions can use to evaluate their networks and spot potential future opportunities. Adrenaline’s Connected Intelligence is an online platform that supports the access, analysis, visualization, storage, management, receipt, and distribution of market analysis and research. Integrating the technologies will help level the playing field between smaller and mid-market financial institutions and their larger rivals.
“The retail network in banking is undergoing massive transformation as traditional banking institutions are losing share to digital competitors,” Curinos Managing Director of Distribution and Sales Performance Andrew Hovet said. “No matter what their size or service area, these providers are looking for ways to amplify their impact through their branch networks. To maximize growth, they need to leverage analytics and smart strategies to make the best decisions for their networks. This partnership provides them with exactly that.”
Founded in 2021, Curinos made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2023 in San Francisco. At the conference, the New York-based company demoed its Amplero Personalization Optimizer, which uses machine learning and AI to enable bank marketing teams to deliver hyper-personalized, omnichannel experiences in minutes rather than months.
Earlier this month, Curinos introduced new Chief Technology and AI Officer Olly Downs. Downs joined the company as Chief Data Scientist in 2023. In April, the company announced a partnership with mortgage pricing technology firm Lender Price and reported that Achieva Credit Union ($2.8 billion in assets; 194,000+ members) had become the first customer to integrate Curinos’ Deposit Optimizer Essentials system. Deposit Optimizer Essentials enables credit unions and community banks to leverage data analytics to better manage member deposits and reach funding targets.
“As rates shift, we needed a robust, easy-to-navigate solution, enabling us to reach quickly and efficiently to changing market conditions,” Achieva Product Development Manager Veronica Schornheuser said, “We chose Curinos for the exceptional level of service we have received from them in the past and the intuitive nature of the Deposit Optimizer Essentials platform.”
Automated reconciliation software company AutoRek has announced a partnership with JP Morgan Payments.
The partnership will help insurance companies better manage financial data flows from banking sources.
AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023 in London.
Automated reconciliation software provider AutoRek has teamed up with JP Morgan Payments to enhance premium processing for insurance companies. The partnership will help insurance firms better manage financial data flows from banking sources, as well as improve their ability to manage cash allocation, matching, and credit control.
“Working with a specialist company like AutoRek will complement our existing solutions to help deliver an end-to-end solution across the entire insurance value chain,” JP Morgan Payments Head of Insurance, EMEA, Darren Snoxell said. “Together we will deliver tangible benefits to brokers, carriers, reinsurers, multinational insurance programs, captives, and across the London Market. We look forward to working with the team.”
Processing nearly $10 trillion payments a day, JP Morgan Payments operates in more than 160 countries and transacts in 120+ currencies. The firm combines treasury services, trade and working capital solutions, and card and merchant services to facilitate payments to both customers and employees around the world.
“We are proud of this partnership, which presents a powerful combination of proven solutions, and will deliver optimal results for clients in the insurance market,” AutoRek Global Insurance Lead Piers Williams said. “By working together, we will unlock many opportunities for insurance firms to streamline the premium receivables process. This will help them to increase efficiency, accelerate cash flow, reduce write-offs and enhance controls.”
Headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland, AutoRek made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2023. At the conference, the company showed how its automated reconciliation technology helps banks, insurance firms, building societies, and other financial services companies overcome high-volume reconciliation challenges, improve auditability, and keep operating costs low.
Earlier this month, AutoRek was named “Best CASS Solution” at the Systems in the City Fintech Awards 2024. The recognition marked AutoRek’s fifth consecutive win in this category. In May, the company announced that insurance broker Howden had selected AutoRek to drive digital transformation and boost efficiency for a number of key back-office processes using intelligent automation.
“Insurer statement reconciliations are especially onerous on our resources and we expect AutoRek to significantly reduce the expenditure of effort in this area, which in turn will not only enhance our service to our markets, but will also release our staff to concentrate on more value-added tasks,” Howden Head of IBA UK Operations Guy Turner said. “We are very much looking forward to deploying the solution in this regard.”
AutoRek was founded in 1994. Gordon McHarg is CEO.
Partnerships in digital banking, identity management, and payments lead off the fintech news headlines as July begins in earnest. Be sure to check back all week long for updates and fresh announcements on the latest industry happenings.
Payments infrastructure solution for software companies Payablisecures $20 million in Series A funding.
Instant payments solutions company Zimplerannounced a new technical partnership with Swedish payments app, Swish.
Lending
ClearScoresecures $4.4 million (£3.4 million) in funding from Fair4All Finance to develop debt consolidation loan technology for the financially vulnerable.
Ireland’s CreditLogicraises $3.8 million (EUR 3.5 million) from Riverside Acceleration Capital (RAC).
Crypto / DeFi / Web3
Crypto payments company Kulipapartners with cryptocurrency wallet provider Argent and Mastercard to launch its new crypto-based payment card.
MoonPay and Meshink an exclusive partnership to ease the process of depositing and transferring crypto from exchanges.
Swiss layer-1 blockchain Shardeumpartners with Web3 security services platform Immunefi to launch bug bounty program.
Fraud and identity management
Fraud prevention specialist GBGunveils its KYB solution, GBG Detected.
Germany’s IDnow unveils a pair of new e-signature solutions, InstantSign and eID eSign.
NatWest partners with digital identity identity solutions provider OneID.
iDenfy and UAE-based SIMPal forge strategic partnership to enhance security in the telecom industry.
Insurtech
AutoRekpartners with JP Morgan Payments to enhance premium processing for insurance companies.
Digital banking
U.K.-based digital bank and BaaS platform Griffinreceives B Corp certification.
First Federal Bank of Kansas turns to Jack Henry for its hosted core processing solution.
Ascend Money has received a $195 million investment.
The funding round was led by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Bank with contributions from Finnoventure Private Equity Trust I.
The Thailand-based fintech will use the funds to build inclusive financial services in the region.
Thailand-based Ascend Moneyannounced this week it has received $195 million in funding from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) Bank. The bank led the round, and Finnoventure Private Equity Trust I fund managed by Krungsri Finnovate Co. also contributed.
“This is a significant milestone for Ascend Money, which not only validates our commitment to innovation and financial inclusion in Thailand but also demonstrates a growing interest and confidence in Ascend Money’s potential,” said Ascend Money Founder and Chairman Suphachai Chearavanont.
Ascend Money anticipates the funds will help it accelerate its mission to provide inclusive financial services for underserved consumers and small businesses and ultimately foster economic growth and financial well-being in Thailand.
Ascend Money is Thailand’s largest digital financial services provider, with a presence in seven countries across Southeast Asia. The fintech’s TrueMoney platform offers e-payment, lending, BNPL, investment, and insurance. Ascend Money has 30 million active users in Thailand and serves its customers through its network of leading corporations, businesses, and merchants.
“MUFG considers the Asia Pacific its second home market, and as part of our commitment to this region, we have been making strategic investments in leading digital finance players in the region,” said Senior Managing Corporate Executive, Head of Global Commercial Banking Business Group Yasushi Itagaki. “Ascend Money is a promising fintech player in Thailand with widespread penetration in the country’s consumer segment and deep understanding of their daily payments and financial requirements. With this investment, we are making a significant contribution to the ongoing development of Thailand’s digital economy and financial inclusion, further underscoring MUFG’s commitment to the sustainable development of the country and the broader region as a whole.”
Ascend Money was founded in 2013 and has since processed $14 billion in the region. In 2021, the company received a $1.5 billion during its $150 million funding round.
“We are confident that Ascend Money’s strong growth trajectory, combined with MUFG’s expertise and network, will enable us to create a more inclusive and vibrant financial ecosystem to accelerate both regional and local digital transformation, benefiting millions of people and contributing to the country’s economic development,” said Chearavanont.
“A little better all the time?” Can we use that classic refrain from Lennon & McCarthy to describe the performance of fintech companies seeking funding in the second quarter of 2024?
Most broad-based surveys of fintech funding for Q2 2024 have yet to be published. But, for our Finovate alums, “a little better” aptly describes the difference between Q2 of this year and Q2 of last. Our Finovate alums raised more than $292 million in the second quarter of this year, an increase of nearly 40% over last year’s Q2 mark. The accomplishment was completed by fewer alums this year compared to last, as well.
Previous quarterly comparisons
Q2 2023: More than $209 million raised by 10 alums
Q2 2022: More than $984 million raised by eight alums
Q2 2021: More than $2.8 billion raised by 14 alums
Q2 2020: More than $975 million raised by 15 alums
That said, the relatively low funding levels of the past two years are indicative of the broader slowdown in funding that fintechs have been experiencing of late. Again, we are looking forward to seeing some more reports from the field on fintech funding for the past few months, writ large. But, for now, the post-COVID retrenchment in fintech funding continues.
Top Equity Investments
Blend: $150 million
FintechOS: $60 million
SpyCloud: $35 million
Hawk: $30 million
The biggest alum fundraising of the quarter was the $150 million reeled in by Blend. A digital lending platform based in San Francisco, California, Blend made its Finovate debut at FinovateSpring 2016 and also participated in our developers conference, FinDEVr SiliconValley 2016. With total capital of $815 million, according to Crunchbase, Blend began this year with news that the publicly-traded company would join the Russell 2000 index.
Also noteworthy among fundraising alums in Q2 of 2024 was the $60 million secured by FintechOS. Headquartered in London, U.K., FintechOS offers a low-code platform that enables banks, insurers, and other financial services companies deliver a range of digital financial experiences for their customers. The company made its Finovate debut in 2021, demoing Sunglow, its Super App for Banking.
FintechOS has raised more than $151 million in funding. In February, the company reported year-over-year revenue growth of 40% for 2023.
Here is our detailed alum funding report for Q2 2024.
If you are a Finovate alum that raised money in the second quarter of 2024 and do not see your company listed, please drop us a note at [email protected]. We would love to share the good news! Funding received prior to becoming an alum not included.
The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) has selected Coinbase Prime to hold and trade the agency’s “Class 1” (large cap) digital assets.
The agency will use Coinbase Prime for asset seizure and forfeiture, evidence management, and to support in financial investigations.
Coinbase Prime launched in 2021 and currently safeguards $330 billion worth of digital assets.
The U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) announced it has selected Coinbase to hold and trade the agency’s “Class 1” (large cap) digital assets. The USMS will use Coinbase Prime to centrally manage these Class 1 digital assets to facilitate various law enforcement activities.
The USMS, a federal law enforcement agency within the Department of Justice, holds multiple roles within the U.S. judicial system. The agency may be able to use Coinbase Prime the following instances:
Asset seizure and forfeiture: The USMS often seizes digital assets from criminals as part of legal proceedings. Coinbase will help the agency manage the assets in a way that they are preserved, can be liquidated, and that the proceeds can be used to fund law enforcement activities or be returned to victims.
Evidence management: Digital assets often serve as evidence in investigations or court cases. Coinbase will help to ensure the assets are properly managed to maintain their integrity and will ensure they are easily accessible for legal processes.
Supporting financial investigations: By handling large cap digital assets in a central location, Coinbase can help the USMS track and analyze transactions related to criminal activities to aid law enforcement in combating financial crimes such as money laundering, fraud, and cybercrime.
Launched in 2021, Coinbase Prime is a full-service prime brokerage platform with everything that institutions need to execute trades and custody assets at scale. Coinbase Prime currently has $171 billion in institutional assets under custody and safeguards $330 billion worth of digital assets.
Coinbase began supporting law enforcement agencies in 2014 when it founded its law enforcement program. The California-based company currently works with every major U.S. federal, state, and local law enforcement agency, as well as multiple international agencies.
“Growing the cryptoeconomy means promoting safe and efficient markets,” the company said in its blog post announcement, “and these partnerships are critical to our mission.”
Coinbase was founded in 2012 and is currently under fire from another U.S. governmental agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for allegedly operating as an unregistered securities exchange. Earlier this week, Coinbase sued the SEC and FDIC, demanding more transparency when it comes to crypto regulations.
State Bank of India unveiled MSME Sahaj, a digital lending solution for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
The tool leverages data from the applicant’s Goods and Services Tax Identification Number, bank statements, and credit card payment histories to underwrite a loan for short-term, working capital.
MSME Sahaj will be available on State Bank of India’s YONO digital banking app.
State Bank of India (SBI), the nation’s largest bank, announced a new digital lending solution for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) this week. The new offering, MSME Sahaj, is a web-based digital business loans solution for MSMEs’ invoice financing.
“The launch of MSME Sahaj aims to provide the fast and most intuitive lending solution, further solidifying our position as the leading MSME lender in the country,” said SBI Chariman Dinesh Khara.
MSME Sahaj is what the SBI is calling a “data-driven invoice financing credit assessment engine.” The holistic tool will allow MSMEs to apply for and receive a loan within 15 minutes. The system will also automatically close the loan on the due date.
Leveraging data from the applicant’s Goods and Services Tax Identification Number, bank statements, and credit card payment histories, MSME Sahaj allows businesses to take out a loan against their GST registered sales invoices of up to around $1,200 (₹1 lakh).
“MSME Sahaj – Digital Business Loans for Invoice Financing will offer a proposition to our existing Micro SME units who are part of the GST regime to get immediate on tap short term credit for working capital requirement through digital mode on SBI’s Yono app,” said SBI MD – Retail Banking & Operations Vinay Tonse.
SBI said that the purpose of the loans is to offer businesses a quick way to access short-term credit on its digital banking platform, YONO. YONO, which stands for, “You Only Need One” is a mobile app designed to meet a variety of customer needs, including banking, investment, insurance, travel booking, and daily shopping needs.
Core banking platform provider Tuum announced a partnership with debt management specialist Flexys.
The partnership will help banks improve their debt collection workflows.
Tuum won Best of Show in its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope earlier this year.
U.K.-based core banking platform Tuum has teamed up with debt management specialist Flexys. The partnership will help banks streamline and enhance their debt collection processes at a time when legacy core systems are limiting financial institutions’ ability to better serve their customers. These “old cores” also make it more difficult for FIs to keep up with stricter regulations surrounding credit and debt management.
“Flexys and Tuum are tackling debt management pain points head-on,” Tuum VP of Global Partnerships Jean Souto said. “Our partnership gives banks high-tech tools to streamline collections from end-to-end, reducing hassles through automation – a win for everyone involved.”
The partnership will help banks deal with the dual problem of tightening regulations and outdated, cumbersome debt management technology. Not only can legacy core systems inhibit the ability of financial institutions to readily meet compliance requirements, they can also fall short when it comes to providing more personalized service to customers. Integrating the two platforms enables FIs to swap out their old core systems in favor of cloud-based, debt collection workflows, and benefit from real-time data to help personalize the experience for each customer.
“We’re thrilled to team up with Tuum and help banks break out of the legacy debt management rut,” Flexys CEO James Hill said. “With our integrated platforms, lenders can ditch inefficient processes in favor of frictionless digital experiences that genuinely support customers when they need it most.”
U.K.-based Flexys offers state-of-the-art debt management solutions that enable financial institutions to automate and digitize their customer interactions. The company’s flagship offering, Control+, is a cloud-native, real-time, “intelligent debt resolution” platform that provides enterprise-grade collections functionality from digital self-serve to agent management and recoveries. Founded in 2016, Flexys began this year partnering with another Finovate alum, Thought Machine, which integrated Flexys’ Control+ platform into its core banking solution, Vault Core.
Tuum made its Finovate debut at FinovateEurope 2024, winning Best of Show in its demonstration of its modular, cloud-native, API-first banking platform. In the months since then, the company has forged partnerships with Islamic fintech solution provider DDCAP Group, digital banking and wealth management firm CREALOGIX, and KYB/KYC automation solutions company TransactionLink. In June, Tuum announced a strategic partnership with open banking company Ozone API. The union will help Tuum’s bank and financial institution customers comply with open banking regulations.
“Our collaboration with Tuum marks a new chapter for open banking and finance globally,” said James Bushby, Ozone API GM for Europe and Global Partnership Lead. “Our combined strengths will enable financial institutions to tackle compliance challenges while harnessing the immense opportunities of open banking.”
Founded in 2019, Tuum has raised more than $48 million in funding according to Crunchbase. In March, the company announced that Citi Ventures has become a strategic investor in the firm as a follow-on to its Series B round.
